Weekend at the Asylum _First UK Steampunk convention

Oh my goodness, what a wonderful weekend!

I attended the first British Steampunk Convention - held in an old Victorian asylum, now a lovely conference center - The Lawns - in Lincoln. On our arival in Lincoln we went straight to our fabulous accomodation which we were sharing with The Trolls, got dressed into "adventuring" clothes and hustled off to meet everyone else for the evenings entertainment.

It was great to meet up with lots of old friends - and I made loads of new ones too. We listened to a great band or two, laughed at the comedian who gave us a brilliant illustrated talk on the "History of British Industry" - (Brunel was cheered for a full minute...) and then ate pizza for tea ;)
On Saturday I was up very early to set up my stall - the absinthe lollipops were a great hit and I sold lots of lovely steampunk jewellery too.

During the day there were costume competitions, lectures readings and workshops on a variety of subjects - from "How to make a raygun from a fruitshoot bottle" to "The physics of time travel"!

Guest of honour was the wonderfully entertaining Mr Robert Rankin - who also awarded Mr Troll first prize in the costume competitionfor his "Mars Regiment Corporals Uniform" - which had a brass and leather pith helmet and gas mask (with bottles and pipes attached which glowed and bubbled - brilliant!)
My teddy won first prize for best steam bear and is very proud of his medal...

Then it was home again to dress for the Empire Ball. Everyone put on their finest outfits and danced the night away. Never have I seen so many beautiful and unusual outfits in one room - It was truly a spectacular evening. I was waltzed round the room by a charming young man (and I even got a dance with my lovely husband )

Exhausted but happy we retired for the evening - only to get up early again to run the sall on Sunday, this time in a lovely marquee in Charlotte house. We also had a picnic and the gentlemen showed off their steam croquet skills ...

Then Hubby and I went and bought delicious rose tea from Stokes Teashop and then it was back home again to cuddle the pets!