Travelling Time and Space

Cap'tain Ham in action :o) 

No, really. I've been neglecting this blog for quite a while or rather procrastinating on writing up little blurps to keep everybody uptodate and since this morning started quietly with my men still asnooze in bed let me use this bit of 'me' time, curled around a cat and a cup of steaming sweet tea, to share what I've been up to lately.

Last week's visit of the in-laws went very well. I'm blessed with the coolest mother-in-law and have the nicest father-in-law possible. Really. From picking them up at the airport on monday tot he day they left we had nothing but relaxed fun. Finn was ecstatic about having his grandparents and his favorite uncle around for days and we did a lot of fun things together including our ritual trip to the zoo. I cooked my very first ham and it turned out beautifully and everybody loved the oh-so-simple glaze that left the ham juicy and sweet and savory. Yum ! Of course, my estimate about how much we'd eat was a little off and so there's two more dinners for the three of us in the freezer after we devoured as much as we could :o)

Of course I didn't get anything remotely SCA related done while they were here. That changed when on sunday Mistress Hyrrokin drove all the way from Panhandle to teach a bookbinding workshop for the Catslemere scribes [*G* I asked. She didn't do it because she felt sorry for us seeing the little booklets we made for diverse Royal giftbaskets and thus decided to deliver us from our misery and show us proper bookbinding *L*]. We had a great time learning from her [we even got to touch the glorious girdle book she made!] and everybody enjoyed the potluck dinner with pizza, salad, fruitsalad and key lime cake/pie afterwards and much chatting on the porch. What a balmy gentle night. After everybody had left we cleaned up the den and turned it into a guest bedroom so Mistress Hyrrokin could stay overnight and we kept on chatting. which continued after a brief break [sleep, you know] in the morning on a rather chilly but bright and sunny porch with hands wrapped around mugs of tea, respectively coffee.  Unfortunately we couldn't keep her [although we fed her !] and after she left an upset Finn and I were left to our own devices and returned to mondays ritual cleaning of the house and piles of laundry and a rather 'vegetable' day on the couch.

Somehow the weather had decided to go seriously fall on us. After sunday's heat monday embraced us with frozen fingers and the temperature inside the house dropped to crisp 66 degrees to try to match with outside's chill. Comforters and woolen blankets were pulled out of their storage bags because while some in my family are weather whimps [innocent looks here] sleeping in a cool bedroom wrapped up all snug in toasty blankets is the best way to sleep. When I was getting ready for the FCCJ demo on wednesday I ended up wistfully eyeing the half-sewn woolen dress on my dummy and wished I'd sped up that particular project. We have wooly weather, indeed.

I ended up wearing the blue german dress complete with starched apron and 'do-rag' and a woolen goller and set up my calligraphy/illuminations display bringing along parchment scraps, pigments, quills, goldleaf, gum arabic and some art work for people to look at and touch and sniff. All in all, the demo was nice and while there were fewer participating members than two years ago we still did a good showing and people seemed to enjoy our displays of pysanki, C&I and chainmaille, the spinning & weaving, the furniture and costumes and of course the heavy and the light fighting.

Martine helped me wrangle Finn and kept him busy while I answered all the questions and occasionally I entertained a respectable crowd in front of my little table. I actually enjoy this kind of thing and I don't care about the age group. One lady asked if I taught private lessons and while I don't I invited her to join us for the next scribal tea and of course Scriptorium :o)

We left at around 1;45pm because Finn was in desperate need of some lunch and a nap and Martine and I spent most of the time enjoying the warm afternoon sun on the porch. after all of that I went to bed early-ish after dinner and a snuggle with hubby and I was out in seconds :o) Cold oxygen is a narcotic, I swear !

Tonight is our weekly Shire meeting and I figure I won't get much done project-wise today. Maybe tomorrow. I need to get crackin' on a few things I need to get done before Martinmass including a scroll commission, my dress, new garb for Finn [Thank God, hubby is all set] and the class hand-out for Scriptorium [a brandnew class on flemish drolleries :o)] Alll I need is to fight off that old desire for hibernation this time of the year. All the beautiful light in the den will help ... I hope :o)

It is indeed quiet and the reason for that is that I spend most of my spare time curled up around a book and a cup of tea. Yep, you guessed it - tons of lovely Interlibrary Loan books trundled in and so I'm up to my ears and above in the Early German Renaissance. Book reviews will follow later.

My gold leaf order finally arrived and I'm all set, along with a special assignment to boot. Wheeee :o)

Now, where did you say I can rent a few extra hours in the evenings ?

Finndragon's been skipping his afternoon naps pretty reliably the past week

Gnnph ! 

I love and shall unto I die ...

While we might question and doubt some of his more (in)famous decisions Henry VIII was pretty much on target with this statement :o) Yesterday I spent a delightful night with good company  enjoying lively banters, heated fun discussions, a glass of wine and a gentle breeze outside on our porch. Long planned, long overdue and thus even more cherished.

Next guests dropping in will be my in-laws including mother and father and brother in law for a quick vacation with us since they can't wait until either Thanksgiving or Christmas :o)

SCA-related activities are at an all-year low and revolve around collecting ink recipes for my encaustic database and researching flemish drolleries. Oh, yes, and I have a dres cut out and basted together ... Don't you wish there were more hours in a day too  ?

Fooled you ! And myself :o)

If you read this thing regularly or fairly regularly you might have read my entry on future plans and additions to my 16th century German wardrobe and even seen the dress sketches I whipped up and colored with Photoshop. 

Well, yesterday the sewing bug bit me hard and so I started draping a new dress toile yesterday afternoon and by midnight I was done cutting the canvas lining and all pieces for bodice, skirt, sleeves and collar from the two fashion fabrics. And guess what *G* That dress is going to resemble not one of the sketches I presented earlier.

German Renaissance dress become increasingly popular and I blame it on its comfortable, down-to-earth charm that yet leaves enough room to play with scrumptious luxurious fabrics, 'bling' and fancy playful cuts and decorations aka puff and slash. Want to go fancy for court ? A little velvet, some gold brocade cut to a Cranach-style dress will get you into the right mood. Feel like the perpetual wench but desire proper attire - go Landsknecht and hike your skirts to show off multicolred striped and slashed stockings ! I have fallen in love with the understated simplicity of 16th century German middle class dress [as mentioned earlier in this blog too] of the beginning of the 15th century. The blue dress with the long trumpet sleeves and the black velvet guards on bodice and cuffs is my all-time favorite especially when worn with kerchief, strawhat, apron and linen stockings :o)

Well, to make a long story short : Poking around this dress caught my fancy

Draped bodice and breastband and sleeves to achieve the very low neckline and the off the shoulder line on my duct tape dummy using the butter yellow wool and the gold bracade I had and now only need to put everything together. I'm keeping my fingers crossed all will work out as planned because I'm not an actual seamstress and I make things up as I go along. It does seem to work on the dress dummy so far though *G* Alterations include a not quite so low neckline because I'm a bit more well endowed than this lady [I'd wanted to write 'demure' but she is so not ... in fact she looks pretty confident knowing her place in life and that place isn't low on the ladder, that's for sure :o) ] and I'll be adding a front closure because I need to be able to get into my dresses without assistance. The narrow belt will be hiding the waist seam.

So next thing I need to do is hunt fleamarkets for the bling-jewelry for this outfit :o) she's got a lot going there. "Hung like a Christmas tree" I blurted out when hubby was poking through the collection of pictures on the screen when I asked him to tale a look at it to tell me what he thinks. He likes it and the fabric [despite the fact that the brocade pattern isn't -quite- right - it's more geometrical than floral but it's a pretty fabric and matches the color of the wool smackdab !]

More later :o) 

Ever since I discovered Interlibrary loan short ILL in the US I've been an avid fan. Here's what's currently on my list of requested books :

Calligraphy & Paleography
by AS Osley 

Analysis of pen flourishings in 13th century manuscripts
by Sonia Scott Flemming 

The Paleography of Gothic Manuscript books
Cambridge University Press 

The Zimmern Chronicle: Nobility, Memory, and Self-Representation in  16th Century Germany
by Erica Bastress-Dukehart

Die Familie von Palant im Mittelalter
by Gisela Meyer 

Can't wait ! *rubs hands gleefully* 

So here are picures of 3 of the 5 scrolls I did for this past weekend. I obviously 'misplaced' the scans on the remaining two of the whole set I needed for Harvest and it'll be some time before I will be able to unearth them from the mess of oddly named folders that is the storage on my computer :o)

Here's hoping the recipients liked their scrolls. Since I had names and enough time I sat down and played a bit with personalizing the scrolls tailoring them to the recipient and/or the interest of the person as far as known to me.

Here's Mistress Mairi Ceilidh's Argent Scales 

HL Theadora's Argent Scales 

And a combined Order of the Trade Winds and AoA for Etain

This weekend I travelled to "Harvest Festival" hosted by the members of the Barony of Oldenfeld, partly because I had scrolls to deliver for court, partly because I'm sentimental about the event site since that was where I attended my very first Trimaris event, even before moving to this Kingdom [Oldenfeld's Yule 2002 if anybody is wondering *S*].

What a fun ! After some brief panic because Finndragon seemed to have outgrown all of his garb in the week between test-wearing and actually needing it [until I found a somewhat bigger tunic and a pair of poofy viking pants that still fit just so] and a loooong and boring drive we made it to the event early enough to enjoy a lot of fun fighting, a well-done newbie class at the listfield, some poking around at the merchant's stands and after a quick check on scrolls for court I even found time to make a brass sewing needle and chat a bit with Master Ranthulfr before heading home with a thoroughly exhausted and filthy but happy Finndragon.

Man, what fun and how wonderfully everything was set up ! This was probably the first event since  I joined the SCA that I sat all through the fighting at the listfield with no Champion to encourage and didn't wander off in search of something 'better' to do. Kudos to the Company of St Jude, the Lions of Oldenfeld and all other fighters who made watching the many bouts very much worthwhile and those who turned the listfield into a medieval tournament arena with banners and canopies and pavilions and wooden gothic benches.

Both Finn and I had a blast. A big Thank you also goes to Mistress Marie Ceilidh and Baroness Adsiltia for feeding the hungry gallery and fighters with a hearty fare and to the Oldenfeld Ensemble for adding the medieval "jingle" to the ceremonial parts of the list :o)

Oh, and not to forget the many chivalrous fighters who indulged the excited and enthusiastic 3 y/o at my side. He fell asleep with his boffer sword tucked into his arm that night *S*

We both wished we could have stayed a little longer and we're now looking forward to Oldenfeld's Yule in December so we can come back :o)

I found a Malzbier substitute ! W00T ! And it's been right there, in front of my nose all the time *G* Which of course means it's readilly available and not some once-in-a-lifetime exotic odd grocery store feature item that doesn't sell. Here is a big Thank you! to the spanish-speaking members of our community for bringing "Malta" to the american market :o)

Malta is basically Malzbier - a bit sweeter but with the same hoppy malty tang of german Kinderbier :o) Welch' Wohltat, welch' Genuss ! der erste Schluck as der gekuehlten dunkelbraunen Flasche !

Life is good :o)