In which we start to move forward

Yes, we're still eating Halloween leftovers. For breakfast, lunch and dinner. It's good to have cookies and cupcakes for breakfast!

But it's time to move forward. Today promises to be warm, and so I am resolved to get out into the garden. Our compost bin is full to overflowing, and we need additional capacity, what with the pumpkins and the end-of-season garden waste. So, there's a compost frame to build. I still have several bags of bulbs to plant, and the sunflowers need to be yanked up.

With the end of the Halloween festivities, there's also a house full of decorations to pack away, and to catch up on the clutter that accumulated since Halloween began consuming all waking hours. So maybe I won't get out in the garden.

Thanksgiving will be the next holiday of note in our house. We will invite all friends in for Thanksgiving dinner around our big dining room table. The numerous dishes prepared usually require their own buffet, and so the buffet we cobbled together for Halloween will likely remain a fixture through Thanksgiving and until it is required for Christmas dinner.

Thanksgiving is a lot lower-key than Halloween, and for that I'm grateful since I will be working on clothing for Caer Galen Midwinter by then. My apprentice Savina La Brune is coordinating a lot of the Caer Galenites' clothing for the event, at which the theme is Paris 1405. Being a specialist in the clothing from that time and place, her skills have been tapped by the Baron to coordinate fittings and author papers which will direct attendees to resources which are consistant with the theme. It is of course a huge job, complicted by a short time frame and the fact that she's got limited - but good - help.

So, I'm turning my attention to sewing for Midwinter starting this week, after clearing the studio of the Halloween-making frenzy. I made Robert a red houppeland with blond fur trim for the Pas, which I will likely tweak for Midwinter. He needs a hat; a flambouyant chaperone should do it. For me, I need to finish the kirtle that I made for the Pas. It needs to be ripped down the front center seam, and have eyelets sewn in, and it of course needs the interior raw edges finished.

I plan to make a surcote to wear over it, but I'm at a loss as to what fabric to use. I have a couple of very nice brocades, but I feel like they are more suitable to 1450 and after. I could use one of the worsted wools I picked up in Montgomery, Alabama, but I had decided that they need to become kirtles for Estrella. I may just go the the Denver Fabrics Annex on payday, and see if I can find a more suitable brocade.

Following Thanksgiving, we will of course start to decorate for Christmas. Christmas is a Big Deal in our house, but without the sewing that has to be done before Halloween. Most of the Christmas decorations are in the storage unit; the process will involve at least a couple trips there and back. It takes a week to put up and another week to put away.

After Christmas, the push towards Estrella begins in earnest. We are all three short on clothing, and I expect to be making a largish purchase from fabrics-store.com fairly soon. Robert also needs a gambeson before the War, so I have a list. We're doing a woodworking workshop at our house the weekend after Thanksgiving, so most of the furniture should be able to be checked off that list before Christmas, allowing me to focus on sewing in January.

But today, I have a cold. So maybe I'll start looking forward tomorrow.