HRM Steampunk Symposium (Recap - Part III)

Here are Part I and Part II  for those of you who are just joining us.

The second day of conventions always tend to be the least stressful, mostly because everything is set up already and all we have to do when we get to the vendor room is uncover the booth and reset a few items that we laid down so they don't get knocked over and broken, like our Absinthe glasses.

That and by then my body has decided that I get to sleep in, or maybe it's because I've whacked out my sleep schedule because we'd stay up until 1 or 2 am the night before laughing and giggling about whatever our sleep deprived brains decide is funny. Of course, the biggest problem with this is we end up being loud and not know it until the adjoining wall gets pounded on by the occupants we've woken up or by getting a phone call from the front desk. Thankfully none of that happened this year.

Again, my brain decided that I needed to be the first one awake as soon as the sun came up, though I did actually get to sleep in until 7:30 am, trust me this is a milestone, just ask any parent with kids under the age of 7. Grabbing my phone, I read email and checked Facebook while I waited for the rest of the crew to wake up, or in this case, I ended up waking them up as everyone was enjoying their slumber, this was of course after walking the obstacle course of bodies on the floor to and from the bathroom.

On to making coffee and ironing the yards of red fabric for my dress, which had been balled up in a pile since the last time it was worn, which I think was back in July 2013, all the while the 5 of us were doing the hotel room dance around each other, trying to get in and out of the bathroom and around the room to get dressed and our make up on. Despite no real choreography, no one tripped, died or fried themselves on the hot iron.

Once we were all corseted up, we grabbed our things and headed upstairs to uncover the booth and get ready for the days customers. Cindy and Andee ventured off to the coffee cart to obtain some more caffeine and some much needed food and we were ready for the day! Bring on the sales!

Saturday was as busy as Friday and we could tell when then panels and other events let out as we were graced by a wave of customers each time. Cindy was cranking out the commission sketches between customers and friends stopping by and Andee was working on some creative quilled items, while I sat and finished sewing the string ties and ascots that I hadn't finished before leaving San Diego, if you can't tell, this is a reoccurring thing for me, of course it also gives me something to do during the slow times in the booth.

Come the end of the vending day we were more than ready to go change, grab dinner and then come back to get ready for the ball.

Dinner was once again at The Auld Dubliner, though it was just the three of us this round and we lacked the fun bus ride of Thursday night, but we did remember to get off the bus at the stop closer to the Pub! (See we can be taught!) After a round of Irish Coffees, a lovely glass of Oban Scotch and some really good food, we made our way back to the Queen Mary and donned our finery for the Saturday night ball.

We made it to the ball just in time for Abney Park to start their second set for the evening. Being a big fan of their music I was very excited to see them live, though I wished that the kids could have been there, because they would have had a blast as well. Once the set was over the came out and did a couple more songs as an encore and then threw out the sets lists from the second set. I was standing there talking to Cindy when I felt something bounce off my chest, lo and behold, it was one of the set lists.

After the crowd dispersed a bit we went over to get in line and get autographs. I also picked up a copy of Abney Park's book Wrath of Fate and had that and the set lists autographed by the band. I even managed to get photos with the guitarist and the lead singer, Robert. I told him how my kids love to sit in the back seat of the truck and sing along with Airship Pirates. He also noticed Cindy's stuffed ferret, Senor Squeaky Pants and asked if it was a weasel, when she said no, he asked if it could be a weasel (if only for a moment). Seems  the guitarist has a thing for weasels. She laughed and said he could be a weasel if they wanted him to be. Robert then pointed our Senor Squeaky Pants to the guitarist and he dug out his phone and asked Robert to take a photo with the comment "I think this the first time I've ever asked to have a photo with a fan."

We chatted for a few more minutes and then made our way to the midnight buffet line and since we were not only full from dinner a few hours earlier, we lived by the ideal that "Life is uncertain, eat dessert first" mantra and went straight for the tasty dessert morsels.

After our fill of sugary goodness we made our way back to the hotel room, chatted for a bit and then passed out.

The 4th and final part is here

HRM Steampunk Symposium (Recap - Part II)

For those of you who missed Part I

Now events are a bit a of a vacation for me, not that I don't love my kids or husband, but there are just times that you need to get away for a few days to recharge and regain any semblance of sanity you might be able to pull kicking and screaming back from the void, they're also a time for me to sleep in. Well, you would think that would at least be the case, so you imagine my irritation when my body decided that I needed to be wide awake at 6:30 am on Friday morning.


Since we unplugged the alarm clock that was in the room, because it was the only outlet that the phone charger wouldn't fall out of. Upon waking I grabbed my phone thinking it was arounf 7:30 or 8 in the morning to see the bright numbers telling me it was 6:30 am. Grumbling I put my phone back on the headboard and slunk back down into the bed trying to get myself to fall back asleep. After tossing and turning for about 45 minutes, I gave up, grabbed my phone and began to peruse Facebook and check my email, all the while glaring and grumbling at Cindy and Andee who were still fast asleep.

Around 8, I detected movement from the other two and we started getting ready for the days events. First order of business, coffee. Learning from the first year on the Queen Mary, where we discovered no coffee pots in the room, we have since been bringing an electric tea kettle, a french press, coffee and tea, so getting started in the morning is much easier, as opposed to getting dressed and then wandering around in a haze trying to find coffee and not growl at anyone in the process.

New poster going up.

After correcting the blood to caffeine levels in our bodies, we headed up to the vendor hall to finish set up of the booth, where like parking is always something that ends up being re-engineered by yours truly. The awesome guys at the booth behind us (Crimson Chain Leather) told us that we could push our grid wall so it butted up against their storage containers, which gave us another 4 feet of booth space! After some shuffling and sliding of grid wall and tables, we had the booth layout completed. I ended up pulling the two pieces of grid wall off the left side of the booth and lending it to Lyssa from LastWear Clothing as they really didn't have much to set things up on since they flew down from Seattle.

From there we starting putting out merchandise and while I tinkered around Cindy and Andee went off in search of coffee and something to eat for breakfast. Low blood sugar is bad, mkay?, so are low caffeine levels too.

Come 11:45 we're still putting out merchandise, when Kat, our lovely and awesome vendor coordinator comes by to tell us there was a scheduling mix-up on the website with the vending time,  it seems they posted that the hall didn't open until 1pm, which gave us an extra hour of set up time. Rock on, though we were mostly set up, it was nice to have the extra time to rearrange and refine the set up.

We took turns running down to the room to change from our jeans and t-shirts to our Steampunk attire and were then ready to take over the worl....ahem I mean, ready to vend!

The booth setup essentially remains the same, though we do move things around periodically to make things more aesthetic looking and so it flows better. I think having 2-3 artisans in the booth really helps things comes together in a cohesive look. We're gotten many compliments of the setup and layout of our booth, which are very much appreciated and makes us feel all warm and squishy.



Vending started off slow, but picked up at some point in the afternoon and before we knew it, it was 6pm and the vendor hall was closing for the evening and once things were locked down, we met up with Phineas from League of Supremely Evil Revolutionaries (LOSER) and his lovely girlfriend Bre (who were also crashing in the room), made a quick stop at the room to change and then headed off to dinner at The Auld Dubliner (can you tell we like this place?).

Sadly we didn't have the party shuttle driver for either trip on the shuttle, but we did realize on the last trip that if we waited two most stops, the shuttle would drop us right across the street from the Pub.

Dinner ended up being one of their delicious boxty plates with a Guinness and a lovely glass of Laphroigh scotch along with a side of their crisps (potato chips for you not in the know) with truffle oil and goat cheese. Good stuff right there.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel and spent the rest of the evening in with a bottle of wine and some great company.


Part III coming soon.

2014 Schedule thus far

Here's a list of shows that we've got on the calendar for 2014, we've marked the shows we're confirmed for thus far.


March 7-9 Wild Wild West Con 3 - Tucson, AZ (Confirmed)
March 21-23 Condor Con - San Diego, CA
April 11-13 Wild West Fest 2 - Calico Ghost Town - Yermo, Ca
April 25-27 Kingdom Con - San Diego, Ca
May 2-4 Gaslight Gathering - San Diego, Ca (Confirmed)
May 17 North Park Festival of the Arts- San Diego, Ca
May 31-June 1 Long Beach Comic Con - Long Beach, Ca
July 4-6 GearCon - Portland, OR
August 1-3 Salt City SteamCon - Salt Lake City, UT
August 8-10 WinkieCon (Wizard of Oz) - San Diego, Ca
September 27-28 Long Beach Horror & Comic Con - Long Beach, Ca
October 17-19 SD Comic Fest - San Diego, Ca
November 7-9 BentCon - Burbank, Ca

More to come as the we get word back on shows we've applied to and anything else that might hit our inbox in the coming months.


Please note unconfirmed shows are subject to change depending on acceptance of our application and availability.

Her Royal Majesties Steampunk Symposium the Third (Recap - part I)

I have to say that Her Royal Majesties Steampunk Symposium has come along way in the three years it's been happening. Every year seems to get better, though there is always something new that surprises us, sometimes good, other times not so good, but the organizers still put on a good event and we have fun.

The event ran from January 10th through January 12th on the Queen Mary, though this year, my partner in crime Cindy (from Original Cin) decided that since neither of us are really morning people, we should head up on Thursday afternoon instead of at O'dark thirty Friday morning. Let's just say that is the new standard for this event. I took the day off from my full time job and headed to the shop to try to finish up some custom work and pack up all the merchandise for the weekend. I had grand ideas of being able to finish a custom vest and then pack everything, which went right out the window when I stopped back at home after dropping my daughter off at school.

I made some much needed coffee and then packed up my clothes for the weekend, the intent was to get my clothes packed and hope that while I was doing so, Fedex would show up with the box of shirts that were due to arrive from Sigh Co. Graphics. Sadly I didn't get that lucky and after I was all packed up I sat down and visited with my roommate until about 9:30 am, when we both decided that if we were going to get what we needed done for the day we needed to get our butts in motion.

After loading up the truck with everything from the house that I needed, except the box of shirts that were still in transit, I swung by where my husband was working and picked up the floor dolly from the trunk of his car. From there I  headed over to the shop and started digging out the merchandise containers which were mostly packed up from the last show we did back in November.  While I packed, I fired up the laptop and started doing the sign printing I needed for the weekend. (yay multitasking!)

My husband swung by after he was done at work to help me load and spent at least an hour sitting there watching me. His comment: "I remember why I don't help you pack, I just end up sitting here", and he's right, I have such a system of packing that it usually ends up being a nightmare if anyone besides Cindy helps me (just ask Tawmis & Andee), though I am getting a bit better about giving direction, somewhat.

Now, we moved the shop back in June from Casa de Oro, Ca to Lemon Grove, Ca, which is about 6 miles west of where we were. The space is almost twice as big and is much more secure. The drawback, we're on the 4th floor and the elevator is tiny as well as temperamental at times. This means multiple elevator trips to get everything downstairs. Getting things to the truck is another adventure since there is a breezeway you drive through to get to the back of the building to the slope hill of a parking lot. The breezeway is mostly flat and is wide enough for two cars, but the security guard gets a bit cantankerous if you are parked there too long. The only other option is to pull into one of the two handicap parking spots, which has it's own ramifications (expensive ones too!).

Queue to the loading. When you do something multiple times you eventually get it down to a science and I have certainly got that done with loading in and out of the shop. We stage everything out into the hall and one person takes a load down in the elevator, sends the elevator back up and lather, rinse repeat until everything is down in the lobby.

Then it's time to get the truck and park it in the fire lane, much to the irritation  of the security guard, of course he's can't really complain about it too much, since 1. there is no loading zone and 2. we are parked there *maybe* 15-20 minutes max. This is how it goes:

Truck loaded and ready to go

1. 12 pieces of grid wall into the bed of the truck, trying carefully to not smash the Hell out of ones fingers. Trust me, grid wall is evil, but it's one of the best ways to display our stuff (at least at this juncture)

2. Load the large black storage containers of which there are 5. This becomes a game of Tetris, mostly because I forget how they get put in from show to show, you'd think I'd remember after 18 shows with the damn things.

3. Then fit in any additional (smaller) tubs, boxes, suitcases and then the dollies to move everything around and then strap it all down with tie downs. Shake the items to make sure they're not going anywhere and then....

4. Stuff all the loose stuff (usually the sewing machine, purse, handing clothes, etc.) into the back seat of the truck.

5. Profit! well...not yet at least.

From there is was off to the gas station and then swinging by to pick up Cindy, who was just getting home from work and then time to hit the open highway for Long Beach.

2 miles down the road, the realization hits, the sewing machine is still at the shop. Off the freeway we go to the shop to grab the sewing machine, (the foot pedal was already packed) and then a quick stop at Taco Bell because I hadn't eaten yet. Trust me with no food is a bad for a lot of people's health, almost as hazardous as me without coffee.

Sewing machine - check
Food - check
Full tank of gas - check

Alright take two on the road to Long Beach, with a couple side stops. First stop, the printers to get the posters I had made with the new logo, then CVS to get a binder, batteries and some Airborne, and the last stop being my place of employment to stop by and pick up the last piece of my Christmas gift from Tawmis. Which was pretty damn amazing! (Photos later)

Then onto the open road known as Interstate 5 North. After all the stops, it was about 3:30 pm before we were actually headed out of San Diego where we began to have little feelings of dread. Why you ask? Well for anyone who lives in Southern California, you know that people start leaving work around 4pm, which would drop us into Los Angeles about 5 pm, (see where I'm heading with this?) right into rush hour traffic.

With a quick bathroom break (too much ice tea!) at the rest stop just before Camp Pendelton, we fired up the first episode the Comic Relief Podcast, done by my dear friends Tawmis & Maico. Then we switched over to Welcome to Night Vale. Surprisingly traffic only slowed down and never really came to a complete stop. We sailed into Long Beach at about 5:45pm, parked the truck and checked into our room on the Queen Mary.

We still had about an hour to kill before we could unload everything for the event though. While Cindy and I were plotting a plan of attack for the unload as we walked to our suite, Andee (Twylite Creations) texted me asking to let her know when we arrived to which I responded with "We just got here." to which she frantically responded with.."I'll be there shortly."

Upon entering our suite, Cindy and I plopped down our suitcases and turned to look at the room. First words out of Cindy's mouth, "Where is the bathroom?" The first door she went to was the one to the adjoining room which was locked and then she opened the closet and well discovered it was a closet and not the bathroom.

Confused, we both looked at each other and she asked "Did you get us a room without a bathroom?!?"

"Uh, it's a suite it better have a @$()@*)(@ bathroom." I replied.

It wouldn't be setup without one of these photos.

She went to the adjoining door again and stood there puzzled as I went to close the hotel room door and upon that, discovered the door to the bathroom. Laughing we breathed a sigh of relief , as Cindy says "It's going to be one of those Cons isn't it?"

"Isn't it always?" was my reply.

After getting our stuff settled in, we headed upstairs to see if we might be able to get into the vendor room a bit early. Sadly the doors were still locked and the staff was still marking off spaces. Just as we got back down to the lobby, we see Andee walk through the doors with her suitcases, so we walked her and her stuff to the room AND told her where the bathroom was. By this time it was 6:45, so we decided to go unload the truck figuring that we'd be upstairs about the time the vendor room was open for load-in.

Booth setup as interpretive dance performed by Cindy

We arrived at the Queen's Lounge at 7:01 pm and true to form for any Con, they were still laying out booth spaces. We only had to wait about 15 minutes before our space was done (same space as last year) and then we began to plot. As always we set up the grid wall in a U shape and then did the same with the tables. After much shifting we had everything ready to go, of course I extended the grid wall set up and there were two extra panels on one side, which made Andee's OCD want to run to a corner and rock in it repeatedly.

By the time we were done it was about 8:15. Since my last meal was about 2:30 pm, we decided that we'd finish setting up in the morning since we had 4 hours before the vendor hall opened.

After a quick stop at the hotel room to drop off things like the cash box, we headed off to the shuttle. The shuttle has to be by far one of my favorite things about this event. It's free and it takes us right into downtown Long Beach where all the restaurants are. True to form, we took the opportunity to dine at The Auld Dubliner. I mean really, who can pass up good food and whiskey as well as great customer service.

After dinner we made our way back to the shuttle stop to return to the hotel. Now for those of you who haven't been to downtown Long Beach or the Queen Mary, there are two shuttles, on that drops off from the Queen Mary and one that picks up. Like any bus service, I'm sure they switch their signs halfway through the route. The first shuttle up was the one coming from the Queen Mary and if any of you remember the first year we did this show, we took the wrong shuttle and got to enjoy(hah!) the scenic route back to the hotel. Of course it only took us once to learn the error of our ways.

So when this particular shuttle showed up and was mostly full, we asked, just to double check that it was going back to the hotel and the bus driver replied with "Eventually, but I'm going the long way." and then continued by saying that we should take his bus otherwise we'd be riding "Grumpy's" bus. We  chuckled and said that we would wait, when suddenly the crowd on the bus began chanting for us to get on. The three of us looked at each other, chuckled, shrugged and joined the crowd on the bus. Much cheering was had as we boarded, of course my comment was "They really don't know what they're getting themselves into, do they?"
To which Cindy laughed and shook her head.

I'm sure Cindy and Andee would agree, best bus ride ever! The bus driver joked and socialized with everyone on the bus, and then banter that went back between us, him and the group of business men was priceless. The driver even circled the roundabouts multiple times and flickered the bus lights on and off. We ended up dubbing it the party bus. Sadly the group of businessmen that convinced us to ride the bus with them, departed 3 stops later, but that didn't stop the friendly banter with the bus driver. At one stop, he even came back and talked to us for a few minutes.

Upon our return to the boat, he got on the loud speaker and said good-bye to us as we crossed the parking lot.

Returning to our room we all  decided to turn in for the night so we'd be ready for the final set up and first day of vending.

Part II

2014 here we come....

~Brushes the cobwebs from the corners and clears the dust from the keyboard~

As you can probably tell, the blog here fell a bit off the radar and I just unearthed it from the piles of fabric and buttons in the corner.

2013 was a crazy, busy year. We ended up doing 18 shows last year, this explains why come Thanksgiving all I wanted to do was crawl into a cave and hibernate through the winter. Well if you can call the weather we've been having here in San Diego, Ca, winter. Of course for me, I'm happy as can be because I really don't do well in cold weather, but I digress.

So, yeah, 18 shows last year and 2014 looks to be just  as busy. Right now there are 14 shows that I have on the list to attend, well 13 now as the first show of the year happened the weekend of January 9, 2014 up in Long Beach on the Queen Mary.

We're currently working on the update for that show and are going to do our best to actually do updates for more than the first six months of the year.

So Happy New Year, I hope you all have a productive and wonderful 2014!!!!!

Calico Ghost Town:Wild West Fest Recap

To say "Let the busy season begin!" would be an understatement.

Cindy & I

7 Cons/Shows in a 2 month period along with volunteering at a major SCA event over Memorial Day weekend shows that Wyng'd Lyon has hit the busy season. 

We kicked the round of shows off with Wild West Fest (not to be confused with Wild Wild West Con in Tucson) on April 27th up in Calico Ghost Town in Yermo, California.

Friday the 26th, Tom and I went out to the shop to load everything up into the rental van. Normally I would have done this myself but on the 18th I was in a car accident and I was told not to lift anything over 1- pounds. Now those of you that know me, know how much of a feat this was for me not to do. My business is one of my babies and  I tent to do pretty much everything myself (most of the time). Seriously you should have seen how long I wrestled with turning the Social Media stuff over to someone.(Though I do have to say that Tawmis is an awesome pretty good choice for the job.)

I loaded the lighter stuff while my husband loaded the grid wall, boxes & tubs, the new popup, etc. Then I headed over to get my partner in crime, Cindy. Initially I was at a loss for who was going to go help me out for the event. Most everyone already had plans for that weekend. Cindy ended up deciding that she needed some R&R away from work and took the day off to join me. Have I mentioned how awesome she is? If not lately, she's pretty damn awesome to say the least.

Once we got Cindy's stuff situated into the rental (a soccer mom mobile aka mini-van) we headed to my house to pack up my clothes and other items for the weekend. Then it was off to Target for sunscreen and chairs, while Tom went to get the kids. After meeting up at Target, we stopped for gas and we then caravan-ed out to Yermo.

The drive was pretty uneventful, aside from the carpool lane up 15 North from San Diego, wigging out the navigation app on my phone and my hands free speaker. We made a quick stop for food by North County Fair Shopping Center and then started heading North again.

We had a moment where we pulled over to the side of the freeway in a turnout so my son could water a bush, except that wasn't what he had to do, so back into the cars we pile and in search of a real bathroom we went. We ended up getting off the freeway near the March Air Force Air Museum, taking care of business and then got on the road again.

I think we finally made it to the hotel and we checked into our room by 9:30 pm. My son was passed out by 10:15, my daughter however was awake until after 11pm. Once she finally passed out, I nodded off to sleep only to be woken around 2 in the morning by my husband who was tossing and turning, and while doing all this in his sleep he told me to stop moving around. All I could do was shake my head, roll over and try to go back to sleep. If I had been coherent enough, I would have gone over and crawled into the other bed with Cindy. Hindsight is 20/20 ya know? ;)

Saturday morning rolled around and we found ourselves up at 7 am in the morning getting everything together and out the door to the site which was a mere 5 miles away.

I really wasn't quite sure what to expect for the event since I had never been out at Calico Ghost Town and it was a first time event, so you can imagine my surprise when I discovered that we got to set our booth up in the actual "town" (something I think would be awesome if they did out at Old Tucson, but I digress).

Set up took us a couple hours before we were ready and while Cindy and I were arranging things, Tom took the kids off to the self guided mine tour and the train ride to keep them entertained.

By 10:30 the kids were ready to pumpkin out even though they wanted to watch the shootout they were more interested it going back to the hotel and watching a movie with daddy. Just as they were about half was down the center of town the organizers announced that they were a mere 15 minutes away from having the shootout, so they returned to see the cowboys "gun fight" in the streets.

Cindy scrounged up a menu from the local onsite restaurant and we decided on lunch. Of course not remembering that I was wearing an off white shirt, I ended up ordering the pulled pork sandwich. Amazingly enough I survived eating that and later eating ice cream without a drop of anything end up on said shirt.

While she was out walking around checking things out, Cindy was asked if she was a member of League of Steam, which she was extremely flattered about. We had quite a few visitors stop by the booth and Cindy even got 3 commission sketches for the day, something she'd had yet to do at a Steampunk type event.


I actually made it out of the booth for a bit and wandered around the little shops and merchant booths and per tradition, I spotted something for Tawmis as a thank you for all the help he gives me at events. (Though he chastises me every time I bring something back for him).

We saw quite a few friendly faces from HRM Steampunk Symposium as well as a few faces from Wild Wild West Con and we were also visited by friends of friends and other great people through out the event.


We finally wrapped up selling around 5:30 ish, and began to break down the booth and pack things up, an hour later were we done and loaded and headed back to the hotel to change into something a bit more comfy and then head next door to Penny's cafe for dinner.

After dinner we adjourned back to our room and cracked open a bottle of wine, sent random text messages to friends and then ended up passing out for the night.

Now anyone who has kids, especially young ones, knows how difficult it is to get any time sleeping in on the weekends, so those parents know how excited I was to be able to sleep in Sunday morning with no kids or husband to wake me up right? Such was not the case my body or my brain, not sure who I'm blaming first, decided that I needed to be wide awake at 6:30 am.

Hello Body! Did you not get the meme? No kids == me sleeping in as long as I want! Please remember that for next time.

I was able to go back to sleep off and on for the next two hours, but it still wasn't the same.

Once Cindy and I were up and mobile we headed back over to Penny's Cafe and enjoyed breakfast before getting on the road to head home.

Three hours and a brief stop later we dropped things off at the shop, I took Cindy home and then I made it back to my house where I was greeted by my two wonderful kids who acted like they hadn't seen me in days and a husband who had a look on his face like I abandoned him for weeks with them. Needless to say  as tired as I was, I was happy to be home and take a breather (even if it was only for a few minutes) before thinking about Gaslight Gathering coming up the following weekend.

Cindy and I had a blast and have to say that Wild West Fest was such a great event and so well run by the staff that we are looking forward to going back next year.

We hope to see some of you out there as well!

~Colleen

Wild Wild West Con Recap - Part IV (and final part)

Continued from Part III

I always dread the last day of conventions. Partially due to having to pack up, drive home and unload, but also because it means the end of a fun weekend with great people and having to go back to my real job. Not that I dislike my job, it and the people are great, but there is just something magical about cons and the people there.

We got up about 7:30 am, dressed, packed the suitcases, grabbed the other miscellaneous items (the beer!) and then fought for a spot on the only elevator down from the second floor of the wing of out hotel, tossed the stuff haphazardly into the van and headed off back to Old Tucson. We skipped the stop at Circle K as I had a can of Irish Coffee Monster and everyone else also had their own beverages of caffienation.

Once on site we uncovered the tables and waited for vending to open for the day. We made some changes to the way the table was laid out and moved somethings around for better display.

 I always try to wear something on the last day of the Con that I can break down the booth in. I'm still piecing together my Airship Captain's costume and the photo below is one of the incarnations that I put together when I was tossing things into the suitcase.

  Andee wore a cute Kimono that she had made a few years back for another event that she attended. The highlight of the day for me was the little boy that was hanging outside the back door of the vendor tent. As I was headed to the Ladies' room he was standing there in his sheriff's outfit (complete with badge) and told me to draw. So I drew my flint lock pistol and we stood there standing off. As I was walking backwards, a man came out of the tent, snuck up with his fingers drawn as guns and told the little boy to drop his gun. My reply to the little boy, "You always have a henchman in the wings." and made my way to the restroom. On the way back the same little boy was outside and he aimed his gun at me and said that he shot me and there was an alien inside me (he was quite the imaginative kid!). I chuckled and walked back to the booth and told Andee that I had been shot and had an alien inside me, just in case it decided to burst out of my chest or something. Her response was "Well hopefully the corset will keep it in."

 Traffic for the day came in waves and was a bit lighter that Saturday, but there were still a good amount of customers coming through to shop and get last minute items before they headed home.

This gave me some time to get some shopping done and do my usual tradition of buying something for Tawmis as a thank you for the work he does on the Facebook page and on Twitter while I'm at the Cons. (Though he always chastises me for buying things for him.)

This time I got him an iPhone cover that had an old comic book cover of Thor. I also got myself a cute necklace that has a falcon on it in a military style hat. There were a couple other things that I wanted to buy, but I knew that if I brought home any large boxes, my husband would have had a little of kittens since we're not moved into our new place yet.

The downside to the day is that we had got shop lifted for the first time, the even worse part of it was that it was one of out own Steampunk folks. I was rummaging through one of the boxes under the table looking for something and Andee was standing in the middle of the booth. She saw the man walk back and said he made a motion like he picked up a skeleton key and then kept walking. At first she thought it was nothing and then she saw him repeat the action as he passed the jewelry booth and walk out the tent door. She turned to me and mentioned that she thinks we were just shoplifted from and then went to the other vendor to tell them what she saw. They looked at the tray the man passed by and confirmed that there was an item missing. She and the other vendor went out of the tent to see if they could catch the man, but he was already most of the way to the parking lot.

I was more irritated about being shoplifted by one of our own that the shoplifting itself. I guess with spending so many years in the SCA, you get used to those that you call "your own" being honorable and stand up people. I know that not everyone is like that and every group has it's bad apples, I just find it very disappointing when things like this happen because those are the ones that the reports end up focusing on.


All that aside, we finished out the day on  a good note and began breaking down the booth when the time had come. Michelle and Alastar came over once they were done and waited for us to finished packing before we began load out.

Of course like set up, my brain always decides to go out in left field and leave me in a state of "Where the Hell do I start packing up?" After about 10 minutes of standing there confused and Alastar laughing as he says he's going to stay out of the way, thoughts start processing and I started putting things in tubs and such. Once the packing was complete it was time to play Cartris again and load everything up. True to the theme of the Con, I smashed the heck out of my fingers loading up and tying down the grid wall. It was mostly dark when we finished and got on the road to Casa Grande to Andee's house.

We regaled each other with the tales of the day from the Con to keep ourselves from falling asleep. We made it to Andee's without any incident and were welcome by a wonderful spaghetti dinner cooked by Andee's husband, Frankie. After sitting and chatting for a bit and settling up Andee's sales, Michelle, Alastar and I hit the road for Yuma.

One we stopped at Yuma, we gassed up the truck, made a bathroom stop, grabbed something to drink and I switched seats with Alastar and let him drive back to San Diego.

We got to the shop about 3:00 am, unloaded and then headed to North Park to drop off Michelle and Alastar. I finally got home about 4:30 am and passed out for about 4 hours before getting up and taking the van back to the rental place.

The rest of the day was spent at home relaxing doing much of nothing before having to head back to work on Tuesday.


Over all it was a great Con and I'm really looking forward to next year. Cindy has said that she will be there and Andee has committed to going as well. So look out Old Tucson, we're planning on returning in full force!

I want to give out a heartfelt thank you to all the participants that came out making the convention so successful. I also want to thank the staff of Wild Wild West Con for all their work and for making things right as much as they could.

See you all next year!