From the Hobbit Hole

27/05/2024

Happy Memorial Day! 🇺🇸
Today we honor those who have fought for the USA and lost their lives defending our freedoms. It’s been a while since we shared this cosplay from 2021, so it seemed quite fitting to share it today. In our opinion, there has been no better fictional character who gave their life for this country of ours than Captain America himself! Of course, since we are Ren Faire Cosplayers, our Captain America cosplay had to have a Renaissance twist to it. This is our take on Cap as a Knight. Since this cosplay is set in the mid 1500s, the question is, would he still be called Captain America or would his title be Captain of the New World?
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Shield and helmet created by
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26/05/2024

Please consider helping one of our favorite Bards recover from a life changing loss! Randal Piper has charmed his way into many of our hearts and is now in need of us to help him through this tough time. Please consider donating!

On Saturday May 25th, Randal Piper's dice rolled a critical fail on a constitution c… Dakotah Walsh needs your support for Randal Piper Trailer Recovery

05/05/2024

Be careful of the Sith! Today is the day they take REVENGE. 😬
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Happy Revenge of the Fifth!
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04/05/2024

May the 4th be with you. ✨
This incredible edit is by Chad Harnish from a Star Wars themed shoot we did a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away …at least that’s what Chad’s edit makes it look like. We hope you enjoy Star Wars Day 2024! How will you be celebrating?
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19/04/2024

These were the outfits we wore on our very FIRST visit to the New Jersey Renaissance Faire, and it only seemed fitting to share them once again on this because today starts the one month countdown to the start of their 2024 season!! This year they added a fourth weekend to their season, which means 2 extra days of merriment! Dates for the 2024 season are May 18-19, 25-26, and June 1-2, 8-9. Are you planning to visit New Crossford this year? If so, there’s a good chance you’ll run into The Brothers Grimm! 😮
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If you’ve never been to the NJRF we highly recommend checking it out! This Faire has a wonderful, friendly atmosphere where you can see great entertainers like Adamo Ignis Fire & Danger Show and Jacques Ze Whipper, or listen to the beautiful musical stylings of Bardy Pardy. 🎶 You can get a sampling of these performers in our vlog from last season! Watch it here: https://youtu.be/bqOU1pEYmcc
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Green cloak by Fellandfair
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29/03/2024

Have you been to this year’s Murder at Mount Hope Mansion Dinner Theater Show? We went back in February and had an absolutely wonderful time!! Since 2019, we’ve been attending their interactive murder mystery shows, and let’s say that this one is by far our favorite to date! This year’s storyline is set around a 1960s spy espionage group called A.T.L.A.S. and their work to thwart their arch nemesis, P.A.N.I.C.
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From the characters, to the little details in the storyline, everything about this Murder Mystery Show is done superbly! We were lucky enough to share a table with the mastermind behind this year’s show, Jules Schrader, and we cannot say enough good things about the work she did in creating this experience. You have one more month to experience this show as it closes on April 29th, so don’t miss it!
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A big THANK YOU to Luria Visuals for capturing a few pictures of us during the evening. We ended up only taking 2 pictures of our own the whole night (the trophy and place setting) as we were so enthralled by everything going on in the show that we forgot to take more pictures. 😅
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28/03/2024

This past weekend was all about celebrating our little girl’s 4th birthday! It’s crazy to think that 4 years ago we went from being a couple to a small family. It’s hard to fully remember what our lives were like before our daughter entered this world, especially since so many of our memories now center around her. This past weekend we made lots of new memories! They included playing air hockey, bowling, having her try her first bite of Asian food, and creating our own Duck Donuts. (Did you know you get a free Duck Donut on your birthday? We did not, which made for an extra great surprise!) Anyway, it’s strange for us to now tell people we have a 4 year old as it makes us aware of how quickly the time is going, but we love seeing our little girl grow and experience new things. It’s even better when we get to experience those new things together as a family!

18/03/2024

Yesterday, the disheartening news of the passing of Doug Kondziolka spread throughout the Renaissance Faire World. To the masses, he was known as Miguel from Don Juan and Miguel, and that is who we knew him to be. He was an icon at many Faires and Festivals throughout the country. Beloved by everyone he entertained, inspired, and worked with. Now, his legacy will live on our pictures, videos, and memories. ❤️🖤
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In 2019, we decided to honor Don Juan and Miguel and their decades of entertainment by cosplaying them. It was truly an honor! Miguel’s reaction was priceless as he was overwhelmed with emotion that someone would take the time to painstakingly recreate his very unique costume. Don Juan was surprised to see “Miguel” taller than himself! 😂 Walking the streets of the Mt Hope Shire as these two iconic characters gave us a real sense of how much they meant to everyone. During Human Chess, they surprised us by calling us up onto the chessboard so we could stand in for them during their fight. That was mind blowing!! 🤯 Thankfully, we captured this incredible day in a vlog, which can be found here: https://youtu.be/h6ok0ZZHt-g
After that day, Miguel remembered us every time he saw us. Once, in mid conversation, he stopped and complimented Hailey’s eyes as they sparkled and grabbed his attention. It was the most genuine and touching thing! The last conversation we had with him was in 2022 about Lord of the Rings. He was a fan of the books, and he told us that he couldn’t bring himself to watch the movies. In his mind, he was afraid that they could never do the books justice and he didn’t want to ruin the perfect images that the books created in his mind’s eye.
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Doug “Miguel,” you will be sorely missed in this world! Your smile, love, and kindness was unlike any other. Ren Faires around this country will never be the same without you.
Hail the Traveler.
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06/03/2024

Our friends over at Sweetish Candy recently got some great publicity! Congratulations!!

Food & Wine suggests that Swedish candy could be the key to happiness. As it does so, it suggests a downtown Lancaster candy store as a place to score your

14/02/2024

We’ve been each other’s Valentines for a dozen years! 🥰 A dozen years of loving each other is definitely better than a dozen roses as time never dries, wilts, or loses color. Thankfully, our love has not gone the way of the flower, but instead it has grown deeper and stronger for one another over the time we’ve been together. 💕 We hope the same is true for you and the person you love! Happy Valentine’s Day!!
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To those of you who are single or have lost a partner whom you loved, we understand that today can be difficult. Just know that you have friends and family that love you and will always be there to make you feel special!
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📸 by
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22/01/2024

We came. We saw. We 𝘢𝘭𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 conquered. 😅
The first ever Mid-Winter Mead & Music event at Meduseld Meadery was definitely a fun time! We got to listen to amazing musicians, watch (and participate in) a magic show, and test our knowledge at fantasy themed trivia! Trivia is what we almost conquered. Our group finished in the top 3 but was beaten by another by 5 full points (if only we knew more names of the 9 Realms of Norse Mythology!). The music consisted of so many Faire favorites which allowed us to sing along! The magic show was extremely entertaining and Nathan found himself, along with two other participants tying the magician, Jeff, to a chair with 100 ft of rope!! If they could tie him up faster than he could get out, he would’ve bought all 3 of them drinks…sadly that didn’t happen, but it was so much fun nonetheless! (Hopefully you saw the footage of this in our story over the weekend.) If they ever do this event again, or one like it, we highly recommend you check it out.
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📸 of us by Erika F.
📸 of Nathan tying up Jeff by Randy T.
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19/01/2024

Tomorrow we will be attending the Mid-Winter Music & Mead event at Meduseld Meadery where we are being heavily encouraged to dress in Norse or Ren Faire garb! We never miss an opportunity to dress in cosplay!! 😉 This event has so many great offerings and we are really looking forward to enjoying some delicious mead while listening to the incredible music of a few of our favorite Ren Faire artists. Plus, we’ll get to test our fantasy knowledge at trivia and witness the magical illusions of the one and only Jeff Wolfthal!! Unfortunately, this event is now SOLD OUT so if you didn’t get your tickets already then you missed out… 😭 Don’t expect a vlog from us either because we are planning on simply enjoying this event, but we will definitely get pictures!
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📸 Our picture is from Viking Weekend at the PA Ren Faire in 2022.
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18/01/2024

Snow really brings out the puppy in our almost 10 year old boy! He absolutely loves it!! When Kita was younger and he would realize that it snowed outside, he would constantly be begging us to go out and play in it with him. We would take him out and after we had a good play we’d come inside to warm up. Once we got warm and cozy, he’d be standing by the door just staring at us with his deep, dark eyes pleading to go out and play in the fluffy white stuff once again. It was the cutest thing! He doesn’t do that so much anymore, but when we do take him out into the snow he is raring and ready to have fun!!
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22/12/2023

Falling into the Holiday Weekend like….”Nooooo, it can’t be here already?!?!” 🎄
If you’ve see our story posts the last couple of weeks, you know we’ve been EXTRA busy with remodeling our 1st floor bathroom and switching around our Library, Film Studio, and play room so we can better utilize each space. On top of that, due to prolonged rain, we had water in our basement this past week! 😩 To say that the days leading up to this weekend have been hectic would be an understatement. Fortunately, our basement is finally dry and the bathroom will be 90% completed by the end of the day on Dec. 23rd (which means it’ll be fully usable!). Thankfully, we are all in good health and looking forward to lots of family time during the next several days!
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15/12/2023

Getting to enjoy two new-to-us Ren Faires this year was an absolute dream come true! For years now, we’ve been talking about wanting to see what other Faires have to offer (our home Faire is PRF) and this year we finally made it a reality. It was a HOT day when we visited the Maryland Renaissance Festival, but we enjoyed the day nonetheless. The amount of shops to look through was incredibly overwhelming at first, but we took the time to check them all out…or at least we thought we saw them all, but it turned out that we did not. 😮 The shows that we saw were fun and entertaining. Every bit of food that we tried was delicious, and there were soooo many options! On top of that, it was a date day for the two of us!! We got to explore a new land together, and it was an amazing experience!
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12/12/2023

We officially made it to the first year of Yuletide at the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire on the last weekend of the season!! To be honest, we were not sure if we’d make it out at all since this time of year gets super busy with other Holiday events and preparations for Christmas, but we are very happy that we did get to experience it for a few short hours! Our time at Yuletide was spent chasing our 3 year old around the Mt Hope Shire (which is typical for any Faire Day in which she attends with us) so we didn’t get to see a lot of the entertainment, but we did enjoy the festive atmosphere and got to meet a few of the characters like Chris Smith and the Sugarplum Fairy. The one show we did catch was Storytime with Father Christmas, which was a fun and creative reading of The Night Before Christmas. Also, we could not forget to stop by the Tomboy togs booth so our little one could say hi to her Faire Bestie!! The Pin Lady is a truly kind and caring person who we have come to know and love, so it is awesome that our little one is also finding her to be a wonderful friend!
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Since this was the first year for Yuletide, we did not make a YouTube video about it because we knew it would be altered as it grows. Once this event becomes more established in coming years, that’s we will look at making a video for you all to enjoy!
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08/12/2023

We’re baaaaacckkkkkk!!!! 🎉
…or we will be. 😉
You see, we’ve not posted much on social media in a few weeks so we are back with a new post, AND this new post is to inform you that we will be back at the PA Ren Faire this weekend for the first time since the close of the 2023 Ren Faire Season!! Hence the “…or we will be.”
Follow? Okay, good!
We are excited to check out Yuletide for the first time on the final weekend of this event. Unfortunately our private, personal schedule has made it difficult for us to make it there until now and even though we are going, we cannot be there for the full 5 hours of the event. Regardless of how long we can stay, being able to roam the Mt Hope Shire once more this year makes us overjoyed!!
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If you’ve been to Yuletide already, leave us a comment with tips or things we cannot miss while we are there for our limited few hours! We want to make the best of our time there. 😊
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Armor by
Ears by
Staff & Sword by us!
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24/11/2023

It’s and the first day of Yuletide at the PA Ren Faire! We are not there today, but the pictures we are seeing from our friends that are at this new event look very magical!! Now that the holiday season is truly underway, we’ve decided to take it easy during the course of the next several weeks. It’s easy to fill up one’s social calendar with all sorts of fun holiday things, but doing that also comes with burnout. Our goal as a family is to not burnout this holiday season, which means we did not get Subscription Passes to Yuletide as that would’ve been too much for us. Just because we won’t be at Yuletide every day that the festive gates are open doesn’t mean you can’t “find us there.” Tomboy togs will be carrying our Hobbit Door Pins with her and Ironworks Pottery will have a small selection of our FTHH Mugs at her shop!! If you missed getting our merch during the regular Faire season, you now have a chance to get our pin and mug during Yuletide!! 🎄
This picture is from the last day that we all attended the 2023 Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire season as a family. Even though it was the end of October, it was warm enough for our daughter to wear her Moana costume! 😮
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22/11/2023

It is the day before Thanksgiving, which seems like the perfect time to share some photos from our Autumnal Hobbit Photoshoot that we did a month ago!! Since Thanksgiving is a day of feasting celebrated with friends and family, these photos feel most fitting as we had our own little picnic feast with our fellow Hobbit friends! It was great to finally do a photoshoot with and as we’ve been social media friends for a while, and we’ve even met up with them at the PA Ren Faire a couple of times! We cannot forget to mention who had the idea for this photoshoot and thought of us to be her models!! We feel very honored. 😊 There are so many great moments that she captured during this shoot and we cannot wait to share them with you over the coming weeks!
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14/11/2023

When Merlin was released from his timber internment by the good Queen Elizabeth, the Mt Hope Shire became extra magical during its celebration of All Hallows’ Eve. Every year, a new but familiar face…or 2…or 3 (looking at you Wyrd Sisters)…happens to appear during the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire’s Halloween themed weekends. This new addition and change in storyline always makes the end of the Faire season so much more exciting! Upon seeing Merlin appear on the first Halloween weekend, Nathan knew he had to reprise his Emrys cosplay from the BBC show, Merlin! Merlin meeting Merlin was a bit of a paradox, but fortunately nothing catastrophic came from it…or so we think! 😬😅
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When posing for these pictures, Merlin asked Merlin if we should be happy or grumpy. If there’s 2 Merlins, then why not 2 expressions of emotion? So that is what we did! Which do you prefer?
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10/11/2023

Since their first appearance at the PA Ren Faire in 2019, Two Bard Party immediately became one of our favorite musical groups at any Renaissance Faire!! Rowan and Randal are charming and hearty, that’s for sure! What you see is what you get with them, and what you get can split your sides with laughter, touch your heart with sincerity, or make you feel empowered to conquer any adventure that awaits you. Their music is incredible, nerdy, and never gets old. Over the last 5 years, these two have become dear friends of ours whom we look forward to seeing each year! Honestly, the Faire doesn’t feel whole until they arrive to Mt Hope Shire.
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While taking this picture with them on the final weekend of the 2023 Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire season, Randal found himself unsure of what to do with his hands, thus causing the silliness that is seen in the last 3 pictures. Again, these two are amazingly talented performers and just as amazing humans that we wish we could see more than just a couple weekends out of the year. We hope the best for these two on their many adventures throughout the coming year!
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07/11/2023

It’s this beautiful lady’s 35th birthday!! 🥳
She made it another year around the sun, and definitely continues to glow up with each revolution! She’s the best cosplay partner I could’ve ever asked for, a loving and caring person that our daughter gets to look up to as a role model, and a truly incredible, strong woman! This is now the 13th birthday I’ve had the chance to celebrate with her, and I look forward to decades more of celebrations!! Please join me in wishing her the happiest of birthdays in any way you can! You can leave a comment, tag her on Instagram or send her a DM.
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06/11/2023

STEVE!!!
The 2023 Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire season saw the return of Mt Hope Shire’s one and only Steve! Knowing of his return, and the fact that he is the only character to change costumes from week to week, it became Nathan’s goal to get a portrait with him each week during the season. PRF has an 11 week run so the goal was lofty, especially since he is super busy during a Faire day and sometimes hard to find. What made things even more challenging was the fact that we were NOT going to be in attendance during the 3rd weekend! Fortunately, we ran into incog-Steve-o at the Maryland Renaissance Festival!! On the 9th weekend, our daughter decided she wanted to join in on the fun. She even posed perfectly! Capturing Steve’s iconic “don’t look at the camera but gaze longingly off into the distance” pose is not an easy thing to emulate. In the end, all 11 versions of Steve were collected. With this last weekend being the first one since the Faire ended, Nathan discovered that he missed seeing Steve each weekend as it became one of his favorite things about this year’s Faire season! Hopefully, next year Steve will return and this tradition can continue!! Now to wait 8 months…
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31/10/2023

Happy Halloween!! 🎃
It’s been a year since we revealed our Renaissance Jack and Sally, but the memories of this cosplay are still fresh in our minds. Those memories mostly come from the pain and irritation of wearing these cosplays for a whole Ren Faire day 😅 …BUT, the memories of all the reactions from those around us as we walked the streets of the Mt Hope Shire are the ones we truly cherish! We get stopped often at the PA Ren Faire, as we are recognized for our videos on YouTube, but we got stopped wayyyyy more as these characters than any other time we’ve attended the Faire!! 😮 The love that these two characters receive from everyone of all ages is absolutely astounding, and we were honored to experience that love as we portrayed these iconic figures in our own iteration!
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27/10/2023

In 2021, we worked with to create our custom camera bag for when we vlog at the Ren Faire. This year, we FINALLY got to meet the incredible artist and fierce jouster who created this masterpiece for us! It was a wonderful experience to chat with her and let her see how the bag is holding up after 3 Faire seasons. We got to tell her about all the compliments that we get when people see the bag, specifically, the high praise we hear about the hobbit door emblem that she masterfully carved into the leather! We couldn’t have picked a better person to have worked with on this custom project!!
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You can now find Starry Night Leatherwork pieces at the tent alongside and The Alchemy Valkyrie’s handcrafted adornments! Their tent is located along the path between Ball & Chain and Endgame stages.
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