Costuming Escapades (Start of the embroidered hood)

Over the last couple of years I have been on a mission to lose 28 kilos.  This requires a lot of concentration, dedication and a heck load more of willpower and determination.  I started on my journey in April 2011 after I had hip replacement surgery and having gained about 10 kilos in 2 years.  I was already overweight but topping out at 102.1 kilos was the final straw.

This weight loss has required a complete rethink of my medieval garb as really none of it fits me anymore.  So I have decided to replace my wardrobe, with 2 exceptions.  A red/blue 16thC wool gown of Dutch style and a linen dress I made years ago and decided to rebuild it.

I decided to start at a hood.  I had been wanting to do something embroidered for a while but my limited skill set for embroidery meant that it had to be a fairly simple design that wouldn't take too much time to create.  So I started digging around and Racaire in Drachenwald (Europe), or Austria to be more precise had already made a hood that gave me the perfect inspiration, complete with pictures.

Digging through the stash of fabric I knew that I had some heavier blue wool that would be perfect for a warm hood.  Using the Medieval Tailor's Assistant pattern, I drew up the hood on the wool and added 15cm to the length to allow for the dagging pattern.

I then needed to decide on a dagging shape.  In the 14thC it appears that the favoured shapes are either the 'oak leaf' that Raciare used or the 'flame'.  Now I am not that clever when it comes to embroidery and I needed to use something that was not excessive in it's coast line but wouldn't look out of place either.  So I went with a simple round.  It is inspired by the shape of 14thC biconical cup.  Once I was happy with the shape, I drew it out on plastic and then transferred the shape onto the cutout hood.

Balcony Garden (Part 1)

Since I first moved to Sydney in 2008, I have maintained a balcony garden.  They have invariably failed as I was pretty terrible at watering or maintaining them.  The poor things just died.  Since the beginning, 2 plants somehow survived.  An Apricot Nectar standard rose, and an Arabica coffee tree.

Watering was a problem as I was having to truck several watering cans of water through the bedroom to the north facing balcony.  It was reasonably successful with tomatoes and herbs being produced, when I remembered to water it.

In 2011, my husband and I moved to Drummoyne into a much larger unit with a balcony three times larger than our previous one.  The first year was spent ignoring the pots, emptying a few out, clearing out dead plants and generally forgetting to water the plants unless they looked sad and desperate.  A couple of months ago I thought that I might like to reestablish my balcony garden but knowing my laziness with a watering can, I knew I needed some sort of irrigation system.

These pictures above are the second attempt at a balcony garden.  The coffee tree (at rear left of the r) picture) is now bigger, but wind damaged and suffering a bit from being in a saltier environment.  The lavender, sage, rosemary and strawberry pot have all perished.

I started looking around the internet to see what there was in the way of information for practical balcony gardens.  There are many, many websites on balcony gardening, but they all kind of depended on either an outside tap and hose system (which I don't have) or a water can, which I know I am dreadful with.

Then the revelation happened when I found the Urban Green Survival blog, I noticed that Dean (the blog owner) had my ultimate solution.  A 100L plastic water storage tank and irrigation pipe with irrigation heads.  So with this in mind the new look balcony garden on the much larger balcony was planned.