Throughout history, people have worn a lot of fur.  When I make clothing for reenactment, I like to get as close as I can to the original pieces, but work within a budget and keep some modern sensibilities in mind.  I don’t object to using leather or hides from herd animals, particularly those we use […]

My favorite annual event is not happening this year, so we put our heads together and decided to re-allocate that vacation time to maximize fun and insanity and limit my opportunities to mope.  Coincidentally, some friends asked me to write something unusual for them, so I spent a great deal of time researching Sarmatian and […]

I learned how to embroider as a child, and it’s one craft that has stuck with me through my entire life.  For me, the biggest challenge of embroidery is transferring a design onto fabric–particularly dark fabric.  I cannot draw.  I don’t mean I’m not as good at drawing as I would like–I straight up can’t […]

1. Sangria helps. So does delivered food. Hot kitchens ruin everything in July. 2. Unplug the damn iron dammit! What’re you trying to sweat us all to death? Crimeny–the puppy can’t stop panting. 3. Enclose yourself and your beloved window AC unit in a region of the home that has doors. Trap yourself and those […]

I posted right after Imbolc. Since then, I made a couple of dozen garments for Ben, a few for friends and a few things for me. We went to Gulf Wars, which was an interesting mixture of fun times with friends and some pretty horrible weather. We on the early work crew had such a […]

A dear friend of mine has suffered far more than anyone should recently. I wrote this in her honor.  And then, because this is who we are, one friend turned it into some beautiful art, and many of us surrounded our beloved, hurting friend in the oak grove in my front garden and sang to […]

Years ago, a friend decided he wanted to change some things about his interactions in the world, and about his role in our tribe.  We jokingly came up with an idea to kill the old him and raise a new one.  And then things got serious.  I had a hand in it and needed to […]

So we went to France for the Battle of Nations in May, and it was an amazing experience.  The US team members and support staff were absolutely wonderful.  The people of France were wonderful.  The other teams were wonderful.  I didn’t want to come back.  I did take thousands of pictures, of course.  And then I […]

I went to Mississippi again.  I had an excellent time teaching and promised to repeat the early period embroidery class this summer.  I adored camping and cooking with my friends.  I had a blast singing in the long hall and by the fireside, and finally performing a pair of companion pieces together, the way I […]

I’m getting ready to head to Mississippi, and then I’ll be getting ready to head to Aigues Mortes, because my husband’s hobbies are even weirder than mine.  That’s saying something.  Also, I need to learn to speak French.  I can do that in a couple of months, right?  Errr.  Yeah. Apparently I’ll also need some 12th […]