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July 12th, 2009

11:01 pm - WW 2009, plus blitherings about clothes Back from the event, minus some nap and recovery time. I am not as resilient as once I was, and it's time to start implementing a preventative maintenance plan of sleep and hydration, it seems. The pavilion is doing reasonably well with just the crow's feet and center pole, but no wooden structure inside. It's a bit like this one , but without the ropes running through the canopy. However, my door attachments, which have always been jury rigged, could use work. They're the cause of the need for an emergency take down during the high winds and thunderstorm early Friday morning. I woke up and both doors were open, which had turned my pavilion into something that very much wanted to fly away, and caused me to lose one stake. That meant that the formerly taut roof was now saggy and leaky. So the walls were pulled off, the stuff carted to the car for dryness' sake, and I was up a lot earlier than intended. The roof pulled a couple of stakes later and went over shortly. However, a tip-over in this design is non-disastrous, and putting it up later was simple and pleasant. The rest of the weekend was non eventful, tent wise, though I was pretty cold Saturday night. We ran the weather gamut this weekend. Bumblebee dress Mark I was worn throughout the event, though I spent a lot of time in field hand mode when in camp, since two layers and no hat is cooler than three with hat. I require more aprons. Also, the support bodice had not been worn for an extended period of time in the heat before, and has stretched an important inch or so. The back will need to be taken in a bit. ( Photos ) I got to take a very nice recipe redaction class, which was a lot of fun, and the Baronial Open House remains a tasty occasion. Sadly, dance was quite disappointing, with what I feel was a poorly chosen set and drawn out, inefficient teaching before hand. Also, it was on the warm side most of the time, and I let myself get dehydrated, so I had a headache most of the weekend. Hopefully I was not too much of a bitch to people. Camp is turning out very nice, and we're getting a decent ratio of canvas to nylon these days: two red pavilions, a pair of white wall tents and a wedge, plus a couple of shade flies. Hopefully by next year I'll be able to bring a little bit of furniture, since the tent should be past all really major renovations by then. :) The next question, of course, is whether or not I'm crazy enough to do this . Current Mood: tired Current Music: rats drinking Tags: costuming, sca

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June 15th, 2009

08:34 pm - Back from the event Border Skirmish was a good practice for the longer camping event later in the summer. The pavilion got converted to ropes only a little earlier than expected, since a previous, more optimistic version of myself apparently ditched the hub that the spokes sat in sometime in the past year. My pavilion used to be a 12' round of this type: http://home.adelphi.edu/~sbloch/sca/tents/kuijt.article/ which I have never really been comfortable in the documentation for, and which requires a fairly large amount of support structure, though less than the sidepole type of tent. It is currently a 12 foot round of approximately this type: http://home.adelphi.edu/sbloch/sca/tents/firstkr.html though my guy lines don't run through the roof. The crow's feet are currently extremely jury-rigged, since it was a bit of a last minute decision. In addition, my old center pole, made from three 4' pieces of 3-4" diameter bamboo, was completely borked. Cutting the damaged part from last year off did not work, as the cracks only tried to work higher. I spent the first night in the Emergency Tent, a tiny, tiny dome tent bought about eight years ago. Fortunately, there was a man there selling these: http://store.colemans.com/cart/pole-4-fiberglass-used-6-poles-p-1477.html I spent a little time pondering the use of something so incredibly modern, but I've been using bamboo, which while natural, isn't what you'd call authentic. And this is less obtrusive, stronger, lighter, and pre-jointed. Moving to hardwood would be very difficult, given my lack of woodworking facilities and the fact that I drive a Prius. And a bright red cotton canvas tent can only be so period accurate to start with. Moving to this configuration has significantly reduced the amount of wood I have to carry, and has made samadi, who usually holds my center pole while I stake the tent, incredibly happy. The tent now goes up in ~15-20 minutes with two people. The weekends for the next three weeks will be devoted to working on clothing, and perhaps reworking the ropes on the pavilion to a better configuration. At the moment, it has a bit of sag. More toes and a better distribution on the crow's feet should help that. In other news, it was very cold and rainy - the first event to be that chilly. I lamented my lack of an overdress (time and effort constraints meant I went in two petticoats and a support bodice like these washerwomen: http://www.hermetics.org/solis/solis21.html and the maid in Susanna at the Baths: http://www.wga.hu/art/a/altdorfe/1/4susanna.jpg (1582 and 1526 respectively). I think that I have some wool on the lighter side, so I'll be making a woolen petticoat for cold days in the future, as well as finishing my overgown. Wore the wulsthaube (white mushroom shaped hat) and got a reasonable number of compliments on that. No photos, I'm afraid. I bought batteries for my camera, then failed to charge them! Current Mood: sleepy Current Music: Steeleye Span - Blackleg Miner Tags: costuming, sca

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June 6th, 2009

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April 9th, 2009

05:16 pm - Writing - I should do it! So, we have an approximation of spring here in the land of cheese. It is now mostly above freezing at night, and in the 40s and 50s during the day. There are colored things coming from the ground, which my sources refer to as flowers. And I have been greatly remiss in writing here. My mood has still not quite settled out completely from winter, but at the moment, I'm merely having bad tendencies to catwax (clean the kitchen? do my writing? Why not work on my sewing instead?) with occasional mood drops. This is better than before. I still have not gotten up the energy to blitzkrieg clean the apartment, but spot cleaning is making this more of a habitation and less of a clutter factory. I am so thankful to have such a small space to deal with. I am also very pleased that at no point did the winter blahs get so bad that I had to purchase bread from the store. While I skipped a week or so at a time, I made all of it using the yeast colony living in a yogurt container in my fridge. That yeast is now six months old. Happy birthday, yeast! The rats are big and fuzzy, and like me, they have colds. I am hoping this will pass, because I'm far better at telling the severity of an illness in me than I am in them. Currently, it just looks like a spring cold, however. ( Reenactment dribble ) In art news, I got most of the way through a piece I was very fond of, then corrupted the file wholly. I had not, of course, made any backups. That's put me off it for a bit, but I'll see if I can jumpstart that again. Things were going very well, for a bit. On a day to day basis, I'm afraid I'm quite dull. I write articles, doodle, sew, and wax poetic about food. That's really about it. Current Mood: sore Current Music: Inkubus Sukkubus on last.fm Tags: art, cleaning, depression charting, sca, sewing

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January 6th, 2009

07:53 pm - Because It Amuses Me New userpic. Current Mood: silly Tags: sca

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July 16th, 2008

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July 2nd, 2008

01:31 am - Countdown to WW 2008 Well, that's all the hemden repaired (hemds? Hemd? fear my Germglish.) Some of them are definitely getting ratty, but there's no time to replace them. Also, I'm still not completely sure exactly what's period for these gowns. Evidence is suggesting it's something a bit like the classic Italian camicia (at least for the Augsburg area), but there's very little to go on. Onward to the gowns, or gown. I think the pink and green one might actually fit properly at last. Or, as well as it's going to. The red and yellow one will need significant alterations. Eventually, they'll probably be donated to someone in need of loud clothing, because I'm hoping to end up with more authentic stuff. But that will take much time to make, and I'll need something to wear in between. Recent evidence suggests I should also take my stuff up a social class or so, which will require greater tidiness, creation of a steuchlein, nicer aprons, etc. I really also ought to try to get proper doors on my tent, as it's never had them yet. Current Mood: stressed Tags: costuming, sca

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June 25th, 2008

06:23 pm - Reminder to Myself I do -not- need to make a really authentic 16th century Augsburg outfit before I am A. finished losing weight and B. make a major move. How about a hat, brain? Or finish one of those many, many projects you've already started? It's not like we even -have- tropical weight wool in the house. Current Mood: complacent Current Music: Enya - China Roses Tags: costuming, sca, silly

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January 21st, 2008

12:48 pm - Hurrah I had a grand, if quite stressful, weekend. Nghi, Phil, Cris, and the Sun Carolyn of France all converged upon the Necroplex Friday evening. Thereupon, we engaged in much emergency sewing. Got to bed quite late, and up early to run in circles very quickly, then go to the Festival of Maidens (local SCA event). Taught my first class, rather haphazardly. However, information was dispensed, and all three attendees walked away with little jars of paint, so I'll call it a success. All in all, I had a grand day, with much tasty food, happy people, and dancing. Very much enjoyed seeing Erica there, despite generally being a goof at her. I was unable to make it to the after-revel, on account of being too tired to really walk effectively, however. People dispersed around the middle of the day, Sunday, and I laid around being exhausted and tidied for the rest of the day, till game. My first really good event in a long time, though i seem to have trained myself to get stressed at them, even if I'm happy. I've lost enough weight that I can get the pink dress all the way closed. However, I released it later in the day, as it is still a bit tight. Sadly, weight has plateaued. I am angry at my body. I am behaving the same as I was before, yet it is refusing to respond appropriately. Having a bit of post event drop right now, as I move from the glee of being surrounded by friends into my ordinary state. Perhaps food will help. Current Mood: exhausted Current Music: Ramones - Cretin Hop Tags: sca

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