Travelling Time and Space

Tonight's entry is going to be sweet and short :

*G* Both, my books and the beadmaking stuff arrived today and so I'll be pretty offline playing with my new toys.

Updates are going to follow - promised :)

[b]Finnley[/b]


It's amazing how sometimes there's no denial from which family Finn hails : no matter if it's my stubborness, Tim's waking-up habits and quirks, my round cheeks, Tim's hair and ears, the soccer-legs of my family or other little things - our babydragon is such a funny mix of the two of us it surprises us every day anew.

Of course, he is slowly developing his own little habits and quirks [though they are still based on his family background].

Introducing solids into his current diet has been one of the funniest things lately : his utter and genuine disgust at some tastes is simply hilarious and the grimaces he shows are priceless !

Potatoes, carrots, applesauce, butternut squash - even squeaky green peas are fine by him unless you try feeding him the same stuff more than two days in a row. Then he chokes in wonderful "I'm dying" fashion on the mashed vegetables he ate enthusiastically just yesterday and tries to get ahold of the phone to call Amnesty International.

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Oh, and don't you dare offer plain rice cereal - it's obviously the most disgusting thing ever [and basically, I have to give Finn that : it does taste like wet cardboard] - mixing it with the mashed [i]real[/i] food it works okay as a filler, though.

And no, we aren't being difficult :wink:

[b]Finnley[/b]

In about a week, Finn and I are going to leave for a short weekend trip to my parents-in-law in Pennsylvania. All those wonderful friends of the family have - after helping us plan a wonderful wedding - gotten together to do a belated babyshower for the babydragon.

Remember ? I mentioned our "tour de registre" at Babies'R'us earlier this month.

So, on thursday next week we are headed north with Tim following us on friday - we are flying back together though ...
Guess we'll need a strong male to schlepp all the stuff we're going to get at the babyshower *L*

Although, seeing that Finn's grown a whole centimeter and gained a little more than a pound in 2 1/2 weeks I'm hoping for lots of gift certificates and oversized clothes.

*sigh* He's not taking after me in that respect :lol:

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Two more days until the arrival of my wonderful hoard of books and - if you believe the UPS tracking system - two more days until the arrival of my beadmaking kit - hurray !

I suck at waiting - really :roll:

I did it.

Again.

Big time.

I gave in to temptation.

And - Boy ! - does that feel good !

Books and the shopping thereof is one of my biggest addictions, followed closely by shopping for fabrics and trim, of course.

And today there was no holding back [well, some holding back was there], no wringing self-control, nothing to keep me from hitting the "add to cart" button before all too soon to the check-out and with quivering hands and flushed face watching the confirmation-email of my order show up in my emal bin.

And since I'm a sucker when it comes to waiting I was so evil as to ignore the Super Saver Free Shipping button [*snort* 7-9 days of waiting - bah !] and so by friday I should be able to lay my greedy little viking paws onto the most desirable book - "The Codices Illustres".

I'm close to passing out, somebody open that window for me - please ....

[PS: and 4 more books *g*]

[b]mundane life[/b]

It's days like this one when blogging is the least thing on my mind :

the sun is shining from a bright-blue sky dotted with the soft white plume of clouds and a little breeze from the nearby ocean adds just the right amount of spring chill to the warmth speaking of summer.

Love it *happy sigh* lizzard, that I am.

Husband's at home, Finn is a happy little buglet and now we're off to some strolling around at the St Johns River or the beach or some other nice spot !

Talk to you later :)

[b]SCA[/b]

It's late, dusk has already given way to night a while ago and I'm here, listening to some irish folk music while painting a medieval miniature, adding the shine of gold(paint) to vines threading their way around a knight kneeling in front of his lady. Tonight all my mailinglists as rather quiet. They usually are on weekends because that is when all the geeky people like me get together for a brief get-away which we call events.

This weekend is Crown Lyst in Trimaris, my kingdom, when the heir to the Crown will be determined in a swordfighting tournament. Dozens of noble gentles with their ladies who inspire them to great deeds will meet and face eachother and only the best will emerge and be declared successor to the throne.

[i]
What the heck is wrong with those people ?! They are running around, dressed in funny clothes and whack eachother with sticks all the while referring to eachother as "lord" or "lady" [not to mention the odd names some pick] ??[/i]

So the SCA, Society for Creative Anachronism, is a group of medieval recreationist and the biggest difference to all the other groups out there is the sheer madness of covering a timeperiod from about the 600s to the 1600s with vikings and japanese, 14th century english and 16th century venetian conversing freely and happily with roman miles and byzantine noblewomen who excell in celtic-irish knotwork illuminations and german blackwork [a late renaissance embroidery style, by the by].

[i]Gah ?? [/i]

I knew this wouldn't make it any easier for you *G* but it certainly describes the amazing variety you will find in the SCA. The one thing everybody in the SCA probably has in common is a certain amount of interest in history and an inborn curiousity to try new things, arts, crafts and sciences.

When I joined the SCA only two years ago, I didn't know quite what to expect. Talking to one of my many online acquaintances he mentioned the magic word "Pennsic" one day and directed me to a webpage with pictures - and my curiosity was piqued. I saw pictures of people in wonderfully embellished dresses, I saw pavillions and viking tents, I saw people cooking over an open fire and I saw armies meeting in battles I saw the king and the queen and I saw gentles elevated to knighthood.

And frankly, I was hooked *g*

Discovering the fact that Hamburg actually did have a local SCA group [a so-called Shire as the SCA is organized in kingdoms with their smaller units being baronies and shires and cantons, etc] I got in touch with them. Needless to say I like what I saw and stayed.

I've never been a very outdoors-y kind of person, at least not before the SCA - I freeze easilly and dread rain as if I were part of the felidae. I was never really interested in sewing or embroidering or weaving, and that too changed with the SCA since you can't go to a store and simply buy your outfit or medieval tent ...

It took 5 weekends and the help of another SCAdian to get me into my first simple outfit : a wannabe cotehardie with a surcote, a skirt, blouse and cloak and a headcovering as it befits the station of a young and decent lady. To my first event , the "Feast of Fools" in Knight's Crossing, I travelled with a sleeping bag and airmattress and another cavastote containing my garb and gear [basically the hardware you need for drinking and eating] not knowing what to expect.

It was freezing cold that weekend in march, it was rainy and very very muddy [part of the reason I went "viking' because aving to go to the bathroom and having to deal with a cold and muddy train is really nasty] and there was only coffee to keep you warm [ and I absolutely abhor coffee, so you can imagine how cold it was].

And I had the time of my life ! It was awesome ! I met people who had hobbies I'd never ever dared dream about [You fletch arrows ? You translate 15th century cookbooks ? You know how to tabletweave ? What -is- tabletweaving ?], we laughed, we sang, we bundled up together around the fireplace, we told stories.

And amidst all this there was I thinking myself in a completely different world, far far away from a 12h/day job as a hotelmanager, statistics, bookings, exhibitions and all the other mundane things.

I came back home sunday late afternoon and while soaking and thawing in a hot bath discovered I was as relaxed and refreshed as if I had been on a two-weeks vacation.

Not to mention all the cool ideas I was brimming with *L*

In the meantime I've seen the 'other' side of things, the side where people show their less intriguing facettes. I have seen the workings of rumors and envy and arguements - it always happens where a lot of people get together, no matter where and what they are doing. I have yet to find any group of people where 'politics' are not an issue, BUT

I have met many wonderful and amazingly talented people, I have learned so many new things and discovered that there is little I can't do *g* I've met my now husband through the SCA and no matter where I am I can make myself at home because there's usually a SCA group nearby.

There's a certain kind of magic to things you can do within the SCA, those moments when everything is 'right', moments when the gathered people in court listen to their King's voice totally enrapt and eyes rimmed with tears because one of them is awarded, the joyous shout of "VIVAT!" when people are happy for somebody else, the moments when the minstrel's voice and his bawdy songs bring laughter and grins to the lords and ladies sitting around a campfire, the quiet mornings when nobody is awake but you and you fire up the camfire and walk off with a big mug to get water for breakfast, the sun just risen and drying the dew on the grass and a soft breeze toying with the colorful banners and flags.

Magic ? You bet :D Wanna come along for a magic carpet ride ?

[b]mundane life[/b]

Today finds me a little braindead and at a loss for words for once as a result of Finn's current idea of nightly sleep patterns.

Last night crowned his efforts in keeping me sleep-deprived by waking in one-hour intervals starting at 11pm until he finally decided not to go back to sleep at all at around 3am - a time I usually prefer to spend indulging in the pleasures of a REM-phase.

No such luck last night - Finn didn't go back to sleep, not even when I finally surrendered and took him to be with us Usually the warmth and the snoozerays of his parents is enough to lull him back to sleep. However, after a good 90 minutes of him entertaining himself by either pulling my hair or clawing my face as he is at the moment very interested in noses, ears and hair I took him growling and groaning to the livingroom so that at least one of us could sleep for a few more hours. One happy Tim rolled over and continued snoozing happily.

Heh, once on the couch the little Prince fell asleep and so did I - something that repeated several times throughout the day since Finn and I were both incredibly tired.

Braindead, right - just enough mushed up braincells left to function while ironing yesterday's laundry *g* Thursdays are my lucky days as I don't have to bother with dinner : it's Tim's night on the TV so he'll bring food home when he returns late at night :)

Tonight, we had Pizza. Finn's asleep for now and I'm still somewhat braindead.

Wish me luck in getting more sleep tonight, folks :wink:

[b]mundane life[/b]

For the love of God, there's got to be someone who can explain to me what's wrong with the weather these days !

Please ?

Pretty please ?

Yes, I know it's february, basically still 'winter' or at least Florida's idea of winter, but what the heck is really going on ?

Looking back at the past weeks we've had days where we ran the airconditioning and considered the pool [well, -I- did since I'm still somewhat "tourist-y" in mindset *g*], then there were days where I woke up in the mornings and waddled over to the a/c box and turned on the heat so we wouldn't freeze off our pretty little behoochies, especially Finn *scratches head*

Last week, the local weathergod obviously decided to pack every possible kind of weather into one single week starting with rain on saturday pouring down on us like the wrath of God only to be replaced with the sunniest and warmest sun-day [oOhhhh, -now- I'm getting the pun !] ever imaginable.

Of course, on monday we were back in the greys and nasties and then we had days that either started off nice or nasty and ended with being the very opposite.

And you know, it's close to driving me insane ... heh :shock:

[b]SCA[/b]

Vikings weren't clad in crude clothes of drab colors wearing only the easiest jewelry in handforged fashion some would like us to believe.

Instead they loved colors and especially women favored an almost ostentatious display of their wealth by wearing wonderfully crafted items such a tortoise brooches, trefoil brooches and othere bronze and silver jewelry crafted by their own craftsmen as well as other jwelry that found its way into a vikings home by means of merchants and yes, even the occasional raid.

Important to the whole look of a female viking's dress were rows of semiprecious gemstones and glassbeads strung between the brooches that held the hangarok [aprondress, but I prefer to call it hangarok since that term describes a full garnment and not - as implied in the "apron-dress" kind of tabbard-version] and necklaces made of the same.
There were only small finds of beads in male norse graves, however, in female burial sites they discovered up to 200 beads in a single grave.

[i]Here's one of those necklaces made of carnelian and crystal beads [/i]
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As you can see, all kinds of little pendants were added to the original necklace : little figurines, amulets and even coins and other metal pieces that had some decorational value.

As a collector of all kinds of things you can eventually use for SCA-related things [ I love fleamarkets !] I had a nice collection of glassbeads and metalbeads sitting at home and after discovering a few more things that would look neat arranged as a viking necklace I sat down to make one.

Event though it seems that the necklaces are assembled following no reasonable pattern all you need is to take a closer look to discover that most are arranged in pairs of beads arranged 180 degrees from eachother with all attachments in even intervals
If you want to add additional pendants you string them onto a piece of wire with some beads and string this wire-ring to your necklace

[i]So, here's the short and sweet version[/i] :

- choose beads and pendants
- place pendants at even intervalls
- choose pairs of similar beads and place them 180 degrees apart to fill up the spaces [sometimes breaking with this pattern can be used to emphasize a certain pendant]
- string on waxed linenthread
- string additional pendants with few beads on wire-rings and add to necklace
- display proudly ;)

I'll show off my first creation as soon as the film's back from being developed [nope, no digicam here *pout* well, not yet *g*] - until then, stay tuned for more projectmadness !

PS:
Hubby and I are going to make our own glassbeads as soon as our order comes in *g* That's going to be a lot of fun !

So there haven't been any new entries for the past two days and you wonder why ?

Well, saturday was Valentine's Day, d'oh - and with husband working hard on cooking breakfast for me it would have been really heartless to update my blog instead of properly appreciating his efforts - especially if I want him to repeat that another day :wink:

And since it was only sort of misting we decided to drive 2 hours to Hoggetown medieval fair to visit our fellow SCAdians at their booth - it sort of sucked though that the isting turned into a decent soaking and there's more mud and water and rain than anythingelse at the fair *sigh*
On the other hand, despite the weather we had fun meeting old and new acquaintances and putting faces to names !

On sunday we started off lazy and then rove over to Lala to drop off two scrolls she wanted calligraphed because she didn't have time to do all the work by herself [Bard of Castlemere scroll and Warrior Bard of Trimaris scroll for Cutlasses and Corsairs] so I raised my heliumhand and jumped in to help.

We ended up staying for longer than we had originally planned but as usual with other SCAdians you find yourself admiring the other's projects and cool stuff and browsing their library *L*

And -then- we went to a rather big michael's craft store to do some shopping - wheeee *G* I finally got a stool for my scribal desk and bought a few more fine brushes and a good handful of glassbeads to make a viking necklace before I start making my own glassbeads .

And that was it :D

[b]SCA[/b]
Alas, here I am at my cozy little spot at the conveyor belt :

DOWN and rule out the margins
AAAAND UP !
DOWN and lay out the design
AAAAND UP !
DOWN and whip out calligraphy
AAAAND UP !
DOWN and ink the illumination
AAAAND UP !

Now, that's the part where I can take a break since I have Team Castlemere, the other scribal people of my local group, back me up in painting the little bastards, I mean scrolls *G*
Although, considering I did the above-mentioned routine on 9 scrolls and it only took me about 6 hours I must admit that I've gotten quite a handful of practice and thus gained somewhat in the speed departments, at least in calligraphy, an it's still looking good :o)

Now, painting the floral borders and miniatures will take me a while but before I got this incredible amount of practice it's always been the calligraphy part that took me ages to finish and that kept me from indulging the pleasures of painting :)

On the other hand, in the meantime I have developed something like a "helium hand" and I always seem to end up with more than a sane share of assignments *L*

:shock: <- as soon as I start looking like this, drag me outta the craft room, please !>
[19 down, 9 more to go - current scroll bodycount for Trimaris :P ]

[b]SCA[/b]

On special request here're a couple of pictures showing the happy threesome Finn, Tim and me at a sunday's SCA fighter's practice wearing garb and , in Tim's case, armour :D Don't we look dashing ?

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That was Finn's first day out in garb too :) Ain't he cute looking in his little tunic ? Daddy was very concerned there wouldn't be enough of that pretty trim left for his new garb - hah !

I'm a garb junky so there's plenty of trim and nice pure linen just waiting for me to turn it into pretty new garb for the summer ! Bwahahahaha !

[b]Finnley[/b]

If Finn were old enough to talk, that would be his favorite line - no doubt about it !

Since our little [yeah, right] babydragon seems to want to take after his namesake Finn MacCool who fooled his opponent by disguising as an 8' baby and we sort of suspect he might need additional nourishment we had the awesome idea to get him started on solids [okay, I misspelled that as "soilids" at first and you know, it doesn't strike me as too wrong a word *L*] which is commonly something like rice creal.

Heck, my idea of comfort food is vanilla cream, sweet porridge and buttery and sweet grits but even -I- wouldn't eat that rice cereal !

And considering that breastmilk is rather sweet I'm surprised any baby would actually consider wasting a second look.

Anyways, I guess Finn's face on this picture tells you all that's necessary about that experience *L*
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[Nope, he didn't swallow it at all *L*]

And just to show you the difference, that's a happy Finn :

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By the by, reading through another baby manual we finally decided to try the suhy cooked veggie approach and guess what ? Finn decided that mashed potatoes are kind of okay *G* So there's hope we are not going to end up with a very picky eater :wink:

[b]SCA Art[/b]

Alright, after almost two years I -think- i should dare enter an A&S competition.

[i]Uh, A& what ?[/i]

Well, like every other organisation even the SCA loves the sort of secret club language that consists of varying choices of letters thrown together - or so it seems to the unsuspecting newbie.

But lo and behold - there's an end to the madness :o) because our Known World Handbook covers most of the important ones [and the others you learn as they come, it's really not that difficult].

A&S is short for "Arts and Sciences" and refers to the realm of old medieval/renaissance crafts, techniques and the research thereof - naw, it's not all triste and dry theory, it's an awful lot of fun ! Check out a group in your neighbourhood and give archery, fencing, swordfighting, nalbinding [viking knitting, so to speak], fingerloopbraiding, weaving, gilding, calligraphying, etc a try - You might like it better than you possibly could imagine *G*

Anyways, we do contests in the arts and sciences just as we do jousts and tournaments and I think I should enter one [ nope, haven't yet :o) ] as to get an idea of how much I progressed in my efforts, how much I have improved and to get some pointers on what needs more attention and work.

All I have to do now is to
a) come up with an idea for a project
b) research it so I can document my work
and
c) present it.

Since I'm still trying to come up with a nifty idea for a project I'm doing some research on how to enter an A&S contest without wanting to commit suicide or get ting lost between the pages of my documentation *G*

I have real parchment, lots of period pigments to make my own paint, oakgall ink and even handcut quills so I could do a completely period piece .. .err, a piece using period methods and means that is, more correctly *L* all I need is a nifty idea so feel free to share if you've got one ;o)

[b]SCA[/b]

And again I run into my pretty permanent dilemma "How do you pull off the viking-routine if you're doing renaissance-style calligraphy and illumination and in need of a big-a** tent?"

Bleah ...

I love all things viking : I love my carved drinking horn given to me by the Lady of the Household, I love my wooly apron-dresses and tunics an the linen ones for summer, my silverjewelry including Thorshammer and seaserpent-like bracelet and my tortoise brooches from Raymond's Quietpress are awesome - I could go on like this forever.

The only drawback ?

Vikings didn't bother with calligraphy and illumination. Yeah, they admired the work, especially the shiny gold and nicely tooled leather-bound books with all those sparkly gems on the cover but did they spend time on drawing acanthus leaves ? Floral borders ? Exquisite miniatures in minute detail ?

Noooooooo *howl*

Shucks *sulks off into corner*

[b]mundane life mingling with other areas of interest[/b]

I'm a true bookaholic even though right now I barely get around to reading a book for more than a few minutes every evening.

However, despite projects, Finn and husband taking up most of my time my love and lust for books is unbroken and just as strong as before marriage and baby. It certainly helps that my wonderful husband is just as bad a bookworm as I'm *L*

So today after checking a ~store~ at the fleamarket for a european to US power transformer for my sewing machines and browsing the aisles of Pier 1 Imports we finally went to Barnes & Noble snooping around for books because there is nothing like "enough books" or even "too many".

After a while of searching the shelves I finally spied -IT- : [b]The Book [/b].

500 pages, 12"x12" and not a single page without a big illustration : [b]The Renaissance 1401-1610 te splendor of european Art[/b]

For unbelievable $ 9,98 *gasp-pass out*

So in case you have a few bucks left - go'n get it !!

[b]SCA[/b]

http://www.sca.org.au/laurels/" title="http://www.sca.org.au/laurels/" target="_blank"http://www.sca.org.au/laurels... Lochac's Laurel Page

I think I'm going to make this page one of my favorite webpages : everything you ever wanted to know about Laurels and never dared ask [for whatever obscure reason, they don't bite - heh] is written there, easy to understand and actually making sense.

When you first join the SCA or rather, when I first joined the SCA everybody pointed out the Masters and Mistresses speaking in quiet whispers totally enthralled and in awe as if they were Gods - well, call it heresy but they aren't - gods, that is. Most if not all of them rock and I have yet to find some Laurel who isn't helpful and happy to help you with your question when you treat them like real people and not some deity on a pedestal [ some are really more fun without that pedestal].

So , approach your Laurel, talk to him or her, ask questions - unless you catch them in the wrongest of moments they will not turn you away.

And if you are interested in becoming an apprentice - ask. Laurels know and can do a lot of stuff, but most of them can't read minds [Mine does - I swear !].

And "Rowan's Prentice Studyguide" sounds vaguely familiar too - I recognize a lot of those things, they are part of my to-do-list as well :o)

So many wonderful and cool things to do, so little time *g*

[b]Art[/b]

So today was the first scribal tea at my place. I had a great time and was once again confirmed in my believes that I'm not the only geek with an insane number of projects on mind and hands *g*

[b]Scribal tea - what is that, you might ask yourself.[/b]

It's a get-together of like-minded people meaning those interested in illumination and calligraphy in the SCA get together at my place once a month for little workshops, projects and to basically chat about all things scribal [and other things too, of course ;o) .]

Since today was our first meeting it was more to learn to know eachother, to find out what everybody's been doing so far and - especially for as I'm supposed to run those workshops and classes - to find out what people would like to learn and do on those saturdays.
Afterall, some things need more than a single practice night every month.

After browsing various books on our favorite topic and talking about scribal experience and problems and accidents which despite their tragedy can be really funny we agreed on doing

a) short-term workshop and classes on basic calligraphy, basic illumination and basic design and layout rules with a primer in research that will enable us to actually work on our

b) longterm goal of creating a Book of Hours for the Royal Kit of the Shire [ If you were King or Queen, wouldn't you just love to have a book of hours on your nightstand at your home-away-from-home ?]

Everybody liked the idea and so next time we will actually start with a class on the basics of calligraphy with Lady Katherine and me introducing two different hands [well, at least two *g*].

Sounds like fun, doesn't it ?

[b]Art[/b]

Since I now live in duck-quill country and customs didn't do as much as raise an eyebrow over my stack of goose-feathers I find myself in the lucky position to try my hand at quill-cutting without running into the danger or running out of feathers to cut ;o)

From germany I brought a whole batch or 'real' goose feathers after the very generous and amazingly resourceful parents-in-law of my scribal partner in crime Fiona [check out her artist's webpage, link is to the left !]
presented us freshly cut-off goosewings from the slaughterhouse.

Preparing those was somewhat nasty, although the greasy smell of goose cooking woke childhood memories : we used to have a whole flock of geese when I was little. And ducks. And chicken.

Back to the goosewings which had to be cooked for two reasons; first : Hygiene. Yeah, they were halffrozen, but they had been sitting on the balcony for a while since nobody dared touch the bloody things.
And second : no way to pluck those feathers if you don't boil them.
So they were boiled [in bleach actually for reason no 1 and to make them a little whiter] and cured by setting them aside for a couple of weeks.

However, they were still packed and stowed away when I ran across the ducks and the vague memory of other birds's feathers being used for quill-making. And since I'm hardly what you call 'patient' I sat down and began my research online and with my books.

In the end [b]the process of quillcutting [/b] boils down to the following steps :

[b]A[/b] Prepare the feathers by
- cleaning them [boil, brush off, etc]
- curing them ie hdening them by either setting them aside for about 6 weeks -or- by sticking them into hot sand [preheat oven, heat sand, push feathers with the writing part into hot sand]

Cutting the quill

First you want to figure out the feather's pen-orientation meaning hold the feather as if it were already a pen and look how it bends. You'll want to keep an eye on that curve while you get ready to cut it. There're lots of pictures about showing the romantic version of a poet writing with a very plume-y quill - forget about that, the stuff only gets in the way and you're already causing enough ink blotches without any further help *g* so trim the feather and cut the plume with a pair of sharp scissors.

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[i][That pictures shows the notes I took, knife and the actual quill - see those black doodles ? That's the first writing with it !][/i]

Now you're going to need a very sharp X-acto knife. Cut a diagonal pint into the end of the stem and open the tube so you can clear out all the material inside.
After that cut a grove into the point of the stem by pressing down the tip of your knife and carefully splitting the tube. This grove will transport and hold your ink.

Cut curves that finish to the left and to the right of the grove making it look more like the tip of a pen and then start carefully shaving away material from the tip of your quill to thin the point of the nib [shaving being the magic word here, cutting doesn't get you the same controlled result].

The last step is to trim the tip of the nib by cutting it cleanly.

Voila ! Your quill ! Get ink and see if it works. Sometimes they need further tuning and they will certainly need sharpening during writing but for now you can enjoy the first letters written with a real quill !

If you want to read more on this topic, especially the technique, then these are two cool places to look :

Encyclopedia of Calligraphy Techniques by Diana Wilson
or online
wwwregiaorg

The Quill Experience II is going to be about my experiments with different kinds of feathers and previous treatment ie tempering/curing so stay tuned *g* and if you don't care abiout it wait for soe blog on mundania or the babydragon ;o)

[b]mundane life[/b]

Our postman possibly could - that is, if he's capable of tracking down our mailbox int he first place. Not like it is [i]that[/i] difficult since it is neatly lined up with a couple of others living in the same apartment complex ... heh.

He's confusing me and I haven't figured out yet whether he's doing it on purpose [just some sort of private joke, fooling those whacky germans *g* same thing with this fake-cheese stuff] or not, simply being confused himself.

Our mailbof is this rather small rectangular box with a little door at the front [ours to open] and one at the back through which the postman shoves truckloads of adds and letters to former residents at our address [Sorry, Walt, but you missed a check and Sally won't be on time for her fingerprint-appointment] and some that actually are addressed to us.

Then there is this bigger mailbox he can drop off packages in, locking the thing and dropping the key to that mailbox into your own so you can retrieve your online order/present/letterbomb.

Well, that's the theory ....

I know that he wouldn't have been able to squeeze the 25 yards of linen into our mailbox [i]or[/i] the bigger package-box but my Amazoncom order and another, even smaller package should have easilly fitted in there.

But no, no such luck - after a while you end up sending requests to stores about your order and start checking with the residential office who are slowly running out of storage space for all the goodies that are piling up in their backoffice.

Now a few days ago postman had me absolutely flabberghasted.

I had ordered a book on gilding, THE book on gilding for anybody interested in trying that art ["The gilded page" by Kathleen P Whitley, Oak Knoll Press and cheaper and faster if you order it at John Neal Books], and was still waiting for it It wasn't with the hoard of goodies at the residential office we got to pick up a few days before.

Then I walked to the mailbox and found it stuffed : with two big envelopes, lots of adds and on top of that : my book !

It took me about half an hour to get everything out of our little ittybitty mailbox and it included ripping and tearing through the wrapping of the book that was stuck in the box - Cudos and many thanks to John Neal books and the expert wrapping of their wares : that was the only thing that kept my book from being scarred for life during that barbaric process.

*G* Husband couldn't believe it when I showed the wrapping to him that evening - you'd think our mailbox is a portal to anotherr dimension to have swallowed that much cardboard and styrofoampellets.

So, what's wrong with Mr Postman ? Any ideas ?

[b]Art[/b]

Today I actually have to get into scroll-working mode : I need to get the last two scrolls of the first half of kingdom-assignments inked so I can give some away to Team Castlemere for painting and finish the Bard of Castlemere scroll so Lala can add her miniature at the bottom of that award writ which has a definite deadline [Feb, 28th].

Luckily, Finn's settled on very specific naptimes so I know that I'll have an hour around noon and another one during the afternoon before it's the babydragon's bedtime : household stuff like laundry and vacuuming and cooking will have to fit in there too *g* I told you, being insane helps !

Then I'll have to brave the other half of assignments and then it's time for EXPERIMENTS !

Or rather , the continuation [is that even a word ?] of my [b]quill experiment[/b].

When the weather changed for the better and allowed Finn and me to leave the house for a daily walk with the stroller we discovered ducks [and the ducks discovered us - us and the bread which makes them now leave the pond to waddle by our porch around early afternoon Yeah, [i]every[/i] day].
Ducks who see to loose quite a handful of feathers along the way.

So I finally sat down, browsed my library and the net for instructions on quill-cutting and then cut my very first quill from a duck-feather - and it worked ! Rather nicely I may add considering it was the first attempt at it and that I used an untempered duckfeather.

[b]Tempered ? Eh ? What the ... ?[/b]

Well, for more information on the whole Quill Experiment check out the next entry ;o)

[b]Art[/b]

So, by default I'm an artsy person having grown up in a family where song and dance and acting and the fine arts were and still are part of everyday life.
I just can't sing or play an instrument to save my life *L* much to the surprise of my parents who even recorded their own CD !

I doodle. Whenever I have the chance. Where ever possible. On paper, parchment, wallpapers, tabletops - it takes ink and paint and it's mine !

During the past two years with the SCA I've finally found my outlet for those sudden bursts of creativity and productivity in calligraphying and illuinating those award writs ["scrolls"] given out by the Crown.
You'll find examples of those ~scrolls~ here as I plan on using this blog as some sort of art-diary for my future experiments with paint and pigments, binders and media, parchment and paper and homebrewed 'stuff' from medieval recipes.

If you're into that and don't mind looking at the occasional anime-style sketch - stay tuned ;o)

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[b]Finnley[/b]

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[i]Yeah, they make me wear my pants on my head, occasionally, and think it's hilarious. As you can see I suffer my fate with amazing grace and cuteness[/i]

Finnley Brian was born August, 28, 2003 in germany, surprising everybody with his sudden and very quick appearance on stage : two weeks early and in less than 4h of labour, 4010g heavy and 56cm tall.

After snoozing away the first months he is now ready and set to conquer the world and slay every and all dragons therein with Daddy's sword of course.

Since mid-january he has figured out how to roll over onto his tummy and simply loves it. The rolling-over part that is, mind you. Once he is on his belly he discovers that it gets tiring after a while and starts complaining loudly - needless to say you roll him back onto his back and everything starts anew.

Blowing raspberries on whatever bodypart he could grab has lost its fascination since Finn discovered his feet.
Now rolling into this aazingly little ball and sticking those tony toes into his little snout is -IT-.

We are going to have a belated babyshower in early march and went through the torturous ordeal of registering at babies'r'us, gunning all the things we are going to need to keep lil' Finn entertained during the next months. If we don't get all the pretty stuff we registered for there's still the subscription to the Florida Times Union and our hoping for more colorful adds on shiny glossy paper ;o)

[b]mundane life[/b]
Supermarkets are international, their set-up and wares aren't - and that's sometimes quite disturbing to find out.

After moving from snowy germany to sunny [most of the time] Florida supermarkets and the biweekly shopping-spree for food for my little family proved to be my first challenge :
Nothing is sorted into the places I would expect things to be, aisles are mixed up and the produce-department comes with built-in rainstorms for the veggies
[i]Odd[/i] doesn't quite describe it *G*

The worst thing though is [b]nothing looks the same[/b] ! Not alone do the various companies differ, but the packages look completely different from what you would see in Europe : a completely strange design adding to my general confusion.

So what happens is that I browse [i]all[/i] the aisles staring at the wares on my quest for the right thing like the hypnotized Undead unawares of any shop assistant following me carefully around wondering what freaky stunt I might pull.

[i]
Never ask them where to find curd or real cream yoghurt, you'll get the same gargled answer and blank looks as if you'd been asking for green elephants with yellow polkadots ;o) [/i]

Oh, and beware of evil cheddar-lookalike fake cheese !

[b]SCA[/b]

[b]
So, what's [i]that[/i] about, eh ?[/b]Sorry to disappoint you if you're expecting something naughty - usually it isn't ;o)

In the SCA we have Peers, Laurels who are master of their chosen arts and/or sciences, Pelicans who are masters of service who have made a difference and Knights who are masters of swordmanship and chivalry.

One of the requirements or what is expected of a Peer is to pass on their knowledge so the kingdom, the arts and sciences and the chivalry can endure and grow.
So they take on pupils or students or - a bit and sometimes a lot more formal - apprentices for Laurels, proteges for Pelicans and the well-known Squire for Knights to teach the everything they need to know to become masters/mistresses in their own right.

After being a student to aster Terafan Greydragon for more than half a year in which we both had the chance to find out if we could work together and actually manage a close relationship as apprentice and master he made me his apprentice in a little ceremony at the Kingdom of Drachenwald Ten Years Celebration, June 2003.
In fealty to him and his Lady I'm now part of House Greydragon studying the arts of illumination and calligraphy [among others *g* I'm such a project-slut, really... I think they call it a wanna-be Jack-of-all-trades *L*].
[b]
Yeah, right - but, y'know, your master doesn't do 'loomination or calligraphy - so what's with that, eh ?[/b]
Nope, he isn't but I'm really good at asking other people about pigments and paints and goldleaf or looking it up myself.
What was more important to me in an apprentice-master-relatio nship was appreciation and understanding of eachothers ways and temper, enthusiasm about old and new things and a sense of humor - all of which I had the incredible luck in finding in Terafan. He's great in challenging me and that's what I need.

So check out that webpage [mine still needs uploading I'll get around to it - promised !] !

[b]mundane life[/b]

" Life is so simple - unil you start leaving the house ... "

When I left my apartment in february 2002 to go to my first SCA meeting in Hamburg I never thought it would wring the changes it actually did.
I mean who'd think you get to meet your future husband and father to your children at a meeting of history interested geeks who dress up into weird attire and whack eachother with wooden sticks on weekends ?
I haven't gotten into the whole "whacking eachother with sticks" especially if you can shoot somebody bigger than thou from a safe distance and without acquiring multicolored bruises, but love medieval tents and dressing up in viking-clothes.

Anyways, I got to meet my future husband Tim [or Suibhne in the world of the SCA], we got married and have the most wonderful babydragon I mean son Finnley Brian Gibbons, who was born August 28, 2003 and has been keeping us busy since then.

Tim being american though required me moving to the US though and after the first initial paperwork for immigration I'm now finally getting used to the Florida idea of winter *G* Actually, I like it ;o)

In undane life I used to be a hotelmanager, now I'm lucky to be able to be a stay-at-home mom for Finn busy spoiling him and his Daddy while on maternity leave.

In SCA terms I'm a mega-geek greatly involved in all things SCA just short of an offical officers position - sometimes even I admit running short on time to do stuff *L*
After starting in the Shire Two Seas in Hamburg, a few friends and I founded a new Shire in the north of germany called The Shire of Aventiure [make sure to check out the link !]. I covered the offices of webminister and minister of arts and sciences and have been and am in service of my kingdom[s] as scribe, calligraphying and illuminating the award scrolls The Majesties award to Their subjects. This will be the stuff taking up most of this blog, so stay tuned *G*

Yes, I know, good intentions pave the road to hell, but I really intent to blog. No kidding, seriously.
I was never good at keeping a diary, especially with some family members making a sport of reading it but this will be different. Not because I will spare you the juicy details, nope, it's all because the is going to be a blog on my ~new~ life after immigrating to the US, certainly some stuff on Finnley and moreso a diary for my timetravelling done in the SCA, the Society for Creative Anachronism.

And if this road takes us to hell, well, to hell with it, at least it's going to be fun ;o)