When Last We Left Our Intrepid Heroine...

 



 

That's all the progress for tonight.  I was thinking of starting in on the green, but I need time to mix the color right and time to paint it all once I get the color correct.

So, what have I been doing in my spare time?  Besides wishing some Dallas peeps could go pick this up for me and hang on to it until I can get up there next weekend??

http://dallas.craigslist.org/ndf/fuo/1815775367.html

Well, working on a scroll.  Our Stronghold is holding our first event in August, and so, I decided we needed to do invites.  Personally, I blame zaphod_groupie , because our group got an invite to an event she was doing, and well...that kinda made me all keen on doing it too!

Well, because I am insano in the braino, I decided to take on the idea of making this invite.

I've done...three...scrolls. I think.

So, what else to do but go all out?  This is not inked yet, but it'll give you an idea.

( So I don't eat your friends page... )

I've had a good few days.  One of the best parts was getting to talk to John twice in four days!  Yay!  He's got a cell phone in Afghanistan, but it's upwards of three dollars a minute for me to call him, so calls are still going to be pretty limited, but at least he's able to call when he gets a spare minute instead of having to wait until he can get to the call center on the other side of the camp.

Let's see-  Friday I noodled around a bit, then took off for Ft. Worth to see Amalia, the Best Friend of Awesomeness and Kittens.  Yay!  (And yes, for all you smart-alecs, I do happen to like going up to Ft. Worth, although I really need to schedule in some time to get over to the Dallas side of the area!)

Got to meet Amalia's mom, and I really enjoyed that.  She's a neat lady.  :-)

We spent most of that afternoon getting Amalia ready to show int the Kingdom Arts and Sciences competition.  Basically, getting stuff printed, doing a bit of copy-editing, and bagging it all up so we didn't forget anything.  By the end of the night, it was feeling a bit like school, pushing to get a big project done, and being a bit punchy by the end of it all.  :-)    However, I must say it was time well spent (including making Egghead the Dress Dummy look right) because we didn't forget *anything* and even brought stuff we thought we might need, but weren't sure about, and it was nice to know we were ready for anything!

Saturday was The Big Day.  We got off to a bit later start than we wanted to, due to problems getting pictures printed.  I finally convinced Amalia that we didn't have the time to stop at one more place to try, and I'm really glad she agreed, because we got to the site with about half an hour to spare before they kicked everyone out of the room to start judging.  We set everything up, make it look pretty and then...skedaddled!

I wandered over to another building to help set up for the Princess Tea, and had a good time with that.  I didn't stay, as I'm not a cadet (I got grumped at for that later, too), but I heard lots of good things about it.  I also heard some good news regarding a couple of friends who have been having a bit of a rough spot lately, and I'm happy about it.  They're good people.

After that, I headed back to the judging area, to sit and wait and wait and sit for the results.  We hung out and chatted, I watched a bit of the youth chivalric tourney, and then...bum bum bum!  It was time to head back in and ogle all the displays as well as get judging sheets back.  Amalia did amazingly well!  I'm so proud that I'll be helping her put it all together again to show at Gulf Wars!  Honestly, her dress is AMAZING, and you should totally come by and pet it.  (Make sure your hands are clean, please!)  Silk velvet is...wow.  I could SO get naked and roll around on the dress and then, die happy.

We got out of the hall about 1930, and headed off to grab dinner with some friends.  If you're in Athens, Texas, do yourself a favor and AVOID Mazzio's.  The food, when it finally showed up, was good, but the salad bar was disgusting, my pasta didn't come with the chicken I ordered and the restrooms were horrific.  (I mean, so bad that we decided to skip them in favor of a gas station.)

It was close to midnight when we finally got in, and I passed out until about 0800 Sunday morning.  We noodled about, cleaned up a bit for a client that came by, had dinner and I, sadly, had to take off for home.  Liam had left for Houston earlier in the afternoon, so the puppies tried to tell me they'd been crated for YEARS by the time I got in (lying puppies lie.).  He'd gone to work on some new armor, and pick up...a trailer!  Yay!  We're now the proud owners of a one-horse enclosed trailer.  It's in need of a good scrubbing, but other than that, it looks great and will be wonderful for our needs.

I've got two cotes almost done, and hope to have them completed (except buttons and buttonholes) by Sunday.  Amalia is going to come spend Saturday evening with me, so that I can get these finished and I'm happy about that.  It's so much easier to do them when she's around because I can pick her brain about what I'm doing.  I also love my sewing guides!  The Vogue book is so freakin' awesome for when I do get stuck.  It's not as MUCH help when I'm sewing SCA stuff, but good technique is good technique...

Liam got home with the trailer, and John called shortly thereafter, so it was an AWESOME night all over.  :-)  We watched an episode of Farscape and then hit the rack.  I don't want to talk about how badly I overslept this morning, though...

You all know, probably more than half of you want to, that I play in the SCA.

I was blessed to know our recent Queen and King, even just a little bit through LJ, and they were both gracious enough to allow me to help in small ways by being on entourage.   I wasn't able to help as much as I would have liked, but I am SO grateful that I was allowed to help, even a little bit.

I cannot begin to tell you how much just seeing that little teeny tiny bit of work the Crowns do makes me appreciate them even more. 

Yes, they rule because we let them, but honestly, they work damn hard at what they do.  To be fair, to be gracious, to be the ideals we all strive to emulate.

I won't say they weren't human, for that would be damning them both with faint praise.  No, they were human, with all the attendant joys, and sadnesses, frictions and emotions that come with the courtesies and pleasantries of being Crown.  They were both regal, beautiful, gentle, fierce and always, always, full of love for their Kingdom.  We are so blessed to have this be our tradition of Royalty in the SCA, and in Ansteorra.  This is what I have "grown up" with in the SCA, this is what I've come to expect, and I am so grateful to have such an ideal to look up to, no matter how short I may fall. 

Thank you, all of you, for the part you play in the Dream we share, and to our recent King and Queen, Vivat!  To our current Crowns, may You have a wonderful reign! 

Okay...I've gotten the fonts figured out, and have installed a bunch on my computer.  Thank you thank you thank you for the help!!!

Now...

Since my beloved husband wants to fight at Ursae-Lyons III this month, I need to figure out something to gift to Their Excellencies as a part of the entrance "fee."  Also, see, I need to construct a letter of intent for him, as well as help Liam put together a letter giving him permisson to fight for me at Namron Protectorate.  Ieeeeeee.

:-)

Any brillian ideas as to what I can make?  Please remember that my house is packed up at the moment.

So, my barony had another Knight School last night.  It's not exactly a school on how to become a knight, more...a chance to get out, fight some folx who are *really* good and who you may not get a chance to fight all that often.  Basically, you fight a knight for two minutes, they give you feedback for two minutes, and then it's lather, rinse, repeat until time is called.  You do switch up knights, to get a chance to get your butt kicked fight the maximum number of times.

I was NOT looking forward to it, honestly.  Yeah, I know...great chance to learn, great chance to get instruction from some really great fighters... great chance to look like an absolute idiot on the field the horribly raw fighter I am.  My armor was a bit late showing up, and I forgot my contacts, but I got kitted out anyway, and slunk toward the field, hoping against hope that everyone would just ignore me. 

No such luck.  I'm over in a corner getting my armor on, and my favoritest baron leans over the net on one of the tennis courts, and yells at me that I'd better fight or he's going to swat me.  I look up and tell him he's going to need help, and then...he starts getting volunteers!  Gah!  You people are NOT supposed to help him!   After the fighting, he made a point to come over and tell me he was happy to see me out there.

First butt-kicking was delivered by fight was Sir Ysfael.  You can find his field knighting on my Flickr page, and honestly, he was a fun fight.  I need to find my notes again, but he talked to me about rehanging my shield and working on wraps.

Second fight was Sir Gaston.  The last time I fought Sir Gaston was miserable for me.  I'd been in armor maybe five times and he just got up in my face and would NOT back off.  It was so bad that I had refused to consider fighting him again.  Please note:  I do NOT think Gaston was trying to be a jerk.  He used a perfectly valid technique, but I did not react well.  It was in my head, not necessarily reality.  He mentioned rehaning my shield, and...I'll have to look at my notes. 

Third fight was Sir Kael.  He and I dance a bit, and he mentions....rehanging my shield.  Oh, and also that I've got good power coming in, which is a good thing in a fighter as new as I am.  Evidently, a lot of folx at my level have trouble with generating power.  He mentioned that I need to work on my range and take more shots at the pell.

Fourth fight...and the one I was literally panting in fear of...was Duke Aaron.  Don't get me wrong.  I adore Aaron.  He's a neat guy, and I love him to death.  He's just...really scary to me for some reason, at least on the field.  Off the field, I can flirt with him, tease him and he's just...Aaron.  On the field...it's different.  Something about...oh...being my housemate's knight, and someone I really really really don't want to look like a total idiot in front of.  Don't ask me why, but I'm more worried about looking STUPID in front of him than anyone else.  Well, mostly. 

Okay fine, I am scared of looking like an IDIOT in front of most knights anybody most days.  I don't mind looking ignorant, but for some reason...Oh hell, I'm shutting up now.  I'm starting to sound like an idiot.

One of the things I overheard his Grace talking about was the guy before me just let Aaron walk up to him and whack on him.  Okay...so I decide I'm going to circle a bit and keep moving.  It sort of worked.  I didn't let him just waltz up to me and smack me.  He did it anyway, but he didn't just walk up and do it.  He mentioned...guess what?  Yep. Rehanging my shield.  Oh and moving my right hand because my hand is fairly vulnerable and he really doesn't want me to end up with broken fingers.  Also, as a lefty, I really need to work on wraps.

After the fight with his Grace, I called it quits as I was fighting blind and I was beginning to have trouble differentiating the sword from background clutter.

The weather had also started to turn, so we gathered in for the final circle, where the knights talk a bit about something they consider important.  Fealty, keeping a list of something, not fighting your equipment, learning from the past, having fun...stuff like that.

Honestly...I'm really glad I fought.  Really glad.  I didn't do well, but I did it. 

These are only two pix of the projects we've been working on.

The first is a shot of the shirts I made for Sir Giotto, in exchange for some ceramic ware for eating.

 

The second is an entari Liam and I are working on together.  (He's doing 99% of the work on it, I'm just pressing and embellishing.)  The pattern on the fabric isn't quite right, but it's a stash entari, so I'm happy with it.  It's also black and gold, so it's going to look fabulous!

I'm not sure when I last updated, so I'll...heck, I have no idea where to start.

We had fighter practice Sunday, along with our first "populace."  I think I've found a design for new armor that will mean my arms are no longer going numb after 30 minutes.  Basically, in order to keep my arms in place, the strap goes across my bicep, just above the elbow and after a little while, my hands get cold and then go numb. 

I got to try on Timor's arms, and since he uses a floating elbow cop and leather forearm protection, that should help eliminate the numbness.  We'll put the splints from my old arms on the new leather.  That's good.  Also, we are thinking about adjusting where my shield hangs to give my head some more protection.

Oh, and I we're hanging some new legs, too.  Yay!  I'll finally have thigh protection.

Last night was Body Mechanics, and the knight teaching the class was pleased at how little I'd lost.  I'm still throwing with lots and lots of power, so now I just need to get in armor and get on the damn field.  Oh, and move my feets.  I have got to MOVE.

Um.  Also, have plans to sew garb.  And then, fall over.

So tired.  Have no life outside SCA stuff right now. 

The cart does NOT go in front of the horse.  Really.  I swear.  If you keep putting that horse back there, it's going to run you over and you're going to look like a DORK with hoofprints on your ass.

So, quit it. 

I read about people putting stuff together in two days and I wonder what the hell I'm doing wrong.  For me, even an easy project is at least a couple of days, and usually weeks. 

However, I did FINALLY get the serger working last night, and get the sleeves put together.  Now, I'm going to put the lining and the body of the cote together and see what it all looks like.  Then, I'll see about making a few more. 

:-)

Not sure what other fabrics I'm going to use, but I'm sure I'll find something.  Cotton twill would be nice and I do have some lovely silk, but I need to make sure that's back with a very very strong lining fabric to take most of the stress off the silk.  The cote is very fitted, and it has to be to support the breasts, but I'm worried that the silk will just shred if it's not back with something very stable.  Not heavy, necessarily, but stable.  Just something very tightly woven.  Probably a cotton sheeting.

If anyone's got any advice for making a very fitted cote from silk (why yes, I am looking at HRH at the moment, but she's really busy, so I'm not looking TOO hard....), would you tell me your solution?
 
The silks are from this post, the one with all the fabric pictures.  :-)  I am trying to avoid buying more silk, like oh...silk twill.  So far, I'm successful.