Could this have been my last Starwood?? I don’t know - but I think it may have been. Maybe not forEVER forever, but, you know. Close enough. Many things have changed in my life since I first rolled into what my friend Pagan Martha Stewart calls ‘naked pagan hippie camp’ - heck, I only had one child at that first one, at least if you don’t count a bun in the oven. It certainly was a life-changing event at the time; but my life has continued to change while Starwood is in many ways still the same.
Don’t get me wrong, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It has been and continues to be transformative for all sorts of people, and I’m very glad of that fact. But it no longer has much to offer me at this stage of my life, and the older I get, the harder it becomes physically to attend. Yes, I can still camp, sleep in a tent if I had to (I didn’t, this year; I paid for the ‘privilege’ of sleeping in my car), cook on a one burner stove, and wash in a bucket. BUT I DON’T WANT TO. I don’t need to prove to myself that I can singlehandedly tear down a campsite and pack up the car. I’ve done it; I’m good on that count. To consider comfortably attending this - or, honestly, really any other outdoor festival - in the future, I’d need to have a van or at least a pop-up camper; and right now, I’ve got other priorities.
There’s usually some fun camps to see there at least -
this little guy was marking a campsite across the road from mine.
The Gaia Shrine is a revelation every year - She’s never in the same pose twice, somehow!
and this little shop was the nicest looking in Vendor’s Row.
OK, there’s the adventures report; now on to other topics.
It’s also festival season at work: Greek Festival, that is. Which is a Great Big Undertaking. I gave myself an extra day between when I got home and coming back to work and am glad I did, as I had to hit the ground running, here. In just over a week as I write, we’ll have thousands of people descending on us in search of gyros, baklava, and ouzo (I prefer retsina, myself). All of which means that between packing up, going camping, coming home & unloading, and work - I’ve not gotten much else done.
OK, not entirely true - I allowed myself a crafty morning before I left to create this:
I can’t recall where I first saw the idea - Pinterest? YouTube? - but it’s been on my To Make list for an embarrassingly long time. My plan was to use it as a candle-chandelier in my camp kitchen (no fire worries; the candles are fake!) But I got it all done, packed everything up, and - left this sitting on the craft table at home. Maybe I’ll put it up the next time I do an outdoor event, tho right now I’ve no idea when that might be (fall?). It was good to let some of the Creative out, though. It’s been too long!
My focus now is going to be on house-hunting. I’m *desperately* in need of some decent studio space - and also personal space. Ever since we lost use of the attic where we live now, my daughter, her gentleman friend, my dog, her cats, my studio, and I have been sharing the upper half of a duplex and that’s a lot. I’ve considered renting studio space somewhere (like Ingenuity Labs?) but if we can find a house that would provide space without an additional charge, that would surely be preferable. We are actively looking, so that’s taking up a certain amount of what I laughably refer to as my ‘free time’ as well.
And speaking of Ingenuity - I swore I wasn’t going to do it, but somehow I have a proposal in for this year’s event. Again. I’m not taking on a whole room this year, at least, I don’t think I am! I will be creating a decorated queue line leading up to my fortune teller booth, which (as I envision it) will require putting up some walls. Or at least dividers. Heck, I’ll hang painted sheets from the ceiling if I have to! In theory, this should be less of an undertaking than last year’s project, but we shall see.
With all of that in the weeks ahead, I’m not sure how much time and energy I’ll have to devote to either creating or re-selling (not that I’ve done much of either lately, but that is technically why I’m here). I don’t have any kind of deadline for either, so I figure I’ll just keep working on the website, adding things to my shop etc as time allows. Ideally, I’ll get to the point where I’ve got the infrastructure enough in place that I can just start popping new items in as they show up and/or I have the time. Like, oh I don’t know, maybe this new item here?
It looks like I’m getting these posts made about once a month, so let’s just figure we’ll meet back here again in mid-August and we’ll see how that’s going. Deal? Cool. See ya then!
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