Reworking of NaNoWriMo

Recently, a post on the SCA Garb Facebook page caught my attention. It referenced the annual National Novel Writing Month program for November, but with a twist. Instead of writing, the poster suggested we all gather up our half finished garb projects and try and finish as many of them as possible during the month of November. She noted that most seamstress/tailors/embroiderers all have projects that just haven't made it to completion and that this might be a way to avoid starting new projects and abandoning old ones, for at least one month out of the year. I'm in! I'm gathering up incomplete projects and figuring out what I need to do or have to get them done. So far I have two heraldic dog coats that only need buttons and button holes and a heraldic banner for my mother that need the casing finished. I'm sure there are more projects lurking in my sewing room and I plan to go fishing for at least 30 minutes each evening. This should be both fun and productive!

New Books

As a herald-in-training for the SCA, I've started to stock a basic reference library. I was happy to receive Reaney & Wilson's Oxford Dictionary of English Surnames and Withycombe's Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names in today's post. These are very useful!

I also started work on a secret project for an Arts & Sciences exchange in the SCA Kingdom of Drachenwald. I doubt my recipient reads this blog, but just in case, I'm not going to say any more! When the gift is completed, mailed, and received, I will post photos here!

Fall fruits

Tomorrow's job will be jam and jelly making. I've got three buckets and a large box of grapes from the vines by my front door that were picked today. (by my mother and our housekeeper - I'm still not limber enough to get up on a ladder to harvest!)

 

 

Temperatures are supposed to drop tomorrow, so it seemed like a good idea to get them in today.






There are also a ton of quinces ripening that will eventually be made into jelly, marmalade, and paste. Yum!!

Back again!

Since April I have made major steps forward with my home remodeling, attended Drachenwald's 20 Year Anniversary/Midsummer Coronation in Germany (a major road trip with my friend Sorcha!), and just recently have had a total replacement of my left knee. Circumstances have prevented me from blogging about any of it, but that changes, beginning now. I am still on medical leave for the knee and hope to get caught up over the next couple of weeks. Watch here for updates!

Speaking of libraries...

For the first time in twenty years, all my books are in one place (same continent, same country, same house.). Yay!

My builders are working on a second floor library, in addition to the eight Billy bookcases (with extensions) currently residing in the living room, so there may actually be room to sort and shelve them soon.

 

 


I really needed to get them out of the boxes, which were getting squashy after a year of sitting around in the garage, so they are in piles around the room, as you can see. It's like meeting up with old friends after a long separation!


I've got the ones that were already here in Bulgaria cataloged on

 LibrayThing (1600 +), but there are at least four times that many to still be catalogued that came in from the US. It should be an interesting task.

Pretty!

I have a new book in my library and I'm looking forward to using it!

Gates

Things have been moving forward at home, despite my lack of updates. The car and pedestrian gates are finally in place and they look pretty good, if I do say so. Now all we need out front is a little stucco, some post caps, and some decorative stonework and we can call that area done.