Making the Best of It

            Today brought a relaxing end to a busy weekend that could have been a lot worse. Looking back at it, it’s really hard to believe that – in spite of unexpected problems – Colleen and I took everything that happened in stride.

            Saturday was the day of the Royal Medieval Faire, one of the events we’ve been selling our chainmaille at since we started Ringcrafts. For me, it was a 16 hour work day, starting with a 5am alarm so we could get to the park in time to set up our tent, table and wares.

            The weather was looking rather iffy, and we fully expected it to be raining when we arrived. To our delight, it wasn’t (two years ago we had to set up in the rain – it was awful). In fact, the day was looking far better than we expected.

            Little did we know, the rain had adjusted its schedule to visit us later. The festival was going very well and was in full swing when the deluge hit. The rain poured down. Luckily, our tent held out – as it has in the rain before – with only one spot dripping inside. Thankfully not on top of anything (or anyone – since people came in to get out of the rain). The bad weather didn’t last too long and we were able to relax a stop fretting about how long the tent could withstand the onslaught.

            Next came the wind. Not too bad, at first, but getting worse. It got to a point where we had to take down parts of our display that kept blowing over. It was frustrating, but that’s just part of outdoor shows (one of the reasons we do so few of them). Besides, it was close to the end of the day.

            Then came the clean-up. We’re fairly efficient at packing up usually, but being outside always throws in snags to slow us down. Firstly, there’s taking down the tent added to everything else and this time around it was a disheartening task – because of when the rain came, it was still wet, meaning we’d have to set up the tent again (soon) so it could dry out properly. Next, there was the wind that started blowing over displays the moment the chainmaille wasn’t weighing it down. Then we had our newest problem – the wind flipped our tent right over, breaking one of its joints.

            Well, there wasn’t anything we could do about it, so we just kept packing up – although it slowed us down even more. It ended up being a day where we the first to arrive to set up and the last to leave. Still, it could have been worse. We could have had to set up in the rain and had it falling and windy all day. The tent could have flipped during the festival instead of after. The day’s sales were good, in spite of the weather, and we even traded some products with another vendor.

            So, we went home in high spirits without fretting about all the problems that had happened. After all, there was nothing we could do about them.

And today turned out to be a sunny day, so in spite of how tired and sore we were, we put up the tent first thing in the morning to dry – using a bandage to hold together the broken part. Then, since it just happened to be there and with the weather so nice, we decided to spend the afternoon just relaxing and hanging out in the tent with my sister-in-law, all of us working on various writing and art projects (there was also this orange fuzzy caterpillar climbing all over the tent that provided ample entertainment). It felt like a mini vacation.

            So, in spite of all the troubles, we went with the flow and everything turned out fine in the end. It makes me wonder why anyone ever bothers getting upset by anything. The past can’t be changed, after all, so all you can do is make the best of it.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Waterproof Ringcrafts

            Today’s blog will likely be short, as I've just gotten home from my second day at the Oxford Renaissance Festival in Woodstock, Ontario, where Colleen and I were selling our chainmaille. We had a fantastic time, but being on my feet for twelve hours straight while wearing chainmaille two days in a row has really worn me out. My legs are threatening to quit, which would make writing on my laptop a bit more difficult.

            This was our first outdoor show, so it was a wonderful and terrifying new experience. It’s very hard to leave core parts of your livelihood outdoors, even when you know security will be on site. For us, our biggest concern was our tent – we bought it for this event and Colleen made a medievalish cover for it.

I’d like to take a moment to elaborate on that; she sewed an entire tent. Out of canvas. Now, think about how big a project that is while I tell you she did it in just three days. The results? We absolutely love it!

            As great as the tent looks, we had no way of knowing how functional it was in regards to, say, rain. The first day of the festival went fantastically with great weather and no problems, but even as we were packing up at night we knew that rain was expected. All we could do was make sure everything we needed to leave in the tent overnight was under the tarp we’d brought and hope that the predicted wind wouldn't tear it free (or blow away out tent, for that matter). Then we closed up our tent and drove away, not knowing what we’d find the next day...

            As a bit of side information, the tent has full walls on all sides that we can put up when we choose, however they are each made of three panels that tie together – this means that each wall has two gaps. These walls, like the roof cover, are made of canvas – not treated to be waterproof. The only waterproof part was the tent’s original cover (hidden under our cover) which we were worried wouldn't function with once our cover was on top.

You can imagine our surprise when we arrived on a rainy morning, after a rainy night, and found the inside of our tent completely dry! Not a blade of grass was wet. The canvas was soaked through, but Colleen’s home made tent had succeeded in keeping out the elements. We were thrilled, even more so when the sun came out in the afternoon and completely dried our tent for us.

            The rest of the event went well, although we had more wind than on the first day and, as a result, we learned important lessons about which of our displays need to be more secure for future outdoor events. All in all this was a wonderful fair (I could watch the live jousting from the back of our tent!) and we had a great time while learning lots and meeting loads of wonderful people (including many friends who dropped by, even some not expecting to see us).

We even managed to pack up and leave right before the thunderstorm hit. Now, that’s what I call a good weekend.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.