Travelling Time and Space

It's late so here's the short and sweet acount of today :

I added a new adiction to my current assortment of vices and quirks and habits.

Antique Stores

Yep, antique stores - neat, rather big stores packed with an abundance of stuff, some kitschy, some beautiful, some odd, some desirable, some fun, some simply stirring childhood memories.

Unfortunately it's almost midnight over here and that means I should have crawled into bed at least an hour ago [ remember ? Finn gets up at 7am - that makes nights awfully short :wink: ] so I will describe today's loot-trip in full detail.

Good night, good night !

Today I decided to tackle the darn tent for good :shock:

After a couple of weeks of planning [What would be cool to have, What is realistic as far as size goes, What fits into our car, etc.], searching for decent alternatives and finally drafting plans and measuring the frame of the sunshade and finding good deals on canvas-like fabric I finally started cutting the canvas today.

First advice :

Never buy striped canvas - it may look cool and save you from painting too much onto your tent because plain white tents look boring - but it makes cutting a real pain, and costs some fabric if you want the stripes to align somewhat decently.

Second advice : Do not expect your 8 month old son to be much of a help even if he wants to. Lunging across the canvas to get the scissors into his clutches or to eat the measuring tape [ he already had the chalk as an appetizer].

Other than not having enough striped canvas so I'll have to piece two wall-panels and being amazed that a 10'x10' tent needs quite a decent amount of fabric things are looking good so far.

More to come, stay tuned if you want to be a part of this desaster ... uh, I mean, adventure, yes ! :wink:

Yesterday was Finn's follow-up on the ear-infection at the pediatrician. It turned out that it had healed well and both his ears look normal again so if all goes well we won't see Dr Johnson again until the big 9-months check-up in july.

Talking about that she discovered that we were a little behind on the immunization record. Finn would have been due for those shots 2 days before our flight to the States, and trust me, with all that your child can come up with after getting shots, you don't want to do those -and- a 15 hour flight.

So he got his december shots in february and would have been due for the next set of three a month after that. And that was the one we missed because , remember I ranted about it, that was when we were still seeing that WEIRD Doctor-guy *nods gravely* and I was just fine with him touching our baby not that often.

Finn didn't like the fact that his easy-going harmless suddenly turned into a fakir's needle-experience when the nice nurse plunged 3 syringes into his chubby legs and told everybody so by screaming bloody murder. By the time we got to the car he was done and out cold the moment he touched his seat.

And that was when the fun begun : the babydragon was whiney and clingey and in the morning after the shots deceloped a pretty little fever, enough to make him feel absolutely miserable.

And whenever Finn feels miserable, he needs Mommy. That'd be me. 24/7, potty breaks do not count.

So after tending to Finn more than 24 hours straight including the night-time where I took him to bed with me { there's just no point in leaving him in his bed where he wakes crying and whimpering every 30 minutes when he will sleep whimpering cuddled aainst you in your bed - that way, all three of us get at least -some- sleep] the fever finally broke this afternoon and Finn started to recover visibly.

Now he's asleep in his own bed and I feel like falling apart *L*

But I love him all the same :wink:

Just in case you were wondering what the babydragon looks like now and what he's up to :

- Finn's started crawling at 7 months and 1 week
- at 7 months and 2 weeks he's got 1,5 teeth
- and since two days he is pulling himself up into kneeling or standing position using either mommy or daddy as climbing trees or the couch

Scary, eh ?

=http://img18.photobucket.com/...

Ready, set - GO !

=http://img18.photobucket.com/...

Out cold - crawling is work, I tell ya !

=http://img18.photobucket.com/...

Finn contemplating lunch, hoping for yoghurt

Oh man, that's what you get for clicking through the various links on tblog : you find the page that shows you all the comments made on your blog to whatever it was you wrote.

And that's when you realize : yes, there are people out there other than you and your husband who read what you write and yes, there are a very few people out there who will even add their own two cents, agreeing, disagreeing, just voicing their experience, giving advice or making suggestions.

And that's when I realized : most of the time I didn't notice.

And that's the time to be sliiiightly embarrassed.

So I send my apologies out to Busdriver and Magoo and all the others who actually sacrificed some of their onlinetime to comment on my babbling, err ... blogging and those little things of life I deem worth writing about.

Sorry I never replied to your comments :oops:

Magoo - Yeah, you might be right : friends who can't take eachother at face value and forego communication in the end are probably just people jumbled together under one umbrella for some time before their ways part again - that's life *S* It still sucks though.

Busdriver - Aren't thrifty places the coolest ? I love antiques and old houses and old furniture. Wait 'till we get a house ... *GRINS* Right now I'm lacking the space for stuff I really want :wink:
And I like your suggestion; friends of mine 'play' merchants at SCA events financing some of their eventcosts by selling fleamarketfinds to other SCAdians. Right now, though, I'm more into the collecting stage of this obsession :D

And to ll of you who haven't left foot- or fingerprints behind - if you do, I promise to be good and to reply - no kidding !

Talk to you later ! Until then - be good :wink:

So the Finnlet has finally mastered crawling and is now all over the place exploring every nook and niche of the apartment only to return to Mommy or - if available - Daddy to abuse us as his personal climbing tree.

He is now 7 1/2 months old and quite tall and strong and pretty quick for his age; he looks a bit older and people are often amazed to find out that "no, he isn't a year old yet".

Today he pulled himself up at the couch since he wanted to get to the sewing machines power cord and I swear he would have pulled himself ONTO the couch if he'd found something to hold on to other than the blanket.

Frea-ky ! THAT is just way too early, I think. On the other hand, it's just amazing to watch him struggle and grunt and groan until he finally manages to reach his goal [with much complaining, too], learning how to master gravity, verve and the interplay of his body with the two aforementioned. And if his body weren't ready for those new adventures he wouldn't go for them, right ? At least, that's what all the books say.

Heh, speaking of books - the babydragon is in bed, so there's time to read a book !

Talk to you later ! Until then, be good :wink:

Hey !

Remember me ? It's been a while but first Finn caught a cold which he happily passed on unto me and I have been sniffly, headachy and coughy and -very- mushy-brained for the better half of a week now.

And that always makes me forget about the playful things of like.

Like blogging.

Or doing stuff.

Whenever possible Finn and I have been trying to catch up on sleep during the day, napping a lot to make up for the rough nights because aside from coughing and sneezing and being annoyed by a runny or stuffy nose Finn's been busy teething on his second tooth as well.

The joys of parenthood *G*

Anyways, the colds are gone, the second tooth is almost there and life is finally looking up again !

Wheeeee ! *G*

And we bought fabric for the tent today *giggle*

Love ya !

And yet another week full of projects *L*

I'm still trying to finish as many projects I have kicking around as possible and so I'm now back to doing scrolls, finishing two last night that were lacking the illumination and am going to finish the third tonight; there's only a little bit of putting finishing touches on the illumination left to do and I get to add another one to the stack of Kingdom scrolls *G*

Yay me ! :wink:

As soon as I'm done with those leftover kingdom assignments including the ones from Drachenwald I have time and patience to tackle Tassilo's superperiod court barony scroll on parchment with irongallink and the wording based on perod german courtwrits - finally !

I just wish there were more days in a week, more weekends in a months and more saturdays and sundays in a weekend *G*

Happy Easter to all of you out there and may spring bring you many reasons to smile and laugh and love !

:D

I'm married to the world most wonderful man !

He puts up with all of my crazy ideas and listens to me dream and rant and rave [or was it rage ?]; he's tender and loving, understanding, respectful and thoughtful - or how would you call somebody who unexpectedly brings icecream [Haegen Dasz, nonetheless] when you mention your inflamed throat in a little sidenote ?

I'm such a lucky bug, it"s sometimes hard to believe :D
Afterall, it took us a while to find eachother - just imagine : it took me to move to Hamburg and get in touch with the SCA, and he wouldn't have met me if it weren't for the Burns exchange program and his brother who suggestes checking out those "weirdos that whack eachother with sticks" in Hamburg when Tim was feeling a little lost :D

In him I found a great friend, a true confidante and a wonderful lover - all in one and all at once ! And while there certainly are kinks and quirks in him as there are in me, even those seem to complement eachother

Heh, we are some lucky bugs :wink:

Say "Hello !" to the latest addition to my family : a Singer 347 in the prettiest shade of turquoise I've ever seen ! :D

No kidding - I bought a sewing machine today

Why, yes, I do already own two perfectly fine and working sewing machines

Your point ?

Do you remember me telling you about a certain person that collects sewing machines ? And how contagious this is ?

Actually, this time I wasn't even looking for a sewing machine, becaus, well, it's not like I need another one
However, this is not how it works with vintage sewing machines - they go looking for you

I swear it's true ! Pretty much all of the vintage sewing machines I have come in touch with were either hand-me-downs or fleamarket finds
And today I was - quite unplanned - getting my biweekly fleamarket/thriftstore fix :

After Finn's appointment with the Pedeatrician the two of us were getting ready to pick up Daddy and - while on our way and because I felt adventurous thus straying from my usual route - spyed a thriftstore on our little detour

[b]Temptation ![/b]

Of course, we stopped - I love to browse the shelves with bric-a-brac, and sometimes you find something that will spiffen up your SCA life without ruining your budget :)

In we went, Finn half-asleep, and we raised the cuteness level in the store by about 200% fining ourselves immediately the center of attention which in Finn's case [he wasn't really awake enough for flirting] lead to a confused and panic-y screaming [and maybe this should have been more than one sentence] *L*
He calmed down quickly after escaping from the flock of women and browsing the aisles [with a little help from making funny faces and equally funny sounds from yours truely] and - getting ready to leave - we passed the counter with one of the women again and she felt chatty

And then she asked the question of questions :
[i]"Are you looking for something in particular ?"[/i]

Truth be told, I wasn't [I have 2, t-w-o working sewing machines, remember ?] - I was merely snooping around because you never know what you might find - and so I can't really explai why I answered like this :
[i]" Kind of - do you have sewing machines ?"[/i]

That sealed my fate; I was doomed :shock:

" And what kind of sewing machine are you looking for ? "

" Hmm, I like old sewing machines better : sturdy full-metal body, maybe a nice Singer or Pfaff ? "

And then she produced a hardplastic case and in it was the prettiest turquoise Singer ever seen; they'd just gotten it and so it wasn't pricetag-ed and set-up yet *L*

We checked it, it did work and together with a cardboardbox full of yarn, bobbins, feet and other stuff she became mine, mine, mine :lol:

Awesome, eh ? And I swear she was looking for me :wink:

During life you meet quite a lot of people and while some pass without touching you leaving mere ghosts of mevories behind there are some that leave deeper impressions and their fingerprints on your soul

Aren't we poetic today ? Boooooy :shock:

And sometimes we meet people that are about as crazy as we are and that's one of those really lucky days *G* In the SCA you have plenty of chances to run into that kind of people - where else could you possibly find other human beings that share your interest in 13th century animal husbandry ? Or constructing trebuchets ? Or --- ?
One of those people for me is Conny : we shared first events, first shopping sprees, first frustrations and lots of crazy ideas, and while there were times when it almost seemed that we were drifting apart because we were - each of us - going through significant changes in our lives, we keep drifting back, sharing wild ideas and are having fun - even across the distance of an ocean and 6 hours time difference :D

With Conny, there aren't stupid ideas or impossible ones - they can be silly, downright chaotic and even megalomaniac [if that's a word] *G*

So when I shared my portal-idea with her last night it was almost beyond doubt that she would jump onto the train and run with it *G* As soon as we've got the basics down we'll share our latest project with you until then ---

Stay tuned and be good :o) and a bit crazy !

I'v e got waaaaay too many projects running *G*

I think that's the problem of every SCAdian who is really enjoying that hobby : you can do stuff, lots of it :lol:

After a while however, you end up with more projects that fit into an apartment, house or schedule so at one point you have to either cut down on the number [Err, how do you do that ? I mean I have so many ideas of what I want to do and I haven't even started yet *g*] or start finishing some of those that are scattered all over the place *g*

I decided to go for the latter and am putting the finishing touches on Tim's cloak; today I'll start lining it - if Finn lets me I might actually get it done tonight as well which would be cool because then I could tackle the tapestry and finish painting that :wink:

Now, if you think that lining a cloak shouldn't take more than a day you're right - that is, if you're using a sewing machine. Unfortunately I have procrastinated getting the power converter for my german sewing machines and so I'm back to the roots sewing everything by hand. It's really not that bad and after a few stitches worth of practice I'm actually pretty quick : so far all of Finn's garb is handsewn as is all the garb I made for Tim and -partially - mine as well as I only recently started using sewing machines.

Come to think of it, I only used my sewing machines to sew a cotehardie and the tent and a handful of banners *scratches head* I thought I'd done more than that with them - heh :lol:

Anyways, it's time to take care of the household so I have time for more of those projects that are swirling in my head !

Take care and be good :D

Well, after doing some math [and scaring the heck out of my husband by jotting down the incredible length of 40' [about 11m for those who use -real- measurements *g*] as circumference for my sort of "dream-pavilion" we uh, well, discovered that Fergus, our car, is very possibly not capable of transporting said pavilion anywhere :?

Fergus is a convertible and is coming into the age where he's no longer up to adolescent adventures like camping trips with truckloads of stuff -and- 2 1/2 people one of who needs a babyseat on top of his seat *g*

So, after much consideration and some grumbling and teethgrinding realization that youcan't really break down a 12' tentpole [that's 3,66m] into 6 pieces that fit into the trunk [and only those and nothing else] we said good-bye to the pavilion and authenticity and settled for a peri-oid-looking because canvas-covered easy-up sunshade which ranks in the same category as market-umbrellas gone round-pavilion - not really a tent, not really medieval, but they break down -very- small and are an ok compromise

And I'll paint it and add nifty dags and make it pretty !

I swear !

All I now need is fabric and off we go :wink: and one day, when Fergus isn't anymore and we have a bigger car or a trailer hook-up and still play SCA we will have a real pavilion *L*

I wish people would talk openly

I wish people would show courage by approaching eachother

I wish people would care more

I wish people could forgive

I wish people would cross borders and embrace eachother

I wish people could put aside differences and just forgive and forget

I wish people could make up

I wish there was never an imagined "too late"



Sometimes, I wish my friends could too

Alright, the quest is over : the tent I'd love to buy I can't afford, the ones that are affordable aren't available since the company refuses to get in touch with me and the others don't come with a frame and when you have to do the frame anyways you might as well do the rest too

I mean, how hard can it be ? Afterall, I have already sewn one tent [ an Anglo-Saxon Geteld, to be exact] and aside from having to haul around tons of fabric it was fun, not as much work as you'd think and not as difficult and it did hold up - much to our surprise *G*

So we are going to make a round pavilion, 12' tall and with a 14' diameter base - awesome, eh ? :D

Stay tuned for more !

And now back to your scheduled program :wink:

Yep, that'd be me - not so much in the sense of "doesn't spend unnecessary money" [the very contrary is true some would say although I always try to find the best deal before buying something] - I just happen to love Thriftstores, Garage sales and fleamarkets :)

So I really love living near a Thrift-Super-Store - it's a mere 10 minutes walk away from our place and when the weather is nice Finn and I occasinally leave for a stroller-trip passing the thriftstore and poking our noses in, naturally

It's simply fun to see what other people discard, get rid of and abandon what again other people consider "little treasures" : boxes, glasses, china, shoes, clothes, furniture, collectibles - you can find pretty much everything for less than cheap money

And while you can't really barter at the thriftstore like you would at a real fleamarket, I have - so far - never payed the price as listed on the pricetag and brought home little treasures like a footstool-sized wooden box that doubles as a seat, 8 little brown glass-beersteins with wooden handles, a scarf with a nice purple-gold trim, a felted wool pouch with pretty trim and last but not least two wooden games with drilled-in holes for the playstones :D

Awesome - can't wait to go again to see if anything cool wants to be found by me :wink:

So I finally manage to incorporate some reading time into my sort of busy daily schedule *G* Amazing, eh ?

And while still on and off reading "Viking Age Iceland" that's a bit too big on the family feudes and laws and thus a bit too much on the dry side of reading I tackled historical novels again

Nope, not the rather cheesy ones that touch the more romantic natures out there; the appeal of "Stay, oh, my strong warrior" and " Raid my heart, Vikingstud" are absolutely lost on me [and "viking" is a verb ! Bleah *L*]

The one I'm currently readin offers interesting male characters and of course, gorgeous woman who get caught up in male affairs and affairs with males but it definitely focusses more on the historical details :

[b]"Lion of Ireland" by Morgan Llywelyn[/b]

It describes the life of Brian Boru, Ireland's hero, who managed the impossible and united most of Ireland's tribes under his order to drive off the norse [norse, not vikings - see ! :wink: ]; a paperback with 570 pages in total it only has one problem : a good 200 pages into the story I was already fed up with the constantely quabbling Irish and wondered why she thought the Norse deserved to be portrait as big, brute, dumb and dirty creatures *scratches head* Neither seems to change much until the end of the book [it's a habit of mine to check on the end of a book when it's not quite catching my interest fully to see if it deserves being read to the very end] but since I'm already on page 376 I think I'll brave the remaining ones as well

If you want to read some better stuff go for Cecelia Holland :)

The really sad part about the book is that the author has Brian muse about the quarrelsome irish and how their eagerness to fight inside will keep them from achieving the greatness they are capable of outside - how true, how true :?