It's a Girl!

Stephanie had an ultrasound earlier this week and found out that Jelly Bean is a girl. Now I can go into full on Grandma shopping mode. :giggle:

Shopping fun!

I scored a fantastic deal on a Savonarola chair on ebay over the weekend. My winning bid was only $31! It is costing another $38 for shipping but $69 total is still a great deal!

Today while I was wasting time online searchig for some afforable pewter bowls (that aren't Queen Anne style) to add to our feast gear I came across these skull beads and purchased them with the idea of making a strand of prayer beads similar to this 16th century Spanish paternoster.

The Bed

While I was sewing yesterday Tom built my rope bed. This one was our practice run to get the measurements down and see how it was going to work so it is made out of $20 worth of pine 2x6's. It still needs to be sanded and stained and have the headboard added but we were eager to put it together and try it out. I am happy to report that it was quite comfortable! I am really looking forward to our first SCA camping event at the end of May now.

Sewin' sewin' sewin'...

Keep those fingers sewin'! (Sung to the tune of "Rawhide" :giggle:)
Saturday was such a beautiful spring day that I sat outside and worked on sewing hems on Tom's tunics. That tune just kept running through my head as I was sewing. I've finished the brown with green and green with navy tunics but this project is soooo boring that I haven't been eager to work on them. The two finished linen tunics along with the two wool ones will get him through the upcoming weekend campouts. He won't need the rest of them until Pennsic in August so I think I'll set them aside and work on something else for awhile.

Birthday

I had a nice low-key birthday celebration. We had to work around everyone's school and work schedules. Kim couldn't miss class because she had a test and Jason had an errand after work so we had a late dinner with cake and ice cream. Kim and Lou gave me cash with instructions to spend it on books(they didn't know if I wanted to buy from the local book store or order from Amazon or B&N)so I ordered two medieval cookbooks from Amazon this morning. Jason and Stephanie gave me a gift card for JoAnn's which I used today along with a coupon for an additional 20% off my purchase including sale prices :) to buy 7 yards of linen at $6/yd along with some other sewing and scrapbooking supplies. My gift from Tom is my rope bed that he bought the wood for yesterday and started working on today (that and the money to pay for my trip to Georgia next month).

My Playhouse

:giggle: Since my childhood wasn't much fun I look at the SCA as my opportunity to fulfill my need for fantasy and playing dress up just as much as it fits into my love of learning. So, anyway, after returning our first tent because of a hole in the roof the replacement arrived and Tom set it up in the back yard a couple of days ago. FYI- We chose a modern canvas tent (10'x14' Kodiak Flexbow)for three reasons: So that Tom can put it up quickly without any help, so it can be used for mundane camping yet blend in with the period tents a bit better than a nylon dome tent, and we just aren't ready to make the investment in a period pavillion (either the money to purchase one or the effort to make one). I had been too busy with other things to check it out until this morning. I set up the bed and a couple of chairs to get an idea of the space we will have to live in for eight days this summer and I think we will be comfortable. The mattress is just sitting up on bins of fabric and garb right now but the plan is for Tom to make a rope bed that sits up high enough to slide six bins under it. The nice looking trunks will go on either side of the bed. Once I aquire some rugs the tapestry curtain panels you see on the floor and bed will be hung behind the chairs and/or the bed.

Prom Shopping

Since Kacie is on spring break this week we've taken some time to go shopping for her junior prom. We went dress shopping at the Rivertown Crossings mall on Monday and found her dress at Younkers. While many of the dresses were way more than I had expected to pay this one was a bit under and we both knew it was "the dress" as soon as she put it on. Kim thinks the back is a little too bare but *I* think it looks elegant. You all will just have to wait a few weeks for pics of Kacie in it and decide for yourselves. lol We headed to the DSW on the other end of town yesterday and found some pretty shoes to go with it. As for jewelry I don't think the dress needs a necklace and Kacie hasn't decided if she wants to just wear the pink tourmaline earrings that she wears every day or if she will borrow some of my sparkly dangly earrings.

Assembly Line Tunics

I've started on the linen tunics for Tom's summer camping garb. I measured and cut all five on Saturday then pinned all the gussets and gores on Tuesday and started sewing the first one. When it came time to cut the neck and figure out the facing/trim I pulled out my circle template from The Crafter's Workshop and the rotarty cutter I got free when I purchased my paper trimmer. I love it when I can use my scrapbooking supplies on my sewing projects! LOL Today I got the first one done except for the hemming (I'm still undecided whether or not to do the contrasting fabric at the hem) and the gussets and gores sewn on the second one. They will be brown trimmed with green, green trimmed with navy, navy trimmed with rust, rust trimmed with teal, and teal trimmed with brown.

Mmmm...Fabric!

JoAnn's has been redeemed in my eyes! I know I have complained several times about the half-aisle of crappy scrap supplies and the limited selection of fabrics at my local store. The new humongous Superstore just opened so I headed there this morning with my coupon to 20% off my entire purchase and LOVED the place! The scrapbooking section was a big as the entire store near me and looked to have a better selection of desirable products but I resisted the urge to browse that area because I was there for fabric. Most fabric stores around here much of what they offer as "linen" is poly-rayon linen weave crap with a few bolts of linen blends mixed in. Well this new store had at least 15 different colors of REAL 100% LINEN!!! After some internal debate I did opt for the linen rayon blends at half the price since I have a lot of garb to make before camping SCA season but I will defintely be going back for my next 100% linen purchase. Anyway, I bought enough fabric, matching thread, and misc. to make five tunics for Tom and a dress for me for under $90!
I read recently that just about any color can be achieved with natural dyes so there is no reason to restrict yourself to muddy earth tones to appear "period". Taking that to heart I chose olive, teal, navy, rust, and brown for Tom's tunics and intend to trim each with one of the contrasting colors. I have the fabrics all prewashed and ironed so I'll be starting soon! (These are the strips I tore off to even up the cut ends.)

I purchased a reddish purple for my dress shown below with the navy and seafoam green I already had planned for camping dresses.