On the 12th Day of Christmas...I put all the crap away

There it is...all packed up for another 300 days.  The kids had a great time putting all the stuff out, assembling the tree, hanging the stuff on the "branches" and wrapping garland around the stair rails...and I got to stuff it all back in the buckets.  There were a few things that failed to make it into the buckets last year that ended up floating around the house for a year.  I think I got MOST of it put back this time.  I'm still waiting on a couple of stockings to be put into the top bucket, then it'll all go back out to the garage.

I've been giving it some thought, after stuffing it all in the buckets, that I might need to get another bucket.  There is one more that isn't pictured here that we didn't even pull down this year.  Clearly I already have too much stuff, but a couple of the buckets are so full, you have to put a heavier bucket on top of it to keep it sealed.  I either need to thin out the collection or spread it out a bit more.  I think I'll ruminate on it for a year.

Yesterday I was dragging my fanny all day after getting only four hours of sleep.  I knew if I took a nap, I'd feel better, but then I might have trouble getting up to fetch kids or more trouble getting to sleep the next night.  SO...I just dragged all day.  I got some work done on my Costumer's Guild Scholar challenge (which I won't actually be able to challenge until there's a Costumer's Guild...but you know...baby steps).  I've decided to do early to mid 1500s Tudor Working Class woman's costume.  I also want to do a full costume for Kelly, which I actually *started* and *planned* some things...so maybe I'll do that first...or at the same time.  Why not?  I'm an expert at multi-tasking.

Over the Mountains and Back

I've returned from the Crown tournament last weekend, held just south of Yakima, WA.  I headed out on Friday after meeting up with Kelly and the two littles at school during the field day for grades 1-3.  Four (or five?) schools get together and compete in running, relay races, soccer kick, sack races, and more.  It's a lot of fun!  The older kids (grades 4 to 8) help wrangle the younger ones, sell refreshments (hot dogs, soft drinks and sugar), and generally have a half-day of school running around outside with their friends.  The weather cooperated, which was a big relief, and Ben got through his events without incident.

Kelly was able to get away from work early enough to catch most of the events, but by the time I got there, they were all over.  I arrived late because I couldn't find my keys, which turned out to be one of those "there's a hole in the bucket" stories.  I had been packing the car that morning and had set my keys down on a chair in the garage.  I also set down some things I was going to load into the car...without realizing it, I put them on top of the keys.  So when I needed to unlock the car to begin loading, I couldn't find them.  Gahh!  It took more than an hour of tearing the house apart to realize that they might be in the garage, move the pile of stuff (soft things--nothing heavy to crush the keys), and uncover them.  I just about screamed.

After a quick visit at the school, hugs and kisses to the two littles and Kelly (Emma was still at her school), I got in the car and headed down the road.  Over several rivers, through the woods and over the passes--stopping at a view of the valley over Ellensburg to pick up a Geocache--I arrived at my destination!  I pulled up to my camp site with the Baron and Baroness of Aquaterra and several other friends, and began to assemble the 12' yurt.  I had help for the first ten minutes or so, but their services were needed elsewhere, so I set to work assembling it myself.  I was quite sure it could be done solo, and in about two hours, the chore was complete.

That night, however, I discovered muscle pains I never knew I could have...my arms were killing me! All that lifting and adjusting and shifting....ooof!  I hurt from my shoulders to my palms.  Sleep was difficult that night, mostly due to the arm discomfort.  I was too tired to think, "Maybe I should get some Tylenol..." but I did take some the next morning.  I also have determined that I need to invest in a foam pad for the cot--it's just too firm.  Neighbors Lord Nigel and Lady Emma recommended the kind they sell at REI.  She says that it's more comfortable than their bed at home and she sleeps like a baby.

On Saturday, I wandered over to the Arts & Sciences pavilion where I signed up for the sock knitting contest.  They didn't provide anything for the contest except for the directions, so you had to bring your own Cascade 220 and needles.  They recommended size 5-7, which seemed enormous.  I brought size 4, and wondered if Cascade 220 would be too bulky to wear.  But I thought it would be fun to participate anyway, and maybe I could wear them for my sleeping socks at events.  The nights get really cold in An Tir where the temperature can be in the 80s during the day and drop to 40 at night.  The sign up for the sock contest started at 9:00 but the knitting didn't start until noon, so I spend some time winding the yarn into a ball and visiting with some artisans at the 11:00 Artisan Geek-Out.  There was a woman turning sheepskins into vellum.  There was another making chain mail armor (which is a modern misnomer--back in the day, it was called "chain armor" or "mail armor", not "chain-mail"; it's like saying "chicken bird" or "beef hamburger"...or "tuna fish".)  Another gal was weaving velvet (sooooooo soft!), and yet another had large painted game boards.

After about 30 minutes hanging out there, I wandered off and found the Comune dei Pavone camp, where a lot of the artsy people are camped, and talked with HL Isabel (well, she squeaked and whispered--lost her voice from a laryngitis), who said that she had wrangled a couple of judges to help me finish my Journeyman rank for Costumer's Guild.  We compared schedules and decided that between 3:00 and 3:30 we could start.

In front of their camp, Ariel had set up the very small yurt she built for her little brother many years ago.  They called it the Squirt.  It's made with one of those round baby gates from a million years ago!  Now that her sons are reaching teenagerhood, they're too big to camp in it anymore, so it's for sale.  I thought briefly about getting it for Ben...

At noon, I watched some of the procession--the parade of fighters and their households who introduce themselves to their Majesties and request permission to be part of the tournament--as I cast on the first few stitches of my sock.  This part of the event would go on for a couple hours.  There were nearly 100 men and women signed into the lists to fight for crown.  That's the biggest I can recall ever seeing.  Usually it's around 60.  All too soon, and long before the line had significantly dwindled down, I had to go to the Ithra staff meeting.

The meeting for Ithra ran two hours and was largely productive.  I have a short list of things I need to do today--posting the old handbook online, for example--and I got a chance to meet a few people who are the upcoming movers-and-shakers in Ithra.  There was the Regent (I think we're only going to have one) and myself who were the only fully-licensed Chancellors, and Sarra, who was unable to make it to the event.  We all agreed that we need to train up a bunch of Chancellors, and right quick.  Baroness Stephania took notes, so hopefully those will be available on the Yahoo list soon.

Once the meeting ended, I headed back to camp to get the Journeyman stuff, and made my way back across the field to Comune dei Pavone present it to the Costumer's Guild judges, Mistress Isolde, Mistress Godytha and HL Isabel.  As I may have mentioned before, I didn't remember what things I had presented in the past for Junior and Senior ranks, and the records of what I had presented did not survive the database (although I received the gems for achieving it, the data was missing) so I started from scratch.  I had organized all the documentation in the binder, laid out the pieces as we went through them, and I presented my works.  They asked questions and challenged me on my choices ("Is this linen or cotton?  Why did you chose this fabric?"), and brought up some very interesting perspectives on a couple items.  They seemed to really enjoy the Bog Coat article I wrote...Isolde described it as a garment that is "peri-oid"; it has the correct silhouette, but not the right construction.  Mistress Ariel popped in and out during the presentation, and afterwards offered her congratulations.

I was able to catch the final couple of rounds of the Crown tournament where Count Ieuan ("Ian") was in the finals with Squire Leith.  Sir Octomasades was the third contender, but he lost to Leith, and Ieuan won best 2 of 3 against Leith.  Count Ieuan was king once before in January of last year, when he and his wife had a tiny baby.  Now their daughter is a toddler, and Her Royal Highness is expecting another baby.  Ieuan is pictured above wearing yellow, riding on the shoulders of the knights.  His wife is to his left, also in yellow.  Leith is riding on the shoulders ahead of him, wearing blue and black.  Carrying the final two fighters around on the shoulders after the tournament is a tradition in An Tir...I don't know about elsewhere in the SCA.  Generally speaking, when an "unbelted" fighter gets to the final rounds, knighthood is imminent...this happened once before that I recall when Duke Darius got Silver Rose at a May Crown tourney back in 1990 and was offered knighthood that day.  Leith, however, was not offered it that day...or the next--I have heard rumors why this might have been the case, and I hope that given his skill and time since accusations were laid, the knights' council will revisit the issue.  I've known Leith for a long time; he's a great musician and artist (he's a Laurel), but I don't know much about the fighting aspect.  It's not my battle however, so I will withhold further opinion.

Later that night, I went to visit with the Comune dei Pavone but they were just sitting down to dinner and waiting for the Royals to come join them.  It seemed I was not welcome to stay--the only person who shared pleasantries with me was a lady I'd never seen before, so I excused myself and wandered off.  Most of the group were busy in the kitchen, but I was not invited to stay and be social--I had already eaten--and clearly they were not ready for drop-in company.

The evening was spent with Tessa and her campmates while I knitted on the sock.  Later, I wandered around with Lianor and we ran into Duncan--a horse guy--and we had a great time chatting with him and his adult daughter.  Duncan offered to let me ride his horses, and we made some preliminary plans to make that happen.  Eventually I shuffled off to bed at around 2 a.m., when I checked my phone--and yes, Facebook--and discovered that HL Raffaella had been offered the Pelicanate.  Pelican?  Not Laurel?  Foodie, artisan, costumer's guild officer, organizer of the A&S Geek-Outs...  What the--?

I woke up in the morning with the camp behind me cooking bacon.  My entire tent smelled like bacon, and I think their kitchen was just two feet from my head.  I was starting to get a little nauseated.  I probably have bacon spatter on my canvas.  I got up, got a cuppa tea, and began knitting again.  Here's what I had done a couple hours before turn in.  I actually got the heel nearly complete, too, but sadly, the contest was not mine to win.  Due to my time spent in the meeting and presenting for Journeyman rank, I lost a lot of hours of knitting time.  Another competitor spent all night knitting and got BOTH socks done.  I came in third with another knitter getting up to the toe of the sock...just a few inches longer than mine.  In the end, I discovered that I put the heel on the wrong side of the sock, and it may be too small to fit me anyway.  I'm going to have to frog it all out and start again, but it was a fun experiment.

At about noon, I started packing up and was completely done by 3 pm--car packed, ready to hit the road.  Their Excellencies of Aquaterra had gone in to pack up the Baronial pavilion on the eric, and my Shittimwoode neighbors (not the Bacon-neighbors) were almost done with their camp and were going to assist at the eric, and I was headed that direction as well.  However, on my way, I saw that Tessa had a spare tire on her car.  Her right front tire was bald and pitted and had a bulge on one side...oh, it was a bad-lookin' tire...and her left front tire looked almost as bad.  I offered to follow her into town to make sure the other tire didn't blow out on the way.  We made it into town without incident, and while they were fixing the tires, we did a little Geocaching together!  The first was called Muggle Central--right on a busy street at a landmark feature--and the second was behind some newly-built barbed wire fencing.  We gave that one a miss.  We followed up with a couple more in Yakima and had dinner there at Bob's, then met up with a very tired Lianor and we caravaned home.  I arrived home at about 9:30 and Ben was still awake enough to need a big hug.

Weekly Update

It's amazing how this blog has almost turned into a weekly update of what I'm doing and where I'm going.  Let's see...last week was really crazy.  Everything happened.  Tuesday was three hours of dentistry where we took Emma to the ortho, got her wires off; took everyone to the dentist for routine cleaning and Emma had her broken tooth worked on a bit more; then back to the ortho to get the wires put back on.  There was only about an hour left in the school day, so I opted to take them home instead, and then take Cammie back for a Girl Scout meeting.  Wednesday was the usual early release and karate.  Friday was CF clinic for Ben, Cookie Rally, and driving to Portland.  Ben's lung function tests were pretty much off-the-charts good, so we have to keep up the therapies and hope that he maintains that good health.

Girl Scouts Cookie Rally was that evening--it was nice that they held it on Friday so we didn't have to worry about going to bed late and being tired the next day.  We partnered up with another troop that ran two booths and our combined troops ran three more booths for money management, poster making and cookie tasting.  A few of them got the chance to put on the cookie costumes and entertain the younger Brownies and Daisies.  They did great!  They even did the flag ceremony and rocked it!  I'm so proud of all these young ladies...despite how goofy the can be...

Right after the Cookie Rally ended, I hopped in the car and drove to Portland for 12th Night.  I thought it was going to take four hours, but given the lack of traffic and higher speeds I was able to shave 45 minutes off that time, arriving at Sharon & Jeff's at 12:15.  We sat and chatted and went to bed around 1:00.  We knew we had to be up and off to the site fairly early to sign in at gate and they needed to be at a 9:00 meeting.  I wasn't welcome at this meeting (for Peers only...I'm not there yet), so I went to the merchants area and looked at the goods.  While I found a few things I liked, there wasn't anything I needed.  I knew I needed to get some linen for upcoming projects, but I also knew I could get a better price online or from Fabric Depot on sale.  I ended up spending most of that hour chatting with new author, KateMarie Collins, a longtime friend of mine.  It was great catching up with her and sharing stories about kids and daily life.  She shared a recipe with me that I'm going to have to try...it's a tortilla soup, although I may modify a few minor things--there's a lot of "can of this" and "can of that".  I'd probably try to put in fresh tomatoes instead of canned.  It sounds delicious, though!

The rest of the event was great, although I didn't get any photos of anything.  I was sitting in a place that didn't afford a good view of a lot of the court proceedings--the Royals, the awards, the swearing ceremonies, the elevation of Laurels and Pelicans, a Knighting, and the Coronation itself.  (I borrowed this photo from Lisa Kelly...hope she doesn't mind since I did a little name-dropping there.)  The new King & Queen have decided to do a German Kampfrau thing this reign.  Funny thing is I was thinking about making some German Kampfrau...but now I don't want to look like a camp follower by copying them.  Maybe I'll stick with the Turkish stuff for a bit longer.

The knights swear fealty with their swords.  It's gotta be a rather unsettling feeling to have all those sharp things pointed at you...I guess it's a trust thing.

I had dinner with Ariel and her girlfriend, Sarah.  I showed her my binder of Costumer's Guild entries, which I was unable to present for the rank challenge; there was no official guild business done at the event.  Not sure exactly why, but I was told that nothing was organized or that the challenge officer had stepped down and wasn't replaced...in any case, there was nothing going on.  I left all the clothing pieces back at the house (where I was staying...not my house) and just carried the 1/2" binder around with me.  It was small enough that it wasn't a burden.  I was able to share it with a few people who were really happy to see it, especially when they got to the last page and the HOT SOCKS!  At least, that's what Duchess Hludwige called it when Mistress Isolde jabbed her and showed her the photo. Ariel was impressed, too!

We got back to the house at about 11:00 and settled down fairly quickly.  It was a long day.  The next morning, we had breakfast--it was supposed to be a breakfast meeting, but no one showed up for it.  Afterwards, Jeff was thinking about taking the dog out for a run, and I suggested that we go visit Fabric Depot.  Sharon eagerly agreed and off we went!  We found a couple pieces of linen for my Scholar project.  Now that I finished the Journeyman stuff, even though I will have to tweak the entries a bit and be ready to present it at Ursulmas (if it gets organized), I decided to start making Kelly a full set of Scandinavian clothes for him to wear.  I might base them all on the Greenland finds, which should be fun.  I have to teach and write a bunch and do about 20 hours of service to the guild...so it'll be a year-long project, I figure.

On the way back from the fabric store, we stopped in for a visit with Mike & Laura and baby Malcolm, and to deliver a special quilt for him, pictured on the bed behind this glowing couple.  I'm so excited!  He's due any day now, so I'm anxious to get news of the delivery.  It was a short visit, but Mike gave us a tour of the house and all the rooms and hallway they've finished up, the progress on the bathroom in the Garage Mahal, and the studio and music rooms upstairs.  It really looks like a comfortable home, and they're pretty much ready for baby!

I took Sharon back to her place, packed up the last of my things and made a deal with her to buy 11 yards of her linen at the price she paid for it--$4 a yard!  Two pieces are 5 yards each, and one is a 1-yard chunk.  She also gave me links to a couple of really great sites where you can get killer deals on linen in different weights.  One of the sites sells 1-2 yard pieces of bolt-ends, so I may be able to get some really great deals on end bits to make costumes.  This works out really well when making tunics--one yard for the front, one yard in the back, one yard for the sleeves...if you're using different dye lots, it doesn't matter so much...it's medieval!  The Bocksten man tunic had different color sleeves than the body of the tunic.  White is even better...no dye lots to match!

A few weeks ago, I ordered a Geomate Jr. to use for geocaching, and I took it out for a test seek.  Unfortunately it was too dark to find it and I didn't have a flashlight, but at least I know that one cache is going to be easy to find!  I thought I'd try to look for a few more today, but I ended up waiting over two hours for a new customer to come by with a quilt top.  It's a lovely fall-colored queen-size.  She wants a simple stipple all over it, which I will be able to finish up pretty quickly.  Tomorrow's weather is supposed to be equally nice, so maybe I'll go for a walk.

I pulled the loom out of the garage and wove a couple of feet of cardweaving yesterday.  It felt so good to work with the strings again!  I want to weave a couple more pieces before the event in 10 days, where I can sell them on commission with Gypsy Caravan and hopefully pay for my gas and weekends...and a bunch of linen I just purchased...  This is one of the weaving pieces that I started some time back and I'm debating whether or not to sell this one.  It was meant to be something for me, but I may go ahead and set it out for sale.  If it doesn't sell, it was meant for me.  If it does, I can always make another one.  Eh...I'll sell it.  I'd like to make one or two more to add to the four or five I have already.

Oh, and yesterday we had a handyman come out to give us a couple of quotes on work we need to have done.  The kids' bathroom needs to have the floor fixed...and we may have some mold under the floor after the flooding.  Kelly took him around and showed him some other things we'd like to get done over time, and while they were talking out front, he noticed that there were signs of water damage under the siding.  I think some of the weatherproofing might have failed on the sunny side of the house...ugh.  Hopefully it will turn out to be minor and inexpensive...but you know it never is.  I'm hoping to get hardwood floors this year and tear up all this worn out carpet.  It's 15 year old carpet that is really only meant to last five years.  Maybe I'll have to seriously consider getting a part-time job just to pay for home improvement and repairs.  I'm barely organized enough as it is...not sure how I'll manage that.

However, having people coming by today got me motivated to clean up a bunch.  I still have to clear off a table and the island, and I'd like to box up a bunch of stuff to take to GoodWill.  Maybe later this week.

Christmas Aftermath

Christmas eve we had dinner of beef tenderloin...I wanted to do the old family beef fondue with mustard and chili sauces, but I decided to cook the tenderloin whole in an Asian-inspired sauce with soy sauce, honey, ginger powder, garlic, and pepper.  In fact, it turned into a rather international dinner...French bread, Swiss cheese fondue, and Asian beef.  It was delicious!

Afterwards, we cleaned up the dishes, and went to open presents.  Each of the kids had five or six presents consisting of games, videos, and assorted entertainments.  Kelly had two presents--a cozy sweater and a wonderful Sounders rain jacket.  I had one gift...an iPod gizmo for my car.  Not that I'm complaining, mind you...I love my iPod gizmo.  I hope it will significantly improve the sound in the car--the thingy I have only works in the right speakers, which doesn't work well with some songs where they play with the balance between speakers.  [I asked for a GPS gizmo for geocaching, but I also complained about the sound quality of the iPod.]

Christmas eve, Santa came and left gifts for the kids and stuffing the socks.  Ben got two DS games that are for the 3DS, which sucks because he doesn't have a 3DS.  Maybe one of the girls will be nice enough to allow Ben to borrow their 3DS thing from time to time, but I'm thinking that we may have to trade in the DS for a 3DS, which will cost $150.  Ben has a savings account with some money in it, and we can pull the money out for that.  I just didn't want to buy another DS machine--we've already purchased five of them.  Stupid machines.

The other thing we did was get Emma a phone.  I've never seen her so happy!  It'll be so much nicer to be able to text her and say, "I'm running late" or "Math teacher needs to see you after school" (they email these notices to the parents...like it does any good if you're not anywhere near your computer during the day and don't know that you're supposed to pick them up late).

We goofed around for a few hours, then went visit Kelly's uncle who lives in town, but we never see him.  They have an open house every year and people come by and nibble, chat, and view Marjan's little village of lighted ceramic houses, train tracks, and characters.  She has a pop-up shelter on her deck with walls on it, a mini heater, and filled with tables covered with these little homes and winter scenes.  I love the look of these things, and someday I'd have my own collection.  When I do, I'd like to get this Christmas Story house, which comes complete with the Fragile leg lamp in the window.  It has a whole series of buildings, so you can create the entire town.

Christmas dinner was turkey, red potatoes, green beans and bread...I was going to go all-out and make cranberry sauce (I'm the only one who likes it), and home made bread, but I really didn't have enough time or energy.  Kelly picked the carcass clean and is making soup with the leftovers.

Now that the holiday is over, I'm hoping to have some time to put a new outfit together.  This is the one that I have in mind--something from the Ottoman empire...Persian...or Turkish...I have some blue linen and some yellow, too.  I have the undertunic made already, as well as the salwar (pants), and I'm betting I could make two layers over the Christmas break--one in dark blue and one in the medium blue...but I need some muslin to make the pattern first.  I want to have them done by 12th Night, which is the second weekend on January.  I'd love to have something to show to the Costumer's Guild, even if it doesn't count towards my Journeyman level...but I can get the documentation done for the other pieces and bring them to show.  I had entered them a couple years ago and they LOST the records!  So while they had the information and sent me the beads for my achievements in the Junior and Senior levels, they somehow didn't get the records put where it could be found again.  Mysterious.  Luckily, I have most of the documentation in the computer and I can throw together a group of items to show...hopefully I can get this train back on track and I can get a few steps closer to finishing my Journeyman level costumer challenge!

Garage Purge

A few days ago, I finally finished the seams and hems for Tyrssen's red tunic and started working on the yellow one.  I meant to spend some time this weekend working on the seams--I finished half of them over the last few days and had hopes that I could get it in the mail tomorrow.  However, those plans of working on the tunic were delayed when we got busy with another major project.  The mailing might actually happen on Tuesday, not Monday, so he'll have a couple extra tunics for his trip to Pennsic, a large SCA event in Pennsylvania.

Yesterday we spent several hours emptying the garage and cleaning out the nooks and crannies.  It was starting to get really cluttered and cramped in there, and getting around the car or working on the yurt were both getting difficult.  We started by pulling out all the camping gear, making a pile of stuff to give away, a pile of boxes of stuff to go through, and putting excess garbage into the car for a dump run (including two twin size box springs, broken toys, and more).  It looked like a yard sale was going on in our driveway, and several neighbors slowed down to look carefully at our stuff...unfortunately, they didn't stop to ask if we were selling any of it...we probably would have given them a good price.

One dump run later, we started to load all the donations into the car, which went there today.  I brought so much stuff, the guy offered to give me two donation slips.  I also set aside some big things to give to a friend for her kids--five car seats, a wagon, and a bike child seat.  If she can't use it, she has friends at church that might have need of it.

Then there are four boxes of things to go to either the SCA (books) or the quilt guild for their annual show.  Once the donations were taken away, I loaded up the boxes of books that I will be taking to a meeting on Tuesday, along with two camp chairs, some miscellaneous dishes and a couple hats.  Hopefully all that will find new homes...we still have a bunch of stuff in the garage, but I keep hoping that we'll be able to fit two cars in there...probably not.  At least I will be able to get in and out of the car much easier.

The nice thing is that during the purge and sort, I found a few things, like this linen satchel that I made for Costumer's Guild and have been looking for.  All the fabric was from a scrap bag of linen from a hat making shop.

BBQ chicken sliders for dinner tonight.  Crock pot style!