Yay!

I've been wanting to post a link to the Showcase at The Realm of Venus but there were some problems with broken links after Bella's recent switch to a new server. Things are now fixed so I can direct you to the May 15 Showcase. See anybody you know? :giggle:

Mayfaire

Judy aka Ladyfair

Candid shot of my honey.

Kevin aka Connor Savage. I could listen to him all day!

Tom aka Talolin enjoying Kevin's music.

Joann and Kacie checking out Rattie Flintlock's (of Triton's Fury) snake.



Yet again I forgot to ask anyone to take a photo of me.

Giving Fair Warning

Just wanted to give you a heads up that, if you haven't already done so, you should book mark any favorites from my link lists. Things are getting a little crowded there so I will be doing some pruning next week. I'll be removing some of the garb links that are specifically German since I've decided not to do a German gown in the near future. (Not that there aren't beautiful gowns and wonderful information in them.) I'll also be removing links to the photo blogs that haven't been updated in months to make room for some scrappers' blogs.

Motherhood

"NO GREATER JOY than the first time I held my baby girl in my arms and promised her I would love her forever, no matter what."
I know that Mother's Day was a week and a half ago but I just got around to the 5/9 ScrapFreak layout challenge to create a page celebrating motherhood. The best day of my life was the day I first held my oldest daughter in my arms more than 26 years ago. The memory still brings tears to my eyes and makes me feel like my heart will burst.

Spring Concert

Last night was the spring concert and art show at UHS. I sat through a three hour concert so I could watch my kid sing three songs with the chior. It wouldn't have been so bad except that she didn't even tell us about the concert until yesterday morning (I've only been asking her for a month when it would be :rolleyes: )and we didn't know anything about the new format. They now have the vocal music, instrumental music, and viaual arts all on one night which is why we had to be there at 6:30 and didn't get home until 9:45. Tom had worked a 12 hour shift and only got a two hour nap in before the concert then had go go straight to work after so that he was really having trouble staying awake driving home this morning. Had Kacie told us about the concert earlier he wouldn't have worked the overtime.

Finished Coat

I mentioned in a previous post that I am really bad with the sewing machine. I had quickly sewn the lining into the coat/loose gown/zimarra by machine so that I could wear it in Frankenmuth but it looked really bad. I ended up picking it all out and resewing it by hand. It looks sooo much better. I briefly toyed with the idea of using glass beads as buttons similar to the Woman with a dog portrait on page 112 of Moda a Firenze but had trouble finding the right beads and realized glass beads would probably be too heavy anyway. I ordered some very plain frogs off the internet and finished sewing them on yesterday. I think this project is done unless I decide to change the sleeves at some point.

A Funny

I think this is cute! Check out A Rennie Adoption Manual.

Spontaneous Roadtrip!

Yesterday was the last day of the Holland, Michigan Tulip Festival. On Friday I had mentioned possibility going and Kacie and Joann thought it sounded like fun. The Muziekparade (parade of marching bands) was at 2:00 and the craft market was open 'til 6:00. The plan was to watch the parade, do a little shopping, and be home in time for dinner. The best laid plans.......
So, as we were approaching our exit from the expressway, Tom says "How about if we forget about Holland and head to Cabellas and buy that tent you want? Then we can set it up in the back yard and test it out tonight." So we drove to the Hammond, Indiana Cabellas.
But I have to tell you about our brunch stop! We started getting hungry around Benton Harbor and got off I-94 at what Tom's says he thinks was the Niles Rd exit for a Mickey D's stop. There were something like 10 cars in line for the drive-thru and the inside looked pretty busy, too, so we decided to go across the street to Sophie's Pancake House and have a sit-down meal. OMG! The food was fabulous! We could have ordered one meal and fed all four of us! I ordered blueberry pancakes and the waitress informed me that a full order was four plate sized pancakes. I asked the the shortstack and was informed that was three but I could get a "side order" of two plate size pancakes. I asked what kind of fruit was on the fruit plate and she started rattling off a long list...I stopped her and told her I was fine with anything but watermelon. I ordered the single serving fruit plate. When it arrived at the table it was on an oversized dinner plate with a bowl of cottage cheese topped with a peach half and a cherry and surrounded with fresh strawberries then arranged around the bowl were two banana halves, two huge chunks of fresh pineapple, four cantaloupe wedges, four honeydew wedges, and several orange slices. I shared it with the girls and we still couldn't finish it all. If that was the single serving, I don't want to know how much came on the larger fruit platter! Oh, and it came with raisin bread toast. Kacie ordered a cheese burger that was huge and it came with fries, coleslaw, and soup (not a choice of one of the three)! Joann ordered biscuits and gravy which came with eggs. When they brought that out it was a full plate of five biscuits covered with gravy then another plate with FOUR eggs, hashbrowns, and toast! That would be two seperate meals to me. lol Tom ordered an omlette. The omlette was nearly plate sized and included hashbrowns plus he was offered pancakes instead of toast so those filled another plate. All that food plus our beverages came to less than $10 per person. So, if you are travelling I-94 between Detroit and Chicago and find yourself getting hungry around Benton Harbor, I highly recommend Sophie's. After rolling ourselves out to the car and releasing a few burps we continued on to Cabellas.
We were very dissapointed to find that Cabellas didn't stock the tent or the "Wag Bags" that I wanted in the store so, after browsing around a bit and letting the girls photograph all of the dead animals, all we bought was a set of solar garden lights.
Back up the highway 15-20 miles was a Bass Pro shop so we stopped there to see what kind of tents they had. I had never visited a Bass Pro shop before and must say that I liked the old-time camp vignettes decorating the store much better than Cabella's stuffed dead animal displays. lol While they did have a nice assortment of nylon tents, Bass Pro Shop didn't have any canvas tents in stock, either, so I will be ordering off the Cabella's web site. I did, however, find my Wag Bags. :D Now, while I don't particularly enjoy it, I can hover and pee in a pit toilet or port-o-john but I simply cannot do a BM in one and not going for several days is not an option. I'm going to try my own private potty with the wag bags and see how that works. We also bought a camp lantern that is powered by winding and a DVD on cooking with a cast iron dutch oven in a campfire. I still have to ask Kacie if the garden lights or the Wag Bags are my Mother's Day gift from her.

Aren't they purty?

Tom and I have recently met some people from out local Society of Creative Anachronism and attended our first event. Now we are preparing for our first three day camping event in mid June. While it isn't required or expected I would like to try to decorate our tent to look like a 16th century Florentine Italian camera or bedchamber. Last week I found a couple of woven shawls/throws on clearance at TJ Maxx that I can toss over a chair or use as tablecloths as well as two clearance curtain panels at BB&B in a red and gold chenile jaquard that I think will look good as hangings behind the bed or even as "carpets" on the floor. Today I went back to BB&B and scored four red silk curtain panels that add up over nine yards of fabric for $25! For now I will use them as wallhangings or throws or whatever but I plan to eventually cut them up and make a gown from them. :) Pictured here are the perfectly gorgeous majolica plates I found at Pier 1. They look so much like the period majolica I'v seen online that I had to have them. Unfortunately, they were not on clearance so I only bought the two plates. I'll probably go back next week and buy two to four more. LOL The other photo is a trinket box made in Italy that I found on ebay. I thought it was cute with the little heraldic devices painted on it.

Shoes Glorious Shoes!

No, I cannot take credit for these fabulous shoes. They were made for me by Lady Oren of Lady Oren's Medieval Shoes. I think she did such a beautiful job of reproducing the shoe in the image (Gorgio Vasari and Giovanni Stradano, The Arrival of Leo X in Florence, as shown on pages 94 &144 of Moda a Firenze 1540-1580 by Landini and Niccoli) that I just had to show them off!