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ktlovelySo. Greenfield Village. Last year, this same event was my first-ever Civil War event and could probably be called the event that launched me full-force into reenacting. I also got horribly ill and only remember portions of the weekend...so as I told my mother, the bar for "rockin'" was set pretty low for this year! "As long as I remember everything, it can't be worse than last year."
I'm happy to report that not only do I remember the whole weekend, I had a great time, and I think everybody else did too. We didn't see too much of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
reine_de_coudre and dandytailor, but Gwendolyn and I got to spend quite a bit of good quality time together, and I got a chance to see the crowd that works at Greenfield--including dear JJ, who looked very well. Actually, he looked damn good and I may have actually told him, "JJ, not gonna lie, I kinda wanna make out with you right now." He didn't go for it, but he laughed and was flattered anyway.
Anyway...you just want pictures, so here we go!
Welcome to our camp!
Saturday, Mike got a wild hair that he wanted to set up the wall tent as a living area for daytime--Gwendolyn and I both told him it sounded like a lot of work, but he promised he would do all the work and please let him, he had a vision of--okay, okay, do it, do it, fine. Turns out it was the second-best idea he had all weekend. (The best was bringing along my settee.) Samantha and I went out to pick up some groceries and when we came back, the bedrolls had been moved out, the table had been moved in, and we had a beautiful little living room/parlor area to hang out in all afternoon.
Loving the shade...
Gwendolyn's mother was absolutely my hero this weekend. She helped with the cooking prep beforehand, brought us cold lentil soup to eat for lunch on Saturday, let us get dressed for the ball the next night at her mother-in-law's house (where she was staying for the weekend) and made us sandwiches while we were dressing, and was just all around wonderful to spend time with and wholeheartedly supported our reenacting habit the entire weekend. <3 OH! AND she brought us ice and popsicles on Saturday afternoon. Ooohhhhh so amazing...
The very image of "fresh and pretty."
Gwendolyn just looked freakin' fantastic all weekend. Some of you may recall the fabric of her dress being shaped like this, and belonging to me, not her. Well, that dress is no more, and its current incarnation as a Gwendolyn-sized 1860s day dress is absolutely awesome. That hat is actually mine, too. It used to look like this, which was not nearly as interesting! My mother made three little clusters of strawberries that I sewed on, along with a dark brown velvet ribbon, the Wednesday before the event. It turned out to be the best last-minute accessory ever. Gwendolyn wore it almost the whole weekend and it just suited her perfectly. So lovely!
Wearingsuperiorcap's Christmas present.
Last Christmas (right after my trip to Fort Washita), Tyler made me a cockade of blue polished cotton, hand-embroidered with the appropriate number of stars, to reaffirm my status as a Yankee lass or somesuch. I wore it proudly all Saturday, despite the fact that we were technically camped in a Confederate area of the site. People just camped wherever in the civilian areas, though.
Siesta time is farb.
Midday Saturday got pretty warm, and we were all fairly tired. I slept sideways on the settee, pillow on one arm and legs slung over the other, and was apparently quite the topic of discussion among visitors during my brief nap. Mike slept in a little more secluded spot.
After the fashion show.
Saturday was a full day. We did some touristy Greenfield things, all three ladies finished their bonnets, did some shopping, and made an appearance in the 4:00 fashion show. We also then decided who cares if we're semi-adults...we want to ride the carousel!
I think this is my favorite picture from the weekend.
Saturday night, we had planned a little group birthday party, and several months ago Mike uttered the magic words, "you're in charge." So Saturday afternoon, Gwendolyn and I laid a quilt out behind the tent (between our camp and the back of someone else's tent, so we were fairly hidden), busted out some wire cutters, fake flowers, and floral tape, and made whimsical little flower wreathes for the ladies to wear at our little party.
Setting up for a party.
Gwendolyn and I ended up going out to dinner that night, wearing our flowers, and it was a nice chance to decompress in an air-conditioned environment with flush toilets and lots of ice water. The waiter was just charmed, and charming in turn. It was a little Middle Eastern place not far from the village, so he asked if we were sisters in the cutest little accent ever and told us we were cute, and got a large tip. ;)
Does this count as a tablescape?
For our party, we had several lovely cheeses and good bread, plus a chocolate cake with buttercream frosting at strawberries. We shared some lovely drinks and (some of us) exchanged gifts. I fail at gift-giving, so Mike's gift wasn't done, Samantha's was given to her early, and Gwendolyn's was her bonnet kit that we ordered for her in March. Mike got excited and gave me my gift before the weekend started, and so Samantha was the gift-giving queen that night.
Forgive the background, por favor...
Apparently everybody already knew about this, but Samantha gave me the cutest little formal/sewing apron! It goes just beautifully with the plaid silk and I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to do a lot of hosting and sewing so it gets seen by everybody. :) And because it was freakin' hot, that photo was taken about two minutes before I peeled off all five hundred million layers of my clothes in the locker rooms at Lovett Hall and stood under a cold shower for twenty minutes. It was amazing. Absolutely amazing.
Gwendolyn being my hero.
Sunday was even freakin' hotter than Saturday, so Gwendolyn and I both wore our cotton dresses. I didn't even try to look good, opting for no hoop, slippers, and sitting around doing nothing all day. Gwendolyn, on the other hand, looked adorable and did all the cooking (which means she made oatmeal with craisins and blueberries in it in the morning. I washed the dishes from the night before because it was an excuse to immerse my hands in cold water.
Gwendolyn having a "moment" with the leftover oatmeal blueberries.
Sunday basically consisted of sitting, drinking fluids, sitting some more...and then Gwendolyn's brother's girlfriend came, so we went and rode a train...sitting. And then we drank some more. And then, because Mrs. Basala is my hero, we all packed up our stuff and went to Gwendolyn's grandma's house to dress for the ball. This is where the making of emergency sandwiches happened, a few pictures, and we were off!
Looking pretty darn good, if I do say so myself.
Dear JJ, please wear that mustache like that for ever and ever. Love, Katie.
Anyway, the ball was pretty fun. I was just wiped out before it even started; I went up to my friend Heidi (who I know through JJ) and gave her a hug, and the first thing she said was, "You look so tired!" So for a lot of the ball, we stood in a corner and commiserated about how tired we both were. I got to see a lot of people not in my group, which was good, because for good portions of the evening, my particular friends were nowhere to be found. JJ buttonholed me about thirty seconds before he had to be performing the intermission with Camp Chase--just enough time to ask, "will you be in the same formation as last year?" "Yes!" "I have to know where to sit!" "I know!" and it was time.
Camp Chase; JJ is fifing in the front corner closest to the camera.
I've always loved fife and drum music, and count myself fortunate to be friends with a member of a leading historical music group like that. I've gotten to meet several of their members and JJ has said some of the nicest things about my own amateur fifing to them, which is mildly appalling and horribly flattering all at once. They're super nice guys, and I've been privileged to hang out with them at events other than those at which they've performed in official capacity...but they were out in full force on Sunday. I got a good spot right in front of the crowd and sat on the floor so I could feel the drums in my bones. JJ seemed mellow, for his normal self (understandable--family stuff), but he found me in the crowd and checked to see I was enjoying myself a few times, like last year. It was dear. I got to spend some time just talking to him, afterwards, until the ballroom was almost completely empty.
Dressed to the nines.
We headed downstairs to find Gwendolyn playing piano among friends, and JJ nabbed my camera to take a few pictures. By that time I was basically dying for sleep, so I headed back to camp to crash while the others went to pick up our stuff at Gwendolyn's grandma's. I woke up long enough to eat some Taco Bell nachos that magically appeared when they came back, and passed out again.
Civil War myspace?
Monday was more of the same; Gwendolyn and I wandered around with her mom and our friend Tom, biding our time until it was time to pack up. We took some really cute pictures together, had lunch at the Eagle Tavern, and goofed around in Lovett Hall until about five. We actually packed up camp between rainstorms, not too inefficiently despite some horsing around and nonsensical fun.
So yep. Good weekend. The rest of my photos (in case you haven't seen enough already...) are on Facebook here, and Gwendolyn's are on Flickr, here. Good times!
I'm happy to report that not only do I remember the whole weekend, I had a great time, and I think everybody else did too. We didn't see too much of
reine_de_coudre and dandytailor, but Gwendolyn and I got to spend quite a bit of good quality time together, and I got a chance to see the crowd that works at Greenfield--including dear JJ, who looked very well. Actually, he looked damn good and I may have actually told him, "JJ, not gonna lie, I kinda wanna make out with you right now." He didn't go for it, but he laughed and was flattered anyway. Anyway...you just want pictures, so here we go!
Welcome to our camp!
Saturday, Mike got a wild hair that he wanted to set up the wall tent as a living area for daytime--Gwendolyn and I both told him it sounded like a lot of work, but he promised he would do all the work and please let him, he had a vision of--okay, okay, do it, do it, fine. Turns out it was the second-best idea he had all weekend. (The best was bringing along my settee.) Samantha and I went out to pick up some groceries and when we came back, the bedrolls had been moved out, the table had been moved in, and we had a beautiful little living room/parlor area to hang out in all afternoon.
Loving the shade...
Gwendolyn's mother was absolutely my hero this weekend. She helped with the cooking prep beforehand, brought us cold lentil soup to eat for lunch on Saturday, let us get dressed for the ball the next night at her mother-in-law's house (where she was staying for the weekend) and made us sandwiches while we were dressing, and was just all around wonderful to spend time with and wholeheartedly supported our reenacting habit the entire weekend. <3 OH! AND she brought us ice and popsicles on Saturday afternoon. Ooohhhhh so amazing...
The very image of "fresh and pretty."
Gwendolyn just looked freakin' fantastic all weekend. Some of you may recall the fabric of her dress being shaped like this, and belonging to me, not her. Well, that dress is no more, and its current incarnation as a Gwendolyn-sized 1860s day dress is absolutely awesome. That hat is actually mine, too. It used to look like this, which was not nearly as interesting! My mother made three little clusters of strawberries that I sewed on, along with a dark brown velvet ribbon, the Wednesday before the event. It turned out to be the best last-minute accessory ever. Gwendolyn wore it almost the whole weekend and it just suited her perfectly. So lovely!
Wearing
superiorcap's Christmas present.Last Christmas (right after my trip to Fort Washita), Tyler made me a cockade of blue polished cotton, hand-embroidered with the appropriate number of stars, to reaffirm my status as a Yankee lass or somesuch. I wore it proudly all Saturday, despite the fact that we were technically camped in a Confederate area of the site. People just camped wherever in the civilian areas, though.
Siesta time is farb.
Midday Saturday got pretty warm, and we were all fairly tired. I slept sideways on the settee, pillow on one arm and legs slung over the other, and was apparently quite the topic of discussion among visitors during my brief nap. Mike slept in a little more secluded spot.
After the fashion show.
Saturday was a full day. We did some touristy Greenfield things, all three ladies finished their bonnets, did some shopping, and made an appearance in the 4:00 fashion show. We also then decided who cares if we're semi-adults...we want to ride the carousel!
I think this is my favorite picture from the weekend.
Saturday night, we had planned a little group birthday party, and several months ago Mike uttered the magic words, "you're in charge." So Saturday afternoon, Gwendolyn and I laid a quilt out behind the tent (between our camp and the back of someone else's tent, so we were fairly hidden), busted out some wire cutters, fake flowers, and floral tape, and made whimsical little flower wreathes for the ladies to wear at our little party.
Setting up for a party.
Gwendolyn and I ended up going out to dinner that night, wearing our flowers, and it was a nice chance to decompress in an air-conditioned environment with flush toilets and lots of ice water. The waiter was just charmed, and charming in turn. It was a little Middle Eastern place not far from the village, so he asked if we were sisters in the cutest little accent ever and told us we were cute, and got a large tip. ;)
Does this count as a tablescape?
For our party, we had several lovely cheeses and good bread, plus a chocolate cake with buttercream frosting at strawberries. We shared some lovely drinks and (some of us) exchanged gifts. I fail at gift-giving, so Mike's gift wasn't done, Samantha's was given to her early, and Gwendolyn's was her bonnet kit that we ordered for her in March. Mike got excited and gave me my gift before the weekend started, and so Samantha was the gift-giving queen that night.
Forgive the background, por favor...
Apparently everybody already knew about this, but Samantha gave me the cutest little formal/sewing apron! It goes just beautifully with the plaid silk and I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to do a lot of hosting and sewing so it gets seen by everybody. :) And because it was freakin' hot, that photo was taken about two minutes before I peeled off all five hundred million layers of my clothes in the locker rooms at Lovett Hall and stood under a cold shower for twenty minutes. It was amazing. Absolutely amazing.
Gwendolyn being my hero.
Sunday was even freakin' hotter than Saturday, so Gwendolyn and I both wore our cotton dresses. I didn't even try to look good, opting for no hoop, slippers, and sitting around doing nothing all day. Gwendolyn, on the other hand, looked adorable and did all the cooking (which means she made oatmeal with craisins and blueberries in it in the morning. I washed the dishes from the night before because it was an excuse to immerse my hands in cold water.
Gwendolyn having a "moment" with the leftover oatmeal blueberries.
Sunday basically consisted of sitting, drinking fluids, sitting some more...and then Gwendolyn's brother's girlfriend came, so we went and rode a train...sitting. And then we drank some more. And then, because Mrs. Basala is my hero, we all packed up our stuff and went to Gwendolyn's grandma's house to dress for the ball. This is where the making of emergency sandwiches happened, a few pictures, and we were off!
Looking pretty darn good, if I do say so myself.
Dear JJ, please wear that mustache like that for ever and ever. Love, Katie.
Anyway, the ball was pretty fun. I was just wiped out before it even started; I went up to my friend Heidi (who I know through JJ) and gave her a hug, and the first thing she said was, "You look so tired!" So for a lot of the ball, we stood in a corner and commiserated about how tired we both were. I got to see a lot of people not in my group, which was good, because for good portions of the evening, my particular friends were nowhere to be found. JJ buttonholed me about thirty seconds before he had to be performing the intermission with Camp Chase--just enough time to ask, "will you be in the same formation as last year?" "Yes!" "I have to know where to sit!" "I know!" and it was time.
Camp Chase; JJ is fifing in the front corner closest to the camera.
I've always loved fife and drum music, and count myself fortunate to be friends with a member of a leading historical music group like that. I've gotten to meet several of their members and JJ has said some of the nicest things about my own amateur fifing to them, which is mildly appalling and horribly flattering all at once. They're super nice guys, and I've been privileged to hang out with them at events other than those at which they've performed in official capacity...but they were out in full force on Sunday. I got a good spot right in front of the crowd and sat on the floor so I could feel the drums in my bones. JJ seemed mellow, for his normal self (understandable--family stuff), but he found me in the crowd and checked to see I was enjoying myself a few times, like last year. It was dear. I got to spend some time just talking to him, afterwards, until the ballroom was almost completely empty.
Dressed to the nines.
We headed downstairs to find Gwendolyn playing piano among friends, and JJ nabbed my camera to take a few pictures. By that time I was basically dying for sleep, so I headed back to camp to crash while the others went to pick up our stuff at Gwendolyn's grandma's. I woke up long enough to eat some Taco Bell nachos that magically appeared when they came back, and passed out again.
Civil War myspace?
Monday was more of the same; Gwendolyn and I wandered around with her mom and our friend Tom, biding our time until it was time to pack up. We took some really cute pictures together, had lunch at the Eagle Tavern, and goofed around in Lovett Hall until about five. We actually packed up camp between rainstorms, not too inefficiently despite some horsing around and nonsensical fun.
So yep. Good weekend. The rest of my photos (in case you haven't seen enough already...) are on Facebook here, and Gwendolyn's are on Flickr, here. Good times!
