September 03, 2002 - 1:52 p.m.
And then I was drawing on Padraigin's legs. Really it was a mostly normal weekend. Well normal for me - travel to N.C. to go to an event, then wind up at Cu&Padraiga's house for some random set of projects. In this case getting ready for coronation. But I am getting ahead of myself.
Last week had evenings filled with painting checkey. God bless Roland for asking, quite cleverly, why not paint it instead of sewing all those not-quite-squares on various angles of bias? Did I mention that Roland is brilliant and saved more hours than I can hope to describe here? In any case. The weekend began with me getting back into town Thursday night (had been in upper NY for work ... boring, but pretty). Put together the last bits of the "A" collar that I had made him (to match Padraiga's - aw how cute) and Mel and I finished up the cloak.
Friday morning I came into the office, primarily for a meeting that happens each week, on Friday, at 1:30 PM. Now I am never sure how I got involved with a meeting at such a bloody horrible time, but I did. Really there are only 3 of us that meet then, you would think that we could find something better. I dragged my tired, not sleeping all week, been on travel, butt into the office for this meeting. What I came up with was a different meeting (at 10am) that went forever!. At 1:15 my 1:30 got canceled. I HATE that. Meet, don't meet. Either is fine, but last minute cancellations drive me around the bend. Aaargh.
It all turned out for the better I suppose, cause the net result was me coming home in the mid afternoon, and us getting on the road before 5 ... and therefore arriving at C&P's at a decent hour. You would think that this would lead to sleeping but no. We stayed up chatting and puttering and showing each other millions of things that I am sure would have still existed the next day too. You would think we never see each other or something. Moral of the story - It doesn't matter when we leave the house we will never get to sleep at C&P's until after 2am. Silly people.
Saturday morning was a) really early b) rainy and c) did I mention it was early? Cuan mumbled about the rain and threatened to call in dead to the event (no chance of that - he heh heh). But we all tumbled into the truck and got on the road. I would like to say that the rain cleared up, but I can't. It was gray and drizzly all day. And after the stunning lack of rain we have had, you can't even complain about it without feeling some sense of guilt. I will settle on the statement that it made things very muddy. All day.
For being so rainy the event was well attended and it is obvious that Baroness Kayissa is doing a great job and in return getting good support from people across many different parts of Sacred Stone. That never hurts to see. They did hold the tourneys and Rags won the bear pit. His tourney prize went to Dagonet - a knife I believe.
On the one hand it was really sad that there was such a small turnout for heavy fighters at the event. Yes I know that it was raining but hang with me a moment. On the other hand those fighters that did armour up were dedicated. I know i would have been loathe to fight on mud and wet grass, in the drizzle. I know that more than one of the guys went home to need to get rust off of some piece of gear. The part that gets me the most I think is WHICH fighters were out there in the rain. You had some of the best in armour. The king, the prince, 2-3 knights, a couple from St. Aidens ... where are the up and coming? Where are all the newer fighters that bitch about the standards being high and bitch that there is noone willing to teach them, or give a hand up (perhaps what they are really looking for is a handout!) To this I fall back on one of my mottos ... Must be present to win. For all of those that didn't put on armour, I can tell you quit your whining. I saw what those taking off armour were like. They were tired, cold, achy and battered. Some days fighting is fun, other days it is work. Try working at it.
Court was lovely. Kayissa has a good presence (esp. so for someone so new at the job). Her court was a bit long for an outsider but filled with well received awards. Kingdom court was much shorter but one that will stay with me for a long time. Tag - Cuan's it! He was successfully surprised. No I think a better term would be stunned, poleaxed, dazed. He sat there obviously moved and shaking his head over it all. Vivat Master Cuan!
There are times that people ask me why I work on some of the projects that I do. There are times that I ask myself that too. Certainly of late I could really use a night in front of the TV with a remote and a cider. Ah, to imitate my cats for an evening. But seeing court, watching them put a cloak on Cuan, seeing him wear a collar I made - I remember why. There are people that give me so much, people that I respect, whose friendship I value in ways that I will not describe typing ... I can't. For them, anything. Being a part of that overdue elevation. Making things for the world to see what I see ... it is always worth it. I can be a lump next week.
So this week's insane project of the week? Coronation clothing in the style of Duc de Berry. Both Cuan and Padraigin will be clothed in undergarments of brocaded silk (made by her) which will be covered with blue garments embroidered all over with gold crowns. Subtle ... like a brick. Anyway - as Tricia and I are looking at the pictures a few weeks ago she sees this one where a server is wearing these stockings that are obviously ermine covered. They are, how should I say ... loud. She is instantly in love.
This leads me back to the end of my weekend. Yesterday after a day + of being productive, assembling clothing, getting embroidery laid out and started. We go out shopping. I get a few bits of fabric (yes I know I didn't NEED more fabric, but I needed more fabric), picked up some sushi and headed back to the house for some more working. This eventually ends with Tricia making new 14th cen stockings to wear with the coronation garb. They are white linen (I really should have seen this coming). I pack up things and we crack out the Ben and Jerrys and the cheap-screw-top wine.
Tricia pulls out a sharpie. She has a stocking and a sharpie ... now she has an ermine stocking. What kind of crack-head feeds a person a bottle of wine and then asks them to draw on their legs??? (yes she was wearing the stocking when I drew on them, you kind of have to ... they are really very 3 dimensional and the spacing would never work out right if you weren't wearing it). I do hope that she wore slacks to work today, cause I am positive that she has ermine on her legs. Try explaining THAT to a co-worker.
Cuan has thus far refused to be a part of the ermine-ing ... I will
try and make the other one match on Friday. I wonder if I will need
a bottle of wine in order to do that?
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