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! :)