Before I forget it all

[chargirlgenius]

I'm exhausted. But in a good way. It was that kind of a weekend (week, month, several months...).

As you all know, I've been busy sewing in a mad dash to finish Jeff's doublet. I took of Thursday afternoon to make progress, and Friday afternoon so that we could get there in time to set up. While there's still work to do, I finished the last stitch on the last eyelet (that I was planning on) AS we pulled into the parking lot at Jamestown. Fantastic.

Despite some mild confusion at the beginning of the weekend with various bits and pieces, everything seemed to fall into place quite well. At the end of Saturday, I felt that we were totally ON all day. Apparently, the judges thought so too. Military Through the Ages is a judged living history event, and we entered three categories: costuming, camp demonstration, and cooking. We took home blue ribbons in the first two, and second in cooking!

Highlights:

• Boy clothes! stitchwhich and her apprentices did all of the finishing on four boy tunics and a G63. I really could not have gotten everything done without them. And they looked great!
  
• Edward was apparently paying quite a bit of attention to the rest of the camp. Midday on Sunday, I looked out and saw him in the middle of a crowd of children, holding a (wooden) sword, passing another wooden sword to another kid, and then controlling the tip of the other sword, just like Sir Geoffrey did all day. Tonight, Eddie told me that he wants to "be a grown up who teaches other people to swordfight." Awww.
  
• By Sunday, both boys were engaging the crowd, handing out swords and toy horses to the kids, and showing how to play with them. Henry was telling kids to try on the maille shirt, "because my daddy makes everybody do it."
  
• smiep was the "nurse" to the Peel boys, so I was a lady in the tent all day. It was weird. I worked on small projects, talked to people, and had to come up with completely different things to say than I normally do. The boys have always been the subject of my interpretations, so I had to find other things to talk about.
  
• Interpreting this scenario was fun. ichseke and I had a great time coming up with new ways to be distressed about camping in a tent like soldiers. *sniff*
  
• Coming up with first person ways to explain who we were was also fun. In response to "what war are you reenacting?" I came up with "We've been at war with the French since my grandfather's time, it feels like this could go on for a Hundred Years." Watching people nod knowingly and act like they were predicting the future at me was amusing.
  
• The weather was good and bad. The good is that it was not raining, it was not cold, and it was not miserable. Yay! According to weather.com it hit 82 on Saturday, and 79 on Sunday.
  
• I managed to get Edward to nap on Sunday. He was so cute sleeping in the tent, and nobody asked if he was a real baby!
  
• Henry and Aaron seemed to really bond when it was just the two of them. They ran off behind the tent, drew pictures in the dirt with sticks, and had a grand time.
  
• Chatting with the costume director (I think?) from Williamsburg, who showed up in a gorgeous polonaise, with perfect hair and hat. I just wanted to shrink her into a doll and take her home with me. So pretty.
  

Lowlights:

• The weather. It wasn't cold and miserable, but it was pretty warm and VERY sunny. The boys ended up with quite the heat rash all over their bodies, despite liberal applications of SPF 85, and pretty lightweight clothing. It was simply too much time in the sun.
  
• I didn't get ANY pictures. Since we were walking in from the car carrying what we needed, the only modern thing I brought into camp was a tiny tube of sunblock. No camera. A few pictures have shown up on facebook, but if you see any, please point me in that direction!
  
• Chocolate ice cream. Yeah, it's a lowlight. When you're talking about a three year old eating it while wearing a light green wool tunic. *sigh*
  

Just plain weird:

• Crazy re-encarnation girl! We get all sorts of people in camp. One girl just stood around quietly for a good long time, and then started peppering me with questions about knights. She was asking about "typical" knights, and kept persisting when I mentioned that typical could be a lot of different things. She eventually asked me "can you tell me everything that you know about knights?" I finally foisted her on poor ichseke to field the questions I couldn't answer, but at that point, the girl informed us that she believes in reencarnation and was certain that she was a French knight following around Joan of Arc in a former life. Oooohhhh-kay. I'm not one to say that somebody is wrong, per se, but she just. wouldn't. stop. Oy. ANYway. She stuck around for well over an hour asking the same questions over and over and over and over...
  

All in all, a fantastic event. I felt really good about our impression, and learned a lot, and at the same time realized how very much I have yet to learn. There's SO much that I have to figure out by the time I can comfortably answer most questions.

Now, I'm looking forward to MTT in less than four weeks. I'd like to get two dressed made for myself by then, so that I can more appropriately portray Lady Joan Peel. Oy! Tonight, I worked on cleaning the dining/sewing room, so I can have a fresh sewing start. I need at very least a new overgown, but I will need a new foundation garment for underneath. I'm debating which silk to use, and for what layers. Anybody know where to find silver or gilt buttons?

I'm going to try and finish uploading pics of the doublet progress, but that'll have to happen on another evening...

Here's a side shot of Jeff in his doublet, kind of in the background.

I have found ONE shot of me on Facebook:

Comments

[ichseke.livejournal.com]

It was huge fun, wasn't it? Let's do it again!

[chargirlgenius.livejournal.com]

It was! And we should! I'm free in about four weeks... :-)

[sasha-khan.livejournal.com]

At our timeline at Fort MacArthur one year, we had a young fellow who told many of the groups pretty much the same thing - which was particularly funny when he tried that on the Desert Storm guys...

[caemfind.livejournal.com]

The first year I was in the SCA a guy showed up asking all about kings. He thought he was a medieval king in a former life and wanted to find out how to be one in this life. Once the guys explained Crown Tournament to him he was less keen and we never saw him again.

You all look wonderful! I would have died in a wimple and veil!

[marionred.livejournal.com]

every demo has one... the crazy person.. Solvarr once got leaf Erickson's great grand daughter. never mind that She was a couple greats off.

[dragonazure.livejournal.com]

Leif the famous explorer or Leif the 1970's stadium rock star?

8^P

[brickhousewench.livejournal.com]

I thought I might have some pictures of you guys, because you're so awesome and your kids are so cute. But I seemed to have material culture on the brain again last weekend. Almost all my pictures are of barber-surgeon's tools and pitchers and shovels. =(

[baronesspixie.livejournal.com]

You ever notice that when people claim reincarnation like that, they're always somebody important? No one is ever the poor woman who was up at dawn every day of her (short) life to make the bread for those knights, whom the history books neglect and who never lived in luxury... Sigh.

[chargirlgenius.livejournal.com]

What was funny is that she kept insisting that Knights were *really low* on the totem pole. She asked why we portrayed a knightly household, and I mentioned that it’s much easier to find information on that class than on the details of the common peasant. Sure, there are some records out there, but relatively few vice the upper classes.

Of course, the knights are lower on the totem pole than dukes and earls, but compared to the vast majority of the population they were still much better off! She didn’t seem to want to accept that. So, I guess in her mind, she was previously of humble origin…

[chartreusekitty.livejournal.com]

Love the headdresses!!! It sounds like you had a wonderful time, and congratulations on your winnings!

[aeliakirith.livejournal.com]

Congrats!!