A Short Week, but man! Did it feel LONG!

So I am sure you are all super impressed that I managed to blog almost every day last week...I knew it wouldn't last forever, but there was so much to catch up on...

It has been a little boring at work, with me loosing work because I will be leaving, and it is Summer so there isn't as much going on, unless it is an emergency. Which is fine I guess, but makes the day very long. Along with not sleeping very well at night, this doesn't help with me wanting to be at work.

I have to say my pregnancy has been really spectacular health wise. No major issues, lowest blood pressure EVER, and just minor symptoms. For me I get really bad heartburn, and my lower back and hips have been killing me. I roll over in the night and my pelvis pops...really loud. Loud enough for Jeff to hear it! :P So I have had to sleep on my side, so all my weight sits there and that means that I can get about an hour to hour and a half of actual sleeping until it starts hurting and I need to roll over. This disturbs EVERYONE! The cats and Jeff. I am sure Lance is fed up of me bouncing around. So what happens now is that I at about 3AM I have woken myself up...no getting comfortable and no sleep. Last night I had to move to the couch just to get into a different space. I guess I need to get used to no sleep, but man does it suck!

On another note, my hormones are working overtime...I got teary eyed yesterday because I had order a caramel Sunday at Costco and 3 people after got served before me! I wanted my DAMN ice cream!!!

I get back to the table and Jeff says "What's wrong"

"Nothing"

"Did someone step on your foot?"

"JUST DROP IT!" I say forcefully with tears in my eyes.

He gives me the wide eye look and shuts up. Stupid hormones! Can you believe it?!? Just wait till I give birth. Ugh!

I can laugh now, but it sure wasn't funny yesterday. Then I had a nap.

Update on the baby room - well it is 70% cleaned out, my Mom and Memere are coming up tonight to see if we can sort the rest out and the spare room too. Now that place is an explosion! I will be surprised if they can even find the bed again! The house is a quasi disaster, but the living room as stay uber clean...it is everywhere else now. But I guess we are getting there. As the countdown for Pennsic is happening for all my friends, I am counting down to finishing the baby's room!

Here is a super cute picture of Cleo sleeping on my pillow last night as we had taken away her cat perch in the window of the future baby's room...now I need to figure out a good place for her to get it back.

Cleo Sleeping on my pillow...she looks so comfortable and cute!

So there...a gratuitous picture of one of the cats.

Finally chatted with Mel in what is like forever! Got some ideas on Fighting garb and made a time for us to hang out...boy have I missed her and Dave. So I have to remember to put fighting armor and such on my project list to do while on Mat leave...if I can! I can already see the year fly by!

I am sad too...didn't get to complete my 2 last months of my quilt bee...the fabric is sitting in a bag to be done, but it is not fair to the ladies, so I am going to mail them back on Monday unfinished. That sewing room is going to kill me eventually. Sorry ladies if you read my blog at all! I was not expecting all this work just to get ready for a baby...I know...no excuse, but I hope you can forgive me!

~E

A new Bed for Soon to be Parents

As I am sure you are aware, I LOVE IKEA! yes I do...I love the design, I love that I have to build it, and I love the prices!

So the weekend of July 7th, they had one of their great sales. Jeff and I were heading into Ottawa anyway since we were going to his sister's cottage to celebrate his nephew Josh's 17th birthday. So we decided that we needed a new bed frame and the one I wanted was on sale! YAY!

We had a really nice time at the cottage, Jeff went tubing on the boat while I enjoyed the sun. It was late when we got home though and brought in the bed frame which had been tied to our roof rack.

On Sunday we decided to build the bed and then work on the office and then Mel and Dave were coming over for dinner and movies or Rock band... Well needless to say that didn't happen. We started on the bed and Jeff noticed that the headboard solid panel was cracked. So we decided to head back to Ikea and get it exchanged. So I got the piece exchanged with no problems, we had lunch at Ikea and headed home. Now of course it is like 3:30pm. Mel and Dave due to arrive at 6pm didn't leave us much time.

Ceasar and Lance helping in the bedroom!

So we look at the instruction and look back at the piece and it is completely different! It matches the instructions online, but not our instructions. The holes don't even match up! What?!?! So I call Ikea's customer service line to try and figure it out...apparently our bed was the Brazilian version!

So do we go back or wait till Monday...Jeff wanted to get it over and done with so, back to Ikea we went. This time with all the other parts - sans foot board. We get to Ikea and lucky us, I get the same rep from the first return - Steph. She looking at the pieces and was trying to figure out what had happened. Eventually we came to the conclusion that we needed to return everything and they would give us a bed with all the proper stuff in it. But that meant we would have to sleep on the mattresse on the floor and go back for the 3rd time on Monday.

Oh well, that is what we did! Now that night I had the best sleep ever! It felt like I was in a King bed. Jeff wasn't crowding me the cats all had their own place...how is that possible. I guess we had a bad bed frame before and now we were on the flat floor. No sagging in the middle. I can't wait for our new bed frame.

So Monday night we head back to Ikea (#3) to exchange the whole bed. We ended up with Steph again (thank goodness!) and we didn't need to explain the whole situation again. She exchanged the bed, made sure we had the right parts, gave us a little something for our trouble, and I picked up some more boxes for the sewing room. We headed home ready to build our bed.

It sure took us a long time to get it done...Lance didn't help by escaping and going into the culvert across the street, but hey! Here it is!

It is lovely and level and roomy! I really need to finish one of my quilts to put on this bed...

Now on to the Baby's room...I think this is an ongoing theme!

~E

Canada Day and a little Jam

Canada Day weekend is always a holiday I look forward to! It is usually really nice out and it is also strawberry season! This year I decided I wanted to make some strawberry freezer jam for myself. I love strawberry freezer jam, and I wanted to make it with strawberries I picked myself.

So I convinced Jeff to come berry picking with me. Am I ever glad I did...I couldn't pick as much as I wanted. Jeff and I picked two 4L baskets of strawberries from Cannamore Orchards about 10 minutes from home. They said there were lots of berries, but that the season was early this year, so that weekend would be the last weekend. And were they right! Most of the berries were rotting on the plant, just too much sun!

Here is Jeff picking like the pros!

Apparently all the good berries were in the middle of the plant hidden from the sun. They were not huge berries but super sweet. After we were berry picking, I decided I wanted to work in the sewing room so that we can hang out on Canada Day downtown and eat chicken from the Chicken Farmers of Canada booth in Ottawa. But instead Jeff asked me to come outside and help him with the back yard, so sewing you are still not done!

On Canada Day, I wanted to head downtown Ottawa for some museum fun, but I wasn't feeling up to it. I then decided that we needed to get these strawberries into jam ASAP! They were already getting soft from sitting in the kitchen for 1 day! What?!? I needed topick up a couple packages of jars and sugar so that we would have enough for all the berries. I also wanted to get them done before we headed to Cornwall to see my parents and meet with friends for dinner and fireworks.

We made 4 batches of jam that produced about five 1-cup jars of jam.

Strawberry Freezer Jam in process

I ended up with five batches in the end - so that means I had about 24 jars of Jam, that had to sit for 24+ hours then go into the freezer.

19 jars of jam waiting for the freezer - 5 jars already in the freezer

So I now have enough jam for the next year! That is if I eat 2 jars a month! LOL! I confess I have a jar in the fridge now and one at work too! Yum!

So once this was done, we headed off to Cornwall for some visiting. We then met up with friends to eat at East Side Marios and then enjoy some fireworks! It was so much fun and the crowds were small (or large by Cornwall standards) but nice for us Ottawa folks.

I had a great weekend and I wish it could always be Canada Day weekend!

~E

The Garage Sale and Ceramic Lacerations

So as I slowly update you all on what has been happening, I have reflected that I have been a very busy girl the last month and a bit. Not as busy as I would like at work, but at least busy at home...not to mention all the visiting with friends we did during the time too! Whew! I need a vacation - oh wait, it won't matter since I would have to do all kinds of housework anyway! :P

As we near the end of June and beginning of July a little bit of panic has set in...The baby room is still not in any shape or order, it is still in fact an office. So that doesn't help at all. I made a small amount of progress in the sewing/basement, but not enough for my liking. Though the bonus of this was the garage sale my Mom said we could have at her place on the 23rd.

Thanks goodness, since I had a ton of stuff to get rid of, so did my sister. So on the Friday night my car packed (I had already done 3 car loads before this), I head to Cornwall to get started in the set up. My parents have a nice garage so we had a rain location, which was important on Saturday morning as we had a small downpour, but then it got hot and sunny for the rest of the day.

**Warning graphic detail of injury here - skip if you don't want to read it! **

Though my Saturday did not get off to a good start...As we were pulling stuff out of the garage, I accidentally knocked over a French onion soup bowl onto the concrete floor! Oops! I felt a little sting and looked a my flip flop clad foot and saw a tickle of blood...hummm this isn't good!

So I decide to reach down and put my finger on the small cut to stop the blood and felt the missing skin...ugh! sure enough once I moved, did it not start to bleed a lot! Like I mean nicked an vein bleeding...running down my foot onto the cement floor! I am calm, and state that I need band aids and that I am going to the hospital to get this fixed...no I don't want to sit down, just get me a cloth and band aids please! :)

So we get the band aids and head to the hospital - here is what my foot looked like before the doctor saw me.

Ceramic Laceration - waiting for the Doctor

So as you can see the band aid barely held the blood...there are two band aids there in fact! But I was still calm cool and collected. The Doctor was very nice, the staff had me checked in and with the nurses very quickly. I think I was there for about an hour in total - not too bad at all!

So the Dr. comes in and says well you need a couple of stitches (what I figured). So he had me lay down (Jeff was observing from the foot of the bed) and started to freeze my foot. Then I felt this really strange pressure (like there was a clamp on my wound) as he was freezing the area. The I got all hot and clammy...I guess the shock had worn off and the adrenaline was pumping. Jeff could see the baby bouncing in my belly from where he was sitting! Though once I was frozen, I couldn't feel him putting in the stitches at all. He was that good!

My two stitches - Oh! blue thread!

Then the nurse patched me up, gave me some extra bandages and off I went. My first stitches in 35 years, not bad I think!

So back to the garage sale we went. It turns out that Shawna (my sister) and I did really well getting rid of our stuff. People were on the hunt for deals and boy were there lots to be had. We did some really good sales and that took care of a lot for both of us. She has just graduated from school so the money was really needed!

So a medical adventure and I managed to get rid of a lot of crap...or other peoples treasures!

YAY me!

~E

Still here and still going! (Part 2 - The Garden & Yard)

So after that long winded post, you get another for you to enjoy! LOL

My Mom & Memere were at it again that weekend, especially in deciding to tackle my horrible front yard and overgrown weed gardens...I swear I had perennials in there, but who knew!

I think we spent a total of 8-10 hours working in the garden...my Mom is a miracle worker when it comes to plants. She decided I needed a better spot for my perennials that was a lot easier to manage than what I already had. I have a front flowerbed with a bush, but you would never guess that, so my Mom decided to start plucking out the plants she wanted to keep and make a new garden!

So under my bedroom window I have the hosta garden I wanted. I had so many mature plants that I still have tones to do something with. Then she decided to start a new side garden with the choice perennials. We couldn't believe how big most of my plants were and how easy it was to fill such a large bed.

Ooo! New Hosta Garden

Front View of New Side Garden

Side View of new Side Garden

My Mom cut down our huge evergreens that were taking over the walkway, and even managed to make the walkway visible. She also cut a lot off of other trees that were getting way too overgrown!

Trimmed Bushes

Now Jeff and I needed to clear the front flower bed a bit more - we moved my burning bush to the front for now - until I can figure out where I want to put it. We both have a bunch of items we need to take care of as well.

On June 17th - Jeff and I spent the entire day working on clearing the deck from all the overgrown weeds, the wild raspberry bushes, and the trees growing in the deck and beside the pool. It took us forever, but what a difference it made! We also got the pool up and running so that we can swim in it soon. I love our salinator for the pool, sure makes it easier than chemicals! Go Salt!

No Tree growing at the end of the deck!

No Raspberry Bushes growing in the deck

See No Raspberries!

Once we did a lot of this work, our new eavestroughing was installed on June 29th. Does it ever look nice! I love all the downspouts and now we have a working rain barrel! YAY!

Eavestroughing completed! No more leaks!

We will have quite a bit of work to do outside, but here is the short list I hope to tackle in the next week or so...

• Weeding the new flowerbeds
• Whipper Snip the front flower bed to get rid of the overgrowth and show off the bushes
• Cut all the suckers from the Crab Apple tree

Photo Proof! No suckers!

• Transplant Peony to side flower bed
• Fill in our septic tank holes
• Cut some of the Lilac down - it is obscuring the security light
• Take weeds out of the walkway (again!)

This will all need to be done before Mom and Memere come back in a week or two! Whew!

Still here and still going! (Part 1)

Well it has been a very busy few weeks in the house. My Mom and Mémère came up in June for a whole weekend to help me get the house in order...and really it was awesome! We really only did a few rooms, but the impact of that change can be felt every day.

M&M (Mom and Memere- he he) helped me get rid of a lot of junk and stuff for the garage sale at my Mom's place. We managed to get rid of some side tables (my Mom is using them as night stands), finish a bunch of projects just hanging around and they Jeff gave us some awesome ideas on how to move some of the furniture in the living room for a better look!

So here is the lowdown (pictures to come, I promise)

Living Room:

1. Got rid of the too big end tables and coffee table from the living room.
2. Put all the CD's in a box to go through and make into MP3 (when time permits)
3. Moved the Ikea corner shelf from the corner of the living room everyone sees when they come in, to the corner of the room no one notices. (this was a HUGE change and all of the Jeff's idea - my Mom was so excited that we made the change right away!)
4. removed all of my crystal glasses from said shelf, washed them and put them in the kitchen glass door cabinet so we could use them.
5. Jeff rewired all the sound system to work with the TV in the living room and put it in my credenza that had extra room after I got rid of a bunch of useless serving pieces. So that let us get rid of his Sony audio rack to put for sale. Now the TV works with the Internet and we have great sound. We moved the sub woofer to where the old corner cabinet was and the speakers now flank the credenza.
6. Cleared the top of the credenza for only my candle holders and my Port (yum! Can't wait to drink that again! - the whole space is so airy now...I can't even believe it was my house!)
7. Put up some artwork that hadn't been hung, and my curio cabinet for all my cool thimbles people pick up for me on their travels...I have so many and now people can see them!

So we did some plant re-potting, got rid of nick knacks and a lot of little things...I had a Ikea Billy CD rack that was in the dining room (left over from when I had all my bookshelves in the dining room) went downstairs to the home theatre for the blue-rays, so all of my corners were empty of clutter. We moved the water dispenser to the dining room corner. What has happened is that my dining room tables now fits properly in the space! I just need new chairs or even a bench. I have even managed to keep the whole room clean for almost a month now! I just need to do some dusting.

Kitchen:

1. Jeff and I finished the moulding around the window and finally finished the hardwood floor with the proper edging.
2. Mom and I put in some of the de-clutter tools in my Ikea kitchen cabinets. I have only had them for 4 years in the packaging! LOL
3. Jeff and I only need to finish the door frame, painting the door and the quarter round near the door. I hope we can do that this weekend. Then the rest will be caulking and painting the trim.

Sewing room:

1.  Jeff and I finished the floor in the sewing room, and managed to get all the floor moulding and quarter round done...it isn't the prettiest but what a little caulking and paint will do to fix it. I am hoping next spring to repaint the room.
2. Mom bought me my Ikea 5 high bookshelf for my room! YAY it looks so cool! So we built everything and I have started putting all the fabric away.
3. I declutter my fabric stash of fabrics I won't ever use (my old Fabricland days) - I actually cleared out 6 Rubbermaid bins to go to the garage sale. WOW! Can't believe that either.
4. As you saw earlier I have put up some of garb for sale...I still have all the pieces, so if you are interested please let me know.

Sorry for the bad photo - but aren't the cubes awesome! There is the 1x5 that Leif gave us right beside it!

So I have started to move stuff back to the sewing room, still not done yet, but I should be able to get a lot done in the next week or so.

The baby room is still not completed, in fact the office is still there, so tonight we are looking at moving the rest of the sewing stuff into the furnace room, so we can start moving the office down. That is really the priority for this week, as M&M will be coming either this weekend or next to help with round 2!

So Here is the partial June update...next to come the outside of my house and the Garage sale...what a tale with that one!

~E

Fantastically Awesome Geeky Baby Shower!

On June 16th my bestest friends Mel and Melissa threw a fantastic baby shower for me! The theme was Geek and bring out your inner geek. I had tones of awesome friends come to celebrate Olivia's arrival into our very Geeky home!

It was so much fun getting everyone together in an non-SCA environment and have some of my longtime friends come and meet my fun and Geeky SCA friends. I was overwhelmed with all the great stuff. The food was amazing and Mel and Melissa managed to do really cool geeky games...not your traditional baby shower games! (YAY!)


We got books, clothes, bags, baby carriers, much needed cloth diapers, toys, SCA bib, bath accessories, etc...etc. I have some pictures of what I could find on the web as to what we have, and by no means are these the favourites (Since I love them all!) There were some cool stuff and so much that we would be here forever!

Cool Hats from Crystal! She blogged about it here - A Day In the Life

There were so many goodies! I also got a couple a really nice Mommy gifts, I got a really beautiful pearl bracelet with a pewter bunny charm on it so that I can remember which side I had breast fed on. It is so cute and totally SCA appropriate. I also got the owl Pandora charm I wanted too! I love it!

So now I need to get proper thank you cards and get started on organizing the room to put all of Olivia's goodies in there. She will certainly know she is well loved!

Thank you everyone! You know who you are and I LOVE all the gift and the friendship you provide on a daily basis!

~E

Updated April 15, 2016 - Links broken

My Early SCA Garb for sale...

OK...so I am looking at selling some of my older early-SCA garb. (Sorry for the terrible pictures - our camera is not charged!)

1. Elizabethan: Size 18 (sewing size) in Cream and Rust, with ruff, bum roll and farthingale.

Cream and Rust Elizabethan (Don't mind the strange dummy boob)

 2. A renaissance fair style double skirt in Chocolate Brown and Burgundy brocade style, with a chocolate brown underskirt. With a White renaissance blouse - both sewing size 16.

Renaissance Faire Skirt and shirt

3. Chocolate Brown Tudor style gown - satin under-dress with quilted velveteen bodice including a matching gable hood. (Size 14/16)

Chocolate Brown Velveteen Tudor Style Gown

 4. Olive green brocade with cream satin Italian renaissance gown. (size 14/16) (And my favourite)

Green and Cream Italian Renaissance Gown

If  you are interested you can contact me and I will send you pricing...if you are not in my area, I can ship it, but you will also pay for that. :)

~E

Now what is happening??



Once Border Spat was done and the proper time to recuperate happened, I had to start thinking about this baby coming! A few things that happened was that we found out that the baby is a girl, and we are naming her Olivia June. We both really liked Olivia and June after my hubby's Grandmother (I knew her  as GG) who passed away in November 2011. So we are super excited, and all of our neighbours are too, since they all have boys!

I wanted to paint the baby room in a mid-dark grey, something neutral so that if we have another baby it is easy to update. I was originally looking at yellow and green as my accents but I have been drawn into the pink or purples...it doesn't help when there are tons of cool fabrics in those colour schemes!

So my problem is colour overload. The Crib is a cherry wood, the walls will be dark and my accents will be what bring colour into the room. I have been debating about what colour should the dresser be, Chocolate brown or white? My Mom is probably right, paint the room then decide.



We are lucky that we are getting a crib for free from Carrie & Brian, we got a car seat cheap from Ian & Jill. The only new thing we have bought was the Bob Revolutions SE stroller from Amazon.com for $150 cheaper than in Canada. So we are off to a great start. We have absolutely no need for clothes, my Mother in Law has cornered the market on that!

We haven't asked for tones to stuff, but really items we need...we decided to go with cloth diapers to save money and the environment, it is one of the biggest purchase we are looking at.

So to even get to the nursery we have to move the office down to the basement...to get the office into the basement we need to finish my sewing room. Luckily we have put in the floor, now we are in the process of putting in the baseboards. Here is the before picture. I know not a great one, but you can see the duct tape holding the old floor together. I will be painting this room maybe next year or at least after Olivia been born!

My Sewing Room - Yuck!

I was also very lucky to get 3 pieces for free from our friend Leif when he moved out of his apartment. So on the wall you see the shelves right now, I will add the Expedit 5 high shelf and the Expedit 4 square shelf. There is also a small file drawer on wheels, I think that will go with my sewing machines.

 I am thinking of getting the 5 x 5 square Expedit to match the tall shelf to replace my makeshift ones in the picture above...and getting another 4 square - it will fit perfectly in my closet and will help me organize it a bit better. It is not cheap, but there are lots of options to organize with baskets, drawers and doors!

Once the sewing room is done, then I can get back to my 2 blocks I haven't completed yet, the SSP I am working on for September, all the receiving blankets and burp clothes I need to make. I just can't wait for the painting to be done. Maybe on the next post I will chat about how I want to set up the other half of the room.

So I need to get these built and start putting stuff back into my room for the weekend. Once that is done, then I can get the office done...it really is a domino effect! Oh yeah! I need to get the spare room done for my Memere and Mom are coming up to help me clear out some junk. They so need somewhere to sleep! :P It will be a messy weekend! :) Pictures to come next week.

Wish me luck!

~E

Border Spat - Post Event report...yes I am late on this one!

So if you read my blog back in March you would have seen my crazy post about all kinds of things, but really what was crunching down on time was planning the Border Spat feast on May 12th. Sorry for the wordy post, but I don't seem to have any pictures. If I can find some I will post them.

So to give you an idea of what was on the menu - here it is (it is in Italian and English):

Italian Feast Menu	English Translation
1 credenza freddo	1st Sideboard (Cold)
Sottaceti	Pickles*
Olive verde	Green Olives*
Uve Fresche	Fresh Grapes*
Pane e oglio	Homemade Bread & Oil*
Burri aromatizzati	Flavoured Butters*
Globi alla Romanesca	Roman Pastry Balls*
Biscotti alla Milanese	Aniseed Biscotti in the Milanese style*
Salumi	Cured Meats
Torte di pollanca d’india	Indian Hen Pie (Turkey Pie) (warm)
1 cucina calda	1st Kitchen (Hot)
Insalata di cipolle arrosto	Roasted Onion Salad*
Tortellini con piselli	Tortellini with peas*
Purea di carote	Carrot Puree*
Lombo di boue	Roasted Beef with Spices
Lenticchie al limone e coriandolo	Lentils in Lemon and Coriander*
Salza di visciole	Sour Cherry Sauce*
Senape	Mustard*
2 cucina calda	2nd Kitchen (Hot)
Insalata di cedrioli	Cucumber Salad*
Foglie di cavolo ripieni di nosetti	Cabbage stuffed with Nuts*
L'aglio salsa di formaggio alla Catalano	Garlic Cheese Sauce in the Catalan style
Asparagi	Asparagus*
Sardamone	Lamb Sauté
Maccaroni alla Romanesca	Roman Style Macaroni*
2 credenza freddo	2nd Sideboard (Cold)
Noci canditi alla Spagna	Candied Walnuts in the Spanish Style*
Torta Bianca	Ginger flavored Cheesecake
Neve di late	Bowl of Snow*
Mele al forno con zucchero caramellato	Roasted Apples with candied sugar
Stecchi profumati	Perfumed Toothpicks (Toothpicks in Rosewater)*
Canditi e confezioni a beneplacito Come: confetti de melle apio o de pome Magnifici Orengat Mele bullitoco le noci, detto nucato Confetti de Scorze di limone	Candies and confections in abundance*     Such as: Apple Jelly Candies* Candied Orange Peels* Spiced Honey Nut Crunch* Candied Lemon Peels*
	Drinks
Andalusa limone sciroppo	Andalusian Lemon Syrup*
Andalusa melagrana sciroppo	Andalusian Pomegranate Syrup*

It was an ambitious menu (over 30 dishes) and I am pleased to say that we only had to discard 2 of them for timing and people getting too full (the Roman Style Macaroni and the Roasted Apples in candied sugar). Most of the event was a blur, but I will try and get all my thoughts down. It it kinda like having kids (so I am told) you only start to remember the warm fuzzy stuff! LOL

Dafydd, Avelyn and I tried to pre-prep as much as possible for the  feast so there wasn't as much to do day of. So lets me chat about how the day went.

The week before we were prepping all week for the event, we even brought tones of equipment in case we didn't have it at the event. Next time I will HAVE to bring less! The night before we worked on some of the more time consuming dishes and prepped the dough, etc. Dafydd and I were allowed to get into the space early evening so that we could get stuff into the fridge and freezers. We were super lucky to have 3 fridges and 1 large freezer at our disposal. The room also had 6 stoves which we needed to share with the lunch staff, but once they were done, we could get to work. The other issue we needed to be aware of was the various food allergies and intolerances that our Baron and Baroness had, so we didn't cross contaminate. It was easy to do in that space, since it was a Home EC room. My lovely husband Takahiro came in later to help set up and after dinner help with the veggie prep.

So the day of the event My hubby and I met up with my sister Alison at the school to start getting stuff ready. We had the craziest chart on hand that Dafydd set up with when everything needed to be started and ready. So first things first we needed to get the bread started. There was going to be 2 small loaves on each table which we had 11 tables. We had 91 reservations for the event, and I found out that we actually served 93 (2 people snuck in) and had a 50 person waiting list! I was also excited because we had our Baron and Baroness, the Baron and Baroness of Ile du Dragon Dormant AND our King and Queen of Ealdormere...I haven't cooked for royalty yet, so this was soooooo exciting! YAY!

While we were working on the bread, I discovered that one of the ovens didn't work, so that pushed me back a bit. I found that we were standing so much that we needed to sit as much as possible. It was hard back breaking work. I am sure many came in wondering how we could be so calm and organized, we were but we were also so tired! :P The other hiccup was that I forgot the pickles at home, thankfully Takahiro said he would run out and pick them up. Luckily we only live 40 minutes out!

I have to say that during the day it went fairly smoothly. My biggest concern was getting the food out hot and in a timely manner. I didn't get to see any of the event, but sent my sister to take pictures, so hopefully I will see some more of it later. We had a lot of people coming in regularly to do dishes, and by the end of the night we had a system of putting dirty dishes by the sink and anyone who wanted to do them would pop in and wash whatever was there. Everyone was a huge help with that. Avelyn had to spend some time setting up her serving stating in the hall so that when we carted the food down to her, the servers could get the plated dishes. I have to say that this was a pain in the butt. The dishes needed to be out so fast, that we were being held up by getting the dishes to the room. There was Dafydd after a LONG day of fencing and marshaling, running the food with some volunteers. I am not sure what I would do to change that, but with less dishes it sure would be easier.

My sister and Avelyn took care of a lot of the prepping of the dishes and the Globi - which I think were a hit. Come cooking time I would loose Avelyn and so I had to rely on Alison and Takahiro...whew! They so took up the challenge and dealt with my craziness in the kitchen. I have both of them a bunch of dishes they needed to prepare and look after themselves, both of them have never cooked in that scale before, but man was I super impressed! Calm under fire! Thank you both for such hard work and keeping me sane!

I decided that I wanted to be out in the hall when the last course was served to get an idea of how everyone enjoyed the meal and if there was anything I could improve next time. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, there was enough (more than enough) food, and people had to be rolled out of the hall! I received some lovely gifts from our Baron and Baroness and the King and Queen. I even received a small token from someone who could never sit feast normally, but because of the all the tweaking of the food for our Baroness, she could actually eat it. It was so nice to hear that people who could not normally sit feast, be able to do so this time. The fun was hearing how people enjoyed the dishes what were the favorites.

A couple of the comments I heard or was told about was that one person who has been playing for over 40 years, said that this was the best feast in at least last 25 years and another said that she had never sat a feast this good in her time of playing in the SCA (12 years I believe). Well that was the point. To make people enjoy the food and raise the bar for all cooks in our area! Food can be good and period!

The poll put on the Barony's Facebook page had the top 5 dishes as the - Roast Beef with Cherry or mustard sauce, Indian Hen Pie (Turkey pie), Asparagus, the Ginger Cheesecake and a tie for the Tortellini and lentils.

Except for my bread recipe all the recipes were from period Italian sources. So if you are interested, let me know and I can direct you to what recipes and where they were from. :)

I guess that it all, but whew good thing I won't be doing anything like that for another couple of years!

~E

PS - maybe Avelyn will be able to tell me more about how crazy it really was! :)

Well....

It has been an interesting little bit of time. As you are all aware that I have failed at keeping my WIP going, but really I have a good reason for that! I swear! :P

Well let's see the biggest news is that my hubby and I are expecting September 8ish.

It is our first child so it has been interesting. The first trimester was good - no morning sickness (don't shoot me!) and apparently my Mom and her Mom (my Mémère) never had morning sickness either, so it must be genetic! :) But I have to say that I was SO tired the entire time. No energy, 3 hour naps after work, etc. I even fell asleep after the news, woke up at 8:30 brushed my teeth and went right back to bed. I was zonked! (I even napped in my chair at work I was so pooped!). No foods that I couldn't eat, but lots of foods I just didn't want to think or look at. I think I didn't have any eggs for 12 weeks! LOL and I love eggs. Mostly wanting to eat carbs and not protein. Strange, I know!

So everything I wanted to do went out the window. I was surprised I even managed to get my Bee block cut and mail out on time to the other bee members. My secret project, due in April - not even cut out completely...bah! So maybe it will be a birthday present instead. Ugh! But once 12 weeks happened, my energy seemed to come back, and the extra sun I am sure has helped too!

I know that I am starting to get the "nesting" feelings...not in cleaning my house or such (I have a bit of that) but more of wanting to get started canning food, making bread, making cheese and my own sausages, especially dry ones! I have strange obsessions. My friend Siglinde has a leg of ham drying in her basement and I so want one too! LOL (Dried Ham Yum!) Who doesn't want their own prosciutto in their basement!
 

Copyright Siglindesart's Blog - Photo

I know not the nicest looking thing, but soooo yummy looking! I could eat dried meat and fresh cheese with bread FOREVER! Thank goodness I can't make my own olive oil or balsamic vinegar! Time to move to Italy!

So things have changed for us, going to Pennsic is out, my cousin getting married August 18 might be out, not sure about Hubby's cousin's wedding in Alberta, but probably out too. I guess I will be working on the baby's room, trying to get the house in order so I don't kill anyone once the baby is born. I still want to install my new floor in the sewing room, so I need to work on that too. Plus all my weird obsessions I want to start over the summer.

Let's see:

1. Baby Room
2. Finish Kitchen Trim
3. Redo floor in Sewing room
4. Super Secret Project
5. Finish Planning a 30 dish feast... (oops! didn't tell you about that one did I - I will explain further down)
6. Make Cheese
7. Make Sausages
8. Make Breads
9. Canning Tomatoes
10. Canning pickles
11. Maybe some sauces or condiments like relishes!
12. Freezer Jams
13. Have a baby! LOL

Well I am ambitious and hopefully not rubbish in my attempt at this. I have nixed any garb making until after the baby and since I am not really going anywhere for it, I won't be missing it! :P

A little more about that feast...I decided to take it easy in the SCA over the summer, but I hope to go out with a bang! My local canton (Harrowgate Heath) is having a borders pat with the neighbouring Barony (L'ile du Dragon Dormant). The event called "Border Spat: For Love or Vengeance!" happens May 12, 2012 in Cornwall Ontario (my hometown). It will be a huge Fencing event as we will be getting very experienced teachers from all over the known world coming to teach and fence! So it is very exciting.

Of course there will be armoured combat, archery and classes too. A full day of fun! So I offered to do the feast (since I will be out of a while) and decided that since we were on an Italian Renaissance theme, that I would do and Italian feast! It is also the 30th anniversary of the Barony of Skraeling Althing (my Barony), so  I decided to prepare 30 dishes in celebration! Well the tentative menu has been decided we are now in the recipe testing stage. Once that has been completed we will do a full test cook for timing and food tester's opinions. Should be wild as I want to get the menu up by the 2nd week of April the latest. I suppose I could post now with the caveat that it will most likely change...we shall see!

So of course I couldn't do this feast without my 2 best friends and fellow Surly Mermaids - Avelyn and Dafydd! Thanks guys for keeping me on track and somewhat sane! LOL! Love you both!

So! If you are in the Ontario/Quebec/Northern NY area and want to see a fabulous event (and have my great food), please consider coming out to the event in May. I will be in the kitchen, but someone can always fetch me to say Hi!

Officially Insane,
~E