No Rain on Our Parade

WORKING DRAFT

It was a close call, but we lucked out and the thunderstorms rolled in earlier than was originally predicted.  We were afraid we might have to rain check our Picnic with the Pixies, but by 10am we were just dealing with cloudy skies and the occasional sprinkle.

Unfortunately, the weather brought in all kinds of nasties that prevented many of our usual suspects from attending, but we had quite a few new faces joining us and so the turnout was quite good in spite of missing our regular friends.

This was our first time hosting an event at the Grapevine Botanical Gardens.  Since we have active members from all the far flung reaches of the DFW Metroplex, we are always looking for event locations that are easier to get to for everyone.  I am so happy that we have found this garden!  It is central to most of our active members, it's a Beautiful spot, it's Free, we can bring our own food in, and as an added bonus it is dog friendly.  In fact, we enjoyed this location so much that we are contemplating making it a regular site for casual sewing and photo social picnics.

The place in the gardens we chose to use for our picnic was where the covered pavilion is located.  It is a lovely little pavilion with stone seating and a nice podium table where we could pile up all of our food.  Speaking of food, we had quite the spread to munch on!  Pretty much everyone brought something good to eat.  We even had a full gluten-free section as one of out attendees had special food requirements.

At a All-Con this March, we reconnected with some friends in the Ball Jointed Doll community.  They were interested in the idea of bringing their elven and pixie dolls to the picnic to photograph with us.  I'm glad they were able to make it out.








Those sweet dolls were so much fun to play with!  And I understand that the dolls had as much fun posing and playing as we did.

The photo ops weren't just reserved for the dolls.  A few of our attendees worked on their Regency period posing as outlined in Scene in the Past's blog about Regency poses.

As usual, we turned out to be quite a photogenic bunch!

Here's what other attendees had to say about our picnic.

Scene in the Past

All photos courtesy P. Crandall Polk and Jennifer Thompson.

Costumers' Lost Weekend 2013 Panels

One of the best parts of our Costumers' Lost Weekend is that we can finally get together and learn things from one another via our  panels.  This year is going to be even better with our Sunday workshops.

Panelists are beginning to think about joining us at CLW in the Summer.  One thing they have all asked the Committee is "what kind of panel would you like?"  Well, that is my question to you.  If there is a certain kind of panel you would like to see presented, please let us know and we will see if we can find someone who is able to present it.

CLW Panel Survey

And if you have a panel that you would like to present to our attendees, please go ahead and submit your application.  If by chance we do receive more applications than time to present, we will hold the extras for the following year, or see if we can add a class day to our Guild Calendar.

CLW 2013 Panelist Application

Picnic with the Pixies

If you follow the going's on of the DFWCG, you may have noticed that we sure do love a good outdoor picnic.  For several years now, our Georgian Picnic in the Fall has been quite the success. When we organized our first Georgian Picnic in 2009, we had no idea that it would be so successful that it would gain a permanent place in our event calendar.

This spring, we have decided to double up on our picnic fun.  On March 23, 2013 we will be gathering at the Grapevine Botanical Gardens to have a Picnic with the Pixies.

Picnic with the Pixies is an outdoor fantasy costumed event for all ages.  We plan on playing some fun games and since it is a picnic, feel free to bring some food to munch on.  And as always, costumes are encouraged, but not required for participation.  

In case you missed our fabulous 2012 Georgian Picnic, many of our atteendees wrote recaps of the event:

Festive Attyre

Cynthia Griffith

Cynthia's Video

Maggie of Padawain's Guide and The Costumer's Guide to Movie Costumes

The Aristocrat

We survived the Titanic (well, most of us!)

The DFW Costumers Guild donned their Edwardian finery and adventured to the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History's Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition. Our boarding date was Saturday, January 12^th and all but one of our passengers survived the excursion. 

We were a spiffy group and enjoyed our boarding experience. We later adjourned to La Madeleine’s for refreshments.

Look for our next outing! We'll be joining a Safari to the wilds at the Fort Worth Zoo on Saturday, February 23rd!

A gathering of Sci Fi Fans

This Sunday, the DFWCG hosted a Sci Fi fan meet up at Bryan Street Tavern in Dallas.  I want to thank everyone who came out and played with us.  We had a small, but fun group - around 10 in all.  We screened Cowboys and Aliens, then the Girl in the Fireplace episode of Doctor Who followed by the X Files pilot.

If you have never been to Bryan Street Tavern, let me tell you, it is a great little place.  They were excited to have us there and they were very helpful getting us set up for the screening.  The banquet room we were in had so much room and the large projection screen was great.  They have something for just about everyone on their food menu. And on nights when the party crowd isn't expected in any minute, they are friendly towards families wanting to come in.  Over all, I am really glad that we picked this place to host our first meetup of this kind.

I hope everyone who came had as much fun as I did.  And I hope we can do it again soon.

Costumers' Lost Weekend 2013 Hotel Discount Code

The Discount code for Costumers' Lost Weekend is in and the hotel booking site is up.  All the information is now updated on the Eventbrite ticket site so you can now purchase your tickets and follow the link to the hotel booking in one spot.  Or, you can get your room by following the instructions on this blog.

The discount room reservation code is:   DCG

You can book your room online by clicking this link.  The discount code should already be filled in.  Many of our attendees booked online through this system last year and we did not hear of any issues.

But if you are a person who has special requests regarding their room, I would suggest calling the front desk personally to reserve your room.  The front desk phone number is 972-980-8877.  In addition, I would suggest that if you are making special requests for your room that you call to double check on those requests at the top of June.  I don't care how high star of a hotel you are staying in, those special request notes always seem to disappear right when you are checking in.  It's always better to be sure if the requests mean that much to you!

Now remember, we only have a short supply of these discounted rooms guaranteed for our event.  So I would not wait until Summer to make your reservations.  If you happen to try to make a reservation and are told that our discount block is full, please e-mail me.  I will be making a list of requests to expand our discount room block if we happen to run out.  I was also told that you can still try to use the discount code for a room all the way up until the day of the event.  In fact, when you do so, it alerts the staff that you are with us, whether they can still give you the discount or not.  And that information helps us negotiate future contracts.  It also may still get you a discount rate.  We are only guaranteed so many rooms at our discount rate up until the cut off date of June 7, 2013.  However, the hotel staff could potentially still grant those discounts based on room availability at check in.

Happy Reserving!

Costumers' Lost Weekend 2013 Call for Panelists

Are you a costumer or crafter who has knowledge to impart?  Would you like to promote your business or website by giving a lecture?  Panels are the heart and soul of Costumers' Lost Weekend.  And we need you to help make our event special.

We are looking for 45 minute panels for Saturday, June 29 and 90 minute to 2 hour workshops for Sunday, June 30.  Subject matter can range from a wide variety of skills and genres.  Skill levels can range from Entry Level all the way up to Advanced.  Panels will be chosen from all submissions by the CLW 2013 Commitee based on presenting a variety of  topics and education as represents the variety of costumers in DFW Costumers Guild.  Don't be shy to present your My Little Pony accessories or rhinestone bedazzled shoes panel to our group of costumers.


Oh!  And don't forget, our panelists get a 50% discount on tickets to Costumers' Lost Weekend.  So you can enjoy a whole weekend with fellow costumers for only $15 if you present a panel for us.

Apply to be a  Costumers' Lost Weekend Panelist right here:  

CLW 2013 Panelist Application