Fairy Tales?

A young mother and her bright-eyed children of about 6 and 8 came into our castle this past weekend. Shawn was spinning yarn on his old wheel, Sparky. He started telling them what he was doing and explaining about the process of making yarn.

"Do you know Rumplestiltskin?" the little boy asked.

"Yes," Shawn answered, "He's my cousin."

"Mom," the little boy cried, his voice full of wonder, "Rumplestiltskin is real!"

"Thanks..." the mother said to Shawn, with more than a little negative sarcasm tinging her voice.

Shawn went on with his usual speil - explaining how we raise the grass and harvest it to make the straw (hay) that we feed to the sheep. Then we shear the sheep (give them a hair cut), spin the wool into yarn and sell the yarn to people for gold (money).

"It take us a few more steps," he finishes out. "My cousin just leaves out the middleman."

Usually adults smile at the expanded fairy tale and children are too jaded to believe any of it. But this mother did not appreciate hearing that there was more than a grain of truth to fairy tales.

I never had a chance to talk with her, I was busy at my station in the booth all afternoon, hawking our wares and selling Spirit Bells. But during the slow times, I had a chance to think about life and fairy tales. Most people will agree that fairy tales are archetypes, morality tales and historical fiction. I think they are that, and much more. And I think that if any one of us tilts the glass through which we look at life, we will find the magical side of it.

Consider my day-to-day reality. At this moment I live in a very drafty 16th century castle, complete with counter-weighted draw bridge doors and 2 towers. We share the castle with Nigel, an adorable little bat who I think is older than my adult children, and our 3 dogs, who watch pirates riding elephants through the cracks in the walls. We haul water for drinking and cooking from a community well out by a garden cottage and indoor plumbing is a concept that may or may not be way in the future.

During the weekend, thousands of people visit to catch the magic of our village and see how things were made in Renaissance times. Over the last 3 years we have taught hundreds of people to spin, weave, crochet and appreciate the finer details of fiber arts.

My week is full of weaving shawls, crocheting Spirit Bells, making drop spindles and working with my life-partner Shawn as he makes looms, crochet hooks, knitting needles and assembles spinning wheels. We work together 24/7/365 and get along great - 98% of the time. (The two percent keeps us from taking each other for granted!) For some people, that is the most fairy tale-like part of this story.

When I am not living in the Renaissance, I am homesteading in the Ozarks, (some day I'll catch a fairy tale that has indoor plumbing!) sharing my life with a wonderful flock of sheep, goats, llamas and in addition to Shawn, there is Lena, my adult daughter, who is one of the most capable, competent and caring people I know. She manages that whole part of the enterprise single-handed when we time-travel back through the centuries.

In order to do the time-traveling we have a giant silver carriage, which I am sure must be out of a fairy tale. It carries Shawn, the 3 dogs, a literal ton of our spinning and weaving equipment and myself from the Ozarks to the Rockies in one full turn of the day. I'm not sure if that is more amazing than this little box that I carry that allows me to talk with friends and family from almost any where (or when) we trek. And this computer, which is amazing enough in all the information it holds, but when we connect it to the data network of the World Wide Web, I have the knowledge of the ages at my finger tips.

Excuse me, how can you not believe in fairy tales?

If you want more affirmation of how fantastical life can be, look in my purse. I have my id card which proclaims me as an employee of the US Postal Service, horse racing licenses as a Owner/Trainer from Colorado and Arizona, a business card which shows that I am the managing editor of a publications group and a picture of me as a professional belly dancer. All of these me's are real and the stories they have to tell rival many fairy tales handed down from the ages.

My lives are full of magical people living their own fascinating tales. Just this last week, I was blessed to spend an afternoon listening to tales from a lavender-haired, sparkling-eyed Fairy Godmother who is starting a Fairy Godmother foundation in Colorado. She has brought an amazing group of people together to help children from all places and all layers of life learn to believe in themselves and get their wishes met. In the process of building this organization, Chris has brought wonder into the lives of many adults. Shawn is going to be working on her web site and as it is built, we will link to it here.

So, while sarcasm has its place and analytic analysis can be a useful tool - don't come into my castle and expect me to believe that fairy tales are not real!

WOW - With a whole lot of help from our friends!

The only word is WOW!

Take one old, leaky castle,
a pile of wood, shingles, tools, tar and paint -
Add a bunch of fantastic friends
and some good barn-raising energy

- And it equals the most incredible feat of reconstruction ever seen!

We are so blessed that Booth Party has become a tradition for so many of our friends. The weekend before the Colorado Renaissance Fair opens, they converge on the booth, bringing tools, food, energy and enthusiasm. This year, there was a lot of work to be done, and every body out-did themselves.

My dad and Shawn got started shingling the roof on Friday

Danette and her girls came up Saturday and Sunday and painted all the details that gorgeous bright blue. I even got to splash some paint around.

Sandy and Julia turned the whole dark, dingy showroom into a bright shiny Renaissance croft!

Robin and Summer ripped down walls and counters and built them up all shiny and new - in places that work better for our type of business.

The roof got finished with a whole lot of help from Art (who also replaced the porch boards and Nate - who thought he was just coming up to spend the day having fun with his girlfriend, Susan!)

And to top it all off - Kira grew the courage over the last year to make it to the top of the tower. Go girl!


I'll add more pics in a few days, now I have to go finish painting the sign and the porch -
Thank you so much everyone!

Leave yourself a present

Life tends to be so complex, sometimes the simple pleasures are the best.

When we got to our booth at the Colorado Renaissance Festival, (#113 Common Threads in case you want to look us up during the festival) there was the usual flurry of checking the booth over for winter damage and assessing what we had left behind in the way of dishes, cooking appliances, clothing and display items.

The winter damage was not bad - one board in the ceiling rotted out. Courtesy of an afternoon rain storm, we also found that the roof was back to leaking like a sieve. Douglas County has been getting an over abundance of rain this year. The gardens in front of our castle look great, the lavender is just starting, but the rose is lush and the curly mint is busting out of its pots. The afternoon rain storms are a nice refreshing boon to business at the festival, so I hope they keep up.

The booth was also cleaner and more organized than we had left it. The Larkspur school district borrows our booth at Halloween to do a spook house. I guess they raise about $20,000 for special projects with it. They borrow our castle and a few other booths here at the Renaissance Festival. In years past, they have not cleaned up very well, but this year they did an awesome job. Other than a few splashes of fake blood on the floor, a box of Halloween candy on the counter and storage items being organized more neatly than we left them, we wouldn't have known they were here.

We found we had left ourselves a full compliment of dishes and the important appliances - microwave, coffee pot and fridge in working order. There were a few items of clothing, most of them belonging to the teens. I also found toothpaste and other toiletries and a bag of bedding on the shelf.

So we began unpacking, just a bit, bringing in items we could fit in between the drips. Our priorities suddenly changed from fixing the porch and painting to FIXING the roof - a more expensive project than we had planned on...

But for the evening, we just wanted to settle down, find a dry spot for our bed, walk the dogs and maybe watch an episode of Quantum Leap, which Shawn had check out at the library. It had been a long few days, it was cold, and we were tired. In fairness, my parents had invited us to come back there, it is only 40 minutes away and warm and dry. But we wanted to be home - humble as our castle may be.

After we situated our bed and set up electricity, which was a bit of a challenge because our long extension cord had gone walk-about, I pulled down the bag of bedding and found the most wonderful surprise. I had left myself an incredible present.

When I opened the bag, the scent of fresh lavender wafted out. I pulled out the sheets and discovered with delight that I had packed clean sheets with fresh dried lavender blossoms from the castle herb garden. I shook out the sheets and suddenly the whole booth was rain fresh and flower scented. I layered up the bed with sheets and quilts, the electric blanket and my down comforter. The crowning glory was the pillows - clean cases over soft puffy fresh pillows, with a deep relaxing lavender scent. All night long I snuggled in my warm fresh nest and basked in relaxing lavender and the delight that I had left myself such a wonderful present.

Do something nice for yourself, leave yourself a little present somewhere you don't go very often. You'll be surprised at how good it will make you feel.