Travelling Time and Space

Today my calligraphy cartridge pen died presumably of an overdose of calligraphy.

No kidding. After adding calligraphy to 37 scrolls this past week my pen stopped working today and no matter what I tried [slapping, flicking, swearing, threatening, rinsing, rubbing alcohol, blowing air through it, new cartridge] nothing brought it back to life. 

37 must have been too much, the poor thing.

Now, my next question is, should I scan all of those scrolls or not ? I lack a certain determination of keeping track of the scrolls I produce or help produce so what do you think ? Scan and file them all or not ?

That'd be me :o) So before Scriptorium I had an excuse : I was too busy to update this blog on a regular basis. Now, for after Scriptorium I'm lacking such an excuse. There're a bunch of small things keeping me busy but nothing has the impact of the last two weeks before an event industriousness or so you'd think.

Like I said in a previous post, things are returning to normal, well, as normal as it gets before Christmas.

Thanksgiving was wonderful complete with email update from the wicked Master, loads of great food and the great company of dear friends and their families. Hubby did a great job cooking the turkey beast, adequately named the "dinosaur" by Finn upon discovery of the humongous bird in the fridge *G* Humongous indeed. Today is Tuesday and today the last leftovers of the bird went into the freezer. I've had enough turkey for the next couple of weeks but it's nice to know there's a meal or two [or three] full of comfort foods like turkey, gravy and stuffing safely tucked into the freezer.

And there's more to be thankful for. In fact, I'm a mighty lucky bug, you know. I have a wonderful and healthy family including husband and child and extending way beyond that. I get to call a wonderful cozy place surrounded by the sweetest neighbours my home. We're not rich but plenty well off to allow me to stay home to watch our child grow up and spend those precious early years with him rather than rushing back and forth between work and daycare. I have a great circle of friends, not only close by but also scattered all over the world. I have a hobby that allows me to test my limits, discover new talents and learn many many things from really cool people :o) Now, if I had that pony that's on my Christmas wishlist since I could write I'd have it all :o)

So what else have I been up to ? Well, after starting to bring out the Christmas decoration and adding little things here and there and watching Finndragon go nuts over all the little lights and Santas and reindeers and his very own little Christmas tree [we won't get a big tree for another week or two - I'm German, I just -can't- bring myself to setting up a  Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving] I found some time to add calligraphy to a dozen blank scrolls I picked up at Martinmass and finishing up two illuminations I started before Scriptorium. I also managed to get the Pelican scroll penciled in but I'm still waiting for the text so I don't even know if I'll be able to use my current design. If there's too much text I'll have to revise my original plan and use it for something else :o) No biggie, really :o) I'm finalizing an article for our local newsletter on a medieval Christmas Feast and am just about done with the cover illustration. Putting finishing touches on my Doomsday report is next. We will be starting the new year - my last year as MoAS -  with a brandnew seneshal who appears to be a really nice fellow. I have a couple of ideas for A&S next year but right now I'm hoping we'll find a better meeting venue where we have a bit more time for our meetings than where we meet at the moment. Oh well and there's the deputy issue. I need a deputy to train as successor to the office. Next year, next year :o)

Finndragon went down for his afternoon nap and so now I have time to grab a cup of tea and bury myself in the Paper, Ink & Arts catalogue that just arrived in the mail *G* Maybe that'll help with the inspiration for my Christmas Wishlist. Do you think I'll get away with just crossing off things I'd enjoy finding in my stockings or underneath the Christmas tree ? It never worked when I was little - I -always- had to handwrite my wishlist ...

... still didn't get the pony though. 

Sunday after Scriptorium was spent predominantely dozing, hands cupping a steaming cup of hot sweet tea and besocked feet tucked under a blanket reminiscing how fast time flies by [has it really been 9 months since I submitted the event bid ?] and how well Scriptorium went.

So here I lift my cup of tea in salute to all the wonderful people who've helped making Scriptorium possible and to our wonderful guests. While I was the autocrat no one person can organize an event all by herself. It takes many hands and hearts and ideas and I must admit that on Saturday, Castlemere was everything that Castlemere could be. It was a fun relaxed day, people learning and working together and the crisp bright November air was filled with the sounds of friendly teasing and joyful banter. Thanks to our gracious and most generous Majesties and with the assistance of the beautiful Baroness of Wyverwoode we had a mini court that caused many a happy tear and a glorious day was finished off with a truly amazing banquet cooked and presented by Lady Antonia and her kitchen crew.

More later and possibly even on the Scriptorium webpage once we have the pictures and scans of scrolls turned in. First I ahve to get rid of a truckload of Shire stuff and then there're some ittibitty preparations for Thanksgiving that warrant some attention especially since we'll be sharing our turkey with 9 good friends and their families :o)

Cheers !

-Mi 

I'm in the midst of packing and doing last minute preparations for Scriptorium ergo little to no sound coming from my corner of the world.

The van is stuffed with loads of things for site set-up tomorrow and today I'm concentrating on finishing up our event booklet and sorting the paperwork for the Golden Quill competition. There'll be even a mini court this time ! We have a decent number of pre-reservations in for both site-only and site and feast  so things are looking promising. More on everything with my after event report on sunday or monday :o)

Cheers

-Mi 

Scriptorium !

For those who missed it, Scriptorium, Castlemere's scribal day-event, is coming up, and it's coming up fast. This time next week I'll be packing the car with all the things we are going to need on site and later drive over and help getting the site ready for our big day on Saturday, 18th of Novemner 2006.

If you would like some more information check out the excellent web page that Tamara created for it
Link ->   tinyurl.com/m64rh 

Now that's next week. Today I'm getting ready for a brief daytrip visit at Martinmass Moot, Trimaris's Fall Crown Tourney. Scrolls are ready, feast gear basket is packed and since we're not staying for the night all I need to do is get the garb ready so we can leave early saturday morning, pick up Alby who we are giving a ride to his first ever event and then just enjoy the day. I'm looking forward to seeing ...well, see, in Drachenwald you could say 'everybody' but that's pretty much impossible with the many hundreds that tend to attend a Crown list and if you say 'certain' people or 'cool people' it sounds wrong. I'm looking forward to seeing people again, even though my most favorite herald is going to be on a cruise with his lady wife and some other cool people won't be able to make it either, for a variety of different reasons.

Life is good, Christmas is around the bend, preceeded only by Thanksgiving, my second favorite holiday. This year we'll be celebrating with Carrie and her family together and I can't wait. I -love- Thanksgiving food :o)  and after that we'll get to deck the halls in holly, shalalalalalala ! It's going to be our third christmas here and this year we're staying home. Instead of traveling the world to see family, family is traveling to see us - wheeeee ! We'll have our very own tree :o) and I've already rearranged the livingroom area to create a nice corner for it.

And since this is a very text-heavy entry I thought I'd post some new artwork here.

This is the left half of a scroll I painted and the shown area is 4.5x6 inches. It's WN gouache, Pebeo gold gouache and WN calligraphy ink on Strathmore Bristol vellum. I managed to do ittybitty calligraphy on the open book which measures 15mmx10m and thus had a great place for amy signature :o) 

"You can take somebody out of Drachenwald, but you can't take the Drachenwald out of somebody"

Drachenwald's seasons are still thick in my bones and each year around this time I slow down, curl around a cup of steaming hot sweet and creamy tea and dig into books, movies and little slow projects withdrawing more and more from the active side of life and shifting focus to family life and the holidays. Not like you haven't noticed on this blog, right ?  

The weather here is still much better than in Drachenwald, clear and bright and sunny during the days with the occasional rainy day strewn in, crisp at night with the first taste of winter. Never as cold as anything in Drachenwald. I fondly [well, now at least *g*] remember watching my breath form misty clouds before my face at an event in mid-July - not so here but I'm still hoping to get my new wool dress done by either this weekened or the next.

I've been doing bunches of scrolls and a few special assignments but not much else. Keep your fingers crossed I'll actually get around to scanning them this time; I've given away too many without keeping track of any bit of progress and improvement on my part.

And if you have the feeling I'm holding back a rant you're quite possibly right *G* but some things simply don't belong here and some things not only do not belong on the internet but also do not warrant that much attention and discussing moot points is a waste of time, mine, yours and anybody elses, so why bother  :o)

More later. I promised the Finndragon a trip to the Zoo so off we go ! 

Unlimited shopping spree here

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