sister_raphael: (booksaremything)


I'm passing the time updating my Weirdly Specific Vintage Books Library (which includes non vintage books in the medieval section) while waiting for cyclone Alfred to land, but if you're after some light reading about the Nuclear Mentality for Women (hide under a table to protect your ovaries) or something more gritty like... Just Friends? A Practical Guide to Boy-Girl Friendships which is absolutely A Reliable Booklet for Young Men and Women by the Father and Son Welfare Movement of Australia, Aust. 1955 (spoiler: the answer is No, you can't be Just Friends) you can see them and much more.

Social Purity was of great to concern to Kellogg, he of the breakfast cereal fame, and in Social Purity and the Purity Pledge, his wife has a strong word to young ladies while Dr Kellogg tackles the men, but not literally.


The very erstwhile Norbert Glas weighs in with his very important and slightly fabulous work, Adolescence and Diseases of Puberty.


This is the type of thing I love. The religious section may offend some as I've headed it God Botherers, but some of the authors really have it in for him. Some are just very specific to such a small group of people, one wonders who exactly was the target audience? Which three people, exactly?

It's not everything I have by a long shot, as I have hundreds upon hundreds, but these in the online library and some of my favourites!

Check it out!

sister_raphael: (comeheresaythat)


I'm very prepared for cyclone Alfred. I've been clearing out all the drains in the units I live in so the rain will hopefully have no issues draining. It's the biggest cyclone Brisbane has seen for a very, very long time, and loss of power and internet and water is widely expected.

I can manage for a week without power and lighting if I need and of course, bathing is no problem when one has a medieval bathhouse at home!
sister_raphael: (deardiary)
 It's the morning of the last day of the year and I'm sipping vanilla coffee in my container garden with my rescue kitty and thinking of the past year. It's been unusuallt cool and moist this summer so less plants have died with extreme heat, which is nice. The pineapple tops rooted and for the first time since I was a kid, I have pineapples growing! The elderflower trees are doing incredibly well for pots and provide dappled shade for the herbs. The giant salvias are still growing head hight or above which is crazy but awesome. Bee numbers are up again with 3 types of bees regularly about. 

Book wise, the first one is still selling, the little quote one suffers from me not having a distributor and the third one is set for release March 2025, which is 12 weeks away, so I'm  prepping for that. I've had a bunch of sterling silver squirrels to tie onto bookmarks for special events which worked out to be a few cents each rather than much more in the craft shops. 

Website upgrades are continuing for another week or two as I get time. The online galleries for sewing and tutorials still need finishing, as do the experimental archaeology pages. Two are finished, but there's a couple more to go. 

Work has slacked of a bit as it usually does between Xmas and new year and training the new assistants is going well. Lots of deer in the headlights eyes but they're going to get there. Covid numbers presenting in ED have spiked again, which is annoying. The hilarious yransition of this year's  4th year assistants that I trained are finished uni and are now first year radiographers and are in charge of me, which is a dynamic shift some of them struggle with. 

History wise, I've recruited another member to Ex Libris Living History, who is studying religion and hopes to do some great tallks and displays about Holy relics, so that will be fun!  I'm hoping ro make some jewelled circlets to sell early next year at a medieval market, so I need to get on with that. I've got a ton of hand sewing to do, so I really should have been doing that while I was off work with my knee recovery but I felt I just needed to switch my brain off for a bit and do nothing in front of movies with my kitty. The reproduction brooch and buttons from my friends at Keystone Forge are amazing and I'm using them already.

Fingers crossed for a good last shift of the year. Our X-Ray department is a wonderful place to work and I love my job as a CT Assistant, and the posse I'm working with is all girls, so it should be a nice one. 

No real New Year Resolutions other than post more regularly to keep myself motivated about projects. Craft and read more. Spend a little more time with my cat. 



sister_raphael: (thinkingofyou)

A very merry festive season from my house to yours with love and head boops from me and Gummibear.

We had a very quiet day at home watching movies and snacking on the couch (snacking whilst on the couch, not snacking on the couch, per se) and it really was a lovely relaxing time. I was offline for the most part, although I had the online Xmas Giveaway Comp I needed to find the winner for, but mostly it was just movies and chill. I ate a lot of pudding soaked in port with custard for all three meals, which, quite frankly, was brilliant.

Over the preceding few weeks I had done a little online shopping and after checking the purchases were what I ordered, I wrapped them up for my kitty and me so we would have things to unwrap. Gummi preferred the big piece of corrugated cardboard that came from work over all her cat toys, but I did manage to get some cute photos of her, so that was nice too.



Temu

22 November 2024 12:17 pm
sister_raphael: (notlistening)

Whilst I've been home post-surgery, I've needed to spend a lot of time resting on the couch, which has led to a lot of phone time. Looking at craft supplies and things I wanted to get people for Christmas led me to install the Temu app, something I'd managed to not do so far.

Well.

I have now bout a tremendous amount of things from there, but as long as one is careful and reads the descriptions carefully instead of relying on the images which are not always honest representations of the things, it's saved me ab absolute packet! A lot of the fun T-shirts are good, especially the kids ones, and I've been able to get my sister's teens some fun ones for Xmas and birthdays.

The real amazing win was on craft items. Obviously shops get their stuff in bulk for very cheap to be able to make enough money to keep their doors open, and I found some things I wanted which were being sold on Etsy for 5 times the price, I've been able to get some great bits and pieces for crafting which I couldn't afford otherwise, and I'm really delighted with the quality. As long as I read the descriptions and quantities very, very carefully, it's been great.

I mean, there's a lot of rubbish on there too, but I have saved a ton. Xmas is very affordable this year.

sister_raphael: (ineedanap)

I've got my knee surgery date and it's October 30th, and I have a month off work following, so I'll be using that time very productively, on books but I've also decided to use that time as a sort of spa month, making time to actually moisturise, eat better, lose that 10kg that I've gained the last year or so, finish some sewing projects which have been in limbo for quite a while now and generally make time for the things I haven't been getting around to.

I've not had time off work which wasn't earmarked for traveling to medieval events and then working the entire time before loading trailers and traveling home only to have a large pile of washing, cleaning and sorting to do when I return. Time off work, but not exactly a holiday!

I'll still be on crutches for another two weeks back to work, which completely doesn't work for the duties I have, so I'll see how that goes.

Image from the Luttrell Psalter. around 1325.

sister_raphael: (supercute)

I found this sweet antique chine in an old second hand shop whilst road tripping to Newcastle Medieval Festival and hadn't thought to share it as it isn't a full set and really, I only bought them to use as photography props for book ads for Mother's Day and that kind of thing, but I was very very excited to see that a new DW friend actually loves collecting old china, and I thought they might like to see these! There's no maker's mark at all, only the numbers 53 on each piece, which I first thought was a lot number, but it's under the glaze. No idea where it's from but it looks old-ish.

I have an antique book collection and also a few vintage kitchen things just because they're cool, but due to limited space, I don't have that much. I do pick up fun things in op shops sometimes, but they're usually to be repurposed into medieval things.

These would have been part of a much bigger set, and all that remains are three cups (only one has flowers still on the inside, but you won't see inside if I have tea in them), two saucers, a round butter plate and the square cake plate. They really are pretty sweet and perfect for pink, girly props with berries in a cup, or celebration cake or something!

sister_raphael: (chocolate)

I've injured both my knees. In two separate accidents.

Back in May I had a small fall over my own feet and landed awkwardly hurting my hip and knee. I didn't think too much of it at the time and assumed I'd be sore for a bit, which I was. My hip got better but my knee was sore and stabby and would you believe it, after getting home from History Alive, I was unpacking the trailer and hurt my other knee. It was very sore, but felt much like the first one did when I originally injured it, so I strapped it straight away and went for an MRI.

It has a torn meniscus as well, so now I have two.

sister_raphael: (homesweethome)


Home from History Alive and the happiest, purriest kitty is wrapped around my leg. My original plan was to stay over Sunday night and pack most things down and the rest in the morning, but my lift was very keen to do it all on Sunday night, so that had to happen. It was a huge job getting it all down and packed before it got properly dark and dewy. The photo is my home away from home for the weekend along with my little kitchen awning, which I brought along for the first time.

I had such grand plans to start to unpack but maybe a hot shower and bed, but my knee is a bit sore, so I might put that off until tomorrow.

A huge shout out to Patrick Earl for transport and history chat on the way up and back where I learned loads of things about wars that I didn't know, Susanne Dancer for her live-in kitty wrangling, Alicia Hurst for the wonderful help, Julie and Joel for looking after us all and Dorothy Walsh for inviting me to dinner with the Queensland Colonial Association! I only popped over to visit for a short while, but they had too much food as a member couldn't come and tempted me with venison stew and much mulled wine- both of which were wonderfully delicious.

A huge thanks to everyone who made it to our photo booth for fun photos.
sister_raphael: (yougotthis)


As well as a huge clean out of my excess fabric, I've had a really bit sort out of my personal medieval clothes.

From this to this!

Enormous de-stash and sort and my brain is now happier! Works in progress are now stored where they will live when finished too! I've labelled everything too, so I don't need to spend half and hour looking through boxes every time I want something.
sister_raphael: (deardiary)


On the right, a regular vinca, a staple of old style Queensland gardens and on the left, a mutation. Both flowers growing on the same plant and flowering half and half. Very pretty and unexpected!

I don't know why the mutation is occurring, but I'm saving the seeds and hoping the replicate the flowers!
sister_raphael: (tools)
On the Completely Unnecessary To Do List...

Belgian MA SVC, 10A, folio 7r.

 
...build a squirrel house for my taxidermy mascot red squirrel, Scarlet.

This is a simpler one than some others, but also fancier than others. I like the wee porch, which some others don't have. I've made bird houses from timber before, so it's not too much of a challenge really. I have the timber. I just need to make the time.

Perhaps on the weekend as an afternoon project.
sister_raphael: (housework)

Spring cleaning to fix a number is household issues. Storage is the biggest. The fact that I have way too much household stuff that I don't use or haven't used for years is another. My niece living with me now and not having her entire room to use as storage is the third and biggest issue.

Tbh, I've been spring cleaning for 2 weeks now. I'm really hoping to really get it finished today!
 
I'm considering selling some of my medieval clothes but even not brand new, they're hand stitched and the buttons cost so much so I'd get very little for things. I might just keep things for loaning out. I have previously hired clothes out (as a small side business) but...Hiring out is a real problem. I used to hire things but there are two types of hire people:

1. I should be careful with this because I don't own it.
2. I don't own it so I don't care what happens to it.

Hire wedding dresses are the same. Own dress = woah! I spilled a drop of wine, and I must deal with it now before it stains. Hire dress = cake fight. I guess I'll do a big cupboard clean out and get the house in order before I make any hard and fast medieval decisions. I really could let a lot of things go though.
sister_raphael: (Default)

I'm totally in the website updates zone right now, but that's a good thing because it gets things done and also encourages me to complete things so I can photograph them for the projects I'm working on.


Currently updating the my medieval garden page and starting the medieval bathhouse page, which is the new display and the thing I need to finish off the bathhouse curtains for. 


I'll do a separate post looking at the type of curtains and canopies, but on the whole, it really isn't one clear cut style or colour preferred, like I thought. This is good news, because I can do what works for me without criticism.


Gummi, my kitty, has completely recovered from her latest bout of cystitis which she's had since Christmas, so that is a huge relief. In a twist of irony, she hates the special vet diet (expensive as all heck) food and it stresses her out extra. Still, she's better now. Whew!

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