Jingle bells.....

One of the nice things about living in Bulgaria over the last decade or so has been the lack of commercialism at the holidays and the fact that no one started decorating, advertising Christmas specials, or celebrating until about a week before the holiday. Heck, the first year I lived here you couldn't buy a Christmas tree until December 24! Well, we're in the EU now and it all seems to have started down the slippery slope of Christmas starting earlier each year. It's not even Thanksgiving yet, but I just heard the holiday kick-off choir concert at the University. Walking home I saw at least a dozen stores with Christmas displays. Okay, that's not too bad, I guess. But I also saw three apartments with blazing Christmas lights! Come on folks - it's November! Slow down a little, please!

Time for a review

I've been looking at my A&S 50 persona challenge list today (It was posted back in mid July) and it still looks do-able, if formidable, in the challenge time frame. I've finished working on my name and arms and am going to be mailing the application materials and fees out this week. Hopefully the research I've put in won't be in vain and it'll go through in the next 9-10 months. Thumbs tucked! That'll be a significant chunk out of the list right there.

I need to get up to the National Library in Sofia to do some more costume research and that will be waiting till after the first of the year. It's just too busy at work to take the time off. It seems to take longer to get to downtown Sofia each time I drive up, even though the roads have been re-done.

On a positive note, I've found some good open source maps to use as a basis for period-style copies. I'm planning to make frameable maps of the Balkans in the 1100's and 1200's on parchment. I need to get paints and brushes over the Christmas break, so I can get started! It will be a nice change from sewing and it's also a skill set I haven't used in decades. I hope all those art classes will come back to me.....

Well, I paid for the time away!

I have been absolutely swamped since I got back from England and haven't had a minute to sew or embroider. Add to the work overload a nasty sinus infection and you get someone who's really down and out, craft-wise. I got a little Christmas sewing in today, because it's the first time in two weeks that I was both free from work and well enough to enjoy crafting.

I was inspired by a conversation with Constanza today to purchase some patterns for German landsknecht clothing (Mom - when you read this, they're coming to your address!). You have to love the hat! Our royal heirs are planning a landsknecht reign, so this gives us a little time to prepare - especially to get some serious feathers!

Happy Halloween

Even after all these years, it still feels a little strange to live somewhere that doesn't really have Halloween. The neighbors have grown accustomed to my Jack o'Lantern every October and you can now get orange pumpkins here, so that's good. (Used to be you got ones that were pale green outside and orange inside.) I don't miss the tricks the teenagers played back in the US, but I liked seeing the little kids dress up.

I've got the "Goblins and Ghosties" bellpull up, as well as the decorations I posted earlier.






My garden is looking very end-of-season, but I have loads of chrysanthemums. They grow very tall here, no matter how much you pinch them back, but they get great blooms.

Back from London and it was great!

The trip was wonderful and oh-so-very fabric enhanced. One of the earliest bits included a walking trip with the folks from Thamesreach through the Walthamstow market, where I added several yards of a dark green linen blend to the stash. We then progressed to the Handweaver's Guild, where I found the Collingwood book on tabletweaving for less than a small fortune, a nice little booklet of Coptic Weaving, a small lucet, and three reels of awesome pale green embroidery silk so I can put Linden leaves on the neck of the green wool dress. Yahoo!

Other parts of the vacation included its real purpose - attending my son's University graduation ceremony in the company of my mother and daughter. This was the BEST day of all. Everyone had a grand time, the ceremony was moving, and the company was excellent - a real celebration! Here's the new graduate in formal and informal poses.











Later in the week, we also played serious tourist and went up the London Eye (twice for me!), to Westminster Abbey,




Parliament and Big Ben, the British Museum, and Chinatown. We had a daytrip to Reading to see my son's new place of residence and employment and another to Cambridge, where we had a lovely pub lunch, visited Jesus College, King's College Chapel, etc. with one of my son's friends and had tea and cakes at the end of the day!






I also attended the Thamesreach St. Crispin's Day Revel, where much fun was had. During the pre-revel heraldry workshop, I sewed as I listened and got all the buttons on the hood! Here's a picture:






After the feast, we took turns reading parts of Henry V aloud and it was a rousing success, particularly Lord Robert's reading of the St. Crispin's Day speech and Lynette and Constanza reading the comic French dialogue between Alice the maid and the Princess Katharine.

More progress

It's time to plan for the winter holidays (I know, it's not even Halloween yet. Didn't I just start decorating?), so I hemmed up a Christmas table cloth for the daughter this morning. It should look pretty on her table and it also used up some of the eternal fabric stock.

Speaking of fabric, I also cut out and sewed the green wool gown. No photos yet, because I still need to hem it. It also screams for trim at the neckline, but I'm not sure if I want embroidery or tablet weaving. Decisions, decisions! I must still be shrinking, because it took far less fabric than expected. Someone want a green hood???

Done, done, done and going to the framer!

After many fits and starts, I am VERY pleased that my daughter's and son-in-law's wedding sampler is finally finished and ready to frame. They may even get it before their third anniversary, barring any unforseen problems. I must have frogged this one a dozen times, but I do like the way it turned out. I wonder why I had more trouble with this one piece than all the other stuff I've done, combined?!