Retail therapy cures many things
Mar. 18th, 2007 08:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
janewilliams20Well, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. We went to the re-enactors fair yesterday, and a few other places
The shopping list was rope (for guy ropes) and pegs (to hold them in the ground). We started late, because I was still wobbly, and Dave was tired and head-achey. Barely nibbled lunch, and headed off midday.
On the way, I realised that while I had a cloak, Dave didn't. And if we were going to be sitting around after the St George's Day banquet, he was going to need one. Anne Laverick's stall had bargains in checked wools and plain wools, and while none were very heavy, if you line... 3 metres of a blue/brown check, 3 metres of a reddish-brown plain. And they were demoing a quick female head-dress with a metre of cheap muslin, so I grabbed a metre of that as well.
Bumped into Tom, but not![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
clothsprogs, and handed over the ACW patterns he'd wanted to borrow.
Went to see West Point about Dave's Corporal stripes. Handed back the infantry ones they'd sent, acquired a set of Union artillery ones for use when "galvanising", and a set on Washington cloth will be made up and handed over at the next event. I can see I'll be doing some rapid sewing when we get there!
Got the rope. Looked at some pegs that had apparently been made by a blind man with an axe in a hurry. Found some other pegs. We can go home now, right? Wrong....
You see, there were these swords. Pretty swords. I'm after something light, something Elizabethan, something rapier-like... something like this. I've held it. I've wiggled it. It's very pretty. It's very light. The balance is mmmmm....... wants..... But, I'm not sure whether the "stage fighting" version will be allowed at the backswording club, or whether I'll have to compromise on the "reenactment" version, which of course is heavier and not as long. So I was Very Good and left it alone.
Lighting - I need something medieval that works and doesn't risk cutting my wrist on glass when I fall over holding it. Mel suggested a horn lantern. And there were some! Little ones with only one "window", and bigger ones with windows all round. Wants... and they took plastic.
I'm planning on wearing the blue houppelande I made for Guy's Coronation. But the hat went missing ages ago - someone borrowed it and it never came back. I don't have spare of the material any more, so whatever I did wouldn't match anyway. And there was a hat stall, complete with truncated hennin bases. And a stall holder who knew what he was on about, with pictures. £22 later, I had a dark blue truncated hennin base, and advice on what weight of fabric I needed for the veil.
Round to a silk dealer to find some organza. He's a nice chap who has no minimum purchase and rounds down - at £12/m, this is a good thing. We worked out how much I needed by trailing it over the hennin. There's another £7. But... we have a nasty idea that in the confusion, I managed to leave my lantern on his stall. Need to do some phone calls to check, and to Mongol-post it back to us.
And having finished shopping, Dave took us round to a Chrysler dealer to see the car he's considering hiring in the USA. One model looked completely silly - huge, and blacked out in Mafioso style, the other was a more sensible size (think big Roller). And we checked, there is room for his legs behind the wheel. It's not as capacious as the Picasso was, despite taking up more road space (usual c**p American design), but it's better than the Thing we had last trip, and apparently has some power.
Then home via Ikea at MK - food, and a couple of rugs for the ACW tents. We want to disguise the ground sheet thoroughly, and Ikea do tent-sized rugs in a Victorian design for only £22. Of course, you never get out of Ikea without a few things you hadn't known you needed, so I now have a box of 50 candles that should fit the new lantern, a replacement frying pan, and a step-stool to make up (for the sewing room, so I don't need to stand on chairs any more.
Today I'm feeling happy, moderately bouncy (slight backache) and ready to start Doing Things again. Last night I managed a fun post to a Glorantha list in which I may have solved an interesting puzzle, and also blamed Argrath for it. Today I'm back to planning three things while doing two others and cooking an experimental breakfast (toasted sarnie with bacon and mushrooms and brie - yum!) A Numbers Job that seemed impossible last week, I think I just solved in my head.
But I am not allowed to play with the new toys I bought yesterday until I've done some more tidying. Well, I can't. I can't get the sewing machine out while the table's still covered in books.
The shopping list was rope (for guy ropes) and pegs (to hold them in the ground). We started late, because I was still wobbly, and Dave was tired and head-achey. Barely nibbled lunch, and headed off midday.
On the way, I realised that while I had a cloak, Dave didn't. And if we were going to be sitting around after the St George's Day banquet, he was going to need one. Anne Laverick's stall had bargains in checked wools and plain wools, and while none were very heavy, if you line... 3 metres of a blue/brown check, 3 metres of a reddish-brown plain. And they were demoing a quick female head-dress with a metre of cheap muslin, so I grabbed a metre of that as well.
Bumped into Tom, but not
clothsprogs, and handed over the ACW patterns he'd wanted to borrow.Went to see West Point about Dave's Corporal stripes. Handed back the infantry ones they'd sent, acquired a set of Union artillery ones for use when "galvanising", and a set on Washington cloth will be made up and handed over at the next event. I can see I'll be doing some rapid sewing when we get there!
Got the rope. Looked at some pegs that had apparently been made by a blind man with an axe in a hurry. Found some other pegs. We can go home now, right? Wrong....
You see, there were these swords. Pretty swords. I'm after something light, something Elizabethan, something rapier-like... something like this. I've held it. I've wiggled it. It's very pretty. It's very light. The balance is mmmmm....... wants..... But, I'm not sure whether the "stage fighting" version will be allowed at the backswording club, or whether I'll have to compromise on the "reenactment" version, which of course is heavier and not as long. So I was Very Good and left it alone.
Lighting - I need something medieval that works and doesn't risk cutting my wrist on glass when I fall over holding it. Mel suggested a horn lantern. And there were some! Little ones with only one "window", and bigger ones with windows all round. Wants... and they took plastic.
I'm planning on wearing the blue houppelande I made for Guy's Coronation. But the hat went missing ages ago - someone borrowed it and it never came back. I don't have spare of the material any more, so whatever I did wouldn't match anyway. And there was a hat stall, complete with truncated hennin bases. And a stall holder who knew what he was on about, with pictures. £22 later, I had a dark blue truncated hennin base, and advice on what weight of fabric I needed for the veil.
Round to a silk dealer to find some organza. He's a nice chap who has no minimum purchase and rounds down - at £12/m, this is a good thing. We worked out how much I needed by trailing it over the hennin. There's another £7. But... we have a nasty idea that in the confusion, I managed to leave my lantern on his stall. Need to do some phone calls to check, and to Mongol-post it back to us.
And having finished shopping, Dave took us round to a Chrysler dealer to see the car he's considering hiring in the USA. One model looked completely silly - huge, and blacked out in Mafioso style, the other was a more sensible size (think big Roller). And we checked, there is room for his legs behind the wheel. It's not as capacious as the Picasso was, despite taking up more road space (usual c**p American design), but it's better than the Thing we had last trip, and apparently has some power.
Then home via Ikea at MK - food, and a couple of rugs for the ACW tents. We want to disguise the ground sheet thoroughly, and Ikea do tent-sized rugs in a Victorian design for only £22. Of course, you never get out of Ikea without a few things you hadn't known you needed, so I now have a box of 50 candles that should fit the new lantern, a replacement frying pan, and a step-stool to make up (for the sewing room, so I don't need to stand on chairs any more.
Today I'm feeling happy, moderately bouncy (slight backache) and ready to start Doing Things again. Last night I managed a fun post to a Glorantha list in which I may have solved an interesting puzzle, and also blamed Argrath for it. Today I'm back to planning three things while doing two others and cooking an experimental breakfast (toasted sarnie with bacon and mushrooms and brie - yum!) A Numbers Job that seemed impossible last week, I think I just solved in my head.
But I am not allowed to play with the new toys I bought yesterday until I've done some more tidying. Well, I can't. I can't get the sewing machine out while the table's still covered in books.
