Snogged: An Insatiable State of Mind

I finally got my camera cord back from my folks so I have some pictures to share from the last weekend of Bristol for any and all who are interested.

( Where has the time gone? It seems to have gone so fast )

Made the trek out to the Bristol Ren Faire again and had an awesome time as per usual :) Plus, I got to talk to a celebrity! (America's Next Top Model Winner: McKey Sullivan was visiting her old nesting grounds. She used to work as a flower girl.)

Instead of a lengthy story though, I'm just giving you all a pic spam (because I know it's what you want anyways!)

( Oh, it's good to be back home again! )

It was totally worth the early morning. Except for the part where I got lost in road construction. But I made it out without a lot of difficulty (with Traveler's wonderful phone assistance) so I'd say it wasn't so bad.

I pretty much followed standard protocol...that is: once gates opened I headed to the chain maille shop, got dressed (for free), and then headed over to the Dark Cloud Twizted Leather Shoppe to give hugs to Jess, Loki, Xavier, Tables (nickname of a kid who hides under tables when things get scary), and Little Mike. Also found out what time I needed to come back so I could be a part of parade.

With the time I had before parade, I went wandering and ran into some great friends and got great hugs. Then I did parade and had an awesome time marching with the boys of Dark Cloud. Speaking of Dark Cloud, I got hooked up with a sweet pair of leather arm bracers with a beautiful purple butterfly design :) I'm so proud of Xavier. He's finally getting into making pretty leather things instead of just claws and metal and scary things (though that's pretty damn fun too).

After parade, I did more wandering and saw the Adam Crack Whip Show (nom nom nom) with Casey and Mandy. Then I headed over to the fairy glade and snapped some photos of the pretty fairies :)

Then, I got changed out of chain maille and back into my bodice and headed up to Drum Jam. Drum Jam was definitely amazing and I got the chance to dance with jewelledfairy! :) I also made some new friends: Becca (who rocks at hula hoop and sings opera while she does it) and Alesha (who drove four hours just to be there).

I'm a bit sad to say that I'm not gonna be at Faire a lot this year but I'm crossing my fingers and I'll keep all the Bristol Rennies on my flist posted.

( And what post would be complete without massive pic spam )

It's too damn early to be awake on a Sunday

But you know what...I'm going to Faire today so I'm just gonna suck it up and squee :)

I've got photo sets up on my flickr for the last weekend at the Bristol Renaissance Faire.

Honestly, I'm feeling a bit lazy so if you want to see them...go here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9043826@N04/sets/72157607073829675/

here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9043826@N04/sets/72157607070383020/

and here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9043826@N04/sets/72157607074128759/

I am hoping to write a nice lengthy faire post sometime in the next few days.

Keep your eyes out for it :)

I'm not going into a lengthy post about Sunday. Simply put, I had a great time and it was nice to see everyone considering I wasn't sure I was going to make it back to Bristol before August. Oh yeah, and Drum Jam was everything I needed it to be and more. There were a few people that helped that happen for me but I'm not naming any names.

Onto the photos!

I know Jennifer's dad got some of me in parade so I will post those here when they get posted.

( Hip Hip Haza! )

Does anyone know where I could find pictures from parade on Sunday?

I know people took them because I was walking by a crap load of cameras.

I would really like to have one though so keep an eye for me, okay?

July 5th and 6th marked the opening weekend of Bristol and July 6th was the first of the five days that I have avaliable to spend there this summer.

Sunday was just...amazing. Exhausting but amazing. Loki and I got there around 8:40 and he had to go into grounds because he has employee privileges. That pretty much left me without people for a good 20 minutes because the parking gates hadn't opened yet. It was okay though. I took a few pictures and read a few pages of my new book "Girl Walking Backwards."

Once parking gates opened, I found a swarm of my friends to talk too. It was so awesome getting to see people, especially the faces I haven't seen since I left at the end of last summer and the faces I haven't seen since Midwinter. I found out that Randolph from Chain Maille Fashions was dressing so me, Jingles, and Jennifer planned for the famous Chain Maille sprint, making sure we got a spot right at the front so when the gates opened we could fly through them.

Randolph got us dressed and I have to say that we looked darn hot :) Once dressed, I headed over to the brand new Dark Cloud shop and my heart rate increased when I saw how amazing it was. It's in a prime location now (right across from the Pig and Whistle tavern and right near the Globe Stage)instead of being off the beaten path.

King Zavier (aka Corey), Jess, and Loki were in the shop and I walked in feeling like I was completely home. Zavier took a few minutes away from the leather pounding to give me a hug and ogle over my outfit. He's a big fan of Randolph's work and who could really blame him... Then, I met the Valkyrie who is just awesome. She's a sweetheart too :) And I got to talk to Jennifer's boy a little more and he seems like good people.

I spent most of my morning in the shop and got invited to do parade with Dark Cloud which was the awesome cherry on top of the sundae of awesomeness that was my Faire day. My job was to look hot (not hard), hand out business cards (again, not hard), wave to the patrons (a little hard since my free hand was full of business cards), and look like a trophy girl on the arm of King Zavier (seriously, I felt like royalty).

After parade and the photo ops, I left the shop for a bit and found Kyle who took me around the grounds. I ended up buying a black mahogany wand with red tint. It was Dark Cloud-esque and of course, I'm a huge Harry Potter nerd so that helps too :) Kyle and I got serenaded by one of the lute players and that was lovely.

Then, I went back to the Dark Cloud shop and ran a few errands for the boys. I spent some time with Mandy, Casey, and Damien. Said hi and gave hugs to people I hadn't gotten to spend much time with.

At the end of the day, I did Drum Jam which is always fun. I learned that howling puts less strain on the vocal cords than screaming does. And I learned that when certain people aren't there, I feel a piece of the energy missing.

If you've made it through this whole tale, I'm proud of you. And because I'm proud of you, I'll give you pictures to look at :)


I wish I had gotten a better picture of the white dress I wore when I wasn't in chain maille. It earned me a lot of nicknames. I was the Bride of Dark Cloud, The Virgin Mary of Dark Cloud, and the Virgin Bride of Dark Cloud. LOL.

( Rennie Pictures )

Mandy mordere, Casey weaselsdontfly, Katy squirrelover, and I did the most awesome-est thing over the weekend. We went to the Illinois Highland Games because our favorite band from the Bristol Ren Faire was playing three shows there on Saturday. We wanted to show our support because the Bristol management is ultra lame and isn't bringing Tartanic back for this season.

Tartanic, of course, rocked and I ended up buying one of the new CDs, and I got most of the members to sign it for me. One of the bag pipers disappeared before I got the chance. At their 9 PM "clothing optional" show (yay for hot, shirtless bag pipers!!), there was a rush of people to the stage (which the four of us were a part of) and we had a blast bopping to the music. We even got to hang out with them for a bit after their sets (which helped with the down time).

I also got to see some of my other Rennie friends because Lady Isis was at the first show and Collette was at the first and second shows. And I got to see Traveler and Mom (Casey and Mandy's mom) on Sunday, which made the weekend even more awesome because we all went out for Baskin Robbins ice cream :)

Now that I've rambled...you get pictures :)

( Pictures )