Friends

December 5th

An deirfiúr mhór - The big sister

A torc commissioned by my sister, with the request of addition of some gemstones to the terminals. Her first idea was something along the lines of citrine, but my heart called for Carnelian with her.

beidh grá agam duit go deo - I'll love you forever

I really wanted to make a blanket in which everything was dyed with cochineal either by itself or with other dyes. So I made my daughter a wool blanket, hand dyed with only natural dyes.

Fushia: Cochineal, alum and cream of tartar mordant
Pink: Cochineal, no mordant
Red: Cochineal and madder, alum and cream of tartar mordant
Orange: Cochineal and fustic, alum and cream of tartar mordant
Purple: Cochineal and logwood alum mordant
Dusky Pink: Lac, Cochineal and Fustic, alum and cream of tartar mordant

I start a part time job Monday morning, not exciting work, not huge money, but really flexible hours. It's for a printing company helping get stuff collated, packaged, shrink wrapped, assembling "kit" of folders and enclose fliers etc.

hi all,

Have some new recent projects.
Having recently finished spinning an entire alpaca fleece, I felt like doing something different.
( pretties under the cut! )

http://elisem.livejournal.com/1528096.html

Elise is having a sale! Pretties abound!

This was a project I originally thought I would self-publish and sell on CD-rom, but I figure in the long run it might drive more business to our website if I just put it online.
www.historicgames.com/gamehall/hallindex.html

Hey guys! I recently heard from a community on LJ about Swagbucks and I joined and it's really cool. No surveys or anything and it's not something you could really make income off of but all you do is sign up and use the Swagbucks search engine instead of google and you get swagbucks for using the search engine. You can't redeem them for cash but you can redeem them to be added to your Paypal account, Amazon gift cards, restaurant gift cards, movie tickets, and a million other things. It's not something like you'll get daily or anything but I have friends who use it and say they get like a $5 gift card from Amazon after a week of actually just searching when they need to search something so it's really interesting. If you guys are interested, I'd love if you could use my referral link. 

http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/tonijmccann

Also, I think I'm going to start selling Partylite. I'm considering it at least. Any tips or personal experiences? I'd love to hear what you thought about selling it before I actually start. It seems like it'd be pretty easy to get sales though.

Well, it has been a busy week yet again. From work in my workshop to work in the pub. Oíche Shamhna was spend working in the pub, and I was looking forward to seeing all the celebrations from the bar-tenders' side of the bar. The pub was filled with the smell of the pumpkin lanterns and their wee candles started burning away the insides. The main area was decorated with spider-webs and fake spiders, along with the occasional swaying skeleton. To my surprise, it wasn't all that busy, and at the height of the evening I only counted 88 heads in the main area, and 21 out in the beer garden. By Jenny Watts standards fairly; easy going night. We had the few odd balls in cracking costumes, but the lady dressed as a banshee (and screaming like one on regular and unannounced occasions) took the cake. A couple of firework crap throw at the door, but nothing serious.

As the night went on, and the stories started coming loose, the people at the bar were asking if we perhaps knew who the man was that hanged himself at the road-bridge. I thought it was a cruel joke, but as more people butted in, it became obvious that some poor soul had indeed taken his life on All Souls. Seeing as we knew as much as anyone else (next to nothing) we left it in peace, as our pumpkin lanterns slowly went out at the end of the night.

The real horror only came when The Sunday opened up on the front page that morning, with a picture of the hanged man well and truly displayed on the front page under the header "Grotesque". Some shops turned the newspaper upside down, and warned everyone about the sickening front, while others didn't sell it at all that day and promptly send stock back. The amount of disrespect shown by the paper through this action are truly revolting, and many people complained which resulted in a apology from the newspaper.

Sunday saw dinner at the folks, which was per usual a superbly presented roast. Not only was the big dinner a nice celebration on it's own, but the night also included the birthday of Mr. Richardson's sister, whom became 28 I do believe. After a divine chocolate meringue pie, another chocolate cake followed, but this one was for the lucky lady herself to take home. Riddled with small change, so let's see if she get's the quid in one go! Best of luck!

Monday was our glorious day off, and we were looking forward to it. After filtering our winter-mead for the second time, and some other morning errands, Mr. Richardson decided to drive me towards the big city of Belfast. Personally I was hoping for a good strong hike, but either way we were on the move. We stopped at the cinema in Victoria Square to check out the times for the Fantastic Mr. Fox movie.

On our way out we stopped by Rituals to stock up on some pamper materials; bath oils, shower stuff, fair trade teas and last but not least a scented 50-hour candle. Much happiness ensued!

But my happy-squeak noises were just getting started as we passed a 'Build-a-Bear-workshop'. Oh... my... gods. You know, I've always wanted to do that thing as a wee kid, but we never had a shop in our country (or well, not that I knew of anyways). I stopped, and before Mr. Richardson could turn to see what I stopped for I was already inside bouncing about amongst the kids with my 'grey wolf' plush empty skin. Oh yes!

So, we got it stuffed, and the wee cotton heart was kissed (with a grumble or two) by Mr. Richardson, before it went into my very own wolf plush! Epic! At the checkout Mr. Richardson asked if they got more of these 'big kids' coming in, and the staff laughed and nodded, saying it was rather popular and that the 'big kids' made up most of their client base over the whole of the year.

The wolf in question!

Oscar, in full winter-pretzel mode. In my bathrobe.

It's Japanese. It's Victorian. And there are houndsies and horseys! What could be cooler?

http://community.livejournal.com/lamodeillustree/246937.html?view=886937#t886937

I've decided wholesale customers are just trying to drive me OCD insane. Seriously, they are completely incapable of listing pattern numbers in numeric order.

This is an order I just received:

RH001
RH201
RH501
RH505
RH701
RH702
RH708
RH709
RH711
RH712
RH002
RH003
RH703
RH710
RH102
RH804
RH713
RH833
RH837
RH838
RH004
RH007
RH005
RH902
RH903
RH904
RH919
RH834
RH836
RH901
RH918

*sigh*

It's like throwing rice in front of a vampire...

Cheese Fritters

1 C cottage cheese

1 C ricotta cheese

6 eggs

.5 C of Gluten Free bread crumbs (or normal ones if you prefer, can substitute toasted oats)

nutmeg to taste

canola oil

• scramble the eggs and add the cheeses and nutmegs

• add the starchy stuff

• mix well, it should be slightly runny like crepes.

In a heavy fry pan, heat the oil until it shimmers. Add a half- cup measure of mix into hot oil. Flip it when it's bubbly on the raw side and golden on the cooked side. If you need to, change the oil frequently to prevent scalding. Serve hot with cream cheese, smoked fish and sour cherries

Best Goose

1 Goose (or duck)

1C sweet pickle spice

2C salt

1 bottle of your favourite white wine

2 C sherry

1 posset of fresh tarragon

1 orange sliced thin

4 TBS Olive oil

• quarter your goose and trim the fat

• put in a glass dish over night (8-10 hours) covered in salt

• Rinse in clean water to discard the salt

• brown the meat in a heavy fry pan until the outside is a little crisp

• put the meat in a heavy stock pot with the wine, sherry, tarragon and orange slices. The meat should be covered, add more wine or sherry.

• Let the meat sit for about a half hour while you go do a load of laundry or clean up the kitchen.

• Bring your pot to a boil and cook your goose until it's tender, but not falling off the bone

• remove the goose from the pot and either grill it until the skin is crisp or bake it in a 400F oven on a broiler with tin foil loosely over the top as grease will splatter.

• You should make a sauce from any leftover juices. You will go to hell if you don't. Gravy makes every thing better.

I ran across some of the extremes of nuttiness used to make homeopathic "medicines". -Focusing the light from various planets through a telescope on to milk sugar powder which is then diluted and added to sugar pills.

Saturn:
http://www.interhomeopathy.org/index.php/journal/entry/trituration_proving_of_the_light_of_saturn/

Venus:
http://www.btinternet.com/~wellmother/venusbase.htm

I'm sorry can't come in to work today, I'm suffering from a Mercury overdose...

I can understand taking herbal remedies, even chiropractic has uses as physical therapy, but how can anyone with a modern education believe in magic like the nonsense in the links above? But then I  suppose if you can believe in astrology it's a small step to the planets having other effects on things.

Starting a list of hints and tips to hand out to new members of our group, some of whom have never done real living history--especially public shows--before. Would love to hear what else you might tell new members:

1—Always be on time.
2—Always be polite to the public.
3—Always try to answer public questions.
4—If you don’t know the answer, say so and, if it is possible, direct the questioner to someone who might know.
5—When someone asks you a question you cannot answer, make a point of researching the answer before the next event.
6—If anything, for whatever reason, is not exactly what was available, admit this to the MoP.
17— If you mention modern politics and/or religion, only do so in relation to period practices.
8—Avoid the use of jargon: MoP, Mundane, Farb, Garb, Jubbly, &c.
9—Do not be intoxicated while on the line.
10—Do not bring any substance that is illegal or banned by the site.
11—Have some thing to do, even if it’s busy work, when not talking to the public.
12—Even if you’re not doing first person impressions, do not mention any modern conveniences except in relation to period practices.
13—Be entirely in costume or entirely out before you allow the public to see you.
14—Keep all weapons--especially sharpened blades--within your personal control.

Well, business is picking up and holiday orders are in full swing. It's going to be very tight trying to get everything sorted AND have the gallery opening in January. But hey, we'll just take it a day at the time and see where it goes.

Mr. Richardson and I had a little bit of a tiff at the start of this week, but luckily all was talked through and resolved. Communication for the win. Yesterday I was running rather late with sending out orders and such that I'd been holding onto because of the postal strikes, and it was 5pm already so the mood for cooking was fading fast.

Instead we decided to go to this new restaurant that had opened up just by our local shops. A place called 'The Fat Cat', which had dinner offers on. 2-course meal for only a ten quid... not bad! We decided to give it a try. Ran into a friend and we dragged her along as well.

Let's just say it's a place we'll be returning to. HUGE portions for a very reasonable price. And their pepper-sauce was to die for!

Also started my spring mead, but knowing us we'll probably be tucking in by the end of the year ;) Either way it's been strained and is now entering the full bubbling stages. When that is done with the bubbling I'll bottle them and try to hide them away.

Our heating still isn't working, but our fireplace never fails to light up so we're fine. We're lucky to have a back-boiler in there, so we can actually get the house warm at night, but we do need to get our boiler serviced as soon as possible. Also need our chimney swept. Did I mention there's A LOT to do before cold season fully hits?

Working on the last big piece for the gallery, pictures will follow soon.... ;)

Interesting. The Freedom From Religion Foundation has launched a lawsuit saying that existing

So... CSI Miami tonight had an episode about black market organ transplants. After a scandal in organ traffic this summer http://www.theweek.com/article/index/98972/Rabbis_and_organ_trafficking public radio said something that other countries have op-out laws. -You are assumed to be willing to donate your part unless you sign a form to the contrary. It makes sense to me, but I can't see it being passed in the U.S.

"I have dwelt ever in realms apart from the visible world; spending my youth and adolescence in ancient and little-known books, and in roaming the fields and groves of the region near my ancestral home. I do not think that what I read in these books or saw in these fields and groves was exactly what other boys read and saw there"