There really is just too much over Pennsic to do more than summarize the best parts of it.

We arrived very late on Friday night. It was dark and cold and wet. I made the executive decision that I would rather pay for a hotel room than try to set up in that. Hurray for one last night in a real bed!

I took two classes from Ragnveig Snorradottir - Viking Domestic Architecture and Denmark before Jellinge - they were both wonderful and I can highly recommend her as a teacher if you ever get out to Pennsic.

My classes were a smashing success! I had about 35-40 in my Pictish World class. The real winner was the Beautiful Rolled Hems class, though! I literally had eighty or more people show up! When I did the "magic" part of the stitch, the class went wild. The last row actually stood up and applauded... and the class next door came over to find out what the hell was going on. *grin* Since it was such a fast class, though, I snuck in a second class on whipcording for those that wanted to stay. (Spread the disease, spread the disease!) Even better, for the rest of the event,  I had random people scurry up to me to show me their just-completed projects. :) Happiness.

Revelation: People are willing to pay a reasonable amount for extensive handouts, provided they are quality handouts. Resolution: Must revise handouts so the Pictish World can have a freebie basic handout and an optional for-sale nice, fat illustrated packet . Nummy.

I finally got to meet judithsewstoo  in person. We geeked, the apprenti and I took her class, she gave me some tasty silk string and I gave her some feedback on her class.

Tuesday rocked. Waterbearing, classes, hanging out with the apprenti, fun in camp, the Northshield party, and a tipsy stumble home under starry skies. Splendid.

Apparently, I can corrupt people by osmosis - I got one of the Greyfox boys to start handsewing a linen tunic in camp. :) For some crazy reason, he wanted more than 3 shirts and asked for help picking out fabric, which I did... He looked disappointed that he would need to wash and dry it before he could do anything with it, but I then helpfully offered that I could show him how to cut it out of a piece of washed and dried linen that I just happened to have on site... I explained the stitches and the construction steps and offered to help him sew it, but by then he wanted to do it all himself. Hurray!

Further geeky fun - Bardic Bread around the fire and the "Greyfox A&S Pavilion" on our porch. :) It was too cold Wednesday night toget the bread to rise, but I baked over the fire on Thursday and Friday nights. Friday night I even got to try out a new yeast starter that was sent to me by one of the mercenary households. I only used about half, so now I have a little zoo on my countertop at home.

I took a very interesting and useful class about working on parchment and bought some calligraphy toys. I must talk to Gustov about some of what I learned/remembered.

The courts were full of twelve kinds of goodness. Congrats to everyone, especially our Draco Incarnates Leif and Astrid and to the geek-boys Duncan and Svein! :)

We made good time on the road home, got only moderately lost in Chicago, stayed mostly awake on I-90 (hurray for paying missed tolls online), and my traveling companion and I still liked each other when we got home. :)

Cool purchases: forged nails, pumice stones, soapstone for a viking lamp, jet beads, bone dice with ring-and-dot pips, and a giant silver button.

Best thing I learned: a completely stoopidly easy way of making circle/dot marks like are seen on so many early period artifacts. I can't believe it didn't ever occur to me, it was so obvious... Sometimes it's the simple things...

Best acquisition: A very nice mirror from Northstar Armories. I've wanted a period mirror for a long time but the ones I found were either ugly or not up to my standards in some way. This one is delicious in all ways and has a really spectacularly clear reflective side - most ot the metal mirors are a little on the fun-house mirror side. The mirror is modeled on the Trelan Bahow mirror, which is early even for me, but is essentially the same as those seen on the Pictish Symbol Stones. I found it after I spent my war budget, though, so I was foolishly waffling about it... but then Mr. Svein bought it for me as a War Prezzie. The first thing I did that night was sew a linen baggie to protect it. :)



See info on the mirror here and on general bronze age mirrors here.

Yay, War! Its good to be home, but I already miss it...

I'm safely home from War and -bonus!- no visits to the Urgent Care/ER during War or on the way back! It was a good War - I'm both happy to be home and sad that it went so quickly.

If you asked for an errand to be run, it has been completed and I have things for them that ordered stuff.

Thus far today I have managed to sleep in, empty the car into the garage, eat, and nap. I'm going to catch up on email, then start to tackle the mountain that is the laundry pile. I'll only be skimming lists and LJ, so let me know if anything important went down while I was gone!

Where, oh where, has the summer gone?

I mean, looking at my calendar, it's pretty clear, but it's still hard to believe I have only a week before Pennsic and soooo much left to do in that time, not all of it War-related.

Mostly for my own benefit:
( Thursday through Sunday Schedule )

Now, to a certain extent, this is my own fault for procrastinating and for having an improbably long to-do list. I almost have enough garb for the week, definitely enough if I give up on being all-linen, all-handsewn all the time. However, I need some stuff to lend to other folks, I want to make some stuff for other folks, and there are a few items I really need/want. I don't think I'll get it all, but my ideal list is:

( To Do List )

Seventeen things... seven days... 2.4 items/day... you know, and work and a party and stuff...
   (Thurs - 1, Fri - 2, Sat - 2, Sun - 0 completed, but several started, Mon- , Tues- , Wed- , Thurs- )

Originally posted Thursday afternoon, updates as we go. ;)

Well, I'm finally back from Pennsic and even starting to unpack. The laundry and the miscellaneous cleanup will take a few more days yet.

The War from my point of view:




Anyway, whining aside, War was pleasant and largely peaceful. I am now coming out of it inspired as I usually do, but rather determined.

I am successfully and safely back from War. (No ER visits this year! Yippee!) More when I am clean and rested. 

While many come home from Pennsic with talk of glory on the field and dying splendidly in battles, I have a short tale to share of glory from the farmer's field and my adventures in splendid dyeing.

So, I previously posted the story of Pennsic, but omitted Saturday and the long trip home, as they were worthy of their very own post. This is that post. :P This starts to sound like a sitcom, but I swear every word is true, as fencingkitty and iliafire can attest. Warning – post includes gross stuff…

 

( The saga begins... )

( At least read this amusing part... )

( Epilogue )

 

No Lilies War for me. My travel plans have become so uncertain and the whole idea was probably ill-advised anyway - I've just given up on it and decided to save the vacation days and hang around town instead.

Which of course means that Jara's fighters' practice on Wednesday is cancelled. Not that I could fight anyway. *sigh*

Good night all! I'm off to Gulf Wars in the morning!

So, finally, a short summary of Estrella...

Travel to and from site was a nightmare, with delays and disasters the entire way. Madison had technical issues, Detroit weather and technical problems, crazy people throughout, and confusion in Phoenix. At least I was only delayed a few hours, poor Roisin didn't get in until significantly after her original ETA.

Things were pretty quiet all week long. There was a lot of time to sit around camp and socialize. It was wonderful to spend time with capnlotand his boys. It was nice to catch up with elidhe and to meet more of the crew and the staff of the Crimson Spade. I just can't wait to see catdfoxat Gulf Wars! I'll expect to see you both at Northshield camp/royal cabin on a regular basis!

The Dons - Lot, Gauge and Rodrigo - had a great moment in the Champions' Battle. They were three of the ten guys on our side and at the end of the battle they had killed everyone on the other side without a single loss of life! Rockstars every one!

Roisin was a serious rock star on the field, enough that a large number of people in the audience yelled her name in great court. *heehee* And her big infamous moment of the war was beating up on a foreign king with her bare hands when she was disarmed. :P At least it is not one of the usual suspects starting an interkingdom incident this time... (Yes, I mean you, dread_ex) 

hrodirseemed to have fun, he spent a lot of time in Crimson Spade and even fought, although I think that was a risky choice since he was broken. He seemed to be OK by the end of the week, though so alls well that ends well. He was camped across site, so Ciara, Roisin and Tarik mainly took care of him and I shudder to think what sorts of mischief Tarik got him into...

My war was largely uneventful. I enjoyed the fighting and even had a few beautiful moments on the field, including one rockstar moment(apparently simultaneously with 'Rigo's student Edward). He and I were near one another on a line at one point - he was off to my right. I shot right, blocking left with my buckler and killed a guy who was engaged with Edward's part of the line, then spun back and kill-kill-kill! Three quick shots, three kills! I yelled to the ladies to my left, they followed me and we rolled the flank to munch that entire side of the line. When I turned back to deal with the right side of the line, it was gone - apparently Edward and his crew had flanked the line through the same opening and destroyed them as well. :) Happiness! I killed about half as many people as Michael in the town battle, and I'm pleased with that as well. I was a little off my game due to illness and a shorter than usual blade, but still a good time.

And then, of course, I did some quality shopping (buttons, corsets, and daggers, oh my!) and spent a lot of time lazing about camp. I was quality sore and a little sunburnt by the end of the week, but it was a good, if quiet, time.

Gods, I'm tired. :P

I'm a little sunburnt and a little bruised, but it was amusing. More later, after shower, sleep, work, and another shower. ;)

~E

I'm headed off to Estrella (even having completed about half the projects I wanted to do). Wish me luck!

Guess where I'll be?

Option 1: Gulf Wars March 11-18,2007 http://www.gulfwars.org/

Option 2: APhA Annual Meeting Atlanta March 16-19
http://www.aphameeting.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Custom.Content&MenuID=1059




;)

I *like* the pharmacy conferences, and I haven't been to the annual meeting in a few years, but gods is their timing bad this year! :P *sigh* Besides, it's not so much fun to go alone - it's the sort of thing that's fun to go to with a carload of girlfriends, do as much sightseeing as going to classes, and have a rocking good time at the parties (which often also means missing the morning class session...). *giggle* So, pharmacy conventions are really quite a bit like war, minus the interesting bruises.