Aarquelle Highlands Fencing Camp

I am getting happier and happier with how my booth is looking. I finally got my sign up!

Yeah, it's a little crooked, but I fixed it after I took the picture, and I also finally figured out how to hang it from my table as well. That's something to cross off the list!

I also (finally) got the tablecloths properly cut and hemmed. The front corners of the lavender one are, in fact, curved just right so the corners don't drag on the ground.

 

If you click on this picture you might be able to see the deer that Loiosh is looking at. I asked if he wanted venison for dinner, and he said it sounded too much like work if he had to go get it himself.

...right there.

...see?

It's pretty unusual that we actually get to have a firepit that's in the ground here in the Outlands, but there actually weren't any fire restrictions this high up (we were in Buena Vista) so we had a really nice bonfire, with a lot of singing and laughter (and booze). It's been a long, long time since I've had the chance (and energy) to just sit around a campfire at the end of the day. Usually I'm so tired I just go to bed as soon as it's dark.

Also, there were cottonwood trees. (It was, after all, along Cottonwood Creek.)

Cottonwood trees mean cottonwood fluff.

OMG THE COTTONWOOD FLUFF

I'm allergic to the stuff, but my cheapo OTC allergy meds were enough to pretty much take care of it.

Here's the creek:

I took a little time on Sunday to wander around and get pictures of camp. I really, really love period-style canvas tents -- they're so gorgeous, and just so comfortable to camp in. The third pic is the inside framing of one of the round tents -- yes, you can hang your entire wardrobe from those rafters if you want.

Plus what's an event without heraldry?

A project

I haven't done a project log in aaaaaages...partly because I haven't blogged in ages, but that's just what life has been like and more about that later.

I was expecting that late spring and early summer would be event after event, just like last year. This...has not been the case. There are fewer events to go to than usual (I blame the economy), I haven't wanted to stray far from home (my car is getting pretty iffy), and on top of everything else I had two events in a row cancelled out from under me. One of them being a pretty big one, over Memorial Day weekend.

So there I was, all caught up on production, everything else under control, all ready for the big event...and instead I had four days all to myself, with nothing hanging fire on the todo list.

I'll admit I thought about just taking the damn weekend off and doing a whole lot of napping. (I did, in fact, take a couple of naps; they're rarely a bad idea.) But I've a whole long list of changes and upgrades I'd like to make to my booth, and I thought, well, unexpected time, let's do this.

So I did.

The original plans, drawn up in Corel Draw.

Once I knew what I was doing, though, all I needed was the sketch.

Making sure my notches work.

Sanding and sanding and sanding…

All of the pieces…

…come together to make a whole.

I found the perfect purple on the ‘oops’ shelf at Home Despot.

Voila!

The lip balms fit perfectly…

…and the colours go really well together too.

In its natural habitat!

When you buy from an independent artist...

[Image reads: When you buy from an independent artist you are buying more than just a painting or a novel or a song. You are buying hundreds of hours of experimentation and thousands of failures. You are buying days, weeks, months, years of frustration and moments of pure joy. You are buying nights of worry about paying the rent, having enough money to eat, having enough money to feed the children, the birds, the dog. You aren't just buying a thing, you are buying a piece of heart, part of a soul, a private moment in someone's life. Most importantly, you are buying that artist more time to do something they are truly passionate about; something that makes all of the above worth the fear and the doubt; something that puts the life into the living.]

Thank you.

Thank you for buying food that I can feed my cats, gas for my car, popcorn for my nightly snack. Thank you for paying to replace that belt that squeaked every time I started my car, for the medications for Emily's autoimmune disorder, for the special food Chocolate needs to eat. Thank you.

Thank you for paying me to play with scents, to layer oils until the texture is just right, to mix salts and test and mix salts and test and mix salts and test until the bath salts are PERFECT. Thank you for giving me ideas for soaps, and then buying them (by the truckload).

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to make my money, and live my life, in the way that I want, rather than in working a soulless job for someone else, whiling away the hours until the weekend, until retirement, resenting every moment.

Thank you for helping me put the life into my living.

Thank you.

Wicked Girls. Saving Ourselves.

I really haven't been doing new-product blog posts for a while now. I've had a couple of reasons...

1) When I post a new item it shows up on Facebook and Twitter and on the front page automatically anyways. And,

2) Nobody reads the damn things.

So now I'm doing a new-product post. Only this isn't just a regular 'check out the new thing' post, because I'm also talking about the song that saved my life.

"For we will be wicked and we will be fair
And they'll call us such names, and we really won't care,
So go, tell your Wendys, your Susans, your Janes,
There's a place they can go if they're tired of chains,
And our roads may be golden, or broken, or lost,
But we'll walk on them willingly, knowing the cost --
We won't take our place on the shelves.
It's better to fly and it's better to die
Say the wicked girls saving ourselves."
-- Seanan McGuire, Wicked Girls Saving Ourselves

Overly dramatic, you say? To that I reply: Whatever. This song has gotten me through a lot of ugly stuff, and for that, I'll love it forever.

You've probably seen me talking about Wicked Girls before. But what's a Wicked Girl? What am I on about, anyway?

We're wicked -- we don't follow The Rules just because they're The Rules. We don't blindly do what society says is right, just because They Said So. We do our thing -- which might be what society says to do, or it might not, but it's what we need to be doing, regardless of what anyone else says.

"Tinker Bell says, and I find I agree
You have to break rules if you want to break free.
So do as you like -- we're determined to be
Wicked girls saving ourselves."

We're saving ourselves, instead of waiting for Prince Charming -- or that lottery ticket -- to save us. We're doing it all our damn selves. We're walking our own roads -- not those others have paved for us, confidently expecting that we'll tamely walk down them, tamely follow the rules they've taught us since we were little.

And the rules that we live by are simple and clear:
Be wicked and lovely and don't live in fear --

And from all of this has come...soap. Wicked Girls Saving Ourselves Soap, to be precise. Rose, myrrh, and cinnamon — bitter beauty, with a hint of spice.