Laura's Thoughts and Whatnot

Arts Blog

2007-10-24T21:06:00.000-04:00

I'm changing this blog to be my Arts blog, at least until I can get a website up and running.

My latest project? recreating folio 196 recto of the Luttrell Psalter Facsimile. I've attached two pictures. The first picture is of my attempt at recreating. The second pic is from the original page in the facsimile. The colors are off because of the lighting for taking both pics. If we ever get a sunny day again, I will take the pictures again.

Last Saturday, Demi and I went to St. Eligius's A&S Tourney in Dragonship Haven. It was a nice little event. We really enjoyed ourselves. :-) And it was a great event for getting our feet wet with doing A&S competitions. And winning Baron's Choice for the above artwork, was just the icing on my cake! Totally took me by surprise!!!!!!!!!!!! I was over the moon. :-) And I won a lovely set of handmade feast gear. :-) Gotta love that! Of course, my documentation was a bit lacking, but I know where to improve for my next comp. :-)

Scibal Life.......

2007-04-16T14:25:00.000-04:00

Sometimes, as much as I love it, Spring just sucks. Laura no like headaches. Spring brings lots of weather changes = Laura gets lots of headaches. Not fun. So, I kept putting off working on two scrolls. You know how you tell yourself, it's okay, you have lots of time to finish those scrolls. Then came the email. Basically, it was a communication mix-up from last Fall, so in addition to the two scrolls I needed to finish for Last Court at Coronation, I was scrambling to make a County scroll that needed to be finished and put in the mail on Friday to go to Ealdormere. Okay, I can do it. I'll be scribing for HOURS every day Monday - Friday. But wait, I'm babysitting the wonder twins on Tuesday. Okay, I still can get them done. No problem. Till a mild case of food poisoning happened Tuesday night. And I was totally useless most of Wednesday. Well, then the panic set in. :-P I don't know how I did it, but I did it. I finished Caoilfhionn's scroll. Then completed Jocea's scroll's illumination. Ran off to the post office and mailed that scroll. Back home again to work on D.'s scroll. Finished it 5 minutes before Eilis and Maggie arrived Friday evening. Whewwwwwwwww. If you want to see the latest scrolls I've been working on, just click here:http://signet.eastkingdom.org/roster.php?scribe=88They're not exactly in order but the first 12 are all from June 2006 till current. I must say that I've been pretty happy with my scrolls lately. I see where I need improvement and I really need to work on my callig. Ugh. I can't believe I just said that. Calligraphy drives me crazy. But what's one more thing that drives me crazy?

So, with the crazy last week or so, I didn't get any of the projects that I wanted to do by Coronation done. I have two sock monkeys to make. Some favors to sew. A surprise for Jana and the Yooka-fans. I'm hoping to get that all done this week, plus a scroll and maybe some sewing for me. New garb. Yay!

This weekend was a lot of fun. Heather, Maggie, Joe and Jenness all stayed with us for the weekend. Being silly and having a good time. Went to Coronation on Saturday. Watched Lucan and Yana last court. I was so happy to see so many friends receive special awards. :-) So there I was sitting in court, crocheting away and when they started calling up a group of people. After about the tenth name I started to notice a pattern. What is it? What ties all these people together? Hey! They're calling up the scribes. I wonder what's up? I put down my crocheting, turn to Heather and tell her to put her sewing down that she's about to be called into Court. Sure enough, Eilis of Eisental is called up seconds later. Before long, my name and Li. After a nice speech, it was announced that the scribes of this reign were all receiving the Queen's Honour of Distinction. WOW!!!!! We were all given nifty tokens. :-) I was just tickled! :-) It was also fabulous to see Demi's face when she was called into Court with Dugan and another gentle to receive the Burdened Tyger. Eilis made Demi's scroll. :-) And it looked fabulous! After Lucan and Yana stepped down we headed outside for a group picture. While outside I took a ton of pictures! You can see them here:http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=fu3sm1j.79iw79fv&x=0&y=-lcjbxaThere is also some before Court pictures. The church was wayyyyyyyyy too dark to get any pictures and the one time I tried to change the settings on my camera it look a flash picture! Yikes, bad Clodagh, breaking the law! Anyhow I just love the random outside pictures of the crowd, looking through all the faces and catching the different expressions.

Saturday night was a let's get quietly drunk and watch funny stuff. okay, so maybe we weren't so quiet. And we found a new comedian to watch for, Rodney Carrington. okay, so he's not a new comedian, but he's new to us. Loved him! I so need to get his DVD and a cd or two. :-) I think the trip to North Carolina next month will include some of our favorite comedians on CD. :-)

Sunday, after some tearful hugs (all weekend we were fighting off tears), Jenness, Jacquie and I headed out to Affordable Fabrics. Jenness bought 50+ yards of fabric, I bought around 30. lol I plan on doing a lot of sewing in the next few months! :-) New garb for Pennsic - most of it out of linen. Gotta love that!Enough rambling from one person for one day. I need to get this day in action. I have lots of housewifey duties to fulfill (and none of them are done in bed!). Shopping, laundry, etc. Oh joy!

Here it is,....

2007-04-01T14:14:00.000-04:00

So this is a picture of the pendant and earrings that I made with PMC yesterday. They look better in person. I did a quatrefoil (four petal flower) for the pendant. :-) Here is one website that sells PMC and talks about it. I have a list of websites from Elspeth, but they're tucked away right now. The "clay is made up of 90% silver powder and 10% water and organic binder. When it's fired it shrinks by about 10-12%. It think my pendant is about 1 1/4 long and 3/4 inch wide. It kinda looks like hammered silver. Gina made this cool lotus flower. Actually everyone's stuff came out really cool. And because it's clay, you create using anything you would with clay. Leave an impression from a shell, or use a rubber stamp or cookies cutters, or a knife, the possibilities are endless.

Enough of my rambling. Chris is sick so we're staying home from the regional fighter practice today. I think I will work on my messy office and try to do some more re-organizing and possibly even work ona scroll! :-)

April Fool's Day

2007-04-01T12:57:00.000-04:00

Aly from last weekend in her new Burgundian garb. She got lots of compliments on her dress, hat and shoes! I'm a very proud momma!

So, this past week I was useless. Had a combo PMS headache and the weather pressure headache for days. One day it was a migraine. Not fun. Seems to be a lot better now. Especially since I have two scrolls to get done for Coronation, plus one for Balfar's Challenge. And I want to start on my Luttrell project and do some sewing before Balfar's. And start the spring cleaning. And clean my office. And the list goes on and on.

Had a blast yesterday, though! Avelina hosted a jewelry workshop at Wishford Hall. :-) I tried my hand at lamp glass beading. Very hard on my shoulder. Fun to watch though. And I made a pendant and two earrings out of PMC. Otherwise known as precious Metal Clay. It's so cool. Looks like you're working with clay, feels like clay. Then you let it dry out and it turns creamy white. Then it's fired on this special kiln at 1300+ degrees. When it's done, it looks like a piece of fired clay/ceramic. Then you take a file and/or steel wool and sand off the composite stuff and what's left behind is the silver that was in the clay. It's sooooo cool! I wish that I had taken pics of each step. I definitely will the next time I do it! I'll try to post pics later. Something is wrong the confuser right now. :-)

Crazy Week

2007-03-23T08:09:00.000-04:00

Last weekend we pretty much had a laid back weekend. It didn't start off that way, though. Nope. Had to go get Aly from school in the snow storm. Normally it's a 50 minute drive each way. It took me 1 1/2 hours to get there and 3 1/2 hours to get home. So many accidents! And most of them caused by people braking too much and sliding off the road. Ugh.

Saturday I puttered around the house until Aelfgifa/Shiro/Andrea popped by fora visit. She oohed and aahed over the Luttrell. Showed me her new book (which I've decided that I need to get!). And told me about Affordable Fabrics in Rocky Hill. With $2 a yard linen. Yes. linen. Wow! Guess where I went on Monday???? Yes and I bought 30 yards of linen. All but one of them was 100% linen. The other one was 98%. Love it! I was going to make myself some new garb for this weekend. But couldn't. You'll read why in a little while.

Sunday I picked up Miss Frances and we went to see the Easter Bunny! Who was 40 minutes late. Ugh. Thank goodness we weren't the only ones in line, plus there was Bella the Balloon Lady. I took her home in the afternoon after we had lunch. :-) She's so much fun. I was supposed to babysit her on Tuesday, but got sick. :-( Hopefully, we can get together again maybe next weekend.

So, Aly is home this week from school and has a project to make a Burgundian outfit. She has made a pair of leather shoes. We shopped for the material to make the garb. She had a pattern. Unfortunately the pattern was crap. So, I spent the last two days helping her make her new garb. The only good thing that came from the pattern was the hat. Tonight she needs to get jenness to serge the veils for her and she'll be done. I'll post a picture of her after this weekend. She looks fabulous! And because Aly's garb took so long to make, I didn't get new garb made for myself. Oh well.

Today we have a ton of things to do! Including, clean up from the sewing, finish laundry, pack for the laundry, do some errands, etc. etc. Crazy life!

I'm off to shower and get this day going.......................................

Change of Plans

2007-03-12T13:42:00.000-04:00

Man, I've been having a case of the winter blahs/cabin fever. I want to apologize to all my friends for not writing at all and/or rarely. Ive even been bad about not returning emails. During the week I've not been doing much of anything, then our weekends are SUPER full. So, we've declared the 17th and 18th a free weekend. We're working the little things around the house, but we're not leaving the house. No travelling to New Jersey, or elsewhere. We've even canceled our get together for this weekend. Well, except for those individuals who want to come over for the afternoon to look at the Luttrell facsimile. :-D (remember to bring your own drool bib!)

This past weekend was Ian (aka Max)'s Bar Mitzvah. Barbara and Bruce put on quite the wonderful shindig. We had so much fun! And Ian's friends are so polite and charming!

Well, I need to finish uploading some pictures, then it's back to working a scroll. I'm in a mood to paint! Waiting to hear back about possibly getting some new assigments. :-D

March 17th.......

2007-02-22T13:55:00.000-05:00

After looking at the next three months, I realized that I have only 3 free weekends. Out of 14 weekends. How did that happen? It's wild. Crazy. So with the one free weekend in March what am I doing? Inviting my friends to join me for a day of fun. :-) Laid back, easy, fun day.

And just what will be happening on this day? I'm bringing out my Luttrell Psalter facsimile for the scribes (anyone else who wants to look at it!) to oooh-and-ahhh over. (Please bring your own drool bibs!) Hoping to have a bit of a discussion of period manuscripts and available facsimiles. But that's not all folks - we're also having a Pampered Chef party by Demi. So, we all know what that means - LAVA CAKE!!! Plus other yummy goodies. Oh and some nice stuff to drink. :-D Gotta have some yummy drinks for the evening!If you're interested in coming and hanging out for the day, just drop me a line - LadyClodagh AT comcast DOT net and I'll send you info. Stuff like my address, etc. And knowing us, there will probably be some some people working on crafty stuff, so bring your latest project to work on/show off! *********************************************************************

So, having this get together means I definitely need to get the kitchen and sitting room re-done before March 17th! I work so much better with deadlines! :-)

Now if only I could get this messy office cleaned up! lol

We're Going Green

2007-02-19T14:43:00.000-05:00

I can't believe that I am doing this. I really can't. I'm going to paint my kitchen and sitting room green. I figure if I can't live with it, then in a year or so I'll paint it. My kitchen colors are blue and yellow. Yellow and blue. Not green. Nor pink, orange or purple. *sigh* I'm willing to give it a try.

So this week, I've got to bust my butt and finish a scroll, deliver it to TRM and work on the kitchen. That means removing everything from the walls, filling holes, sanding, cleaning the walls. Even going to try my hand at priming certain areas of the walls. Then, lots of blue tape and painting the walls. Much to my husband's chagrin. He is THE PAINTER. No one else can come close to his level of excellence. But his back hurts too much to do the painting. And if the kitchen goes well, I'll do the sitting room next.

Speaking of the husband, he's at el doctoro to talk about his back. He wants to try physio before going back to the surgeon. Keep fingers crossed that the physio works!

I better go do the callig on this scroll. Then it's doing the gilding. Tomorrow I paint. :-)

a kitchen re-do

2007-02-10T15:25:00.000-05:00

Last weekend while I was away on a girls getaway, my darling husband removed the breakfast bar, removed the electric baseboard heater in the "dining room", put down a floating floor in the "new family room" and added in baseboard. The first picture is the new kitchen/family room.

Second picture was taken nearly 3 years ago. That's the view of the breakfast bar, going to the dining room and you can see the table. That's from before we ever painted the kitchen and dining room the summer after we moved in.

The first picture was taken today. No breakfast bar, table is in the dining room (albeit a different table) and there is a futon in what we're now calling the family room (formerly the dining room). As you can see the kitchen is decorated with soft yellow with blue accents. Totally doesn't go with the new look. So I need a new color scheme. I'm thinking I'd like to do something like what you see on the walls at this website:

http://www.oldworldfinishes.com/pic5.jpg

Or maybe more like the colors in this one:

http://oldworldfinishes.com/wall/pic2.JPG

I really like this look too. But it might be a bit too dark for what I want.

http://oldworldfinishes.com/wall/pic14.JPG

Can you get the idea I'm going for?

http://oldworldfinishes.com/wall/pic16.JPG

A big thanks for all the samples from our friend Artorius' web site: http://oldworldfinishes.com/

Basically I want that kind of old-world looking plaster effect. I don't know how to describe it. Lots of warm yellows with maybe a bit of teracotta in it. Maybe a bit of an Italian look or French country. I don't know how to explain it. And of course we need to completely change out the window treatments. Also, we're going to hang up curtains in the family room archway made of unbleached cotton so that when we have company sleeping over, they have a bit of privacy.

The hard part is figuring out exactly what colors to use and how to do it. :-)

More Fleurida pics

2007-02-08T15:43:00.000-05:00

So, that's me standing on the beach watching the water. :-) I so miss Florida. I'm sure I wouldn't miss it if it was 98 degrees and 100% humidity. But a beautiful 73 degree day, that I miss. :-)

I'm really looking forward to our next girls' weekend. Whenever that may be. :-)

Heather, Gina and Abby (thank goodness for editting tools - I can't believe I had Maggie instead of Abby in this sentence!) were having a lot of fun walking back to the car. :-) Wayyyyyy off in the distance you can see Barbara and Jenness. (Can see those two little specks over Abby's head?)

Well, I really do need to go get some cleaning done. Oh joy. :-P At least I had some fun today. I went to Joan's house and gave her the inkleloom she ordered and helped her string it and start playing with it. Well back to the grind for me. I really need to clean up the kitchen. Oooh tomorrow I'll write about what Chris did while I was gone and take some pictures!

Report Card for Life

2007-02-06T18:00:00.000-05:00

YOUR REPORT CARD:
Category	Grade
Love	A
Friends and Family	A
Body	C
Mind	A+
Finance / Career	B
Your Life's Average Grade: A
'What" is your Life Grade?' at QuizGalaxy.com

2007-02-06T17:42:00.000-05:00

2007-02-06T17:36:00.000-05:00

Fleurida and Back Again...

2007-02-06T11:45:00.000-05:00

WoW! What a week! Wednesday I drove down to Jenness' house and met her after work. That evening I was lucky enough to attend one of her belly dance classes. It was fabulous! I sooooo wish I lived close enough to join them. I want to thank everyone in the class for letting me watch the class! I can't wait for the recital to see their routine. :-)

Thursday, we were up at 3:30 a.m. to get ready to go to the Newark Airport. Heather, Barbara, Jenness and I all flew together. I slept on the plane, probably even drooled a little! :-) No problems with the luggage this year! Yay!

We did so much this year! I'm trying to think of what we did on Thursday...
- found the Italian deli, but it was super crowded and we left (never did make it back)
- found a diner for lunch
- Heather and I had a nap back at the house
- We decorated our hats for wearing at the airport to pick up Gina. Even made Gina her own hat. :-)
- Went shopping at Bells outlet clearance store. Found out it's closing. :-(
- Did some grocery shopping
- Ate dinner at Chick-fil-a
- Picked up Gina at the airport. And in the process met Billy Bohack, his friend Bob and his little brother Luigi.
- Back to the house to eat some cheese and chocolate. :-)
- watched The Sweetest Thing - unrated version (Thanks Pandora for introducing me to one of the funniest movies I've seen in a long time!)
- Watching Humphrey "romance" Abby :-D

Friday included:
- a yummy breakfast bake created by Jenness and Barbara (I think)
- going to St. Pete's Beach and getting soaked by the rain.
- wanting to hit the internet cafe and dollar store, instead going to a German bakery - YUM!!!!!
- crocheting, knitting, hanging out
- eating lunch at the Athenian Garden. No Miko this year, but another waiter who was just as yummy, if not more yummy!
- more shopping
- including Zone d'Erotica!
- a very special pajama party with our friend Glo! Oh yeah, baby! And let me say, Gigi is a girls best friend!

Saturday highlights:
- hanging out at the house. Of course we were crocheting and knitting up a storm!
- going to the flea market
- eating at Athenian Garden again!

Sunday:
- having brunch with Jenny and her daughter Jacqueline :-)
- OH-MY-GOODNESS the sun is out and it's warm outside! We're going to the beach! Put down those cleaning tools and lets hop in the car ladies!!!!!
- heading back to the airport :-( to head home again. Can we say BRRRRRRRRRR?

I'm sure I'll write more as things come to me. Maybe even post some more pics. :-)

Chris' title....

2007-01-29T10:09:00.000-05:00

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is:
Count-Palatine Chris the Cosmopolitan of Londinium-le-Thames
Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

And Varus is....

2007-01-29T10:08:00.000-05:00

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is:
Very Lord Varus the Cosmopolitan of Giggleswich Lanken
Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

2007-01-29T10:07:00.000-05:00

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is:
Empress Clodagh the Herbaceous of Leighton Buzzard
Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

2007-01-29T10:06:00.000-05:00

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is:
Her Exalted Highness Duchess Laura the Unique of Greater Sodbury
Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

Birka, Birka, Birka

2007-01-28T22:47:00.000-05:00

Looking at this picture of me, I notice two things. One, I totally need new glasses. And two, I need to get back to Curves. lol I think I have this asthma cough under control. At least under control enough to go work out. :-)

That's me all dressed for Birka. Gina wore the same thing: black dress and the jacket. We need to get Jenness a black linen dress and then all four of us will have to hit an event all decked out! :-) I really do love the jacket.

What made Birka so much fun this year?

- Seeing friends! Especially seeing Khavi and Fa'el! Wish we could've spent more time with them.

- Seeing the look of Demi's face when she was called into Court to receive her Queen's Order of Courtesy! Priceless. "Oh, that's right, YOU were the other reason why we had to be in court." But I'm a bit of a court junkie and love to sit through Court.

- Haus Circle. 70+ friends and family all joined together in this massive circle of love and friendship to share special times.

- My husband taking on his first squire on the second anniversary of his knighting. Max is a terrific kid and we just love him! He makes an excellent addition to our little "family". I made Max's squire belt with my inkleloom and even made household favors for Domus Variana. They look pretty good if I do say so myself. :-)

- YUCCA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- We missed Eilis. :-(

- Buying stickers that are nearly identical to our tattoos! I've already put some on my van. I'll have to take a picture tomorrow.

Uh oh. I have to stop writing now. I've got a migraine starting and can't see properly anymore. I hate migraines. They totally suck. At least I get a bit of warning and can get some meds going before the heavy pain starts. :-P

Scribing on my mind

2007-01-22T21:39:00.000-05:00

Saturday was an interesting day. Spent it at Aelfgifa's house with Dresden and Kayleigh. The four of us spent the afternoon and evening talking and discussing and playing with things "scribal". Is that even a word? Okay we talked about illumination. :-) Aelfgifa pushed me out of my comfort zone and made me d-r-a-w. With a really big pencil. No eraser. And timed me. Yes, you read it right, timed me. Yikes! The good news? I was actually able to draw something that looked like a woman sitting. Even played with painting the folds correctly. And we talked about how to "outline" an area where there is no outline. Even did some practice pieces. I definitely came away with some new ideas. Including how to create a blue in the Luttrell that has always dumbfounded me (the answer is indigo blue and white). All in all a very productive day and I look forward to doing it again. :-) Of course now I can't wait to get together with Eilis to work on some of what I learned with her. :-)

Sunday we took Aly back to school. She was very nervous about her new roommate. We got her all settled in, had some excitement when the fire alarm went off and we had to leave the building. No fire, just someone who burnt bacon and it set off the alarms. Of course we had to take a trip to WalMart for a longer piece of cable (Aly took her tv this semester) and some other odds and ends. Today she calls because she forgot the yoga mat and needs other supplies for her yoga class. So on Wednesday I'll be driving to visit her at lunch time. :-)

Later on Sunday I spent the afternoon at Selena's while Chris went to the regional fight practice. I had an enjoyable afternoon. :-) Learned about fingerbraiding. Watched part of a football game. That means I've seen parts of two games this season. Oh no. Could I be starting to *gasp* watch football again? Nah, just weird occurences. :-)

Tomorrow I'll finish up my scroll for Estrella, plus go shopping so that I can make Max's squire's belt. :-) Shopping is always a good thing.

Well, I'm going to check on that scroll, maybe doa little bit more then go read my book. I'm reading one of my old "friends". Some people call them confort books. You know, that book, or series that you just love and re-read every year. For me, that is Pern books. It is my all-time favorite series. Ever. And one of my favorite books of Pern is Dragonsdawn. *sigh* The ship is nearly empty and Sorka has had Duke for a week. Yeah, I'm a book addict.

No Clodagh for me :-( ..........

2007-01-20T09:13:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I received my letter rejecting the name Clodagh to be registered in the SCA. That totally sucks. There is so little proof of feminine names in Ireland. Makes it hard to pick a name. Clodagh is the name of a river in Ireland, since at least the 12th century, but no way of proving that women used that name before the 19th century. A great big giant UGH.

However, when I was picking Clodagh as a name, I had also picked Saorla and was going to use Clodagh Saorla inghean Cinneide as my name. Then discovered that double naming was not in use in Ireland. So, I dropped the Saorla. Well, it looks like I'm going to pick it back up. I'm going to re-submit my name as Saorla inghean Cinneide (although the spelling might end be Saerlaith). Then I will be known as Lady Saorla inghean Cinneide, called Clodagh. :-) Saorla is pronounced Ser-la. And want to know the stupid part of the heralds rejecting my name? Is that they stopped my device as well. The way it's supposed to work is that if the name fails, they use a holding name to keep the device going. It could have been something simple like, Laura of Barony Beyond the Mountain. Especially since Laura is a period name and that's the Barony I live in. Oh well. Now I'm just waiting to hear back from the Mural Herald about my next step.

So that was my disappointment yesterday. I still have this dratted cough. Not fun or pleasant. However I have finally started working on my scroll for Estrella War. lol It's inked/penciled in, calligraphy done, and the permacoll put down for the gold. And today I'm going to a Blood, Sweat & Tears Workshop at Aelfgifa's house. I still need to get my stuff gathered up for that and make a cheese platter to bring. I might just cheat and go to Stop & Shop and pick up something. :-)

Today is my sweetheart's birthday. He's 44 years old. That just dumbfounds me. He doesn't seem that old. I don't feel 38 years old either. lol Anyhow, Chris is going to come over to Aelfgifa's house this evening to join us for dinner. Guess I'll pick him up something chocolatey when I go to Stop & Shop. :-) If I wasn't so lazy when it comes to baking, I would've made him a chocolate torte. :-P

Well, I better get back to getting ready for today's adventure. :-)

16 Days and Counting!!!!

2007-01-16T12:31:00.000-05:00

Yes, just 16 days till Florida!

I lost most of my pictures from my trip to Florida last year, but here is one of the pictures that we were able to recover. (I lost the pictures when the hard drive got fried, but I have hard copy of the pictures in an album.)

I've been sick! Last Monday (the 8th) I went back to Curves after missing most of December. That night I came down with the flu. :-( Fever on and off for 3 days. Not fun. Then a cold settled in. I went back to Curves yesterday - I'm still coughing and a bit congested, but getting better. And I made it to Curves today! Go me!

This past weekend Jenness and Joe came up and we all went to go see Bat Boy the Musical presented by The Hole in the Wall Theatre, in New Britain. It was hilarious!!! Our friend Bill is in it and is just fabulous! The whole cast was great. :-) Definitely worth going to see. :-)

And the other big news to share is that Chris and I have finally decided on our (delayed) 20th anniversary trip. We're going to Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina in May. I found this hotel online:
http://www.thewinds.com/

And we're driving down on May 19th and staying until the 24th. The plan is to enjoy the beach, have relaxing days and maybe do a little bit of exploring of the area. :-) Take lots of pictures. :-) Relax. Have some time alone. :-) It will be our first ever vacation together, other than going to Pennsic. Well, just the two of us on a real vacation. We don't count camping trips. And then in 2008, we're going to Ireland with Jenness and Joe. Maybe Gina and a friend joining us, too. So, lots of saving to do in the next while. :-)

I need to go and do the grocery list as well as grocery shopping. Oh joy.

12th Night - Gifts and Giggles

2007-01-07T14:30:00.000-05:00

Doesn't Miss Gina look so sweet holding her new baby? Heather created a very special sock monkey for Gina for 12th Night. :-) I love the happy look on Gina's face. :-)

12th Night was a lot of fun - although we all missed Jenness and Joe! And my inside voice was awfully loud yesterday, I just had no control. lol The look on Cullyn's face in the morning over something I said was fabulous. *sigh* I need to keep that Laura in better control. lol

I got some lovely gifts - but I can't talk about them until Jenness gets her gifts. :-) Don't want to give away any surprises! But I LOVE my gifts. :-)

Today, I'm trying to get my office cleaned up, write thank you cards, do bills and get organized. I have an Estrella scroll to do this week. I so wanted to hand that over yesterday. Oh well. And I plan on making some blanks for when I get some more assignments. Oh and I need to make a red belt before Birka. :-) My husband will be taking on his first squire during Haus circle. :-)

Better get back to work.....

2007 - A New Year, New Hopes

2007-01-02T23:14:00.000-05:00

I can't believe I have written in days. Been meaning to write.

Christmas was wonderful. Nice and quiet with just the four of us. A little bittersweet, it was our first Christmas without Fergie. :-( He was always so much fun at Christmas - he loved playing in the wrapping paper. We had lots of gifts to open! Highlights of the gifts are: Jacquie got a sewing machine and lots of Tinkerbell stuff, Aly tons of books, Chris lots of Chelsea stuff and I got books, cds, dvds and a quesadilla maker! Oh and our game for this year was Totally 80s Trivial Pursuit. Aly did a lot of baking leading up to Christmas. I didn't make a single cookie this year. I enjoyed the break. :-)

The rest of the week was spent taking it easy - doing a bit of this and that. On the Wednesday I picked up Dresden and we went shopping at Christmas Tree Shops and JoAnns. It was very nice! Jacquie came, too. I would've enjoyed it more if I didn't have cramps from H E double hockey sticks. That was not fun at all.

On Saturday, Aly and I drove down to Heather's house in PA and spent the day with her to celebrate her birthday. :-) We even treated her to Japanese for dinner. It was yummy of course! And we did a little shopping at Dick Blicks. I picked up something for Jacquie's birthday. :-) And Keith (Heather's husband) totally ROCKS!!!! He's getting her the Luttrell Psalter Facsimile for her birthday. I'm so happy for her! And jealous. Excited that someone I know will have the facsimile. So at least I can look at it. :-) I'm dying to see what's on each page.

Saturday evening found us on the road again and heading to Fygen and DeVos' house for the New Year's Weekend. Aly and I had a FABULOUS time! Chris joined us Sunday afternoon (he got a ride down with Fia and Matthew). We played games, ate lots of yummy food, drank good booze, laughed, chatted and crafted! Yes, crafted. A group of us ladies spent the afternoon and evening crocheting and working on projects. :-) Different, not old lady stuff. Okay, mine was normal - I was working on a scarf. Mind you it was alpaca wool. Lovely stuff to work with. Others were learning crocheting, some were working on tassel belts, or muppet hair, or muppet skirts. Definitely different from how we normally spend our New Year's Eve, but we had a blast! (Our normal NYE consists of eating appetizers for dinner and watching two new movies then watching the ball drop.) Fygen and DeVos are fabulous hosts. :-)

Looking back at 2006, it had so many ups and downs. I got a tattoo, enjoyed having some friendships turn into something special (check out this: http://estore.websitepros.com/1397876/Detail.bok?no=2350 it says it all), did two weeks at Pennsic, Aly graduated from high school, etc. Then it had downs. Marriages breaking up, runs of bad luck for so many friends, plus an unexpected death. I just hope that 2007 holds lots of good things. So much that it outweighs the bad stuff. :-)

Did you make a New Year's Resolution? Mine this year is to send out birthday and anniversay cards. I've gotten bad the last couple of years of forgetting or not bothering. But I need to get back to it. And of course the usual resolution to get heathier and be better organized. :-) So what is your New Year Resolution? (I can think of one for Gina!)

Well, it's bedtime for me!

Christmas Eve!

2006-12-24T17:29:00.000-05:00

I can't believe it's Christmas Eve. Somehow it just doesn't feel like Christmas. We haven't had any snow this month. And I think that contributes to it. Our tree is all decorated and ready to open presents from friends and family after dinner this evening. And what is for dinner, you ask? Why the traditional hot dogs and sauerkraut! Plus salad, chips, etc. Then after we open the presents we'll settle down to watch White Christmas and nibble on Christmas cookies while sipping hot chocolate. :-)

And speaking of dinner, I need to go get things started. Jacquie will be home 6-ish! Oh and I forgot to share Jacquie's good news!!!! She took her driver's test on Friday and passed! Today was her first time driving herself to work. :-)

Christmas is Coming!!!!

2006-12-17T13:52:00.000-05:00

Christmas 1970. Look at those fabulous Christmas presents I received! A brand new DeeDee doll, but still unable to give up the dirty dingy one. lol It's actually a Drowsy Doll and when you pulled her string she said a phrase. (And a few years ago my mom gave me another new DeeDee doll, cause the first two are long gone.) What else did I get that year? A plaid kitchen set - toaster, dishes and pots. Can you tell it was the 70s? lol We even had a cardboard fireplace! Ahhh, the good life! :-)

Earlier this week I found this delicious deal at Travelocity - a one week cruise around the Hawaiian Islands for $459 per person. And even better was tickets to Hawaii for only $408 round trip! Unfortunately it was for in January and Chris is just too busy at work to go. :-( A great big ugh. So, back to the drawing board in finding that special trip to take as a late 20th anniversary present. We have a few ideas - go to Cancun and stay at an all-inclusive resort. Go to Grand Cayman Islands and stay in a condo. Or go to Florida for a week. So, lots to think about and plan.

Last of the Christmas cards are going out today. That makes a total of 69 cards. And a large majority of them were homemade. The house is decorated. The yard is decorated. Nearly all of the presents are wrapped. Time to get caught up on cleaning and doing some scrolls. :-) Oh and bake some cookies. :-)

Ahhhh, it's 2 p.m. and I'm still in my pjs. Guess I should get dressed, do a few errands and make dinner. Take Aly back to school. Then I need to get caught up on emails! Way behind on those again. :-P

2006-12-12T15:59:00.000-05:00

Okay, so the picture in the previous blog has nothing to do with what I wrote in my blog. I was looking for a fun, happy picture to brighten my day. :-) It made me smile, for a minute. Wish my friends lived closer or that I lived closer to them. Sucks that so many of us live so far from each other.

Enough of my whingeing. I think I will go crawl into bed and read my book.....

Dreary, Gray Day :-(

2006-12-12T15:49:00.000-05:00

I just feelt he NEED for some sunshine. Definitely a blah day. I evenried shopping. That didn't help either. And I'm just having some trouble getting into the Christmas spirit this year. Blech. I think I need some time with friends. :-)

So, I keep thinking about what I need to do and it seems like there is so much!
~ fold last load of laundry
~ put away linens
~ put away my clothes
~ wrap presents
~ mail packages
~ vacuum living room
~ sweep and wash kitchen floor
~ sweep and wash dining room floor
~ vacuum laundry room carpet
~ gather up garbage for Chris
~ make dinner

And that's just what's on my list for things to do around the house today. Here's some of the things on my list to do sooner rather than later...
~ figure out baking projects for the holidays
~ paint two scrolls
~ doing sewing repairs on clothes
~ clean my office
~ tidy up Aly's room (we've been using it for a dumping ground)
~ shop for some last minute gifts
~ make some more holiday cards

And the list seems to go on and on and on.....

Blah

Blah

Blah

Anyone got any sunshine to share?

Another Flashback Picture

2006-12-09T21:36:00.000-05:00

This picture is from around Christmas 1989. It might even be early January 1990. Aly is nearly 1 1/2 years old and Jacquie is about to turn 3 years old. That Christmas, McDonald's was selling three Christmas muppets - Miss Piggy, Kermit and Fozzie. They might have sold more, but that's all the girls ever got. We still have a "santa" hat from a Kermit kicking around - it was actually in the box of Polly Pocket box that Magnolia was playing with last weekend. :-) I crocheted the blanket on Jacquie's bed. I was very proud of that blanket. It had a large J made out of squares in the middle. Aly got a matching blanket a few months later with the letter A on it. Look at how little the girls look playing in the middle of a twin bed. *sigh* Now, Aly is almost 18 1/2 years old and Jacquie is about to turn 20!

Today was interesting. Drive to Rhode Island for Bridge Birthday. Visited with folks. Had dinner at Foxwoods with Dinsdale and Shiro. :-) Now we're home again and I need to stay awake long enough to go get Jacquie from work at midnight. I might start wrapping some presents. I have stuff that needs to go in the mail next week. Think I'll be-bop over to UPS to mail the packages instead of the post office.

I'm jealous - Heather, Keith and the kids were going out for oriental dinner, then going to see Happy Feet. I hope they ahve a good time! Jacquie and I might go see Happy Feet this week. :-) It looks like a fun movie.

Oh well, off to do some wrapping. Or maybe I'll play a little Sims2 first.......

Don't you Ever Wish...

2006-12-07T23:32:00.000-05:00

...that you could stop time and get some jobs done?

It seems like there is just not enough time in the day to get everything done. And I wish that my office was twice it's size so that I could have my scrapbooking stuff and scribal supplies out at the same time. :-P Oh well.

This is a scrapbook page of pictures from Christmas 1988. That's me, Jacquie and Chirs in the top picture. The little baby is Aly. And that's my sister-in-law Debbie holding Aly in one of the pictures. Doesn't Jacquie look cute in her Christmas Cracker Crown? :-)

Tomorrow is going to be spent working on some scrolls. And getting up at least once an hour to do some housework. Laundry, the kitchen floor, etc. So much fun, I don't think I should keep all of it to myself. Anyone want to come have fun with me??? No? I didn't think so. lol Oh and I need to start wrapping presents. And gathering up the stuff that needs to get mailed. And find our stockings which have disappeared. They have to be around somewhere.

*yawn* I need to head to bed. I'm hoping for a nice lay in tomorrow......

"The song is ended, but the melody lingers on...." (Iriving Berlin)

2006-12-04T19:31:00.000-05:00

My heart is sad this evening. I can't believe the news is true. Sarnac/Bobby is gone. Taken from this world way too young. As cliche as it may sound the world is a little dimmer today. Sarnac was in a word, Laughter. Whenever I have thought of Sarnac over the years the first thing I would think of is laughter. Sarnac telling jokes and his laugh. I remember the first time I got a chance to meet and chat with him. It was at an Ice Dragon and a bunch of us sat around telling jokes and stories. I remember Sarnac saying he was going to Hell for his jokes. There is no way dear brother that you have made that trip today. Your spirit was too full of love and honor to make that journey.

My heart is breaking for those who he has left behind. A wife and daughter. Family and friends.

You will be missed.

Midnight, Baby!

2006-11-30T12:27:00.000-05:00

You Are Midnight

You are more than a little eccentric, and you're apt to keep very unusual habits.
Whether you're a nightowl, living in a commune, or taking a vow of silence - you like to experiment with your lifestyle.
Expressing your individuality is important to you, and you often lie awake in bed thinking about the world and your place in it.
You enjoy staying home, but that doesn't mean you're a hermit. You also appreciate quality time with family and close friends.

What Time Of Day Are You?

ME? An Angel?

2006-11-30T12:16:00.000-05:00

It's the Chrsitmas Season!

2006-11-28T07:33:00.000-05:00

My holiday season got started on Saturday with Frances when we went to see Santa at WestFarms mall. :-) The "santa" area is decorated with giant snowglobes and Happy Feet (the new penguin movie). Very cute. Unfortunately the big snowglobe wasn't "snowing" something is wrong with the mechanism and it wouldn't "snow". Which was too bad. Last year, Frances was completely mystified and in awe about the snow. This year, she played with the "snow" on the ground, throwing it in the air and giggling. :-) Of course by the time we went to see Santa, she was solemn and serious. No smile from that kid. She didn't even acknowledge Santa except to say thank you and good bye. lol Too funny. At least I didn't have to sit with Santa this year. :-)

Thanksgiving we went to New Jersey and spent the day with Joe, Jenness, her parents, Joe and Carol (also known as Pop and Nana) and her grandmother Lillian. (I hope I got her name right!) We had a FABULOUS time. It was quite the lovely day. Jenness and Mom made some DELICIOUS food. Oh, we ate wayyyyyyy too much. But it was soooo good. *sigh*

I'm on a mission. At Curves we had a three week pedometer challenge. I'm on team 5 - there are 10 people on a team and we're trying to get our best steps in. I personally challenged myself to get 220,000 steps - basically 10,000 steps averaged for 22 days, the length of the challenge. Well, I didn't stick to that and got some really low days. Bad me! Yesterday I figured out that if I did 23,280 steps on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, I would hit my goal of 220,000 steps. Yesterday I got in 25,103 steps!!!!! Go me! Today, my goal is to hit 30,360 steps. Ambitious. Crazy maybe. But I'm going to try for it. If I hit it it, my goal for tomorrow will only be 14,000 steps. That averages to about 2,000 steps an hour for 15 hours. Doable. Crazy but doable. :-)

Time? What Time? Who Has Any Extra Time?

2006-11-22T19:18:00.000-05:00

That little cutie that you see is my niece Jaemara and my dad last Sunday. 16 months old and cute as a button. Smart, too. I wish I had gotten a picture of her with her mommy and daddy. :-( But that will have to be on my next trip up to the Falls. :-)

Last weekend was our whirlwind weekend. Friday we met up with Kim and Howie, then headed over to Denise's house to spend the evening. It was nice to see Samantha again - she's 8 weeks younger than Jacquie and a sweetheart. Denise's son Ian has grown so much and has this fabulous head of hair! Just love it! And I got to get in some baby holding time with Colin, Denise's 5 month old. *sigh* Denise's little sister Wanda was there, too, with her husband and two of her kids. I didn't even recognize Wanda at first!

Saturday we spent the day with Chris' mum, dad, nephew Matt and brother Bernie. That was nice. :-) Had a lovely lamb dinner, too. :-)

Sunday it was busy! Out for breakfast and some last minute shopping. Back to the U.S. to go visit Erin, Jeff, Jaemara and Dad. Back to my Gramm'as house to see family there. Uncle Tim, Diane, Jim, Billie-Jo, their 5 kids and of course, Aunt Sue and Gramma. Aunt Sue spoiled us. :-)

Monday morning we woke to SNOW!!!! Just a dusting, but snow. I'm not ready for snow! But it does do one thing, helps get me in the mood for the holidays. Well, okay maybe not. Having a hard time bgetting in the mood. And Thanksgiving has snuck up on me. Thankfully we were invited to celebrate with Jenness and Joe! I'm looking forward to seeing everyone tomorrow. And eating yummy food! Cause if there is one thing you can count on with Jenness and her mom, is YUMMY food.

There is something wrong with my right eye. I can barely see out of it right now - I'm having an allergice reaction to soemthing, but don't know what. So I'm having a hard time typing. I better go and sit with a cold cloth on it. I'll write more later on the weekend. :-)

Oops!

2006-11-13T23:48:00.000-05:00

I can't believe that I forgot to post about our anniversary! Last Wednesday was a very special day - Chris and I celebrated 20 years of marriage. It's hard to believe that 20 years have passed. With each passing year I fall more in love with him.

Remember those old "Love is..." comics?

Love is... the feeling of a warm hand on my hip as I fall asleep at night.

Love is...being told how beautiful I look when I know that I look like Scagatha the Hag after a day of cleaning.

Love is...a warm caress that takes away my worries.

Love is...cuddling up on the couch to watch an evening of mindless tv and getting an unasked for foot massage.

Love is...a deep, sinking-into-another-world kiss that lasts forever.

Love is...........

The Fleurs Hit NYC!!!!

2006-11-12T19:04:00.000-05:00

What a weekend! And I have the sore feet to prove it! :-) Friday evening we gathered at Gina's condo for a late dinner and some laughter. it adds the best sauce to any meal. :-) Saturday morning we headed into New York City - first stop was The Cloisters. I could've stared at the handful of manuscripts and the playing cards for a couple of hours. *sigh* One of these days I'll get a chance to study some manuscripts again. The Cloisters is very interesting - and I look forward to visiting again, when the gardens are all in bloom. :-) (And of course, we did some shopping - I got three new books on manuscripts and illumination!)

Next stop - finding a park spot, then heading for the subway. Making our way through Times Square and going to lunch at St. Andrew's Restaurant and Pub. Bangers and Mash - yum!!!! More walking and heading off to the Pierpont Morgan Library. That was a disappointment. It's beautiful in there and very fresh feeling. However all the manuscripts had been put away on Tueday! Oh no! Luckily they were very gracious and refunded us our fee. :-)

More walking involved. Another subway ride and we were at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We definitely need to dedicate a day at the Met. We were just too tired to really explore much. But that didn't stop us from shopping. Oh no, never too tired to shop! :-)

Back to Gina's place for more giggling, a late supper, more giggles and then four tired fleurs climbed into bed and slept.

Did I mention that Gina made us lots of YUMMY food? Including fried plaintain for breakfast and this delicious fruit salad made with almond gelatin. (Did I get that right Gina? What's the name of it?) Thank you Gina for the wonderful food!!! :-)

It was hard to get moving today. We sat around all morning just chatting. *sigh* I miss them already.

Want to know what the first thing Jacquie asked me after asking if we had good time? Did you get a tattoo???? :-D Get one tattoo and the kid thinks every time we get together I'll get another tattoo. lol

Now I'm off to finish working on the photos I took this weekend....

Sunday is almost over .....

2006-11-05T21:34:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was Crown Tourney. It was cold, and I forgot my gloves and my cloak! Ugh.

But I had a good time and Chris had fun in the tournament. I gotta admit it was nice to get back into nice warm car for the ride home. My toes were cold!

Don't you love the pics of Dugan and Demi? I was a total spazz and took all of 6 pictures yesterday. I wanted to get a full length shot of Demi - she looked so HOT!!! Her coat was very figure flattering. :-) I wanted to get a nice picture of Lucan and Yana, too but never got that one either. Both of them looked great and Yana's dress was to die for! I hope Caoilfhionn and/or Dugan got a shot of the beadwork on Yana's dress.

Today was a nice quiet one hanging out with Demi and Dugan. :-) I miss them already. And we have some evil plans in place muwhahaha!

Well, time to go get Jacquie from work. Oh joy.

2006-11-03T08:13:00.002-05:00

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
The Inland North
The West
Philadelphia
The South
The Northeast
Boston
North Central
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

2006-11-03T08:13:00.001-05:00

2006-11-03T08:13:00.000-05:00

Ooops

Ahhhh, the Joys of Shopping!

2006-11-03T07:57:00.000-05:00

Guess where I was yesterday morning? Shopping at Christmas Tree Shops with Dresden! I had such an enjoyable day with her. :-) The picture shows where we were, however the parking lot was not empty but very FULL! The place was packed. Lots of Christmas stuff being brought out. :-) Gotta love that. We also had lunch at Applebees, then off to A.C. Moore for a little more shopping. :-) All in all, a very nice day. We have to do it again sometime!

So, I am so far behind on what I need to do for this weekend! LOL! I need to make up a to-do list. So I will be crazy busy late this afternoon, into the evening. I'm looking forward to Crown tomorrow, just wish I had made my new garb for it. :-( Oh well. I especially wanted to get the hat made so that I'd be warm. My own fault. Should've started it two weeks ago. Enough whingeing.

Sending Michel lots of positive thoughts for her surgery today!!!!!! :-)

Check out this video....

2006-11-01T14:23:00.000-05:00

I forgot to mention (yes, I'm procrastinating and not cleaning) the new video that I saw last night. My friend Kim's little brother is in the band Sanity and they have a brand new video out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZrEowwJENo

It's for the movie Penny Dreadful. I love the song. :-) And it's fabulous to see Pete achieving his dream. I'm very happy for him! And when he's famous I can say, that I've known him since he was 10 years old. Not to mention the unflattering pics I have of him! lol Not that I would ever share them with the world. I'm too nice for that. :-D

*sigh* back to cleaning. Yeah, that's what I'm doing. Cleaning. I wish my phone would ring with someone wanting to talk.....

Freaky or What?

2006-11-01T13:54:00.000-05:00

So, I have this scroll assignment that is due on Saturday. I've been working on it to get it finished. Last night I finished all of it but the last of the outlining. Today I finish it up, sign the back, go to add the scroll number and it's LY06-66. A little freaky that I finished scroll 6-66 on Halloween. Bizarre or what?

I tried posting here the other days and it wouldn't work. :-( Hopefully this one will work.

*sigh* I'm having a hard time getting things done for this weekend. I wanted to make new garb and do the Queen's Favors. Instead i've been playing Sims 2. :-P Or watching cheesy movies on LMN. Or just puttering around. So after this blog, I'll be cleaning up my scribal stuff and clean the office. And get the sewing stuff out. Then take J to work, go to Curves, go to the grocery store, come home make dinner, start sewing favors. *crack that whip* Oh and don't forget to finish up the laundry. *sigh* Where is my ticket out of here????

Oh that's right - I do have a way out. Tomorrow Dresden and I are going to Christmas Tree Shops and doing lunch, too!!! A nice way to spend the day. :-) Once home again, I can be slave girl. Friday I might be going to Danbury for the morning to take Aly to the bank and do some shopping. Then come home and CLEAN. Because wife #2 and husband #4 will be coming to spend the weekend. :-D

Okay I need to get some of that d#&% cleaning done. Blah, blah, blah......

Tophole

2006-10-26T07:52:00.000-04:00

Ever hear that word before? Tophole? I was looking for another word for terrific and that is British slang for terrific. So folks, we've got a word for today. How many times can you use it???

I've spent the last few days mostly puttering around. Tuesday Aly spent the day here - she did her laundry, we shopped for a winter coat (what is up with stores - it's late October for goodness sake, get out the winter coats!!!), and she also got new sneakers and winter boots. And Halloween candy. :-D But other than shopping all day with Aly, I've been puttering lately. That's got to change today. I have three scroll assignments. At least I hope it's only three. :-P And I'm babysitting the Spence, Max and Maddy this evening. So, got to get laundry done and work on scrolls today. No more puttering. Oh and I need to drag out the sewing machine and sew favors for the Queen. But that I'll probably do on Monday. Cause this weekend we're going to visit Jenness and Joe. :-D I can't wait.

*yawn* Not enough sleep. Gotta get breakfast, start a load of laundry, go to Curves and start my day of scroll work. What fun!

The Weekend is Almost Over :-(

2006-10-22T17:33:00.000-04:00

Aren't they cute? That's just some of our little "friends" decorating the yard. I'd like to have a lot more, but the big problem is no place to store it the rest of the year. :-( Maybe one day!

Spent the day scrapbooking with Paula, Julia, Annabelle and Stephanie from Curves. It was quite a nice day! I got 14 pages done from our trip to D.C. at Easter. Only 6 pages left to go. Maybe next weekend at the next scrapbooking day that I'm going to. :-D I'm so lucky!!!

But this week, I have to get started working on scrolls. And go to the local libraries and see what I can find for a possible castle project. Wish I could find some proof that sprang was done in Ireland. Sprang looks like an interesting fiber project. I could spin the wool and use that to make something - hats maybe? Bags? Socks? But I need to prove that it was used in Ireland first.

On other news, Jenness bought our tickets to go to Florida in February! I'm so excited! I vote that our drink for the weekend be OJ and Parrot Bay. :-D Maybe I'll start a coutdown till Florida. 102 days till we're in Florida!!!

Better get back to cleaning this messy office - need to have space to do scrolls this week!

Feeling More Like Me

2006-10-18T12:21:00.000-04:00

Whoo-hoo! I'm feeling better! Not 100% yet, but better. Already today I've been to Curves, the post office, the bank and BJs. After I finish writing this, I'm going to bake butternut squash.

BJs has a great deal on them - $1.29 each. I have six. :-) While they're baking, I'm going to work on scrapbooking stuff and doing laundry. At some point this afternooon I also want to pop over to Michael's to pick up a few more things. It's nice having a craft store close by.

I have a goal to hit 10,000 steps today. 5,600 steps already done. :-)

Hope everyone is having a good day!

Where, Oh, Where Did My Energy Go?

2006-10-17T19:27:00.000-04:00

*YAWN* I am so tired. I need a nap. Only I can't nap cause I have to go get Jacquie from work... hey Chris just offered to pick her up. I love that man. :-)

This is a picture of Katie taken in very early November, 2003. I was visiting Oregon and we went to Cannon Beach for the day. Katie was just too adorable in her wellies and raincoat, jumping in puddles! This is one of my favorite pictures from that day. :-)

I finally got around to cutting up my perg paper. Now I can start working on some new scrolls. Although I think the rest of this week will be spent working on scrapbooking stuff. Got to get ready for a fun day of scrapping on Saturday! :-) Plus I want to pack just what I'll need to work on my album of our trip to Maryland and D.C. at Easter. And on the 29th, I ahve another full day of scrapbooking. I'm a lucky girl!!!

I need to get a good night's sleep so that I can get some cleaning done tomorrow. Oh joy! I think I'm going to get a drink, get into my jammies and crawl into bed.....

2006-10-16T16:39:00.000-04:00

I'm feeling a little bit better today. Love those meds! I was at the grocery store with Jacquie and I forgot to buy some lemon. I was going to make some hot water with honey and lemon in it to drink. I'm still really tired. *yawn*

I am nearly done with my Christmas shopping. Well, with the gifts for extended family anyway. Why so early? I start shopping after Christmas and if I find that perfect little gift, I'll pick it up. I am such a bargain huntress. :-) This year, we're taking the gifts for family in the Western New York and Canada areas when we go to visit in November. One of my big reasons for getting that shopping done. Now I just need to figure out what to get my own family. Sometimes they can be the harder ones to buy for!

I forgot what else I was going to write about. I am so tired. yet every time I lay down, I can't fall asleep. What is up with that? And I need a new book to read. I'm reading the Artemis Fowl books right now, but I need something new soon. Maybe I need to do a little eBay shopping for some romance books. :-)

One of My Wishes Has Come True

2006-10-15T01:33:00.000-04:00

Now if only that wish had included £295 + shipping from the U.K.! If I was to ask you, what would be the one manuscript that I would want to see a facsimile made of, would you know the answer? *deep sigh* I discovered today that there has been a limited number of Luttrell Psalter facsimiles made!!! And all it costs is £295! One of my biggest wishes is that they would make a facsimile of it. And they finally did it! Several years ago I was lucky enough to see a facsimile of the Book of Kells and that was very impressive. But to see, touch and possibly even own a facsimile of the Luttrell Psalter? Ohmigawd. I can't imagine it.

I did discover this neat little contest, though.
http://www.bl.uk/newsletters/whatsonnewsletter.html

In the blue column, you will see a competition to win one of the facsmiles. It ends on December 4, 2006. I looked for rules and regs, but couldn't find any, so hopefully U.S. citizens are allowed to play. :-D Can you imagine if I won? Holey Moley Batman, I'd be on Cloud Nine!!!!

Well, I better go to bed. I've got nasty sinus pressure and am just waiting for the drugs to kick in. Ahhh, the joys of a cold!

I'm Sick

2006-10-14T11:46:00.000-04:00

This has been a week of the blahs. No motivation to do anything. I did drag myself off to babysit Frances on Monday and Wednesday evenings. And I had fun. :-) But of course that sweet little darling has given me her cold. Sore throat, runny nose, mild fever, headachey and little achy. And what do we not have in the house? No Dayquil and no Nyquil. Ugh. Guess I'll be running out to get some later today. Need the energy to get a shower and get my clothes from the laundry room. What a perfectly blah way to end the week. Oh and did I mention that I'm babysitting Frances again this evening? Gotta have meds before then. Need my energy to keep up with her. :-)

I did finish making 17 Queens Favors this week and picked up more supplies to make some more. And did a Silver Crescent scroll. And spent HOURS looking up stuff for the Castle project that Michel assigned us. I can find lots of info on castles, just not enough on what would be found in the castles. Jenness suggested that I go to school with Jacquie and see what they have - our public library is being renovated and they have crap for books anyways. I did discover something that I would like to learn how to do - Sprang. It's a form of weaving/braiding. Now if only I could prove it was used in Ireland or England! So, the plan is to go with Jacquie to her college library this week and see what they have in their stacks.

Okay, I'm going back to bed for a while. Maybe I can get one of the girls to make me some soup in a little while. Yeah right. That's real funny. Ha ha ha......

Scarecrows Gone Wild!!!!

2006-10-06T16:45:00.000-04:00

I came home the other day to see that my scarecrow was just a wee bit excited. ;-) My own fault for leaving a summer decoration hanging up and adding in an Autumn one. And we all know how randy those gnomes are ... they multiply faster than rabbits!

I'm definitely feeling a little silly. I'm lonely. And bored. And I don't want to clean. :-P I did drag out some of the Halloween decorations. I need Chris' help with the lights. We also need to put away those randy gnomes for till Springtime.

This evening I'm going to make Queen's favors and get Jacquie to help. She did great helping Jana make them at War, so she has experience. :-) And maybe clean up the office/craft room so that I can start on a scroll.

I think I will go surf the web and see what information is out there about Maynooth Castle, Trim Castle, Blarney Castle. And some other Irish castles......skip the light fandango...turn cartwheels cross the floor...

Scan Slides? What Was I Thinking?

2006-10-06T08:23:00.000-04:00

I started scanning the slides yesterday. Oh good gravy! What was I thinking? Sure I could get them scanned and made into slideshows and burn them on to DVD for the weekend of November 17th. NOT! Approximately 50 wheels, holding up to 100 slides each. Plus at least 15 trays holding up to 36 slides. Then there are all the little boxes of slides. Easily have 6,000 slides. Not all will be scanned - blurry ones, slides where the pics are nearly identical, etc. Yesterday it took me about 6 hours throughout the day to scan and edit 105 slides. Things will go a lot faster for me now that I've worked out the kinks. This morning I scanned 27 slides while reading my emails and checking my daily stops on the web. So about 30-ish minutes. Still have to edit them, though.

The picture above is my mom's parents on the left, my mom in pink and my dad. Taken sometime in late 1967 - that little belly bump you can see on my mom is me! :-D

It's been cool seeing pictures of family that I haven't seen in awhile. Then of course there are all of the people who I have no f-ing clue who they are! lol I've decided that I am going to get as much done as I can - even if its just scanning 30 slides a day. Whatever is done by November will be made into a slideshow. I'll just have to keep plugging away at this...one day at a time...

*sigh* I need to get out more often. Not today though. Today is clean the house and run to Walmart for black thread and black and white material. Is it really Friday? This week has been a blur.

I'm Tired, Are you Tired?

2006-10-04T22:33:00.000-04:00

I don't know what's up, but man am I tired today. Just too many late nights, I guess. :-P

Here's a nice picture of Eilis, me, Varus and Dugan at Coronation Feast. We had a great time! Gotta love that Parrot Bay and OJ! lol

After all that build up for Coronation, I've been slow to get going on stuff this week. I did get a lot done today though. Laundry - done. Summer clothes packed up - done. Get caught up on LadyClodagh emails - done. Sort through Christmas presents - done. Re-box Papa's slides - done. Watch the new episode of lost. Done. Forget to watch Project Runway - awwww man! I missed it! And it was the re-cap show. I'll have to look and see when it will be on again. Probably one day this weekend.

Projects that need to get done the soonest - a scroll and making Queen's favors. I'm hoping that Jana will be home next Wednesday evening. This way hubby can do fight practice and I can visit with Jana. :-D Oh and I can deliver the scroll and the favors.

Next on the list of things to do - finish gathering up the Christmas gifts. I shop all year long, picking up gifts whenever I find the perfect thing and it's on sale or clearance. :-) I am such a bargain hunter. The reason for sorting everything out was to put the gifts into boxes for each family group (my in-laws, friends, family in Wisconsin, etc.) and then I could see who I have left to buy/make/bake for. We're going to western NY/Canada in mid November, so everything going there has to be done before we head up.

Now that I've gotten the slides put into smaller boxes (instead on one GIANT box), I can bring one box at a time into the office and start scanning the slides. My scanner can do slides - and does a pretty good job. Then, I'll create DVD slideshows of the pictures. That's going to be part of my Christmas gift to family if I can get it done. I've been meaning to do it for a few years now. I also have 8mm films to get onto videotape. I wish I had a digital camcorder, or knew someone with one so that I could tape the 8mm films then save them on to the computer and create DVDs. I really need to get the 8mm stuff onto video or DVD pretty soon. The tape is getting so brittle. I wish I had the money to pay to get it done. Last time I looked into it, it was going to cost me at least $125 to do it. So, I will do it myself. Videotaping the films, then making video tape copies.

I also want to get going on my sampler project. And Michel has given us a new project. Due at Spring Coronation. It seems pretty interesting. :-) Of course, I might be whining about it in the months to come! lol

What else I can I talk about? I have 15 minutes to waste till I have to go pick up Jacq from work.

Oh, I know what I forgot that I have to start doing - yard work and decorating for Halloween. That's one of our projects for this weekend. :-) Rake the leaves, burn branches and decorate the outside for Halloween. Work and fun at the same time.

Okay, I can't think what else to write. Guess I'll go surf the web for the next 13 minutes....

Whewww! Whatta weekend!

2006-10-01T15:14:00.000-04:00

What a fabulous time we had this weekend! I am so exhausted, all I want to do is curl up and sleep, but everytime I lay down, can't sleep. lol Saturday was the Coronation of Lucan and Yana. Very nice! And they looked GORGEOUS! I wish I had a picture of them to share. I can't wait to see the pics that Dugan and Caoilfhionn and DeVos and, well all the other photo nuts out there took throughout the day. :-) I'm so mad at myself though. I didn't get a picture of Demi or Caoilfhionn or Michel in their Rus-type garb. :-(

We did our presentations of our unicorn projects to their Majesties while they were sitting in State. I wish I had gotten pictures of each of them. Just amazing. Li did a gorgeous picture of the unicorn from her tapestry, Sight. Eilis did presented a beautiful box that had a specially made insert to hold a bottle of orange essence (? I think that was what it was, Eilis will let us know I hope!) and she painted the orange tree from her tapestry, Smell, on the inside cover of the box. Demi created a gold bowl (gorgeous!) and candies from her tapestry, Taste. I did the banner that you see in the picture above from the tapestry, Touch. Fygen did this fantastic rug thingy (forgive me, my words are gone and I can't think what it's called) and I think she took the pattern off of something from the tapestry, Sound. We did a research paper each. Mine was fairly simple and it included step by step what I did for the project. We apprentices ROCK!!!

So many people in the Haus did some from of Russian/Scythian/Kievan, etc. and we looked great!!! I wish we had had a chance to do a group shot. Maybe at Crown we can do it. Wouldn't that be nice, Jana? :-) And the stage looked so cool all draped with furs and the chaises that Turi made up there for Lucan and Jana to sit on. :-) I hope someone got a good picture of the set-up because it was so I can't think of the right word to use.

Oh and Eilis discovered Parrot Bay Coconut Rum and orange juice. OHMIGAWD! It was FAB-U-LOUS!!!!! What a nice pleasant buzz off that. We so have to have some of that the next time we get together. :-)

I am so exhausted. But it's done and the mad rush to get everything done, cleaned, created, etc. is over. Now I can get caught up on other things, like reading my emails and see how Roak and Jocea's coronation last weekend went. Hopefully there are some pictures out there somewhere to look at. And maybe finish up the cleaning around here. And do some re-organizing. I need to make up that list of Autumn projects.

I have a few things to say about this weekend: "Where's my pepperoni?" "Where's my cream filling?" "Wow, you look fabulous!" "Please sir, can I have another Parrot Bay and orange juice?" "Love Monkey" "That's not a chicken? How cool is that!"

I'm fading fast, time to try the nap thing again......

Yikes! Only 3 days left...

2006-09-27T08:18:00.000-04:00

Today, tomorrow and Friday. Holy Toldeo, Batman! So, what's on my list left to do?
~Finish a scroll.
~Sew Chris' jacket, put fur on it (I've never sewn fur before! well it's fake fur).
~Make my new pants.
~Take a couple more pics of my project. Print off my report.
~Pick up perogies for Avelina.
~ Clean my house.
~ Do laundry.
~ Go grocery shopping
~ Make some hats.
~ Get house ready for guests.
~ Babysit Spencer this morning.
~ Get Aly from school on Friday, unless we get her alternate way home. :-)
~ Decorate outside for Autumn

I hope that's all that's left on the list. Some of it's short stuff to do, other stuff, well, it's going to take HOURS. Like that scroll I'm working on. Ugh, shading. Lots of shading, lifting of paint, white work, etc. But's looking good! Aw man, I just remembered one more thing. Gotta get the other two scrolls set up for their other halves.

A girl needs some fun in her life! Yesterday was talk on the phone for the evening. Lots of calls. Felt like I was at Jenn's house. lol Only person left on my list to talk to is Gina. :-) I ran out of power in my cell phone last night. lol

Well, I better get dressed. Spencer and I have a morning date to spend it together. So I need to look purdy. :-) It will nice to have a little one-on-one time with him (he's a twin, he has a brother Max who will be at pre-school).

The picture above was taken last Fall at the local reservoir. Doesn't it make you want to go for an Autumn stroll? Maybe next week I can go for a walk with the camera and get some new pics. I love taking landscape photos.....

Blah, Blah, Blah

2006-09-25T20:23:00.000-04:00

That's the kind of day I've had. Blah. Just laid around most of it. Never even brushed my hair. lol One thing was accomplished, the second of two scroll halves is completed (I bet Gina is happy to hear that!). Okay I still need to put a little bit of gold on it - I missed three little itty bitty spots. The gesso is setting up, so I can do that in a minute. One more scroll to finish. Chris' jacket. Do a big clean of the house. More laundry. Grocery shopping. Not too much left to do before Friday. I can't wait to see everyone.

Well, I was trying to find a picture to post today. Nothing was right. Then I came across this picture from Fall of 1987. I was 19 years old. Married for almost one year. Had a baby. Talk about some major life changes. The day of this picture was a fun day. It was a nice small event. Lots of silliness. Lots of fun. :-)

Well, I need to go put some gold down on that scroll. Look through my books to pick out what I'm going to use for the next scroll. Maybe even get some cuddle time with my husband while we watch a new show called Hero. :-)

Whewwww, One Project Done....

2006-09-22T22:08:00.000-04:00

I don't know why, but I've got Ireland on my mind. This picture was taken in October 2002, just as we were leaving the grounds of Blarney Castle. We saw this beautiful rainbow, even saw the house it landed on. I wanted to go knock on their door to ask about the pot of gold, but we had to get going. :-)

So, Michel gave us the unicorn project. I did the horn as a joke. Today I finished creating a canvas banner/tapestry of part of my tapestry, Touch. I would've posted a picture of it, but Jana is not allowed to see it yet. :-P Now I've got to write up a paper on it. Not looking forward to that.

Today has been a hectic one. I didn't sleep well - something is off. Not sure what. NBot enough dreams, maybe? Anyhow, took Jacquie to Target for a job interview (she got the job!!! GO JACQ!!!!!). While she was there I went shopping at TJ Maxx, always on the lookout for bargains. :-) Then it was get gas, go get Jacquie, pop home to get a few things, then head to Danbury to get Aly from school. Traffic was JUST LOVELY. :full sarcasm: Got home in time to do a few things before throwing together a roast beef dinner. Yes, you read that, I made a real dinner. I hate cooking. But I do make a good roast beef dinner. :-D Since dinner, I've done three loads of laundry finished the unicorn project and watched the first episode of Ghost Whisperer. Yay! Andrea got to go into the light. I'm such a sap. Did more cleaning. How did I ever get such an exciting life? At least tomorrow I get to play in the leaves with Frances. :-)

Okay, off to write the paper for Michel......and daydream about Ireland.......

A Horny Project

2006-09-20T09:32:00.000-04:00

Our wonderful Laurel, Mistress Michel, gave us apprentices a project. She gave each of us a different "sense" from the Lady and the Unicorn series of tapestries. Demi's was Taste - perfect for her since she cooks. Caoilfhionn's was Sound - she sings. Mine was Touch. Have you ever looked closely at the tapestry of Touch? It's got a little S-n-M action happening. lol Michel wanted up to recreate an element from the tapestry. Egads! Should I make a stuffed monkey wearing chains? Should I do a puppet that when you pull the tab, the lady's hand slides up and down the horn? Should I be safe and just paint a portion of the tapestry on canvas? I thought, why not a unicorn horn "cozy"? But no, that would not be a nice gift to give the new King and Queen at Coronation. Michel told me not to do anything like that. I countered with, what if Lucan and Jana win? :-D Jana had a sewing fest on Saturday and told me to bring Big Fun. So, now I had to do the unicorn horn "cozy"! I did up a research paper which is what Jana and Michel are reading in the picture. I think they just got to the part of where to place the horn. lol And you can see the finished piece in the other picture. Also known as Big Fun. lol (No matter what order I try to put the pictures in to load, the horn picture kept coming in first. Go figure.)

Yeah, I'm a bad apprentice. But bad in a good way. Keep your fingers crossed for me that I get my real project done in time for Coronation. :-)

Yesterday, I got nearly everything done off my list. One of the things I couldn't do because I hadn't done something the day before. Hoping to get all caught up on that project today. However I have gotten one scroll penciled in. But I can't find my kneadable eraser (to lift off the pencil lines so that they're only a faint line). So, I had to add one more errand for today.

Once Coronation is done or if I'm lucky and get everything done before Coronation, I really need to clean my office and get things organized. Maybe even do a little downsizing.

I better go get some breakfast before it's lunch time. Hope everyone is having a great day!

2006-09-19T17:47:00.000-04:00

A better close up shot. Finally got it to post. Whoo-hoo! I promise to wear a little make-up so that you can see my eyes when I wear this garb. lol

Wow, three posts in one day. I went to Target ans splurged on myself. Bought two cds - Aaron Neville's brand new cd bring it on home ....the soul classics. I love his voice. And I bought Fergie - As the Duchess. (She's the girl from Black-Eyed Peas.) I haven't listened to that one yet.

So, I did all the running around I said I would. Now I've got to spend the evening cleaning up my craft area so that I can start those scrolls. Ugh, back to work I go......

2006-09-19T14:05:00.000-04:00

Yay, the picture loaded! Jacquie says I was looking too serious. I have a wicked headache. :-P Now if only I could get the close-up to upload...

So, we go to JoAnn's today to pick-up some of those foamie visors (great idea Jana on making the headpiece using the visor!). Anyhow, the visors are only $0.25 each. And all of the Blue Moon bead stuff is 40% off. So if anyone needs some more beads, etc for working on their garb, it's on sale now.

I've not gotten much done today. This headache is making it hard to do anything. Taking Jacquie to work soon, then heading over to where the new Michael's is going to be to see if they have an opening date, or even to see if they're hiring (in case a certain daughter wants to apply there for a job). Then it's over to Target to get the new Aaron Neville CD. Drive to CVS to get my meds, then go to Curves. Keeping my fingers crossed that my headache goes away soon.....

It's Done, I Think.....

2006-09-19T10:42:00.000-04:00

Really, I think it's done. Okay, I haven't made the purple pants to go underneath. But I have two options for pants for the day of Coronation if I don't get the purple ones done. I'm very happy with the headpiece. Although part of me is thinking that it needs more decoration. However, I do have three scrolls to do, Chris' garb to sew (which he hasn't even cut out yet!) plus a special project and all the normal day-to-day things to do by the 29th.

Jenness came and spent the weekend with me! And brought her mama's red convertible! Of course it was pouring rain on Friday while she drove down and when we went shopping. Jenness has now been to a Christmas Tree Shop! That place is so addictive. and we discovered what Ms. Doctor Pepper has been up to since Pennsic. And it's not a pretty site. Just wait till Heather sees what the doctor has been up to!

Saturday morning dawned bright and sunny! yay! We can drive to Rhode Island with the top down. :-) We picked up Dani and headed up to Jana's house. Of course we then went on a trip to a brand new JoAnn's for some material shopping. The evening was spent with the ladies working on garb while I puttered around with the inkle loom. :-)

I had such a great time seeing everyone, and Heather missed it all. Sucks to be her. She could've came and rode in a convertible and had a blast! (Just kidding Heather!) Hopefully you can come up next time!

Ugh. I need to get going on today's list of things. Especially getting the craft desk cleared off so that I can start my scrolls. :-)

P.S. The pics won't load for some reason. I'll try posting them later.

It's a Sewing Machine Kinda Day

2006-09-15T08:17:00.000-04:00

I decided to look through an album for a picture to post today and came across this gem. I have thousands of slides that belong to my grandparents and I've been meaning to scan them for a couple of years now. Well, this is one of them. On Friday nights, my grandfather would babysit us while the ladies went to Bingo. A lot of the time he was outside working in the garage. So we got away with a lot of stuff. But even when he was in the house we got away with stuff.

:-D Like standing on the furniture! And one of our favvorite treats to get was candy cigarettes. Do you remember getting those? Can you imagine if that came out as a candy nowadays? Or a picture like the one on the right of a bunch of kids pretending to be smoking, even having an ashtray for our butts? lol (Oh, that's me in the lovely 70's yellow dress.)

So, today is going to be a busy one! My friend Jenness is coming!!! Yay! So I've got to clean. But I have sewing to do today, too. I found some of the trim from my green dress and some black trim to go around the neckline, so I'm going to sew that on today. Plus work on some other stuff. And take Jacquie to go apply for jobs. And go to Curves. And go grocery shopping. And so on and so one. Nothing quite like being busy. In fact, I have to go, the washing machine is done. :-P

Kinda Done

2006-09-14T17:15:00.000-04:00

You are looking at my sorta finished garb for Coronation. The green dress I've had for ages (it's a little snug, but with wearing the coat, it looks okay). It was trim on the wrists and around the bottom, with garnets and pearls sewn on as accents. I think it works well with the purple coat. I need to make some purple pants to wear underneath. I've ordered a dark green veil from eBay, which should work well. However I don't have a headpiece to wear it with and not sure how to make one. Ooh and the necklace I can't wait to show off! We were at an antique shop the other weekend and we found this necklace. It's gold with purple glass "jewels" hanging from the diddly bobbers and the big medallion has purple glass in it with a romanish archer and cupid etched into it. It's beautiful!

So, other than making pants and making some sort of headpiece, I'm set. But I do plan on making some scythian garb, here are some of the pics I've been inspired by:
http://new.photos.yahoo.com/hausvdk/album/
576460762308075624/photo/294928803012348696/1

http://new.photos.yahoo.com/hausvdk/album/
576460762308075624/photo/294928803012338929/5

http://www.4hoplites.com/Scythian%20Photos.htm

http://www.4hoplites.com/Scythians.htm

Plus some books at home. So, I've got some thinking to do and planning on how to do this next set of garb. It's really appealing to me. Not sure why. Maybe it pulls at my Khazarian heartstrings (my previous personna was Khazarian). And I even want to embroider on the garb! Me, embroider. I can't believe it.

But before I can work on that, I have a couple of projects to do, plus work on some scrolls. One project I have to have done for this weekend. Michel is probably going to shake her head at me. lol

Well, I've got to go do some sewing and cleaning. Always with the cleaning. What's up with that? Of course, since a certain person is coming to my house tomorrow to visit, my husband has his knickers in a twist that everything be done! :-)

It's Purple

2006-09-12T11:29:00.000-04:00

Yup, it's purple. It's the coat that I made to wear at Coronation. Not sure if I'm happy with the trim on it. I'm thinking of taking it off and doing a small trim.

Something about it makes me think of a sheperd's costume in a play. lol It's supposed to look somewhat like the green coat in the other picture. I still need to make a dress to go under it. Hoping to get that done this week and make the trim for that. That dress is a yellowy-beige color. It will look fab with the purple coat. It's just figuring out the trim. I also want to make a black coat and trim it with fur - I found some fake bear fur that would look great. My big dilemma is what to do for a hat. I'm thinking of making the "smurf" hat that the Scythian's wore instead of the veil and big headdress similiar to what is in the pic above. I really want to make the black coat, make a matching hat and do all the embroidery on it. But there are just wayyyyyyyyy too many projects to do before Coronation to do that. So, instead I'll do that for another event. Maybe Crown?

Today will be a busy day - I've got a ton of things to do around the house. Dishes, laundry, cut the grass, trim the bushes, maybe start burning some of the branches, plus some other cleaning. Oh what fun. :-P

Today I've been listening to a mix of 70's/early 80s stuff, plus some Motown. Right now it's The Tracks of My Tears. I love Smokey Robinson's voice. *sigh* The other week I caught a little bit of Celebrity Duets on Fox and was TOTALLY BLOWN AWAY when Smokey Robinson and Lucy Lawless sang together. You can see it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waokVpEvWKk

Watch it through to the end to hear the judges comments. This is a show that I could get hooked on watching. Of course, that would mean that I would have to remember that it's on and watch it. lol

Time for lunch and *gasp* cleaning......

Isn't She Cute?

2006-09-08T18:40:00.000-04:00

Okay, so last week I posted a picture of Aly as a baby, so today it's a picture of Jacquie at 6 1/2 months old. Not that you can see all of her, but Jacquie is actually standing on her own. She crawled to the coffee table, and pulled herself to standing. At 6 1/2 months old. That should've been our first clue that she was too precocious! She was scooting along the furniture by 7 months and took her first steps at 8 1/2 months old. Running at 9 months, climbing anything and everything shortly after that. At 13 months, she climbed out of the crib. Over the tall end. Can you imagine how that child ran me ragged? :-) Oh and did I mention that by the time Jacquie was 9 months old I was pregnant with Aly? All I can say is thank goodness I was young! :-) But, man, was she a funny kid! She'd make the funny faces, did all kinds of kid tricks, plus made up her own words for things. Fockel = pacifier Dadoo = hot dog Beeboo = Big Bird My poor brother wasn't called Uncle Mark, no, my daughter called him, Boy. As in, "Boy, get me a drink." "Boy, help me get that cookie." The little boss. Ahh the memories. :-)

So this week has been quiet. Been feeling a bit blah. Not getting enough stuff done. But I am getting stuff done. Surprisingly, more than I thought I'd be getting done.

Aly is settling into her first week of college. Her feet are in real bad shape, though. She's not happy about that. She plans on sticking around her dorm this weekend and not doing much walking and hoping that her feel start to heal up. Jacquie and I popped down for a quick visit this morning to take her 2 boxes of stuff, plus to run her to Target to get a pair of slippers (it hurts too much to even walk to the bathroom in her socks and putting on shoes hurts wayyyy too much). I hope she's feeling better!

This weekend we've got big plans. I need to start working on some scrolls, finish up making some inkle loom trim, as well as make my dress. While I do that stuff, Chris is going to be making my cupboard in my office. Build the cupboard doors, plus the shelves for over top of it. And on Sunday we're fixing a mini patio in the backyard. Like I said a busy weekend ahead of us. :-) Maybe even get a start on cleaning up the basement so that we can get some stuff done in there by the oil company.

I better go get some dinner before it's all gone......

2006-09-05T17:19:00.000-04:00

Aly sitting at her desk, getting ready to set up her computer. :-)

Whatta weekend!

2006-09-05T10:56:00.000-04:00

Whew! Whatta weekend we had! Busy is one word for it. Saturday was spent getting last minute things done. Sunday, we took Aly off to WestConn (Western Connecticut State University). That was interesting. Aly has a nice room, not too small at all. And her room-mate is very nice. We got her all unpacked and imagine this - she has room to bring more stuff! Right now the girls are in bunk beds, but I think they'll be separating the beds. The campus is small, which is good for Aly's feet (she has EBS, a condition that causes blistering on her feet from walking). We stayed and had dinner with Aly before heading home. People have asked me if I was going to cry. No, no tears. But that night I had a moment of mini panic, "Aly's not in her bed!" I'm just so excited for her that she gets to experience something that Chris nor I got to experience. The living on campus. And now we have two girls in college. I don't feel old enough to have two college aged kids!

I need to make some thai tea. Definitely need some tea. :-)

Monday we were little worker bees in the morning. We de-weeded the front slope. Then attacked the gardens next to the driveway. Chris dug a new garden in the backyard (the other side of the fence from the driveway) and he transplanted the daisies. I got rid of the weeds and all other plants from the driveway gardens (except for the one lilac bush). I need to get some estimates on having the driveway paved through that area. It's the only flat part of our entire driveway and we want to be able to put both cards up there in the winter time. And while Chris finished transplanting the daisies, I weeded the gardens across the back of the house. Go us!

By the time that was all done, I was feeling like crap. My throat is sore, sinus headache, tired. So we stayed home (had thought about going to L&J's for the afternoon). Then my wonderful husband ran out to Home Depot and bought a new back door and installed it. He is da bomb! He needs to re-hang the door trim tonight and it will be beautiful! I'll take a pic to show.

I worked on trim for my new purple coat. 2 sets of it are now done and I've started on the 3rd one. Still need to buy yellow linen for the dress and make the trim for that.

Did I mention that I still feel like crap today? Sore throat, headache is worse, having a hard time getting going today. I think I will go make some tea and work on some long over-due thank you cards. :-) And maybe sing about Cow Tippin' or putting lime in the coconut. la la la

Got Slogan?

2006-09-02T22:46:00.000-04:00

Snatched this off of Gina's blog.....

Get a slogan...
Go to this site & enter your name in the box & hit the Sloganize button. DON'T CHEAT, KEEP THE FIRST ONE THEY GIVE YOU. Add your slogan to the bottom of the list and repost.

www.thesurrealist.co.uk/slogan.cgi

Randall - "Cleans a Big, Big Randall For Less Than Half a Crown."
Julie - "Does You Does, or Does You Don't Take Julie?"
Corin - "EASY, BREEZY, BEAUTIFUL CORIN"
Debbie- "Debbie Just Feels Right."
Carson- "Get in My Carson"
Shanna- "A taste for Shanna"
Derek- "I'd rather have a bowl of Derek"
~Misty~It Takes A Tough Man To Make A Tender Misty......HAHA!
Stephen- Melts in your Stephen, not in your hand.
Billy - " Because Billy can't drive "
George - "Can't Do It In Real Life? Do It On George."
Gina - "Once You Pop, You Can't Stop Gina." *g* wouldn't you like to know *g*I also liked this one...
"You're Never Alone with a Gina." *g*
Laura - "It's Laura Time!" - gotta love that one! :-)

It's so true. Definitely time for Laura. :-)

Off to bed since we're getting up early to take Aly to school.

Last Night at Home

2006-09-02T20:49:00.000-04:00

Well, it's my little girl's last night at home before heading off to college. This picture is what she looked like 18 years ago. Wasn't she just too cute! :-)

We wanted to go out for dinner to celebrate, but everywhere was just too busy. So we ended up at McDonald's. Oh what fun. :-P

I spent the day working on garb. I finished up my Roman garb. It's okay. Not quite what I wanted but that's me. Then I got started on making some garb for this reign. I made a purple jacket and have since decided that I need yellow linen to make a dress to wear underneath it. So, now I have a reason to go shopping for fabric! :-) Until that time, I need to decide on a pattern for my inkle woven trim and the colors and get started on that. I need to make three lengths of it just for the coat, alone. And when I get the yellow linen, I'm going to make matching trim for that. And I have to make a hat yet. Not quite sure which hat style to make.

So tomorrow we're taking Aly off to college. That will be a day long event. Help her unpack, take some parent workshops and then do dinner with her before heading home. Unless she wants to get rid of us earlier. And of course I'll be taking pictures. :-) Monday we might be heading over to Lucan and Jana's for the afternoon. Depends on what the weather is like. If it's really good weather, we might just stay home and get some yard work done. We'll have to see. We might get going in the morning and get a bunch done, so we won't feel guilty going to L&J's for the afternoon.

Well, I better get back to working on the trim. Hubby is watching Porky's. "Has anyone seen Mike Hunt?" hee hee hee Something for me to listen to while I string my inkle loom. :-)

Uh-Oh

2006-08-31T09:00:00.000-04:00

Okay, so yesterday didn't go as planned. I did get the laundry done (all but the last load which is in the dryer). I did clean the dining room, kinda (still needs a little tweaking). I cleaned my bedroom (not on the list, but there were HERDS of dustbunnies rampaging around the room, it HAD to be dealt with!). I also went shopping with Jacquie. We went to Marshalls (so mystery solved, I went to TJ Maxx the other day). They didn't have the jacket that I showed yesterday, day before? But they did have some different ones. This gorgeous one in black with red decorations that did up with just one button. I was actually going to buy that one, but it just didnt lay right over my big butt. I took pics with my camera phone but don't know how to get them off the phone. Maybe Chris can show me tonight. And did you know that there are NO HANGERS to be had at our Wal-Mart? Someone or someones must have been robbed and needed to buy every last one at the Wal-Mart. Ugh. I still have that garb waiting to be hung up. *sigh* Guess it will go back in the garb boxes until hangers can be found. :-P

Oh back to my cleaning, I cleaned the hallway and started on the living room. So, now sewing even attempted yesterday. But cleaning was accomplished. And some shopping. Today the plan was to start on the sewing. But alas, yet again we are foiled. Errands to run this morning, then I'm off to babysit little Miss Frances because she's not feeling well. So it's take Jacquie to work, go to CVS, go get boxes for Aly from Uhaul, come home, throw the roast in the slow cooker, then head out to see Frances.

Today's picture is from 1993 - Aly, our niece Sam, and Jacquie taken at Canada's Wonderland. I love this picture - they were having such a good time that day! Sometimes I miss those days when the girls were young and we could go do the kids stuff. Guess I'll just have to spoil my nieces and nephews until grandkids come along. :-) (Which hopefully won't be for a few years yet!)

I'm a Baaaaaad girl!

2006-08-30T09:24:00.000-04:00

I didn't get any cleaning done yesterday. But look at my cool new jacket! :-D

Okay, so today I have to do all of the following:
1. Go to CVS and pick up my prescription
2. Go to Curves and work-out
3. Go home and start laundry
4. Clean up the dining room
5. Change over the laundry
6. Dig through material boxes looking for some material
7. Back up to the dining room, sew Aly's nightgown
8. Start cutting out fabric for my hat.
9. Do more laundry.
10. Make said hat.
11. Make a pattern for one of the coats to be made.
12. More laundry
13. Cut out coat pattern, start sewing.
14. More laundry.
15. More sewing.
16. More laundry
17. Lucky me, I get to start dinner. :-P

I might have to skip out and do a little window shopping or I might go batty. Okay, I'm already batty, shopping as a preventive measure against going stir crazy. Yeah, that's it.

Oh and yesterday evening I was going over our weekends from now till December. Oh boy. Talk about busy!
Sept 1-4 - Yard work, take our baby away to college (trying not to be sad), more yard work
Sept 9-10 Yard work, plus cleaning the basement
Sept 16-17 Golden Tygre Tavern, plus finish cleaning the basement
Sept 23-24 Yard work
Sept 30 Coronation!
Oct 7-8 Kingdom Crusades (hopefully!)
Oct 14-15 Yard work - prepping the gardens for the winter, etc.
Oct 21-22 Scrapbooking workshop, maybe I can get Chris to work on my office?
Oct 28-29
Nov 4 Crown Tourney
Nov 8 romantic dinner to celebrate 20 years of marriage
Nov 10-13 Travel to Canada, visit family and friends, maybe celebrate our 20th anniv. at a nice hotel one night?
Nov 18-19
Nov 23-26 Thanksgiving weekend - staying home because Aly will be home from college, so no trip to Canada this year

My goal is to do a lot of yard work during the week so that Chris can work on other projects on the weekend - like finishing up my office. :-)

Okay enough rambling from me. I need to start my day. Get dressed and off to CVS. What fun!

P.S. In case you didn't know this, I like to make lists. If I didn't make lists, well, I don't think anything would get done, cause I'm always forgetting to do something! lol

Cleaning-Shmeaning, Blech

2006-08-29T08:32:00.000-04:00

This picture was taken at Penssic last year for Rozakii Dinner Night. A bunch of friends and Rozakii. It's good to have one time at War where family and friends try to get together. Everything is so chaotic and crazy that finding that time can be hard. We didn't get a picture this year because it was hammering down with rain. Made dinner interesting - the roar of rain made sitting under the bumble very LOUD. But as usual the food was delicious! (Way to go Kiki and Sven!)

My house is a mess. But do I want to clean? No. I get a reprieve for the morning because I get to go hang out with three kids and play! Babysitting the twins and their sister for 3 hours. The boys just turned 3 years old. And M is going to kindergarten this week. So we'll have lots ot talk about, I'm sure. Cause man can these kids talk! lol It's fun.

But this afternoon will be cleaning time. Get it done so that we can start sewing projects. Nightgown for Aly to take to college, maybe a pair of lounge pants if there is enough material left, start on my Scythian garb, work on my unicorn project. I need to find some material for both parts to that. Might need to make a trip to the fabric store. Dresden told me about one in Colchester. That would be such a shame to have to go fabric shopping tomorrow. Such a shame. :-D

Over the last two days I scrapbooked 4 pages of Aly's graduation and 2 pages of her senior prom. One more scrapbooking project out of the way! I think I will be working on our mini vacation to Maryland and D.C. this past Spring as the next project. One of these days I should do up a project list. At least I got my books done of my grandmother's pictures. That was a big project! Aly has been scrapbooking her Senior Memories - Graduation, Grad Night, Senior Picnic, Prom and I think she has pictures from the beach left to do.

Speaking of Aly we need to go get some boxes for her to pack stuff. Some of it to pack up the extra stuff laying around her room, the other boxes for stuff that's going to College with her. I can't believe that she's leaving in 5 days. Wow!

Jacquie started her Fall classes at Tunxis. She really likes her teachers and thinks her classes are going to be good. Especially her marketing class. :-)

Okay, just realized how late it was and I need to leave in 7 minutes to babysit.

Another New Favorite - Cow Tippin'

2006-08-27T10:52:00.000-04:00

I wanted to share two of my favorite pictures of Frances from this summer. The one in the middle, Pensive, I was trying to get a nice picture to hang up at our house. She would not look at me. lol But then I think that's when I get some of more interesting pictures. Like the first picture, I call that one Baby in the Leaves - I could not get her to look at me, leaves were far more interesting. :-) In the end, I got that picture, which is one of the best pictures I've ever taken. The last picture (Concentration) is Frances, ignoring me yet again because I wanted to take her picture and she wanted to watch the new DVD I brought her. She definitely is a single-minded little girl. Don't distract her when she's concetrating. I was playing around with the colors and tried the B&W, it works with the slightly out of focus fuzziness of the picture. So, when I order pics I'll be getting one of Pensive and one of Concentration. :-)

So, this morning I was working on the banking and cleaning up the desk (does it ever stay clean?) and I put on my new CD - The Little Willies. http://www.emimusic.ca/thelittlewillies/ Norah Jones is one of favorite singers. I just love this mix of sound on the CD - a bit on country, a bit earthy, a little bluesy, I don't know how to define it. Anyhow, sitting her enjoying the music when the last song came on, Lou Reed. Oh lordy! That song is hilarious! You can listen to it on the website. Pay close attention to the words. Cow tippin'. LOL!

It's raining again. Guess today will be spent working on things in the house. Like re-organizing the laundry room, then the storage room. Argh. But we need to do it so that we can get the furnace cleaned and the oil line moved (it currently runs under the concrete, stupid, figured we'd move it before something happens in the middle of winter and we don't have heat). Then of course I need to work on our garb for Coronation. Plus sew some stuff for Aly before she goes away to school in a week! Yikes. Wow that is coming up fast. Jacquie starts school on Monday.

Back to cleaning this office. :-P

Aren't We Cute?

2006-08-26T19:11:00.000-04:00

That's me and Frances. She was too funny Thursday evening. I taught her to say Boo-yaa. And being the little drama girl that she is, she then said it in several different voices. I caught some of it on a movie clip, she is too cute, that kid!

The girls, Frances and I met Chris at Cracker Barrell. All Frances would eat was french fries. Cried when I tried to get her to eat a bite of grilled cheese. Real tears. lol I wasn't too concerned about the eating, I knew I could get her to eat something else at home. Oh and when her scoop of ice cream arrived, she snatched the spoon out of Chris' hand and dug in with gusto! She kept busy coloring and playing with the peg game. One of the pegs was smaller than the others and she called it "The Baby" and kept rocking it. :-)

She was overtired by the time we got home and she ate some yogurt. Got real giggly. Then it was bed time routine. Except instead of going to sleep in her bed, she wanted to be held by Laura. I've noticed she wants to cuddle a lot more when we haven't seen each other for a few weeks.

This afternoon Chris, Aly and I spent it hunting through Fabric Place to look for material for making Scythian garb for Coronation. OHMIGAWD I want to slap whoever decided that only Jana and Lucan can wear Red and Gold. LOL! Just kidding. There is soooooo much lovely red, gold, golden, red and gold, oh the list goes on and on of fabric. We'd find something just perfect, but it would be red or gold or both. In the end all I ended up with was black linen. There is a serious lack of nice blue material out there. Which is what we were looking for since we couldn't use red or gold. :-P In the end we were happy to get anything in any color, but nothing really suited what we wanted. I did find some purple material at JoAnn's, but now I'm not sure what to do with it. Chris found this really nice heavy material that looks like a wool and some fake fur for doing a jacket or tunic. I think that I'm going to use the black linen to make a coat and trim it with silver. And make the matching hat. My concern is whether the linen is heavy enough. But at the same time I don't want it too heavy since I'll be inside most of the time that I wear it. Ugh. Sometimes I just hate making garb. :-P

Okay, off to get some groceries - we're out of milk and I must have been told about 20 times today that we need milk. :-P

Ooh La La!

2006-08-24T13:00:00.000-04:00

Look what arrived from FedEx while I took Jacquie to buy her books for school! I have a very special friend named Frances. She's 2.5 years old and I had the priviledge of taking care of her when she was little. We still see each other regularly - she's like a niece to me. We do lots of fun things together including shopping and going to McDonalds. And making music. One of her favorite things!

This ring represents the two of us - the emeralds are me and the amethyst is Frances, kinda like I'm hugging her. I'm just so tickled about the ring! And what makes it extra special is that I'll be babysitting her this evening and the ring arrived today. So it's perfect. Everyone can see the ring! :-) I'm going to try to remember my camera today so that I can get some new Frances pics. Maybe even get her mom to take a picture of the two of us together. :-)

I'm avoiding the rest of my Pennsic clean-up activities. I really do need to get those done. And the last two loads of laundry. Especially since I need to do some sewing. I need to fix up my Roman garb, then make some Russian garb. It's coming up with a pattern for the Russian stuff that's got my brain ticking away. As well as the hat. My colors will be blue and black with silver. I plan on doing some of the trim for it on my inkle loom, so that why I need to get the pattern and sewing started fairly soon. Only 37 days left till Coronation. I'm hoping to make Chris an outfit as well, something using the same blue as I will use for the coat, but with a yellow shirt for him maybe? I don't know. Just thinking about things. I did find a cool website with some pictures of Scythian and Hopliltes re-enactment stuff. http://www.4hoplites.com/Scythian%20Photos.htm

Well I better get some lunch, figure out what the girls can make for dinner, do some laundry and put away stuff. Oh joy......

Feeling Better

2006-08-23T10:19:00.000-04:00

I was trying to think of what pictures I wanted to post today and I thought of Kim and Howie. Kim is one of my oldest friends - we're known each other since the 7th grade. She hates getting her picture taken, but these are two of my favorite pictures of her and Howie. :-) I know it sounds corny, but they are so good together. I am very happy that Howie came into Kim's life. :-)

The first picture was taken in 2001 and the second one in 2006.

So my eyes seem to be recovered. I'll be calling the contact lens technician later to let her know that I won't be back in. I'm so relieved that I didn't hurt my eyes trying to get those nasty horrible contacts out. :-P

This morning I went back to Curves for the first time this month. It's been little more than three weeks since I last went. It felt good to get back on the machines. I'm hoping to get in three visits this week and four next week. My goal is to be going 4x a week. And I need to be working on upping my steps for my pedometer. I've been only averaging about 50,000-60,000 steps a week for the last few months. Except for Pennsic - I made a goal to do 150,000 steps in 15 days and I actually got in 167,963 steps. Go me!

I've got the after work-out munchies happening, so I'm off to find a little protein to snack on. Maybe a handful of mixed nuts. :-)

I Am Sofa King

2006-08-22T22:13:00.000-04:00

we Todd did. Guess what? I didn't lose a contact. It WAS in my eye. I swore I put it in. But then I couldn't see it on my eye. Even took a flashlight to my eye and couldn't see it.

So, here it is, getting later in the evening and my left eye is feeling better, I can even see out of it, but my right eye is still irritated and fuzzy. I'm looking at my eye and lo and behold, there is the contact! So earlier today I was wearing not one but two contacts in my right eye. UGH

I am SO DONE with contacts. Please, everyone, if I ever mention contacts again, remind me what an eye wuss I am and that I can't do it. :-P

Good news is that I re-organized my three filing drawers and things are working better. Even got through the pile of bills that accumulated while we were at Pennsic. Hopefully tomorrow I can get my books and papers all dealt with, then I can work on figuring out how to store all my scrapbooking and scribal stuff. And do laundry. And figure out how I'm going to do my Unicorn project. *sigh* Life isn't easy is it? I wanna go back to Pennsic......

Failed Experiment

2006-08-22T19:37:00.000-04:00

Well, the Contact Experiment, failed big time. This morning I was having trouble getting the contacts in so I left them out till this afternoon. Then this afternoon I get them in and my eyes are burning and irritated. Take them out, lose one, clean them, put them back in. Frustrated because it's like wearing glasses that are too weak. Last an hour, then decide to take them out. I planned on calling the contact lady in the morning and trying out the contacts for astigmatism. Well, the right contact was a little difficult to get out. The left one, damn near impossible. I was crying it hurt so much and I couldn't get it out and the eye doctor's office was closed. Finally get it out and now I can't see out of either eye properly. I've been putting in drops and trying to rest my eyes. I'm hoping that come the morning they will be back to normal, otherwise I'm off to the optometrist office to see if I did any damage to my eyes. Not fun or fair.

I hope there isn;t too many typos in this, because I can;'t read the screen to check for them. lol This is not a good day for Laura.

I had plans for starting on re-organizing my office. It's cluttered and it's not working out the way it's set-up. I need a good filing cabinet, I think. What I have isn't working very well. Wish I had money because I would have this office custom built to suit my needs. But I don't, so I need to find ways to make it work with what I have. Hopefully once Chris finishes the shelves in the closet that will help. In the meantime, I need to get this desk cleared off, but I can't see.

Yup, I'm a PMS-ing whiner. And I miss my friends and I miss Pennsic and I'm lonely.

Contacts - Not with Aliens, Just My Eyes

2006-08-21T16:45:00.000-04:00

Okay, so I go and try out contacts. After a dozen tries I'm able to put the contacts in myself. Yay me! Unfortunately I have a bit of an astigmatism. So we're trying the regular contacts first. My vision is not as good as it is with glasses. Is it the contacts? Will having the other kind of contacts be better? Is it just that I have a slightly different prescription and my eyes need to adjust? If it's not better in two weeks, then when I go in for the re-chedck, I'll try the contacts for the astigmatism. Cause this is driving me crazy. I don't want contacts bad enough to live with slightly blurry eyes. I'd rather wear glasses.

And speaking of glasses, just bought Aly a new pair. I hate that our insurance company doesn't help out with the cost of glasses. $220 for glasses with anti-glare. And that was with 50% off the lenses. Yikes. Hopefully they'll be in before Aly goes off to school on September 3rd. Only 13 more days! We need to finish going over her packing list and see what she needs for school, yet.

Jacquie is considering going to school full-time starting in January. Which would mean that she can be back on our health insurance. Guess her next step is to start saving money to pay for next semester! :-)

Jacquie is starting the Fall semester next Monday. So, in a short time I will have both my girls in college. Wow. I don't feel old enough for that. lol

Okay, gotta get one of the girls to take a picture of me sans glasses this evening. Will post that tomorrow. Gotta go work on list of things that need to get done this week. Including getting Aly her I.D., Jacquie her school books, etc.

I Am We .....

2006-08-21T08:15:00.000-04:00

Todd Did.

Please follow this link to see a cute office prank. :-)

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-704985594321203050

What can I say? At times my humour is definitely in the juvenile range! :-D

But now I have to be grown up and go grocery shopping and do the banking. And for my reward, today I am getting fitted for contact lenses! Hopefully I can post a pic of me later with no glasses on! YAY!

2006-08-20T15:41:00.000-04:00

I just realized another picture that I forgot to take .... the garden gnome fairy (actually it was two fairies!) visited my pavilion 5 TIMES at War and left me 5 friendly and happy gnomes. :-) I can't believe that I forgot to take a picture of them. I was one very happy person to be so lucky! Next year, I plan on making a little garden outside the pavilion for them to live. :-D

Thank you so much garden gnome fairies!!!!!!!!

2006-08-20T12:31:00.000-04:00

I can't believe that Pennsic is over. I had such a great time, a bit busy at times, but it was wonderful. In the picture to the left is a bunch of us crazy people waiting for EK Court to start on Wednesday. I ended up with 181 pictures from War, and I'm mad at myself for not getting more! I only have 3 pictures of Katie, no picture of Jess and Sarah lookng at the camera, no real picture of Michel, and I could go on and on.

Let's see, I think I'll start at the beginning. We had a nice uneventful drive to Pennsic - Chris drove the entire way and I slept on and off, waking to change the audio tapes of Dragon Song and Dragon Singer (we always listen to audio books on long travels, makes it go by much faster!). We arrived to beautiful weather and lots of friends in camp. :-) Turi made these beautiful loungers for Lucan and Jana - great job Turi!!! Figured out where to set up our camp and we went to it. Sunday, we took Chris to the airport and dropped him off. Then it was off to do some shopping and have lunch. I discovered a Lone Star restaurant and we HAD to eat there. Ugh. It was like the Las Vegas Lone Star. I was soooooo looking forward to chicken fajitas. We had a Lone Star in Richmond Hill, Ontario and the fajitas there were to die for. Yummmmmmm! We did have a nice lunch before doing some shopping.

Jacquie and I were spoiled the first week - a fan in the pavilion and watching dvds. :-) Part way through the week I decided to re-arrange the pavilion. Next year there will be a bit more tweaking but I think I like this set-up. My pictures didn't come out very good of the set-up, though. Next year I will have to try for better shots. :-) One night during Peace Week, people in the Haus ordered pizza, then we watched 13th Warrior projected on the side of Oof's viking a-frame tent. Suzanne and Mairgred walked down from the back of beyond to join us for movie night. :-) That was really nice. I saw Suzanne and Katie so much that first week and all I have to show for it are 3 pictures. :-( Oooh, forgot that Suzanne, Jacquie and I went into totown to do some shopping and have lunch. We went to the Goodwill where we found some goodies. Jacquie discovered a set of Italian cruise menus from the early 70s, the covers were Renaissance masterpieces! For $2.99. I snatched that puppy up quick. I gave one to Michel, I plan on framing a few more, then passing out the rest.

Before I knew it, it was Friday. Time to get Chris from the airport. But that was a huge mess and a pain in the arse-icle. Made it back to camp in time for a bit of a visit before we headed off to Quaker Steak and Lube in Cranberry. Suzanne and Andrew's camp (Arx Ventus) joined us there. I think there was probably a good 50 people together all out on the patio. We had a blast!!!! Thank you Jenness for suggesting this get together!!! And let me tell you - fried pickles are fabulous! Yum!

So much of the rest of War passed in a blur! We had dinner with the Rozakii on Sunday, had a meeting then did Cean's initiation. Monday it was back down to Rozakii for Family Dinner Night. That was really nice. Even with the downpours. Because of course that meant Naked Skull Ball across the road in Dalhraidia. :-D Let's see I had also completed two scrolls by Monday early afternoon. Took on a 4th husband, Dugan. He is such a sweetie! I can't really remember what happened on Tuesday. Oh,in the morning we had a Workshop get together. We had a snack in the food court before heading out to do some shopping. That was really nice. Can't say as I really remember anything else happening that day. lol Wednesday was court. Took lots of pictures. Then it was Midnight Madness. Chris bought me some perfume cream, supposedly it's the recipe that was used to make Cleopatra's cream. :-) Oh and Jenness bought us Hussy mugs earlier in the week. Cause we have been HUSSIES this week! Naughty, naughtym, girls. Eilis is going to be sooooo jealous when she hears how many butts we have touched this week. ;-P We've even started writing down the names. :-D And I got some fabulous stuff while shopping - a basket backpack, been wanting one of those for years!, plus a new scribal book and a tea pot. Amber is discontinuing the Newgrange line and I had to buy an over-the-top handle tea pot. Wish I had the money to have gotten a casserole dish as well. :-( Next year on my shopping list is new shoes. Demi and Fygen bought these really nice gillie shoes and now I want a pair! :-)

By Friday, my mind was mush. Started packing in the morning. Spent part of the afternoon in Rozakii. Before I knew it, it was dinner time, then Haus Circle. Had to miss the end of that in order to drive down to Rozakii for Khagan's Court (got there right on time!). By the time we got back to camp, we were tired. Sat up chatting with folk until Jacquie got back from babysitting.

Saturday morning it was a whirlwind of nearly everyone packing and giving hugs goodbye! Today I am so tired and just having a hard time getting going. I think I need a little caffeine, a shower and need to start tackling this unpacking. And writing down notes for next year so that I don't forget what I want to do then! ...........................

Sticky!

2006-08-04T09:33:00.000-04:00

Okay, where is this cooler weather we're supposed to be having? It's still hot and humid. I'm so sticky! Yuck.

I've been a busy little beaver already this morning. Been working on two scrolls. I'd like to get them inked in, callig'd and the gold put down before packing it away tonight. I'll paint them at War. Plus there is all the stuff that's left to be packed and a couple of errands to run. The packing should take an hour or so, not too bad. Mostly it's gathering up toiletries, etc and packing food, stuff like that.

I want to write more, but I'm tired (5 hours sleep), and so hot and sticky I can't think right now. I'm sure I'll write again today, maybe in the evening after the trailer and van are packed.

Half-Price Day!!!

2006-08-03T08:52:00.000-04:00

Okay, now I KNOW that most of you don't get that reference. I'm a fan of Neopets - an online game place. You get pets and ahve to take care of them, can play games, do all kinds of stuff. You can also buy and sell stuff. And today is half-price day. One of the things I love to do most at Neopets is merchanting. So, half-price day is WONDERFUL! However I am in crunch time for Pennsic. Lots of stuff to do today. And work on a scroll. I must be nuts to be sitting here and hitting refresh waiting for a Neopets store to restock. lol

I'm a little sad, one of my bestest pals is not going to be at War this year. :`-( He'll be in Germany instead, working.

I've been thinking of ways to maximize the space in my office. My friend, Barb, had her office totally re-done and it looks fabulous! The entire room is now covered in wall-to-wall cupboards and shelves. Under the windows are window seats with baskets underneath. Her desk is in one corner. Oh and she has a large island in the middle of the room for doing crafts. It's absolutely fabulous! I'd like to do something similar. Only my office is a LOT smaller. Definitely move the desk into the corner. Make the wall with the window into a built bookshelf thingy with a window seat under the window. It will flow into the corner desk. That with the built in cupboard Chris is doing in the closet, should really make this room function better. But of course this will all have to wait until other things get done. Like a new back door, etc. But one day.....

2006-07-31T19:19:00.000-04:00

That's me and my hubby at Cullyn and Edana's wedding last Fall. Don't we make a cute couple? My husband is fabulous and I am one very lucky woman. Very lucky. :-D

Looking at the picture reminds me that I am going to try out contacts for the first time ever. I go for the instructional class, etc. on Monday, August 21st. I can't believe that I just might be getting rid of my glasses. Well, not really, I doubt I'll wear the contacts all the time. But I have been wearing glasses every day of my life for the last 31 years. And I am sick of it. :-P

It's been a quiet day today. Went to Curves, went to buy more Thai tea and they were all out. :-( Then it was off to BJs where I did some of the grocery shopping. Just having a quiet afternoon and evening. Trying to decide whether or not to take a scribal assignment for War. I probably will. I can work on it at War.

I think that's all for now. I need to go check on my thai tea - it's cooling down right now. :-)

Sweltering Saturday

2006-07-29T14:49:00.000-04:00

Whewwwww! It's a hot one today, Martha. That cute little girl that you see is who I spent my morning with. First we did her hair, then off to go shopping we went. Frances is such a character! She is 2 and a half and a firecracker! Walking around at Walmart she is singing at the top of her lungs "Victor Vito" and the "ABCS", oh and "I've Been Working on the Railroad". Lots of volume in that child. :-) Except whenever someone would talk to her, then shy as can be. lol She was such an angel and so well behaved that she got a new dolly who came with a backpack and baby supplies. I wish I had brought my camera to take pics, because Frances looked too cute! She is destined to be on the stage. :-) And I'll get to say I knew her when she was nothing but a little pea. :-)

While shopping at Walmart (I've been spending an awful lot of time at Walmart lately, I don't know why), I found this cool rolling covered cart. It's perfect to keep camp supplies and a place to put the camp stove. Chris is going to cut a piece of plywood to go on top so that the canvas cover doesn't get all nasty. It will be like a mini kitchen. I'm probably going to paint our household device on the sides (Domus Variana). Maybe before War, but I'm not holding my breath on that one. What's nice is that it's on wheels, so I can keep it just inside the pavilion and just wheel it out when I need to cook something.

I'm so excited about War and all the improvements we've done. I just can't wait to get it all set up and see how it all looks! :-D

2006-07-28T17:17:00.000-04:00

This is what the set-up will look like from the back. It was just too hot that day to take pics of the front of the pavilion with the walls on. A nice little sitting area for Jacquie or if we have company over. :-)

Effing Friday

2006-07-28T16:05:00.000-04:00

This weather is killing me. My head and neck are driving me crazy. Chris is bugging me about going to see a chiropractor for it.

In the mean time, I've gotten bumpkus done today. I'm such a whiner. :-P

This weekend is Pennsic Assembling Time! Yay! We get to print off the Pennsic Packing List and start assembling everything on that list. Pulling stuff down from the attic, dragging it up from the basement, even going out to the shed. Check everything over, see if anything needs to be repaired then packing it all up. Luckily Chris re-built the trailer this year. It's allowing us to take lots of stuff to War. Especially since Jacquie and I are going for the whole two weeks. :-)

Speaking of War, we've been busy beavers this year in preparing for War. I want the pavilion to look nice and have lots of the comforts we love. :-) So far we have made/built:
- two new banners with our devices on them
- 2 small banners for two of the households we belong to - the Rozakii and VDK
- re-stained the bed, added stuff to it and made it into a four poster canopy bed (although there is no canopy this year, but we do have curtains)
- fixed the walls on our sunshade (which will be off the back of our pavilion, giving us a little seating area, plus Jacquie's dome tent is next to it) (if I could figure out how to psot pics, I could show the picture that I took of the arrangement when we set it up in the backyard.)
- made a tablecloth for the table in the pavilion
- made a "tapestry" wall hanging
- made a "cozie" for the cooler

I think that is it. Seems to me that there is something else, but I can't think of it. I can't wait till it's all set up at War so that I can take pictures of it all done. :-)

Well, a big thunderstorm is hitting us right now. I HOPE that when it goes, this headache goes with it. I want to get my sewing done so that the dining room can be cleaned and we have a place to stack the packed boxes this weekend. (oops, whining again!)

Some days I feel that I Am We Todd Did.

Ewww, it's Thursday

2006-07-27T18:43:00.000-04:00

I think the title says it all. Just having a blah sort of day. Aly and I popped over to the mall and did a little shopping. I just wasn't in the mood for walking all over the mall. So we headed over to WallyWorld where she found 2 prs of jeans and a little fridge for her dorm room. She's thinking of picking up one of those little pillows with the built in speaker so that she can lay on it to go to sleep, listening to music and not disturb her roommmate.

Other than that I've been drinking Thai tea with Bubbles in it and working on my banner on and off. Banner is finished - yay! Tomorrow I need to sew another dress for War. Maybe even one for Katie if there is enough material. This weekend will b spent gathering up everything for Pennsic and figuring out what needs to be bought.

I haven't been to Curves all week. Been having headaches and so achy in my upper back. I know I shouldn't skip out on Curves. I need to go tomorrow at least. Take Jacquie to work, then head off to Curves. Sounds like a plan, Stan.

Laura

P.S. Fleurs rule!

First Day

2006-07-26T08:33:00.000-04:00

A new day, a new blog. Listening to Norah Jones sing. Need to get ready for my day - I'm going to spend it with Suzanne and Katie. :-) and I have birthday gifts for Katie! She's going to be six this weekend. Can't believe that she's that old already.

Okay, enough procrastinating. Off to get ready - shower, wrap gifts, get gas, take Jacquie to work, then head to Mass. :-)