I only plan to spend about an hour online this morning, there is still so much to be done, just to get everything I have in my craft room organized enough to figure out what goes to the park next week & what doesn’t. That’s not even talking about finishing things up that I have started & haven’t found time to complete yet. I should never have let Erin come back & stay for the few days I did, because there are now things in there again that aren’t mine & I don’t know what to do with. Yesterday I found some audio racks and he never even owned any audio equipment. How does that even make sense? There’s a strobe light hanging on the wall, too, that’s been there since he moved out. I don’t know when or why he got it, but I know he never moved it out.

Now there are things in there in boxes, I don’t want to really mess with them, so I’ll put them in the closet, after I get the closet clean enough to do anything with. On top of all of our faire preparations this week, Dawn, Jason, Blake & Melissa have to find a place to live, rent it & be moved out by Saturday. I have no idea how that’s going to happen, but they have no choice at this point, so we’re all scrambling around trying to get them packed and everything else. It’s going to be a crazy week, that’s all I can say. We’ve had crazier, and made it through, I imagine we will again.

Last night I started sewing the walls for our two buildings that we pretty much live in for 4 days during faire. I’m not sure at this point that they’re going to be long enough, but we’ll do what we can with what we have, I imagine. I have 4 two-panel sections done & when I have the last section (which will be a 3 panel section) sewn together, I’ll start attaching those to each other until I’m putting together a 5 panel & a 6 panel section. Then I’ll hem both the top & bottom & hope for the best & start all over on the second one.

When I finish those, I’ll get a chemise & a shirt cut out for my niece & hopefully a few overskirts for her, too & sew those up really quick so she has something to wear when she comes to the park. That should be everything that I NEED to sew, we’ll see if I get anything else done. I would have loved to have made myself a new dress this year, to wear in processional, but I don’t see that happening this time. I’ve seen some beautiful examples in pictures I’m looking at today, some with beads, some have freshwater pearls sewn on, some are just appliquéd with heraldry. Maybe next year I’ll make something pretty, just for that purpose.

I have so many other things to do besides the sewing, and it’s just not going to do itself I’m afraid, so I probably ought to get back in there & get back to work!

The first setup day for faire is in exactly 2 weeks. That means I have 13 days to finish up everything for our encampment & my sewing. Maybe 14 days to finish up my booth stock & get things packed up & ready to go to the park. I wish I had thought to have some custom boxes made for packing my signs and such in for transport. It would make things so much nicer, and would probably be easier on the signs, too. As it is, I’m thinking of picking up a roll of bubble wrap fort hem, so they don’t get dinged around too much.

I’m finishing up all of my shirts & bloomers that I needed to sew, as a matter of fact, I’m taking a break from threading elastic right now. My back was really starting to hurt & I had to stop for awhile. During this week, I plan to sew the last 2 skirts that I have planned & get started on Jaycie’s dress & overskirts. I made her a deal on what I was going to sew, just because it’s getting so close to faire & we put off shopping for her fabric for so long, so hopefully I’ll be able to get that stuff finished for her.

At any rate, I need to get back to my elastic so I can sew everything together & then get finished with it all.

Sounds kind of odd, doesn’t it? We’ve been redoing the thrones that the royalty sit on for our renaissance faire since Saturday & we’re still not quite finished. When we first started going to it, the larger of the two was stained a lovely dark brown, with a light gold rub in various areas. I’m not sure what color the panel on the back was, but it had a backing of quilted fabric of some sort & color in it. The smaller one was white, but I’m not really sure what color the filials & panel were, because I never paid attention to it back then. In 2000 a woman named Kelly took them home & painted them. They came back a hideous, light flesh-colored pink. The big throne had a maroon panel & gold trim (which was very bright, it would have been great on gold cufflinks, but not on that throne), the smaller one had a green panel & the filials were green & gold.

Over the years, the pink paint started to peel off of the larger throne & we took them this spring & put them in Dawn’s garage for painting. When we started this past Saturday, Troy noticed that the paint on the larger throne was latex & we started peeling it off in huge sheets. The beautiful brown stain under it was intact & in pretty good shape. It took us a pretty long time to get most of that off & then we started on the other. Because it hadn’t been stained underneath the latex, it wasn’t coming off, which was fine. We painted it a deep Tudor brown. They both have silver rubbed into certain places on them & the large one is now brown again, with a pretty green panel, trimmed in silver & the smaller is trimmed with purple. I painted the filials with a faux marble technique & they look pretty good. I’ll have to take pictures when we’re completely finished, there’s just too much to really describe.

Anyway, Dawn just called to tell me she was home, so I need to go & finish up.

The sari skirt I ordered left Salt Lake yesterday, so I’m really hoping it’ll be here today, and if not, it’ll be here tomorrow for sure. I’m excited to try it on & see how it works and all of that. I think I’ll get a new t-shirt or tank to wear with it, because I plan to wear it a lot & not just as faire garb, I think it’ll be beautiful & cool to wear, too. After I get it, I can use it to make myself a couple more, too. I’ve already bought the fabric for them, I just need to actually see how they’re put together so I can make some.

There’s kind of a funny story behind Troy ordering a laptop for me the other day. We were sitting around that day, not doing much & he saw a Dell ad & went to look at the laptops. He thought we had no credit left with them & didn’t even suggest getting me one from them at the time. We did play around with the options and all & colors, but then we took off to go & look at memory cards for his pocket PC & while we were out he asked if we had any credit left at Dell. When he found out we did, we came home, he got his memory card formatted & ready to go & we started laptop shopping. He has taken to telling everyone that he got a $20 memory card & I got a $700 laptop & it’s not fair, all the while he saying it he has a huge grin on his face. I’m excited for it to be shipped & even more excited to actually have it!

I guess on Saturday we’re going to start sanding the thrones and the bench we need for faire. I hope to get them done so we can buy the paint as soon as we can afford it & get them done. They may not end up being exactly what we wanted, but I can pretty much guarantee that they’ll look better than they do right now. I may take my rolls of fabric over there & have people cut the walls for our encampment, too, so that I don’t have to. I hope there’s someone over there that can be trusted to cut straight lines.

I still haven’t managed to lose as much weight as I would have liked to before now, and I’m thinking about asking my sister-in-law what diet pills she took to lose all of the weight she lost a few years ago, because she’s managed to keep it all off since then. I’m so tired of being fat & struggling with it all the time. I need to get back to doing the things that work for me & stop eating like the world will run out of food tomorrow.

I just realized that I’m on the last book in my “to be read”pile. I’m one of those people who can’t go to sleep at night without reading & I really don’t want to have to resort to reading something that doesn’t interest me. I read for entertainment, for the most part & not to learn anything, so even non-fiction books have to be entertaining. I think I’m safe for at least a week, the series I’m just finishing is a little harder for me to read than my usual fare, after that, I’ll have to go & look through Dawn’s shelves & borrow some more.

Speaking of Dawn, she didn’t have the biopsy yesterday, it’s scheduled for Thursday at 1:15. The doctor seems to be trying to talk her out of a hysterectomy, which is what she wants, so we’ll see what happens on Thursday. She’s really upset & so tired of being in pain, I hurt for her & feel her frustration with the situation.

I think there are going to be a lot of “to do” lists getting posting in here fort he next 4 weeks, just because I’m so busy & there’s so much to do that I can;’t focus without them. I think Monday, after I get Dawn to & from the doctor, I’m going to start getting the walls for our encampment cut out, so that I can start sewing them together. This year, I’m going to do two at a time, until I get them all done & then do them in larger groups until I’m ready to join the two (I have to sew 11 panels together for each building, we have two). It isn’t hard work or anything, just tedious & time consuming. I really do need to put up some blinds or curtains in my sewing room, though, it gets so sunny & bright in there in the afternoon that it’s blinding, not to mention hot.

After I get all of those cut to size, I’m going to get my bloomers cut out & pinned, so that when I’m done with the walls, I can get right to sewing those & then I’ll finish the chemise I’ve had cut out for months, and fix my black bodice. I may or may not get a chance to sew Jaycie’s stuff, we’ll see, right now, it isn’t a priority to me.

Dawn & I were talking last night about things we’ve learned over the past through years, just by working at our renaissance faire every summer. I remember when she used to come every morning in her makeup, looking fresh & pretty. It would start melting off at around 1pm & she’d look like she’d never put any on by the time we all went home that night. I remember learning (the hard way) that you have to wear bloomers under a dress in that heat, or you go home with terrible heat rash on your thighs, and when Clay learned that wearing a suit of armor all day was easier to read about in historical texts than it is to do. We used to follow our kids around all day, watching them, making sure they were safe & not getting into trouble, way before we learned that the vendors and other faire folke all watch each other’s kids & help keep them safe, because we’re all a strange family of sorts.

We learned that it takes years to overcome a bad impression & that dumping trash 10 times a day goes a long way towards that goal and that good things truly do come to those who wait. We seem to learn more things every year, sometimes as a result of mistakes that we make as a whole & sometimes just through the course of living there for a week, but we rarely forget them. I’m looking forward to this year, as I do each one, and will be sad when it’s over, because it always feels like Summer is gone so quickly after that.

Wow. Faire always has a way of creeping up on me, no matter how ready I think I am. 35 days until setup. 37 days until opening day. I have so much to do before then:

1. Finish signs
2. Package & label bath salt
3. Sand & repaint thrones & benches
4. Sew Jaycie’s garb
5. Sew walls for encampment
6. Get my garb cleaned & repaired

We probably ought to look into local cheap hotels, just in case Bryon & Kat decide to come & visit that week like we talked about. I’ll need to drive to Las Vegas on the 5th of July to pick up Dave from the airport, too. Ack. Time to get busy & start getting serious about what has to get done in the next 35 days, I guess!