A Decade is a Long Time

Today, this blog is ten years old. Ten! Older than my oldest child. Older than the length of time I've been at my job. Older than my mattress. Of course, that means I'm older too. A lot happens to a person in the span of ten years.

When I started this blog, I wanted an easy outlet to just share my progress of learning how to sew and do better research into medieval clothing. I had no idea what I was doing 10 years ago, beyond knowing that I wasn't doing many things right. Over the past decade, through this blog, you've seen me find my passions, hone my persona, develop my skills, and of course, most recently, become a Laurel. You've also been with me through a lot that you never even knew about. This blog has been a solid rock in my life.

This post isn't really about the journey so far, though. It's about the future. ...Which is ironic, seeing that this blog is primarily about recreating the past. But, I digress.

I've given a lot of thought to what I'd like to be doing with my time, energy, resources, and money, when it comes to this hobby. I have invested a lot of all of those things in the ten years I've been blogging, and in the 10+ years before that. I will invest more. Medieval recreation is a fixture of my life. One that I derive joy, purpose and entertainment from. I've known for a few months now, however, that I'm ready and eager for a slight change in direction.

Up until this point, I've mostly been focused on learning and personal growth. That's not to say that those things have an end point, but I do feel like they come organically now. I'm not a padawan learning the ways of the Force, if you will. Instead, I'd like to put my focus on completing the larger, complex or deep projects and ideas that seem to always be on my back burner. They don't necessarily make great blog content on a weekly basis, but they are things that I'm really interested in.

One of the larger projects that I will be working on is the creation and development of my in-hobby tailor's workshop. I've been researching medieval tailors, and working on creating a period atelier, and out of all the things I have a passion for right now, sharing my work in this area at events is the one I'm most focused on and excited about.

I feel now is the right time to drop my posting schedule more intentionally to just one or two a month. I don't know how long this will be the case, and I hope that further down the road, I can pick up the pace again. It's my thought here that with fewer posts through the year, I will be able to maintain the quality of writing and content I've managed to keep up so far while still being able to give time to the projects I wish to do now.

I will still be sewing. I will still be teaching. I still have a lot to share. There's at least another 10 years ahead, I would hope, and I look forward to sharing them with you. Thank you for being here with me.

On Break

Source

Just a quick note that I'll be taking a break from the blog for the next several weeks. I wasn't able to swing going to Pennsic War this year, but I hope all of you headed there have a fun and safe time. I'll be back to my regular posting schedule in late August.

See you at Pennsic!

I'm working hard to get my list of projects done before next week, when I'll be at Pennsic War. Several of the things on my list are taking me outside my comfort zone. Which is all good. It's good to feel challenged sometimes.

Would you like to take a survey?

I've kept this blog for somewhere around 6 years now, and it has slowly evolved, but never really changed. The truth is, I don't really have a great sense of who's out there reading it, and what you think of my content. I'm also curious to know the topics you may like to see more (or less) of from me. These are important aspects to maintaining a blog that remains relevant and helpful to my readers.

So if you have a few moments, please head over to Survey Monkey before October 5th to answer a 10 question survey. You can get there using this link:

Take the Reader Survey!

Thank you in advance for you assistance with this. I appreciate all the help you can give me to ensure that The Compleatly Dressed Anachronist remains on your reading list!

See you in September

My frilled veil was perfect before Simple Day, but the rain made it mostly lose its frilliness. I did wear it to court, since I didn't want to completely waste all the hard work, but with muddy children around, I took it back off as soon as I got back to camp so that it didn't get dirty. Glad I did wear it though, since I did get to meet one of you! My memory is telling me you said your name was Suzanne, but if that's incorrect, I sincerely apologize (and please correct me)! Thank you for stopping me. I loved your outfit, and I'm sorry I had to run out so we didn't get a chance to speak longer!

Since we made the decision to not go to Pennsic this year, our summer event season is winding to a close. I have a large list of mundane to-do's that have been patiently waiting for my attention, so I'll be taking a break through August to catch up on all that stuff and reconnect with the modern world for a bit.

For all those of you going to Pennsic, be safe and smart, and well-dressed at War!

I'll be back in September!

Taking a Break

I've decided to take a short break from blogging. I have realized recently that I need to make some changes in my life, and in order to do that, I need to give my mundane, real life some of my time.

Since Archer was born, I've been dealing with a health issue that has only recently been identified, and treatment of which has only just started. My condition caused not only general feelings of illness on most days, it threw me into depression, promoted considerable weight gain, and even caused excessive amounts of my hair to fall out every day. At first I chalked it up to having 4 kids, but eventually I realized that my track record of generally being in good health was actually being threatened. I am, thankfully, now on the upswing, recovering gradually as my treatment begins to take effect. Before this point, however, my life had started to veer a bit off track.

So I'm taking some time to evaluate my health, my goals and my relationship with my children, which unfortunately pushes my medieval life onto the back burner. It is, after all, only a [fulfilling, awesome, distracting] hobby.

When I return, I will most likely have a completely rearranged project list, but as we go into the next year, you can be assured that The Compleatly Dressed Anachronist has not dropped off my radar, and I look forward to sharing my next projects with you!

Some Resources for You

I'm starting to add some long overdue pages and information that deal more with research and resources than simply sharing with you the projects I work on. The projects & research obviously go together, but I sometimes feel that I get so caught up in the "how" of my projects that I forget to evaluate (and share) the "why". I can blame some of this on that problem we all have- forgetting that the things we know aren't necessarily the things everyone else knows. But I can't blame that for everything I've failed to share!

One of my original goals for this blog was to help you know what I know. I can't, of course, transplant everything I've learned and understood into your brain, but I can share with you my tools and show you why and how I've come to the conclusions that dictate the items I make. 

The first item is a new page, called "Resources". A link is provided at the top of the sidebar on the right. At the moment, you'll find there my current research bibliography. I've got notes on certain entries to give you a bit more information about it to help you determine if it's worth a read to add to your own research bibliography..

The second item can be found on Pinterest in a pinboard called "Digital Manuscripts". Links on these pins take you to online libraries with either extensive digital catalogs or several great image collections of medieval manuscript pages and miniatures. These libraries are AWESOME. Give yourself a good chunk of uninterrupted time before getting into searching these libraries. And be aware that not all scans were completed in high-resolution color. These libraries are a great source when you're looking for more imagery than what's easily located through an Internet image search. If you've been looking for something specific for a while, you've probably come across the same handful of relevant images way too many times. In that case, it's time to take your research to the next level, and search for new (to you) images. These libraries are where you go. Note: Be careful when using these images beyond your personal research. The museum probably owns the copyright on the digital files (think of them as photographs owned by the photographer). Always ask for permission before using in a public setting.

Important Announcement

Concerning my separate website: My website domain and hosting are up for renewal at the beginning of December, and I have chosen to not renew them.  I decided that I'd like to switch hosts and domain names, but I've yet to find the hosting company I'd like to use.  I've considered switching to WordPress, but I like Blogger, and having both just seems too silly.  So, if you go to visit my website after December 3rd, it won't be there.  As soon as my new domain and site are up, I will, of course, post them here.

I need your feedback!

My new website is coming along fairly well.  I've had to stop working on it for long sittings so that we can get moved (admittedly I'm supposed to be packing right now, but I'm only able to do it in bursts).  I'm really excited about some of the organizational things I've come up with, and hopefully it makes adding new class notes easier in the future.  I've also been coming up with other ideas as I go to really use the web to my advantage.

Blogger recently updated and now I can track page views on the blog and see what is bringing people here.  I'm not surprised that Google searches are my number 1 traffic source, but what does surprise me is the search terms that are the top hitters.  Interestingly, 3 of the top 4 are topics that I have either posted little about or have to do with projects I haven't yet undertaken. 

I enjoy that this blog appears on Google (and there are some months when it feels like I'm all over Google- even under search terms I wouldn't think I'd show up under), but I do wonder if it's really to this blog's advantage.  I don't want to be exclusive, obviously, but I also don't want to inadvertently mislead anyone into believing that the information I share on this blog is anything more than my attempts at understanding medieval fashion for the purpose of recreation- not archeological research in the scholarly sense.  To that end, I find the links to this blog from other costumers' blogs (in blog rolls or links within posts) much more valuable in terms of my intended audience.

So, for those readers that come here often (and I'll let you decide what "often" means), please leave a comment to this post and let me know how you found The Compleatly Dressed Anachronist.  If it was a Google (or other engine) search, do you remember what your search term was, and did you use a website search or an image search?  If it was through another page, what page was it?  I appreciate any feedback you can give me- it will help me to understand the best course for future content and organization within this blog!

Gearing Up for Some Changes

I'll post later this week about the progress on my blue linen test dress.  For now, I'd just like to mention that I'm getting ready to do a major overhaul of my website (and probably this blog as well).  I realized this morning that I hadn't been keeping up with putting new notes online, so I've kind of got a backlog.  I've also been meaning to do a better job designing the site, since the one up now was sort of an experiment for me to learn a bit more about website coding, and it's got some issues.  I've got some fun ideas kicking around for the new site, so I'm excited to focus on that for a while and get-er-done.

Oh, and I made Kara a kirtle and open hood for this past weekend:

Lee was decked out in a new cotehardie and hose:

And Owen was his usual self:

Congratulations!

And the winner of the linen veil is...Vanessa!

Vanessa's entry: "I'm up in Winnipeg, Manitoba (Canada). I would love to win this veil because I'm super new to the SCA. I don't currently have a veil... because I tried to make one out of the leftovers from my first (and currently only) under tunic. ... but it wasn't enough fabric!"

Thank you to everyone that entered! Don't fret if you didn't win- there will be other giveaways this year. Look for the next one shortly before Pennsic!

Vanessa, please email me with your full name and mailing address so I can send your new veil to you!

Not Too Late!

It's not too late to enter my giveaway! Contest ends at 11:59pm tonight!

Anniversary Giveaway!

This past week, The Compleatly Dressed Anachronist turned 3! To celebrate, I'm giving one reader this:


A hand-made (by yours truly) medium-weight, 100% linen veil (perfect for any time of year), hemmed with 100% silk thread. The veil is an oval measuring (roughly) 32" x 40", which is an ideal size for an all-day veil. This veil is a great way to impress your friends with your awesome stylishness! It would even make a great gift!

HOW TO ENTER: I'm making this really easy! Simply add a comment to this post that includes:

• Your (mundane) geographic location, and
• A brief statement about why you need or would like the veil.

You must enter by 11:59pm Saturday (the 30th). I will select and announce the winner next Sunday. This giveaway is open to everyone, so please enter!

My Apologies in Advance

Our internet has cut out at home, and I have no idea when it may kick on again, so if you don't see a post from me on Sunday- blame the internets!

When I am finally online again, I'll be introducing a new blog feature (still working on a name for it) that I hope you'll find helpful and enjoy. Until then, have a wonderful weekend!

Blog-olutions

In 2011, I resolve to:

• Update The Compleatly Dressed Anachronist more regularly. More specifically, to post at least once a week (probably Sundays).
• Post more of the research and analysis of period clothing and accessories I've typically done "behind the scenes".
• Include more information on the steps I take to complete my projects, creating less of an "after the fact" gallery and more of a garb diary.
• Provide more regular "features" on a monthly basis. These include Image Analysis, Movie Review, Link Lists and more.
• In general, post more images. With 3 young children, busy adults and lots going on at events, it can be difficult to get photos taken, but I feel that images of garb "in action" are much more inspiring than staged photos (be they posing at the event or staged at home). That's not to say there isn't a place for portrait-style photos, but I think I'm right in believing that most of you read this blog because of what I'm creating. It's important, therefore, to provide you with more images of the process, details, etc. than just a quick "oh, yeah, and here's me."
• Include brief versions of my classes as I teach them. My class notes will still be housed on my website, but class "abstracts" will find a home here for quick reference.
• Open commenting on certain entries (like this one). When I need feedback or when I'm looking for information, I'll enable commenting.
  

I'm excited for the next year in the Society. My new garb quest- to make a complete outfit for the 2012 Regional A & S Faire- is a challenge I have so far enjoyed taking on. Much of what I post in 2011 will be about the items I am creating for the quest, but it's an extensive list, with many varieties of items- garments, accessories, leatherwork, metalwork...the whole shebang. (I'll be posting more about that on Sunday, so stay tuned!)

I hope that my "blog-olutions" will not fail, and that that you will stick with me as I continue my endevour to become The Compleatly Dressed Anachronist!

Can't make up my mind

I apologize for all the changes to this blog's look lately. I just haven't found a scheme that I'm happy with. If you've followed me for a while, you may have noticed that I change things up here at least once a month. I'm not the sort of person that likes visual regularity-if it's something I can change easily, I tend to change it often. Sometimes I get something I like right off, other times it takes me a while. This seems to be one of those times.