Life in General

Well life in general is good here.

The geese are all doing well! They are so cute! Michael swears they have doubled in size, I dn't know about that though.

He says cause I am with them all day, that I don't notice, but he does..

Projects are going well.

I tried a new style of Calligraphy last night called Gothic. I really did not care for it. I much prefer my Italic.

I have one sleeve left to do and I will be done with the chemise I am doing blackwork on. And I am so excited cause I am getting a new dress for SCA out of the deal! It is gonna be so pretty!

I am at a standstill on my tablet weaving though.

Spinning is going well as always! We are going to be shearing the sheep in April or May and I can't wait to spin theirs! I am so excited about that..

I need to get some new pictures of the sheep and some more pictures of the geese and post them. Hopefully I can do that soon.

Geese are here!

I got my geese today! YAYYYY

Six Toulouse Goslings! :) They are so cute! Well see for yourself! :)

What is really neat is I will say something to them and they will chatter back at me! :) They are th neatest things!

Oh and I decided on names! I am going with the dwarves! :) So please meet Happy, Grumpy, Sleepy, Dopey, Sneezy and Bashful. :)

Getting Geese!

We are going to get our geese tomorrow! YAYYY

They got here a day early and I am so excited to see them I can't see straight. But it will be tomorrow before I get the chance..

We won't be home til late tomorrow night so it will be Sat before I can take any pictures..

I am trying to decide between these two sets of names for the geese.

Choices 1:

Almond
Walnut
Hazelnut
Brazilnut
Peanut
Macadamia Nut

Choices 2:

Happy
Sleepy
Grumpy
Bashful
Sneezy
Dopey

If anyone has any other suggestions or you like either of my two sets of choices, let me know.

New Additions

Well next week we will be getting new additions to our family! Six Toulouse Geese! :) Actually they will be goslings, only a few days old when we get them.

I can't wait!

It is gonna be so neat to have geese. I never have before and I never thought I would be able to talk Michael into it. But I did. :)

They are gonna be pets, but I will also be gathering their quills to use for my Calligraphy! :)

And no, you do NOT pluck the geese. You wait until they molt (which basically means when they shed their feathers) , which is in June or July, and then you pick them up off the ground. So I won't have any feathers actually until next year, because they don't molt til they are at least a year old.

I will post pictures as soon as I get them. :)

I will also get some new pictures of the boys and post them soon too..

Snag in Project

Well I have hit a small snag in my project! Vellum. And I mean true made from animal skin vellum. It is VERY expensive..

Put it this way, one 8 X 10 sheet is $31.95 and eventually I am gonna need 33 pages! That is a total of EEEK $1054! Okay, we may have to re-think this project a bit..

I don't think my husband is gonna let me spend that much on an SCA project!

So back to the drawing board.

Several Projects

Well I am about to embark on a couple of new projects.

The first one is a re-creation of the letter Princess Elizabeth sent to her brother King Edward VI in 1552 when he was ill.

I am still in the process of verifying if the letter was written on vellum or on paper. I do know that it was written in Italic Calligrapy with brown ink. The ink was more than likely Oak gall ink, which I am again going to attempt to make.

I have the oak galls ordered, and Ilaria most kindly gave me some gum arabic to work with. So as soon as the oak galls arrive, I will try again.

The second project is the big one! I really want to re-create the "middle english coronation ceremony" You can see a copy of it here: http://www.chronique.com/Library/MedHistory/coronacion.htm

However, they do not show the original document, only the words. I am on the trail of the original though.. This is just a small part of the Liber Regalis, which is actually 33 pages long! Now wouldn't that be neat to re-create?

I am going to have to learn a new style of Calligraphy for this though, Gothic. Not sure I am crazy about that though.. We shall see how it goes..

I may be biting off more than I can chew at the moment.

On another note, I got a new magnification lamp this past weekend! YAYY So now I can finish the blackwork I started. And also I may have a new project in that coming up. Sometimes I wonder if I will ever get my skirt done.

I am just never motivated to work on it, if it is something for me. I don't know why that is. Maybe because I enjoy doing things for others instead.

Hopefully I will be able to get with Bran soon to find out which pattern he wants for his trim, so I can start tablet weaving that, and also he wanted some blackwork for one of his shirts, on the cuffs.. That won't take long though. :)

Also I am trying to find a pattern for my tablet weaving. A Rose pattern. There is a competiton coming up and the theme is "The War of the Roses" so I thought it would be neat to do a red and white rose, but so far I can't find a pattern. And I am not advanced enough to design my own.

Oh well, will just do the best I can for now.