Thursday, February 9, 2012

Going Medieval...

... in the best way ever. Last Saturday, my Aunt and Uncle and cousins and I piled into a minivan and drove down from their home in the 10-Acre Woods to Gainseville and the Hoggetowne Medieval Faire. If you've never been to a Faire, well... I suggest you go immediately. It truly is wonderful, so many great crafts, so much superb people watching, so very much good fair food. Deep fried twinkies and creative types? Count me in.
Riding in the car. Clockwise from top left- Me, Auntie Mer, Uncle Dan, Bella, Sam's friend Alora and Sam.
     This was moments before we saw the line for parking. Yes. There was a line. For parking. And then once you parked? There was another line to get on a bus to drive to the fair grounds to get into a line to buy your tickets to wait in a line to... yeah, you get the idea. It was worth it to see the little one's face when she saw the elephant though -so precious.
      Go right now and look at the Faire website, it really is amazing how many talented people join in on the festivities. There are booths for homemade sodas, booths for crowns woven from copper, booths for every type of leather work you could imagine. Musical instruments, clothiers, weapons and places to test them out. There are musicians who dance, fire breathers, acrobats, and people who are just there to make your experience better, like the King and Queen. My mom and I have this elaborate plan where we're going to set up a booth at one of these one day and travel the country. How delightful would that be? Fair warning to history buffs- ignore all of the period dressing that is from the wrong period. Some people just like to dress up. This is a place where they can do that, whether historically accurate or not. (Never mind that I definitely shook my own head at the people in Steampunk. Really guys? That's a little too inaccurate, even for me, ha!)
King, Me with Bella on my lap, Samantha, and the Queen. I'd like that throne in my future home, please and thank you. Also, don't I have the cutest cousins? Then again, I could be just slightly biased...
Getting knighted/crowned. Princess Skye of the Scottish Isles. The name suits me, no?
Why yes, I am a Star Throwing Champion -if you count throwing five stars and having only one stick into the wall. Ah well, it's the effort behind it I suppose.
The girl elephant we rode. I love her freckles.
     A little more on that crown you can see in the pictures. I made it myself Thursday night. All by myself. For less than 20 dollars. One day I suppose I'll do a tutorial for making them, but unfortunately I only took a few pictures that night and the lighting wasn't the best, so it will have to come another time.
     I started out heading to Michael's and buying on-sale flowers and four or five different types of ribbon. The lacy one was the most expensive item at 5.99$ but I had a coupon and saved a few dollars, keeping me under my 20$ budget. I won't go into specifics, but I basically deconstructed the flowers and reconstructed them as a wreath and then added more ribbon than necessary. Pippa slept by my side the entire time, and the process only took me a couple hours. I also had enough leftovers to make a second, smaller wreath. Hooray!
All of my pieces. The sequins are being saved for another project, they were just too much. On an unrelated-ish note, I do everything on my bed. I write, I craft, I read, I eat snacks, I play my ukulele. I've always loved desks but never use them, my bed is way more comfortable. Maybe it's just another one of my many quirks.
Finally, the finished product! Those super adorable doilies you see there? One. Dollar. Yes sirry, in the dollar section of Michael's, oh how I love that place.
     That is all of my medieval travels, for now at least. I was sad that Taylor didn't get to tag along this year, so we'll definitely be returning again next Winter. Speaking of him, we're supposed to go to the zoo for our date this week, so keep a look out for that. Also, if you're reading I would love for you to comment! I can see how many people view each page, but I'm not psychic and don't know what all of you lovely people think about it. So ask me questions, tell me heartfelt anecdotes, leave funny comments about how silly the King looks, whatever! XO.

1 comment:

Diedra said...

The King and Queen are featured in the current issue of Renaissance magazine!

We WILL live as roaming faeries one day, don't you doubt it at all!!