Tuesday Sundries - Carolina Rennaissance Festival!

I love it when I can make my children cry (sometimes). 

In this case, it was because of this...

Texter was practically bouncing in the car seat all the way to the Festival and when we pulled into the parking area she was in tears. It has been years since we have been able to attend a Ren Faire and she has missed it so much.

In the past, we were volunteers with the faire held in Raleigh. Savvy was part of the Noble's Court, Texter was part of the Pirates group and I did behind the scenes, technical stuff, as well as sewing garb for the two of them.  

This was Lady K's first faire and she was a bit overwhelmed by the whole thing. The first part of the day was spent being shy even though she was greeted as a unicorn.

But the bubbles quickly caught her eye.

She did greet the fairy and gave her a hug and received a 'fairy bubble' and some 'fairy dust'.  

The thing which struck Texter and I immediately was the size of the venue. It is HUGE! Much, much, much bigger than the venue we participated in. And the structures are permanent rather than just tents and awnings.

I immediately found the journals and drooled a bit while inhaling the scent of leather (not sorry vegans!).

 

Texter found the leather and furs and did get herself a new 'tail'. We had tails, but between Noel (the dog) and the fire, the tails were lost. So she replaced her tail.

And I had to stop and pet the greyhounds. I so much want to adopt one. Someday!

More walking brought us to the maze where Texter and Lady K wandered.

Lady K emerged with a couple of gold coins for her efforts in the maze.

I would love one of these eco-friendly dyed leather masks, but with glasses, they are a bit impractical. But maybe as a wall decoration? I love anything green man related.

Feathers! Lots of feathers! You need a hat with your garb and your hat needs feathers.

There was pottery, more leather, swords and knives, glass, jewelry...just about everything you could possibly want or need including turkey legs!

And these parasols are fantastic! I want 1 or 2 (or 4 or 5) to decorate with and not use to keep out the sun. The problem would be Lady K and her wanting to get her hands on it.

We wandered quite a bit as there is a lot of space to wander in.

Surprisingly, it wasn't until after noon that the crowds started picking up.

We visited with the queen and her court.

I have to admit after walking around for several hours I am so wanting to sit down at the sewing machine and make garb.  Soon, soon.

A stop to watch the jousting was necessary.

This is Maximillian and he was the gold/black knight. Frankly, I was more interested in the horses. But they put on a really nice little show.

On the way out, Lady K had to take her pictures and fondle the fairy wings.

Couple of things I noticed was their court was not as formal and structured as our old court was. Of course, ours was based on actual historical features, this one is not.

Secondly, if you want to buy garb and accessories, this is a fantastic spot to see what you are getting before you buy. But you will be shelling out the money! I would say everything I saw was of excellent craftsmanship. I didn't notice many (if any) 'imports'. This is a really quality spot to buy items, but it won't be cheap.

Now I want to pull out all our 'stuff' and see exactly where we need to be. I need to talk to Savvy because since she is no longer part of a 'court', full dress won't be necessary. Therefore, she might want something different. Texter is already putting in her order. And we will need to figure out something for Lady K.

But now back to the real world!