Travelling Time and Space

http://www.turmstadt.de/filth" title="http://www.turmstadt.de/filth" target="_blank"http://www.turmstadt.de/filth...

Kind of like the british "Sun" and the german "BILD" but focussing on the SCA in Drachenwald. The Trimarian counterpart is "The Quarter" which cn be found here

http://www.thequarter.org/index.php" title="http://www.thequarter.org/index.php" target="_blank"http://www.thequarter.org/ind...

:)

3 1/2 weeks until christmas and those 3 1/2 weeks will see lots of pre-holiday action, not to mention the christmas preparations :) Good thing I'm done with decorating the house, and if you keep the a/crunning you can even pretend it's ... uhm, kind of winter *L*

This week will see an A&S Night on wednesday with Lady Tamara teaching a cordial making class. Cherry Rose Cordial - doesn't that sound incredibly decadent and delicious ? I'm really curious about the taste.

Next tuesday I need to have some sort of introduction done for my MOPS group. I'm a new apple [there are peaches and cherries, too] and each of us is supposed to do a little introductory speech. I can already see myself rambling on and on and on and on ... being an immigrant, a mother, a wife and an A&S nut among other things gives you a LOT to talk about and I haven't even started thinking about my family and friends and profession ... heh.

The following sunday, december 12th, has me opening my house for yet another scribal tea with a class on painting miniatures. And we'll have a little christmas surprise to go with it ;) More afterwards ...

Then, on wednesday 15th, there is another A&S Night where I'll start my workshop on "Norse Fashion - skinside out". It's a workshop over several weeks about norse fashion and dress accessories and the goal is to create one set of norse garb from the inside out including headdress and shoes and jewelry. I'm planning to do the same with 13th century fashion and it's just part of my plot of corrupting people to more detail in their SCA dream. Sneaky I know ;)

Part of the same "plot" is organizing woodwork weekends together with Lord Iain mka Paul to make medieval chairs and benches and tables and chests. Hehehehe ...


Me ? Bored ? Never :)

Less than 4 weeks until Christmas ! Wheeeee :)

And since we got a christmas tree today we're in a christmassy mood,our place sparkling and smelling wonderfully of fresh fir tree.

That's basically what pops into my mind when pondering what to write today. Afterall,it's been three days that passed between tonight and my last post and it even included days like "Thanksgiving" and "Black Friday".

Thanksgiving was nice *S* My first in the States ever and we had lots of fun with our family. Finn enjoyed the excitement and the playing and all the attention and hs been tired and worn out all day today *L*

We did not go shopping on "Black Friday", even with Tim taking friday off from work. Our christmas shopping this year got delayed another laid back weekend :) we just didn't feel like hitting the stores at 4-frigging-30 in the middle of the night to snatch up some better than usual deals.

Today we were simply lazy and relaxed from the busy holidays. Tomorrow is the 1. Advent - 4 more weeks until christmas - wheeee !

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you whether you celebrate it or not :)


I'm grateful for having a wonderful family on either side of the ocean, great friends here and there and lots of love and laughter in my life. I'm truely blessed *S*

- Mi
a lucky bug

Turkey Day !

The turkey for that very special day is now sitting in our fridge... or is that 'sprawling'? Either way it's taking up lots of space *L* Freaky chicken !
The shopping is done except for the fresh vegetables and fruits which I'll get on tuesday or wednesday. Wednesday we'll have to pick up Tim's parents from the airport - they are going to have a blast with our little bug, I'm sure :)

My,well, our first Thanksgiving in the States, all together and united - this is awesome, I'm really looking forward to it. It has the same quality like celebrating christmas together this year with my parents and my sister and my grandmother, and I'm already bouncy with anticipation.

Guess I'm just a familyfreak *G*

I've been slacking again ! Almost three days without an update for the blog - ouch !

So, what have I been doing you may wonder?

Well, there is Turkey Day coming up and with it a truckload of food including the mutant chicken and visiting family and lots of cleaning and preparing the house to meet mother-in-law standard for approval. That's kind of difficult with Finn and three 3 weeks old kittens all over the place.

I've been drawing a few big scrolls with nifty border illuminations and miniatures to practice and improve [hopefully] my illumination skills. I've been promoting the Trimaris Kingdom Scroll Competition adding a little twist to it by donating two prices to the 'best' Castlemerian scribes in the competition. I've been promoting the Shire A&S Night at my place and am thinking about offering little classes on various topics to make them more interesting and to corrupt people to making cool stuff.

And I think I have finally a 'thing' for an entry at an A&S competition: Tassilo's super-period Court Barony based on 14th/15th century charters and writs from germany in german. So I'm browsing museum archives, reading up the proper wording, trying to find a compromise between SCA-oddities [no mentioning of God and how would you translate "Grant of Arms" anyhow?] and the period examples. It's fun and it's going to look very cool :)

Which reminds me,I need to get the Drachenwald scrolls into the mail. Procrastinating me, d'oh!

First off, they are testing a scholarly version of google

http://scholar.google.com/

And I updated the Castlemere Scribes's Webpage which can be found at

http://www.timgibbons.net/scr...

Now there're some of our articles to classes we taught as well as a few scan of some of the pieces we created for Kingdom or Shire use.

Enjoy !

If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather
wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them
to yearn for the vast and endless sea.

- Antoine-Marie-Roger de Saint-Exupery

Finn got his first pair of shoes yesterday, all part of the whole "getting ready for our big christmas trip" plan. He had been toddling around just fine either barefoot at home or be-socked outdoors since I do believe in not-restraining little growing babyfeet too soon but with the nastier and wetter winterweather coming up and german snow he needed shoes and he needed some time getting used to them so yesterday we went to Babies'R'Us and bought him sneakers.

They look HUGE ! *L* And Finn, obviously liking the concept of having his own shoes, kept stomping around trying not to trip over his own feet. It is so funn watching him learn to walk with shoes confused that it feels different and walks different as well.

Today on day 2 with shoes he managed a bit better but they still look incredibly big on him *L* We're going to get him another pair of shoes - real shoes, not sneakers - sometime later this week.

Big cudos to the Flu Nurse : I've never seen anybody giving a shot so expertly quick and painless, Finn didn't even know where the sudden brief sting was coming from. He was a bit on the whiney side afterwards and needed lots of hugs and cuddles but so far he's showing no signs of fever or pain. Phew ....

They give flushots to little ones in two doses now so we have to go back for part 2 in 4 weeks :/ Poor lil' bug *S*

 

 

... if you are in the slightest interested in medieval bookart

http://www.adeva.com/

And don't say I didn't warn you !

Dann geht's nach Deutschland ! Die Tickets sind auch schon da - wheeee !

Okay, last week I taught the class on diaperwork, remember ? Tamara asked at one point why it is called 'diaperwork' and - bugger - I couldn't answer that. I could merely guess that in some language a similar word might mean something along 'patterned' and that that was why they chose 'diaper'. Heck, I can't even come up with a german word to describe it *L* Of course, I wouldn't be me if it didn't matter to me so during the past week I've been searching all over the place trying to find a reference for the origin of the word 'diaperwork'.
Finally, I found several explanations :

diaper - derivation of the italian word "diaspro" = jasper which is a stone that shifts color [Medieval Costume and Fashion by Herbert Norris]

diaper - c.1330, from O.Fr. diapre "ornamental cloth," from M.L. diasprum, from Medieval Gk. diaspros, from dia- "entirely, very" + aspros "white." Aspros originally meant "rough," and was applied to the raised parts of coins (among other things), and thus was used in Byzantine Gk. to mean "silver coin," from which the bright, shiny qualities made it an adj. for "whiteness." [Online Etymology Dictionary]

diaper - [n] a fabric (usually cotton or linen) with a distinctive woven pattern of small repeated figures [online hyperdictionary]

So I'd say the last two make a little more sense than Mr Norris's approach ;)

You are Sir Bedevere! Wise and creative, you are
able to counsel others as well as come up with
some really ingenious plans of attack...sort
of.


Which Monty Python & the Holy Grail Character are you REALLY?
brought to you by Quizilla

... this is the result if I choose the second-best options in this quizz. Now, if you mix those two the result is not too far off. Just cut the stuff about the teamwork *scratches head* While I do like working with a group, my experience with teamwork has mostly been little satisfying :)


You are a king! Without you nothing would move
forward. You are the brains of almost every
operation. You are a leader and tend to operate
from behind the scenes. You are not necessarily
strong or gifted but you know how to keep a
cool head in the midst of conflict. Many people
may see you as a weakling or someone who is
lazy and lets others do his work for him. Such
people are foolish to think so and if they
challenge you will soon be enlightened about
the errors in their thought process. You are
the soul of a team.


What Chess Piece Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

You're a knight! Many of the meaner people ignore
you because they don't find you as a threat but
they won't push you around either because they
know you can hold your own when forced to. You
tend to beat around the bush and have trouble
getting to the point. You also tend to have
troubles decision making. You are no coward and
definately no fool. With some tricky teamwork
however you can bring down the house.


What Chess Piece Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla


*G* Okay, now where is my Scooby-Gang ? We've got some shaking to do ...

Ha ! Nothing like having a long list of many cool projects !

You don't know ? You should give it a try, really :) It's even cooler though if you get to check projects as 'accomplished' and we're working on that.

I have my secret project ... [uhm, well, rather a list of secret projects including the Christmas Scribal Tea here in Castlemere, 12th Night presents, -the- project, etc.] and then there is the Scribal Workshop Secret Project [more on that ..eh, later *g*] and of course all the other cool projects on furniture and tents and sunshades and garb and assorted gear.

And then there is the big lifetime project of corrupting people :)

I'm slowly recovering from my bout of 'damsel in distress'. Thank you, Master Terafan and Tamara, for bringing my SCA-life back into perspective :)

You're the Millers Daughter! You're a bit of a
dreamer but you're practical. You like
practical things and practical people. You like
simple beauty and enjoy the outdoors. You long
for that handsome price to come and sweep you
off your feet, but you know when dreams are
only dreams. You are one who takes reality for
what it is. People look to you for solid
decisions but sometimes see you as a little
stiff with all your practical-ness. Those who
know you well know that you are anything but
stiff and love to be carefree when the
opportunity arises. Sometimes the remarkable
will happen to you and you will not overlook an
opportunity to use or be thankful for the gift
you've been given. As far as rescuing
goes...you're not one to panic but you like to
have a man come to rescue you now and then :)


What kind of Damsel in Distress are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Last sunday's scribal tea was productive fun. I did a little class on diaperwork, the delicate intricate latticework of geometrical forms that you see covering the background of gothic illuminations [letters and miniatures], and everybody seemed to have a good time painting the patterns I prepared on an extra-sheet and designing a pattern of their own.

Next month's scribal tea will be about painting miniatures I guess and in january there will be no scribal tea since that is the month we are going to move into our new home :) It mmmmmmight be the little pretty yellow house unless we find something else this week.

Wish us luck !

What Is Your Battle Cry?

Running across the icy wasteland, clutching an oversized scalpel, cometh Maeva Eiriksdottir! And she gives a vengeful scream: "In the name of malice, I tear into the enemy until there is no more hope!!!"

Find out! Enter username: Are you a girl, or a guy ?

created by beatings : powered by monkeys

*sing* I'm driving home for christmas ...

Actually, we aren't driving but flying rather :) and we'll be home at my parents's place just in time for christmas. German christmas that is, so we will be arriving at DUS on the 24th.

Awesome ! My grandmother who is in her nineties will get to see Finn again, my parents will get to see Finn again, my aunt, my sister and if we are lucky Finn will get to see snow *G* He is going to hate the cold german weather I'm sure because he will have to wear the thick warm jacket with the hood he hates so much *L* And hats ! Muhahaha :)

It's going to be so much fun despite having to entertain Finn through an incredibly long flight. I can't wait to tell my parents that we booked our flight !

Look, it's been a couple of days since I posted the last time *g* Guess I got sidetracked :)

The first A&S Night of hopefully many was a lot of fun. Tamara taught a class on making cordials and brought some for tasting [yummm, blueberry cordial, yummm] and we made "Gaelic Cream" which contains eggs and cream and sugar and vanilla and coffee and scotch. It's very good already and will be even better after 2 weeks of mellowing and maturing. We talked a lot, we ate a lot and upon leaving everybody was looking forward to the next A&S night. The fun thing about it is I'm pretty relaxed about it. If only one person shows up, fine. We can sit together, chat and work on projects. If more show up, all the better but I don't have this freaky idea of having to have at least 50% of the Shire attending :)

Our nest-quest is still on and involves lots of phonecalls and peeking through windows into empty houses on trips through town. It's actually a lot of fun even though we might be boring Finn out of his little mind *chuckles* On monday we're finally meeting with the realtor responsible for our current number "A" house : the little yellow classic Florida home with 2 bedroom and 1 bath. It's beautiful with lots of windows that let in lots of light and emphasize the open floorplan of kitchen, dining and livingroom. Off to the side
is a spacious hallway leading to the bedrooms and the bathroom. That little hallway is almost big enough to count as another room and would fit our desk nicely and possibly a shelf or two. Both bedrooms are big and airy and brght. There is big screened in porch to the front and a small one to the back and there's lots of yard all around the house, enough for Finn and the rest of us to play in. And a garage for much needed storage :) Even Boots, the cat, would be allowed in it and with the screened in porch there is actually the chance of installing a catdoor which I think she would like. There are a few minor things that need fixing in our eyes and we will address them on monday to see what they think about it. They are minor [a few boards are missing in the fence, there is a hole in the screen, etc.] but we would like them fixed before we move in since any repair is more of a hassle once you've moved all your stuff into the place. And then there is the issue of not really wanting to move until january when our lease runs out. The earlier we have to move, the more double rent we will have to pay and we would rather save some money on that. Oh well :) we'll see how things work out. If we are meant to move into the little yellow house, everything will fall into place. If not, I'm sure there is another house just waiting for us *S*

I think they are qualified to make suggestions on proper voting procedure *GRINS*

Anyhow, the campaign season is over, no more phonecalls from Bush's or Clinton's [Hey Hillary ! Sorry I wasn't home, grocery shopping, you know ?] telling me to vote [ somebody should have told them I'm just an immigrant and not allowed to vote ;)], no more adds on TV, hopefully no more Kerry/Bush signs in front yards or at the church gate and no more doing dirty candidate's laundry or is that candidate's dirty laundry in public.

It's back to your regularly scheduled SCA-shtuff :)

I'm done with both of my translation assignments, a webpage and a research paper, and that means I'm free to tackle any of my own projects. Remember my vow to take projects one by one instead of many at the same time ? That's the one :) Tonight is our A&S night at my and Tim's place and so we'll sit down together and just do stuff like calligraphy and illumination, chainmaille, etc.
Tamara offered to teach a little class on cordials for those over 21 *g* and I think it's going to be a fun evening.

More about it tomorrow, there is some housekeeping I have to do to ready our apartment for tonight's fun !

Tada :)

1 more page and my first translation job is completed ! Yay ! 12 pages on the 12th to 14th century fashion of german nobility from german into english :)
I'll have Tim edit it though so it will be proper and correct in all respects, plus he's a grammar geek while I'm the spelling geek in the family.

The next 'job' is translating a webpage from german into english and then I'm freeeeeeeeee :)

Naw, it's not that bad but I have been a bit on the procrstinating side of things and so I vowed not to start a new project before I hadn't finished those assignments first. And you know what ? I'm just short of exploding with pent-up projects ;)

Wednesdy night we are going to have our first A&S night over at our place and on sunday we are having our next Shire Scribal Tea. This time I'll be doing a little class on diaperwork, the delicate intricate backgroundpatterns you can find especially in gothic manuscripts. I still need to finish my hand-out for that too. Boy, I better get moving *g*

Tata for now !

The scariest part about our Halloween ? Our minivan started making very scary noises and it turned out to be something wrong with the brakes which caused the strange grinding crunching sound coming from the left wheel at the back of the van. We called AAA and had a scary ride back home where we had to help ourselves into our apartment since we'd locked our keys into the van. Heh ...
Tim got attacked by Boots who turned out to be more protective of our home and her kittesn than we would have imagined and her hissing and swatting at Tim scared the beejesus out of him *L*

So much about Halloween ;) How was yours ?