Medieval Sashay

Good morning everyone!  I've been very distracted lately so I'm a bit backlogged on blog pics to share with ya'll!  Eesh!  Recently, Jordan and I got connected to the public library in our area.  Our library has a ton of free audio books available to members and each audio book can be accessed from an app on our phones!  I love listening to book after book, but it's pulled my attention away from other things!

We've had a busy couple of weeks.  I guess the first place to start would be the storm that hit the northeast!!!  Below are some pictures taken by my Uncle Dave.  This is Lake Ontario and it's quite icey and snowy.  It's really difficult to imagine this level of snow since we live in Texas.  I've never seen anyone "fall through ice" or "sink in deep snow".  Not in real life at least.  If you live up north, take care of yourself!

Spectacular pictures courtesy of Uncle Dave! (Lake Ontario)  The lake looks sort of ominous.

Last weekend, we had the opportunity to celebrate our friend, Jenn's, birthday!  Happy birthday my dear friend!  A big group of her friends met up at Medieval Times here in Dallas.  If you've never been to Medieval Times, it's essentially a "castle" where you can have an experience straight from the 1600's (I think).  There are knights, a king, a princess, horses, jousting, and you eat your meal with your hands!  The whole crowd or "court" gets to experience the show and root for their knight to win the hand of the princess.  It was actually very entertaining!  Plus, most of Jenn's friends are Red Raiders so naturally, we all got along great!  

This is our view of the arena from our seat.  We were served tomato bisque, castle bread, roasted chicken, BBQ spare rib, her-basted potato, and pastry of the castle.  You might have to eat your meal with your hands, but they also served a more modern beverage, Pepsi.  I thought that was kind of funny.

Here are some pics of the whole gang.  And yes, we totally rocked the paper crowns to support the yellow knight.
This was an excellent group of friends!

I guess this is the "jester"?  Basically, this fella was the host of our show.  

Here are some pictures of the knights getting ready for battle!
Top Left: This was our yellow knight!
Top Right: This was the "king"!  You know, the knights have to have a kingdom to protect!

More random pics!

Various pictures of Jordan, Jenn, and I!

Later in the weekend Jordan and I enjoyed a lazy Sunday.  We both tinkered around the house and I decided to try my hand to make a coat sash.  I'm NOT a very good at sewing so this definitely turned out to be more difficult than I thought.  You could classify me as a novice.  My "tinkering" turned into a huge mess in our kitchen.
  I started with some gold fabric.  I wanted the sash to be on the long side and I only had 1 yard of fabric.  My first step was to cut the fabric in half and sew it into a long strip to get the desired length.  I rarely use my hand-me-down sewing machine, so every time I get it, out I have to look up something in the manual.  It's always an ordeal, but I eventually got it to work with me.

Next up was actually making the sash.  I didn't have a pattern, just an image in my head.  Seriously, I was making this up as I went.  In the end, I decided I need a pattern so that my sash would be symmetrical on both sides.  My "pattern" turned out to be wrapping paper; that's the best I could come up with.  It actually worked pretty well because the back of the wrapping paper had the square inches already measured for me!  

Bottom Left: I had to show ya'll this picture because it's kind of hilarious (and indicative of my poor sewing skills).  This is just a nasty rats nest of thread.  I figured out that 2 things caused this mess.  My bobbin had run out of thread and my tension was wrong.  That lead to about 20 minutes of reading the manual (to re-thread the bobbin), but I eventually got it fixed. Whew!
Bottom Right: I had to make everything inside out and then hand sewed this little section closed.  That took longer than expected.

Finally, I was done!
This is the finished sash and it only took me all day to make!  I'm proud of my work, but not so sure I will endeavor to make another one anytime soon.

We finished the week with a little surprise from Jordan.  He sent me flowers to my office and they have been beautiful!  Totally brightened my day!

Various flower pictures.  Jordan is an expert at picking out flowers that seem to last forever.  He even picked an arrangement with this super cute jar/lantern as the vase.  I can definitely re-use that sometime.
Top Left: The obligatory picture of Abby! :)  With the weather being chilly, she's been especially cuddly.  I just love that little mug.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful February!

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