So this is August, huh?

  I've been back from the Medieval Week a full week and all according to tradition I've been down with the post-Middle Ages plague - normally 'just' a severe cold starting at the end of The Week, but new for me this year were some nasty ulcers adding to my misery.

   In short I've been busy.

  Just going from the bed to the computer's been a strain on me. My favourite hobby eating has been hard work. Holy shit, I hate not being able to eat, 'cause FOOD motherfucker! And don't even get me started on not being able to drink my normal three buckets of coffee in the morning! The RAGE. I am not a good person without coffee.

  This Medieval Week I haven't done all that much but sitting around, laughing, talking, singing and drinking until 3 in the morning. A lot of hugs. It might have been one of those hugs that gave me the plague but if that's the case, it was well worth it. It's been good. My new red dress and liripipe hood were very useful.

And then yesterday this lanky ginger asshole moved in with me.

In need of new silks

I decided to go to The Medieval Week again this year. And, lo and behold, also managed to score vacation time over that week. Unexpected, in that surprisingly wonderful way.
   Subsequently, I want to create something new for my medieval wardrobe. A new dress. Lacing in front, buttons in arms. Edge weave by the button holes for more durable edges... ideas that are like music to my ears.
   I've ordered both wool and silk yarns. Last I heard they've shipped and are on their way. I've missed working with these materials and the methods required will keep my hands busy. I will probably complain and moan about the world of hurt my hands will be in, but it will be sooooo worth it.
   So lets get started.

The friendliest picnic you've ever seen

Nordegravar, Visby, 2015

This must be what I look forward to most every Medieval Week; the huge annual Wednesday picnic in wait for the annual fire show (TRiX at their best, not very medieval but awesome, seen by about 7000 people this year. I don't have the words to describe it so go watch the 2013 performance here.). This is when round about 3000-5000 people sit down and eat together. Drink together. Sing and laugh together. I'm not usually a lover of crowds but THIS, this is the kind of crowd I love.

To Wisby my medieval friends!

I'll be off to Visby in the morning for the Medieval Week on Gotland. It'll be my tenth time attending and I will have to be honest and admit that it'll probably be the last time in a long while. I think I've said it before (a few years ago when I skipped a Week because of reasons, mostly life-related) but this time it's for real. I will most definitely visit Medieval Festivals and Fairs, but I'm aching for something new and invigorating.
So if you happen to know of a really nice, quirky and/or charming Medieval Festival I'm open to suggestions for 2016. Anything themed 12th to 14th century would be amazeballs. Or I'll just gather as much information as possible about some festival in the UK and throw myself right in there. What could possibly go wrong?

Week 32

The truth is that the coming week will probably be one of the toughest weeks of my life for the past ten years or so. I will have to work my regular job while taking care of my parents’ house with four different species of animals apart from the normal household stuff.

I attended the Medieval Week on Gotland (the largest medieval festival in Sweden) for the first time in 2005 and have attended every year since. It’s been a tradition, some years more to my liking than others but mostly that one time of year when I could pretend to be someone a little different from myself and meet new and interesting people that knew nothing about how boring I really am. It never turned out much like that, though I have made friends there that I generally don’t meet at all during the other 51 weeks of the year and it’s always that much greater seeing them after all that time.
And lets face it, I get to play princess in all the lovely dresses I make for eight whole days in the year and be out all night with my friends.

Last year I promised myself it would be the last year I’d attend out of tradition. I made a promise I wouldn’t go back until I ached to go there and ached to make clothes I’d be proud of, which is of course the reason I’m not there right now as the Medieval Week’s opening celebrations are about to commence in the lovely Visby of Gotland.

My parents and my older sister are at The Medieval Week as we speak. I don’t know what pisses me off more; that I recommended it to them or that I’m stuck guarding the house. I have a variety of issues with being on my own and would normally just sit on my wide ass when I’ve dealt with my chores but whenever I’m alone in the house I can’t seem to sit still for more than a minute at a time. I can’t even take the time to sit down to eat. I see all the worst scenarios flash before my eyes and imagine the oncoming catastrophe.
It usually goes well.

Also, I want to cut my hair.