Travelling Time and Space

so there : it's been raining hard more or less on and off since last week and there hasn't been a say where it's been safe to leave the house to do outdoorsy stuff with Finn for more than maybe half an hour which makes for a very frustrated cooped-up toddler.

What was that about "sunny" Florida, eh ?

Looks like that's just a ploy to bait more innocent immigrants over here ...

*grumble*

Today we got the minivan back. Everything is fixed including a few complimentary things and Hughes Autorepair has definitely won a new customer [well, family of... *g*]. It's a great place with good solid work and a great idea of customer service.

However, the bill was still pretty steep [not as steep as if we'd have dropped the van off someplace else but still] and so our SCA budget got shot to hell *sigh* No second tent this year, bah ! I've got my mind still set on a shower/toilette facility including some privacy screen because the bathroom situation is going to be hell and I'd rather share my toilette with a few selected friends than 1500 strangers ... brrr *shudder* Ain't gonna happen :)

So until september I've got to get the tent fixed which shouldn't be a problem. It's taken apart and I only need to find a quiet moment where I can move some furniture to lay out the panels for measuring and proper sizing. Then I only need to sew it back together again. A week, give or take :) Jimbo is making a set of iron tent stakes and portable holes for us which is mighty cool. That way we'll have a good chance of surviving with our big windcatcher tent set up in the sandbox that is Ocala's boyscout camp. Then there's some garb to sew and other little encampment stuff. Yep, busy as usual.

As far as C&I go I have drawn and calligraphied all 4 Drachenwald scrollsand already started painting in bits and pieces here and there :) so they are coming along rather nicely.

This upcming weekend, however, I won't get much done. It's July the 4th weekend and there're all kind of parties we're invited to. We have an invitation for every day of the weekend and monday and we're going to be busy.

for finding this fun game :)




Lookit ! It's a Maeva Southpark-Style !

- Trefoil brooch VB-33 $16,95
www.quietpress.com

- viking key N-53 $7,95
www.quietpress.com

- 2-5 yards of purple herringbone wool fabric $18,96/yard
found at http://www.trimfabric.com/01-...

- 2-5 yards of wool twill in vanilla white $12,00/yard
http://www.manhattanfabrics.com/catalogue.cgi?ddisplay=1060" title="http://www.manhattanfabrics.com/catalogue.cgi?ddisplay=1060" target="_blank"http://www.manhattanfabrics.c...

- 2-5 yards of wool flannel in merlot $8,98/yard
http://www.denverfabrics.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_C ode=19849&Category_Code=w o-fla&Product_Count=70" title="http://www.denverfabrics.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_C ode=19849&Category_Code=w o-fla&Product_Count=70" target="_blank"http://www.denverfabrics.com/...

- 2-5 yards of wool flannel in cadmium green $8,98/yard
http://www.denverfabrics.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_C ode=17877&Category_Code=w o-fla&Product_Count=39" title="http://www.denverfabrics.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_C ode=17877&Category_Code=w o-fla&Product_Count=39" target="_blank"http://www.denverfabrics.com/...

- 2-5 yards of wool flannel in China Blue $8,98/yard
http://www.denverfabrics.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_C ode=17887&Category_Code=w o-fla&Product_Count=46" title="http://www.denverfabrics.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_C ode=17887&Category_Code=w o-fla&Product_Count=46" target="_blank"http://www.denverfabrics.com/...

- 2-5 yards of wool flannel in Plum $8,98/yard
http://www.denverfabrics.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_C ode=17718&Category_Code=w o-fla&Product_Count=28" title="http://www.denverfabrics.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_C ode=17718&Category_Code=w o-fla&Product_Count=28" target="_blank"http://www.denverfabrics.com/...

- glassworking tool set of 6 no 1675 $14
http://www.artglass1.com/lgtoolweb.htm" title="http://www.artglass1.com/lgtoolweb.htm" target="_blank"http://www.artglass1.com/lgto...

- rods of Moretti/Effetre glass [usually around $1 per rod depending on amount ordered]
in primary colors and black and white and purple

NorthStar Complete Missile Kits 1 dozen missiles $49
for combat archery [tape color purple - of course]
http://www.northstararchery.com/kits.html" title="http://www.northstararchery.com/kits.html" target="_blank"http://www.northstararchery.c...

I'm taking it apart. No kidding.

Seam by seam the tent is shrinking to its basic pieces : walls and roof sections and dagging. It's a real pain to undo the seams since they are flatfelled [like jeans] and were meant to hold up to some serious tension. Gnnnph .... it's worse since I know it's going to be quite some work to sew it back together but ifwe want it to look a lot less lopsided and wonky at 20th Year this is something that needs to be done.

I'll have to re-measure and re-align the roof pieces and the wallpieces and I'm going to add screenedwindows for much-needed air circulation.

*sigh*

Anybody want to come over and help ?

... on a rainy day :)

http://www.onesoul-games.com/medieval/" title="http://www.onesoul-games.com/medieval/" target="_blank"http://www.onesoul-games.com/...

PS. :
It's been raining more or less since last night. Water is gushing down from the Heaven's above, thunder rolling and lightning flashing. Every once in a while the rain will take a short break - as if it were taking a deep breath - before it returns with amazing strenght and consistency. Rotten weather if it weren't balmy warm and comfortable to sit outside on the porch, safe from the rain.

The only rotten thing is little me; I've been feeling somewhat achy the past couple of days and today the first hints of a headache are kicking in. Looks like I'm brooding on something, probably a cold of some sorts.
Food, tea, hot bath, some Nyquil and then lots of sleep are on the menue for tonight to fight back the evil germs :)

I had this piece of linen which we'd dyed a very odd pale shade of red.

Part of it I used to make a pair of viking pants for hubby as part of my subversive norse-fication project [muhahahaha] and the other half I wanted to dye as black as possible and then maybe use it for hubby's Landsknecht outfit ... well, the whole dying it black didn't work. A whole bottle of black dye and half a bottle of black ink later the piece of linen had turned an interesting shade of eggplant purple with a few charcoal stains.

Meh ... told you I was textile-arts challenged !

Anyhow, after staring at the piece of eggplant colored linen for a while I decided the color wasn't too bad for another pair of pants and then I decided to make a pair of poofy viking pants as typically worn by the Rus. If it didn't work out I wouldn't cry too long over this particular piece of linen ...

Well, to make a long story short : cutting and sewing took me about an hour and both hubby and I love that pair of pants. It just rocks because it's very comfortable and 'airy' to wear while looking mighty spiffy, even though it's eggplant colored.

In case I really get started in combat archery I know now how I'm going to crossdress *G*

Why a blog ? What's all this blogging about ? Well, browsing through a few blogs you'll get the idea that there are as many reasons for blogging as there are blogger [ie people that blog]. While blogs started out as web logs/logs of links found browsing the internet they have slowly changed and evolved into little online diaries and soapboxes.

I love to read other people's blogs unless they are just a collection of rants. Some of my favorite blogs are blogs written by people that talk about their living history hobby, others about restoring historical homes.
My blog is probably best compared to a phonecall; I'll talk about my projects and things that I've seen and heard, stuff I find online and the little adventures of my family , especially the Finndragon. It was meant to help stay in touch with friends and family and Master who do not live nearby.

The reason I started the Maeva-blog on twoday.net was because I couldn't find a lot of information about the norse during the viking age in german :) and so I thought it'd be neat to get something started and join in with

Borre at http://borre.twoday.net
and
Lunula at http://lunula.twoday.net

for example. Both describe their norse living history adventures [in german] and I make a point of stopping by almost daily to read their latest entries :)

Last Night I finished handfinishing the bottom hem of my latest apron dress. It looks pretty spiffy, especially ironed properly, but unfortunately my quickly tabletwoven straps turned out to be too short *sigh* so I have to do those again ...

I fired off the second set of questions for the persona game I'm trying to play with my Shire and already got 3 replies, not including mine. It's so much fun to read about the other people's personas and learn more about other cultures along the way. I'm hoping that those who've never thought much about their persona might end up intrigued enough to either play the game at home all by themselves or maybe at one point simply join in.

Milica, on of our latest members, is playing just fine :)

Questions I've asked so far :

I.
- What is your name ?
- Who named you and why ?

II.
- When were you born and where ?
- What year is it now ?

More to come ... off to do laundry !

Enough oggling and ahh-ing and oh-ing over silks and brocades and velvets and back to the solid and simple beauty of plain linen and wool of norse dress :)

I found the most scrumptious wool fabrics online in some wonderful colors and they all went on my wishlist for my upcoming birthday, of course, along with some new bling like a very pretty trefoil brooch, a viking key and some cast pewter items for my necklaces.
Oh, and some more gas and glass to make more nifty glassbeads *G*

So I have a little more than 1400 tbucks I could spend on all kinds of nifty java applets, etc. ...

Yeah, well, I don't want them *G* Ungrateful wretch, that I am ;) Anybody want some tbucks ?

Here's hoping that all Dads have had a great Father's Day weekend :)

We spent ours mostly at the beach and the Hanna Park Waterpark and got thoroughly wet and entertained.
Finn is just the embodiement of a waterbug. No wave is too high, no water too deep, no fountain too low and no puddle too murky for him to find and indulge in his pleasure of all things that are wet and watery. Tim and I are going to sign him up for swimming lessons one of these days :)

"Elfbox" ??? Whoever created the word "elfbox" as a ....uh, whatever for "answering machine" ?? That's just too weird.

Don't know what I'm talking about ? Well, check out this article here

http://web.archive.org/web/20010410074915/ht tp" title="http://web.archive.org/web/20010410074915/ht tp" target="_blank"http://web.archive.org/web/20...://www.enter.net/~brewer/sca/silly.html

Once again it's proven to be true : Common sense makes sense, really :)

I hate them with a passion and so does my body.

I already have a scar from a bite of a red ant, mosquitos just wait for me to bare skin and whatever is in their saliva makes my body react like crazy. I've never had mosquito bites this big, this persistent and this freaking itchy !

Gnphh...

Now there's this HUGE HUGE HUGE spider sitting - on the outside, thank Heavens - in the corner of the window in my arts and sciences pantry spying on me and my every move. And it's too big to smack with a slipper or to suck into the vaccuum cleaner. I wonder if roach spray would kill it although it does a bad enough job on the Palmetto bugs that try to invade our porch every once in a while ...

Boy, I wish there were only squirrels ad racoons around. Oh, and the birds, of course :)

... including normal car trouble since the minivan started making very odd "nong-nong" noises originating from somewhere close to the front right wheel and household chores like laundry and dusting and sweeping, and I got the bathroom cleaned up too. Now there's only dishes to do and bible buddy drums to finish for summer bible camp at kids' church [yes, helium hand].

The van's going for a check up into the garage tomorrow and hopefully it's nothing too serious :(

Other than cleanig up for tomorrow's Scribal Tea I haven't done anything SCA related ... well, yet. I think I'll be initiating an online persona game with a persona questionaire. Our newest member Milica and her explanation why she chose a serbian persona and that name sparked this and I think we can all learn a lot from doing it :) I'm ure it'll help me a lot to fleshen out my norse persona and learn more about my econdray german persona which I think I'm going to place in the Rhineland area in the late 15th century [~1490]. I've already decided which pieces of clothes I need for a small but proper wardrobe

We'll start simple and then ,as we progress, increase the difficulty level ... muhahahaha *L*

Remember ? I was sewing new norse garb ? The first new norse outfit in almost 2 years *g* partly because I do have a decent sized norse wardrobe and secondly because I get sidetracked a lot with other cool projects and don't have that much time to commit to SCA stuff [ 1-2 hours per day, sometimes even less or none at all].

Anyhow, here's a scan of the new very lightweight yellow underdress and the red not quite as lightweight linen overdress. No, no wool. This outfit was made with the Trimarian climate in mind. I did, however, not give in to temptation and kept the sleeves long :)

Here's a scan [yes, still no digital camera] of the second batch of beads I tried my hand on. Sorry for the blurry quality but I think you can still see that I'm gettig better at making round beads [heh ...] and that making fancy patterns is FUN !

No, I didn't stop making beads *G* I had to get more gas because right now I'm working with a hothead torch that screws on top of those small containers. It'd be a bit of an overkill to get started with the big containers that require a special setup and a container of oxygen. That sounds a little scary, too :) and I've just gotten past that little scary moment of working with a blowtorch *g*

Anyhow, I'm still messing with glass and trying to make proper beads while experimenting with dots and lines and other stuff. Today I gave goldfoil a shot using some of my goldleaf I use for illumination.

Goldfoil beads are basic beads covered with a layer of goldfoil or silverfoil, which in turn is sometimes covered with a layer of clear glass. The pictures of viking age goldfoil beads that I have don't seem to have that additional layer over the gold/silver and after my first try I think it'd be a project more suited for a master glassbead maker than somebod like me.

Soooo, I made a small bead and while it was still warm tried to attach a small strip of goldleaf to it.

POOF !

And the goldleaf was gone. Heh. Guess that was a little too warm. Heh *L* The second layer turned out a bit better but I thought I'd have to make it melt against the glass, swooshed the bead through the coolest part of the flame and watched with amazement that that made the goldleaf turn grey. Yuck ! The third layer went onto a almost cooled down bead, stuck and looks shiny :) "Aller guten Dinge sind drei", I guess, works here as well.

Oh, and I burned my fingers again ...

I did it ! Finally ! I just grabbed all my glassbead making stuff and made my first 4 glassbeads in less than an hour.

Things I learned :

- It's easier than I thought.
- It's more difficult than I thought.
- Making round round beads takes practice *g* a LOT *giggle*
- You will burn your fingers at one point.
- Get more map gas - it's addictive [the glassbead making, of course]
- It's fun !

Pictures to follow as soon as the beads have cooled down *g* They are ugly because I thought I'd keep the pretty color glass for later after I'm done practicing :)

It was exactly that with just the right amount of rain to make it cozy to watch a movie or take a nap and enough dry and warm spells to leave the house before suffering from cabinfever :)

We watched "The Incredibles" and "Blade III - Trinity", took Finn to the Kids Hands-on museum where we had to fish him out of the coop filled knee-deep with colored plastic balls in which he almost vanished from time to time and were rewarded with the biggest temper tantrum ever when heading home again because he enjoyed it so much. Next week were going to take him to "MOSH", the museum of history and science which even has a toddler section :)

On saturday I sketched out and painted a cardboard jeep for church at church and met the lady who runs the dance center. Maybe we can organize medieval dance classes and use a real dance studio, now that'd rock ! I've got to talk to her some more.

My new aprondress is finished and looks pretty spiffy with those overworked and handfinished seams in contrasting colors. I already got started on the underdress and both cuffs are done with a herringbone ladderstitch which looks as pretty as trim. Next is the neckline and then I just have to make up my mind what to do with the bottomhem [prolly just a running stitch].

More later :)

Crappy rainy weather [it's still warm though and there's enough room on the porch that doesn't get wet from rain so you can still sit outside] makes for good "work on garb" time. I already got my little trim-treatment of the new aprondress done [golden-yellow and brown wool on a rich burgundy-tinge red linen] and I'm now fake-finishing the seams so it looks handsewn :) It's coming together nicely !

Arlene !

Our first tropical depression [too big for a regular tunderstorm, not big enough for a hurricane yet] is barreling across the gulf gifting us with the quite early and not so quite appreciated picture of masses of twirling clouds on the TV weather forecast.

I think this is mighty early. Last year hurricane season seemed to have started a little later albeit with full force. Maybe this year we can hope for many stupid tropical depressions with names that never grow into a full-blown hurricane ? That'd be awesome :)

Anyhow, I've already begun to stock up on hurricane comfortfoods and high energy foods and most important water so we will be fine. We're still going back and forth on the idea of buying a small sized generator though and still haven't come to a decision. We are pretty laid back about having to go without electricity for a week - thanks to SCA life :) The only thing I'd really miss , well, two things I'd really miss are my email and the a/c at night to bring down the humidity.

More on that later :)

Okay, so I couldn't update this blog yesterday because when I finally had the time to tblog was down for some server check up, d'oh. So just like yesterday I'm a day behind.

I managed the first step to norse-ficate my husband's irish persona by finishing his very pretty norse tunic [slate-blue linen with white stripes appliqued to neckline, sleeves and bottom of the tunic] and a pair of norse pants [bland red linen] and he likes it *G* Muhahahaha ... assimilate the Irish !

My new lightweight linen norse underdress is done too and now only needs some finishing touches ie finishing the visable seams with handstitching. Same applies to the new aprondress I'm just about sewing together : mainseams by machine, everything visable by hand, all made of really lightweight linen to be able to stand up to the heat here.

I have one more tunic for Finn cut out and ready to sew together but tonight is Shire meeting and so I won't have any time to do this today. Bugger :) I'm in a such a great garbsewing mood and getting things done and it's great to see the fabric stash shrink.

So much for the SCA side of life.

On the mundane side of life things are starting to look up a bit.

There's this rather impressive former Jewish Temple sitting vacant across the street gazing out over Klutho Park and the Government is thinking about giving it to River Region to turn it into a shelter for the homeless.
Errr ... well, not quite. Actually they want to turn it into a halfway house for about 80 people and that would almost be like nuking Springfield back 10 years into the past. While there have to be facilities to help people like those the very center of a residential neighbourhood with families with children, an area that is slowly recovering from being the city's dumping ground for many years after all the wealthy people mjoved out of here and after all the sweat equity put into this place by people who believe in the historical beauty and wealth this neighbourhood would be the worst place to pick for an institution like this.

Last night there was a meeting here in Springfield with all parties involved and about 300 Springfielder showed up. Wow ! What a neighbourhood :)

So keep your fingers crossed for you that we get to use the former Jewish Temple for something that benefits Springfield such as a kickass Community Center and that we can find a place for a halfway house where we don't have to worry about finding needles in the Park next to it where we take our kids to play.

I knew I should have sent out a reminder. I know I like'em but on the other hand youd think for something that happens regularly you wouldn't need reminders. Well, we're both wrong here :)

Lats night was A&S Night and since I didn't send out a last-minute reminder like I usually do - nevermind the fact that A&S Night is always on the 1st and 3rd tuesday - only the really really hardcore people showed up. I finished hemming Tim's new tunic and appliqued a white stripe all around about 2,5 inches away from the bottom hem before joining in the pennants-making craze. It's a Shire project for the upcoming 20th year celebration : make enough pennants to decorate the huge feast-hall-tent and the rest of the site, and so we're cutting, hemming, appliquing and painting banners like mad :)

It's fun though and I'm a sucker for medieval pageantry. I went "oooh" and "aaaah over all the gorgeous banners and the glorious armour when watching "Kingdom of Heaven" so now I'm in a banner craze despite the fact it took me almost 10 days to get my banner done. Damn those bees - they have way too many legs and antennas and wings to be fun to applique ... grrrr

Today I tackled part one of my secret mission : turn fabric stash into garb and gear.

That's the problem with fabric : you pet it, you fawn over it, you buy it and then it sits there on the fabric stash waiting for a day that never seems to come *G* After sorting out lots of fabric and giving away a good amount to other shiremembers and the goldkey of our Shire I still have plenty of fabrics left and the plan is to turn pretty much all of it into garb and banners :)
I made Tim some really nice woolen tunics to wear while he was in Drachenwald and later in Trimarian winter. Now, however, and especially after TMT two weeks ago we both realized that he doesn't really have warm weather garb. D'oh ! You'd think you had that covered living in all year floridian sunshine *L*
Aaaanyways, I just cut out a neat short-sleeved tunic from slate-blue linen and I'll be adding white appliqued stripes and maybe some embroidery for additional bling. It's all ironed and cut out and now I only have to wait until tonight to sew it together since I can't sew when Finn's awake as he'd love to 'help'. Inquisitive toddlerfingers and sewing machines don't go too well together, unfortunately.

Since it is pretty hot I think I'll be taking my munchkin to Kid's Campus and its awesome waterpark and allow him to get absolutely soaking wet :) He loves that.

http://www.storewars.org/flash/index.html" title="http://www.storewars.org/flash/index.html" target="_blank"http://www.storewars.org/flas...

Too funny :)

http://www.peacockdesignstudio.com/GoldGer/GoldGermPD.html

We're spending a rather sluggish weekend after going to the movies with Innis and Martine on friday night watching "Kingdom of Heaven" [where Martine went oohh and aahh over the fur-lined cloak of Sybilla while I swooned over the absolutely gorgeous helmets you saw left and right *g* There's gotta be something wrong with me ;o) ].

Saturday - after too little sleep - I went to church to help make a cardboard elephant for Summer Bible Camp of the children ministry part. It was a rather surprising lot of fun with people who weren't too 'holy' to do some double-meaning jokes on the slightly ... ahem ... side of things *L* The elephant in all his glory is now on display inside the church - good thing we didn't have to sign it though ;o)

Sunday I was allowed to sleep in and I definitely needed that. I just don't do well after short nights/ going to bed a lot later than usual, say 3am instead of 11pm, and it takes me a day or two to catch up. Yup, I'm a whimp :) and so not a nightowl. Later that day I went grocery shopping including some hurricane foods and water. The next batch follows with the next shopping trip or the first hurricane, whatever comes first. Afterall, it's offically hurricane season.

... and may your murderer find the justice he deserves.

This morning we lost one of our Shiremembers to the fatal gunshot wounds he received yesterday during an armed robbery of the convenient store he worked at.

Hard to believe he is gone. Even harder for the family. I hardly knew him.

» The original ending to Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back, before it was changed:

A furious lightsaber duel is underway. DARTH VADER is backing LUKE SKYWALKER towards the end of the gantry. A quick move by Vader, chops off Luke’s hand! It goes spinning off into the ventilation shaft. Luke backs away. He looks around, but realizes there’s nowhere to go but straight down.

Darth Vader: Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your father.

Luke: He told me enough! He told me you killed him!

Darth Vader: No… I am your father!

Luke: No, it’s not true! That’s impossible!

Darth Vader: Search your feelings… you know it to be true…

Luke: NO!

Darth Vader: Yes, it is true.. and you know what else? You know that brass droid of
yours?

Luke: Threepio?

Darth Vader: Yes… Threepio… I built him… when I was 7 years old…

Luke: No…

Darth Vader: Seven years old! And what have you done? Look at yourself, no hand, no
job, and couldn’t even levitate your own ship out of the swamp…

Luke: I destroyed your precious Death Star!

Darth Vader: When you were 20! When I was 10, I single-handedly destroyed a Trade
Federation Droid Control ship!

Luke: Well, it’s not my fault…

Darth Vader: Oh, here we go… “Poor me… my father never gave me what I wanted for my
birthday… boo hoo, my daddy’s the Dark Lord of the Sith… waahhh wahhh!”

Luke: Shut up…

Darth Vader: You’re a slacker! By the time I was your age, I had exterminated the Jedi
knights!

Luke: I used to race my T-16 through Beggar’s Canyon!

Darth Vader: Oh, for the love of the Emperor… 10 years old, winner of the Boonta Eve
Open… Only human to ever fly a pod racer… right here, baby!

Luke looks down the shaft. Takes a step towards it.

Darth Vader: I was wrong… You’re not my kid… I don’t know whose you are, but you sure
ain’t mine…

Luke takes a step off the platform, hesitates, then plunges down the shaft. Darth
Vader looks after him.

Darth Vader: And get a haircut, you look like a girl!

A Court Barony blank




Detail of the "Maid of Lorraine" scroll

The final results show I came in 5th with 80 points total, most of those based on the complexity of the scrolls I turned in rather than the number. I have been slacking sort of since the start of the contest, mostly busy with teaching, hosting A&S Nights and other gatherings at my place as well as getting ready for Spring Art-Sci.

Here are the results for the Castlemere Scribes [5 out of 41 scribes]

Maeva Eiriksdottir 80
Martine Beauvarlet 30
Tamara of Castlemere 7
Iain Qwhewyl 7
Darlene of Richmond 4

Not bad, hm ?