a pirate's life is not for me

 Last night me and my crew co-hosted our town's first ever Pirate's Ball on the lawn of a lovely Victorian mansion downtown. Yes, we CO-hosted. We were not alone in this project. I decided to team up with a local non-profit to help make the event bigger, better and more diverse... but things started to get pretty ugly during planning. I don't want to go into much details about all that but I will say we probably won't be co-hosting another event with them. Preesh the help... but not the stress.

Me and our new friend and faire supporter Fred Flores, Jack Sparrow impersonator.

 I'm really not a fan of pirate stuff but I know there are plenty of pirate fans out there and we've been wanting to host a more historical fundraising event so I came up with the idea for a Pirate's Ball a couple months ago. Everyone liked the idea so I went with it. 

 Dr. Scott the Pirate Shantyman, a regular performer at out faire, a huge supporter and all around great guy.

  And the Queen's guard in the middle. All I can say is... awesome. Irrelevant, but awesome. His hat looked like a cow had licked it but.... still awesome.

 I used to be in this band waaay back before it even had a name. They're good friends and great entertainers. 

 My husband looking slightly confused.

 Donated petit fours!!! FREE FOOD IS AWESOME FOOD!

Here's a friends of mine who's four months prego with her first baby. She decided to bare it all because her costumes and corsets won't fit anymore! I would totally do the same if my belly didn't look like I just got mauled by a tiger.

  And of course we had a raffle for three prizes.

 Attendance was around 40. Our goal was 100, but  there just aren't that many people in this town who are interested in having fun. PLUS there was another event going on that same night, hosted by OUR co-hosts. Yes, our co-hosts held another event on the same night as this one. Why? Good question. Your guess is as good as mine. Like a stated before: we won't be doing another event with them. 

Yes! She has a little ship in her hat! 

 Belly dancers are rare around here. Our original go-to dancer already had plans, the next group we booked had to drop out but luckily before they did they hooked us up with another group. Loving the mermaid themed costumes.

 

 We ended the night with a rather rowdy costume contest that was judged by none other than Jack Sparrow himself.

Now it's Sunday evening and I'm stiff, I'm sore and I'm exhausted. 

It took everything I have to get dressed and put on makeup to meet my brother and sister in-law for a Mexican lunch today. 

Ah, the ups and downs of planning events...

I love it all!

Our budget Costumes:

Husband

Vest - handmade by a friend for free

Shirt- from his Civil War reenacting days

Pants - Etsy

Boots - online renaissance store clearance

Tricorn - Awful $5 hat from local party supply store, stained black with shoe polish to conceal crappiness.

Me

Chemise - Ebay (the only chemise I could find that would fit over my belly)

Leggings - Walmart

Boots - handmedowns

Jewelry and acessories - cheap Ebay finds and gifts

oddball

Here's a brief lookie loo from Father's Day (which was on the 15th).

River got his Daddy a special coffee mug from snapfish.com for a Father's Day gift. Well I bought it, and.... you know what I mean...

Later that day...

With nothing planned for the rest of the day, we decided to try out this fancy kiddie pool that was given to us as a gift a few weeks ago.

The word got out that we were having waterific fun... 

Hello company!

And then this happened:

My husband bought this giant vinyl banner from a company that installs and removes them from billboards. Instead of throwing the banners away, the company sell them for super cheap to be used as tarps and anything else you can imagine.

We used ours as a giant redneck slip-n-slide.

Welcome to the trailer park life.

I hope everyone had a great Father's Day weekend!

See ya laters.

11 weeks left.

quote pink boxing gloves unquote

“Whenever you are confronted with an opponent, conquer him with love.” 

― Mahatma Gandhi

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle."

-Philo

"It is wonderful how much time good people spend fighting the devil. If they would only expend the same amount of energy loving their fellow men, the devil would die in his own tracks of ennui."
-Helen Keller

“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.” 
- Friedrich Nietzsche

“Anything worth having is worth fighting for.”
-Susan Elizabeth Phillips

The travelling pink boxing gloves project was born in NY to Ally of the blog Shybiker a few months ago. The gloves have made their way around the US and finally came to my doorstep here in Texarkana, TX a couple weeks ago. The gloves will go back to NY and then from there, I'm not sure where they're going, but I know if you follow Ally's blog I'm sure you can find more info.

Thanks for reading and have a swell weekend!

dumber summer

I hate summer. I really do. Too hot. Too humid. Too hot.

And it's hot too.

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  Every since me and my husband had a nice long chat about how boring our town is and how desperate I am to get away, we've decided to try harder to find free local family fun to keep us entertained until we can make our move outta here. There's not much to choose from here but something is better than nothing, right?

Saturday, we went to Spring Lake Park for a yum yum summery dinner picnic and also to check out the new "splash pad" that opened last year.

I kept the picnic foods simple this time: fresh honey glazed strawberry with mint, grilled chicken caesar salad, naan and baked potato chips. 

I stayed on the sidelines and took photos while the husband supervised the little dude.

The splash pad was pretty crowded and a lot smaller than I expected but it looked halla fun.

This rooster/seagull looking thing kinda weirded me out.

 After a while I got pretty antsy to venture into the splash pad myself so I did only to discover the water was a little too cold for my taste. As soon as I got doused in ice water by a crazy-eyed zebra thing I bolted out of there. I'll leave the one for the kids.

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Bonus:

Only 14 weeks left!

a little slice of Turkey

I've been meaning to do this post for a few days now but I've been so stinkin' busy with work and selling crap online. Anyway, I've been dying to share River's new outfit for the faire this year! 

I found this authentic Turkish ensemble on Ebay with a starting bid of $5. Afraid I would miss the final bidding war, I asked the seller if she would cancel the auction and sell it to me for $10 and she accepted my offer! 

Because of the new little one coming in September, we're not going to be able to drop a ton of money on new costuming so we're going a more affordable route for the faire this year. Gypsy costuming is SO easy to do and authentic ethnic clothing is significantly cheaper than American made reproductions. 

I'm going to be the "gypsy queen" of the faire this year, dressed in a fiery reds and yellows and even a crown, so I guess River will be my little Turkish gypsy prince!

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The details of this costume are amazing. It's well made and there's plenty of room for him to be able to wear it another year.

BEST. BUY. EVER.