My Busy Craft Life

Hi everyone! It was that time of year again and the medieval festival of Herstmonceux was upon us. Sadly the only festival we managed to go to this year but we had a great time :) This year I was very un-medieval in the sense that I was carrying the big camera. Every year I bring my little happy snapper but the result is just not quite the same. In total I took about 700 pictures (which I have them filtered of course and about half went into the bin) and some of them were great. You can really tell the difference! Unfortunately, that also meant hardly any pics of myself but I guess sacrifices have to be made ;) I took two additional days off so we arrived during the day for once, it was so much less stressful! We met up with lots of friends whom we only see once year. This is taken in their camp.   I followed the bf around the archery course to take some pics (too many to share here). Clearly I look very medieval here LOL The Pentacle Drummers had their gian...

Hello again everyone! After all that crafting we had to enjoy ourselves too of course :) And even though this was our 6th year, it was still a blast :) The bf did the archery, I socialised and worked on my dress. And all in the country with lovely sunshine, bliss! I just love this castle, every year I take pictures of it and there are so many good angles! The bf at the archery competition. Yes, this was on bright and early every morning... There were a lot of people on Monday when the weather was super nice, all watching the battle We were quite in the back but my zoom still got a few fighting pictures... Us watching the battle, you can tell the bf was a little sleepy still ;) Belly dancing performance was also included of course As well as this lovely woodworker whose website I cant remember right now, but we ordered some wooden plates and I bought a wooden portable weaving kit which is bound to appear on this blog sometime soon. :) Look! Wildlife! No...

As always, the bf entered the archery competition at Herstmonceux. Last year he was wearing a fox tail to clean his arrows as per 14th-15th century tradition. As more and more people used said fox tail as a fashion accessory, the bf wanted a woollen tassel instead. Naturally I offered to make one, but once it was done in the agreed colour scheme of red and black, he didnt really like it. No problem, I can make another one, just give me like a year or so hihi... I found some instructions online but I have no idea where anymore. Remember this piccie of our arrival in France on the ferry? This is me making the top part of the tassel which is a little hard to see in the final photo lower down but kind of serves as a hat to keep the wool together. I used my maxi knitting nancy to make this. So it was a bit of last minute work on the go but I managed to get it done in time! The archery competition briefing at Herstmonceux, it was a good crowd this year! Look at these amazing arro...

Hello again everyone! Have I bored you enough with my holiday stories and pictures ? LOL, nah come on admit it, you loved a free trip to France! :) This time I was prepared and pre-blogged a lot before going away for our bank holiday weekend to Herstmonceux Castle for the medieval weekend. Do you remember the festival pics from last year ? Well it was great as always :) You may remember my WIP when I showed you these: These were the buttons for my 15th century cotehardie. After dragging the dress to France and not getting anywhere with it in the meantime, I was working every night last week to get it finished. Hemming by hand takes a lot more time than on the machine I can tell you that! Sadly enough, by Friday evening the dress was hemmed and the buttons had been sewn on but I still had 9 button holes to finish! You guessed it, this also had to be done by hand... So on Saturday I wore my winter kit (it was a bit chilly anyway) and was allowed to sit in front of a fri...

After having completely failed to go to the Festival of History, we managed to go to Skirmish 2011 with some friends for a day out. It was a 2-hour drive but well worth it, we had a blast! In total the bf and I took about 300 photos but I made a small selection for you to share this lovely day. The weather was perfect (it should be 28C at least tomorrow which is way too warm, today was a nice 22C) and it wasnt too crowded which was bad for the merchants but great for us Londoners who wanted some nature and peace and quiet. And jousting and fighting hihi... A bit of history on Skirmish. It used to be called Joust and be organised by the Mediaeval Baebes together with the owners of Berkeley Castle until the big flood a few years back which bankrupted the entire thing(click here for a hilarious video of someone waterskiing behind a horse across the flooded fields). About two years after said flood, a new group took over and started organising Skirmish. It is still relatively small compar...