Back in my business partner’s younger, wilder days (pretty much when she was a crazy teenager), she got pregnant with her oldest daughter, Morgan. She was just breaking up with one guy & starting a relationship with another, so either one could have reasonably been Morgan’s father. Dawn lived with her dad, who was a disabled Vietnam Vet & she had no insurance or anything and she got on Medicaid, so after Morgan was born, the office of recovery services (they handle child support payments) wanted to know who the father was, so they could start collecting payments for her. Dawn gave them both of the guys’ names & a separate DNA test was performed on each of them.

When the results came back, it turned out it was neither one & because there were no other names she could give them (there were no other possible candidates, honestly), she and her friends decided that her best friend, Michelle had to have gotten her pregnant with a purple crayon. As a result of the tests, Dawn has never been able to get on Medicaid herself unless she was pregnant, so she never gets to go to the doctor. I’m wondering if that will change for her after next May when Morgan is finished with school. I really hope so.

I had to take yesterday off, since it was such a busy day. We went & screen-printed 200 t-shirts to give away at faire (these are all done by us, by hand). We went with the new logo we had designed for our 25th year, and did them in blue ink on a white shirt. I think we’re doing the sponsors on the back in scarlet (we have to do those next week, after the ink is dry from this week). Thankfully, Troy’s last work day until July 22 is the 3rd, so we’ll be able to get a bunch of stuff done then.

After we finished with that, we came home, ate lunch & then went to help Charley and Vicki move into a new house. We didn’t get done with that until around 8 or so, then we came home & I cooked dinner for us & took our daughter’s boyfriend home & then we pretty much went to bed, since we were exhausted. I do have stuff cut out & ready to sew, though & will be doing that as soon as I get out of the shower.

This past weekend was our local music festival, called “Groovefest.” There was a lot of good music, many vendors, a lot of food vendors and a whole lot of people. It was also baking hot most of the time, and I was in a food booth, either right in front of or using a deep fryer most of Friday & Saturday. What we originally intended to do was to sell a bunch of food to raise funds for Renne Faire, but since we’d already decided that we would never be able to afford to hire the jousting company we wanted, we gave the money to another cause.

Two of the members of the board are grandparents who just got their very young grand-daughters dropped at their doorstep when their mom decided that the druggie life was better than being a mommy. They are in their late 60s or early 70s, and he is unable to continue working, so we gave them the money. Those little girls need things and none of us could figure out how they were managing on nothing. That’s where we decided the money would do the best good. I don’t even know how much we made, I just know we were busy and it was a pretty good time.

Sorry I haven’t been around, I’m been super busy, what with faire starting 2 weeks from tomorrow, and my crafting time ending in less than 2 weeks, I’m trying to get things finished up as quickly as possible.

Everything that’s finished is labeled (well, everything that can be anyway), so that includes soap, lip balm, individual jars of bath salts and sunburn soother. I’m on my last two wrist cuffs (because I’m almost out of snaps) and am making cloth head bands as I get time. I’m just hoping that there is enough time.

This week we have to go screenprint t-shirts on Thursday morning and after that, I need to go & help Charley & Vicki move. Troy’s already in a bad mood about all of it, because it means he can’t sit at home and do nothing, which I appreciate, but the shirts have to be done. I didn’t commit him for the moving thing, just me, so I guess he can veg out then.

I’m getting a really cool photo enlargement on canvas here pretty soon and I can hardly wait. How it works is that you send them a photo (digital or regular) and then you choose your canvas size, edge choice, like whether you want the image to wrap around, or you want a color on it instead, and then any effects like brush strokes. After that, you can choose whether you want your photo retouched, or if you want it in in black and white, color or sepia tones. Then you just submit it and 3 or 4 days later its on its way to you.

I chose a really pretty portrait I took of my daughter before her Preference Ball, and I think it’ll be just gorgeous. I really can’t wait to see it all done & hanging on the wall!!

I got up early this morning with a headache, and since I really wanted Troy to have at least one morning where he could sleep in, I went in the living room and got some more stuff cut out and then sewn. It was nice to just sit in there and watch TV while I did my thing, it was still cool and nicely quiet, especially since my daughter was already at work and Troy was asleep.

After that we went to our weekly Faire board meeting, hashed out some stuff, changed our expectations on others, made a few signs, talked about stuff, looked at new vendors, you know, the usual. I can’t believe that Faire is only 19 days away. That’s the kind of numbers that make me start to panic a little. Eek.

When the meeting was done, we went to Dawn’s house for awhile so I could show her the Tooth Fairy pillows and Sunburn Soother, and take some fabric I had over here that I thought would be good for pouches. She’s been sewing like crazy & has made a bunch of really nice pouches to sell in the booth. She actually seems excited to get them out there now. I’m really proud of her, she’s doing an awesome job on them.

I made up about a dozen bottles of sunburn soother last night to sell in the booth. It turned out really well, and I really hope that it sells. I know we have often been asked if we sell that type of thing or if we know anyone who does. I think I’ll put it outside the booth on a small table with a sign advertising what it is.

I ended up ordering twice as many spray bottles as I needed so I’m thinking about making some body sprays, too, if I can buy the polysorbate 20 I need and get it here in time to make it. I’ve been doing some more wrist cuffs as I find time and hair bands, too, but I never have managed to get more lip balm or soap done. I guess its obvious that I like the sewing type crafts better than the soapy types, huh?

First is the whole bunch:

Next we have my awesome little owl and wonderful scarf:

Then a cool frame and a handy totebag:

And the coolest secret book, full of goodies:

Inside was a hat to go with my scarf, a dragon egg, a bookmark and Bertie Botts!!!

I got my package from the Hogwarts Houses swap today, finally. She crocheted me a really nice Hufflepuff scarf & hat, an amigurumi owl and dragon egg. There was a Hufflepuff totebag, a nifty frame and a secret box with stuff in in like a bookmark & Bertie Botts (the hat & dragon egg were there, too.

I love everything and will take some pictures in the daylight tomorrow & post what I got from her.

So, we only raised about $100 after expenses the other night. The upside to that is that we don’t have to buy supplies for the one we’re doing this week. I hope we haven’t overextended ourselves this year, since all of our vendor spaces aren’t even full yet, and its getting really late. Its really nerve-wracking to actually be on the board of directors and making all of these decisions about money and such, and having worry that we won’t be able to pay our entertainment and such.

On my own faire-related front, I’m almost out of Epsom salt for my bath salt, so I’m having to decide if I want to go down to Costco to get more or just get a few smaller bags here. I’m not really sure how much more I’m going to make, or even how many containers I have left. I know I want to have stuff available to remake any that sells out (that can be remade anyway) during faire, so I may just buy some more to be safe.