Pennsic 43 - Recap

Whew, what a week we've had. Or really, what an intense last 3 weeks it's been! I wanted to throw together a quick post to let you all know what I've been up to all this time, and well, here it is.

Let's start with the last week in July. It was the last week of my first semester of Graduate School, and I was finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. But with a final due on Wednesday and a final due on Thursday (both reflective papers), it was a busy week indeed. I finally got everything turned in on time, and I was done. Nothing left to do except wait for the grades to come in. Oh, and start packing for the week-long insance camping event that we were leaving for on Sunday. Finals = done, packing, not so much.

I went to a party that Thursday night that one of my co-workers threw at her (beautiful little) house, and we all played a rousing game of Cards Against Humanity. Let's just say I heard a few things I never thought I would hear coming our of my coworkers mouths! (It's a fun game, for terrible people)

Friday I worked, and then we took the day on Saturday to get ready for our week-long camping trip. I know, packing for a week's vacation in one day is really smart... Anyway, we got everything packed up and ready to go for an early departure on Sunday morning.

Okay so, before we continue, I should take a minute to tell you where we went. Remember like a million years ago, when I posted about going to some crazy event called Pennsic? Yup, we did it again! Actually, my husband's only missed 1 year in the last 10, but this was only my second time going. And we both had an absolute blast!

We got to spend time with old friends and (to me at least) new friends. I got to meet a lot of the people that I've been hearing my husband talk about for years, and they were all exactly as I had imagined them. Wonderful, fun, funny and charming people.

I could go through a day-by-day re-cap of everything that we did at Pennsic, but I don't want to bore you. I've already put my family and friends through that kind of torture, and I don't want you nice folks to have to suffer through it as well. So let me give you the condensed version.

Sunday: Un-packing, setting up the tent (which leaked the whole time, greeting people, then a night of amazing performances.

Monday: Field battle, then our first classes of the week (including one by a teacher who I remembered well from 5 years ago). Then we actually got up to the archery range to shoot our War-Points.

Tuesday: It was a fast day, so we planned ourselves a long schedule of classes, which we more or less stuck to.

Wednesday: We went to a bit of East Kingdom Court (it ended up lasting 4 hours) and then: two words, Midnight Madness! Shopping at all of the merchants! We had a blast wandering around all of the different stalls and buying way more stuff than we needed.

Thursday: More classes, then cooking all the things back in camp (including Creme Brulee on the open fire). We ended up staying up until 2 in the morning learning how to make a bow-string.

Friday: Our last day in camp. We went to a class, then packed up and helped take down the camp site. Drove home, and that was all she wrote.

We had an amazing time, hung out with friends, attended some very interesting classes (Like: Historical Uses of Poisons, for one), and made some cool things.

Not to mention got some cool things. Check it out:

A bunny fur and some beautiful hand-spun yarn

All these leather scraps for only $2!

And some lovely linen to make a few nice projects out of!

Pennsic was a blast (I think I've said that before!), and I honestly can't wait to go back next year. But in the mean time, life moves on. Back to the grind!



I'll be back next week with another Librarian's Corner, so stay tuned!

Why I Love My Earskins

Back in August I started stretching my ears. For those of you who are not familiar with this type of body modification, stretching your ears involves using tapers or tape to stretch an existing lobe piercing to a larger size. Stretched ears (and the jewelry that fits that) are measured in a unit called a gauge. If you got your ears pierced with a gun (like I did...) the holes in your ears are probably an 18 or a 20 gauge.

It's taken me almost 7 months to stretch my ears from that starting size to their current size, which is an 8g. I like having my ears at an 8, and I plan to stay at this size for a while, so I decided that I should get some nice jewelry that fit an 8 gauge.

I'd heard of the store Body Art Forms, and decided to browse their offerings and see if there was anything that I liked. After only a few minutes on the site, I had already decided that I wanted at least one of everything there! But, realizing that I don't have that kind of budget, I decided to pick out one pair of "earrings" and start from there.

So I picked out a pair of silicone earskins in pink. They're essentially flexible tunnels that you can wear in your ears.

I took this one out just so I could take  a picture for you!

As soon as they arrived, I had to try them on! It took some doing to get them in (since they're silicone and flexible, it can be pretty tricky to shove 'em trough a piercing, even a stretched one), but once I did I knew that I had made the right choice! I love my earskins.

Why? Let me count the ways.

1. They're super comfy to wear. - I've had them in day and night for over a week and I can hardly feel them, even when I'm sleeping on them.
2. They were so cheap! - I think I spent about $10 total on them (they were priced individually), and that was including shipping.
3. They're way cute! - I love the way they look.
4. They were exactly what I had in mind when I started stretching my ears. - Here's a tangent, I used to watch LA Ink when it was on, and I remember that one of the artists wore a large pair of hoops through her stretched ears. I loved the look, and that's what I had in mind when I first started stretching my ears.

So there you have it. I'm totally in love with my silicone earskins from Body Art Forms, and I don't care who knows it.

I love that I can wear a 14g hoop through my earskins!

Would I buy more jewelry from Body Art Forms? Absolutely! When I ordered my earskins, they sent me 4 o-rings, a gauge card and a sticker for free! :o) It was such a fun and easy shopping experience, I would recommend them to anyone looking to get good quality jewelry for ear/body piercings. Personally, I've been ogling their wooden jewelry and will probably be making another purchase soon!

And if I do, I'm sure you'll hear about it right here, so stay tuned!


P.S. For those of you who might be wanting to try stretching a piercing, I love Morgan Joyce's no-nonsense guide.



UPDATE (3-28-14): I love my ear-skins so much, I ordered another pair: