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This year I was finally able to check out the International Edgar Allan Poe Festival in Baltimore for the first time in my life. It was held in Baltimore outside of the historic Edgar Allan Poe House. Tickets to tour the home was sold out but I didn’t mind because I had already seen that house a few years ago. The one thing that had changed dramatically is that there is a new apartment unit that had sprung up where there was an empty field back when I last visited that house in 2014. Seeing how developed that area had gotten has led me to make a mental note to come back and explore that area at a later date.
I shot some video footage that included a dancer named Calixta Starr who did interpretative dances inspired by Poe’s work and an Edgar Allan Poe impersonator speaking outside of the Edgar Allan Poe House.
I also took a bunch of photos as well during my time there. There were all kinds of gothic-themed arts and crafts as well as books (some were written by Poe while others are more contemporary books where the writers were inspired by Poe). One tent had continuous book readings by local authors. I also saw people who either cosplayed as Edgar Allan Poe or they were dressed in steampunk outfits. It was all pretty cool to see in person.
There was this casket where people were invited to have their pictures taken while they were inside of it—as the sign said “Get Buried Alive!”
I had someone take a few pictures of me inside of that casket. I have to admit that this particular casket was very narrow. I barely fit inside of it. It was also very tall. It looked like it was made for someone who was over seven feet tall and weighed less than 120 pounds.
I managed to purchase a few items at the festival. I purchased this cool looking keyring that was based on Edgar Allan Poe’s famous poem “The Raven” featuring the outline of a raven with the word “Nevermore.” Sadly this raven would literally break in half just a few weeks later and the bottom half was lost. (The wood was a bit on the thin side. At least I only paid $8 for it. I would’ve been pissed if I had paid $20 or $30 for it.)
I purchased this refrigerator magnet featuring one of Poe’s quotes from the same vendor. That magnet is still intact and it’s on display on my refrigerator in the kitchen.
This paper bag from PoeHead.com (which I used to carry my purchases home in) had this cool Poe design on it.
I purchased this bar of pumpkin scented soap from one of the vendors that was connected with the Edgar Allan Poe Foundation in Boston (where Poe was born).
I got this unicorn button from Mistress Rae’s Decadent Designs.
I did get one thing for free from that festival—this button that was a local organization known as Preservation Maryland.
For the second year in a row I took part in Maker Faire NoVa, which was held on the campus of George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. Ironically, nearly a week after this event was held, I got word that the company that was responsible for Maker Faire NoVa and all of the other Maker Faires held all over the world, Maker Media, had abruptly shut down and laid off all of its staff. I’m glad that Maker Faire NoVa happened before the closing of Maker Media since there were so many people who took part in it.
I was working with Phil Shapiro, who had sent in three proposals to Maker Faire NoVa and they were all accepted. I was sent to work one of the booths—which was about how one can get a computer for $60 if other people in the community pool their money and buy used computers from a certain place in bulk. I decided to show off my book, The Cash-Strapped Person’s Guide to Thriving in the Digital Age, at that booth since the theme of my book dovetails nicely with the message of that booth. Here are a couple of sample books and a bunch of promo postcards I had printed up.
On the way to the event we stopped by this bicycle rack that was located in an office park because it looked pretty cool from the highway. They are bikes one can rent from a company called BECO bluebike.
One of Phil Shapiro’s proposals that Maker Faire NoVa had accepted was a demonstration for a new game that Phil had recently invented called Thunk. The next picture shows the props used in Thunk as they were loaded in the trunk of Phil’s car.
We arrived to see the statue of George Mason all decked out in steampunk clothing.
The next set of pictures show one of the booths that were assigned to Phil and it was also the same booth where I staffed. Like I wrote earlier, it was a display on how a group of people in the community could bulk order used computer equipment from certain companies and each person could end up with getting a decent Linux computer for $60. I also displayed my book and handed out postcards while I was there.
I had one of the computers run some of my animation files. (You can view the animation that’s depicted in this photograph right here.)
There was a display that had a couple of flyers regarding “The Most Affordable Computer.” One was information that Phil wrote about how it’s possible to get a computer legally for as low as $60. The other was an article that The Washington Post did about him back in the 1990s when he lived in Arlington and he would give used computer equipment a new home with low-income families.
I had my own book on display along with a promo postcard and the paper version of Phil’s proposal on how one can get an affordable computer.
The good news was that booth got plenty of attention. Now for the bad news: Because that booth was located near the larger information booth that’s located in the middle of the floor of the building that we were in, I was inundated with so many people asking me where a certain area was located or a certain building. I literally couldn’t answer people because I wasn’t among the organizers of Maker Faire NoVa and I’m not very familiar with the layout of George Mason University’s Fairfax campus. It got frustrating because these people weren’t interested in the topic of the display (I tried to hand out a few postcards and papers but to no avail) and I had to frequently point towards the information booth.
The second booth that Phil took out was on making 4K videos. He had lined up another friend who would staff it but that friend turned out to be a no-show. Unfortunately that second booth was located too far away from the booth that I was working at so I couldn’t even pull double duty and staff both at the same time. (I could have pulled it off it they were adjacent to each other instead of each being located about a 100 feet away.) Ultimately Phil decided to let that one go and take down the display a few hours early.
The third booth was located outside on the campus grounds. It was where Phil had demonstrated his game Thunk. Here’s a still photo of the booth setup.
I also shot a short video of the game Thunk in action as well as a few other displays that included a 3D-printed Rube Goldberg-style display, jugglers juggling balls, and robots (including ones that resembled R2-D2 from Star Wars).
Apparently the Thunk booth was the one that got the most attention, which was great for Phil. He shot his own videos of Thunk at the Maker Faire NoVa.
You can see other prototypes of his game in action on his YouTube channel right here and here.
There was even a book signing at Maker Faire NoVa. Sylvia Martinez was promoting her book Invent to Learn. Phil took time out from demonstrating his Thunk game to buy the book and have it signed by the author.
There were a variety of booths ranging from 3D printers to sewing to robots. I tried to visit as many of the booths I possibly could during breaks but that event was so massive that I’m sure I probably missed a few. The event was spread out to over three different buildings on campus plus there were booths set up on the grounds as well. I also saw plenty of people dressed in costumes—especially ones depicting various Star Wars characters.
This booth had an interesting idea: You can use a 3D printer to print the parts for your own 3D printer. In other words, you can use a 3D printer to make a new 3D printer.
There was an area where people of all ages were encourages to take apart various electronic devices in order to see how they work.
There was a re-creation of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor area done in LEGO.
Someone had done a LEGO re-creation of Diagon Alley from the Harry Potter books, which even included the Knight Bus. The details of this display were really awesome to see in real life.
I also walked around campus where I saw a few interesting things, such as this statue.
The last three photos show the only thing I purchased at this year’s Maker Faire NoVa. It’s a handcrafted soap that has a rubber unicorn duck embedded in it. I paid $5 for it. It looks pretty small but I thought it was really pretty and I fell in love with it.
I did so much walking at that event that I was literally sore for the next two days. I didn’t begin to recover until the third day after Maker Faire NoVa. I really enjoyed this event as much as I did last year. Given the news of Maker Media’s demise, only time will tell if there will ever be another Maker Faire NoVa (or something similar with a different name).
April 22 was not only Earth Day but it was also the day that a massive March for Science took place in downtown Washington, DC to protest the Trump Administration’s official denial of climate change while cutting funds for federal research. I thought about going myself because, as someone who was once married to a NASA software engineer, I know the importance of science in everyday life (even if science was never my favorite subject in school).
But then it rained like crazy and I decided to can that idea. I didn’t feel guilt over what I did because I had already previously participated in the Women’s March on Washington and the Werk for Peace dance protest. The People’s Climate March was scheduled to be held in Washington, DC on the following Saturday. In addition, there are more anti-Trump marches on Washington planned for the future which will focus on immigration, LGBTQ rights, and fans of the hip hop group Insane Clown Posse (that one is because, for some weird reason, the federal government has classified the fans of this group as gangs and terrorists).
And I’m sure that the longer Donald Trump stays in office, the more people will hold massive protest marches.
So I ended up going to Silver Spring where I took place in the second annual Creator Con. At least it was held indoors so I didn’t have to deal with being rained on. Here are the photos I took during my time there.
There was one thing that blew my mind. There was a band consisting of teenage boys who did covers of classic rock songs like The Animals’ “House of the Rising Sun” and The Rolling Stones’ “Miss You.” I found it interesting that there were kids who did covers of songs that first came out decades before they were even born.
Creator Con was held at Eubie Blake High School, which had these pro-LGBTQ signs on display. I’m old enough to remember a time when a teen openly admitting that he/she was LGBTQ would not only result in all kinds of bullying and harassment but many teachers would’ve been indifferent to that student’s plight. Now there are official signs making a LGBTQ teen feel welcome.
This is the first Spoonflower contest I’ve taken part in since the Coral, Mint, Black, and White Contest back in March. I haven’t done much with my Spoonflower shop in a few months so I decided to check the whole site out and I found that there was an upcoming weekly contest where the theme is hedgehogs. I knew that I would’ve been crazy to pass this one up.
As longtime followers of this blog know, I once owned a pet hedgehog named Spike. I took him home to live with me during a very turbulent time in my life. (I underwent a hip operation in September, 2011. Three months later my husband suddenly walked out on me without ever indicating that he was the slightest bit unhappy and, overnight, he went from a very loving and devoted spouse to one who refused to speak to me other than send e-mails and text messages demanding that I adhere to his personal schedule of separating all of our finances and other accounts as soon as possible. I obtained Spike a few hours after friends told me that he had hooked up with a friend of ours who had recently qualified for SSI disability for severe mental health issues and they had frequently seen those two together at the same coffeehouse where she worked as a barmaid two nights a week.)
Spike lived with me for a year-and-a-half until I found him lying dead in his cage one day. During that time I would blog about him and I even had a regular feature devoted to him called “Sunday With Spike.” At one point I began a series of drawings where I imagined a variety of hedgehog scenarios like what if a hedgehog played bass guitar in a band or what if the cartoon series My Little Pony had featured hedgehogs instead of ponies and was named My Little Hedgy. I knew that people have invented robot dogs and robot cats so I did a drawing where I tried to show what would happen if someone had invented a robot hedgehog and I named it RoboHedgy (after the movie RoboCop).
I printed out some of my hedgehog-themed art (including RoboHedgy) and I printed them on expensive paper then attached the paper to some tiny canvases that I found in various art supply stores. I tried selling them in various art and craft shows in real life but I didn’t get any sales, even though I had a number of people tell me that they thought the hedgehog art was cute. I even tried selling RoboHedgy on Etsy last winter holiday season and I hyped that sale in my blog only to get no sale. When I saw Spoonflower.com’s upcoming hedgehog contest announcement, it was only logical for me to enter it. Rather than create a new piece for the contest, I decided to go through my already existing hedgehog art and I picked RoboHedgy. The reason why I picked that one is because I figured that a lot of other contestants would enter hedgehogs in nature scenes and I wanted my entry to stand out from the rest. All I did was import the scan of the original art into Photoshop and altered it. Here is my RoboHedgy fabric contest entry.
I removed the original RoboHedgy logo and I changed the background color from white to dark blue. I brightened the robot’s LED eyes so they would glow an even brighter shade of red than before. I also darkened the hedgehog’s head a little bit in order to make it stand out from the rest of the body. (I had a feeling that my original RoboHedgy didn’t sell because the entire robot was in one shade of grey and maybe people had a hard time distinguishing the head from the rest of the body. It’s a theory I have so it’ll be interesting to see if my attempted improvements will get more notices from people.) I saw sample hedgehog designs online and I noticed that a lot of hedgehogs tend to be surrounded with flowers. Instead of flowers, I decided to use gear graphics as a floral substitute because I felt that they were very appropriate for a robot animal. (And using metal gears in lieu of flowers isn’t unprecedented. It’s been a part of steampunk design for years.)
So tomorrow will be the first day of the week-long contest. I’ll make another post announcing the start of the contest along with the link where you can vote once all of the contest entries are posted online. In the meantime, here’s a photo of the late Spike the Hedgehog who, for a brief time, was my artistic muse.
Today is not only Christmas but it’s also falls on a Throwback Thursday this year. I know I haven’t done a Throwback Thursday in a few weeks mainly because I was focused on selling things online and preparing for the holiday season in general. So, as a special treat, here is an entry focused on my own decorations that I previously highlighted in this blog.
Ever since my husband left me for that mentally ill friend of ours, I’ve done some massive downsizing of Christmas decorations. I gave away 3/4 of them to the American Rescue Workers. I even purchased a small tabletop artificial tree with lights already installed on them. I took this photo back in 2012 but this year’s setup is pretty similar.
Next up is this Hippie Merman ornament that I previously wrote about on December 21, 2010. I made a short video consisting mainly of slideshows with some music I composed by combining a bunch of loops together in GarageBand. I still have this ornament and he is currently gracing my small tabletop Christmas tree as of this writing.
Here’s a cottage-shaped decoration that also functions as an incense burner. It’s made in the U.S. by a company called Ginger Cottages.
I also currently have two very small nativity scenes underneath my small Christmas tree. One just features Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus.
The other was made in Peru and it features an entire nativity scene (featuring a sheep and llama) inside of a cow-shaped structure.
I previously wrote about all three on December 17, 2012.
I have two hedgehog ornaments that I originally purchased when I still owned Spike the Hedgehog and I wrote about them on December 13, 2012. Spike has been dead for over a year but I still have these two ornaments hanging in my tree.
Topping my Christmas tree is this doll-like angel that I originally wrote about on December 11, 2012.
I’ve owned this vintage elf long before The Elf on the Shelf became this huge marketing juggernaut. I wrote about this guy and his modern counterpart on December 29, 2013.
Here are a few more ornaments that I purchased last year and I wrote about on December 24, 2013.
Here is a robot nutcracker that I purchased last year because it looked unusual and funky. I wrote about this one on December 23, 2013.
Here’s a fused glass gingerbread man ornament that I created in a workshop that was given by a friend of mine last year. I wrote about this one on December 18, 2013 and he’s hanging in my Christmas tree this year.
I have my Mickey’s Clock Shop, which I purchased years ago. It was considered to be a state-of-the-art animatronic decoration at the time (although there have been more technologically advanced Christmas decorations released since then that makes this one seem quaint by comparison). I have it up this year and it still works. Here is a video I shot for a post that I wrote on January 6, 2014.
Here’s a reindeer that I customized from a Rose Art Color Blank by doing mainly Zentagles that I first wrote about on December 14, 2011.
Here’s a steampunk snowman that I customized from a Rose Art Color Blank and I first wrote about on December 22, 2012.
Here’s a lace moose ornament that I purchased earlier this month and wrote about on December 19, 2014.
Here’s an owl ornament that’s made from a tiny gourd that I also purchased earlier this month. I wrote about this one on December 10, 2014.
Well, anyway, that’s pretty much it for past photos and videos of my Christmas decorations. The one big advantage with downsizing is that all of my Christmas decorations fit neatly into one box. There are separate boxes for the Christmas tree and Mickey’s Clock Shop but that’s no big deal compared to the old days when I used to have three boxes filled with just Christmas ornaments along with two smaller boxes for Christmas plushes and Beanie Babies. I’ve gotten rid of all of the Christmas plushes/Beanie Babies and two of the Christmas ornament boxes after my husband left. Thanks to my downsizing, I can have everything up and decorated in two or three hours and I can take them down really fast in about an hour or so. I’m really happy about that. I have people in my local area who really go overboard with the Christmas decorating (especially on their front property) so if I really want to see a lot of Christmas glitz, all I have to do is get in my car and make a few short trips.
Last Saturday I wanted to do something fun after I went through a bunch of CD’s to determine which ones I wanted to keep and which ones I should get rid of after ripping the songs that I really like to my MacBook. The weather was warm but not too hot while the humidity wasn’t too bad either so I decided to go to Artscape in Baltimore. (The fact that the festival was free was definitely a plus for me.) I walked around for a few hours and I mostly had a good time. I also took a whole boatload of photos and I uploaded three videos on to YouTube. So, anyway, here it goes!
Everywhere you went at Artscape there were lots of live music and vendors selling their arts and crafts.
I took the next few photos of this booth because some of the t-shirts said things like “Poly Girl Rock” and “Run Poly” (the latter is a parody of the famous Run-DMC logo) because one of my friends from my Unitarian Universalist congregation came out publicly as a polyamory person (along with her principal partner whom I also met through my church—I have never met any of their other paramours) and she has given media interviews about polyamory while also leading an organization called Practical Polyamory. I later uploaded these photos to Facebook while I tagged her name.
There were all kinds of trucks. Some of them sold food and beverages while others provided services like providing free testing for STDs and HIV/AIDS.
There were also interesting people to photograph on the street as well.
Someone made a statue of a sea turtle using recycled plastic shopping bags.
I’d never thought I’d ever see the National Bohemian beer (a.k.a. Natty Boh) mascot rendered in real life.
There was an area dedicated to building the World’s Largest Art Park where, for a $5 donation, people could paint bricks that will ultimately be used to create such a park. I regretted not doing this myself but money was so tight for me that I had to literally hang on to all the cash that I had on me at the time. I would love to see the entire park when it’s finished.
There was this merry-go-round carousel which rotated and it had sculptures of a chicken drumstick, and ear of corn, and a crab claw.
There was a protest/community art project where people could write on Post-It Notes what they would prefer the Baltimore City Public Schools to spend its money on other than standardized tests.
It was around the time that I took the previous picture that I happened to run into some people I knew from my childhood growing up in Glen Burnie, Maryland who recognized me while I didn’t recognize them until they gave their names. I already wrote at length about that encounter so I’ll just say here that I was less than thrilled with seeing those two women again and I was glad when they left after speaking with me for a couple of minutes. (Too bad I didn’t run into anyone from my college years at the University of Maryland at College Park. I would’ve been way happier and delighted because, to be honest, I prefer my college friends over my childhood friends.)
After they left I faced a dilemma. I had reached the north end at Artspace on Mt. Royal Avenue and there was still more to see on Charles Street. Normally I would walk back down Mt. Royal Avenue towards the Mt. Royal Light Rail Station then walk up Charles Street but I really didn’t want to risk encountering those women from my past again. (My previous post has all the details why I didn’t feel warm and fuzzy about seeing them again.) I looked on the map on my smartphone and found that I was not only close to North Street but I was also close to The Wind-Up Space, where I go to attend the Baltimore chapter of Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School. I found that I could walk along North Street towards The Wind-Up Space and turn right on Charles Street and I could pick up the rest of the festival at the other end. So I did just that and I didn’t have any further encounters with those two women from my old neighborhood (nor anyone else from my Glen Burnie days, for that matter). I also took some more photos along the way to North Street.
As I was walking along North Avenue, I came upon Red Emma’s, a worker-owned cooperative that’s a coffeehouse, vegan restaurant, and bookstore. I usually walk past Red Emma’s whenever I go to Dr. Sketchy’s at The Wind-Up Space but I had never been inside because Dr. Sketchy’s is usually held on a Monday night while Red Emma’s is closed on Mondays. I found that Red Emma’s was opened so I took advantage of a rare opportunity to see what this place was like on the inside.
I found that Red Emma’s is really nice looking and I was impressed with their book selection. The lines were too crowded for me to try the food (actually the lines were crowded at practically every single restaurant, fast food place, and food truck that I encountered during Artscape) and I was too broke to buy a book. I wouldn’t mind returning at a later date when I have more time and more money.
So I turned right on Charles Street and I was able to rejoin the festival.
There was a fashion area where would-be fashion designers sold their wares from booths, the backs of parked trucks, and even a funky-painted bus.
I came upon this cool looking booth for a hardware store called The Loading Dock that recycles materials from construction sites. It’s similar to what Community Forklift close to my home does.
I came across something called Magfest, which I can best describe as a festival within a festival.
This mini-festival is devoted to video gaming.
Basically there were video games (some were on computers while others were video arcade games) that people played while a live band played on a nearby stage. There was also a display of video game-inspired art.
I even shot a short video to give people an idea of what Magfest was like.
There was another mini-festival within a festival called The Alternative Art Fair that had all kinds of interesting art that was held on the lower level of a parking garage.
I came across some neat examples of urban gardening.
I found a couple of tents that had a dance demonstration by Arthur Murray, which is legendary in my family. As a teenager, my late aunt had taken dance classes through Arthur Murray and I was told that she was an excellent student. She even did a newspaper ad for Arthur Murray that included her photo and it ran in The Baltimore Sun. Sadly she had to give up those lessons when my grandfather died and money became tight as a result. (If you happened to come across a vintage 1950s Baltimore Sun newspaper and see an Arthur Murray ad featuring a photo of an attractive short-haired brunette named Linda Banahan, that was my late aunt.)
I eventually came up to the art cars that Artscape is well known for.
The car in the next photo was covered in pennies.
This car was covered in doodles.
This is the same Star Wars themed car that I saw parked outside of a baseball stadium the night that I attended a Bowie Baysox game on Star Wars night last month.
The Star Wars car also sold science fiction earrings.
Yes, it’s a cockroach car.
This vehicle was covered in bottle caps.
This art car also had art for sale.
I came across a puppeteer that had a marionette with a big butt and he was making the puppet do some twerking.
I even shot a short video of the twerking puppet.
I took more photos of various performers and other things.
I found a Midway-style carnival games that were all with twists. There was a duck game where the ducks floated around in a pool that resembled the U.S.S. Torsk that’s permanently docked in the Inner Harbor.
Believe it or not, this next photo is a ring toss.
Then there was a ball toss game called “Political Punk Rock” where people can throw balls at targets that resembled people like Hilliary Clinton, Kim Jong Un, John Boehner, Bill Clinton, Sarah Palin, and more!
The next photo shows this giant game that was a cross between pinball and a foosball table.
There was a pizza variation on the classic game Twister.
There was a performer named Gregory Morgan who was literally a one-man band. He was quite good at playing all the instruments by himself.
I even shot a short video of Gregory Morgan to give you an idea of what he was like.
I took the last few photos before I took the next light rail back to North Linthicum (where my car was parked). I was totally tired by the end.
Yesterday I checked out the second annual Awesome Con DC. There are definitely changes from when I attended that event last year. First of all tickets have doubled in price. (Last year I paid $15 for a Saturday-only pass while this year I paid $30 for the same type of pass.) Awesome Con DC has definitely doubled in size from last year and it was definitely more crowded this year. It took me twice as long to get a pass. Even though I purchased a ticket online I still had to stand in this long line just to get a wrist bracelet that said “SATURDAY ONLY” on it.
When I got out of the Metro station I was greeted by this sign, which was a foreshadowing of what I encountered next.
Lines, lines, and more lines of people waiting to get in.
When we got inside there was yet two other lines—one for those who had pre-ordered their tickets online like did and the one for those who didn’t. I noticed that the latter line was way longer. But it made for a very crowded experience.
The next photo shows the cover for the official program guide, which I thought looked pretty nice.
The next photo shows inside the program guide, which has a price list for the major media guests, all of which was pretty pricey. I noticed that there were separate pricing for both photo-ops and autographs, which indicated that if you wanted to get both an autograph and a photo-op from Billie Piper (best known for playing Rose Tyler for a few seasons on Doctor Who) it’ll cost you a whopping $100.
Billie Piper was giving a Q & A at 1:45 p.m. and I made every effort to get there in time only to get held up by both a Metro ride where the train remained in one station for a long time before it moved on and having to stand in that totally long line. By the time I arrived there was that really long line that stretched down the hallway (similar to the one in the photo below) where the Q & A took place and I gave up out of frustration.
In fact it seems like Awesome Con DC this year is getting to be like Otakon was last year where, unless one stood in a line outside the room at least a half-an-hour before the event, there would be no seats left. This is what one room looked like when I made an ill-fated attempt to go to a Steampunk Show and Tell.
As a result of the crowds I spent most of my time at Awesome Con DC perusing the Dealers Room and Artists Alley while taking photos of various cosplayers. (I saw a lot of women dressed as either Anna or Elsa from the hit Disney movie Frozen.)
Like I wrote earlier, there were a lot of women who were dressed up as either Anna or Elsa from the hit Disney movie Frozen, such as these two who were among the four people trying out the Microsoft XBox Kinect version of the video game Just Dance.
I even shot a short video of this.
There was a local DC organization, called R2DC Builders, that is dedicated to building their own replicas of R2-D2 from the Star Wars movies.
I even shot a short video showing R2-D2 in action.
There was this puppeteer in the Kids’ area who performed with a sock puppet.
I even managed to shoot a short video of this performance.
There was a long line of people waiting to get inside a replica of the Tardis from Doctor Who, which was really a photo booth. The resulting photos were shown on the screen outside, which was just as well because I really didn’t want to wait in yet another very long line. I later learned online that this Tardis photo booth can be booked for parties and special events.
Another area of the Dealers Room that also drew a large line was this opportunity to get an autograph and a photo taken with actor Ernie Hudson, best known for appearing in the Ghostbusters movie. It cost money to meet him so this photo was the closest I ever got to meeting him. (That’s him way in the back—near the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man—wearing a Ghostbusters t-shirt while shaking the hand of a lucky fan.)
One of the few events that wasn’t quite as crowded so I was able to find a seat was at a movie I had seen before a few years ago at the Utopia Film Festival called Every Other Day is Halloween, which is about the career of local legendary DC horror movie host Count Gore De Vol. Here he is signing a DVD that I bought from his booth.
Before I left for the day I spent some time in the Video Game room but that one was also crowded so I just took photos then went on the Metro.
This last photo is of a lovely sunset I saw while I was riding the Metro back home.
After all the sweat and tears I went through finishing my doll loveseat couch and after that last-minute conversion of my Zentangle activity from an hour-long workshop to a day-long hands-on activity it was finally time for the first-ever Greenbelt Mini Maker Faire. It was the third Maker Faire of its sort in the Washington, DC area after last fall’s Silver Spring event (which I attended) and another event that took place in Northern Virginia just a few weeks ago (which I wasn’t able to go to because I’m currently involved in my church’s social action project to teach English to recent immigrants and I co-teach a class that takes place at the same time as the Northern Virginia event).
I was so wound up from making lots of last-minute preparations for the event that I didn’t get much sleep so I woke up totally sleep deprived. I consumed plenty of Diet Pepsi and Five-Hour Energy drinks just so I can avoid dozing off. Here is what my table looked like.
One half of the table was devoted to the arts and crafts that I had for sale, including some tiny art canvases, thrift shop Barbie dolls that I refurbished and recycled as fairy dolls, and the doll loveseat that I made from a broken Dance Dance Revolution control pad, fabric scraps, and duct tape. I had an American Girl doll, a Makies doll, and a pink teddy sit in the loveseat. They weren’t for sale—they were used to demonstrate the loveseat. The pink bear was holding the qr code for my entry on how I cleaned and repaired that bear while Victoria the Makies doll held the qr code that led to the Makies website. (I figured that this qr code would satisfy anyone who was curious about Victoria.)
The other half of my table was devoted to the drop-in Zentangle activity complete with books, pens, pencils, and paper. (I also had a bowl of Easter egg-shaped chocolates to encourage people to visit my table. LOL!) I also had an iMac G5 available for $100 that I was selling on behalf of a friend of mine in exchange for getting a cut of the sale proceeds. I only got one interest in the computer from a person who thought that a friend of hers may be interested but she needed to check with the person first. Otherwise, no one was interested in the computer.
Here’s a photo of me standing next to my table that someone else took with my smartphone. I wore the official t-shirt of the Greenbelt Mini Maker Faire but it was cold outside so I ended up wearing a sweatshirt over it. As for the sweatshirt itself, I wore the same My Little Pony Rainbow Dash hoodie that I wore last Halloween. (I have the hood down in the photo below.) I had plenty of people who said that they loved my sweatshirt.
My booth faced the front of the New Deal Cafe, which was a pretty great location because I had a lot of people who stopped by on the way to the cafe.
Whenever I needed to step away from my table, I had my American Girl doll hold this message that I wrote on a small dry erase board.
The day was pretty sunny but very windy. Despite my polymer clay paperweights, there were times when I still had to reconfigure my table because the wind was strong enough to blow things over. I made a few sales on my crafts, which was okay. There were also times when I would walk over to Club 125 just so I could take a warming break from the cold and the wind.
The biggest hassle was trying to convert my Zentangle activity from my originally planned hour-long workshop to a day-long, hands-on, drop-in activity. (When I signed up to give a workshop, I thought I would give an hour-long workshop located either in Club 125 or one of the other interior places in Roosevelt Center. It wasn’t until I went to a party for the volunteers on Thursday—two days before the event—that I was really expected to have a drop-in activity for the entire day.) Rather than repeat the same instructions over and over again to different people, I decided that I needed to provide a written instruction sheet. Luckily I didn’t have to create one from scratch. I found this document online where I basically printed the first page and used that as the Zentangle instructions sheet.
For all my effort in reconfiguring the Zentangle lesson from an hour-long workshop to a day-long hands-on activity, only four people actually worked on their own Zentangle that day. The weather was in the 50’s and it was very windy so I think that affected people being willing to do something artistic outside. Other people who had hands-on activities on outdoor tables also told me that they didn’t get many enthusiastic takers. The girl in the photo below was one of the four people who did a Zentangle.
I took frequent breaks to go to the bathroom and I spent some of that time checking out the other tables at the event. The next photo is a table for a new hackerspace/makerspace for women called Spanning Tree, which hopes to find some facilities near a Metro stop.
There was an information table about Club 125, which was largely responsible for the entire event.
Solo the dog helped her owner with running the table that educated the public on using herbs and spices.
There were all kinds of hands-on activities like origami, felting, soldering, and making music.
Someone walked around the Mini Maker Faire dressed in steampunk couture.
There was a table for creating paper airplanes while educating people about the fact that there was once an airport in Greenbelt, Maryland called Schrom Airport.
This woman was busy twisting balloons into various animals, plants, hats, and other shapes.
A small games publisher, Black Oak Games, publicized its two products—Knot Dice (a puzzle where the user creates Celtic knots) and Diner (a diner-themed card game).
A local company called TechShop provided information about upcoming classes in computer and technology-related subjects.
A bunch of kids were having fun playing computer video games inside Club 125 while other kids played with Legos, made chalk drawings on the sidewalk, and had their faces and other body parts painted.
There were demonstrations of using recycled grocery store apple cartons and PVC pipes in vertical gardening.
There was also an exhibit on terrariums.
There were displays and demonstrations on traditional activities like spinning wool, canning, mosaic making, and sewing clothes.
There were some new twists on old traditions like cooking food in a solar oven.
This table sold science and math-themed books for children.
There were a variety of handmade crafts on sale like knitted hats, knitted scarves, hand-painted wood crafts, and even blinking jewelry.
There were electronic devices of all kinds on display.
The Greenbelt Mini Maker Faire had all kinds of 3D printers that made jewelry and figurines.
In contrast to last fall’s Silver Spring Mini-Maker Faire, the Greenbelt one was committed to being more non-commercial by featuring smaller lesser-known companies. In fact, the biggest name at the Greenbelt event was NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, which had a large booth.
Basically the event provided a nice place for people and animals to socialize in the sun.
I also shot a short video of some of the exhibits and events where just showing still photos wouldn’t do them justice. It includes a man who used these noise-emitting electronics to play Patsy Cline’s “Crazy” song, a robot that could toss a large ball to people, and a bunch of people playing with hula hoops.
Like I wrote earlier, there were times when I had to struggle with my items getting knocked down by wind gusts. My doll loveseat couch even got knocked over a few times and it’s a big item. Here are what my two dolls and one teddy bear looked like at the end of the day before I packed them in my car.
I took a closeup of my American Girl doll’s face mainly because she looks either sleepy or stoned or both.
That’s it for my photos. If you want to see more photos, check out the official photos that have been posted on Flickr.
Today I had further fun with the camera that’s in my new smartphone.
I took this shot earlier in the day while I was raking the leaves. The stepping stone (which I made a couple of months ago) marks the burial site of my pet hedgehog, Spike. The stepping stone looks like an island in a sea of autumn leaves. Spike passed away in September. Even though he wasn’t a very friendly pet, there are times when I still miss the little guy.
The rest of the photos were taken at the annual Green Fair that was held at Community Forklift while I was doing some early Christmas shopping on Small Business Saturday.
I’ll end this post with this lovely pastel-colored sunset.
Sagittarius Dolly 
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