Circles

It's funny how life seems to travel in circles, while at the same time, it's a new circle.

When Jim and I got married 20 years ago, we had no money, just my pittance of a paycheck. Our goal was getting Jim through college and then he would become an officer in the Army. For fun, we joined D&D and Call of Cthulu groups. These were fun role playing games and we met some great people. We remain in contact with some of them. We would play on weekends and paint figures. It was fairly cheap entertainment that suited us at that point in our lives. We moved onto new places, jobs, and new interests.

When I started on my own education about 8 years ago I had to give up a few things such as a sewing guild and the numerous SCA events we used to attend. The amount of reading and homework reduced the amount of time I had for other activities. Now that I'm finished, I find sewing, SCA, D&D, and figures, coming back into my life. The sewing I searched out, but the D&D and figures came back through Jim. We went to a friend's house for a birthday dinner and Greg was playing a quick D&D game with another friend. Jim watched for a time, and his interest was renewed. We have since broken out the old books, figures, and purchased the new version. Jim's hooked and I admit I miss painting the figures.

I never realized how much of my life was put on hold while I was in school until I started looking around for things to do. Blogging is fun. Boogalu's blog is a real hit with his foster mom who passed it around to other BREW folks. Reading other blog sites has opened up a new venue for discussions. I have found loads of knitting sites, but not too many re-enactor or sewing sites. But I'm still looking.

So it’s a new circle of friends with many of the same interests. It's also new or expanded interests with many familiar friends. I finished school in October, but I've been rattling around trying to pick up the pieces of my life I had forgotten about. I'm getting there.

The following pictures are of the rediscovered sewing room and the progress on the doublet pictured in an earlier post.














I've started on the button holes. So far, so good. I think I have to make about 18-20 buttonholes on this doublet. Fortunately, the buttons are already made.


Sandy

Yule Event

Gardner's company had it's annual Yule event this past weekend. This year we had a murder mystery theme, and we've discovered that having a theme, along with a sort of script helps people to carry on period conversations. We have something to talk about. We all have personas that have us knowing each other, even living close to one another. In that idealized setting we would have gossip and daily life activities to discuss. In reality, most of us live at least an hour away, some even more, and we don't discuss daily life amongst ourselves. To help achieve a more period level of conversation, Carla and Diane created a murder mystery, carrying on the torch started by Vic and Laura last year. We also had a new site which was just wonderful.

We started the day around 11:00 am, with areas for folks to work on projects and allow us to catch up with each other.


Laura (Isobel) is in the foreground and working on an embroidered bodice. It's amazing the amount of work she has invested in the project and it is just stunning.

Greg (Nathaniel) is sitting in the background doing some leather work. Obviously, we haven't started on anything in a period setting, yet.

The site had a working fireplace that we were allowed to use. A few props made for a beautiful display. You just have to overlook the glass doors and chain curtain over the fireplace.

Late in the afternoon, folks got dressed and the mundanities cleared away. A period dinner was put out on a buffet table. In period, dinner would have been served; however, we simply aren't a large enough group to have folks playing servants as well as have an evening.

The evening pictures are taken without a flash in order to be less intrusive. However, in just candle light, the shutter speed is so long that any movement is registered as a blur. So, some parts of the evening pictures are a bit blurry.

James and Christopher (far side of table) and Robert are playing a card game called Put. Of course, its a betting game. The second picture is the same, just from a different angle.

The event went very well, and I believe everyone had fun. Now it's time to recuperate.

I've Been Tagged!

This is exciting! Of course, no one but my friend is reading my blog yet, but this is fun!

4 jobs you have had:
Environmental Scientist
Secretary
Word Processor
Fast Food Clerk – You want fries with that?

4 movies you could watch over and over:
Serenity
Pride and Prejudice (A&E)
3 and 4 Musketeers (1972)
Any recently purchased movie

4 TV shows you love to watch:
I really don’t watch shows on TV
I catch original CSI re-runs on Spike on occasion

4 places you have been on vacation:
Royal Caribbean Cruise
Virginia
West Virginia
England

4 websites you visit daily
CNN
For Better or For Worse
Red and Rover
MSNBC

4 of your favorite foods
Chocolate
Is there really anything else?

4 places you would rather be right now
In bed
Sewing
Petting the dog
Snuggling my hubby

4 bloggers you are tagging
I haven't scoped too many other bloggers yet. I've been to:
Self Portrait Tuesday
Knitiotsavant
Julia's Sewing Blog
and I'll be going to Costume College this August

Pepetual Projects

We all have them. Projects we start with all the good intentions of completing. But somehow, things go awry, either life, or the project itself, and there it sits.

I started this doublet for my husband probably 4 years ago now. Heaven only knows if it will fit whenever I happen to complete it. It doesn't really look all that good in the picture because its on my dress dummy. Jim is much larger than me.

It's so close to being done. I've even made all of the buttons. All it really needs to be finished are the button holes and lacing holes for the sleeves. The sleeves are done except for button holes.

Now that I've reorganized the sewing room, I think this will be my second project. My first project has to be sewing little bags for Yule gifts. Gardners Company is having its Yule event in two weeks and Father Christmas usually drops in distributing small gifts. Of course, Father Christmas has to be provided all of the cool loot in cloth bags.

Maybe next week I'll post yet another perpetual project. Just on the odd chance that anyone else is reading this blog, describe a perpetual project and what is keeping you from finishing it?

First Post

A couple of months ago I started a blog about Boogalu, our beagle. While Boogalu is loads of fun, there is only so much to post about a dog's life. Believe me, Boogalu has the life of Riley.

So, in an effort to address my personal pursuits, I decided to create a blog about my hobbies, specifically sewing, re-enacting, cooking and occasionally cowboy action shooting.

Right now, in a fit of New Year's Reorganization, my sewing room is a complete disaster. The closet is emptied and the shelf/rod contraption removed. You can't even walk through the room. Hopefully this weekend's efforts will result in a room at least semi-functional.

I got cool stuff for cooking, specifically a kitchen scale, for Christmas. Curiosity made me weigh a cup of flour (4 oz, approx) and how much 4 oz of sugar is volumetrically. I have several European cookbooks, hence weights instead of cups, and this device will be a godsend.

As for re-enacting, I belong to Gardner's Company, a group dedicated to Elizabethan re-creation. We do some cool things, however, things have been slow of late. I'm hoping to fix that this coming year.

Cowboy action shooting is a fairly new hobby. I've participated in only two matches, but I had a good time. It's January, so things in this hobby are fairly slow. Matches start happening regularly beginning in March.

Sandy