Storm here!

Well it has been icing here all day today. We have gotten also about three inches of snow til tonight and now we are up to about six to eight inches.. All on top of probably three to four inches of ice!

I am VERY thankful, however, that the power has not gone out! I have all my critters to worry about.. We are ready though if it does go out.. We have all sorts of water in containers for us and the critters, we have sources of heat available and we also have an nifty thing called a "Black and Decker Storm Station" It has flashlight, room light, a/c adpater to plug in a cell phone, and also you can tune in all sorts of radio stations and even some of the tv stations (to listen to only)..

I will try and take some pictures tomorrow and post them.

Storm Coming!

Well according to the weather report we are supposed to get ice and snow tonight and all day tomorrow!

Since we live in the country and have a well, I have been going around all day filling up containers with water, moving animal's water containers closer to the house, etc..

I also made sure all the laundry was done just in case..

They are talking about five to six inches of snow on top of the ice! ARGGGGGGGG

We may lose power, so if no one sees me online for a few days don't panic...

We are hoping to go to the Oakheart event on Saturday, but will just depend on the weather.

Display cloth aggravations!

Well I have run into my first snag with my display cloth! I had almost one whole corner done, when I realized the pattern was too small! ARGGGGGG So I have had to take out all the stitches and start over making it bigger this time! ARGGGGGG

And let me tell you, if you have never done any type of needlework, it is a pain in the butt to take out stitches!

Other than that, things are good here.

My finger is all better now! YAYYYY..

The sheep are as funny as ever! And I am finally making TRUE progress with Ernie! And to think all it took was a bucket! Now I can finally pet him and he doesn't just jump and run, he actually lets me scratch his face! WOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I am so happy! :)

Mortar & Pestel

YAYY, I found me a Mortar and Pestel yesterday! It is gorgeous! At least I think so.. I know I know, it doesn't need to look pretty, just function.. :) But oh well, I have both. :)

I also got this little jar with it. It is really neat, but not sure what I am gonna use it for.. I thought of putting ink in it, but the lid is not tight enough and Michael says I can't fix it where it would be.. :(

Maybe I can put dry oak galls and iron sulfate in it to store, or for disply.. hmm now there is an idea.. It isn't real big though.. Maybe 2 inches tall..

Last episode!

Oh what a night!

Tonight we watched the last disc in season 7 of Deep Space 9! That is it for Deep Space 9..

I cried and cried at the end of it... It wasn't sad, just very emotional..

So now Michael and are I on the hunt for a new series to watch..

We have already watched Babylon 5 and we are not interested in Voyager or Enterprise. So we will see

Shopping day!

Michael and I went to Springfield today, to go to the library and get some shopping done..

1st we went to Walmart so I could get some stuff to send over to Bill--he is the friend of ours that is in Ramadi. We got him a summer sausage, some crackers, some mixed nuts, etc.

Then we went to SAMS club and got egg rolls, biscotti, washclothes, etc.. All sorts of stuff..

We dropped the stuff for Bill off at Galla's and then came home.

One of my fingers is infected, not sure from what, so I am having a hard time typing, writing, etc.. I was gonna work on my calligraphy tomorrow, but so much for that unless my finger is a lot better..

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

What a day I have had..

It started yesterday when I made the stuffing and got the sweet potatoes ready..

Then this morning, I got up at 6:30 and put the turkey in the oven!

Everything was finally ready about noon and boy how we stuffed ourselves! And then we went to my mother in laws for dinner and stuffed ourselves even more!

And it isn't over yet! We are going back over there Sat evening because my brother in law is gonna be in town and we are gonna have dinner again! Oh I am gonna be so tired of turkey after this weekend!

New Pics of Bert and Ernie

They have decided that their haystack is the perfect play to eat and play!

I took these pictures this afternoon. :)

Documents!

YIPPPEEEE.. This is what I have been looking for! Photos of "actual" documents that have been cut in half! Or I should say both halves of the document to prove that it is true!

Thanks to Illaria pointing me in the right direction and to the right person!

I put the links on my page below so that way if anyone else needs them, they are there.

http://www.dur.ac.uk/medieval.documents/pages/4-16-spec-45b_t.htm

http://www.dur.ac.uk/medieval.documents/pages/1-4-spec-95_i.htm

http://www.cai.cam.ac.uk/college/archive/exhib/anni/indenture.php

Ink Update--Copperas

Okay Bran and I were both wrong.. Copperas is NOT Copper Sulfate---see definition below!

Copperas--Ferrous sulphate crystal - or copperas as it is more commonly known - is a highly versatile iron chemical..

It is Iron Sulfate! So my first theory was right! :) Long story..

So now I just need to get the oak galls--Thank you Bran by the way, and the gum arabic--Thank you in Advance Illaria, and get it set up!

Now I just pray--cross my fingers, knock on wood, etc., that this will all work and I will have enough time to experiment with the period ink (if I get the recipe right) before Queen's Prize!

Kremer Pigments

A friend of mine, Anika, directed me to this website to find Oak galls, a.k.a gallnuts. :)

Here is the website to it:

www.kremer-pigmente.de/englisch/krpigm061


They have all sorts of neat things..

Last Race!

Well today is the last race of the Nascar season. Sigh, after today no more racing til February! How will I stand it!

The Nextel Cup Championship is very very close and yes, Dale Jr, STILL has a shot at it! WOO HOOO!

It will all be decided later today!

Go Dale Jr!

Ink--Update!

Well my foray into ink is still a bit dismal.. sigh..

The one recipe I found from 1481 is actually a recipe for "secret" ink. You would probably call it invisible ink now.. It is made so that you could actually write a secret message and then the person recieving it could do something to it to make the letters appear..

It is really cool to find a period recipe for that, but not what I need.

However, I believe I have found another recipe that I CAN use, I just have to get the book from the library.. And for once luck is on my side! It is actually in my local library and it is on the shelf! WHOOO HOOO! So everyone keep their fingers crossed that I actually find what I need!

The down side to all of this though is still my lack of Oak Galls. I found one website I can order them, but it is gonna be expensive. Or I should say it could get expensive! Especially since I have no idea how many I need.

Table/Display Cloth

One of my new projects is I am making a display cloth to go over the table when I enter my projects into competitions..

I am doing a border design in blackwork just around the four courners and then between those borders I am putting my device on each side of the cloth.. It is gonna be really neat when I am done. See my device at left.

Once I have more done, I will take a picture and post it.

Cold, Wet, Dreary and YIPEEEEEEEEE

Okay first the Cold, Wet, and Dreary! It has been about 45 degrees here today and raining all day long.. Not only that, but very very very windy.. They were talking about the wind gust today were 40mph!

I drive a mini van and boy was I getting blown all over the road today!

Now for the YIPEEEEEEEEE

Thanks to a friend of mine, Anika, I found a place to buy oak galls! YAYYYYYY
She had been on a site, buying pigments for gessos and paint, etc and remembered seeing oak galls for sale! I'm saved! Well sorta..

I still have to find a good recipe for ink--so far have found two from the late 1400's and one from the late 1500's. I also have to be able to "get" the oak galls. That may take some time due to money. Such is life!

But I am going further along the right path! :)

Also, this is for Bran mostly.. I had found the Ink Corosion web site before you did Oh fearless leader! And I thought it was a good "primary" source, not the site itself, but the recipe because the site actually lists not only the recipes, but copies of the ACTUAL book it came from! And you can click on the "complete copy of that one book" and look at the actual book online and that first recipe, you can also bring up the original page it from the book..

Ink

Whoever thought that ink would be such a diffacult subject?

It is about to drive me nuts!

Not only the research of it and the lack of recipes, but the making of it as well.

And all I ever wanted to do is write calligraphy, never thought it would turn into this much trouble!

But, I DO want to do "more period" projects! So have to bite the bullet..

Just wish I could find what I need to.. sigh..

Bert and Ernie!

YAYY got new pics of the boys!

The first one is of Bert, he is the white one.. He has a very strange expression on his face! :)

The second on is of Ernie, he is the black/gray one. He had his head tilted so it looks like he only has one eye! But I promise he does have 2! :)

I just got done spending my daily time with them.. I try to spend at least 20 min to an hour with them every day (just depends on how cold it is outside).. They can stand the cold but I can't!

They will both do anything for an animal cookie! :)

Saturday, November 11, 2006

Today was a good day! I went down to Galla's for a sewing day.. I didn't sew, I worked on my spinning.

There were four of us there all together! Me, Galla, Diedre and Nicole! Deidre has the cutest little girl! Her name is Alexus--Lexi for short and she is 14 months old! Oh she is adorable.

We had a really good time, talking and playing with Lexi.

Tomorrow if the weather is good, I am gonna take some updated pictures of the boys and post them!

Friday, November 10, 2006

Well today the Governor is going to be at the Veteran's Home. That is where Michael works. And let me tell you everything is a zoo over there!

I thought about going over there, but Michael has enough going on all day today without me in the way!

I know he is supposed to give a speech to the Veterans and I am not sure what else is going on.

It is pretty quiet here today. I am working on my blackwork and my spinning.

I have set aside my Calligraphy right now as I am very frustrated with this project!

Election results!

I am VERY VERY Unhappy!

McCaskill won State Senate--:(

Amendment 2--Stem Cell--Passed--:(---VERY VERY VERY Unhappy on this!

Amdendment 6-Tobacco tax--Failed--:(

The only good thing that happened was the minimum wage got increased!

I can't believe people are so stupid! They vote to destroy life in two ways. 1st to murder embryos that ARE life and they have no right to be playing God with them! Doing their "experiments" on them and no matter what they say they ARE gonna mess with cloning! And they say "all" they are doing is trying to find cures! Yeah right! This is just horrible! And I can promise you it is gonna cause a lot more problems than it is gonna solve, if it solves any for that matter!

And 2nd to vote against protecting our children from cigarettes and tobacco! How can anyone be so blind? It is like the whole state just went "we don't care about our children"!

This is all just nuts!

Voting!

I went and voted today! YAYY..

Lets see I voted for an independent for Senate.. I can't stand McCaskil OR Talent!

There were a lot of local people on our ballot too so I wont' go into those.. But I will say that I did mostly vote Republican on everything else..

I voted AGAINST Amendment 2--Stem Cell Research

I voted for FOR Amendment 3--Tobacco Tax

I voted FOR Amendment 6 --Veterans

I voted FOR Amendment 7--Judges issue.

I voted FOR Proposition B--Raising of minimum wage

And I know Michael is voting the same way I am, except for one issue. We will cancel each other out on that one. I won't say which one though.. I don't mind stating my feelings on here, but I am not gonna post how he feels on here unless he says I can.

YAYYYY!

YAYYY! I finally have my Calligraphy project completely written out on period paper, so I know how big it needs to be! This is my Apprentice contract and it is done in Italic hand.

The first picture is closer up, so you can see the words but not the whole document! The second picture is of the whole document. I had to zoom way out to get that one!

As you can see it still needs some work, but I am getting there!

I am so excited about this! I can't wait to do the final project!

Dreary Monday

Well today is another wet cold, dreary day!

Went to the store, got a few things, and came home.

Now gonna work on my spinning, calligraphy and blackwork.

One more day and Michael will be back from the lake! YAYYY..

Sunday

Well it has been a very rainy drizzily day here..

Michael and I went to Springfield today, he took me to Cheddars for lunch! YUM! I ate way too much like I always do!

Then we went to Home Depot. After that he headed up to the lake, he is going to work on that house again!

I went to Walmart and came home.

Yesterday Michael finished the shelter for the boys (the sheep) and it is really cool! :) We are both very happy with it. They boys aren't so sure yet! heheheh they are still investigating it. :)

Bad News!

Well bad news for me!

We are not going to Crown Tourney after all.. Due to several sets of happenings..

Oh well, not the end of the world.. And Michael is planning on putting the time to good use! He is gonna build a shelter for the sheep next to the carport (this is part of their pen, by the way), and he is gonna help me clean house (YAYYY), and then he is gonna go back up to the lake to work on the house he is building.. No not for us! I wish!

So gotta un-pack my projects and get back to work!

Today!

Well I have had an intersting day so far!

Went to Springfield, had lunch with Galla Zandra (another friend in the SCA), then went to best buy and spent all of my $30 gift certificates. :) I got two dvds! "Phantom of the Opera" (the newer version) and "An Officer and a Gentleman" OH I love Richard Gere!

Then I came home.

The plans for the rest of my day include working on my Calligraphy, Spinning, doing dishes, and making dinner. Then when hubby gets home at five, we will sit down and watch the latest disc of Star Trek Deep Space Nine.. We get these through Netfilx and we are about halfway through Season 7 now.

Since this will be over soon (there are only 7 seasons), we are still trying to figure out what to start watching together next!