The Renaissance Festival

Dave and I realized that it had been almost five years since we last went to the Maryland Renaissance Festival. We both enjoy going, and always have a great time! In this year's story line, King Henry VIII has divorced Anne of Cleves and married the young 15 year old Catherine Howard (yes, this is one of the wives that he beheads...unlike Anne Boleyn, she WAS having an affair). I managed to find some members of the court just as we were leaving - the Duke of Norfolk is on the far right, and to my left is Archbishop Cranmer and Lady Rochford (Lady Rochford also gets beheaded because she was helping Catherine keep her affair a secret).
A new addition that I thoroughly enjoyed was Lady Merilee, the Courteous Courtesan. Ren Faires need more courtesans! I adore her outfit...she made it herself! She had a little set up in a small alcove where she had set up rugs, seats covered in fur, and a small desk. She offered to entertain us with lyrics, poems, or jests. She was very witty, and one of her other advertised services was taking "pesky husbands" off their wives hands for a few hours.

We were sad to hear that Joe Kudla, better know as Snot of the famous "Puke and Snot" show, recently passed away. An excellent actor has stepped in to continue the character that Joe developed over several decades, and he refers to himself as Snot Junior. The show did go on, but Snot will be missed.
In case you're wondering, this is one of the few costumes in my closet that I did not make myself. I actually bought it on ebay - I always adored the Arwen costumes from Lord of the Rings, but knew that all that beading and embroidery would make it a very difficult costume to reproduce.
The costume came complete with the ears and "the one ring." Obviously the hair isn't mine - I bought it for $4 a a local beauty store (it's intended to be used in braids and weaves). I pinned it to my hair at the top of my head and then braided a piece of the weave to disguise where my hair stops and the wig begins. I think the effect was very pretty and fey like. A little girl was fascinated by my hair, and asked to touch my pointy ears. Even after I told her the ears were fake she thought they felt real. Thanks to Dave for taking all these pictures. One of these days I'll get him in costume and then maybe we'll get him into the photos! This year our favorite stores were Transparent Sands (this is where Dave buys his glass dragons), the demon horn stand (Dave and I both indulged in a pair this year), Dragon wings (lots of fun feather hats!), and Noblesse Oblige where I got to try on a beautiful Venetian courtesan dress a la "Dangerous Beauty" (check out the Esmerelda and Melisandra...I wore these together).In other news, Gidget and Calypso have still not made peace. Gidget is resorting to new and creative hiding places. I call this one the disembodied hiding place. I didn't catch it quite right in the photo, but she likes to hide behind the curtains and only stick her head out so that she can spy on the dog.