Last night was another night at Lavena's Sweat Shop! We managed to get all the tokens for Daggers and Hemlock drilled for the cords to go through them. I keep meaning to take a picture of them to post. (Not that I can find my camera cord for the computer to upload them here!) And when I left at 11:30 Cody was still going strong with sanding the edges smooth. He was doing a great job! I spent most of the evening as people's helper. I was knitting on Lavena's double knit bag for a while and then got side tracked with other people's needs.
Gridded off one of those stained glass windows we are going to use as decoration. We are thinking about leaving them black and white (or more like black and light tan as that's the color of sheets we have) for now. Perhaps color them in later. One of the thoughts that Greet http://szarka.typepad.com/sca/ and I came up with was that these were the drawings that the stained glass artists used in their creations. They would take wood or pieced vellum or parchmnet or even fabric (but usually wood) and draw out the designs in full scale. These drawings would then be used to cut the individual pieces and lay them out. The windows were built on these and then transported once finished and secured to the churches. From what I have read there aren't many extant pieces of these kinds of drawings left.
I also ran sand paper patrol for Cody. I showed him how to "cut" the sandpaper without scissors. :) I guess hanging out in my dad's woodshop all those years has paid off in some form. I also drew the grids for the lightboxed "window" that Melissa drew. We have a lot of work ahead of us before the event. I still need to make "kitchen hats" for my kitchen. That's just a simple process of washing some muslin, cutting out circles and strips of fabric and sewing them together. This isn't rocket surgery, but I can't motivate myself to do it. I must not be close enough to my deadline yet. :)
July fourth we are having a big "shindig" and work party at Lavena's again so that we can get some of these projects knocked out. Hopefully I will remember the camera and find the cord.
On the scribal front, I sent off yet another package to TRM's full of scrolls. I've decided not to send them priority anymore. They were supposed to have arrived yesterday morning and they didn't arrive in time. I spent extra money to have them delivered a day early and they still didn't make it on time. I've got pictures, but still need to track down that cord! It's got to be around here somewhere.
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Two posts in one week!
And if I get around to taking pictures of the latest scrolls I've done for TRM Meridies then I might just make it two posts in one day! Woot.
Friday night was a lot of fun with finally getting the casting done on the event tokens for Daggers and Hemlock. They have a dagger on one side and a hemlock leaf on the other. Very nice. I think I would have prefered a one sided coin. We need to really work on making them thinner though. They are weighing in between a half and a full ounce each. We used over 2 pounds of pewter to make the 61 tokens. I sure hope that is enough. Our next thing to cast will be regalia for both Order of the Meridian Cross and Order of the Argent Comet. It should be pretty cool looking by the time we are done.
Cato is going to try to come home today. He's been over in Mobile working and staying in a hotel as they are moving into their new building and of course they can't take the whole company down and do the move in 4 or 5 days, so they are only able to take systems down at night so it is taking them 2 or 3 weeks. He's working easily 18 hour days! Poor guy. But it is Father's Day and I think he wants some clean laundry. (Sounds like a college student - come home, eat do laundry, get presents, go back to school.)
Emily got a hamster. Don't think I mentioned that yet. She's cute. Dark dark gray with big shiny black eyes and the cutest little ears! The cats are only mildly interested and Ki-Ki didn't even give it the time of day. What good is a rat if it is protected inside a plastic ball? Jack is terrified of her when she is in her ball because she feels invinsible and runs after the cats. I'm waiting for Prince Charming to start playing with her ball like his other balls and give her a good whack down the hall. Although we did learn that if she is starting to go down her tube not to accidentally drop the lid. I had to do a "frantic rodent extraction" on her after she managed to turn herself upside down and all freaked out. Then she peed on me. Serves me right for scaring her.
Oh, I got pulled over by the police the other night. Seems as though I forgot to renew my tag before my birthday (I took a moment to make sure my driver's license was still up to date - it was) and the light above my license plate is burned out. The lady was very nice and didn't give me a ticket, just advised me to take care of it. And fortunately it was a Santa Rosa cop and not a Gulf Breeze cop so I didn't have to worry about those flashing lights belonging to my brother! Now *that* would have been embarassing!
OK, off to the showers so I can go buy some sort of beast for Cato, finish the scrolls I need to do and get caught up on some laundry. Toodles!
Friday night was a lot of fun with finally getting the casting done on the event tokens for Daggers and Hemlock. They have a dagger on one side and a hemlock leaf on the other. Very nice. I think I would have prefered a one sided coin. We need to really work on making them thinner though. They are weighing in between a half and a full ounce each. We used over 2 pounds of pewter to make the 61 tokens. I sure hope that is enough. Our next thing to cast will be regalia for both Order of the Meridian Cross and Order of the Argent Comet. It should be pretty cool looking by the time we are done.
Cato is going to try to come home today. He's been over in Mobile working and staying in a hotel as they are moving into their new building and of course they can't take the whole company down and do the move in 4 or 5 days, so they are only able to take systems down at night so it is taking them 2 or 3 weeks. He's working easily 18 hour days! Poor guy. But it is Father's Day and I think he wants some clean laundry. (Sounds like a college student - come home, eat do laundry, get presents, go back to school.)
Emily got a hamster. Don't think I mentioned that yet. She's cute. Dark dark gray with big shiny black eyes and the cutest little ears! The cats are only mildly interested and Ki-Ki didn't even give it the time of day. What good is a rat if it is protected inside a plastic ball? Jack is terrified of her when she is in her ball because she feels invinsible and runs after the cats. I'm waiting for Prince Charming to start playing with her ball like his other balls and give her a good whack down the hall. Although we did learn that if she is starting to go down her tube not to accidentally drop the lid. I had to do a "frantic rodent extraction" on her after she managed to turn herself upside down and all freaked out. Then she peed on me. Serves me right for scaring her.
Oh, I got pulled over by the police the other night. Seems as though I forgot to renew my tag before my birthday (I took a moment to make sure my driver's license was still up to date - it was) and the light above my license plate is burned out. The lady was very nice and didn't give me a ticket, just advised me to take care of it. And fortunately it was a Santa Rosa cop and not a Gulf Breeze cop so I didn't have to worry about those flashing lights belonging to my brother! Now *that* would have been embarassing!
OK, off to the showers so I can go buy some sort of beast for Cato, finish the scrolls I need to do and get caught up on some laundry. Toodles!
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
A month later
I almost want to say, "Meanwhile back at the ranch" I keep meaning to update my blog, but time just gets by me. Then a month later I realize all the things I wanted to blog about but never got around to :)
So I guess we will start with cooking. I'm the head cook for the Shire of Phoenix Glade's http://phoenixglade.org event Daggers and Hemlock. I sort of fell into this. A portion of the menu is posted on the website. We had a great weekend of successful cheese making. Although Greet http://szarka.typepad.com/sca/ did request that more live cultures be added to assist those with lactose issues. Will do that in the next batch (especially since someone who will remain nameless gluttoned herself with nearly a pound of cheese in a matter of 3 days! Oh but it is SO good!) We also had a good turn out on the lentils I'll be cooking, although we've decided to ditch the eggs. Eggs cooked ontop of lentils that have had saffron added to them tend to turn a funky color if not consumed immediately. With all the meat that will be served we aren't too concerned about our guests not having access to protein.
Mead! We finally cracked a bottle of the mead we put up last year. I know I didn't talk about this, but last spring we put up many bottles of some ginger honey mead using two different kinds of honey. One was using honey from Aethelmearc and the other was using honey that Lavena purchased at Sam's Club. While we liked the pre-fermented "syrup" better, we found that we actually prefer the fermented mead with the cheap honey better. Who knew? They also tried the red hot cinnamon cordials as well, but I forgot to get some (too consumed in cheese making and mead tasting).
Garb and Grub was fun on Sunday. We ended up with a small tent city of 5 "EZ Ups", a table groaning with food, and lots of fun discussion. I think every group should have a monthly Garb and Grub just to get together, eat a bit and have it easy. The fighters did armor up in the blistering heat and Sulva had a few heat issues herself (mental note, don't take Sulva to Fighter practice in her heavy Italian Ren in the future.)
Sewing. Ive been doing quite a bit of sewing in the past month. It all started with Lavena saying, "Oh Melbrigda, you need a new dress of Kingdom Art Sci." So I put scissors to cloth and made a dandy (if I do say so myself) Flemish Working Woman's Kirtle complete with apron, chemise and kerchief. It actually wasn't as hot as I feared it would be and the kerchief kept my hair off my neck and allowed for breezes to pass through. It's heavy though and I've got the fabric to make another out of a lighter linen (currently it is made from $1.50 a yard clearance twill, but hey, it was $1.50 for all cotton!) I'm also in the process of making Cato some "fancy garb" because he wants to look cool. Reminding him that I just made him some cool looking garb last month with a hat no less he responded, "But I've already worn that to one event." He's turning into a real Garbie Doll. Speaking of which I really need to get the words to the song Garbie Girl that the girls have parodied from Barbie Girl. So I'm cutting out his tunic and hand embroidering the trim for it. I also have fabric to make Sulva a lighterweight Viking Apron to go over her plaid Viking Dress. I think the gray flannel is going to be too hot to wear until, oh, January!
Scribal stuff. I'm still working furiously on doing original scrolls for Their Majesty's scroll cases. I was so proud to be part of the first court (we think ever) in Meridies where all original scrolls were handed out. That was just so cool! It's no secret that I am not a fan of "pre-prints" or "paint-by-number" scrolls, so seeing all those original scrolls being handed out was ultra cool! Hopefully we can get more scribes doing original scrolls as they are just so nice! I sent up a batch to TRM last week as I had promised I would and have 4 finished and 2 lettered scrolls that I hope to finish today. I also need to mail THL Simon's Grant scroll to him now that I've got it finished. That's a "today project." I'm hoping that I will be able to at least take pictures if not scan this set of scrolls before they go out.
OK, all for now. Got a huge list of things to do that I put off yesterday since it was my birthday and I decided I really didn't want to do those things. :)
So I guess we will start with cooking. I'm the head cook for the Shire of Phoenix Glade's http://phoenixglade.org event Daggers and Hemlock. I sort of fell into this. A portion of the menu is posted on the website. We had a great weekend of successful cheese making. Although Greet http://szarka.typepad.com/sca/ did request that more live cultures be added to assist those with lactose issues. Will do that in the next batch (especially since someone who will remain nameless gluttoned herself with nearly a pound of cheese in a matter of 3 days! Oh but it is SO good!) We also had a good turn out on the lentils I'll be cooking, although we've decided to ditch the eggs. Eggs cooked ontop of lentils that have had saffron added to them tend to turn a funky color if not consumed immediately. With all the meat that will be served we aren't too concerned about our guests not having access to protein.
Mead! We finally cracked a bottle of the mead we put up last year. I know I didn't talk about this, but last spring we put up many bottles of some ginger honey mead using two different kinds of honey. One was using honey from Aethelmearc and the other was using honey that Lavena purchased at Sam's Club. While we liked the pre-fermented "syrup" better, we found that we actually prefer the fermented mead with the cheap honey better. Who knew? They also tried the red hot cinnamon cordials as well, but I forgot to get some (too consumed in cheese making and mead tasting).
Garb and Grub was fun on Sunday. We ended up with a small tent city of 5 "EZ Ups", a table groaning with food, and lots of fun discussion. I think every group should have a monthly Garb and Grub just to get together, eat a bit and have it easy. The fighters did armor up in the blistering heat and Sulva had a few heat issues herself (mental note, don't take Sulva to Fighter practice in her heavy Italian Ren in the future.)
Sewing. Ive been doing quite a bit of sewing in the past month. It all started with Lavena saying, "Oh Melbrigda, you need a new dress of Kingdom Art Sci." So I put scissors to cloth and made a dandy (if I do say so myself) Flemish Working Woman's Kirtle complete with apron, chemise and kerchief. It actually wasn't as hot as I feared it would be and the kerchief kept my hair off my neck and allowed for breezes to pass through. It's heavy though and I've got the fabric to make another out of a lighter linen (currently it is made from $1.50 a yard clearance twill, but hey, it was $1.50 for all cotton!) I'm also in the process of making Cato some "fancy garb" because he wants to look cool. Reminding him that I just made him some cool looking garb last month with a hat no less he responded, "But I've already worn that to one event." He's turning into a real Garbie Doll. Speaking of which I really need to get the words to the song Garbie Girl that the girls have parodied from Barbie Girl. So I'm cutting out his tunic and hand embroidering the trim for it. I also have fabric to make Sulva a lighterweight Viking Apron to go over her plaid Viking Dress. I think the gray flannel is going to be too hot to wear until, oh, January!
Scribal stuff. I'm still working furiously on doing original scrolls for Their Majesty's scroll cases. I was so proud to be part of the first court (we think ever) in Meridies where all original scrolls were handed out. That was just so cool! It's no secret that I am not a fan of "pre-prints" or "paint-by-number" scrolls, so seeing all those original scrolls being handed out was ultra cool! Hopefully we can get more scribes doing original scrolls as they are just so nice! I sent up a batch to TRM last week as I had promised I would and have 4 finished and 2 lettered scrolls that I hope to finish today. I also need to mail THL Simon's Grant scroll to him now that I've got it finished. That's a "today project." I'm hoping that I will be able to at least take pictures if not scan this set of scrolls before they go out.
OK, all for now. Got a huge list of things to do that I put off yesterday since it was my birthday and I decided I really didn't want to do those things. :)
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Demos and ER's and Scribal
Oh my! Today I went to Gulf Breeze Elementary School to participate in a demo for their 3rd grade "Medieval Festival." This is an annual event that the do as part of their history unit studies. I talked about the scribal arts and got to "dub" the children as "knights." It was really cute seeing how some kids really took their oaths of chivalry seriously. One little boy with a Spanish name really loved how I dubbed him "Don" instead of "Sir"
The children were really interested in the writing styles and I think I'm in trouble with some of the teachers for mentioning things like non-standardized spellings and lack of differentiation between upper and lower case letters in many periods of the middle ages. Ooops. (evil grin) They were most impressed with Emily's scroll she is working on and that she is "only" 14. Makes a mom proud. I really enjoy doing the school demos the best. Kids always seem so interested and truly want to learn. They tend to ask very practical questions as well and love it when you talk about gross things like how they would use urine to make different dyes and paints.
While we were there Heather got a call that Joel had been taken to the hospital from work. Since I drove Heather, we got to run to the ER afterwards. Thankfully, it seems as though he just has some sort of vertigo and not something more serious like a stroke or heart attack. Whew!
Tonight is Sip and Scribe at Starbuck's. Not sure who all will show up, but I know I will be there and so will Lavena. I'm hoping to get at least one of my scrolls inked as I wasn't able to get anything done today with all the running around. C&I ROCKS!
The children were really interested in the writing styles and I think I'm in trouble with some of the teachers for mentioning things like non-standardized spellings and lack of differentiation between upper and lower case letters in many periods of the middle ages. Ooops. (evil grin) They were most impressed with Emily's scroll she is working on and that she is "only" 14. Makes a mom proud. I really enjoy doing the school demos the best. Kids always seem so interested and truly want to learn. They tend to ask very practical questions as well and love it when you talk about gross things like how they would use urine to make different dyes and paints.
While we were there Heather got a call that Joel had been taken to the hospital from work. Since I drove Heather, we got to run to the ER afterwards. Thankfully, it seems as though he just has some sort of vertigo and not something more serious like a stroke or heart attack. Whew!
Tonight is Sip and Scribe at Starbuck's. Not sure who all will show up, but I know I will be there and so will Lavena. I'm hoping to get at least one of my scrolls inked as I wasn't able to get anything done today with all the running around. C&I ROCKS!
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
New hand
I'm working at decyphering a "new" hand for me. It's from the http://bestiary.ca/ Aberdeen Bestiary (it is very slow in loading, but it will eventually load). I've been copying pages of the text and enlarging them and printing them off. I figured if I liked the images then the hand should match. I haven't quite been able to piece together a full alphabet, but I'm working on it. I'm also working on coming up with some ways to make the scrolls using those pages as an example look more like the book rather than your typical SCA scrolls. It's a fun little task.
I think I finally have the feast for Daggers and Hemlock worked out. Although I will admit that it may change thanks to weather. It's going to be full of fresh fruits, veggies and lean meats. A perfect summer feast. Filling but not weighty. All period recipes. (All yummy recipes say my children!) I'll post it in a few days. It should be a fun feast with not too much labor. I'm planning on baking the bread on site and teaching a class on bread as I do so (free labor, no?)
I completed two scrolls this week already, but I need Cato to hook the scanner back up to a computer so I can scan them in. Hopefully I can get those posted soon.
I think I finally have the feast for Daggers and Hemlock worked out. Although I will admit that it may change thanks to weather. It's going to be full of fresh fruits, veggies and lean meats. A perfect summer feast. Filling but not weighty. All period recipes. (All yummy recipes say my children!) I'll post it in a few days. It should be a fun feast with not too much labor. I'm planning on baking the bread on site and teaching a class on bread as I do so (free labor, no?)
I completed two scrolls this week already, but I need Cato to hook the scanner back up to a computer so I can scan them in. Hopefully I can get those posted soon.
Monday, May 7, 2007
Nice Weekend
I haven't remembered to as Lavena how the sweet's table ended up. They had to leave prior to court in order to get home to her Missy-ship who had been locked in the house all day. Poor hound! The new heirs for Meridies are Maxamillian and Lethrenn. Vivat!
Court was not withouth drama. The first being that someone collapsed after being given an Grant of Arms. Now granted it was very hot and stifling in court and I had heard that she was not feeling well to begin with. I think that our sudden hot weather has caught many people (myself included) off-guard. We had such a pleasant and seemingly long spring that to sudden be thrust into the upper 80's with such high humidity and lack of breeze had some people not taking care of themselves as they will in a few weeks when we are used (again) of this dreadful weather. It was a pleasure to see Ming the Mongol recieve his Award of Arms and grovel at the King's feet. What a hoot. He supplicated himself refusing to accept credit for anything he was "accused" of doing until he was asked if it was his intention of someday being a War Lord. Ah, the right words!
I as able to sit with Lady Aine ingen Comyn for a while and talk calligraphy and illumination. She was very helpful in giving me constructive criticism and ideas on how to make my work better. She suggested Ox Gall for thinning paints and I (of course) immediately ran out and bought a bottle the next day. I started playing with it last night and today and absolutely love the flow of the paint now. It doesn't get "gloppy" nearly as fast as before and the gold looks super cool using this new medium.
I have a puny tummy today so haven't done much other than to get a Meridian Majesty scroll completed for my stockpile. I have a goal of having at least 2 of every commonly given award and a good collection of various AoA scrolls available for use. Scrambling to make up original scrolls this weekend told me that I need to have more of a variety of scrolls available. I have printed out ideas for several other awards. I suppose I will be calligraphing tonight while Dancing with the Stars is on. (Did I just admit to watching that? LOL!!)
Court was not withouth drama. The first being that someone collapsed after being given an Grant of Arms. Now granted it was very hot and stifling in court and I had heard that she was not feeling well to begin with. I think that our sudden hot weather has caught many people (myself included) off-guard. We had such a pleasant and seemingly long spring that to sudden be thrust into the upper 80's with such high humidity and lack of breeze had some people not taking care of themselves as they will in a few weeks when we are used (again) of this dreadful weather. It was a pleasure to see Ming the Mongol recieve his Award of Arms and grovel at the King's feet. What a hoot. He supplicated himself refusing to accept credit for anything he was "accused" of doing until he was asked if it was his intention of someday being a War Lord. Ah, the right words!
I as able to sit with Lady Aine ingen Comyn for a while and talk calligraphy and illumination. She was very helpful in giving me constructive criticism and ideas on how to make my work better. She suggested Ox Gall for thinning paints and I (of course) immediately ran out and bought a bottle the next day. I started playing with it last night and today and absolutely love the flow of the paint now. It doesn't get "gloppy" nearly as fast as before and the gold looks super cool using this new medium.
I have a puny tummy today so haven't done much other than to get a Meridian Majesty scroll completed for my stockpile. I have a goal of having at least 2 of every commonly given award and a good collection of various AoA scrolls available for use. Scrambling to make up original scrolls this weekend told me that I need to have more of a variety of scrolls available. I have printed out ideas for several other awards. I suppose I will be calligraphing tonight while Dancing with the Stars is on. (Did I just admit to watching that? LOL!!)
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Busy Day!
Yesterday was a busy day for me. I managed to make 43 packages of peanut butter cookies for the Shire of Phoenix Glade's fundraiser lunch, knit 2" on my green lacy socks, made a new underdress for a new Viking outfit, calligraphed and painted 2 letters to their Majesties and Highnesses inviting them to PG's event in August, along with several loads of laundry, a load of dishes, made dinner and managed to even watch a bit of tv with the kids (OK, that's when I got the knitting done.)
Today shouldn't be as busy. I need to make some mocha crinkles for the aforementioned lunch, cut out and sew an apron to go with the aforementioned dress and maybe work on my Viking shoes that have long been needing to be sewn. At least I don't have any calligraphy that needs to be done today. Although I should trim down a few scrolls and get them sandwiched between boards to take to crown. I may even make a new hat from some wool I have. (No, Honnoria, not the wool we bought when you were here, just some wool from my ever growing hoard. We Vikings do that sort of thing!)
Today shouldn't be as busy. I need to make some mocha crinkles for the aforementioned lunch, cut out and sew an apron to go with the aforementioned dress and maybe work on my Viking shoes that have long been needing to be sewn. At least I don't have any calligraphy that needs to be done today. Although I should trim down a few scrolls and get them sandwiched between boards to take to crown. I may even make a new hat from some wool I have. (No, Honnoria, not the wool we bought when you were here, just some wool from my ever growing hoard. We Vikings do that sort of thing!)
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