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Dickens Christmas Fair 2007 December Missive #2
(sent December 13th, 2007)

A couple of fun things before we get into the important stuff.

Gordon Mackenzie has been doing time-lapse photography of the front of the Dark Garden booth, which can be seen here: http://gallery.mac.com/gmackenzie#100010 and here http://gallery.mac.com/gmackenzie#100015

And Kevin P found some Christmas smiles here http://www.thecompassgroup.biz/merryxmas.swf

Everyone have a fun and safe weekend!

Cat


In This Missive:
Real World Traffic Notes for Saturday Evening
Adorn Thy Hair For The Gaskell Ball
Operations Calendar
Dickens 2007 Commemorative Pin at Pale Moon
Dart Tournament This Weekend!!
Invitations From Scrooge
Random Items of Interest From The Costume Department


Real World Traffic Notes for Saturday Evening
Liz and Thena pass along the following:
There is a football game starting at 5PM on Saturday night at Candlestick Park.  That means that if the game lets out between 8 and 9 PM, the traffic will be horrible in both directions.  This is just an FYI.  If you're heading over the Bay Bridge, take 280 and get onto the bridge at the last moment.


Adorn Thy Hair For The Gaskell Ball
would like to invite the participants that are interested in a hair-do for the Gaskell Ball to arrive EARLY.
This will be our busiest day and Brenda and the ladies will be at the booth as early as 8 am.  

A classic double braid will be $15.00 for participants.

Lynn, Brenda and Madame Louise's Ladies


Operations Calendar
(please contact the office if you need further information)
December 15 & 16     fourth weekend
December 22 & 23  fifth and final weekend
December 24      Tear Down Hours limited
December 25      Venue closed for Christmas
December 26 - 30      Take Down/Clean up 9am - 8pm
Dec. 31 & Jan 1     Venue closed for New Years
January 2 & 3 Final Take down/clean up
January 3rd             EXIT Deadline!  


Dickens 2007 Commemorative Pin at Pale Moon
Father Christmas adorns the Commemorative Dickens Pin this 2007...
With a little naughtiness on the back...
At Heidi B's Pale Moon Booth near Mad Sal's.
Brass, copper or sterling... while supplies last!
(A curious selection of photos of  Her Royal Highness the Quing of Fools on the back of this Commemorative may entice you to peruse  the lot and pick the one you'd like to take home with you!)


Dart Tournament This Weekend!!
at the Cat N' Bull Dart Parlour
Sunday 4:00pm
$5.00 entry fee
$100.00 Prize
Stop by and sign up on Saturday or Sunday


Invitations From Scrooge
I would welcome any Dickens Fair Folk in costume at my readings of A Christmas Carol :
 
Tuesday 11th Dec at Foster City Library at 7pm.
Wednesday 12th Dec at Belmont Library at 7pm.
The Freight and Salvage, (large music venue in Berkeley,) on Wednesday 19th at 8pm.
 
The Berkeley City Club on Durant St Berkeley, Friday Dec 21st at 7.30pm.  With a reservation you can have dinner there beforehand in the famous Julia Morgan Restaurant and receive a 10% discount by mentioning that Scrooge invited you....the redeemed Scrooge of course!
 
I plan as I've done before, on reading the last scene of A Christmas Carol to the entire plane as we land in London on Christmas Eve.
 
And finally to a candle lit dinner at Ye Olde Leather Bottle Pickwick Pub, Dickens favourite pub in the village of Cobham in England, right off the plane at 8pm on the night itself Christmas Eve.
 
I have CDs of this reading available for $20 that make an amazingly unique gift especially if signed by Scrooge himself.
 
Thanking you all for your hard work and theatrical brilliance and making this such a wonderful Dickens Fair.  Job well done!
 
God Bless Us, Everyone!
 
Martin


Random Items of Interest From The Costume Department

Affordable middle class dresses
For those of you who are looking for a good middle class dress at a very affordable price, I would like to direct your attention to
http://www.confederatefamilyfashions.com/Ladies.html
The ladies fashions and the girls are perfect for our fair. I ordered one of the dresses for myself and it arrived very quickly and with far more detail than I expected.  I plan on making myself a Swiss belt to go with it and adding a bit of trim.
I would suggest that you stay with the darker colored prints. If you order the Zouave combination, please make sure that it comes with the white blouse.  Also by ordering an extra blouse in white you can give yourself a second outfit.  If you have any questions about fabric and/or color, please contact me.

Ear piercing retainers
One of our lovely participants dropped by the shop on Sat to show us her new clear and almost invisible acrylic ear retainer. It is a wonderful idea for those of you with modern piercings.
http://www.maelstromstudiolab.com/item--Clear-Acrylic-Industrial-Retainers--industrialretainers.html


What is it that we DO all day?
It has also come to our attention that many of you wonder what the costume department really does once we are open and all your costumes have been approved.
Well, what ever it is, it has kept Alexandria and myself from dressing almost every weekend!
The morning usually starts off with a few vendors who need to have their costumes approved. Security comes by to pick up the capes.  It then moves to the "forgotten item of the day" (last week it was women's blouses, the week before it was cravats).  During the day there are the odd buttoon/seam/hem emergencies.  We house the "Ghost of Christmas Past" costume and hand it out to him (along with the torch).  We have fixed costumes for Panto - (it's difficult when the faires that share a costume are 2-3 sizes apart!) and for Pirates.
Rydell comes by to iron his cravat.
One or both of us take a tour of the fair to see if you all look as stunning as you did when you came to costume approval - and we check out the vendors as well. 
We hand out safety pins, loan out needles and thread.
We have been working on the stock of petticoats, cravats, aprons and mob caps. Plus we take care of the maintenance of the rest of the stock.
When Shannon/Publicity needs something for a media or promotions piece, we do our best to find her what she needs.
We "Ooh" and "Aah" over the pretty things you bring to show us and cringe at the really obnoxious ones - which some of you seem  take great delight in finding.
We conduct impromptu classes on hat making and button sewing.
We are there to listen, and to offer suggestions - & not always about costumes!
We do our best to great you with a smile.
We check back in the stock that was borrowed during the day and track down those who have forgotten!
We take home and launder/clean the items that were worn during the weekend so that they are there to borrow again the next week.
All in all it makes for a very busy day.




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