Bristol Renaissance Faire Steampunk Weekend Recap

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Our second foray of the year into Renaissance Faire Land was fanciful fun.   We rocked the steampunk weekend theme 












and had a great time catching up with a couple dozen friends from Chicago Hip Families, including Jane who has been teaching in China for two years and is back for a short visit.    





We'll soon be featuring some amazing phone photos from Val, a talented friend of ours from the graphic design world.    








This time around we caught a LOT of ren faire regulars like our friends The Swordsmen, Barely Balanced Acrobats, Fairies, and Jousting.   

(We were amazed that the eyeball bandaids we put in the web on opening day weathered all the storms of the past few months and were still there!   Very cool.)


And we couldn't stay away from those mile high chocolate crepes and waffle cones.



Shout out to our friend, Tina, at Gemini Glass.   She's very involved in Chi-Town's theatre scene, but during the summer you can stop by the ren faire shop and find everything from blown glass tinys to massive stained glass masterpieces.    If you love mythical creatures and the beautiful prisms of refracted light, then this is the shop to see.

Congrats to Grichels creator, Melissa Smith-Smith, who is expecting a baby in October.   She'll be one hip mama.   Do we see a line of mini Grichels in the future?    Those would be some seriously cool diaper bags and nursery decor to offset the sickly sweet pastels out there!    I wanna see a baby sling with a Grichel on the tail.





I'm very excited for her and a little selfishly bummed.    I was hoping to score a black laptop case with blue or green eyes, but she's off to Maryland for more faire fun, then laying low for fall.    We love her work!    Maybe during that last frenzy of creative energy and nesting, she'll pop out a few more Grichels before her love and energy rightfully turns to her human newborn for a while.   Ah well....





There's just 1 week left to enjoy merry old England, just across the border in Bristol, Wisconsin.   Then this magical, mystical land will travel onward for another year.   We highly recommend getting a costume together and checking it out.   





Ren Faire is open next Saturday through Monday.   Check their site for specifics and special closing weekend deals.


Check out our prior photo filled Ren Fair 2011 coverage right HERE