The Faire, day one.

My friend, Brigg, and her cousin, Jan, at our booth.

 

Brigg took a photo of me working. She gave me another chance to pose, and Jan exclaimed, "Fosse!"  This is me doing my impersonation of a Fosse pose in a renn faire costume.

The work itself was really easy.  I don't think we had one lousy customer.  On the first day, schools piped over children, and they just loved the metallic garlands. For some reason, they didn't stay at the faire as long as they normally do. I've been told they've stayed till about 2:00pm, but they didn't stay much longer than noon.  Also, since there were at least five of us working the tent, we got lots of chances to go on breaks and explore the faire!  The green purse you see on me in the picture above is something I purchased there.  Also, the bodice Brigg is wearing is something she purchased there. The lady working that booth suggested I latter-lace (ladder-lace?) the sides of my bodice so as to get that more "authentic wench" look.

There were some great food items at the faire.  We all ate these teriyaki chicken breasts on a stick at this Chinese food stand.  There is a booth that sells meat pies.  And later on in the day, we found a coffee and crepes stand!  The had, like, ten different kinds of crepes.

The first day of the faire was nice, except for the ginormous winds that came up and occasionally blew our merchandise over.  The fine people who ran the park placed a trash can right outside of our tent, as we were right in front of the Field of Honor (where the jousting took place). The major consequence of this was that our tent quickly became filled with bees. Fortunately, one of our customers was a lovely (real) British lady who's dad used to keep bees.  She suggested to sprinkle clove oil around the tent to keep the bees away.  *She also mentioned to keep the clove oil out of reach of small children* There just happened to be a spice tent accross the way from us, so Brigg went and came back with a vile of clove oil and sprinkled it around the tent.  In about twenty minutes, the bees were gone!
As the sun began to set, the wind picked up even more. An advisory warning was spreading around the fairgrounds, calling for 50 mph winds from 3:00am to noon the next day, but they came early.  For the next two nights, the temperature dropped to somewhere in the 40s.  It blew everything around. Another thing it did was seriously stir up my allergies.  I was not doing too well on the first day.  The wind turned my hair into one big knot.  I vowed the next day to be ready.