Faire thee well and all that jazz

Last weekend, me and the fam traveled to Kilgore, TX to visit Avalon Faire.

Even though the forecast only predicted cloudy skies and cool temperatures, as we got closer to the faire, the forecast rapidly began to change. When we got to the faire, it began to thunder a lightning a little so we left to wait out the storm at a nearby barbecue joint. 

Service was outrageously slow, the menu and ordering process was horribly confusing and the three ladies in line in front of me talked about me as if I were deaf. Instead of  complimenting me or asking for a photo like most decent humans do, they preceded to carry on a convo about me as I just stood and smiled at them wondering if they were ever going to talk to me directly.

We left before even placing our order.

Bad vibes.

When we got back to the fairgrounds, it seemed as if the storm was moving away so we got out to put the rest of our garb on. 

DUMP! Here comes the rain.

We sat in the car and waited. 

The husband was talking of leaving but I was having no such thing.

When the rain let up I begged the ticket-taker to give us a rainy-day discount since we might have to turn around and leave at any minute and she did.

The canopy we put of over the kid's wagon broke and then the wagon broke shortly after that so we bought a couple nylon parasols. The parasols weren't waterproof but much better than rice paper! The kids did amazingly well considering this was their first festival sans containment of some sort.

And all of this to say:

It was raining off and on so I left my camera in the car and took bad photos with my phone.

The end!

yellow belly

It's my 32nd birthday today.

I don't have anything special or funny to say about that. It's just a fact.

I'm 32 today.

I treated myself to a giant massive cheeseburger for lunch and now all I want to do is drink a beer and take a nap. Meh, can't do that, though. I got two kids to keep alive so maybe daddy will let me take a little naparooni when he gets home.

I think I deserve it.

Here are some pics from Easter Sunday.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz...........

Cedar is sporting her first blogger freebie: a fair trade, handmade dress from Ghana provided by Wild Dill (see her "modeling" here at Wild Dill). River is wearing a proper preppy outfit fresh from Ross Dress for Less for $11.99. 

Dad's new Easter shirt is also from Ross and I'm wearing another silky sari magic wrap skirt and hand-me-down top. I wasn't a fan of my outfit, I put it together to coordinate with Cedar's outfit but we didn't even take family pics, so oh well!

The Downtown Shuffle

Allo! Allo! I started this post Sunday and got super sidetracked. Can't you tell? It's Friday now.

These photos are from a food festival we went to downtown Saturday. 

The first festival we went to many months ago only had like five food vendors that were spread out all over a large parking lot. It was poop. This time were were about 20 vendors, bounce houses and other goodies.

The festival gets better every time they put it on and that excites me.

There wasn't much diversity in the food choices, though - just your typical American fair food faves, Southern fried stuff and Mexican. Lots and lots of Mexican. I settled on a couple chorizo tacos and took home a crawfish po' boy (a cajun sandwich) and a meat pie to eat later.

Ok, so I'm sure you're wondering what's with the Daniella duds at a food festival.

Well, me and the rest of the fair crew like to visit local festivals to promote the faire and this time the directors thought it'd be cool to dress up in our garb and "invade" the upcoming food festival.

I was already planning to take my family to the fest so I figured, meh, might as well dress up while I'm at it.

Only four of us showed up, me, new faire owner Aly (to the left),  faire co-owner Brain (to the right) and new cast edition Natalie (center). We posed for photos, interacted with the festival-goers, handed out promo cards and all that jazz. 

Next to the festival, an ooooold building was open for tours. The building used to be a hardware store at some point and they are planning to turn it into apartments and office space which will be awesome. (I'm not sure who THEY are by the way).

Our downtown is just plumb awful. Full of empty buildings that have a lot of potential, not much to do there. A few retail shops, a couple of "museums" a couple bars and restaurants.... that's about it. BUT! One big 'but', though!

A LOT of effort has been going into reviving it recently. It's just going to take some time.

And here's a cool photo I took of the crew in the building. 

Soooo.... what's up with you guys lately?

Well, I guess I'll find out soon enough when I go check out your blawgs! 

LATERZ.

pretty pretty princess

It's raining a lot outside, so here are some terrible indoor photos.

A few weeks ago I bought a 5-pack of magic wrap skirts for about $30 and they finally came in!  In case you're not familiar with them, magic wrap skirts are made from old saris in India and you can style them to be worn as a skirt or dress. No two are the same, they're a one-size-fits-most garment and it should wrap around you twice but I got like a one and a sixteenth wrap out of it.

I'm fat. 

As it's been a rather blustery day, an underslip was a must.

I hate underslips with all my heart and soul, though.

They stick to me and they don't breath so I don't wear them no matter how thin my skirt is. My mother raised me like a right proper lady, so growing up, slips were absolutely mandatory no matter how thick or long the skirt was.

 When I was grown and married, one scorching hot Texas summer day I thought to myself,  "Hang, on! I don't have to do what my mom says any more! I'm grown! Bye underslips!"

But today was the exception. Leg and panty exposure aren't really favored in or around church...

I bought a magic wrap skirt many years ago when I first started belly dancing. I've never thought to wear it for anything other than costuming. When I saw 5 for $30 my plan was to keep a couple and sell the rest off but I love them all!!! I think I shall keep them.

Oh, in case you were wondering: the TV on my right is our homemade kid monitoring system. We hooked up a plain jane security camera in the kid's playroom next door and hooked it up to a small TV that sits right next to my work space. No fancy baby monitors, no weird smart phone hookups. Just a cheap camera, a wire and a TV we found in an abandoned trailer. 

Welcome to my cheapskate parenting world!

So what are you party people up to?