Daffodil

Obviously I didn't do the Valentine's Bad Ballad thing. Instead I spent Valentine's Day with a fever and my raspy (Dan calls it sexy) voice, crying because I couldn't do anything right. For those of you who know me well enough to safely call me crazy to my face...I'm worse when I'm sick ;p

My valentine's gift didn't work out, but Dan gave me the most perfect gift ever! Feast tickets to this years Daffodil Festival. The SCA was a hobby of mine long before I met Dan and I've been trying to get him to an event for years. Nothing beats a large medieval style camping trip. Roasting meat on a spit and drinking ale from pewter mugs. Staying up until 3 am singing with the bards around the campfire...it really is an experience. Daffodil is sort of the entry event where they get you hooked on sword fights and feasts (and tapestry weaving, oh my!)

So I've been doing a lot of research into period costumes. The outfits I cheated and bought last year, I dated to the 1480's Florentine style. (I now know the proper way to lace them up now too) So Italian Renaissance it is :) Dan insists on us using the names Aurora (thankfully a Latin name) and Tirith (very much not so) but what the heck. Anything to make him happy :) So my official persona is Aurora di Riccardo Marco da Fiorentina (Aurora daughter of Riccardo Marco of Florence) And Dan's is Tirith di Giovanni Viviani da Fiorentino (Tirith son of Giovanni Viviani of Florence).

I am currently making t-tunics for the kids. Which are the basic, easiest to make and most commonly worn costumes of the medieval time-span. Think t-shirt but longer and belted. My next task is to figure out how to make a warmer layer for Dan and I. I have a good heavy velvet to use, I just need to figure out the patterns. Dan's is basically a rectangle with a whole in the middle for his head and mine is like a vest that just keeps going till it hits the floor :)

Bill and Leanne are going to be coming down for it as well and are also going Italian ren although about 75 years later in the period. I think we should call ourselves The Baccic League...we talked about it once, ages ago. Our standard would be a bunch of grapes and we'd heckle people and drink a lot :)

The other good thing about these events is that there is a "pied piper" someone or someones who actually volunteer to lead the kids around, do arts and crafts, teach them manners and important things like not walking into the fencing tourament ring and what "HOLD!" means. As well as old fashioned games like blind mans bluff and Chinese checkers :)

YAY!