San Luis Obispo Renaissance Faire Photos

After the joust.

Sword Dancer

Interesting Scimitar

Wish they were my drummers.

Greenman getting into the act.

My lovely eldest daughter

Hennin

Enjoying the joust.

Lance

Full of milk and very relaxed.

Mother and child

I used to work at this faire and now it has moved on without me. It is even in a new location. It moved from El Chorro Regional Park to Laguna Lake in San Luis Obispo, CA. But since I was visiting my daughter and her family wanted to go, I got to go too. I made a red tunic so my grandson could be a pirate. I let out the seams in my daughter's bodice because she's a different size after giving birth five months ago. Her husband's garb didn't fit either because he's been working out and can't get into his shirts! So we did the best we could. I had not brought my garb on the train of course, so I made do with what I had. Surprised it all turned out so well though. Huzzah!

I want gold.

Grandson dancing with my daughter.

Persian Glass Dance

Working On Vacation?

I'm done feeling sorry for myself. It's time to get back to work. I'm a strong person.  I need just to suck it up and get on with life. Maybe it is impossible to enjoy my vacation, but I just need to make the most of it in whatever way I can. So what if crafts are no longer fun because I'm depressed. It's better to finish things and make the most of the time. Enjoy the cool weather because once I get home it will be frying. Keep knitting. Keep juggling. Keep on keeping on. Today should not be wasted so no more tears.

Vacation Highlights

I'm about to end the first phase of my working vacation. The gig went great. Four face painters, of which I was one. That was a fun day as I both entertained and was entertained by the wandering juggler, the balloon artist and the magic show.

I got to see 2 out of 3 grandkids. We all got to go to the local Renaissance Faire and drool over fine jewelry, meat pies, jousting and the best people watching on Earth. People outdid themselves with Steampunk attire, fairy wings, metal wire woven into elf ears, fancy masks and strange weaponry.
I did a little juggling and worked with the juggling sticks. I bumped into one of my belly dancing students Jenna, who now runs her own dance studio. I met her friend Gina, who also teaches belly dancing, and met her daughter who is growing like a weed. I saw another face painter named Theresa. She had the face painting booth at the faire, where I've worked before but that was years ago.

I'm hoping to move back here some day.

Yesterday I saw a real deer walking past a fake deer. My daughter's house is nestled under oak trees.
I got to make a pirate outfit for my grandson to wear to the fair. My granddaughter also got a hat I made a few weeks ago. I started another monster hat for my grandson.  He enjoyed trying to play my mandolin. And my granddaughter is a sweet little thing who is teething and still happy most of the time.  I hate leaving them, but I need to get on with the rest of my vacation in Southern CA. I'm catching a train in an hour or two.

Watching the Magic Show by the A#1 Talent Company

'J' juggling on a unicycle.

Face Painter Fayme Harper

Random Stuff

I watched the movie Benny and Joon again. I am once again awed by the talent of Johnny Depp and I love his character of Sam.

I find traditional weddings extremely boring. So my daughter had me watching this reality show about fairy tale weddings. Both of the episodes I watched had black wedding gowns.  At least that was interesting. I wonder if I would have made a good wedding dress designer. I got married in 1982 and made my own wedding gown, bouquet, bridesmaid bouquets and most of the bridesmaids dresses.  It's amazing the lengths I will go to to save money. Even so, I was never one of those little girls that planned out my dream wedding, because I never planned to get married. I'd rather design ball gowns than wedding dresses.

Tomorrow I'm going to a Ren faire that I used to work at. I don't think I ever achieved my dream of being a star at a Ren faire. I was never thin enough or cool enough or savvy enough. I always blended into the background and didn't have enough talent to own the stage. So faires are always kind of sad and disappointing to me. But my grandkids deserve to see it. Maybe I can find the magic through their eyes. I also hate being seen in public being all old and fat. It depresses me.

I should be in bed right now because it is going to be a long weekend. I just feel all wound up. I finally get some alone time and I don't want to spend it sleeping.

I was happy when my daughter ordered pizza for dinner. At my new house, there are no pizza delivery places. I haven't had a pizza delivered since Easter, and that was also when I was at my daughter's house. My daughter usually cooks a very nice paleo dinner. But she was just out of it tonight. I was busy sewing. So pizza was a lifesaver. I had pepperoni and sausage.

It is so nice being on the cool central coast when it's about 104 degrees at my desert home. I don't even want to go back until fall. Or maybe never at all.

Okay I'm finally starting to get drowsy. I don't know what is up with Google, but they just 'assigned' me to another Youtube channel. I have about 12 Google email addresses.  Are they going to foist another Youtube channel on me under each name? Ridiculous. Before I noticed it wasn't even my usual Youtube channel I landed on when I typed in Youtube.com, I'd already favorite 2 videos and subscribed to someone. Then I'm like, "Oops, I don't want this account." I don't feel like hassling with deleting it right now, though I probably should. I already have 3 Youtube channels; one for hypnosis, one for crafts, and one for hypnosis. I don't need a fourth.

Okay, I'm going to force myself to at least lay down. Please follow my blog. It makes me more motivated to write.

Family Time

Today was a day full of good news and bad news, blessings and curses. It reminds me of a movie I just watched where there was a Latin saying that basically means out of bad things can come good.  Let's hope so.

There are changes I want to make in my life. I don't think I've been applying myself. In many ways I'd given up. I got tired of bashing my head against the wall. So I either need a harder head or to remove the walls.

The relationship I'm in isn't working for either of us. I either need to change it or leave it. I want to keep traveling so I need to figure out how to finance that. I need to continue my education somehow. I need to improve my fitness, which is on a terrible downward spiral. I can't continue on like this; being in pain every day. Not every moment; just when I stand up, sit down, or move.

I have five Etsy shops, all of which are empty except for 2 items I just renewed. I have a lot of things pointed to those shops, like Youtube videos. It's discouraging when nothing sells, but it's stupid to have empty shops which pretty much guarantees nothing will sell. I just bought more tools and parts so I can finish new jewelry to put in my Hypnotic Etsy shop. I somehow lost my jewelry pliers when I got on the train, so I had to buy new ones. Maybe they slid under my train seat or something when I was pulling things out of my project bag. At any rate I got a kit for $12.00.  Just the pliers alone were from $8 to $10, so it made more sense to get the kit, which comes with a plastic carrying box, pliers that work also as crimpers and wire cutters, a magnifying glass, tweezers and some other tools. My daughter gave me her 40% off coupon to use.

Great start but when I got home and helped take care of my 2 grandkids, the day got away from me and was over before I knew it. One is 2 years old and the other is 5 months old, so they need constant supervision. My daughter is exhausted at the end of each day. So anything I can do to help her is worth it. There was a family emergency going on, so her husband was busy sorting through that and making the necessary phone calls. In a way I'm glad his father passed on so he will never have to deal with what happened.

Lifestyle While Traveling

Bear with me. I'm really sleepy right now but haven't had time to post in days, so I wanted to do an entry.

I'm still traveling, living on the generosity of family and friends. It's been lovely but taxing. I'm trying to fit into the lifestyles of others. I miss my own schedule. But the weather has been great and I've spent a lot of time in parks. I've also gotten to watch movies and play computer games. I saw the new Lone Ranger movie. I liked it but since it just came out I don't want to spoil the plot for anyone.

Back home, my boyfriend found my ankh under the passenger seat. I had about given up on ever finding it again, so I'm happy about that. Now if only I could find my two missing library books before the fines get too high. Where could they be? So frustrating. It's a tiny house. How do we keep losing things in it?

I've been watching art journal DIY videos. I just don't seem to have the energy to work in my long hand journal lately. I have it sitting right next to me on a TV tray, but once the Internet goes on, I can't tear myself away from the magic box.

Driving home yesterday I spotted a small deer. It's the first and only one I've seen on this trip. We took a walk along a country lane last night and I saw a bunch of grapes growing amidst pear trees. Lovely.

My daughter is on the Paleo diet so I've gotten to experience some new recipes. I liked most of them. I couldn't quite get used to pureed broccoli though. The salmon was great. And the spaghetti squash with spaghetti sauce on it wasn't too bad.

The sleepiness is starting to overwhelm me.

Type more another day.

Off On An Adventure

The day will be spent packing for a journey by train; first northwest of here to the Central Coast, then from there to Southern CA. I can only carry 2 suitcases, and they will have to be small because I threw my back out a few days ago trying to get up off of an air mattress in the middle of the night to take care of the cat.

The weather here has been triple digits all week, so I can't wait to escape to the SLO area. Figuring out the itinerary was a bitch, because the only train that worked tomorrow was sold out. I had to give up a lot of my plans on Sunday in order to make a train in the middle of the afternoon. I hate HATE hate not having my own car anymore. And unless a money tree falls on me, I can't fix that problem anytime in the foreseeable future. I'm so angry at myself for letting myself get into this hole.