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Book signing!
7 May 2025 10:58 amThis Saturday come down to Books at Stones at Stones Corner and say hi!!
The surcote in action!
6 May 2025 11:45 am
Down where the water lilies grow, wearing my sand wool surcote for the first time!
Another photo from AROW, one of the very few which is usable. My thanks to my friend Nigel for taking this one.
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Lady of the Lake
4 May 2025 11:37 am
Down by the water lilies! Fun with friends at an event this weekend.
AROW is our yearly Abbey Re-enactors Only Weekend where without the public, we can chill, test our new things for the coming season and mingle with friends. It's also a really great opportunity to take some nice photos without all the members of the public in them. That's the theory, anyway.
Unfortunately, there were an enormous amount of cars left on site for the entire weekend and almost every camp had modern items clearly in view, which not only spoiled the ambiance, it made taking nice photos extremely difficult. Happily, there was a little sunshine and a clear spot down by the lake where the water-lilies were blooming their heads off.
I was able to get a few nice photos, but as almost always, the photos I look of other people are lovely, and the ones of me are weird angles, out of focus or have clothing malfunctions.
Fun with veils
26 April 2025 10:35 am
Today at Phoenix Phestival I showed my friend Annette how to make this great new look for herself!
We didn't have everything we needed, but we both love the result!
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Heart-shaped Headdress
25 April 2025 10:38 am
Saturday night banquet photo! My sister made this headdress and I've been dying to wear it but I go to only one 15th c event a year.
Completely gutted that all the other photos from the night have the veil hanging awkwardly all off one side and no one told me to fix it!
Museum Treasure Hunt!
7 April 2025 11:25 amI made a Museum treasure hunt!
A few weeks ago I had my official book launch for The Secret Lives of Single Medieval Women at the Abbey Museum of Art & Archaeology, and we had a short speech, lots of scrumptious food and I made this fun Scavenger Hunt for the Museum and Art Gallery for guests to really have a closer look at the displays!
While not all items are medieval, they are all things associated with the life of a single woman!
Here's our item card that I made! Obviously, you can't collect them. It was a find-and-photograph and first one back won a prize!
A few weeks ago I had my official book launch for The Secret Lives of Single Medieval Women at the Abbey Museum of Art & Archaeology, and we had a short speech, lots of scrumptious food and I made this fun Scavenger Hunt for the Museum and Art Gallery for guests to really have a closer look at the displays!
While not all items are medieval, they are all things associated with the life of a single woman!
Here's our item card that I made! Obviously, you can't collect them. It was a find-and-photograph and first one back won a prize!
While not all items are medieval, they are all things associated with the life of a single woman! Writing implements, dress accessories, devotional literature and even the much beloved pet, the small white, fluffy dog! What might a woman do with a monk? Why, confess! (although players had lots of fun suggestions of things to do with monks! naughty! Naughty!)
Here's our item card that I made! Obviously, you can't collect them. It was a find-and-photograph and first one back won a prize!
The hunt itself was extremely successful with players racing around the museum and participants helping each other out with wild waving of arms saying "That way! That way!" and even museum staff dropping clues as to which cases to look in! All in all, much merriment was had, with people reporting that it was a lot more fun than they thought it would be.
The absolute funny part is that one of the items, the buckle and chape, was in a case which was out of display due to some water damage from a recent storm, and since people couldn’t see the exact item I had in mind, they were frantically looking for anything which might have been it. Answers included spotting a buckle on a suit or armour, in a painting, and on the clothes they were wearing themselves!
At the conclusion, there were two back at the same time with everything ticked off, so I decided that a runner up prize was in order and everyone left happy!
The Big Day: Book Launch!
6 April 2025 09:02 pm
Book launch photos from "The Secret Lives of Single Medieval Women" on Saturday at the Abbey Museum of Art and Archaeology in the new cafe are now up on social media but here's my favourite one: the obligatory Author At The Book Table snap!
It was an absolutely wonderful event and it was a great opportunity for me to gather family, friends, colleagues and enthusiastic supporters all together for a celebration. Guests enjoyed the delicious catering the Abbey Museum events are well-known for, a short but lively talk about the making of the book and a guided tour of the new Art Gallery by Senior Curator Michael Strong. For the more adventurous, we had a Single Lady Scavenger Hunt within the museum and art gallery itself to find and photograph a number of historical lady items which a single woman might have used in her life!
A huge thank you to everyone who came and especially for the Abbey staff who made this little event so lovely!
Thank you also to Nate at Mango Publishing for getting a few books my way for our special day!
An unexpected arrival!
31 March 2025 10:55 pmI have books!!!!!
Before you get too excited, I have only 20 books for the official Book Launch event this Saturday, which may not be enough and certainly doesn't cover the order from the museum shop. Just 20 books.
Pretty darn excited about it, though. The cover looks really great!!
Attempted launch woes
28 March 2025 10:47 amIt's a crisis. I'm waiting to hear back AGAIN from the publisher who I spoke to less than a week ago...
Original launch date 25th March, which was moved when the Editor in Chief left to pursue her own Publishing Company, but the rest of the team remained the same, so not so much of a big deal, right?
It's now 8 days until the scheduled Book Launch Event in the Art Gallery Cafe at the Abbey Museum of Art & Archaeology, where catering is organised and people have changed their work shifts and other appointments to attend. Later weekends are very crowded and people really may not be able to come, especially since the publisher website now says MAY, which is completely news to me. This may or may not be correct, since the book is at the printer as we speak but they should know.
Original launch date 25th March, which was moved when the Editor in Chief left to pursue her own Publishing Company, but the rest of the team remained the same, so not so much of a big deal, right?
It's now 8 days until the scheduled Book Launch Event in the Art Gallery Cafe at the Abbey Museum of Art & Archaeology, where catering is organised and people have changed their work shifts and other appointments to attend. Later weekends are very crowded and people really may not be able to come, especially since the publisher website now says MAY, which is completely news to me. This may or may not be correct, since the book is at the printer as we speak but they should know.
My options are:
1. Pre Launch Party in 8 days time. I could do pre-sales promo and have some kind of special so that everyone who pays for their pre-order gets a bonus thing? I'm thinking that since the food and staff is organised at this stage, and my sister has changed her Hospital roster to come and my niece and nephew have made space on their work rosters so they can come also, I should just go ahead. People at my work sorted their shifts to come. Organising re-enactors is like herding cats, and a number of them are on the guest list.
2. Delay the whole thing and see what I can wrangle later on about having the same kind of event, but finding a date that works will be a bit hopeless. Not to mention finding a place to have it on short notice. The museum was giving a good price to hire the venue too since I'm a Life Member.
3. Cancel it and don't have a nice launch.
I have already got stuff ready for it at that specific venue. I kinda feel like I'd like to just go ahead and have a Pre launch, but I'm wild that now I'm missing Women's History Month, Markets, AROW, Phoenix Phestival, Mother's Day and likely my Birthday- all times when I would have promo giveaways.
Of course people may feel it's just too stupid to have a launch without actual books.
ARGH!!!!!
Getting all the promo together
27 March 2025 07:42 pm
Sorry for all the book spam of late, but as release day looms (the original day was 25th March, so any day now) I need to have a few little promotional items for giveaways (and a mug for me to shamelessly use at work) so here's the design for The Secret Lives of Single Medieval Women!
I really wasn't going to put actual me on it, but the lady and squirrel is a bit of a talking point and Scarlet Skwirl deserves some love! You won't be able to buy these; they're promo giveaways only!
I really wasn't going to put actual me on it, but the lady and squirrel is a bit of a talking point and Scarlet Skwirl deserves some love! You won't be able to buy these; they're promo giveaways only!
I'm only doing 6 of these as they aren't on special to print at the moment, but they're almost identical to my blog footer and web page header, so I'm sticking with the theme!
Beef in sage with onion gravy
26 March 2025 02:48 pm
I've been playing around with food for my medieval photo booth! Occasionally at events, I set up a proper 14th century High Table for members of the public to sit at for photos! When I do a photo booth, the foodstuff needs to sit all day or all weekend, so sometimes I use fake food for exactly the reason you'd thing. Real food would go off in the heat, and members of the public do insist on putting their fingers into food if it's out on display, thus ruining any sort of morning tea or lunch we may have been in the middle of preparing. To counter that, elements of faux food along with elements of real food make a very good compromise.
So, with that in mind, I give you realistic fake meat with a sauce over it and fresh herbs.
Why would I do a photo booth when I could just rope off a display? Why make a seat behind the table and let people sit there? I'm glad you asked. Firstly, people love to be in the photos rather than just take them. If there's someone extra in the tent with me, one of us can "serve" them, and boy do they love that! In many tents, it's look only, please. Don't touch. In this environment, they can touch.
Mostly and more importantly, it encourages engagement in the form of a lot a talk about tableware and manners and handwashing, so it's stealth education! Odds are, they're going to pick up the cups and jug right away, and they're surprised how heavy they are. What are they made from? Why do they look like this? Who made it ? Did they really have fruit pies back then? WHERE ARE THE LAMB SHANKS???
It's a good teachable environment! And they get a nice photo!
Personally, having pre-cooked fake meat that washes off means I can use a variety of sauces which cost very little, and the prep time trims right down to opening a pouch, or can of mushrooms or jar of caramelised onions, adding some aromatic herbs, and it's prepared in a matter of minutes.
Anyway, here's a test "dish" meat with sage, rosemary and caramelised onion gravy. What do you think? Tasty looking? I am definitely improving my fake food photo booth skills! All I need to do now is read through some medieval recipes and match one up with a sauce that is quick and easy to prepare.
Busy day making new footers!
23 March 2025 01:09 pmIt's been a busy night last night making new footers and updating things on my author website pages, and just for fun, here are the themed new footers, which I'll use depending on the posts. I'm just posting them here to check the links work and are loading properly.
This one has the new updated cover for Single Medieval Women which is out very soon, but it looks pretty much the same:
This one has all the books on it and is my Author Books one:
and this one is specifically if I'm talking about ordering books and encouraging people to visit the website:
This one just for the Medieval Wisdom book hasn't changed:
This one has the new updated cover for Single Medieval Women which is out very soon, but it looks pretty much the same:
This one has all the books on it and is my Author Books one:
and this one is specifically if I'm talking about ordering books and encouraging people to visit the website:
This one just for the Medieval Wisdom book hasn't changed:
and this one for just the Very Secret Sex Lives of Medieval Women book hasn't changed either.
The final cover is released and the book is off to the printer!
I must say I'm extremely pleased with this. The colours are beautiful and autumnal, the single girl and her kitty is sweet, and the back cover text is really wonderful. It accurately reflects the book without over hyping it unnecessarily to generate sales. The review endorsements show that the book is not academic, but a good, interesting read for everyday readers who want to learn more about medieval life and some of the myths associated with medieval women.
I easily could have written forever and there are sections trimmed for word count, but there's an online colour image gallery and online source notes for those of us, like myself, who really do want to know where this information comes from to keep the printing costs and therefore the book price affordable.
Currently, it's available for preorder from many places including Amazon, and for those who wish to skip them entirely, will also be live on the Mango Publishing Online Bookstore very soon also.
If you'd like to read a little more about what the book is actually about, visit my author website here.
Ex Libris Banner. The start.
18 March 2025 03:18 pm
The start of something squirrely for Ex Libris Living History !
I really didn't want to make a group banner, and you may remember I painted a group shield for processions, but the other couple of members are very much hoping for one, so I gathered some fabric and had a bit of a think with Vikki, my co-plotter, about how we could do this when I'm so time poor at the moment.
My first thought was a silk banner with our shield squirrel painted on, and I had two types of silk I could use, but I really didn't want to use real silk if I was unsure of the results, so I considered wool.
I had some left over double sided wool in gold and pale cream, so that was an option.
As for the squirrel itself, I was online shopping when I came across what looked like embroidered wool squirrel cushions. There were a number of poses but one more suitable than the others, so I ordered a couple. Why a couple? Potentially, the young man with the banner will have a surcote also. The cushion covers arrived and I was gutted to discover the embroidery was printed on. After a short while and several long, hard stares, it was apparent that unless one was standing extremely closely, it wasn't obviously a print.
I placed it on the fabric and took a photo from standing height. This is the result:
My nefarious plan from this point is to applique the squirrel carefully so the black doesn't show, and them add some nice couching as well.
I think it'll do the job it needs to.
Shiny balls. I got 'em.
15 March 2025 03:06 pm
Potential gold balls roof finial idea number one. Looks not too bad, really! For cake toppers! I have them in two sizes, so this is the first of the two to try. They came wired, so with care, I wound three of them together and wrapped fine wired around the three stems. I glued for extra sturdiness, and of course, the holes I drilled in the roof to accommodate them were too small.
I have ordered some wooden balls which I was going to wire, but this may be a quite reasonable alternative until I figure how to attach a wire thread to wooden balls and not have them slip off repeatedly. I'm sure small children to some extent, and nosy parents to a much larger extent, will be tugging at them to see if they'll come off. Which they will.
Announcing the 2025 Abbey Medieval Festival... this year from Friday 11th to Sunday 13th July.
The 2025 poster features many familiar Faces of the Festival, illustrated in the style of medieval manuscripts. This design aligns with the Abbey Museum of Art and Archaeology, for which this event raises vital funds to support both the Museum and the stories told through its collection. I am wildly excited than myself and a number of my friends have made it on the poster this year!
If you look at the top row, you'll see me in my blue cintamani silk surcote with Scarlet Skwirl on my hand. To my left is my friend Paula and her dog, Willow from Horses, Hounds, Hunters & Farmers, a really wonderful living history group. Underneath me, you might recognise the particolured Crowned A silk sideless surcote being worn by our Lady Edith, the making of which haunted these pages for quite some time as a work in progress. At the very bottom, you'll make out a figure hauling a hay bale on it's shoulder, and that is none other than my friend Mim from Oltramer, a really fantastic reenactment group who have been my neighbours at this event for the past few years! To my right you'll see two male figures, one of whom is Antony, a Rus warrior from Staraya Ladoga (lovingly known as the Stray Dogs) Re-enactment group who has, for the better part of the last twenty years, taken part in the Opening Ceremony with me and been the first to lead the way with garland-wearing if required. Jouster Luke Binks in yellow on his mighty steed!
If you're in Australia for the school holidays, I hope you can make it to Abbeystowe in July for our 2025 Abbey Medieval Festival!
Maybe it's Maybelleine?
13 March 2025 03:00 pm
That eyeliner and braces combo, though...
This very sexy and somewhat slightly perplexing artwork comes to you from 1375-1400, The Bellenville armorial, and is a lion. With something going on around his eyes and what looks like braces on it's teeth. And that goofy look that kids get when they are living their best life whilst wearing a tiara.
#teenagegirlthings #maybeitsmaybelline
unnecessary squirrel spam
12 March 2025 02:49 pm
Okay, just one more picture of Scarlet Skwirl in her new house while it's still in progress. She came from an antique shop in France from an old estate sale. I believe she's quite old! (I wouldn't support anything killed for taxidermy these days, but to repurpose a vintage one for education is less terrible.) Medieval squirrels which were kept as pets are usually shown wearing a little red collar with gold bells attached, so Scarlet needs bells too!
Finials to add yet, and a second coat of paint, then it's done!
