Ye Olde Renaissance Festival

This past weekend, we visited the Carolina Renaissance Festival in North Carolina. Now, I don't expect you all to know my little secret, because I've never discussed it here before... but I am a Ren Faire junkie. Even worse than that, I am a Ren Faire junkie who refuses to go to the faire without some sort of costume. So, when we decided a few days before the date we were planning to head up there that we would indeed be going, I didn't have much time to put something together and the costuming juices weren't exactly flowing. I pondered and pondered and Thursday night decided I would just go to the store in the morning pick up some cheap Hallowe'en fairy wings on clearance, make a simple mask, throw on clothes from the closet and be a fairy of some sort. Inspiration struck in the wee hours of the morning however, and I decided what my costume would be! In a flurry of fake flowers, chopped up tshirts, curses flung at the sewing machine and hot glue burns I created my outfit and made a mask for Joe.

We went as the Green Woman and Man. I'm used to creating costumes for faires in mid-August, so costuming for a windy day in the mid-fifties was a new experience. However, that was not the only new experience I had. You see, out of all the costumes I've come up with for the dozen faires I've attended I've never once been complimented or had people stop me to take my photo. I can now say with a fair amount of awe and pride, that there are dozens of photos of us on peoples cameras and there were numerous compliments given to us throughout the day. A girl pushed her way through a large crowd at one of the shows just to tell me she 'love, love, love, looooved' my outfit.

Here's a better look at my mask and head dress, for anyone interested:

Getting our photos taken and being stopped to chat weren't the only things we did during our faire day however! I was able to meet another like minded northerner who a little bird told me stops by here sometimes (Hi Jenn!) and there were many other magical things and enchanting folks to see.

We spotted Twig, the fairy, as she sat on some mushrooms and adjusted her flowers.



Your one stop shop to appease an annoyed wife!


This is Gypsy Geoff, a fire juggler, wearer of many hats and escape artist. His show was fantastic.


This fairy pulled me into a circle of people to play a game with her.
And a sure sign Yule is right around the corner...

I promise, I haven't been too naughty!

There are many, many more photos from the faire on my flickr page. I've only shared a few here, so if you are interested in seeing more, flutter on over and take a peek!

And, for making it to the end of my ren faire revelry, I'll leave you with a tidbit of trivia. Before moving to SC, I went to the Ren Faire in Tuxedo, NY at least once a year each summer. It turns out, Joe did as well. We crossed paths there several times, even having a brief conversation during a memorably horrendous downpour where we both took shelter in the same shop, well before we met and became friends at work. It was only after we had started getting to know each other and he saw a photo of me in my pirate costume that he remembered meeting me during that downpour. And here we are, a few years later, married and attending faires together.

See? Renaissance Faires truly are magical, wonderful places. <3