In an effort to give the site a bit of spring cleaning and to kick off the start of this years faire season, I have changed the look of the site. Yes, I know you liked where this button was located, or that menu item was there, but hey change is the one true constant in the universe.... And you can always join the web team (ie me) to help redesign the site in a way you like.

As I was stumbling around, looking at various things to upgrade or scrap all together I found and interesting plugin that would allow members to sell things through this site, a sort of flea market if you will. I know folks are all ways looking to sell old garb/accesories they no longer use, and this seemed like a good service to provide our members. At present any member can upload and sell things provided they have a paypal account. We have no stake in this, we make no money of it, and honestly we won't be getting involved in any disputes you might have with a seller and/or a buyer. It's sort of like our own little version of Craig's List.

We are currently gathering together a "think tank" to discuss the future of NERennies, and where we are heading. You can still get in on this ground floor, all you need is the ability to think and well that is pretty much it really. Want to join this think tank? E-mail me at keith©nerennies.net

You may have noticed the ad banner on the site, if not... damn I need to work on making that more obvious... We are going to be attempting to run some ads on the site so we can hopefully have a steady (if small) revenue stream coming in. Oddly, enough without money the site kind of slowly dries up and withers away, which hopefully no one wants. So we'll give this a shot a shot. I am still tweaking the code, so the banner shows on all the pages but it will be visible soon. So if you have a faire you want to promote or products you want to sell then feel free to contact me.

HUZZAH!!! Congratulations to the NERennies.net site for being in the top five of the 2009 Renaissance Festival Awards for Best Faire Web Community!!!!
For those who don’t know the Renaissance Festival Awards are, they are awards voted on by Ren Faire enthusiasts and put on by the Renaissance Festival Podcast.  2009 was the fifth year for this awards and this year was sponsored by Celtic MP3s Music Magazine and Renaissance Magazine.

We also want to send out a big HUZZAH for our some other local winners:

• Midsummer Magick Renaissance Faire #1 for best new faire
  

• Winslow Shire Renaissance Faire #2 for best new faire

• CT Renaissance Faire #5 Best Street Cast

• CT Renaissance Faire #5 Best Opening Gate Show
• The Magic of Daniel Greenwolf #1 Best Non-musical Solo act
• Paragon Jousting and Adventure theater #5 Best Jousting Troupe
• Rosalita's Puppet Show #4 Best childrens act
• Lusty Leather #1 Best Shop Vendor
• Jayna Lee Show #3 Best Street Performance
  

Please join me in sending out a big congratulations to them and all the winners for 2009. To see a complete listing see the link below.
http://renaissancefestivalmusic.com/2010/02/5th-annual-renaissance-festival-awards Faire season opens soon!!
See you all there!!!
Aine
Submitted by AineOTuathail

The long awaited announcement!
After being taken such good care of this past spring at our fundraiser dinner we decide to stick to the same venue. This year's Winter Feast will take place January 16th in Hampton, NH at The Old Salt from 6-10pm. As an added bonus, attached to the restaurant is Lamie's Inn. For those of you wishing to make it an overnight adventure, the Inn is willing to offer us a block of rooms at a discounted rate. We need a minimum of I believe 10 rooms to get the discount rate so please contact me if you are interested.  Rooms will be $79 + tax based upon double occupancy.

Tickets for the dinner will be $40 per person, on the menu will be:

• Bread & Butter
• Salad
• Clam Chowder
• Choice of Baked Cheese Lasagna or Chicken Cordon Bleu
  
• Roasted Red Bliss Potatoes or Au Gratin Potatoes
  
• Grean Bean Almondine or Glazed Carrots
• Assorted Desserts
• Coffee and tea & non alcoholic drinks

There will also be a cash bar. As always this is a garbbed event, please come in your finest.  I let the restaurant know that we would be well dressed and gave them links to Blue Beard and Red Beard's pictures so they would know how fantastic we will all look!
Tickets will be avaiable in Ye Olde Shoppe.

Also of note, the infamous NERennies mug, a collaborative work between Sir Charles of Dragon's Paradox and Tat2Missy of Art Gecko Tatoo will be raffled off at the dinner.  Raffle tickets, $1 for 1 or 6 for $5 will be available in Ye Olde Shoppe and the night of the dinner. (Photo coming soon)

We are back from a wonderful weekend at the Connecticut Renaissance Faire. Saturday was absolutely gorgeous with wonderful weather and record breaking opening day attendance numbers! There was a feel of excitement in the air with the new site layout and it seemed to me there was much more interaction both between those working at faire and those attending, it was a long and fantastic day. Sunday brought rain and a few die hard faire goers but it too had it's own positive bits. There was a touching surprise wedding proposal which had more than one person a bit teary eyes... good thing for the misty weather, and as I was walking around I saw a good deal of other merchants milling about, talking with their neighbors and interacting with cast which we don't find ourselves able to do as easily when the days are jam packed with patrons. It was a marvelous opportunity for grand conversations with people we get to see far too infrequently and because of those conversations I am very thankful for the rain... though I do hope it will be the only foul weather day of the run
During one of the conversational opportunities over the weekend I was able to chat with the infamous Red Beard the pirate (aka Eric of CTRF). I mentioned that I had noticed he wasn't floating around Saturday taking some of the amazing pictures that we all love to look at and that I hoped he would be out on Sunday. It was then that he gave me the awful news.... his cannon is broken! It seems that over time taking pictures causes SLR cameras to sort of eat themselves, with every picture taken you slowly wear down the shutter assembly and once it's done... it's done.  Without replacing the camera, there would be no CTRF 09 pictures for all of us to oogle and enjoy. No browsing through hundreds of amazing faire photos taken from the Red Beard perspective hoping just a little bit to find one of yourself. It seems to me that a CTRF season without flipping through the albums of Red Beard and Blue Beard both is just not complete.  With the two perspectives they present, and any good pirate knows that to cannons are better than one, it makes it possible for those who are unable to visit the faire to get a true glimpse into the fun, interactions and amazingly good times.
Though I tried to paint a picture in your mind at the start of this post, I am not as good at it as I would like to be... it would be beneficial to be able to now point you to a couple of links where you too can go and see some of what I saw over the weekend. Blue Beard was milling about over the weekend and I did indeed seem him taking photos so I am sure at some point very soon we will have those for all to enjoy, but sadly, with Red Beard left cannon less there will be no CTRF 09 first weekend photos for all to enjoy.
But wait! Red Beard may have no photos from the first weekend... but WE can make sure that he is able to be out sneaking about "shooting" the unsuspecting the rest of the run with a brand new Cannon! $1000 is a lot of money I think for any of us, especially these days.  I know *I* don't have that just laying around collecting dust, I'm sure you probably don't either, and after talking to Eric I know that he does not.  What I do know is that we are community, we help our neighbors when we are able... even in small ways, and through community we make possible those things that we thought impossible. That said here is what I ask of you:
 Go to http://nerennies.chipin.com/erics-ts-camera to make a donation. $1, $10, $100, what ever you are able to do is greatly appreciated. My challenge to everyone is to raise the money Eric needs over the course of this work week so that he can have his new camera ready for next weekend! Please remember that things at NERennies might not be quite the same if not for all of the time and energy that Eric donated to the cause before Keith et all were asked to take over. Not to mention all of the incredible photos he has taken of so many of us over the years, I know I have a bunch and maybe you do as well... or maybe you will be a target in the future, but that can't happen without the cannon! He has done, and continues to do, great things for our community and beyond and if you have ever had fortune to meet and chat with him you know that he is a wonderful and deserving friend.
 If you would like to peruse current and past dueling cannon pictures you may find Blue Beard's site here and Red Beard's site here