But not for a bad reason! Not at all!
I… ummmm… well, became a Laurel.
The rather excellent Lady Yukiko recorded it as well.
Of course, promptly after that (well, two weeks or so) I broke my ankle, got a frustrating health diagnosis, and have spent far too long being very frustrated on the couch while not actually doing anything.
It was fun.
Having worked for this for years, and now having it happen is a weird headspace. I have things I need to do (thank yous, for one) and some commissions I need to finish, as getting elevated and then breaking yourself puts a bit of a brake on things. So, I’ve had time for thought. I’ve spent awhile contemplating where I go from here. As my Laurel has told me for years, this is like a black belt. It means you can learn pretty well. And not to downplay the achievement, but on the other hand… my Laurel medallion and six bucks gets me a coffee at Starbucks. Exactly the same as before I got Laureled. What it stands for outside the SCA isn’t easy to articulate and it also doesn’t mean anything there.
And so here we are.
My mom and sister came out for the event and had a great time. I’m grateful they were, even if I was a madwoman before and completely brain dead afterwards… so it wasn’t as productive a trip as it normally would be.
So anyway, back to the topic at hand. (I have no doubt that there will be more thoughts on this matter.)
What am I planning?
Well, more glass for one. We also spent last year building a shop in our back yard with the intention of being able to do glass – both torch work and eventually furnace work. I’m now in possession of several of my own oxy-propane torches, a pair of kilns, and all the supplies I’ll need in order to actually teach glass, starting with a Hot Head. Glass is my happy place, and doing it does make me happy… so I should do more. I’d like to make my own glass, and to also play more with using it in other ways. Enameling is also going to happen, because I have some things I want to make which would require it.
The other thing is that I’m in the process of planning out a complete wardrobe revamp for Dom and I. We’re in the process of slimming down the mundane wardrobes and I’d like to do something similar for our SCA clothing. Something like a capsule wardrobe, which we can mix and match and where updating will end up being a new set of clothing a year, maybe. We’re going to narrow down the focus and up the quality of the clothing, and it’s made me eager to sew for myself the first time in awhile.
For now, the blog will keep the name. I’m still learning and still moving along. So we’ll see where things go from here.
The Viking Apprentice 