and free!

this is the glass object I picked up last Sunday during the house salvage mission. Cleaned up from it's coating of grime, it's a pretty thing. I find it easier to admire if I squint and ignore the fact that it is actually an ashtray.



WM was lovely last night. I left before dessert due to fading of the montjoye. Before then though there was pleasant socialising and yummy food. It was great to see some folks I don't get to see often enough, waves to counter_ermine and astemudfoot for instance! I was pleased by some of their maj's comments in court, particularly around supporting the significance of AoAs, of which there were many awarded. I also REALLY enjoyed being frocked for the first time in months. My new black Durer is a lovely thing. I want to lose some weight but one of the downsides of that would be this frock not fitting.

I am cautiously hopeful in the health department. I slept well last night without the aid of drugs. Not fixed but improving.

LJ is being very slow and strange this morning so lets see if this posts OK.

It is becoming a tradition to do the annual prune of my rosemary bush on the day of William Marshal. I certainly did last year. I might have the year before but perhaps I am mistaken. Anyway, see the globe shaped plant in the middle of this pic? well it was easily twice as wide about an hour ago. The lavender has had a severe haircut too. Hopefully the extra light will give the little chinese lantern a growth spurt. The flowering plum is looking robust and happy which doth please me.



See the length of the prunings I got. This lot is to be hung to dry* shortly, or possibly tomorrow. There is another bundle 2-3 times this big to take for feast decorations.


I'm rather looking forward to getting into a frock. I think it is the first time since midwinter, aren't I slack?

Still unwell but I think today a bit less so? Maybe company and overindulgence is good medicine? I went to my work Christmas party last night.


*I sort of wonder why. I dried a bunch last year, carefully stored the resulting leaves in jars, and then threw it all out 6mths later. Only now I have remembered what I was planning to do with it, so maybe I will have another go.

What a mixed week! There has been bad news but also good. I am very sad for those who have lost loved ones. Yet I am delighted for those with new lives to cherish, or at least anticipate.  On top of the news that many of you will have read on LJ, my colleague has finally felt able to announce the name of his new son to us- said son was born with complications and is still in the ICU but there now seems to be confidence he will pull through with no lasting effects. Phew.

So have a nice hopeful picture of one of my little armeria plants having a jolly good go at spring. I love these chaps, pom poms growing out of pom poms.


On less momentous subjects:

I have just managed to assemble my new chemise ready for lots of handsewing during LoR-fest tomorrow. Flemish outfit, garment the first! Oh I like good linen! Yes I am making yet more working clothes, sigh. I like practical, well made clothes. Even if they do make me feel a bit of a sparrow at times. One day I might make more court garb but don't hold your breath.... The new sewing possie is mostly good. I hadn't thought about it but it means I can watch tellie while sewing, that's a strange thing. What I am missing is a table to my right, hmm

Is it sad that I am still having fun using my new washing machine? I obviously don't get out enough. But really, it's a lovely creature and it makes things clean! On that subject, I shall go organise that load for overnight. I have discovered the time delay function, 'tis a wonderous invention.

just having a little break. I have piked tonight and last week for the usual Tues crafty hangings out. I have been really wanting more nights off. I get to Fri exhausted and needing head space like nobody's business. I think to myself "I'll get that done one night this week", then there ends up being no nights available to do said thing. So I am making sure there is some.

I'm also not doing events at the moment. I personally did not have a particularly good time at midwinter. The event/s were fabulous. I just didn't have a good time. I think in part I understand why though I don't know how to prevent it happening again. So I'm having a break.

I'll be back. I've offered to teach up to 4 classes for the Oct thing. So I'd better go to that eh?

so tonight I cooked dinner, got a load of washing done, did the dishes, wrapped a pressie and chatted with the folks. Not earth shattering but it makes life run more smoothly.

Oh, and red sock #1 has a turned heel, without gaping holes! Nice to learn and improve. I think I too have memorised this sock pattern.

This weekend I attended two of the best SCA events I ever have. Lots of other people did too. Go the autocrats, cooks and all their helpers.

Friday was great. An open, relaxed but stylish feel. Great food- YUMMY! no suprises there but worth saying. I missed last court of their previousness's due to work being greedy with my time. Great to see everybody. We sang, just for fun, probably too much. Old orange Durer fit really well, better than expected. Still my specciest gown. There was a fountain on the groaning board! just like old times and fabulous for being so. Rushed away to take her pregnant excellency away to her needed rest.

Sat. a big rush to get there with promised ingredients after more sleeping in than planned for. Hall looked great. Those banners really worked. One of the most elegantly decorated halls ever I say. Courts were elegantly brief- what they needed to be with some touching touches but not extended, over done or controversial. We sang the sing for their new maj's processional and it worked! well even! Food was really good, tasty, attractive and plentiful. Yay for the lasagne, turks head, cherry pottage, fruit jellies (extra wow) and dessert bikkies especially.  Frocks were grand, my new black Durer isn't very speccy but I do like it and it's as comfy as they come. People were lovely (with a notable exception during a particular peerage meeting but pah to him). Helped a bit to tidy. Was torn about leaving until we realised that one set of house guests had headed home without a key to get in.

I didn't make the Sunday tourney. Never really meant to I suppose- running on ragged edge of sanity and care factor. Pity 'cause if it was on separately in a week or two I would be keen. Caught up instead with some rarely seen nearest and dearest. I hear people who went had a good time- needfully drunken in some cases. I am so looking forward to the unstructured nature of the next few weeks. Am feeling a NEED for quiet headspace. Have spent the last fortnight with pretty much every time slot booked, accounted for and a bit stressy. I need SPACE! and I didn't run the events!

Not enjoying the fact that I have discovered Event Guilt. Made worse by this weekend's extravaganza being run by my household and almost household. I did some but struggled to enjoy the events wholeheartedly for guilt at not doing more. Silly me.  I think people who run large events are simultaneously insane and worthy of great admiration.

I must however be doing some useful stuff. Was rather touched to be awarded a silver drakkar, cut from the baroness's gown no less. Amusingly (?) broke my 20yr society record of no service awards. Mayhap I have done enough in 20yrs to deserve one so I shan't feel I don't deserve it. Was sort of fun to have basically only A+S awards though AoA and Viscounty have service elements I suppose.

(testing how a crosspost works with rich text option selected)

Bother- my favourite emoticons don't appear from dreamthingy and are not available within. Apparently  I need to edit in LJ to get them to show up.

Should have written this earlier. My focus is shifting away, to house cleaning, deep tidy, rearranging furniture. All that.

Went to festi, came home. Did lots of fun stuff during.

On the way there
-foot complained lots. Needed painkillers and lots of breaks
-visited several good friends, one that I had not seen in about a year and has a new 3wk old daughter. So good to see her. Great to spend time with R&J (even if J says rude things about blogs) and Quatrefoil in her lovely little flat.

While there
-met the new site, very pretty! Did I take pics? sadly no. It is a valley surrounded by tree covered hills, very green and lush... because it is very damp. Also warmer and more humid than I like for much of the time. My big coat did not get worn at all and much sweating was done.
-managed not to get eaten by leeches unlike most of my household
-loved seeing everyone and catching up
-sang, sewed, cooked, drank some
-loved my new black frock and bright underskirt! Really works. Yellow Durer - convinced the neckline is wrong, bother, how to fix? The revamped button frock was most useful as cool working frock.
-loved living in my little tent
-for a change was not terrified that the big feasting tent would fall down- no high winds. What a relief.
-did three stints on troll gate- rather fun. Friday was too busy to do anything but sign people in. Other two days had time for sewing and chat. Very pleasant that the two quieter days had friends of mine on duty with me, quite by accident.
-went to my first L meet in years- actually useful, productive and well run. Encouraging.
-participated in the making of two new Ls! Both also friends, one ex apprentice. Very pleased.
-Enjoyed the household children. Seemed like 16 of them but there was really only 4.
-the kitchen sink! We kept a tidier camp this year than ever before in my memory. Much nicer.

On the way home
-packed up damp tents etc.  No choice, Monday was VERY wet and the humidity was so high that everything was damp even when the sky was fine.
-raced off to see Miss A who lives locally and I have not seen in 4-5yrs? Found her, spent half an hour or so until she had to race off to work. Sad to lose connections, great to have them reformed.
-Foot was vastly better, only a few twinges and no painkillers taken
-stayed with A&P, what a pleasant evening!
-experienced a dust storm on the road- thick orange clouds, had to slow to a crawl, could not see the road let alone vehicles! Put both headlights and hazard lights on in case another driver was more brave about speed than I. Very glad it did not last long.

After
-vast amounts of laundry, dishes, tidying, nearly done now.
-tent walls have gone really mouldy. No suprise but I need to figure how to deal with them. Has anyone got tips? I am thinking spray bottle of bleach or somesuch. Rest of tent is fine. Maybe this is where I finally need to remake the walls?

Interestingly I have arrived home wanting to make the house nice, rather than wanting to frock. Probably because I have been frocking for months and doing almost no housework. I want a deep tidy, furniture moved, painting and decorating plans finished. Spent much of the trip home planning this in my head. I'll spend a bit of time on this before I need to frock for midwinter.

just in case anyone wants to know. Back long enough to unpack the car and get the first load of washing on. Unpacking was made very quick by the wizard magically detecting when I was 5min from home and kindly offering to come over to help. Huzzah!

Festi was good, glad I went. will write more later.

Haven't read any of your posts since early last week- much reading to do!

Right. Decision made. 2hrs later and very much distracted by sewing type things. I want to be in Sydney on Monday but need to be here Sunday. These two things are not compatible. So only one night as first discussed thanks Quatrefoil.

The green button frock will have to have a new name. It no longer has buttons. It will change marginally to become dress #3 this year.  Sort of a replacement for the tired old cook's wife frock.

Must actually do some packing.

List progresses nicely
see, I have most of a new underskirt. Wool so my ankles are not too damp. Also on the colourful side.

I also have newly green poles for my tent. I either had to make the new one match the old- not possible as I did not do the finish on the others- or refinish them all the same. So I used the only bright paint in my large paint collection. Happily it matches the roof. Also suspiciously matches my front door. Also re-glued the centre boss and refreshed the gold paint on the roof furniture. Sadly I forgot to do the wall pole joiners.
    

And I had some time left. Should have been fixing the tent roof but I have the excuse of not having the right thread. So instead I replaced my tatty old pennon with this new shiny one. Don't ask how I painted the device.



Still have to finish my hem and a few other things but I have had a good day. At some point I really need to do some food planning.

I've been back a couple of hours from the Surveying Expedition.
-Had a good time in lovely company. Ate very well-hoorah for the cooks! drank enough but not too much, tasted a brilliant mead made from 25yr old honey,  helped out some.
-Taught a formal class- (fibre identification) and at least one informal (hem stitching).
-Did hand finishing on a dress for Rose made by hometime , wove 3/4 of a pair of garters (partly warp weighted by Rauf)
-Got 4 bullant bites(hand and back)- OUCH and multiple less exciting bites around my ankles. I'll itch for a while.
-Slept in my little pavilion, always fun. Even after the half centre pole snapped during set up (fixed with tent peg splints and the traditional duct tape)

Now I am clean-Yay! the car is unpacked, dresses shaken free of dust, baronial T towels all washed and fluttering on the line.

Still have to unpack properly, do my laundry and put everything away. Time now though for a glass of wine and a bit of a sit down.

Oh- the gold Durer frock got finished prior and  worn on the Sat. I'm almost completely happy with it though I will shift one pair of buttons for a more secure closure.  I failed to take my camera so there is no pic yet. Maybe I can beg one from someone else or you will have to wait for it's next wearing. I was delighted with how many compliments I received on it, most gratifying. Even better, it fits well and is nicely comfy. I am thinking of making another similar frock but really should work on a few more nice linen chemises to replace my old daggy, worn-out cotton voile ones.
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So the gold Durer frock is assembled, back view above. The only bit of fabric not attached is the trip for the neckline.  I may also need to piece fill the hem- see the short bit? I tried it on last night when it got to the point of basically being a dress*. Eek, feels a bit small in bodice circumference now? I am so hoping that it will a) work better with fastenings applied. b) relax/ease a bit with wear.

So what still needs doing?
-ditch stitch bodice lining down.
-sew on the lacing rings and buttons
-apply the neck trim
-make cords for lacing and horizontal closure.
-mark and sew hem

I so want to do this now. What I need to do though is clear a space in the back yard for bricks and then put bricks there. Grumph, want to sew.

*thanks to splodgenoodles  and tenbears  for keeping me company through lots of seam grading and clippage, some handsewing.

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I just wrote this as a comment on Celsa's post about lack of time. I am posting it on it's own because I think the section underlined really is a problem for me. I need to think about that and what I might do about it:


"personally I have less time for SCA projects than I did a few years ago. I blame 4 things
- LJ and email at home
- work being more hours and more exhausting
- buying a house and getting into gardening.
- um, and being a costume laurel.

I too get a lot of sewing etc done on trains and at events. I just haven't been travelling on trains or going to many events lately. Well I did in the UK recently but I was patchworking rather than doing SCA stuff. La.

The big problem is as a costume laurel, I feel that every single thing I produce for the SCA has to be as perfectly authentic as possible. This is really exhausting and does not allow for much in the way of pure creativity. Hence my drift into patchwork, quilting and back to street clothes. So I still make things that take ages but they are not SCA relevant. For example, the star quilt (was posted if you remember) I finished about 6mths ago that took around a year of my creative output. I do second the notion that really intense/complex/lengthy things can get done if you do 20min of it every day or so."

later:
-hmm. Does this translate as nothing I do can realistically be good enough and is therefore pointless? or that I make too many decisions at work and have too few decisions left for costuming? Or that I need more creative outlets more than I need costumes? Or that I am sick of changing shape so nothing fits? or that I miss the game how I/we used to play it? Or that other stuff is more important right now?

Way too much self analysis for a Monday night. My head hurts and I'm going to bed. Probably the most sensible thing I have written all night.