Hallo!

Welcome to my blog! 

Come join me in having a grand old time living in the past! It's a bit like reenacting, only full time. 

Here you can find tips on pretty much anything to do with history- reenacting, crafts from the past, historical sites and places, whatever. Most of it will be inhabited by updates on various historical sewing projects, reenactment events (and accounts thereof), random diary-ish stuff, "Getting-the-Look" Tutorials, probably a bit of poetry and literature and other stuff about anything historical and, well, me. That sounds selfish, yes, but hey, it's my blog. :]

So! A little about me. (As it pertains to history... which is pretty much everything...)

I love history! (Yeah, nice one, Captain Obvious.) I do have limits- nothing after 1963. Could never quite get over the culture shock heh. :P I'm married to the Middle Ages but am currently having a passionate affair with the rest of history.

My favourite historical person EVER (and that is like, a bigger commitment than marriage) is Eva Braun. Fascinating woman, and dear lord what ever would I do without her home videos?! Not just the footage but the CLOTHES... *drool*.  Albert Speer once said that she would disappoint historians. Well then, he can go die in a hole. :D 

I sew (all by hand unless the age dictates otherwise- i.e. 1940s things are more accurate when done on a machine, what with 'Make Do and Mend'). I'm also a relatively new practitioner of other fabric arts- spinning, weaving, natural dyeing, a wee bit of Donegal carpet knotting, knitting (to the extent where I can make a fair scarf ahaha!), and I can do pretty much anything around a farm (spend most my summers on 'em!), livestock or crops. I horseback ride, and practice really old sports- think archery and wielding other medieval weapons like the longsword. :D 

I speak a LOT of languages, ummm... all four ages of English (Old, Middle, Early Modern "Elizabethan", and obviously modern. They're all very different. Trust me. Or try learning them and you'll see what I mean!), a good bit of Welsh, Irish Gaelic, used to know more Russian than I do now, but I've lost a good bit... Spanish in school, teaching myself German... uh... yup. 

I listen to historical music, as well as German and Irish folk. In fact, the song playing right now is Night Song- "Who are you me pretty fair maid, to who are you me honey? Who are you me pretty fair maid, to who are you me honey? She answered me most modestly 'I am my mother's darlin'- agus tooraya, fadadiddleda, rightbefall da diddle derey-o!"

I reenact the Middle Ages, American Civil War, and am just getting started on WWII. I hope someday to also join reenacting with American Revolutionary War, War for Irish Independence, WWI, French Revolution, Crimean War, and I'm sure there are others I can't think of presently... :P  However, I can be seen on a daily basis in 1940s-ness. (it's easier to pull off day-to-day than is wearing a hoop skirt around town... not that I haven't already done that...) Whatever impression, I try to make it as accurate as possible. It's really no fun unless you do it right!

I'm a horrid one for playing Devil's Advocate, especially when it comes to history. (WWII Axis, ACW Confederate Reb, holla! ). I think it's important to look at all sides of the story- it's an insult to those who lived it to forget any part of history, good or bad. It would be just as terrible for the world to forget the atrocities of the Holocaust as it would be to forget that Hitler visited soldiers in hospital on his birthday every year. I don't think people are necessarily 'good' or 'bad'- I think there are just people and their actions. (Example- Eamon DeValera. Fights for freedom for his country: WIN. Orders friend's ultimate death: FAIL.) 

So that's all I can think of to say at present... see thee anon!