etienettebluet | Entries tagged with queen's prize

Friday up and out to lunch and library computer. On the way home picked up groceries for tomorrow morning. Leftovers for supper then making more wonky star blocks. Early to bed by 2am.

Saturday up at 4:30 to meet Natalya at Gwyneth's by 6am to daytrip to Queen's Prize in St. Jo. Leofwyna and I slept in the back seat going down and Leofwyna stayed in the car to sleep another couple hours when we arrived. I sat most of the day in the commons stripping border blocks, finishing another cappie and hemming handkerchiefs. The noise levels in the judging hall and commons were pretty intense and by the end of the afternoon I'd almost developed a headache but medication headed it off and I was able to enjoy court. Leofwyna and I didn't sleep all the way home but we both had naps along the way. At the sewing table tonight while we watched a movie I pulled shorts from the dark 2.5 bin. Also pulled the plaids for another project.

Thursday morning I packed and loaded foodish things in the van. We washed bed linens and towels. We were ready to go by noon but lingered in case the travelers might pull in (turns out they didn't get in until 5pm). We pulled out about one o'clock, stopped at Subway for our lunch and afternoon eats and got on the road home. We drove through three storms as we went but were treated to a very long-lasting rainbow at the Wyoming-Nebraska border. We pulled in at home about 12:30 and were greated by both Cassie and Patsy who was coming over to see if she needed attention. Belinda had already left for her Ansteora weekend.

Friday we unloaded the van, packed and loaded up the van, hooked up the camper and by 3pm was on the road to Des Moines for Queen's Prize Saturday. We did pull into Des Moines in time to hit a couple Goodwills but neither of us found anything tempting. Supper was at Red Lobster and set up at Walmarts fairly close to site. There was lots to see and Leofwyna didn't miss a thing. I was a little weary to I sat and stitched most of the afternoon. Court was long as there were two Laurel elevations in addition to all the usual business. I was disappointed that Gerald was not part of that business so it's likely to happen somewhere, sometime that I am not there. We drove home Saturday night, pulling in about 11pm and we're totally ready to stay close to home the rest of the year.

Sunday I mowed the verges and part of the back but when I stopped to move the hose I couldn't get the hot mower started up. I left the front for Leofwyna and the back for the next day as I needed to shower and be gone to have some supper before gaming. Theron had a 'side' adventure set up for us in honor of Pirates' day Monday.

Monday after some computer time I finished mowing the back and dug potatoes, including one of the squares where there had been a volunteer potato (3 spuds). I found several grubs and lots of slugs in the very wet earth. Happily they don't seem to have hurt the potatoes though I'd hope for more than 3/4 of a 5 gallon bucketful.

At the sewing table I'm still working on sniglets but starting to cut 6.5 squares and adding red print sashing.

Saturday Leofwyna and I were up VERY early to join up with Volkmar, Isadora, Natalya and Ingaborg to go to Queen's Prize. This is Leofwyna's favorite event and she hits every single entry, reads all the documentation and, if possible, talks to every entrant. I admire this but just can't do the same myself. I just get overloaded and have to find a quiet place. The trip was worth it to me, though, for getting to visit with a few folks, getting to attend court, and then having a fun time at supper with friends.

Wednesday I canned the most recent batch of cinnamon pickles and went through half my laundry. A stop at the grocery store and I bagged some manager's special turkey wings and chicken thighs so I pre-cooked them for the broth and got six quarts pressure canned at the end of day.

Leofwyna and I went to moot and supper with the group. There were discussions about upcoming events, including Queen's Prize, Baronial A&S, the Baron's supper and Yule Court. I've called Sash and confessed my QP entry ain't happenin' in time and sent in my regrets to the scheduler.

Tuesday after I boiled my cinnamon syrup I headed out for a haircut. While I was in the area I stopped in at the Salvation Army there where I saw heavy wire shelving [still in the box] which would be great in the laundry room with nice deep shelves suitable to hold totes and such. Must tell Leofwyna and see what she thinks of the idea. I also went to Hancock's for stuff needed to complete the Queen's Prize project. Gotta get that done, only ten days to go. A stop at the library got the print out of the source document for that. At the sewing table I'm working on the log cabin project which has become three projects trying to use up the 'shorties'.

We're back from vacation. We made arrangements for the cats, loaded up the camp gear and headed up to Michigan's upper peninsula to set up camp by Lake Superior and make day trips from there. Unfortunately the pretty day we had to set up camp was not the case for the next eight days. We had grey skies, fog, sprinkles and full out rain alternately but at least the temperatures stayed mild or it would have been thoroughly miserable. Oh, we had three sunny bits averaging 2-3 hours and managed to fit a painted rock cruise into one of them. Other days we spent exploring various beautiful waterfalls, driving up to Grand Marais (agate hunting between rainstorms), and driving into Marquette. We just generally had a good time exploring and enjoying each others company. [Remember Steven, Seven and the pile of wood. Remember the really neat A-frame camp trailer. Remember Bob and his guitar.] The Wednesday night we were fortunate to have good gentle winds and a sunny sunrise to dry the tent. By the time we were up and breaking camp it was grey again but it didn't commence sprinkling until we were fed and loaded up and on the road Thursday morning. We drove the two days down to Columbia, MO for Queen's Prize Saturday. There were approximately 160 entries and Leofwyna was in her element checking each and every entry. Magmor was well represented, especially by our two new families including the kids. Court was wonderful; I especially liked the way HM gave extra attention to the kids who entered. At the end of the day we decided we could handle driving straight through home. After changing and having supper I took the first stretch and managed to get us past St Jo before handing over to Leofwyna who got us the rest of the way home. We left unloading to Sunday evening... it rained Sunday morning so I couldn't mow, nor dry the camp gear as planned. Oh well.

Thursday I went to the library to print out a proof of membership since my card hadn't arrived yet. Back at home I did some preliminary packing for the weekend.

Friday we finished loading up, picked up Anita and headed south. Due to several mischances our five hour drive turned into eight but we finally pulled in to our crash site at Rigella's near 10pm. It was a good trip for me though, I was quilting around the border of the wedding quilt and made good progress on it.

It was pure pleasure Saturday at Queen's Prize to see Leofwyna making the rounds of all the displays. She's much more thorough about it than I am; someday I have no doubt she'll become an excellent judge. I went through and looked over everything, a second round I stopped and skimmed documentation and visited with some of the entrants, and a third round to pass out the Andes mints. Then I found a table where friends were doing handwork and joined in while working on the quilt. During court we learned MagMor won the bid for the next Queen's Prize and then when Populace Choice was announced... Yay, Killian. He won with a complete Venetian outfit he made to be fought in... and it is BEA-U-TI-FUL...

Sunday Anita rode back with Gwyneth so we slept in and didn't get on the road until near noon. We stopped at a Goodwill in Topeka for a break from the driving and then stopped in Nebraska City at Valentino's for supper. Back at home the kitties were so-o-o glad to see us and we took turns catching up on the computer. This week I have to get the laptop dealt with.

WEDNESDAY

I stopped in at the 50% Sale at Salvation Army again today and found a dozen shirts for the quilters stash and linen box. I've gotton so much of this stuff lately I really should get involved in using some of it. Soon I must, must, must put the sewing corner back into order so I can begin production. Perhaps this is New Year's resolution #2; #1 is getting a job and benefits.

Tonight we put up the Christmas tree night and Leofwyna is immensely cheered up by the occasion. We put up the 4 foot tall pre-lit tree on a table to make it tall enough to be seen outside and we used the box of traditional and souvenir ornaments. She's fairly bouncing every time she passes by the living room and sees it again.

I asked Leofwyna to whip up another batch of pastry so I can use the leftover chicken-spinach-egg mixture I have in the fridge from the tarts I did for Yule Court.

THURSDAY

While Leofwyna ran errands this early evening I put together a small batch of potato cream soup to go with the Medieval Chicken Pie I got baked up this morning.

FRIDAY

A few days ago I requested some books in the city library system. They came into my local library and the call to notify me interrupted the insurance call I was on... I mean it dumped my agent off the line and wouldn't allow me to disengage from the computer system that was telling me to pick up these books and repeating itself several times before disengaging itself. Really odd! Anyway today at the library I had them change me to email contact instead of calling. I still haven't been able to get ahold of my agent again; have left 2-3 messages on her answering machine though.

So today I picked up the ten books from the library and I need to look through them and take some notes for my Queen's Prize entry.

A late run to the grocery store scored four packages of pre-seasoned chicken pieces at reduced manager's special so I immediately set them to cooking in the crockpot. They're smelling wonderful!!!

MONDAY

Fortunately Leofwyna got put on-call today 'cause naturally she didn't sleep very well through the night. Then she slept until nearly two so I was tip-toeing around the house. I stripped samples some but once Leofwyna got taken off on-call around four she got itchy and we ended up driving up to Omaha to see Little Sister who's still sedated and intubated. Her color's better than it was at Christmas and her stats are so-o-o-o much better than yesterday that we're encouraged. We then went to supper at Cheesecake Factory for the Thai Lettuce Wraps, nom-nom-nom. That made us feel better too!

I'd also called Sash this morning 'cause with this in addition to Domesday Report this week I decided to back out of Queen's Prize. Whatever way it goes with LS we'll probably be in and out of Omaha repeatedly the next couple weeks and I'm all for avoiding excess stress.

WEDNESDAY

Got on the ball this afternoon and mowed the backyard, bagging it all for the compost pile. That should complete the mowing for this year. We may use the mower to mulch fallen leaves for the compost pile so we won't call Mohrhoff's for service and storage until next month.

Today I got the peonies dug out of the front flower bed... split them out as two pink and five white sets. Leofwyna had gotten several sets from a friend. So we dug 13 holes along the property line in the back yard and planted the peonies there in line with the two that were already there. That'll make a nice low green hedge there in the summers as we'll have them well supported to stay upright. .

I left Leofwyna putting in the last five plants while I took off for the A&S discussion. We're getting our part of the Birthday Celebration organized. Apparently our Passport scheme isn't quite enough. After I talked with Sash about sponsoring me for Queen's Prize; I'll make a soft leather archer's quiver like I found in an illumination.