Oh, hello there!

It's October and I'm back as promised!!

Not only am I back but I'm back with a few photos from the faire!

The faire was last weekend, September 26 & 27and in case you're new to this shindig - I'm the owner/director lady and most recently - Daniella Noir the Gypsy Queen!

This year the faire went smoothly enough that I was able to finally contribute to the entertainment. But because of the heat and many many layers of clothing I only danced about four times - but that's still four times more than I ever have in the past!

After getting myself a concussion last month I was unable to continue practicing Russian style gypsy dance. When I recovered from that I pulled something in my back that landed me in the ER (they did nothing to help). So after healing up from that - I had about a week to loosen up enough to wing it (yoga helped!).

At the faire I just tapped into memories of past dance experience, all my belly dance knowledge and all the YouTube videos of authentic gypsy dance I've ever seen.

 Below is my "Gypsy Court" well some of them - featuring beautiful dancers from Little Goddess Trybal belly dance troupe from Dallas and a few local volunteers who also dance, drum or act.

Under my pavilion my "throne" was made of a dining chair, pvc pipe, two folding TV trays, bed sheets, old saris and table cloths. The wind blew everything out of place during this shot but I think it still looks ok yeah?

This year, I wore no hoops, no crinoline, no corset, no girdle... I was all natural under there and I felt great!  I could move! The edges of the velvet ghawazee coat kept rolling in on itself (right under the ties) - I predicted it would happen and intended on sewing the front closed but darn it, the night before the faire, I was just too plumb exhausted to care about preventing wardrobe malfunctions. 

It wasn't until I saw the photos that I realized I was a perfect rainbow from top to bottom! 

Outfit details:

Headdress - handmade by me last year with added 99 cent scarf and $2 necklace from eBay,

Purple Tunic - my own

Blue velvet ghawazee coat - Tribal Bazaar

Green over skirt - Etsy $5

25 yard skirt - eBay bought with Swagbucks

White hip scarf, yarn belt, beaded belt - old

Most jewelry - dirt cheap eBay finds.

Trying my hand at sword balancing! It's tricky! I'd like to get my own sword and practice a bit.

And back where I belong! I love drumming soooo much. The man who taught me how to drum boasts that I am one of the best drummers in Texarkana (high praise indeed but there's only like four drummers in town.) I haven't got to drum in ages but when I picked up the drum everything all came back to me. It  was like riding a bicycle... a bicycle that will make your fingers swell so bad you won't be able to remove your rings that night but... a bicycle indeed! 

Stay tuned for more photos!!

I've still got tons to do to wrap up all this faire stuff so I probably wont have time to visit your blogs until next week. 

Until then, see you all laters!!!

come hide with me

Before I get started on this post, I'd like to point out that I'm not posing in this photo. My husband took a pic of me talking and scratching the corner of my mouth at the same time. I'm just so stinking adorable that it came out looking like this. Saaaarcasm.  And forgive my weird muscly Popeye the Sailor Man forearm. I'm a very  um.... athletically built woman and I have to be very careful with my poses or else I'll look like - well... this. 

Athletically built - I guess the sport in my case would be sumo wrestling...

Is this better? I have been told that I am rather intimating with my Samoan-esque physique. I'm 5'6, well over 200 lbs and I have the natural build of a heavyweight boxer. I can't help it! Even in my thinner days I was still a larger muscular woman. She Hulk smash!!! ROAR!! Me nice like a kitty. See?

Sooooo moving on. Here's what I wore to church this morning. Heck yeah I wear sundresses in the fall.

Outfit Under $25

Dress: Ross Dress for Less

Jacket: www.599fashion.com

Leggings: Walmart

Boots: Hand-me-downs

NEW (to me) embroidered bag - Salvation Army

NEW (to you) necklace - Ebay for $4!!

Sugar skull ring - Ebay 99 cents.

Red gem ring - FOUND!

River's outfit was pretty spectacular today. The top and bottom are from www.FabKids.com

Never heard of it? Good. Thinking about signing up? DON'T unless you've got $30 a month to waste for a "free" monthly outfit. Ugh. Dang fine print.

 And here's what I'm into these days:

 This LA Colors brand nail polish: $1 a bottle and it comes in pretty bangin' colors. YEAH! Er, sorry for my gross cuticles. I personally don't care that they're shredded, but I am sorry if seeing them offends you...

I'm not sorry.

Yeah I am.

No, I'm not...

 Now that I'm 100% healed up from the c-section, I'm getting back into dancing to shake off the baby weight... er and the weight I gained from the first baby too. I've already lost 3 lbs in a week. YAY! Sadie Marquardt and tribal fusion belly dancer Rachel Brice have been my virtual coaches. Oh Sadie! Isn't she gorgeous!

Oh yeah. A couple of posts ago, I wrote about my buys from the faire. Well, I forgot two things: this handmade wall hanging - very appropriate for me as a dancer and drummer...

 ...and this gorgeous Indian umbrella. It was a steal at $15!

And lookee who's learning to smile! 

She's not very good at it yet, but when she does give me a little grin I'm all butter in the knees!

And before I go, here's a tasty treat fer ya:

ye olde blogge post

Hallo mein lieblings! Can you guess what this post is going to be about? Hm? No? I'll give you a hint. Ok, no I won't. I'll just tell you: It's about my faire. For those of you who are new to my blog, I am the founder and director of my town's annual renaissance faire. I have a very tiny staff and I am a bit of a control freak about how my business is ran so I do most of the work. I'm the executive director, merchant manager, entertainment director, head of marketing and advertising, webmaster - you get the point. This two-day event takes months of preparation and it's totally worth it.

Our faire isn't like other renaissance faires. We are very new and very small and because we do not own land to build a faire upon, we rent out city's fairgrounds. It's quite a challenge to turn such a modern setting into a 16th century village but we do our best and the patrons seem to be pretty pleased with our efforts.

Instead of hoops and crinoline and froo froo frills, I went for a more comfortable gypsy inspired look. I started working on a "Gypsy Queen" outfit but I was unable to finish it due to some financial issues so I'm actually wearing an incomplete costume. Along with the bodice and red top, I was supposed to wear layers of  25 yard skirts and tons of tribal jewelry and even a crown but the new baby and my husband's brief unemployment period kind of stomped on our costuming budget this year. 

Right now I'm still pretty exhausted from the loooooong days on my feet. My c-section site is achy, the soles of my feet feel like they're made of wood and I have a huge blister on my pinkie toe (no- my entire toe IS a huge blister). My house is a wreck and there's boxes of faire decor piled up in the kid's nursery but mama needs a break. So here I am, relaxing in the smell of dirty dishes doing what I love to do. Blogging and being sexy.

So anyways. Here are a few photos I took at the faire. I haven't gotten our photographer's photos in yet, but I'll be sure to share the good pictures with you all when they come in.

 Enjoy! 

 WE HAD MERMAIDS THIS YEAR!!

In their booth they showed children a bit about how pearls are formed.

Aching for a bit of water, the mermaids took over our dunking booth game. Dunk the Monk became Dunk the Mermaid!

And one lucky little lad got himself some mermaid kisses!

 My little gypsy boy in his authentic Turkish costume. $10 ebay find. Yeah!

 Visiting royalty from Middlefaire renaissance faire in Hillsboro, TX.

My gypsy camp is getting better every year!! 

 Me and some very awesome ladies that help me with the faire.

 My cast and crew is growing SO much!!

I hope everyone had a great weekend. Now I'm off to go do a bit of blogger stalking to see what you foxy ladies have been up to. See ya round!

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.