Dickens on the Strand and the Steampunk contingent
Flist,
Hope all is well with you and yours. Busy as usual. I'm only managing to type all this because the rest of my household is sleeping in this morning.
Spouse and I took the eldest small to Dickens on the Strand in Galveston yesterday. It's been a few years since we've been. Fun street festival, but by the time it opens for the first weekend in December each year, we're festivaled out from attending TRF (Texas Renaissance Festival) multiple times. Plus, we're more into the medieval/Renaissance periods than the Victorian one.
My oldest kid has a wonderfully eccentric imagination, so the idea of Steampunk really appeals to her (us as well), and she's embraced it wholeheartedly. We're all for expanding the imagination and encouraging what is turning out to be a self-confident and eccentric personality. Since Dickens was hosting a Steampunk contingent this year, we told her we'd take her.
My and the husband's garb was more traditionally Victoria, with mine being very basic (hard to pull together an outfit in a week). The small was decked out, as was a good friend who has also embraced Steampunk.
We expected to stroll the streets, enjoy the food, shops, music and people-watching. And we looked forward to seeing what the Airship Isabella crew had planned for the festival.
Today, I'm half blind from having our pictures taken a gazillion times and beyond foot sore because my shoes, while very period appropriate, were not meant for marching in a parade.
As a group, I guess we looked good because we must have been stopped every five feet for photos. My daughter was beyond thrilled and felt like a celebrity. Our friend was very eye-catching in his Steampunk garb, though it paled in comparison to the amazing stuff created and worn by the airship crews Isabella and Neo-Dulcimer.
My spouse had his picture taken multiple times by himself. His outfit was very reserved and traditional. However, between his boots and his top-hat, which had him towering at about 6' 8", and a waterfall of waist-length snow white hair, he attracted a lot of attention and a lot of cameras. At least 6 people, by my count, stopped him to ask if his hair was real. I'll post shots when I get them off our camera.
While visiting the Steampunk area, members of either the Neo-Dulcimer or Isabella crews (don't know which) invited my daughter and my husband to march with them in the 7 p.m. parade. I thought the kid would implode. She also got to be one of the lamp carriers. She didn't want to march without her mom, so I came along too. We have one picture of her where I think her face threatened to split in half, her smile was so wide. You couldn't mistake how thrilled she was to not only be in the parade but to be part of the very ecclectic and fun-loving Steampunk group. They were a welcoming and generous bunch. I can't thank them enough for turning this night into such a magical one for my child. It was very cool.
And a little art to commemorate the evening:
http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=§ion=&global=1&q=steampunk#/d2v7yje
Hope all is well with you and yours. Busy as usual. I'm only managing to type all this because the rest of my household is sleeping in this morning.
Spouse and I took the eldest small to Dickens on the Strand in Galveston yesterday. It's been a few years since we've been. Fun street festival, but by the time it opens for the first weekend in December each year, we're festivaled out from attending TRF (Texas Renaissance Festival) multiple times. Plus, we're more into the medieval/Renaissance periods than the Victorian one.
My oldest kid has a wonderfully eccentric imagination, so the idea of Steampunk really appeals to her (us as well), and she's embraced it wholeheartedly. We're all for expanding the imagination and encouraging what is turning out to be a self-confident and eccentric personality. Since Dickens was hosting a Steampunk contingent this year, we told her we'd take her.
My and the husband's garb was more traditionally Victoria, with mine being very basic (hard to pull together an outfit in a week). The small was decked out, as was a good friend who has also embraced Steampunk.
We expected to stroll the streets, enjoy the food, shops, music and people-watching. And we looked forward to seeing what the Airship Isabella crew had planned for the festival.
Today, I'm half blind from having our pictures taken a gazillion times and beyond foot sore because my shoes, while very period appropriate, were not meant for marching in a parade.
As a group, I guess we looked good because we must have been stopped every five feet for photos. My daughter was beyond thrilled and felt like a celebrity. Our friend was very eye-catching in his Steampunk garb, though it paled in comparison to the amazing stuff created and worn by the airship crews Isabella and Neo-Dulcimer.
My spouse had his picture taken multiple times by himself. His outfit was very reserved and traditional. However, between his boots and his top-hat, which had him towering at about 6' 8", and a waterfall of waist-length snow white hair, he attracted a lot of attention and a lot of cameras. At least 6 people, by my count, stopped him to ask if his hair was real. I'll post shots when I get them off our camera.
While visiting the Steampunk area, members of either the Neo-Dulcimer or Isabella crews (don't know which) invited my daughter and my husband to march with them in the 7 p.m. parade. I thought the kid would implode. She also got to be one of the lamp carriers. She didn't want to march without her mom, so I came along too. We have one picture of her where I think her face threatened to split in half, her smile was so wide. You couldn't mistake how thrilled she was to not only be in the parade but to be part of the very ecclectic and fun-loving Steampunk group. They were a welcoming and generous bunch. I can't thank them enough for turning this night into such a magical one for my child. It was very cool.
And a little art to commemorate the evening:
http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=§ion=&global=1&q=steampunk#/d2v7yje