Seventeen days

Until Rhaglan Ffaire. Yikes! Many, many projects to complete!

Old enough to vote...

Today is the 21st anniversary of my family's move to Bulgaria. It was intended to be for just a year. We left behind a house, family, friends, and jobs to have an adventure. Heh! Funny how plans and dreams change with time! I'm completely settled here now and I love it - the country, my home, and my job. I'm close enough to my kids to see them whenever I want to take a long weekend and I'm looking forward to becoming a grandmother in October! Life is good!

Excellent Fourth of July/SCA weekend!

         My friends from Kossovo came over for the long weekend and we did all the medieval things, plus a little Independence Day celebrating. We (that's the family, plus folks from the College, and our visitors) started out Friday with a rousing backyard fighter practice, followed by more food than any of us could eat, then more fighting, then fireworks and vodka-spiked watermelon.

Saturday saw us at the Modvs Vivendi medieval fair at the Boyana Church in Sofia (where we saw a fighting demo, visited an encampment setup, and heard several music groups perform).

 

Next was a visit to the National History Museum, then back home and into Blagoevgrad for dinner at the Irish pub.

 

 

And on Sunday, we made a trip to the Rila Monastery. To my surprise, you can now buy a ticket and climb up Hrelyu's Tower! And the ethnographic rooms have all reopened! We had a lovely time and finished up with lunch at my favorite restaurant and mekitzi from the monastery bakery.

Post-Midsummer catching up!

So, here it is, the last day of June and not a single post this month. Yikes! Life has been very, very busy - but in a good way. I've driven to Kossovo with three good friends and attended a colleagues' awesome wedding , done some sightseeing at a monastery and a Roman cemetery, and had some of the best Balkan food ever. I've been to the UK and visited both kids and their respective spouses, had a wonderful time at Midsummer Coronation, and finally got a toile made for Guy's jacket. I've had good SCAdian friends visit here and watched  fighter practice in my back yard for the first time. And I am eagerly anticipating the Fourth of July Weekend, when  the SCA folk will be back and we'll have a cookout and fighter practice and general merriment. Huzzah for Summer!

Here are some Coronation photos that don't do the event or the site justice!

Lots done, but not much sewing

We've had a run on getting things done in the garden, which has kept me out of the house and away from my needles! I'm currently on a six day holiday weekend (May Day and Saint George's Day are holidays and fell on Thursday and Tuesday, so we got the entire time off!) and we're working between the raindrops. The new front sidewalk is finished, a pergola has been installed in the front garden and it looks lovely with the grapevines over it. Now we need a bench to go under it. There are eight new David Austin roses in the central border, along with a new pink clematis to go with the original purple one (which is in full bloom). Half of the front lawn has been cleared and raked, ready to be and seeded with new grass. The other half of the front garden is partially cleared and if the rain lets up, it should be finished tomorrow. There's a new picket fence and gate enclosing the dog yard and there are now four raised beds and they are all painted white. It looks so nice! The peach trees have all been sprayed for leaf curl and are looking good - and they are FULL of little peaches! The apple tree and the quince are absolutely loaded too. It should be a bumper crop, of all goes well.

The only stitching I've done has been to finish a little white linen cap for Gwen. It has round braid ties in her mom's signature purple and white. She likes hats, so it should be a hit, hopefully!

Happy Easter!

It's just past midnight here in Bulgaria and the faithful will be starting home from church soon, carrying lighted candles to bring the light of Christ into their homes for the upcoming year. I'm sorry to miss the service this year, but standing outside in the cold, pouring rain when I'm still on medication for bronchitis seems like a bad idea, so I've stayed home. Instead, I've been cooking up a storm for tomorrow's Easter lunch. The eggs are colored, the coconut cake is baked and frosted, the Easter basket is full, and the ham is prepped. All I need to do tomorrow (or rather, later today!) is bake the ham and the scalloped potatoes, steam the asparagus, and devil the eggs and we'll be good to go. I'll add some photos  after the meal is over now, just to show how silly my cake is this year!



Down-stashing

Down-stashing is a little like down-sizing. I have already achieved SABLE* in both fabric and embroidery materials, so I'm trying to make some room in my work areas by using up what I have on hand ( at least a little!) Back at Christmas, I was able to cut out a pair of apron dresses for Constanza from wool I had on the shelf. They turned out very well and she really enjoys wearing them, so that was a big plus! But I was left with a big piece of the blue wool and a small one of the green. The blue is already queued up for another project over the Easter Holidays, but I needed an idea for the green remnant. Well, I spent this weekend finishing up my idea and it will go in the mail to my adopted granddaughter tomorrow.

Have a look at the apron dress for Gwen Makeblise!

I had all of the materials on hand except some of the beads and those came from the local craft store, It's designed with tucks in the sides, a deep hem, and shoulder straps that can be lengthened, so it should last her several years. It's wool with linen embroidery. The tablet weaving is from Catherine Weaver.


ETA:

And it fits!

*stash acquired beyond life expectancy