Och, Aye: T'was a Grand Highland Weekend!

First of all, here's my Fraser of Lovat badge -

I wore it the second day - in honor of the Outlander novels. Je suis Prest - I am ready!

And I really coveted this shield until it was pointed out to me that a: it wasn't real wood, but that polymer junk, b: that was apparent because it was chippd in at least two places, and c: $100 for a chipped cheapo shield?!

Oh well - still looks cool in the picture:

This is actually the first pic I took at the festival as some ladies in authentic scottish dress were leaving. I was too scared to take their picture from the front or ask for permission lest they say no, so I waited until they passed and still got a good pic.

The SCA was there in full force yet again on the last day.

I am still kicking myself for not having a camera with me the first day when they demonstrated making chainmail and I saw the cutest young couple in GREAT costumes. But there were still a few good shots left to take. I thought this banner was cool:

The poor blacksmith worked hard all day, but he was lucky to be in the shade - it was HOT in the sun.

And this shot - oh, so adorable! Even the baby has a medieval bonnet on and little costume. They had a whole village set up and lots of tents, their own food, clothes, society in the midst of the festival.

I really felt bad for the guys that wore full armor - padded suits, chainmail and armour and fought for the crowds. Whew - they mustve been scorching!

Some women dressed up a little more royally than others...

But the costumed were few and far between outside the SCA village, mostly there were just lots of guys in ther kilts - some bagpipers, some just using the day as an excuse to break out a kilt.

This young man was actually the cutest one I saw all day, but he must've caught me and the camera as he suddenly struck a pose and kind of ruined the cute effect for me.

This was the first stall we visited and spent the most money on. They had grea authentic knee length wool socks, kilts, peasant shirts, belts, etc. as well as lots of toy swords for the kids.

And no Scottish festival is complete without highland games, they had a few going on at the same time, but I found the caber tossing the most fun:

This booth had LOTS of swords and flags and a few nice jewelry items. Other booths had really beautiful earrings, rins, necklaces, bracelets, etc. and we bought far too much - enough for us all to say we fulfilled our birthday present requirements for the next two months. LOL

All in all - even as the last day and too hot to stay long, it was a good thing we went back, I have LOTS more pictures and we had fun. They even had bridies and haggis and all sorts of Scottish food as well as normal festival food like funnel cakes and kettle corn, etc. We resisted it all, thankfully. ;)

I had a great time and must remember to go again next year. And also find out when the French festival is - one of the perks of St. Louis is we are a diverse melting pot of cultures and we have plenty of cultural festivals to look forward to from spring through fall.

Hope everyone else had a nice weekend. I'm still recovering from heat stroke - we had rather hot temperatures for April again. But at least it didn't rain and ruin the festival. l look forward to some more fun now that I can walk around again. Bring on the craft shows and festivals, but I better save some money for our trips...

Happy Tartan Day!!

Today we visited my grandmother again and she's looking MUCH improved and seems she'll be okay. She even got up and walked around already. Afterwards we went to Historic St. Charles Main Street which I blogged about in this post.

And today was the Missouri Tartan Day!! Yippee! I'm part Scottish and love all things Celtic so that was a blast! We went to the festival and unlike the first few they had which were small, this year had LOTS of entertainment and people of all kinds dressed in so many fun costumes or traditional Highland dress. I especially loved one girl's medieval queen's gown with a bit of Tartan tucked in. Her boyfriend or husband had peasant Highland clothes on, rather authentic. I'm very shy so I urged my mother to ask her if she'd made the dress herself. My mom laughed at me and said for me to do it and finally I just managed to say, 'I love your dress' and then mom took pity on me and asked her - she had it made for her. It was so nice. But not as nice as a costumed as the one I saw a few years ago advertising for the French Festival. So I have to find out when that one is!!

Picture courtesy MO Tartan Day Website

Anyway, back to the Scottish festival, I was caught unprepared and so have no pictures of my own to show - alas!! I saw so many cool costumes, jewelry, funny shirts, dressed up dogs (there was some kind of contest) and showing of different border collies, etc. and some girls had really dressed up their hair in cool buns or lots of pixie braids. There were even some very odd, out of place Goth/Scots that were outlandishly dressed and not a little scary and playing with thick sticks in mock battle. The Society of Creative Anachronism was there demonstrating how to make chain mail and making jewelry from old medieval style molds, etc. We all bough silver jewelry - bracelets, rings, and I bought a pin from the Fraser of Lovat clan badge - because I love the Outlander novels by Diana Gabledon so - it had the stag and Je Suis Prest and I was so thrilled at it I bought it instead of my own clan badge - our last name is Todd, but they are only a part of the Gordon clan and so I can never find our crest (which has three Fox heads on it and really cool) but instead the Gordon clan one which is in comparison...sorry to say, not quite as cute. So I got Jamie Fraser's badge and put it on my purse for now. LOL Fans of the book will understand the urge. ;-)


There were caber tosses, bag pipers (sadly already done for the day, but trailing around), knights fighting, lots of other Hi gland games being played, it was so fun! My dad even bought and immediately put on a sort of modern kilt (khaki with lots of pockets like a pair of cargo pants, but pleated and rather cool - he then bought a leather sporran and mom bought him the traditional off white knee high socks. He still needs a sgian dubh - which is a traditional small knife worn in full dress - also mom wants to buy him a proper shirt to go with it so we promised the vendor to go back tomorrow. I really hope we do and that I remember my camera. Today was the really big day, but maybe tomorrow will still be good. The had a highland cattle pen, but I didn't get a chance to look. I had a great time, but so exhausted!! I fell asleep as soon as we ate and came home. Just dropped to sleep fit for the dead.

So my weekend is full and happy - hope yours are, too!!!!