Battlemoor — Not Many Pictures Edition

[kellan_the_tabby]

…okay, I took more than usual, cope.

Anyway I know you’ve seen the picture of my booth 324562389046052 times but I am SO proud of it! I designed a new sign, got it printed, & sewed it to the front canopy of the booth. I winged out the sides like I’ve been wanting to for _years_, which gave me SO much more space, & I got new sidewalls sewn. I bought one of those all-weather indoor-outdoor carpets — plastic, yes, but after Estrella this year? Hell YEAH I want a plastic carpet.

The backdrop fabric I sewed is just visible at the back of the booth, & off to the right, on the table, is the set of shelves I got done. I wish I’d gotten a better picture or two of the whole effect, but I’m REALLY happy with it, & it worked VERY well.

There’s a lot yet to do, mind you. I need to refrotz the sidewalls so they fit better, & probably do hooks & loops along the top to connect them to the roof fabric better. I need to finish the shelves with linseed oil. There’s another whole set of shelves to be done, & I’d like to put some sort of spikes or something atop the front two upright poles so the banner could hang _above_ the booth.

BUT. The new look drew people in, & the new layout made more room for them. Having the tables at an angle makes my stuff more visible from the road. Having the banner means people can see who I am. The backdrop fabric & the new shelves just made things _look_ better, & the new shelves fit in the van MUCH more easily than the old sets, & they’re much lighter to schlep along, too.

I did more business. I sold more stuff. & I got to hang out with people more, without having to worry that customers might look at a booth full of my friends & keep going cos there wasn’t any room for them.

Basically it all worked more-or-less how I wanted it to, & how often do you get THAT lucky?

Also it was a specially buggy year, so I sold the hell outa bug spray.

One of the big bottles in that picture sold maybe an hour after I took the shot; I kept the other one for myself, because ALSO the tester was empty. o.0

In other news? I was in the PERFECT spot to watch the sunset.

& just a couple booths down were horses!

I managed to slip down to watch the horses a couple times, cos the random kids who hang around my booth, while not necessarily the same from year to year, have collectively gained enough knowledge to more-or-less run the place for me for a bit if I ask them to.

Another awesome thing about Battlemoor (although I haven’t got pictures of it cos, well, it was dark) is that I actually had the energy to go out in the evenings. It’s been pretty constant, since I started merchanting, that I’d close up the shop & immediately go to bed, because by the end of the day, I was exhausted.

I went out EVERY NIGHT at Battlemoor.

I hung out with my old roommate Jon, & my dear friends Dwen & Morgan, & a goodly chunk of Dragonsspine. I got drunk at a party with a couple other merchants, helping one of the potters ‘test’ his new pottery drinking horn. (It holds rum punch, & also delivers rum punch to one’s mouth, so yes, we declared it acceptable.) I hung out with Corvus twice, & twice was present for Midnight Bacon, which is the best tradition possible. I had a LONG, very necessary conversation with Amice, who I’ve known since she was, like, twelve.

It was a very, very good war.

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This was posted originally to my Patreon, a little over a week ago.

If you want to see these posts sooner, & not incidentally help support me & my cats in our travels & such, the way to do that is to sign up as one of my Patrons for as little as a buck a month.

I’d REALLY like that.

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originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!

Comments

[thewayne]

Sounds like an exceedingly great time, I'm happy for you!

So explain Midnight Bacon. I have a guess, but I'd like to hear your story.

[kellan_the_tabby]

okay SO. The twenty or so members of the SCA household of Corvus Aurorae who were at Battlemoor brought, between them, some 90 pounds of bacon.

...I know.

That's about twice as much as they usually bring (yes, I know) but one of their members found himself in possession of a whole lot of pork belly, which he proceeded to smoke & slice thinly & bring along.

Midnight Bacon happens around o'dark-thirty or thereabouts, & is when am appropriate number of Corvus members are around & decide that they want bacon. So pretty often, hence all the bacon. It turns out that if you're at an SCA event & you're drunk as a lord & you smell bacon, you're going to want some bacon, so they bring a lot of bacon, because once you've started cooking bacon after dark ... well, you see where I'm going with that, I think.

ANYWAY I was lucky enough not only to be there for Midnight Bacon twice, but to be there when the homemade bacon was brought out both times, & oh. My. GODS. It was. It was the BEST BACON. I have eaten in my. Entire. LIFE.

Also they sing a lot, which is delightful.

[thewayne]

Okay.  Midnight Bacon sounds like all kinds of awesome!  Very glad you got to participate in it twice, I'd never heard of it but I've never been in SCA.

[cellio]

Nice booth! Those are some great upgrades.

[kellan_the_tabby]

Thank you! They were a BUNCH of work & I am SO very glad that all the effort went into something that worked out so well.

[azurelunatic]

Yay!

[kellan_the_tabby]

It was Very Many Yay! (also very many bacon, holy CATS)

[meridian_rose]

I love the photos and I'm glad you did well with sales :)
The drinking horn sounds fun :)

[kellan_the_tabby]

Especially when it's got rum punch in it, apparently!