At this time last year, the Canton of Foxvale was discussing plans of making coordinating tabards. Foxvale is known locally for its service, especially when it comes to serving feast at other group’s events. Two events were coming up that called for a little special detail, so we intended to adorn the colors of our Canton as we served during these occasions. Once we agreed on the idea, we were on the hunt for fabrics to complete our plan. Baroness Nadezda ze Zastrizl of Ayreton heard of our intentions and offered us materials that the Barony no longer needed. Fighting tabards of blue and green were gifted to our Canton from the Barony, but unfortunately these could not be repurposed for our project. We moved forward with our project, finding the appropriate materials and creating our serving tabards in-time to present at the events. Meanwhile the fighting tabards simply sat in storage. Such a wasteful use of material is unacceptable. Something had to be done. With the cold winter upon us, I use this time to reclaim the materials given to us. It seemed best to re-purpose this material into something all of Foxvale could enjoy. So with a little patching, these old Baronial tabards have become a tablecloth for our Canton. The cloth fits a table of three by six feet comfortably. It could be useful during times when we sit at feast or when fundraisers are presented. I’m sure it will find its usefulness somewhere, and just in time for the New Year.
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Feast Tokens | Fox Hunt 2011 It has been many, many months since my last entry and of course much has past. This past year, I took on my first attempt as Event Steward for the Canton's Fox Hunt event for 2011. I was encouraged by my peers to do a Japanese theme for that year. It was a tough start for me since our usual event site was already booked for our available event dates, so the hunt for a new site became the focus of event planning. A site was eventually found. A beautiful place that was fairy centrally located, but the layout caused some problems for event flow. Of course it was not all doom and despair. It was fun to have the opportunity to educate my fellow populace on Japanese culture. The Canton members even put forth the extra effort to make their own garments to wear for the event, after a small lecture I gave for the group on Japanese fashions. I personally had fun putting together the nobori (Japanese banners) and the feast tokens. We gave out paper fans of the Canton's colors as a site token. It was a warm and humid day, I'm sure the fans came in handy. The day concluded with a feast of grand illusion. We adorned our guests with an authentic Japanese meal, complete with decorative banners of Japanese calligraphy, ikebana flower arrangements, table settings with proper eating utensils and traditional music. Arigatougozaimasu to my Feast Steward, Lady Kara Atladottir, for taking on the great task of researching and creating an unbelievable menu. Photo Taken By Eva Schultz As an added level to the atmosphere, we asked The Honorable Lord Kuji Kaoni Musashi to be our cultural advisor throughout the evening, to help inform our guests of proper table edicate and proceedures, and to perform his feets of magic during our final moments of the evening. My gratitude to THL Kuji for his assistance and for his Kyodo demonstration earlier in the day. And my gratitude to Lady Heather. She was my right-hand man all day and kept me sane. I cannot say enough good things about my Canton. They are a helpful, hardworking, efficient group as a whole. If a task needed to be done, they had it covered before I could ask. At the end of the day, I was so impressed at how prompt tear-down and clean-up happened. They're amazing! That event could not have happened without them. Walls For EZ-Up Pennsic came shortly before the event. I always seem to sum up my time at Pennsic the same way every year...It was Pennsic. There is always fun-times. There is always bad-times. And something always gets damaged. At least this past year no one went to the emergency room. Pennsic is typically the one-time of year I get to see long-distance friends. Oddly enough it's also the one-time of year I get to see even some of my local friends, due to schedules. Lady Celeste and I attended a roundtable on Courtesans, hosted by Lady Lalitadasa. It was wonderful to meet other ladies interested in Courtesan history and portrayal, so much so that we're planning a Courtesan social for this coming year. Details are still being polished at this time. Surprisingly it was a slow year for the typical rushed Pennsic projects. The only large project I had to do was sew together temporary walls for a EZ-Up tent, since Kuji's son did not have a tent for this year. In future months I will design a new cover for the entire frame to make it look more like a Japanese style pavilion. Our camp hosted its annual sake party again, which has been renamed Bon Festival since we've branched out into more activities beside sake. We had a wonderful turnout. Brian, who always does a wonderful job, was back again this year as our bar tender. There was a good variety of treats to snack on, including miso and udon noodle soup! The Honorable Lady Elaine Ladd kept the hot noodles coming and Lord Ottokar made an awesome dashi (broth) over the camp fire. Many of our guest we're pleased to have hot food and drink on a cold, damp night. The seats around the Go board were never empty and neither were the seats around the campfire, especially during Kuji's traditional story-telling of the Cattle Raid and his newest adventures with the Lightening Gods. We're looking forward to next Pennsic, since this will be the year for camp upgrades. We're planning to have jinmaku (Japanese encampment walls) and possibly a new Torii gate. My 23 Scroll Cases The fall and winter months are a quiet time for me. I am typically focused on other projects during this season. But I did take on a new role as the Midlands Regional Webminister in September 2011. My first act was giving the website a facelift. It had been many years since it was overhauled. Now that the basic changes have been done, I am planning another overhaul soon. With the assistance of our Regional Seneschal, The Honorable Lady Caitriona MacDhonnachaidh, we're restructuring how the site will be laid out and function as a information hub for the Midlands Populace. You can see the website in its current form at http://www.midrealm.org/midlandsweb/. I enjoy helping where I can and when I can, and there was a recent challenge set out to the Middle Kingdom populace to produce as many scrolls and scroll blanks as possible to donate to their Majesties to help fill the need for award scrolls. I did have the time to complete as much as I would have liked to, but I contributed 23 scroll cases to the cause. When it was time to present all the scroll blanks and cases, there were a total of 270 scroll blanks and cases to present to their Majesties. Our Barony of Ayreton of course turned in the most, totally 150 scroll blanks and 160 scroll cases. Our Barony Rules! East King's Colors This past Sunday I donated my second round of trims to the Ayreton gift basket. I'm not sure if I clarified, in previous postings, the difference between this gift basket donation and the last. The initial batch of trims went to a gift basket given to Their Royal Majesties of the Middle Kingdom. Many of the members of the Shire of Foxvale worked to contribute trims for that project. In the case of the second batch, I individually volunteered to donate trims. This basket is to be given to Their Royal Majesties of the Middle Kingdom, only to then be gifted to Their Royal Majesties of the East Kingdom during the annual Pennsic War. East Queen's Colors It was requested of me to make the trims in the individual colors of both the King and Queen of the East. The King's colors were red, gold/yellow, and white, while the Queen's colors were blue, green, and white. I produced a total of 24 yards for the basket, 12 yards of the King's colors and 12 yards of the Queen's colors. Unfortunately, I still only had my mini loom to work on. It only produces 1.5 yards at a time and it was requested that I have 3 yards of each pattern, so I had to make two of each. The good news is that I've finally acquired a new and bigger loom. Yay!!! |