New addition

Ok, so this post isn’t about the RenFest, although my life is pretty much consumed by that right now… LOL! But it dawned on me when I was looking at the pics I posted on Flickr that I haven’t written anything about our “new addition”… it’s a kinda long story.

Before I left AZ one of the farm cats had kittens, not an unusual occurrence, except that “momma” disappeared when the kittens were about 4 weeks old. I tried to feed them, they wouldn’t eat, so I tried to catch them… and I was only able to save 1, a little white and gray girl-kitty. Now, I did NOT want to keep this kitty… I know, you are laughing at me saying, suuuuuure, but I really did NOT want this cat! I had the 2 boys and the dawg… that is enough! Well, as I’m sure you’ve already guessed, I couldn’t find a home for her. And because she’s light colored I didn’t want to leave her there to be a farm kitty, ‘cuz light colored kitties just don’t fare very well on the farm… :-(

So since I wasn’t able to find a home for her before I transferred to NC she came with. Anyway… Niki, my “old man” had never been neutered… didn’t need to, he doesn’t go outside and there are no female kitties around… uh… until now. But I thought I had time!! Well wouldn’t you know it, as soon as we got moved into this house (and I didn’t have any extra $$) Niki discovered Smokey was a giiiiiirl… and we had kittens. :-( Dang it!!! I did manage to find homes for all of those kittens and Carrie took the 1 kitten that was pure white, like Niki, and we named him Junior. And *I* made plans for Smokey to go to the vet!!

But as luck would have it, I had to go to Ft. Worth TX for a month for work… and Smokey didn’t get to the vet in time (another long story). So we ended up with ANOTHER litter of kittens. :-(

The kittens were about 4 weeks old when Niki got very, very ill… he had contracted Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP) for which there is no cure. The worse part is, Smokey was probably the carrier.
:-( Now AJ and I both agreed that we did NOT want to keep any of the kittens, regardless. I really don’t like having 3 cats, to be honest. So I took the kittens to a local pet store that hosts a “Adopt a Pet” area every weekend. By the end of Saturday on the 3rd weekend there, I had finally found homes for all of the 7 kittens… yes, this batch was 7!!... except for one… a white kitty just like Niki… yeah, you guessed it, I didn’t go back.

So here is our new addition and he still really hasn’t named himself, although we are calling him Beau for the moment. He is extremely mischievous, and I swear he is channeling his father because he has all the same mannerisms and habits… it’s rather spooky at times!



sitting on my lap at my desk... Taffy and Beau hanging out in the office


he thinks he's helping with the sewing... this is his favorite pillow

Here's a link to more kitty pics on my Flickr albums:
Kitties
http://www.flickr.com/gp/71917845@N00/s18fV4
These are my babies... Pains in the butt that they are!!

Glitters

By the way... the majority of my "glitters" I've purchased from my SCister, Laurel... if you've not been to her website, GO! NOW! LOL!!

Eclectica Vintage Jewelry
http://www.eclecticala.com
Elegant Collectible Vintage & Designer Jewelry
Plus 30 Specialized Unique Theme Sites of Fabulous Costume Jewelry!

I've purchased many glitters from her over the years, and everything is always perfect and top quality. Plus... Laurel knows funky! LOL! Everytime I visit it's like going to play in Mom's and Gramma's jewelry box... plus dress up!

The day before...

Opening weekend…

Viv wrote… What a BEAUTIFUL costume! You must start getting dressed a couple days ahead of time ;)

[Dee sez~] Are you kidding? I’ve been “getting dressed” for the past 2 weeks! LOL!! Actually, I’ll drive to the site in my “undies” – biking shorts, bloomers, AJ’s boot socks (‘cuz they make good “stockings”) and my chemise… can you imagine what some cop would think if he pulled me over?? LOL!!

Then at the site, it took about an hour last Sunday at dress-rehearsal to finish getting dressed… and having to do that from the back of the car in the parking lot. :-( Don’t like that! But then again, it beats having to try to drive in a laced-up bodice that’s about as tight as a corset and hoops! LOL!

I’ve just about got everything organized though, so it’s kind of an assembly line once I get the hoops on under the chemise. Sunday I didn’t drive in the chemise, so when I got to the site I had to take my t-shirt off while wearing the chemise as a kinda tent… wasn’t fun nor purdy. :-(

Today I’ll get everything all together and put it in the car tonite so that Saturday morning I just have to drive off… gads, I just realized tomorrow is Opening Day! ok… I may be ready for a panic attack! LOL!

Janet, Johnny and the girls are coming up tonite to spend the weekend with us and go to the RenFest. They are gonna have sooo much fun! AJ refuses to wear his costume though. :-( But he’s promised that at least a couple of weekends he will attend in costume so that I can “play” with him as my Lord Husband, Baron deHatche who just arrived with a ship-load of spices and goodies!

Huzzah!

Costume Pics

I've posted more pics of my costume on my flickr site, but here are a couple... http://www.flickr.com/photos/deesez/

Here's a close up of the Bodice... I have a LOT more glitters to add to it, but I'm still collecting them. My dress form doesn't do this real justice because *I* squish together, so there is less gaping when I have it on.
BUT the dress form has more of an hour-glass shape!

And this is the full view... The gold skirt and the green skirt underneath are inter-changable, so I'll probably wear the green as the over-skirt on "wet" days becuase it won't show wet and mud as bad. The gold will be for sunny days...

And I have a brocade "panel" to wear on hot days instead of the green under skirt....

The Garb

I think my costume… excuse me, my garb… held up pretty well yesterday. I think I need to shorten the chemise a bit though, it kept trying to peep out from under my skirts.

I definitely need the brocade panel as an alternative to wearing 2 full skirts on warm days. Opening weekend the temps are supposed to still be in the 90’s!!

My shoes are not going to work. :-( When I walk, they are visible and they are tan slip-on loafers… NOT exactly appropriate! I’ll have to wear my black work shoes this weekend and try to find another kind of shoe to wear so that I don’t ruin my work shoes.

I had to adjust some of my accessories… but that wasn’t a big deal. I really need another pouch, maybe I’ll attempt one from the brocade remnants after I make the panel.

The hat is NOT going to work on hot days. :-(
It’s too blamed hot!! So I’m attempting to construct something lighter… wish me luck, I need it!!!! A different hat will also mean a different hair style. THAT has me stressed out more than the hat. Sheesh.

The woven basket I found at Wal-Mart worked great! It’ll be perfect for my food and drink and non-period stuffies that I’ll need, and I’ll probably still carry a wicker basket for “period” stuffies and “shopping”.

I’m carrying a “book” this year… it has all the song lyrics written in it, and various hints and tips… what the heck is the proper “speak” etc. but it will also have my reminder/shopping list for things to change for the next weekend… LOL!!

I guess I can’t back out now… I’ve got too much money invested again…

Dress Rehearsal

I really can’t decide… I think the AZ site is bigger, acreage-wise, but I think this site is bigger in the length of the walking involved… I’d wear a pedometer, but I don’t think I want to know how long it is from one end to the other!! LOL!! The site in AZ is a big circle… or maybe more like a doughnut with the “hole” in the center being where the Falconry show is and shops lining all the insides of the circles, and the Jousting Area is like a nub off of the bottom of the oval.

Here, the site is like a crazy U shape, I think it’s going to eventually be a full circle, but I know that, walking-wise, its longer than AZ… my feet hurt!! The ground is nice in the older areas, even grassy to some extent, but in the newer areas there are still lots of small rocks and tree-roots and stuff. The Joust area is almost at the very end of the U, along with the petting zoo and the Elephant ride .

I hung out mostly with the 2 gals that I was with Saturday… Regina, who’s daughter is the Princess and “heir” to the throne… we have a new Queen this year, she is actually the Queen at the Atlanta RenFest, and she said she is too “young” to have a daughter Lizzie’s age, so Lizzie is the Queen’s sister. Anyway, I hung out with Regina (Lady Martha Stewart, Duchess of ) for the most part, since I STILL haven’t been assigned to a troupe or group or stage. I really think I’m going to end up being a “roving” Noble, which could be fun and could be a problem… as a rover, I won’t have an assigned area so I can “play” anywhere I want to, and there are lots of things that Nobles have to do for entertaining the Patrons, so it looks like I should have plenty to do.

In AZ there are 2 courts… the Mayor’s Court and the Royal Court and any “newbie” Nobles are assigned to the Mayor’s Court as your “stage troupe”. But here they have merged the 2 Courts into 1 – the Royal Court, so they assign the “newbies” to the Street Cast but with “Noble” duties and assignments. That’s fine, actually it should be a bit more fun because I don’t really have any routines or such in regards to my character, so I don’t really mind being a “miscellaneous noblewoman” The bad part is that if I don’t have an assigned area or stage, then I don’t know where I’ll be able to stow my gear, etc. Hopefully I’ll be able to figure something out opening weekend.

Bale and Bench day

This is the day that volunteers from the cast go to the site and help with setup. At least I DO learn from my mistakes… sometimes… I had my cooler with Gatorade, lunch, and snacks. I had my HAT!! I was drowning in sunscreen, and as an afterthought I stuck my leather work gloves in my back pocket… thank goodness!!

I started out on the Flower Box crew… well that wasn’t much, there were about 8 of us and 2 could have done it. LOL! So then they asked us to help out the stage setup crew… next year, I’ll volunteer for the paint crew instead! Again I was reminded, rather forcibly, that I am NOT nearly as young as I thought I was, and not NEARLY in the physical shape (other than round) that I thought I was!!! I did get at least friendly with 2 other Ladies about my age that were on the same crew with me… that was good, now I have someone that I hope to be able to “hang out” with during Festival. But by the time we got the last stage setup with benches I was BEAT!! Back spazes and everything. :-(

But I now know the site better, and that’s a good thing!!

More Character Development

After site walk and most of practice I think I’ve hit on an addition to my character development in the form of a “noble” match-maker. I approached several people at practice tonite to see if there is anyone already doing that character, and it looks like it’s doable… although I WON’T be doing much with this new “profession” this year, because for one I really don’t know anyone on the cast so I don’t have anyone to “play” with, in order to create scenes – or bits as they call them – and second I want to play the “profession” right… I want to be a character that the other, more experienced, cast members want to interact with and that is going to take a LOT of work, research, and help. So for this year, I may just “play” with the idea and see how it works out during Festival, and next year make it more official if it seems to play well with the others. The folks I spoke with are all cautiously optimistic… seems there have been some really odd “match-makers” in past years and not really one that worked with/for the nobles. So we’ll see!! Anyone got any hints and tips?? LOL!!

Site Walk and Orientation

Yesterday was the site walk-thru for us “newbies” and Orientation. I registered for camping, but after going thru everything and then seeing the camping area I don’t think I will. Actually the site is only 20 miles from the house… MUCH better than the 120+ miles to the site in AZ!! My original thought was to set up a tent and then have some place to get dressed in private, retire to for breaks, etc. But the camping area for weekenders seems to be actual “woods”!! Ok, I just proved that I really am still a flat-lander. L I don’t think I’m really “up” to setting up a camp in the woods, etc. I thought I’d have some place that I could set the tent and part the car next to it… it don’t look like it. :-( I dunno, I may still wait and see what campsite I’m assigned to before I fully decide.

Ok… I think I’m a fairly intelligent woman… I’m from Arizona for heaven’s sake, I know how to be prepared for hot days! So what do I do??? TOTALLY forget all my “heat” training and I didn’t take any water or Gatorade with me, no Hat and no sunscreen… what the h*** was wrong with me?? Geeze… it was mid-90’s at the site… beautiful (HOT) blue sky… and about 25 acres of walking!!! I just am extremely grateful that the production staff brought out water and that I wasn’t in costume!! Gads I was stoooopid! By the time we got done walking the site and hitting every stage, a practice Dance session with quite a few people, then a character practice session with about 20 people, I was DONE! Way beyond heat-exhaustion. Dumb broad. Sheesh, I was so ashamed! LOL!! By the time I made it home I almost couldn’t see from the head-ache…

On the bright side… mmm… no, no bright side. LOL!! The site is BIG! I still don’t know what troupe/group I’m in or where I’ll be stationed…

The Costume

Or “garb” as it’s called in RenFair speak. Well it’s based upon the original costume that AJ bought for me about 5 years ago at the AZ RenFest. I was told last year that the color, a deep red-almost-burgundy was too close to “royal” colors so I couldn’t wear the skirt, but I could wear the Bodice with a different skirt.

So I found some pretty emerald green fabric and some shiny gold fabric and made another skirt from the green and a “panel” from the gold. Well, the green skirt didn’t exactly hold up well to multiple washings, all the shiny pattern that was there disappeared. So I re-dyed the skirt again to deal with the fading and it gained some of it’s “shiny” back, but the pattern is gone.

I made another skirt from the gold shiny fabric this year to “add to” my garb. I also made a completely new chemise as the one I used last year really didn’t survive well. I had some trouble attaching the sleeves and my Aunt Carolyn helped me fix them when they came up to visit this weekend. She also helped me with a new Bodice that I’m attempting to construct… but it won’t be done for this year… I ain’t a good enuf seamstress!!

In AZ we dressed for hot weather, even though the Fest is in Feb and March… here in NC I figured I need to dress more for rainy/cold so layers are the plan. My AZ chemise was shirt-length, so my new chemise is full length. The layers are also why I made the 2nd skirt… instead of a panel, I’ll wear one of the skirts as an under skirt and one as an over skirt. I did get some pretty brocade for the Bodice attempt, and there was extra so I’m going to make a brocade panel as well, for “hot” days.

I’ll use my big hat that I got 3 years ago… we have to wear a hat. Everything else is pretty much the same as last year… some additional jewels I’ve picked up, etc. I need to fix my fans as well, 2 of them broke last year.

Character Development

Lady Elise, Baroness deHatche

Ok, I’ve got her name now! LOL!! The name is actually based upon an English ancestress (unproven, but what the heck, I can still pretend!), the rest is “fantasy”. She was the only child of a rich spice merchant and was married off to her Baron, Jordan deHatche, (do you see a trend here???) for her estate. He gets her Daddy’s money and business, and she gets his Title. We have 3 children, who are now married with children (the trend continues ) and my Lord Husband is often “off at sea” on trade missions with the Eldest Son and Heir.

LOL!! ok, so basing most of her history on reality makes it easier for me to remember! ;-)

And that’s it. Having “Lady Elise” be a minor noble-woman gives me the right to wear the pretty clothes and jewelry, but I don’t have to be as “dignified” as the uppers. Also, since my husband sails off to distant and exotic lands all the time, he brings me back “trinkets” and fabrics, spices, etc. so I can be pretty liberal with my costume and accessories… even to the point of being slightly-tastelessly gaudy… LOL!!

RenFest practice sessions

When I didn’t hear within the week how I did at Auditions, so I emailed the Entertainment Director and asked… Anyway, as I learned later “cast volunteers” are pretty much shoo-ins just because they need the bodies so even though I think my audition was pretty bad, I still get to play.

Practice sessions are every Tues and Thursday for the month of September. Last year I missed out on the first couple of sessions because of AJ, so this year I was determined to make every single practice. I almost made it… AJ needed the car one Tuesday and that Thursday I totally forgot!! So I missed 2 practices, but I don’t think I really “missed” anything.

The sessions are quite a bit smaller than AZ was… we aren’t practicing in our groups, or troupes, everyone is practicing together in one big group… probably about 50 people all together. Mostly 1st thru 3rd years cast members. Again I had to force myself to keep attending… sometimes I think I overwhelm myself too much with my own expectations… I want “me” to be perfect!! Stoooopid I know, but there it is. :-(

Several things are different with the cast… We are doing MUCH more singing than we did at AZ and this cast DANCES! I’m cautiously excited about this prospect… I hope I don’t screw up too much, because it looks like it’s going to be such fun!! We’re learning 2 dances… the “Bear” dance and the “Hole in the Wall” dance. The Bear dance is one that gets progressively faster, I probably won’t last too long on that one, but you also drag Patrons in for this dance, so that should make things interesting! The Hole in the Wall dance is more complicated, but it’s slower… more for us old fogies! LOL!