Check out what I’ve been making when I’m not cleaning! Valkyries!
Getting back to normal
Or, whatever that is!
Monday we unpacked. We moved the TVLH into the garage and while I worked on sorting clothes, dishes and other bits, Dan worked on paperwork and Mark 2 of the TVLH. (yes, ideas were burning up his brain!) I did a lot of computer work as well. All those pics! Oh, and I wrote an article for the newspaper.
Tuesday I did laundry, put clean dishes away, had a Celtic Music Fest and a School Board meeting. At the meeting, it was announced that we don’t have to hold an election. As there were only four candidate petitions, and only four seats open, we are automatically rolled in. 🙂 It saves the district over $10,000. Oh, and I folded more clothes than I thought possible. I swear that they multiplied in the dryer. Wrote a letter to the editor about someone’s bad behavior too!
Today we went to Pueblo and got groceries. This afternoon, I’m taking delivery of the CMF office boxes and harvesting veggies out of the garden. More zucchini to shred!
I’ve also added a few pics. I forgot my bracelets and the forks that Dan made. This evening, I plan to organize all of the crafts stuff. I want to get started on sewing EARLY rather than late. No more finishing a project the night before a war!
Yet Another Crazy Week.
We thought it was going to be fairly easy. (yeah, you can start laughing now) Our friend Ethan was heading from California to Colorado to be our new STEM teacher. Well, at first he was suppose to arrive on Sunday at midnight. That didn’t happen. He left California on Sunday afternoon. Keep in mind that it is a 14+ hour drive and he was due to start work at 11:30am on Monday.
Well… at some point, he realized that he wasn’t going to cope. He and Dan talked and they decided to meet in Las Vegas, NM. Dan told me of this plan around midnight. (insert cussing) So, we went to bed and got up at 4am. We had time enough to dress, and head out the door. Awwwgh!
We got to Las Vegas at 7am. We had breakfast at Charlie’s Spic and Span Bakery. Bought tortillas, macaroons and sugar cookies. I drove Ethan’s car and Dan drove the truck while Ethan sort of slept.
We got to school with 30 minutes to spare. Dan went home and Ethan and I went to New Teacher orientation. When it was over, we headed home as Ethan was staying with us. He napped while I made a salad. Why? Well, because at 5:30, we had the Staff and Family BBQ. Ethan, Dan, Mom and I went. It was a lot of fun.
Tuesday we got up and Ethan and I went to the first Teacher Inservice day. I only had to be there for a few hours. Then I headed off to work on signatures for my petition, and a few other things. Yes, I’m running for school board again. We had a Town Hall meeting at Washington School as well. An attempt to get people to understand what the school district is up against and how everyone should work together. We had 25 people. Not bad, but it could have been better.
Wednesday, a repeat of the day before, only I cleaned up the clothing bank. Thursday I went up to Gardner and taught some of the staff how to run a WordPress site. 🙂 In a fit of craziness, I volunteered to do the district’s websites. At least start them up. Overall, it saved the district about $5000. They look pretty good too.
Friday… Mom and I went shopping while Dan figured out why his computer fried. He was trying to get the SQUARE program set up on the website for the Celtic Music Festival. He’s had a lot of frustrations. Oh, and everyone has been asking when will it be done. Aieee-ya! We went to Bargain Box and I found some neat stuff for Battlemoor!
Today… Celtic Music Fest Board meeting. We are about a month out from the festival, and everyone is a bit edgy. Frustrated. Panicked. So, tempers got a little warm. The dust is now settled, but… there is still work to do. If you like Celtic music, check it out. Better yet, Come to the festival. If you can’t come, donate towards a good cause!
Tomorrow is gardening for me and sewing work on the bespoke tunic. Dan will be battling with SQUARE, and we will both help Ethan move into his new home.
Enough!
The last two weeks have been.. Hell. Not the kind where you feel the ship sink or the train heading to run you over. No, this is more like being nibbled to death by ants or ducks. I don’t think I could even start to list all the wonky things that have gone on, but here are the highlights:
- The president of the Celtic Music Festival resigned because of health reasons. Then the treasurer resigned. The only officer left? Me. We are meeting Saturday to see what we can do.
- Car repairs. New tires, one tire replaced after the new tires. (curb bite) Two new CV joints. Still stuff to do.
- Heat. Nuff said.
- Late nights in spite of attempts to go to bed early.
- People not thinking before they email 6-12 others with erroneous information. Argh!!!!
- School stuff. OMG. Resignations. Interviews. More interviews. Special meetings to hire people. (4) Oh, and at last count, 20 new staff members. Keep in mind that we have just under 70 all total in the district. And… issues finding housing.
- Our Superintendent having health issues. Emergency room to hospital to minor surgery. Gahhh!
- Schedule changes. I don’t think we’ve gone a day without something being shuffled.
- New bespoke sewing project. Good for the reputation and the pocket book, but have I had time to sew? NO!
- Contract canceled, and another one just starting. The waiting is crazy. Meanwhile, the bank account dwindles. Oh, and trying to work from Mom’s house is problematic.
- The land we wanted to buy hit access issues and neighbor issues. So, we start again.
Walsenburg also had a ‘brain fart’ yesterday. Two attempted suicides. One by train. An assault that ended up with shots being fired at police, and an arrest. Plus tire slashings, a semi rear ending a car and other bits of mindless stupidity.
One of the few good things going on is that our garden is going gang busters! I harvested the first crookneck squash and green beans. 🙂
I am hoping that the only thing on my schedule tomorrow will remain harvesting veg, cooking dinner and sewing. Keep your fingers crossed!
Amazed!
Stunned. Smiling. Flabbergasted. While I wanted to give back to the sewing/costume community that has fired my imagination, I never expected the boom in stats over a hat. A hat that drove me crazy trying to get it done. I was beginning to think that I’d never manage it.
I did though, and wrote up a tutorial. I’d had people ask me about Viking Hats, and figured it would be easy enough to document how I made them. Once I did that, I updated the Viking Hat page and added the tutorial. Then I posted the link on Facebook and G+.
I figured maybe 50 or 100 people would ‘like’ it and a quarter of that visit the blog. That’s been the average when I’ve made other things, like tunics or apron dresses. That was on February 2nd. Since then I’ve had over 2000 views on the hat. 🙂 (about 1000 actual visitors)
I’m happy.
A new page or six
Before I forget, I have added a section entitled SCA Costume Work. It’s a place to showcase what I’ve done or what I’m working on. Each item will have it’s own subpage.
Rain, rain, rain, oh, and More Rain.
It started yesterday. Just a wee mist of rain. My mom and I were running errands, and I swear that every time we got out of the car, it rained harder. By the time I got home around 4pm, it was cold, wet and miserable. The alley was dumping mud out onto the street like it did this summer. Our front porch leaked more and my sewing area was getting soaked. The wind did more damage to the roof than we’d realized. All the rain also meant that Dan and our friend Mark were not going to cut firewood.
So, today between taking my parents to the library and for a drive, I started moving my sewing room into the living room. I had to change how the room worked. I knew where I wanted my sewing stuff. That was the easy part. The difficulty started when I wanted to move my white cutting table in and place the tubbies of fabric. Keep in mind that all of the stuff which I’d been storing in Morgan’s room is now in the living room. Once I got to a certain point, I asked Dan for help.
Do you know what happens when you get one person with great spatial relations and an engineer in the same room trying to rearrange it? Chaos. 🙂 At one point, he tried to put a coffee table, a cedar chest, a lamp table and the rocking chair in the same 6 x 8ft space. It took a few hours, me landing on my arse at one point and a lot of furniture shuffling, but we figured it out.
As I was trying to figure out what to do with all the little knick knacks, I realized that Halloween/Samhain and my birthday were less than a month away. So, I had Dan get out the box of decorations and I decorated. 🙂 This is my favourite time of year.
Now we only have a small pile of stuff in front of the fireplace to find a new home before it gets too cold. (oh wait… it nearly is!) That and figure out what to do with the dining room table which is still living on the front porch.
Oh, there was one family member who wasn’t happy with the new arrangement. RedTom. He keeps waiting for the stuffed cat to jump him, and he just can’t get comfy.
Rain Dancin’!
It’s been raining! Honest downpours! In fact, I had to shovel mud back uphill! 🙂 Between rainstorms yesterday that is. 🙂
I should have known it would rain. We did my parents lawn on Saturday and we were going to finish up the weed eater work and mow ours on Sunday. Maybe it will be dry enough by Wednesday at this point.
In the mean time, I’ve gotten a lot of work done on my undertunics. 🙂 Next project will be the caftan coat work. 🙂 I also Tung Oiled my needles and the spindles I made. 🙂 More pictures as soon as I have a chance.
Head space
Yes, getting into one. Battlemoor is in about two months. August 28th to September 2nd. It is our vacation time, and as it is only 10 miles, and 10 centuries away. So, I’m trying to get my brain back in that Medieval Mood. 🙂 I’ve started by working on our garb.
I’ve taken my best under tunic and apron dress and added embroidery. Vikings were rather good at it, so I’ve got to improve. 🙂 I’m going to be working on Dan/Lothar’s garb as well. I’ve plans for a gambeson for him too. He’s finally decided that maybe, just maybe he’d like to be a marshal. That’s the guy who referees the fights. 🙂 So, we shall see.
I’m also working on some craft items. I’m making Nalbinding needles and trying to learn how to do Nalbinding. Not as easy as you’d think!
I’m also trying to figure out how to turn our Earth pimple tent into something more Viking-esque. So far, I’m not sure if the ‘cover’ will work. Hopefully, by next year, we can afford a real Viking Tent. I’d like to go to a few more events as well.
Funny part? I find my garb more comfortable than ‘modern’ clothing. Yeah, I’m weird. However, it’s mostly natural fibers… wool, cotton, linen. And the fit… perfect. All the patterns are made to measure. That means short, round me actually is comfortable. Oh, and I didn’t need to take the legs in or hem them to make them fit.
Ah well. More pictures as my garb and gear is spruced up.
Agggghhh!!! Life Interrupts!
Or, how I went crazy trying to get ready for Battlemoor.
It’s been quiet. Not a lot of business, (boo!) not a lot of stuff because of school, or weather, etc. I figured I’d have lots of time to sew. Battlemoor is at the end of the month. Then it got busy. Business has picked up. (Yeah!!!) We had a BUNCH of meetings. South East Workforce Board, South Central Workforce Board, State Youth Council, school boards, etc… Then the classes… SCA classes and computer classes.
I finally found time to sew and started on Dan’s stuff. The tunics went together beautifully. The trews were a bit of a hassle, but I figured out a combo of modern pattern and old fashioned pattern. It took a little to get the gusset right, but then everything just worked. So, I started on my clothes. The under tunic went together fairly easily. Then I started the Apron dress. To say that I fought with that pattern is an understatement. I finally discovered that my printer had not printed everything. However, the whole experience has been so frustrating that it took me nearly 5 hours to work one dress. Now, I’ve sewn for 40 years. I started when I was ten. I’ve drafted patterns and done things that have gone from a 14 inch drawing to a 1860’s ball gown. Never half the issues I had with this dress. Why? I don’t know. However, I have decided that it was a mix of non-seamstresses and academics trying to engineer a garment. I thought about all the issues, redid the pattern on some basic levels. The next one I did I had the drafting, cutting and basic sewing done in 40 minutes. So, when the dust of Battlemoor settles, I will be sharing my new way to draft and sew a Viking Apron Dress.
Below are pics of my new sewing companion, and Dan in his tunic and trews.