Jousting Knights and Heart Problems

I’m tired of writing about unimportant and mostly uninteresting things, which is why I haven’t blogged in a while. My older sister took my younger sister and I to the Ren. faire again on May 3rd. I had fun, got to give the favor to the noble knight, was recognized and yelled at (though I didn’t hear him; he told me later on Facebook. He yelled my name and gave me grief about sitting in the other knight’s section, apparently. Hehe) by the “bad” knight, and bought a snood and a bottle of water (that cost a whopping $2.75).

I woke up to something very unpleasant this morning (er…afternoon). My older sister came in my room and told me our father was having heart problems and Mom was calling 911. He’s at the hospital now, doing better, but they don’t know what happened. The test they did in the ambulance said he had a heart attack, and the test they did at the hospital said he didn’t. Please pray for him.

Have an amazing rest of your life.
- WM

GARF

I haven’t updated in a while…and I forgot to comment that the title of my last entry, while it sounds interesting, doesn’t actually make sense.

I went to the Renaissance festival on the 19th. I enjoyed it, especially the jousts. I watched all three.

This one-eyed chihuahua was there, dressed as a pirate.

I took around 700 photos (though I deleted some while I was there and left with 670). Those are the only two I feel like posting because they’re already the right size and uploaded to Photobucket.

I wore my 42 inch-long sword. There are swords plenty bigger, but for me, it’s pretty big (in hindsigh I probably should have gotten a shorter one). A man at the faire said something along the lines of, “Holy cow, that sword’s as big as you are!” Or bigger than, or something. He added to his companion, “If she could actually wield that thing, I’d be scared.” Another man, trying to get me to come see the “Parrots of the Caribbean,” referred to me as “The lady with the long sword.” It was amusing.

I should practice being in character. When people at the festival (or, often, other places) say anything to me, my brain generally goes blank. My younger sister actually had a mildly witty conversation with someone. She usually has much better social skills than I do and doesn’t freeze in such situations. I did manage an accent a time or two.

I bought this dagger for $10:

We saw several different acts, including a juggling, whip-wielding, poodle-balloon-blowing-up fellow, a man who strapped firecrackers to his chest with duct tape and had the audience throw water balloons at him after they went off, a horse show, and a sword-fighting show. The first fellow I mentioned was funny except for some off-color “humor” but we thankfully didn’t run into much more of that. I had a good time and hope to go back again this year.

Have an amazing rest of your life.
- WM

[Insert Title Here]

We (Mom, Laura, a friend and I, and possibly some other people) might go to the Renaissance festival next Sunday. If not, on their homeschool day. I’m looking forward to it. I’ve been wearing my sword around the house to get used to it, so I hopefully won’t wack anyone with the end. I tried on several belts to see which is most comfortable with it and decided…to use the strap for my old camera case. The historically accurate people would have a heart attack and then excommunicate me, but it’s the only thing I have that’s long enough to wrap around my waist twice, so I prefer it to my cool-looking leather belts and a bruised hip.

We went shopping on Tuesday, and I got a new sewing pattern – Simplicity 6270. I’m going to alter (well, am planning on altering it) like this girl did with a similar pattern to make a sort of overdress/tunic thing. I also found a few shirts, and commented to my younger sister, “Aren’t you proud of me? I actually got something sort of fashionable.” She said something along the lines of, “At least they aren’t big t-shirts with writing-related things on the front.” Good-naturedly; she wasn’t being mean. But I /like/ my Clean Place shirts!

I was going to do Script Frenzy, but I didn’t remember it until close to the end of March, when I was rushing to finish my AAP story. Hence I had little time to prepare, and discovered I needed quite a bit more than that, since I’ve never written a script before. So I might check out a couple of books on screenwriting that someone recommended to me, and then try.

In the meantime, I have plenty of sewing I want to get done before the Ren. faire. I’m making a bodice out of brown microsuede, and if I finish that in time, I might make a chemise and/or hood.

Have an amazing rest of your life!
- WM

Catchup

I had a rather busy weekend. A friend turned 18 on Saturday, and I went to her birthday party Friday night and spent the night at her house with some other girls. I wanted to make her a dress she can wear to the Renaissance faire if she ends up going with us, because going in garb is much more fun than going in “mundanes”. I procrastinated and ended up cutting the fabric out Wednesday and sewing it together Thursday and Friday. I had to put the eyelets in while in the car and while I was there, but I got it finished. I’ll probably post pictures on my costume blog (see links in the sidebar) before long. For now, there are some on Facebook.

We went to the creek near her house on Saturday and spent a while playing fetch with Kiwi and enjoying the scenery.

And then on Sunday, it snowed! That’s a rare occurrence in Georgia. The snow didn’t stick much, which is a shame, because we would have had quite a bit on the ground if it did. But it looked pretty, regardless.

There’s a picture of a cardinal in the snow on my Project 365 blog.

Hobby Lobby finally put McCall’s patterns on sale for 99 cents each again, so I went with Mom and Laura yesterday when Mom took Laura to art class. Mother and I went the library while she was in class. I checked out three books. The first is called Wings of Morning and is by Kathleen Morgan. I went over to the computer and typed “Scotland” in the subject box. There were hundreds of results and no descriptions of the content, so I gave up on that. I went over to the bookshelves. The first book I pulled off was Wings of Morning, and happens to be set in Scotland! It does look like it’s primarily a romance, but it mentions God on the back and is set in Scotland, so it will hopefully be interesting. I like some [clean] romance in books, but not when it’s the primary focus. It’s like a casserole – it would be disgusting if salt were the main ingredient, but the right amount of salt makes it taste better.

The second book is called The Watchers and is by Mark Andrew Olsen. I’ve seen it somewhere before, I think in a Christian Book Distributors catalog. From what I read on the back cover, it appears to be about spiritual warfare (but is fiction). The other book is Patrick by Stephen Lawhead. It appears to be a (most likely highly fictionalized) telling of St. Patrick. I /think/ Stephen Lawhead is a Christian author. I also found a couple of movies that look interesting – The Pickwick Papers, based on a Charles Dickens novel, and Kidnapped.

We picked Laura up after her class and went to Petsmart to get gerbil bedding. Then on to Hobby Lobby, where I bought around eight patterns, some cord, and some jewelry-making supplies. Then to Sam’s Club. I sat in the car reading the book I borrowed from a friend, Blessed Child by Ted Dekker (which is very good so far). Laura came out and informed me that the animated Disney version of Robin Hood (where’s a fox) was down to $14 from $20. The movie is my favorite of the old Disney ones and I’d wanted to get it for a while. I was out of money, but Mom ended up buying it for me I’m looking forward to watching it.

We had some time to kill before heading to a Mary Kay party for a friend of ours that started selling their products, so we ate dinner out and headed to Borders. If I had any money when I went in there, I probably wouldn’t have when I left. I mean, who doesn’t need an English-to-Irish dictionary? There are other books there I’m interested in, too, but Borders is one of the more expensive bookstores (though have good prices on some things), so I’ll probably look for them elsewhere.

I had a good time at the Mary Kay party – mostly standing to the side thinking about books while people tested beauty products. I also talked with friends, which I really enjoyed, because I don’t get to hang out with them very often these days.

Have an amazing rest of your life!
- WM

The Sewing Machine Saga

I got a new sewing machine yesterday. Here’s the story behind it.

But first, in case you don’t want to read the novel I wrote on how I got my sewing machine, I’m going to write about something else first.

I hope you had a great Singles Awareness Day. Congratulate a single friend and comfort one who dates.

…Just playin’. ;p My parents bought my sisters and I chocolate and jewelry (I got a pretty leaf-shaped necklace, and some earrings came with it), and Dad bought Mom chocolate and a cute, stuffed dog with a couple of hearts on it.

Okay, now…

I have a simple Brother machine (this one). I knew I wanted to upgrade at some point. I heard that Bernina sewing machines are some of the best there are, and that Bernina Bernettes are a less expensive version. I found one on the Hancock Fabrics website, here, for $350, so I decided I’d save up for it. I don’t remember what inspired me to research it, but a couple of days ago, I looked it up.

I discovered “it isn’t a Bernina. Well it is and it isn’t the Bernina name is used as the lowest end machine, However it isn’t a True Bernina. The Cheapest machine Bernina makes is 600+ this one is the lowest end, just like some of the Janome’s that Hancock sells they also are not true janome’s. The are made in China usually and are of very poor quality. You will not find a Bernina dealer with this machine since the Bernina company doesn’t make it,” to quote the source. I found this information several places. I started researching other brands so I could find another and know what to save up for.

I decided that I wanted a Kenmore. Kenmores and Janomes are the same and I heard they’re one of the better brands (aside from the really expensive ones – Bernina, Viking, Pfaff). I researched various models and was considering either the 19110 or the 19233. I found them on Sears.com for $299 and $380 (on sale, down from $450), respectively. I wasn’t sure if the extra stitches and functions on the 19233 were worth the extra $80. After a little more browsing, I came across it on another site, Ken’s Sewing Center, for $300, the same price as the model below it. It had been factory-serviced (meaning someone returned it from reason and the place they returned it to couldn’t sell it as new because the box had been opened, but it was still in perfect condition). I asked the people on patternreview.com if Ken’s was a reputable dealer, and they are, and someone said it looked like a fantastic deal.

But someone else pointed me to a topic on the Kenmore 19606. This is originally a $700 machine. It’s being discontinued and Sears was selling it for $225. But there are very few left for sale in the country. Someone said they had called all of the Sears in the Atlanta area and was told they didn’t have any. You could have one ordered from out-of-state Sears, but you have to have a Sears card. I asked if that was the only way you could get one if there weren’t any at nearby Sears stores, just to make sure.

Someone said that a certain Sears in the Atlanta area still had their floor model. They had thrown out the box and accessories, so the manager said they could take another 20% off to help whoever bought it afford the accessories. I called to ask if they still had it and they did, so the next day (Saturday), Mom drove me there and we picked it up – a $700 machine for $180 + tax. I was (and am) very happy.

Of course, I have to buy the power cord ($8) and the foot control ($59! I don’t /have/ to buy it, because the machine has a start/stop button, but I think I’m going to anyway). They’re available at the Sears parts store. I think I’m also going to buy a few presser feet from them, so it’ll be close to $100 more, but that’s still /a lot/ better than $700 total. I downloaded the manual for free from managemyhome.com and saved it to a disk.

I think it must have been God who directed my steps to finding that machine, because of the timing and the fact that I really didn’t have a reason to research the Bernette I had my eye on at the time, due to the fact I wouldn’t be able to afford it for a long while (for the Kenmore, I borrowed money from my savings account, since it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I don’t like doing that. At least I have a regular babysitting job).

Props to you if you actually read all that. Here’s a picture for your patience (or impatience if you just scrolled down). I like the lavender color on it.

Have an amazing rest of your life!
- WM

Football, Strider, and a Robin Hood Review

The Arizona Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers play in the Super Bowl tonight. I don’t care much which team wins. Figuring out who to support goes something like, “Well, Arizona has a popular Renaissance festival that the Hanlon-Lees joust at, but on the other hand, swords are made of steel…” As someone else said, I would rather watch a joust. I’m just looking forward to the commercials. I’m rather disappointed that my stomach is still not itself, as I’ve had some sort of stomach bug since Wednesday, so I will be eating saltine crackers and rice instead of the food Mother is making. :p What’s the point of having the Super Bowl if you can’t eat more interesting food? *mope mope*

I watched most of a dog show on TV last night. German shepherds are my favorite breed of dog, followed closely by Great Danes. For quite a while now, I’ve wanted to get a male German shepherd and name it Strider. And then on the dog show last night, I noticed that the male German shepherd in the ring is named Strider! The dog’s show name is “Rohan’s Reward”. Rohan is my favorite culture of Middle-Earth. So it was kind of strange.

I watched “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves” on TV yesterday. HAHAHAHA. Ahem, excuse me. It was…interesting. Keven Costner does not make the best Robin Hood, in my humble opinion. Azim (Morgan Freeman) and Will Scarlet are more likable. And the theme music didn’t fit the movie very well. I think a great score would have made a huge difference. And the sheriff’s and the sheriff’s cousin’s acting seemed a bit over-the-top in a bad way at times (sorry, Colonel Brandon). The witch is icky, but she’s one of the bad people, so I suppose it’s okay…There are a couple of disturbing moments, like when she gets impaled and the scene where the sheriff…eh…the scene where the sheriff and Marian have supposedly just gotten married and the sheriff wants to…uh, take it further. Robin Hood stops him, thankfully, while everyone is still dressed, but I don’t like that part.

Now! For the Robin Hood I /do/ like (but sadly haven’t seen in years):

And I decided to vote for the Arizona Cardinals, because a Clean Place member lives in Arizona.

Have an amazing rest of your life!
- WM

Giant Post o’ Randomness

Firstly, here’s a website: Pendragon: Sword of His Father.

Second, I need to stop injuring myself :p I’ve acquired various cuts over the past few days (and don’t remember how I got any. I think one was from something that had to do with sewing) and I burnt my arm on the iron.

Third, is this not the saddest picture you have ever seen?

Okay, maybe not /the/ saddest, but it makes me feel pretty bad. I mean, if a kitten came up to me like that and I asked if I eated its cookie, I might cry.

On a more serious note…I will hopefully be graduating in the spring (but the amount of school I have to get done to accomplish that is overwhelming, so I might save myself some stress and go through the summer). So I need to figure out what God wants me to do. I personally want to stay home and read and write and sew costumes, but I kinda figure He has something else in mind that will get me out of my rut. I also need to drive a lot more (like, 27 hours) so I can get my license so I can get a job and go to college or whatever. And yikes, I just used “like” and “whatever” in the same sentence. I must need to get more sleep or something.

I’m reading “How Sleep the Brave” by James H. Hunter. It’s very interesting so far. There are some annoying parts, such as: The breakage of writing rules has bothered me some (back story, passive voice, and the like). The omniscient point of view is annoying at times because the author doesn’t stay in the main character’s head and let you know what he’s thinking and I’d like to. But the story is engrossing enough to get over those things. The skipping of several years that sounded interesting bothered me even more, but it turned out well enough that I quickly got over that too. The author is good at securing your sympathy for the characters and building suspense.

I babysit tonight, as usual. It’s my weekly, two-hour character-building session. Most of the children are generally well-behaved, but there are three boys…well, two are brothers. They tend to be wild and disrespectful. The third boy is pretty good when the other two aren’t there, but when they are there, he’s worse than both of them and stirs them up so /they’re/ worse, too.

God is doing some things in my youth group that make me very happy. We (the youth group in general) used to be more involved in each others’ lives and we’d get together and hang out and talk about what God was giving us (which more often than not turned out to be the exact same thing everyone else was getting from God, down to the very same scriptures). Granted, I never talked much and still don’t, but just hanging out with them was great. Then those who were the unspoken leaders started college and other jobs, and while others stepped in to an extent to take those roles, we haven’t been as close since. My social life pretty much died and I felt guilty for wanting to just talk (or in my case listen) and hang out more than we did at the youth meetings, selfish for wanting to be known. But God is reminding use of the importance of being involved in each others’ lives, of getting to know each other and be unified with each other as well as with Him. I’ve wanted this for a long time.

There have also been some changes at Clean Place lately geared toward bringing us closer together, so that’s neat that God is doing the similar things in both of my circles of friends.

And now I have to end this so I can eat dinner and go build character for two hours kid-watching. ;p

Have an amazing rest of your life.
- WM

Another Other Journey to the Center

of the Earth. We rented the new one that stars Bredan Fraser. There’s not enough to say to dedicate a post to a review. There’s no innapropriate content except the gal needs to learn how to dress proper. But it wasn’t very interesting. It felt like they spent more time on special effects than plot and character development. I don’t like the characters much.

I’ve thought of several things to complain about so I’ll think of something good to go along with them.

Laura had art class today and Mom and I went to Kohl’s so I could look for some shirts. I looked for an hour or more and found two (and they’re the exact same style, just different colors). Most everything is too thin or too clingy or too short or too low or wide in the neck or too fitted. I don’t really like clothes shopping. It wears me out. On the bright side, I can sew. Maybe I’ll just wear Renaissance garb all the time. That would be fun.

I hope the weather warms up soon. I don’t like being cold. On the bright side, it’s never too cold for ice cream and I got some today while we were out. Butter pecan. Yeah I’m strange.

I found a sewing pattern I’d like to get – but it’s out of print. Simplicity 4488. On the bright side, I might be able to make something similar by combining patterns I already own.

The worst thing that happened today was probably Obama becoming president, but on the bright side…uhhhh…God loves us.

The Clean Place Moot is in August. It’d cost me around $800 to go. I really, really want to, but $800 seems so far away and August so close in comparison. On the bright side, I might get to go with the youth group to a lakeside cabin for a weekend next month and it won’t cost very much (we’ll probably have to buy food, since that’s kinda important). And if God wants me to go to the Moot, He’ll provide a way.

Another bright spot was seeing someone searched “Poems about Haldir” on WordPress and found one of my blog posts. Hahaha

Have an amazing rest of your life!

- WM

I’ll try to be good about blogging again.

Laura is moving into Matthew’s old room. We bought curtains, sheets, and a bedspread yesterday, and paint today. We’ll probably get it all painted today, and she’ll probably move in in the next couple of days when the paint smell fades. She’s painting it a light silverish tealish color. She and I have never had our own rooms, so I’m looking forward to it, although I will miss chatting late at night.

When we went to Wal-Mart yesterday, I found a pair of plier things made for inserting eyelets and snaps. I’m happy I spent hours outside on the concrete patio pounding eyelets into the bodice and skirt that I made Laura for Christmas because the table doesn’t work very well. This will hopefully make inserting eyelets a lot easier. I haven’t tried it out yet, but since I have some eyelets to insert in a dress pretty soon, it won’t be unused for long.

I’ve almost finished reading Black by Ted Dekker for the second time. Then I want to read Red and White again, and then Chaos, Infidel, Chosen, and Renegade by the same author. I got the latter four for my birthday, but I haven’t read them yet because they have a lot to do with The Circle Trilogy (Black, Red, and White) and it’s been a year since I read that. I also put a book on hold at the library this morning (online) – How Sleep the Brave by J. H. Hunter. Someone recommended it to me. It sounds very interesting. Not that I should be adding more books to read. *Whistles innocently*

Have an amazing rest of your life!
- WM

Defender Knives

I ordered some things from http://www.defenderknives.com (which is also http://www.shelterdist.com ).

The first is a sword. This one:Click
It has a few flaws – some scratches on the blade and hilt, and some small tears in the leather-covered handle (which I’m considering putting a dot of glue on, because I’m kind of strange). The tape on the pommel was a pain to get off with my fingers (*hoping it wasn’t there for a good reason*) and then I gave up on the tape goo and wiped it twice with some goo-gone, and no more tape goo. I always have to do things the hard way :p The site says “Good Packing” in the description, but the packing wasn’t very good. And of course for that price it would probably break if I tried to fight with it, but I just bought it for show – to display in my room, carry around the Renaissance festival, and the like. My other sword has a dragon head on the pommel that I’m not very fond of, and it’s shorter. This new sword is very multi-purpose – I can use with it pretty much any costume or garb.

My sister and I both ordered pocket knives (Click for knife). They have 11 functions, some of which are very mysterious. The description says the tiny light is very bright, but if you hold it an inch away from your hand and point it at it, you can’t see any difference. The flashlight on mine is loose and keeps falling out of place. But hey, they were only $3 each.

I also ordered a pair ofthese gloves. They’re probably not great quality, but for a dollar…I like them.

I ordered this makeup and manicure set as a gift for my older sister. The box looks like it came from a yardsale or something, making the “$45.99 retail value” on it laughable. I’m hoping the contents are in better shape than the box.

Yes, I was very aware when I ordered these that for those prices, they probably weren’t great items, and for those prices, I’m pretty happy with everything. Granted, the shipping was $15 (the sword is heavy), but it’s still a pretty good deal. And it came with bubble wrap! Weee! Haha.

Have an amazing rest of your life!
- WM