Norman, OK

Finally! I get to sit down and write some. Norman Medieval Faire was just awesome and everyone there was great. We've got another show under out belt that we can tell stories about, so here goes.

All that work leading up to Norman went well. We were packed and loaded about 1 pm on Thursday afternoon. Since our set up is easy, we figured we could get in anytime and be ready for opeing on Friday morning. But, as per the ol' "April showers bring May flowers" saying goes, Texas on that day had a terrific line of thunderstorms that were just stewing along I-35 from Oklahoma City to Waco. We sat and watched the Weather channel for several hours. We figured as the storms moved eastward, we could leave here and slip up along the back side of the system. Larry choose wrong this time. It seems the storms just stalled right on I-35 and kept moving northward without moving east. Finally, about 4:30 pm we decided it wasn't getting any better so we headed out. Things looked ok and just cloudy until we hit Waco. Suddenly there was this BIG BLACK wall of clouds and the rain started. Well, at least it started on us. Seems it had been pouring rain on Waco all day - we'd just got there. We headed north on I-35 in one of those god-awful walls of water where you could barely see the hood of the truck. Just about mile marker 359 it all came to a halt. Lo and behold we were in the first 50 or so cars that the Texas DOT stopped. They shut down the interstate due to 4 feet of water across the northbound side. This happened a little after 6 pm. So we sat. We listened to the CB and all the crap the truckers talked about. And we sat some more. Fortunately we had some food in the cooler in the back and our truck cab opens into the camper, so we could get comfortable. Finally, even the truckers had listened to enough of thier BS and they started shutting down the trucks and climbing into thier sleepers. It was 10:30 before the flood waters receded and they let us continue.

And that was a good start to the weekend.

We got there about 3 am and crawled into our sleeper/camper until 7 am. Storms were forcasted for the day and it didn't look good, but during the morning it was grey and cloudy, but no rain. Everyone set up and the show began. Fridays at Norman usually aren't very big. The kids came out and as most years - with or without storms - they were pretty much all gone by 2 pm. Then, about 2:30 pm they went around and anounced the fair was closing until the next day, everyone go home and get dry. Poor Larry was crashed out in the truck because he'd been up all night driving. I closed up the booth just as the rain started and got a bit wet. Me and the dog ran to the truck and jumped in. Spent the rest of the evening relaxing at the motel and watchng tornado's form and dissapate over us.

Not very encouraging.

Saturday moring dawn with the most perfect weather anyone could have asked for anywhere! The rest of the weekend just rocked, everyone came out to the fair and had a wonderful time and bought LOTS AND LOTS of stuff from everyone. we were so very busy Saturday, but I did get out and get some pictures.

Here we are....cute little vardo.

And our neighbors for many, many years, Glenda and Connie. They are such a hoot! They love our dog more that they love us.....seems every time I turned around Shadow was over at Glenda's wanting another biscite.

Cooper does some really cool woodwork. I met Cooper about 25 years ago when I went to my first renaissance festival. He is the one in the green shirt.

More pictures around the fair......


And Larry chatting ....
Larry's in the black shirt.....

Our next show is the Pecan Street Festival in Austin, Texas and on the same weekend starts the Tennessee Renaissance Festival in Arrington-Triune, Tennessee just south of Nashville. Kristen will be there for us.

The shows begin..

Spring is here, only officially for some of us. But here in Texas the trees are leafed out and the days are more than warm. The wisteria is in full bloom, along with the dogwoods and redbuds. And of course the pine pollen is making EVERYTHING yellow. But I never cease the wonder of each passing season. It seems the gods have it all figured out and no man will ever, ever improve upon it.
And the shows are about to start. We are going to Norman, Oklahoma next weekend. Funny how far the season has progressed here in south east Texas and yet when we drive up to Norman next weekend it will be like driving backwards in the season. Slowly, as we get closer to Fort Worth, then past Denton, the trees start to loose thier green look. The grass will still be brown up there. Some tree buds will just barely be peaking out, hoping that this day will be sunny and warm so it can continue it's yearly journey through the seasons.

Waxing too poetic for you? We love going to Norman OK. There are some years we get up there and the trees are in full bloom and the colors are awesome. And we've been up there in years it was 26 friggin' degrees in the morning. Makes it pretty difficult to set up our booth to sell incense and oils. But over all Norman has been good to us. The people come out in the thousands - litterely. Actually about 200,000 in 3 days. Wonderful crowd. Great people, everyone has a terricfic weekend. We go back to our motel smelling like a French Whorehouse from pouring oils all day. It's wonderful.

I've been sitting at my shop counter the last several days trying to get the last of my aromanecklaces done. Things have gone well this year. I've managed to put together a really nice display without waiting until the 11th hour. Larry is finishing up the wheels for the vardo. They are new this year and I hope things go without mishap, being so close to the weekend. We have to be packed and ready to leave about midday Thursday. It's a 7 hour drive up there. Funny, we've been doing it ever year for 15 years now. Look forward to it every year.

Once we get up there, it's gonna be a busy spring. I hope I sell tons of necklaces and oils and incense and smoking bottles. Once we get back I have to make double stock to get ready for Tennessee and Austin both. I'll let you know how THAT goes! And now I have to go back to my shop counter.....

"Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement."

Welcome to It's A Scentual World....

We don't spend all our waking and non waking hours on blogs, forums or chat rooms. But we have finally reached a point where we would like to engage in a online community talking about what we love to do - Essential and fragrance oils & incense! My name is Kerry and my partner is Larry and we are Crystal Mountain Oils & Incense (found at www.crystalmounta-aromatics.com). Since this is my first post I know no one is out there listening right now, but the more we talk, the more you'll want to put your 2 cents in. So this blog is our thoughts and experiences about the past 15 years as we have made and sold incense, essential and fragrance oils. We'll post comments about technical stuff and links to interesting articles on the web. We'll talk about the magical, "un-scientific" side of oils (and the herbs they come from), mythology and lore about oils. I'll start by posting twice a week. You can check out our website and contact us directly, or you can also visit our Google Group at http://groups.google.com/group/scentual.

Let me go install my printer and get that up and running (my new HP didn't have the right software for the new Vista OS....gherrrrr!). I'll be back shortly to post the first bit of fascinating info for ya.....