Medievalling like monkeys...

Well K and I had a busy week last week. As I said in an earlier post, we are going to Tewkesbury Medieval Festival at the weekend and we needed to make her a kirtle and shift so I can borrow the set that she had originally borrowed from our second cousin, Cas. We tried to get a pattern but it hadn't arrived by the time we started so we had to make our own pattern from the borrowed kirtle. Kristy made a fine job of this so we used an old bedspread to cut out a mock up and sewed it together, adjusting it to fit.



Look at how fast she is moving :


She is SO proud!


Hot fuzz in the back ground. Mother Huggers...


We then took the big step of cutting out the pieces out of the very expensive fabric that Kristy bought from Herts Fabrics - a gorgeous chocolate brown and a nice olive green. Once we had got the brown stitched together and right we then did the same with the brown.

We then stitched together the two around the top seam, unstitched the shoulder seams again when I realised I had mucked up and it couldn't be turned right way out with them stitched and finally we cut out and made a shift. When I say we, I really mean K as I am useless at sewing by hand or by machine as I don't have the patience.

I did, however, go on interweb and find out about medieval fingerbraiding so then I could make all the cords for lacing up the dress and tying the shift. I was quite please with how they turned out with a basic round braid for the front of the kirtle and to tie the sleaves on (we never made the sleves btw) and a flat braid for the lacing of the shift collar and cuffs.

All of this sounds pretty straight forward, however it took the best part of 4 days to do. Throw in the fact the Sherb had to have yet another operation on yesterday (another £600 down the drain when we really can't afford it but he is already much happier than he had been so it is worth it) and a temper tantrum from J and basically by Thursday, we were pooped.

A new addition to the family

Well, after the sheer chaos of fitting floors and car accidents, last Sunday we bit the bullet and went out to find a replacement for the Volvo. John had spotted a Type 25 VW minibus advertised on a "non-vw" website for a pittance and, looking at the multitude of pictures the owner sent us, it was close to immaculate. Unfortunately, it was immaculate in Wales...

So Sunday we took a 3 hour drive down to Wales to check it out. After a while, boredom set in, particularly as John will not listen to the radio unless the signal is 100% clear and so turned it off so we stopped at a gas station and bought pen and paper and we made a list of bits and pieces to spot along the way and each time one was crossed off the list you got a point. I won. :D

It wasn't as immaculate as we originally though but it wasn't far off and what is more although it showed as having 3 owners since new, the first and third owners were the gentleman we were buying it from and the second was his father-in-law (sold to him as the first ownership was under lease but there was something about the leasor not being able to buy it direct from the company so it was sold to his father-in-law for a year). It was obviously well looked after and the owner was very sorry to see her go but was off on early retirement to tour round Europe and had a brand new VW camper van coming for just that purpose.

So, K and I are off to Tewkesbury this year as reenactors and we decided we would take the van and sleep in that so this weekend John and I (mostly John) built a bed unit for it.

It basically went well but there were a few problems. Firstly, we cut the base board so that it taered towards the boot, but failed to take into account the fact that the van tapers inwards towards the roof so it wouldn't fit. Having retrimmed, we put the board in place and screwed the legs into place.

It looked great and was very solid, buttttt... we then realised that we wouldn't be able to get to the engine bay when it was in and that, because John had cut it so accurately, we could get it out again.

After much swearing and cursing, and cutting the edge off...

...we got it out, cut it dow so it could be easily removed to get to the engine bay and then - voila! it was done.

(The piece of wood stood up at the back sits on top of the folded down seats to make one long bed and there are boxes with castors under the bit in the boot so the space isn't wasted.

There is a still a little to do - we need to build an extension down beside the second row of seats as J is freakishly tall and won't fit in as it is, but it will be fine for me and K. We also need to put a couple of metal supports on the rear of the boot bit for the other board to rest on and pop a couple of handle on the sliding board to make it easier to put away. We plan to put the air bed on top as cushioning, however we have two and can only find the one that is WAY too big at the moment. Ah well, I'm sure the other one will turn up.

So after all that we have a bed. Shame my nice clean kitchen on managed to stay that way for a week! Everything is now lost under a thick layer of sawdust.

Anyway, now I am pooped - I took Nan and Grandad to the airport this morning (in the new van which they both admired being ex-lorry/van drivers themselves) and we left really early due to the extra security measures, thinking we would have to queue for ages but as it was there was no traffic and we drove straight up and parked right outside with no problems. There was, of course, tons of traffic on the way back. Hopefully it will be like the first journey when I pick them up on Thursday.

This afternoon K is coming over so we can start constucting a shift and kirtle for the weekend. K will wear the new one and I will wear Cas's old one which, hopefully, will fit. Our dressmaking abilities are severly limited as I have only ever made a Star Trek uniform, a boob tube and a Jebi robe and K hasn't made any garments (but is probably better with the machine as she used to do quilting whereas using a sewing machine generally just results in me swearing a lot). To see the jedi robes in actions (one went better than the other) see Trinity Wars.

I will take photos to map our progress and hopefully we will get loads done today as we then only have Wednesday, Thursday and Friday morning to finish it off!

JJ saves the day?

So in top of his masterful tiling at the weekend, yesterday JJ single-handedly lead his AOL quiz to to VICTORY last night. Or at least that is the way he tells it...

Their team did win and got to choose which charity got the entry money and he also won a raffle prize - a tigger mug and socks, which he duely presented me with when I picked him up from the Albion. I would have prefered the raffle prize that Arina (JJ's boss) choose - a mini rabbit from the "rude" shop next door.

Other than that I got very little done yesterday except putting the applicances back into the kitchen and making sure they worked. To my annoyance, the applicance rollers we bought for the washing machine make it about 2mm too tall to fit under the work top, even with the feet screwed in as far as they would go. Today I plan to blitz all the downstairs rooms, leaving tomorrow to do the upstairs. Now, if onyl I could inspire myself to get a move on...

One of those weekends...

Well it has been one of those weekends. We were trying to get the house looking reasonable for the surveyor (we are remortaging with a new company for a better deal).

Neither of us has laid tiles before so we HUGELY underestimated the time it would take... I forgot to take a piccy of what it looked like before as in a fit of grrrrritude I had taken the lino up during the week , but saturday morning we basically had this:

So we set off, me applying the adehesive to the floor and John laying the tile behind me.

For the first row we cut all the edge bits, but soon decided that took too long so would lay all of the complete tiles and then go back and fill in the gaps.

Mid-afternoonish we had something that was beginning to look floor like and were very proud of ourselves.

Then began the long and arduous task of cutting all the bits, mostly done by JJ I will admit.

About 6ish John popped to sainsburys to get us something for tea, however he sat at the traffic lights and watched the aftermath of an accident that had obviously just occured and, when the lights turned green, pulled away. However, a guy coming the other way that was also staring at the accident, didn't notice the lights had changed and went through them at speed and JJ adn he had a "coming together". There isn't a huge amount of damage to the volvo (the other guys car was trashed) but we think, as the volvo is so old, it is likely that the insurance company will write it off, which is exactly what we don't need right now but never mind. Both men were unhurt except John sprained his thumb getting it caught in the steering wheel as it span round on impact.


By about 10pm Saturday night we had finished laying all of the whole tiles and had cut all of the off cuts (the off cuts being a swearing fiesta in itself!). I had blisters on the tips of all the fingers on my right hand and a couple on the palm. JJ began planning the ultimate bank job so to take advantage of the fact that I had now completely worn away my finger prints. He couldn't have helped in the hiest however as he had done in his back and leg muscles.

Sunday was fathers day and, when he rang to let us know his plans for the day, he then stupidly allowed himself to be suckered into helping us for the day instead! Mum and Dad appeared about lunch time - we had just finished gluing down the last of the cut off tiles and re gluing two of the tiles which were loose - and after a quick breakie of KFC (hmmmmmm) we got to it.

However, Dad insisted on doing the floor properly (Dads are so bad annoying sometimes) and leaving the floor to dry completely before grouting - I was going to grout the whole tiles and leave the rest til later. (What is more the whole "quick drying" adehsive ("ready to grout in 3 hours") wasn't so even the whole tiles weren't quite dry yet. Instead, we blitz tidied the rest of the house and Mum and I attemped to get in the door of my study and clean it. All in all, we got loads done and it made life a whole lot easier (thanks Mum and Dad!)

The next day Mum and JJ threw a sickie and Mum popped over to fold washing and do washing up while I grouted and JJ went to Oxford (where I was supposed to be) and was generally helpful. We finally finished grouting at around 7.30pm and we are really pleased with the effect.

So all in all, despite the fact that it took WAY longer than we had hoped and resulted in writing off the car, I am a happy bunny, as are the dogs who have been either shut in the garden or the lounge for the last 3 days and have been extreamely put out, as you can see:

JJ's disgrace...

I am SO very angry at JJ, he was so MEAN last night (in my dream) that I woke up FURIOUS at him and I can't shake it!

Basically I dreamt we were still living in our house but we were both back at University. JJ was studying in the US and I was studying somewhere round here. It was the summer holidays and, although he was housesitting in the US, he decided he needed something here so flew over and turned up on our doorstep. We spent a pleasant day together and then his dad and his german uncle (whom I have never met) turned up and after an hour or two, they headed off as John had to get to the aiport. However, by this time he was back in bed and refused to get up until the last minute. Add in the fact that the sat nav we were using was going haywire and he missed his plane. After discussing it, JJ said seeing his Dad had made him homesick and he wold go to Germany for a few days and see his Dad and his German family and then fly back here and then on to the US. I was a bit annoyed as we couldn't afford it but agreed, after all it is his Dad. I dropped him at a hotel for the night, slightly miffed but not too annoyed.

Next morning he turns up in a stretch mercedes in a white tuxedo. What is more the car is full of beautiful women and one giant of a man that sat with his head out of the roof. I was more than a little miffed now but JJ talked me round, convincing me that they were just friends. Until, that is, he told me that he had decided that, rather than see his Dad, him and the girls were going on a tour of Germany, staying in five star hotels etc. I was FURIOUS! THERE WAS NO WAY we coud afford that, but JJ couldn't seem to see anything wrong with it and just left. I decided that I was going to fly to the carribean for a two week holiday to spite him. However, in my dream I never got to enjoy that bit as, before i knew it JJ was back from his tour and, annoyed that I wasn't there to greet him, went on a murderous rampage across London, killing everyone in sight.

And I woke up to find myself on my side, looking directly at JJ and still feeling absolutely FURIOUS with him! It is still lingering too - how werid is that?

Anyway, yesterday we went out to buy tiles for the floor in the kitchen - Sherb ripped up the lino years ago and we have put off replacing it, trying to decide if he is out of that stage, but every now and again he would do it again. However, we have a mortgage surveyor coming this week so want the house to look as good as possible. We made sure that we didn't leave the dogs any water overnight (cruel I know but one night won't hurt them) so that they couldn't spill it everywhere and stop us being able to lay the flooring. So of course this morning I get up and Thai has peed on the floor! ARGH! She hasn't done that in MONTHS and today is the day she decides to get to it?! It is SO frustrating but still we will have to start at the other end of the kitchen and hope it is dried by the time we get there. If not, we will have to finish the floor off tomorrow. I shall take piccies to show our progress...