'tis the season

i hate the "christmas season".

no, i'm not really a bah humbug type, not really..........i enjoy making and getting that right gift, i love my little baby 2 1/2' x-mas tree (that always goes up, only missed one year since i was 3!)...........i enjoy the big dinners with family, many of whom i don't see more than once a year maybe.............i enjoy decorating for a holiday....................and weirdest of all, i do enjoy the kids x-mas specials on tv (i love the animated grinch!) and christmas carols!!

but i hate the season. not the weather (even though we got snow already this past week) but the pushing, shoving, aisles cluttered, stupid bell ringing, forcedly cheerful, gimmegimmegimme, with stuff out before halloween in the stores!

this drives me nuts. i've watched the "season" creep forward as the years go by............i remember when the mall would put up the decorations the day before turkeys (thanksgiving), so that it would be festive for black friday...........the decorating started creeping, and creeping...........now, there was a x-mas shop in walmart in the middle of october (towards the beginning) and the inflatable decorations went out a week adn a half before said pumpkins were even thinking of rotting..................the internal store decorations went up sometime in the past week...............and they are already playing carols!

come on people. give it a break. get over the 'i want this, and i hafta have it!' syndrome.

what is this season all about?? well, let's start with when they start decorating......

halloween. for pagans, this is new years, a day of remembering those that are gone, the end of summer/beginning of winter.........for many kids, yeah, it's gimme candy, but it's also a chance to be someone they really are not. my little monster was a pirate. yeah, she's a pirate a lot, but she got the clothes for it this time (yes i'll post a pic, after i get the mud off them and can get them back on her!).........

thanksgiving. for americans, a chance to give thanks for everything we have.......a time to get together with family, enjoy the fruits of all our labors...........and remember the past, those who have gone before to get us where we are today.

christmas. now this depends a lot on whether you celebrate this as a religious holiday or a family one. if you are religious, it's a birthday technically............a day of miracles............a day to remember what's joyful (i was raised episcopalian)................if you are not, most still celebrate this as a day to give special things to those close to us, a day to be together with those you care about...............for pagans, solstice is pretty close (the longest day of the year), the day when the days start getting longer again, a rebirth of the sun, the first day of the end of winter.

now i wonder, where in all of this do large inflatable santas on motorcycles come into all this??
where does football play into the traditions?? where does it state that a list a mile long of things we can't live without and our family has to go broke buying is required?? where is it that if we don't like something we've been given, we look at whoever gave it to us and say we don't like it?? now i admit, i've done this a time or two..........usually when i'm allergic to whatever it is(smelly candles can kill me!) where does it require buying out a store for a single person?? (i worked toys r us for two x-mas seasons......i have watched parents come in and pile several carts to the point of overflowing, then make remarks at the register that they'll hafta come back for the cousins, this is all for one child!) this was really underscored by holidays with my ex, his family tradition was that you spend around $500 per person, he was rather upset with me that i wouldn't let him, we coulnd't afford it, and i found it tacky; he was rather embarrassed, but then again, there are many reasons he's my ex.............

i think my point in all this, is we need to remember why we have holidays, remember what is at the core of our upcoming days............
family.

i tend to remember this well, i'm juggling visits with three separate families for every holiday........his, my mom's side, my dad's side..............and for me, with grandparents visits thrown in..................we are 3 hours from any of our families.......so when we actually get north, especially with the little monster, visits are required.........it is a juggling act.............and it really underscores what i've been venting about above............
we have a choice around here. we can go broke buying gifts, or we can use the extra money to visit the family...............
i'd rather visit the family, and make/buy a few well-thought-out gifts that people will really enjoy adn remember, than lots of stuff that will all blend together within a day, and never get used.

happy holiday season...............i'll try and keep my rants a little shorter from here on out, my posts a little bit less preachy, i just had to get it off my chest before i burst and killed a bell ringer..........

research must-have

yeah, i've been posting lots lately.......i'm going through a internet-research phase, and it's better to share all this stuff than keep it locked in my head.........and anyway, that's mostly what this blog is about anyways............
so...........
my latest must-have website on anyone's research list.................

http://babelfish.altavista.com/

it's a translation site (as i'm sure the words babel fish should imply), and it's the best one i have come up with. literally, you type or cut and paste what you don't understand in a box, select the from and to languages (i've been with mostly from german to english, as i'll explain), hit the translate button, and your translated text pops up quickly. not too many ads, nothing that takes forever to load with dial-up, nothing distracting...........

i love this thing.

the reason i found it is the ever-present wiki. i've been using wikimedia commons (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page) which is all media files.........i tend to browse through miniatures...........sometimes getting the right words in the search engine is interesting, but hey, it's a computer thing............
the amusement with all of this, is that items get posted from all over the world........which means (in my case) i've been looking up art of india, and i'm getting back things that have been posted by a german. which means all the labels (title, artist, etc) are in german.
i don't speak/read/anything german.
thus, to the babelfish.
thankfully, this is giving me the opportunity to label my files in something i can understand.
thank the gods.

hope this helps!!

world clothing

well, research...........it's what i do.

some may be interested to know how cross-cultural things really are........i found this picture online, in an interesting gallery primarily made up of bedouin photos........ the website is http://www.old-picture.com/bedouins-index-002.htm ...........at least that's page two of pics........where i found this.

now, this pic is credited as tunisia-tunis, and it says it was taken in 1890. i've seen other photos looking like this one, from about the same time period.

where i come from, that dress is a chiton, viking overdress, or more commonly known as a bog dress.........and it is held together at the shoulders by penannular brooches.........which we make in a myriad of forms.

said a little easier, this late 1800's woman is wearing an outfit that with very little change would have been acceptable is greece in ancient times, with a dress under in viking times, and just as it is almost anywhere the SCA plays.................held together by brooches that were worn everywhere(and have been found everywhere), from rome to the celts to the vikings, all over the ancient world..................and now to africa.

i really need to get around to making one of these for myself..............it's just choosing which time period i'm representing when i wear it!!

fibro chocolate

thank you jenna................i love you...............

but.............

alright, for those who have noticed, i was a little obsessed with this subject.........recently, my dear friend (check out her blog, http://naturallynerds.blogspot.com/ ) found me these articles........

http://chronicfatigue.about.com/b/a/256023.htm
and
https://secure.endfatigue.com/tools-support/Chocolate-For-Cfs-And-Fibromyalgia.html

these basically state that a study was recently done, showing that dark chocolate can help reduce the signs and syptoms of fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome.........
in the study, participants ate 45mg of dark chocolate (very dark, 85% or higher) for 8 weeks........and it reduced the fatigue.

personally, i'm not sure how they did this. my dear and i figured that we'd try it, he's desperate to at least try things that will make me feel better.........so we went out, bought two different kinds of really dark chocolate, high quality stuff (cote d'or and lindt, to be precise)........each bar was 100mg..............so i read the study results, and figured that half a bar would be about right.
gods, that stuff is nasty! i won't be trying this cure........i ate a section of chocolate bar, and it made my tummy upset............stupid IBS...............i'll prolly be baking with the leftover choc, he won't even eat it, it's so bitter............

if you like uber-dark choco, have fun............for me, i'll keep looking............
good luck!!

country elf

the great lord of the forge wanted me to write up a blurb for his ebay store..........on a term i started using recently to apply to his more residential smithwork.................

yes, i did say country elf.

to start off with, i have to explain what he's been doing recently. he's been getting bored with just jewelry, just stuff that's medeival........just stuff that's documentable.............just stuff that he's been doing forever (or variations thereof)..........
so he's started doing different things, like windchimes, dinner triangles, plant hooks, steak flippers; and he's working on things like candleholders, towel rings and bars, toilet paper and paper towel holders, probably eventually doing drawer pulls and pot racks, maybe even lamps and chandleirs (no i can't spell that correctly!).............

these are all things that many modern smiths do, and are generally labeled country craft items. modernly, the country craft movement makes them with twists, hearts, stars, things of this nature (i know you get the picture!)..........

he's doing them with dragons, leaves, snakes, vines...........they tend to look very organic, vaguely elvish even................

this led me to label them country elf.

said label (delivered deadpan, while in the truck) almost caused him to swerve off the road as it registered what i said and he snarfed...............

country elf is (obviously) a fusion between high/middle elvish and country craft........traditionally forged items in a country style infused with whimsical and fanciful elements........as if a backwoods country farmer-type elvish blacksmith started producing items for modern use..........

does this make any sense?? i'll link to the ebay store, once some of this stuff is posted.........see if there is any consensus on this..........
or if i just come up with a better description..........

stupid confuser.....

stupid confuserstupid consfuser stupid stupid stupid confuser.........
the main computer has crashed.
the main computer, where all my research gets saved, has crashed.
the main computer, where all my research gets saved, where i can type with some semblance of normalcy, has crashed.

the computer is dead, long live the computer.

yes, i'm being weird.......a friend is sending us some recovery disks, hopefully we can at least pull the data off the hard drive, and then we are investing in an external hard drive and some thumb drives, for data storage.........
some stuff is saved and backed up, but not much, we don't have rewritable cds..........

so expect me to be a little behind in the postings for a while, while i get back up to speed on using this laptop and it's keyboard.

wish me luck...........

nuts about soap

so, here's my little bit of eco-conciousness for the week (or so)...............
for all those of you who don't like modern laundry detergent, or those who want something a little nicer for the skin, or just want something that actually works better............

have you tried soap nuts??

yes, giggle...........a friend gave me a bag of these things..........here's her website, which has a link to order soap nuts directly.......... http://www.vikinggirlsworkshop.com/ ..................check out her other stuff too, she is a wonderful craftsperson in just about anything she puts her mind to, but specifically things dealing with the norse culture.........

i know it sounds weird, but these things are compost-friendly, rather hypo-allergenic, and have little or no smell to them, so are good for chemical sensitivity..............

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapindus is the wikipedia article on the soap tree.........

later........it's a busy week, so off to bed!!

blacksmith guild of va hammer-in........

so, we're off this weekend......... http://www.blacksmithguildofva.com/ ............
this is a really great group of folks, holding the second annual hammer-in.......which for the uninitiated, is a gathering where big smelly dirty guys get together and hit metal, and learn about hitting metal, and teach others how to hit metal..........
i love my peer group..........
they have lots of links to other blacksmith sites, check out their page........


on another note, trying to figure out how to upload my camera onto the computer.........as soon as that happens, i have a picture tutorial thingy about how i made a really spiffy knitting bag, with internal bags for various yarns...........as soon as i figure that out, i'll be set........
and soon after, i'm hoping to have another up about making a nostepinne from a banister peice thingy..............
sorry about the technical terminology, blanking this morning..........

laters all..............

oh yeah, and if anyone finds research about fibro and dark chocolate, drogo wants to know.......he just wants me less cranky, and if he gets to share, it'll make his life a little sweeter too!

research

most of these have been posted before........i figured i'd post them here, where they are easy to get to in archives (versus where i had them before, in myspace, where you can't get at the archives unless you are a member) .............sorry to anyone who has read all this before........
i will try and post more of the new ones later...........this week has been interesting.......(if by interesting i mean that we slept alot and dealt with a case of bugs, yeah it's been interesting).....................
i also have a bunch of websites on tribal bellydance..........i'll get those up asap.........

if you have something that might be interesting, comment me..........if you have something you think i might wanna research, comment me..........i might blow you off, but then again, whatever piques the interest.............

GENERAL
There are a few that apply to the other categories later on down this page……….
-first off, artcyclopedia at http://www.artcyclopedia.com/ ……….look up a time period or nationality or both, see what you can see……….
-then, the web gallery of art……. http://www.wga.hu/index1.html ………I’ve never gotten the hang of it, but I’m told it’s an invaluable resource and to keep trying back…….
-then, something I’ve just found, but is really cool………. http://ibs001.colo.firstnet.net.uk/britishlibrary/index.jsp ……….it’s the british library, hooked to the british museum………again, search and ye shall find……..

-I’m gonna skip all the silly stuff, but if anyone is curious, I’ve got documentation on period cotton, and burn testing, things like that………..just write and ask………

VIKING
-first off, the Viking answer lady ……….. http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/ ……….good starter info………..
-next, gelfling……… http://www.gelfling.dds.nl/wardrobe2.html ……….this wardrobe is superbly done…….she has links to patterns and other info on each specific clothing page……..good photos………
-and then, the godmother of sca Viking research………thora sharptooth’s articles……. http://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/vikresource.html ………they are a little much to wade through, but it’s all good info………

MID-EASTERN
-dar anahita……… http://home.earthlink.net/~lilinah/courtyard.html ……..quite a bit of good info……..laid out rather uniquely………I’ve got a few other things in this list by her, just in much different places…….she has done quite a bit of research……
-also by by the same author…….. http://www.geocities.com/anahita_whitehorse/ottofemcloth.html ………some good pictures……..
-also by the same researcher…… http://home.earthlink.net/~al-qurtubiyya/16/kultur-16.html …….lots of pics……..very well done…….
-then, by cariadoc….. http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/cariadoc/islamic_clothing.html ……….lots of words, just wade through…..
-garment myths, also anahita……. http://home.earthlink.net/~lilinah/Library/MEMyths.html ………also cultural myths…..lots of good info…..
-next, http://willofyre.com/OriginalSite/Clothing/periodmideastgarb.html ……..do’s and don’ts…….mistress safia……..long, but informative…..a little bit opinionated…..
-http://sca.raqsstorm.org/ottoman/ottomangarments.html …………a listing from inside to out of what an ottoman would wear…….
-then, http://www.sca.org.au/collegewar/ottoman.html ………a list of ottoman links…….at least some of them work, haven’t checked all of them……..
-some pictures……. http://ilaria.veltri.tripod.com/mideastwomen.html ………semi-decent closeups……..
-red khaganate…… http://www.geocities.com/kaganate/clothing.html ……..steppes people, but some of the patterns overlap…….
-seljuk/Levantine women’s garb…… http://www.levantia.com.au/clothing/turk_woman.html ………….in order, from skin out………no pics, but decent info…….
-decent info, pics in all those words…… http://www.roxanefarabi.com/ ………lots of info……
- http://www.kismeta.com/diGrasse/OttomanCostume.htm ……..can be donwloaded in PDF format………from a book………pics and info……….
-another guidline……. http://www.geocities.com/sayiddatahira/persian.html ……..persian specifically……
-and the best of all, a decent site for miniatures………the topkapi palace site….. http://www.ee.bilkent.edu.tr/~history/topkapi.html ………lots of good info…….

WELL, GOOD LUCK!!

getting started and yarn bits.........

alrighty..........
i'm planning on using this blog as a place to post things of interest to others.......not so much personal updates, more along the lines of research websites, craft updates, things of this nature........
i will probably be posting at irregular intervals (my life gets a little crazy sometimes!), but i'll try and update at least once a week..............
i tend to write in chain-of-thought, once you get used to it, it's easy to follow.............

for now, the tip is www.knitpicks.com ...................cheap yarn..........mostly natural fibers (that matters a lot in my universe!!)...........my order hasn't gotten in yet, it was shipped last friday, it should be here either this week or next...........i can't wait...........info on quality will be forthcoming, but my mother has gotten yarn from them and she says the quality is good.........

i will be working on putting together a knitting bag, something with pockets to hold several balls of yarn at once..........my project (a stole) requires two balls of yarn at the same time, so i need something that will keep them from tangling and twisting together............plus hold the other colors for when i'm switching...........

i'm also working on convincing my lord drogo (unofficial fiance, boss, roomie, best friend on the male end of things) that he needs to build me a swift for x-mas..........found instructions at http://www.instructables.com/id/SewUseful%3a-Portable-Tabletop-Yarn-Swift-(for-windi/

i'm also working on a nostepinne (small stick for winding yarn on, kinda an old-style ball winder), i'll have tutorial-type pics up asap............as soon as i have time to get it together, and the varnish to finish it with..............here's the best instructions for using a nostepinne i could find............. http://www.hatchtown.com/nostdir.html ....................

that might be all for now........please keep checking in, you never know when i'm gonna drop something else!!!
thanks for reading............