Kalamazoo Wrap Up

Saturday morning the merchants have until 9:00 to finish preparing for the crowds that will come though when the doors open. Some of us come dressed and ready to go, 

others change there as soon as they are ready. (Rick still hard at work.) Women's period clothing often needs an assistant to put it on (think stays, a forerunner of the corset) so Lisa and I come dressed.

I don't get away from my booth much but that's okay - my favorite friend on the living history circuit was in the booth next to me!

Carol plays an indentured servant, Maggie, and helps Leslie and Rick out by selling their block print fabrics while they manage the show. (She does have all her teeth; that's just part of her character.)

In real life she has Haflingers that she drives plus she, too, is a retired teacher. With all we have in common, Carol and I never run out of things to talk about.

Something very thoughtful happened at the show, too. A tinsmith who had seen this video of Lukie last fall at The Feast of the Hunters' Moon putting in tent stakes for me had made him a little gift for having worked so hard to help.

He brought that gift with him to Kalamazoo in the hopes that I would be there and he could give it to me to take home for Lukie.

A tin star to recognize him for helping out! (And Lukie did just that - he got his stakes into the ground so well we had to us stake pullers to remove them!) I'm going to put a leather lace through that hole so Lukie has a necklace to wear.

Leslie also was mindful of the children at the event. (Photo by Brooke Sauter.)

Every afternoon there was a drawing for a really nice gift, and she had a child pull the winning ticket and read the numbers. (Photo by Brooke Sauter.)

Ever had a maple cake? They are my favorite 18th century treat. They also sold big time -  people love them. I'd brought two boxes (84 pieces per box) and I ended up buying two more boxes. I was so glad they were there! That's a lot of maple cakes to sell! (Maple cakes are a form of maple sugar candy only much smoother and creamier.)

By the end of the event, I'd sold 3/4 of the clothes I'd made, and so many other items, I came home with four empty tubs! This is a photo of Saturday morning before the doors opened; it looked very different at the close of the event. (I was so tired, I forgot to snap a picture.)

It was a great time with family and friends and I felt especially close to my mother - the one who brought the living history hobby into our family. I look forward to next year's Kalamazoo, but I am taking a break from sewing 18th century items for a week or two.

And a special thanks to Lisa for her help - I could not have done this without you!