Pictures from Last Weekend - First, huge thank you's to the grand numbers of people here (and elsewhere) who've been sending me their congratulations. I'm so thankful for the friends and family in my life, and you're been warming my heart greatly.

Next, I got the photos up online for the rest of the Bard of Caid competition. Robert is one of my newest friends in the barony, and using my camera he took the majority of these pictures for me:

(By the way, the young man in the photo above, is the "son of the bard" in the lyrics of "Mara's Song." Isn't he just adorable?!)

Plus a handful of these came from my roomie's camera. And isn't her tall hat just amazing?!

Monday Evening - Baronial council was its same ol' fun gathering of my friends, working to do good things for our local SCA branch. Kim made the cutest little origami ball throughout the meeting... one of these days I should learn to do that!

Afterwards, four of us went to dinner separately to brainstorm about the nature of kingdom events, feasts, dances, court events, the passion for fancy garb, theatre, music, and how the local culture has changed over time. There were some things that seemed disappointing to a few of them, about whether 12th Night was under-attended or not, and so we started thinking about how to improve specific events and the culture in general over time. No specific plans yet, but possibly some scheming to work on.

Embroidered Silk "Underwear" - In our costuming from the middle ages, the white dress you wear against your skin is often called your "underwear," but is properly called the chemise. Most of my chemises are linen (or some older ones that are linen-blends), because most of the weather in Southern CA is hot. Linen is very cool to wear, and feels good even when you're sweating and wearing several layers. But when it's cold, silk would be even warmer.

I had cut out a chemise from raw silk several years ago, and the pieces languished in my project boxes, ignored for a while. When we held our project day before the Bard of Caid competition, I assembled the chemise before starting my brand new Turkish coat. I put it away in my "hand-work" bag, to do the hemming and edges later.

Our friend Tom was browsing a rummage sale or something, and ran across some turn of the century (100-years ago) magazines, in which some silk embroidery floss had been tucked away. He gave the silk to my roomie, and I've been so impressed with the find that she finally gave me two of the skeins of silk. I tucked the copper brown silk into the hand-work back with the beige silk chemise, and forgot about it.

This week, I took the bag out Tuesday evening and rediscovered the silk. Both my roomie and I believe in using antiques, and so we're both using the silk embroidery floss from 1906. She's adding silk embroidery to her linen chemise for the Ren Faire this summer, and I've started using the silk on my silk chemise now. It thrills me to no end that I'm "embroidering my silk underwear."

Extra Organized - I've also spent all week working on my 2008 calendars, both online and hanging on the wall, plus my online calendars are what I print and put into my 3-ring organizer binder. Last night I finally gathered all my birthday and anniversary calendar information into one master tracker, so I can plan better to send cards and/or gifts this year. Already I've been remembering to email my friends more often, and even reconnected with one friend I hadn't heard from in over 3 years, just because it was his birthday. I love getting things back in order again! Even at home, I've been cleaning up the clutter on some of my bookcase shelves, which is the closest to "home improvement" I can do in a rented apartment. I still need to send my Christmas thank you cards / New Years' Greetings (eep) but I should have that finished very soon.

This weekend is packed with running around: My great-aunt is in the hospital, so a large group of my family is meeting for lunch first and then going to the hospital together. Afterwards, I'm driving up to the Collegium in my college town, to be there in time for dinner and "State of the Bardic Community" discussion. I'm not sure who I'm staying overnight with, but there are lots of friends in town with whom I could crash -- any ol' couch or sheepskin is fine. *grin* Then Sunday, I'll come back home to my barony, and go to the monthly Clothiers meeting where I'll be helping make award cords and other largesse for the kingdom. [That reminds me, I'll have to pack my "more string better" before heading out Saturday morning!]

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
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Today's Blessing That I'm Thankful For: Greg D, I hope you have a fantastic birthday celebration this week! I miss you and Craig, bunches.