This past weekend was the kickoff to Wild Rose, and the weather did not disappoint! As you may recall from last year, the first weekend showed us some crazy weather.

Ever hear the phrase: “Second Verse, Same as the First”?

Yeah. Except this time we didn’t lose our tent (I think – It’s probably still there. I’ll find out tomorrow) and Sunday showed us beautiful weather! But Saturday was… Exciting.

Around noon the weather began to turn a little dark and we had our first hints of rain, but that was no big deal. We had arrived late due to construction and massively long country-road detours, but we had our tent up and I was busy arranging things. Brian was chasing after Lemony and she was generally tearing around the Faire as the weather worsened and a real storm whipped up.

Word came around that there was a tornado watch on near Erie, about an hour away. We couldn’t find our tent stakes, so as a precaution against the wind Brian lowered the tent. Bob the Gravedigger told us that a funnel cloud had been sighted in Erie, but had not touched down. After last year, I felt very happy to have the volunteer fire department on hand; they had their huge walkies on to get updates. Just as we were hunkering down to ride out the storm, the lightning came tearing down VERY CLOSE and the word was “RUN!” Open field full of tents with metal poles? Nope. Not Staying.

The owners’ farm house was about a quarter of a mile away, and there was a tractor path through the tall grass to it. Brian grabbed Lemony and bolted, and I was on their heels. She was, of course, laughing and giggling the whole time. I fell behind when I got caught up in some mud, and was having a bit of trouble breathing in my bodice. After I got out of the mud, I came upon a little girl who looked to be around 6ish who was crying and barefoot. She was scared and had lost her shoes (and her family) along the way. I picked her up and carried her to the house, which was luckily pretty close by that time.

Once inside and safe, we turned our attention to the weather channel. The tornado watch would go until 1:15, so we just waited it out. The weather cleared up fairly quickly after that, and we all filed back to the Faire grounds. Unlike the wholesale destruction of last year, mostly things just got wet. Annoying and soggy, but everything turned out just fine. The little girl even got her shoes back.

Sunday was just that – Sunny and hot, but I’ll take that over being struck by lightning or hit with a tornado. In all, I’d say it was a great start to the Faire, and I’m excited for tomorrow.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some chainmaille to finish up, and some banana bread to set out for thawing.

Hope to see you there!

(PS – We’ll have plain and blueberry banana bread in the tent, just so you know. ^_~)

In a word – AWESOME!

We had a great time, Little One included! ^_^ Even though it’s a long drive from Pittsburgh to Raleigh, we made it there and back in once piece. Thank God for portable DVD players, Ni Hao Kai-Lan, and Kung-Fu Panda. Also for whoever invented those colorless markers that make colors and patterns appear in the special activity books.

Anyway, thanks to everyone who stopped by to say hello! My favorite part of cons is all the cool people I get to meet. ^_^ As I probably said to you before, if you have any questions, feel free to ask. My e-mail is brandyrabbitdance -at- gmail -dot- com. I’ve got an open commission schedule right now, but I’ll let you know that Halloween work usually starts coming to me in August, and space is limited in the “large item” area.

But what do I have coming before those? SO – MUCH – WORK. O_O I’m glad my maille was well-received at the event, but daaaaang do I have work to do before this weekend (and the other two after that). For this weekend, my friends, is the start of the WILD ROSE REN FAIRE! *happy dance* I’ve been looking forward to it all year long! ^_^ I’ve got to get the tent ready and the tables and the displays and pack food for the weekend and find carpets and make more chainmaille… *pantwheeze* Somewhere in there I suppose I have to sleep. How? I have no clue. Maybe in the car on the way there?

Speaking of, if you’re in the area and need your Faire Fix, Wild Rose is the first Faire of the season. You shoud totally come. Look for the black tent. ^_~ I’ll be putting up pictures for Animazement and the Faire next week in separate posts.

I got my contacts yesterday before the I Made It show in the SouthSide! ^_^ Not only was the show a lot of fun, I could see well enough to write and do some work. I apologize if I was squinting or blinking a lot at you guys yesterday. I have to wear the hard contacts, and they actually take a week or two to “break in”. Bu at least I can start updating this again like I used to. I had trouble seeing the keyboard even with my glasses on. Although I have to say the best thing is that I can finally get back to my silversmithing. Wonky vision + Fire = Singed eyebrows at best.

Speaking of updates, I’ve got a decent amount of them for you! Over the next few weeks, I’m going to be at several events. The first one, coming next weekend, is Animazement in North Carolina. I’ll be at Moon Bunny Imports, which a Japanese import company that my husband and I run. We have a corner booth right when you come into the Dealer’s Room! ^_^ There’s a good chance I’ll be bringing my maille with me, or at least the miniature doll stuff.

Next month is the Wild Rose Renaissance Faire! ^_^ Three weekends in June, I’ll be at the Faire, with maille, silver, and I’ll be bringing my smithing supplies with me so I can do demonstrations and such. It’s the first Faire of the seaon in the area, so if you need a Ren Fix, you could come by and say hello!

I do have an open commission queue at the moment, so if you saw something yesterday that you liked but it wasn’t quite perfect, just send me an e-mail and I’ll see what I can do. ^_^

Okay, Zomburgh classes are starting up the end of February! Here’s the link where you can pre-register and get all the details –

http://www.zomburgh.com/class-registration

The skill level is beginning/intermediate, with one class geared specifically towards jewelers. Once interest picks up, I will able to add in more advanced classes (I’ve already got them planned out!) with some even focusing on armor/costume design, shaping, etc.

Hope to see you there!

Just a head’s up – I’ll be vending at the next I Made It! Market. ^_^ It’ll be on Friday, February 11, from 11:30 to 3:30 at the William Pitt Union! You can either ask me, visit the official FB page, or go on over to the IMI Market Blog for more details.

What will I have? I’ve been busy making some guy-related maille (wallet chains, key rings, thicker necklaces, etc), and I’ll be running some deals on paired items for the hopeless romantic types. ^_^ They haven’t released a full artist list yet, but when they do, I’ll let you know! That way you can do some virtual window-shopping if you so desire.

The good news is that if you can’t be at the Market on Friday, there’s another one on Saturday. I won’t be at the Saturday market, but you can go to the IMI Blog for more details.

See you there!