Renaissance Faire!

This year's Bristol Renaissance Faire was awesome! I wore my blue and purple flowered dress, that has a layer of tulle which gives the skirt a slightly poofy look. I love it.

Let's start from the beginning, shall we? The clouds made my sister and uncle, along with the other Faire-goers a bit weary about the conditions of the day, but I was confident that it wouldn't rain much more. The sky did indeed perk up and let the sun shine down for a while. It was quite comfortable.

We got there just after the opening ceremony and had to wait awhile for my uncle's friends to come. When we did get into the Faire, my sister and I split off from the group to shop for about an hour. We found our group at one of the many Gypsy Geoff shows that occurred that day. My uncle's friend's wife's grandson even got to be part of the show and challenged Geoff for a duel.

After that, we walked around some more and got lunch. My sister and I shared a bowl of garlic mushrooms and a bread stick and, while they weren't very filling, they were delicious. We saw Moonie after that, which I said recently was one of my favorite shows. I don't remember the order of the rest of the day, but I do know what happened.

All the shows that we watched are Moonie, Barely Balanced Acrobatics (very entertaining), part of Gypsy Geoff, and the Washing Well Wenches. The Washing Well Wenches was, by far, my favorite show. This year was the first I had seen it and it was absolutely hilarious! Both the women (wenches), Dottie and Ruby, reminded me of people I know or have seen movies of. They were so entertaining and they really got the audience involved. Though I won't go into detail, Ruby and Dottie made 4 men do things like run up to a random guy on the phone and yell, "Daddy! Daddy! Why did you leave me?" (both men hugged, though they did not know each other and the guy on the phone didn't know what was going on) and they made one guy run to a nearby hill, put on a gigantic pair of underpants, and yell, "In my big boy pants, I can do anything!" Overall, it was my favorite part of the Faire.

The items that I bought are awesome! I got a blue steel rose that is scented with rose essential oil, a little tiara on a pink ribbon (necklace), and a beautiful gypsy-type ankle bracelet that jingles every time I take a step. Along with those things, I got a bar of peppermint soap, a small blue bag of fairy dust, and a lavender eye pillow. I also got a beautiful book of fairy history ("Fairies and Fairy Stories: A History" by Diane Purkiss [see above picture]). It was rather expensive, but I thought it would be worth it. There was another fairy book that was a sort of journal of a fairy, that I thought was really cool, but I decided to buy it online later (Fairyopolis: A Flower Fairies Journal by Cicely Mary Barker). It is just like a journal, with little things glued in it and pictures. I thought it was really adorable.

I went on a pirate ship ride that was manned by a very, very cute boy. Although he was much older than me, his was sweet and even helped me down off the ride. *sigh*

My grandma, who made my sister and I flower crowns to wear for the Faire, might make us dresses for next year! I am, personally, extremely excited! Even if she ends up not making them, I'll probably dress up. I love wearing dresses and would like to start incorporating period clothing into my normal wardrobe. I especially love the belts that the women used to wear that had everything on them. Yesterday, I saw women carrying mugs, fans, parasols, their money, and oodles of other things on them. I would love to have one. I also plan to purchase a cloak-type thing to wear over my clothes in the winter. What I'm looking for has a hood and a clasp that closes at the neck (much like the one Jamie in "A Walk to Remember" wears during the play).

On a related note, I watched "A Walk to Remember", along with several other movies, this weekend. I love re-watching it because, even if it does have a bittersweet ending, it just makes me feel inspired. I don't know how to describe it, but it makes me feel good. Such a lovely movie.

Alright, it's time to put that lavender eye pillow to good use. Goodnight!

Peace, love, and simplicity. ♥