Deeply Southern

This past weekend was the annual Hamlin Beach Civil War reenactment, and it definitely was a fun one. I love having the reenactment by the beach....it really makes for some fun times. This year, my parents and some friends from church joined Stephen and I for the day as well; it's always enjoyable to introduce people to the world of reenacting!

Well, anyways, the day started with drive to the beach, and on the way there Stephen and I got ourselves ready by listening to some "southern" songs. Of course there was the traditional "Dixie's Land", played by the 2nd South Carolina String Band. But he also played another song for me which I had never heard; all I can say about it is that it is deeply Southern. It's a good song, though, and it really set the tone for the day. So, enjoy:



We spent the morning shopping around the sutlers, looking for good bargains, like this beautiful dish set (8 bowls, 8 plates, 8 mugs and saucers, and salt and pepper shakers) for only $7:

And of course, visiting with friends. Then he had to go off to join his regiment, and get ready for the battle. Then I joined my parents and friends to watch the battle.

Just like last year, this reenactment had more Southern units than Northern, which meant that the South won the battle again.

The Yankees retreating:

Stephen's regiment:

The Southern Artillery:

And Stephen's down....again!

And here's little Miss I'm-Too-Cute-For-My-Own-Good:

The battle's over, the Confederates won the day, and he's alive again!

Here are both armies marching away after the battle:

After the battle we cleaned his gun, and then went for a walk barefoot on the beach; of course I had to at least wade in the water, so the bottom of my skirt was a little wet and sandy. He also took the opportunity for a photo shoot, including a picture with his old 1914 camera:

Then we had dinner:

and met up with his brother and friends, took some more pictures:

and then it was time to dance! I don't have any pictures from that, but basically, it looked just like it always does: lots of people in costume under a white tent with white christmas lights. We did all the normal dances, and a few odd ones; ate some ice cream; got really tired; and had an incredibly long waltz at the end. It was indeed a cool beans days!

To Make A Book

I don't know about you, but I like things; I like things that remind of adventures I had and places I've gone. Thus, I have managed to accumulate a good size pile of memorabilia. It has everything from the script for my scene in Yueltide last year, to dozens of postcards from places I've been, to an awesome card a friend gave me last year on my birthday. The only problem is, it's all sitting in a box in my closet. That's great and all, but it would be nice if I actually had some place to put it.

So, with that in mind, my most recent projects has been to make a scrapbook with it all. At first, I was planning on just going to the store, buying some sort of scrapbook/journal/notebook to put them in. But, after tons of searching, I only found one book I liked, and it was WAY too expensive.

However, that could not deter me. I decided instead to actually make the scrapbook itself. It couldn't be THAT hard, right? I did a little research on Google about making books, and found that there were some pretty easy ways to do it. So, I grabbed my supplies, which included:

carboard
fabric
cardstock
unlined white paper
thread
scissors
and glue......lot's of glue.

And here's how I did it.

First, I measured and cut my covers out of carboard. Then, I cut out enough fabric to cover the inside and outside of both covers. I chose to put a yellow on the inside, and a red on the outside, as well as appilque a bird on the front cover. Then, I glued the inside fabric on, then the outside:

Next, I took my cardstock, and made them into signatures (a signature is a section of pages joined together). The easiest way to make a signature is to take two (or more) pieces of paper, lay them on top of each other, and fold in half length-wise; you then have a signature with four pages in it.

Since I couldn't fold my cardstock and still have it be big enough, I instead took two pieces of cardstock and two 1 1/4 inch strips of paper

And used the strips to connect the two piece of cardstock by gluing one on each side of the seam:

Then, that one large piece can be folded to create a signature:

I did that with my whole stack:

Then I measured, poked holes along the folds, and folded all the signatures:

And then I punched holes in my covers:

Then, using the coptic stitch method of binding, I stitched the covers and signatures together. Hole by hole, signature by signature:

Until finally, I had stitched everything together:

And that was the last step. So now I have a lovely, homemade, inexpensive scrapbook:

Now it sits on my table, just waiting to be filled with all my little paper memories!

Technology 101

As some of you may have seen on Facebook last Tuesday, I broke my laptop's screen. I was just innocently carrying it from my room to the basement when BANG, the corner of the lid bumped into the wall. And....that was the end of the screen. So, for the past 9 days, I have been working with half a screen:

Yeah.....that was challenging. All my windows had to be reduced to half-size, and if the words or pictures went farther than that, I had to scroll back and forth across the screen. I couldn't see the date, or time, or whether my internet was connected; nothing on the right side of my screen. It was pretty lame.

Anyways, we ordered a new screen, which arrived Monday, and finally tonight, my dad and I had time to fix it. This fall, my dad is going to be teaching me everything I need to know about taking care of my own laptop, and this was my first lesson.

Did you know that all this stuff was between the screen and the lid?

Here's the old screen (ew...really dusty):

Well, it's fixed now, and now I can see my WHOLE screen again!!! It's a miracle!

And what have I learned from this? Well, two things:

#1 - ALWAYS carry your laptop with the lid CLOSED.

#2 - Fixing a computer's screen is almost like working on a snowmobile engine. Kind of...... =)

In This House

Well, moving day was yesterday, so my parents and I are now apartment-dwellers. Thanks to lots of help from friends and family, we were able to get everything moved and all but four small boxes unpacked in just about twelve hours.

I can't really believe I'm saying this, but the actual process of moving was somewhat enjoyable. I kind of liked the whole packing things into cars, moving it into the apartment, and making it feel more homey. But, as I unpacked, I almost couldn't comprehend the fact that this was my new home. I felt like at the end of the day we were going to get in our cars, drive to the house, and everything would still be there. Of course, that wasn't the case, but I think that even just one night of sleeping here has made it feel a little bit more like home.

So, for your viewing pleasure, here are pictures of my new room:

 Probably the only thing I really don't like about my room, the view from my window:

A big shout out to Stephen for helping me decorate these various areas of my room; he's got a very artistic eye, and his brain was still working even after mine shut down!

Overall, I really do like my new room. I have a little more floor space, and a huge closet!! (Is it weird that the thing I'm most excited about is my closet??) And I'm sure after a few weeks, this will really start to feel like home.

Just The Thought Of It

I thought you all would enjoy a little interesting something that happened to me at work yesterday; just to preface it, Stephen always brings me a dish filled with some of the different foods that the cooks have been making that day, and since I started working there, he's gotten me to try a ton of things. With that in mind:

Stephen, handing me my bowl and stabbing a piece of meat on the fork: "You've got to try this boiled meat! It's really good."

Me: "Okay." Chew, chew...munch, munch. "Okay. It tastes like beef."

Stephen: "No, it's not beef."

Me: "Well, then, what is it?"

Stephen: "Actually, it's.......cow tongue."

**Gulp**

Yeah.....honestly, it really was just like beef. Same taste, same texture. But just the thought of eating COW TONGUE made it rather difficult for me to eat the second piece!

And So It Begins

In case some of you don't know this yet, my parents have been trying to sell our house since last summer, and it finally sold this June. We'll be moving into the Windsor Garden apartments near Roberts Weslyan College. I can't say I'm really thrilled about the idea of moving and living in an apartment, but change is just part of life, and I probably won't be with my parents for many more years.
 My parents have been packing for the last week or two, but I, being the procrastinator that I am, have just kept putting it off. But, moving day is August 13th, and that means only 12 more days.With that in mind, I decided I should probably start packing some of my things today. And lets just say, it was not my favorite job ever! But, I got four boxes packed today, and I can probably pack the rest into another four boxes. I also threw out three big bags of garbage!

And now, my room is starting to look rather empty, and my shelf is full of things awaiting to be packed.

And that is just the beginning!!