Dreamhaven Update #12

For those of you following the Dreamhaven Project at home, you may recall that two weeks ago we formally secured the architectural firm that will be designing the park.

This is really exciting news and we're looking forward to seeing some initial bubble diagrams and drawings by the end of the year!

In the interest of elaborating on the various module components that we are incorporating, here's a little bit about the banquet hall...

Great Hall Example

The Great Hall
This element of the park will be attached to the main castle.  It's concept is to be a large hall with supporting industrial kitchen and side break-out rooms for small groups.  We wish to make as many aspects of our park as multi-functional as possible.  Our aim here is to build a space that can be used to host receptions, bazaars, large scale gaming tournaments, workshops, corporate retreats, seminars, banquets and more.

Join the Dream!

Dreamhaven Update #11

I'm taking a moment this week to talk about Dreamhaven specifically.  There have been a lot of updates and changes over the summer as the vision refines itself and takes better focus.  I am really very excited about how it's shaping up.

Yesterday, we formally retained Coupe Architecture to begin our project design. We've narrowed our land-search areas (in order of prevalence) to Snohomish, Lewis and Grant Counties. These will be contingent (ultimately) on what our market studies bear out.

Two of the things that I am most excited to discuss are the Handmade & Farmer's Market, and the P-Patch Community Gardens.

Handmade and Farmer's Market
The market is, ostensibly, one of the first things you will see when you enter Dreamhaven.  While it is meant to have a medieval/fantasy village aesthetic, we plan to build as much as we can using green technology and permaculture techniques.

The market will have to primary types of shoppes or stalls: 1) the permanent artisan workshops, some with overhead living/storage studios and 2) daily farmers market stalls which are first come, first served to set up and vend for the day, or for the duration of your event.

The village market stalls will be intended to house a variety of artisan craftworks such as pottery, bath and body products, glass blowing, blacksmithing, jewelry, garb & cosplay clothing, etc.  These products are intended to be made primarily right on site from Dreamhaven artisans!

Pea Patch Community Gardens
These little garden patches will be available to members of the public community.  They will be welcome to tend to their garden in Dreamhaven every day, and are invited along with any other vendors/artists to sell their produce, flowers or other crops in our farmer's market stalls.

It is our goal to provide both a learning experience and a hobby, whilst encouraging community productivity.  The more we learn to sustain ourselves, even in our urban settings, the greener our world will be.

Developing our on-site gardens, pumpkin patches and orchards provides us with a unique opportunity to hold educational seminars and field trips.

I am very excited about the direction we're going and looking forward to sharing more as we go forward!

Dreamhaven Update #10

This weekend was pretty awesome.  Ion the Leprechaun and I ventured down the silver path to the Spokane Renaissance Faire, to the Gossamer Glen of Queen Mab.  We had a great time making crowns, fairy rings, and magic wands!

Among the highlights was our Human Magic (Science) show with the kidlets.  We experimented with a some Rainbow magic and an Oobleck Spell.  We also enjoyed bartering the metals (bottlecaps) for wishing stones, and good times with good friends.

Tycho and Hypatia joined us for the trip, they seemed to do pretty well in both the blueberry chariot as well as their kitteh harnesses.  The kids were able to pet and hold and play with them but as you can see, motorin' sacked sister kitten out!

Project Dreamhaven received confirmation from Coupe Architecture that work on the park design will begin with our first payment.  We're almost to $1,000 to get that ball rolling, which is very exciting. :)  We are also nearly up to 300 votes on our Chase Grant application!

It's very nice to see the coupon-booklet contributing to both vendors, and the project all at once.  We are getting a lot of new sign-ups for next year so I'm looking forward to even bigger and better!

All that said, this week's giveaway is for a selection of some pretty awesome art from Kamakru Art.  Check out her page and tell us what your favorite pieces are!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Dreamhaven Update #9

For those of you just now joining us, Project Dreamhaven is our vision to establish a themed event venue and adventure park that operates year-round.

We've been working this year to build the funds necessary to begin the process with an architectural feasibility study (that is, the park layout and design necessary to receive bids from general contractors).

Part of our ongoing efforts to raise these funds include the Coupon-Fairy Booklet, the Fairyblossom Festival and our GoFundMe Campaign.

Added to our capital-raising efforts, we've officially applied for a $150,000 grant from Chase bank.  This grant would be used to help pay for our feasibility study and the purchase of real-estate for our event park.

We need 250 votes in order to advance to the next phase.  If you support our vision, please take a moment to go vote for me.  It is free to do so and does not require any email sign up.

Thank you so much for your support!

Dreamhaven Update #8

I am pleased to announce that the Coupon-Fairy Booklet is now up-front and live for purchase!  Coupons for over 40 small businesses are collected together here in this booklet that can be applied to their stores for discounts, free gifts, food and more - shop & save!

It features savings for Damsel in this Dress, Oddmall Seattle, Thyme2Dream and more. :) Since participating vendors are primarily online, anyone, anywhere can use the booklet's coupons.

Proceeds are divided between the vendors, and Project Dreamhaven.  If you'd like to read more, check out the Fairyblossom website.

Which brings us to this week's Giveaway!  Sponsored by Reading with Renee from Usborne Books, we have a Fairy Enchanted set of books worth $45 - FREE for you to enter for a chance to win.  Go go go!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Dreamhaven Update #7

I am ridiculously excited about bringing to you all a brand new event in 2015 - The Fairyblossom Festival! We have our site secured in Chehalis, WA, on June 20 - 21.  The application for vendors, volunteers, performers, campers and buying gate tickets is all online and ready to go!

We plan to have some different activities going on this coming year that I am really aflutter about; crowing of the Flower Queen and Forest Queen with a royal court, the summer games tourney with glow golf, camping!  My favorite though is the Fairy Feast and Stone Soup.

On Saturday evening, everyone is invited to contribute to our pot-luck feast where we will be brewing up Stone Soup, ala the old folktale.  We'll have a pot and kettle from Brunetta Blacksmithing, we'll have a stone, custom carved, from Stonebreaker, and we'll have delicious ingredients added by everyone!

It is a community event and totally free so bring a bowl and a veggie to throw in the pot!  There's rumour that our own local character, Witchy-poo, may even appear to do the cooking of the soup.

Part of our proceeds will be going to support the Castle Fund (that is, a fundraiser to help buy a permanent event site here in the PNW).

Along with the Coupon Fairy Booklet, it has been a lot of various little streams to help raise the money for our first major step, which is the feasibility study, and I am excited that these balls are now rolling. The booklet should be ready for it's first look over in a week or so, as the coupons from stores are coming in.

Also - today is the last day to enter Aimee Stewart's giveaway, don't miss your chance to win!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Dreamhaven Update #6

Upon returning home from Canterbury Renfaire in Silverton, Oregon, I've been fluttering around playing catch up.  The Coupon-Fairy Fundraiser is gaining more vendors and artists every day, and we've begun to put the booklet together for .pdf selling.

I took the opportunity to avail myself of services offered whilst down in Portlandia (or thereabouts), and collaborated with a friend to begin the rough outline of a map for the Castle Project.  Ideally, this will help our architect get a very good idea of what we're looking to do.  Here's the draft map....


I intend to shuffle some stuff around still but it's at least a look.

In other exciting news, I confirmed today that I can start selling some of my product at Spooked in Seattle as soon as next week - this will be a great way to generate some revenue for the Castle Project!

All that said...I bring to you this week's giveaway, courtesy of Alexandra Haley Art - get your entries in!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Dreamhaven Update #5

It has been a whirlwind week, ending with the Myth & Magic Masquerade Ball at the EMP Museum.  What a great event!  We had a live-action quest for everyone to go on and I was a the very enigmatic and mysterious fairy princess that got to help the LARPers on their way.  They gave me the answer to the riddle and I gave them the next clue.  Very fun event with amazing costumes and special guests.

Thus we begin the week of prepping for Canterbury Renaissance Faire in Silverton, OR.  Human Magical (science) supplies, packing more books and product to be mailed before I'm gone for over a week, paperwork to get off to the Red Tape of Bureaucracy chimera, food to have prepared, trailers to secure, wow - the list is incredible.

Two major tasks this week will be to apply for a loan so that I can fund the main portion of the Feasibility Study (that baby troll is pretty hungry), as well as begin a draft on the Coupon-Fairy Fundraiser.  We now have ~15 Vendors signed up, and I hope to gain some more this weekend. :)

The Troll-o-Meter has in fact been rising, and every penny of course helps offset the first of our major monetary requirements for the Castle Project.  I feel encouraged and excited to be going forward, no matter how fast or slow - every step is closer!

Hope to see everyone at Canterbury!

Dreamhaven Update #4

:**:Fairy Princess Lolly:**:, Kai the Mermaid,
Leaflock, Serena the Mermaid (left to right)

FAE Hollow had a great time and successful fundraising at Greenwood this weekend!  For the first time we were visited by two lovely sea maids: Kai & Serena the Mermaids.

The two oceanic lovelies brought a little aquatic magic to our hollow by transforming mere rocks into beautiful mermaid wishing stones for faire-goers.  We had a kinetic-sand box for play complete with sea shells and a sand castle, and some live tadpoles for the kiddos to look at.

Elsewhere in the Hollow, our silent helper (whom we call) Changeling Boy worked with the children to mine the jewels out of some glittery Dwarven Stones.  Late on Sunday afternoon, he manifested part of his fae nature as two red ears appeared on the top of his head!  We're so excited to see his magical side emerging and look forward to seeing what may come at Canterbury later on this month. :)

Changeling Boy with his newly emerged ears!

Ion the Leprechaun employed his alchemical expertise to verify that the Faere-y Coyne the children brought to us was 100% authentic coyne.  No forgeries! After a few tests, he was more than happy to trade the coyne for some tasty surprises from the magical candy apple.

For her part, Leaflock was all over the place, pixie-pinching attendees clandestinely, so that they could come make a wish on our dream tree.

We were also happy to discover that at the end of Faire, we had made $33 to donate to the Castle Fund!

Thanks to everyone who came out to see us and supported FAE Hollow!  We'll see you in a couple weeks at Canterbury!

Dreamhaven Update #3

Today was a great day despite the troll!  As you may recall from the last post, I have encountered the first big challenge of the project: financing a feasibility study.  I think of it as a baby troll.

The baby troll needs $15, 295 worth of feeding.

I spent the weekend brainstorming ideas for how to feed the baby troll, since this is an essential first step toward realizing the castle park.  It absolute must-be-done in order for the project to continue to go forth in a serious manner.

Many streams make a river of dreams.  Here is revenue stream the first:

Here's the overview - if you want full details, please message me!

Coupon-Fairy Fundraiser Program

Welcome to the Coupon-Fairy Program.  Please allow me to explain a little bit about it!  This program has been developed as a fundraising effort for “The Castle Project” (http://www.gofundme.com/97gtd8).  Follow the link to read a detailed description of the project, plan and ongoing timeline.

BACKGROUND

Late in 2013 we began to embark on our vision of building a full-scale event-center adventure park.  It is a multi-million dollar project, on a 3-4 year timeline.  Although the primary funding will be obtained via private investors, every possible stream of revenue facilitates the project achieving reality.

Our first milestone (which I have affectionately dubbed the “Baby Troll”) that we are striving to reach is to raise $15,295 to cover the expense of hiring an architectural firm to assemble a feasibility study.  A feasibility study, in this context, is a collection of the schematics and documents that are presented to general contractors to get bids on what the project will actually cost to build.  This information is critically necessary to formulating a fully developed business plan.  No business plan, no private funding.

PURPOSE OF COUPON FAIRY PROGRAM

--To fundraise a minimum of $15,000 to pay for an architectural feasibility study.

--To benefit the handmade and artisan community in the process of achieving our first major milestone.

Nobody does anything alone in this world.  It is my aim to make it beneficial for you and your business to help me and my project!

HOW YOU BENEFIT!

NO Buy-in Fees! The only cost to you is the cost (if any) of listing the product on your chosen platform

You Make Money for participating.

Your Store Name will be listed in every other participating store as a part of the Coupon-Fairy Book listing.

Free advertising, but advertising that makes you some money in the process!

(Etsyians): Your store items will be periodically added into treasuries that also include the digital booklet

Feed the Troll!

Dreamhaven Update #2

This week's line-up is rapidly becoming overwhelming, but let's not think about that for now.  Instead, meet the baby troll.  I feel as though I have met the first real hurdle in the Castle Project, and compared to what is sure to come further on down the line, I am sure this hurdle is quite small.  It FEELS huge though, and thus I have dubbed it the "BABY TROLL".

This Baby Troll's name is "Feasibility Study" - and I must overcome the Troll.  Last Friday I received the first proposal back from a prospective architect naming a price for doing a feasibility study.

A feasibility study is where the architect basically takes the whole of an idea and maps it out on paper such that it can be presented to a general contractor for bidding.

Dang. Babies are expensive. "Feasibility Study the Baby Troll" is a $15,295 baby troll!

I am sure you can imagine that, like most people, I don't have $15,000 chillaxing in my Smaug-like vaults.  This means, of course, that real hurdle numero uno is how to fund-raise fifteen large (selling wee ones to the goblin king is RIGHT out!).

So this weekend I set my mind to brainstorming (and I must thank my friends Robert P. (Silver Tide Jewelry) & Kathleen H. (Stained Glass Butterfly) for their insight and suggestions).  The idea, (and perhaps I am partial but I think it is a winner): The Etsy Coupon Book.

The Etsy Coupon Book is intended to be a digital booklet of check-out Coupons that can be redeemed with Etsy sellers in their online stores.  The coupon books will be available for purchase and the proceeds will go to the surmounting the cost of "Feasibility the Baby Troll".

Which means I'll be writing up the program tonight/tomorrow to poke potential etsyians with.  Which brings us back around to the beginning of this post...this week's line-up is rapidly becoming overwhelming!

Dreamhaven Update #1

Although the Castle Project has been underway since November 2013, it has only begun to really take form in the last couple months.  I decided a few weeks ago that I would document and track the progress of this venture (ostensibly a life-long dream) for several reasons:
a) To create transparency for those following along and/or potential contributors.  With a project this size, it is only fair that people who might donate money get to follow along with the progress so they know their money isn't going into a personal pocket.

b) This project is huge. Daunting.  On a scale which I have never operated but I am tackling one elephant-bite at a time.  Quite often, I feel astounded at the sheer enormity, sometimes I think I am crazy. This is my way of reminding myself that yes, it is completely within the scope of possibility.  Yes, I can do this - people do things like this all the time and most failures are a result of people giving up rather than persevering.

c) I am not the only out there that has ever dreamed of doing something amazing. Whether it is open a restaurant, or own a greenhouse nursery, or start a commune or start a new event, convention, open a winery...doesn't matter.  We all have dreams - but starting is one of the hardest parts, especially if you don't know how.  I didn't know how either - so I started by taking a vision, and asking anyone and everyone about it.  I want other people who have dreams of their own to see that no matter it is - there IS a way to do it.  It might be hard, but it can be done.  Maybe what I learn in this process will help others along their path.