Project updates

Good afternoon LJ world!  As another Pennsic fades into memory and real-world takes over, I need to give some thought and focus towards what needs my more immediate attention.  Here’s a glimpse into Joe-world and what is taking up my time as of late…

 

House projects – while for my husbear this is a true labor of love, for me it is a labor of…well… labor.  While I very much enjoy the finished results of home restoration, I cannot really say I am passionate about doing it myself.  My hubby is really cool about spending little snips of time here and there continually making improvements.  As for me, I really come into play for the bigger projects that involve both of us, ladders, sweat, a weekend, and several near accidents.  The results always come out wonderfully, and somehow we manage to continue to speak to one another when all is said n’ done.  I guess we have a system.

 

Garden – ACK!  I really do not like this time of year.  As the heatwave beats down, our lovely garden shows signs of burning and ferocious abuse.  We can tell it is August because it is Spider and Ant season.  The spiders are fascinating, producing fantastic webs worthy of magazine covers.  The ants… not so fascinating.  More like annoying!  As for my poor plants, it is time to prune like mad so that the Winter will see signs of repair and improvement.

 

Scrolls – Having handed over the Kingdom scriptorium, I have been on hiatus from scroll production lately.  Time to prime the pumps again.  I have one scroll that needs to be painted, another that I need to work on after the calligraphy is done, and another to lay out by GWW.  Whip CRACK!

 

Embroidery – More deadlines!  I have one of the heraldic patches to complete quickly for the kneeling cushions to the throne, and an Opus Anglicanum project to get finished by Estrella.  Whip CRACK!

 

Costuming – I have one medieval outfit that serves as my inspiration.  I would like to make more, but would like to learn more about it from a research end.  I really know absolutely NOTHING about medieval English.  Sources?  Recommendations?  Anybody?

 

Cooking – Let’s see, we have the Upper Crust cookbook project, the upcoming traveling luncheon project, and unquestionably some feasts in the near future.  Oddly enough, I’m jonesin’ to do another SCA feast fairly soon.  Having picked up more cookbooks at Pennsic, I gotta try them out.  Outside of the SCA, “Mrs. McCavity” and I have a menu to finalize for the Victorian dinner that is… YIKES!  Next MONTH! 

 

Classes – Oh CRAP!  I have classes to put together for Collegium which is also next month.  FRACK!

 

My motto in life really should become my SCA motto – “Better busy than bored”.  Hmmmm… I wonder how that would sound in Latin?

My Witchy Ways

Some of my friends and family have a difficult time wrapping their brains around the idea of me being a Pagan.  I don’t feel that I am judged or that I set off any alarms or anything.  Some people just simply don’t get it.  I have actually been told by more than a few people that I “look too conservative” to be pagan.  Erugh?  I wasn’t aware that there was “a look.”  Is there a “look” that a Presbyterian has versus a Hindu?  Are we all supposed to look like we just stepped off the set of a Mad Max movie or something like that?  Oh sure, there are stereotypes.  We are all familiar with the caricatures of a Muslim, or an orthodox Jew.  One of several images comes to mind when I reference the term, “Bible thumper.”  Yet when it comes down to it, people are people.  Nobody has to conform to a stereotype.  Perhaps I do appear rather conservative-looking for my pagan path.  They clearly haven’t seen my tattoos… but that is another story.

 

A couple o’ weeks ago, my husbear and I found ourselves in a bookstore (go figya).  While perusing the aisles and kiosks for the latest in printed treasures, I found myself in the religion section.  Years ago, one didn’t see many (if any) books on paganism.  *Maybe* there would be a book on meditation or Taoism.  And sure, there were a couple of books here and there on the EVVVILS of Satanism.  But books on Paganism as a religion were few and far between.  I find it funny nowadays.  We have become very, very trendy.  Now that global warming has finally smacked people up one side and down the other, it is now acceptable to go green.  It is trendy to drive a Prius.  Yeah recycling!  Yeah organics!  Yeah green!

 

Looking through the books, I found myself at a loss.  I hadn’t heard of the majority of them, much less the authors.  Every now and then I would run into a familiar book or author.  Ah… Buckland’s Complete Guide… Not exactly what I would call “complete,” I find it interesting that this one is still around.  Ah… Scott Cunningham.  What a wonderful man he was.  I remember chatting with him one time while he was in the hospital not long before he died.  What a nice guy.  So grounded… so friendly… Le sigh.  Where are the other authors?  The Farrars?  Adler?  Starhawk?  Valiente?  What the heck?

 

Coming out of the Broom Closet was not easy.  Flaaaaaaaaaaaaaarida was still very much a bible belt in the 80’s, and at the time the word “witch” was too easily identified as being “Satanist.”  Fortunately, for people who believed as I did, we had a source for good written material – Merlins.  Ah… for those early days.  I remember Merlins bookstore had two – count ‘em TWO – bookshelves with books about Pagan religion.  WooHOO!  Oh sure, the rest of the store was dedicated to comic books and gaming, but it was also a safe haven for those who believed as I did.  And what was that, you may be asking?  Very simply…

 

 - That “God”, or the sense of divine has a masculine and a feminine side.  After all, how can “Creation” happen as the result of just one?

 - That human beings have the choice and responsibility to do what they want.  Rather than follow a set of rules written who knows how long ago, it is better to think for oneself, make informed decisions, and base one’s actions on what one believes to be best.  This also involves accepting the consequences of one’s choices and actions.  In short – karma doth occur.

 

Everything else is really just the trappings of these basic thoughts.

 

The first time I traveled to Salem, I made the pilgrimage to Crow Haven Corner, the shop run by the daughter of Laurie Cabot.  I found myself rather overwhelmed by all the paraphernalia – cauldrons, incense, books, besons, athames, etc., etc.  I guess I had “that look” because eventually Ms. Cabot asked about it.  “I’m from Flaaaaaaaaarida,” I said.  “We don’t have shops like this there.”  “But… how do you get your equipment?” somebody else asked.  That was when the militant-wiccan in me came out, “We make it!” I said.  Necessity is the Mother of Invention.  And in this case, the Mother Earth of invention as well.  Now of course, times have changed a lot in the past 20 years.  Perceptions have begun to change.  Understandings have begun to change.  And our “trendiness” has led to a lot of lucrative business.

 

On the one hand, people are no longer shooting at us as was once the case.  On the other hand, we’ve become “trendy.”  Ugh.  I’m not sure which is worse.