Happy Anniversary, Elizabethan Mafia!

28. June 2010 · Write a comment · Categories: Website · Tags:

On this week in 2005 elizabethanmafia.com was officially registered and I began the long process of creating what would become Elizabethan Mafia.  There were some bugs to be fixed, road blocks to jump around, and a learning curve to climb before I was able to take the site live in October but it all started in June with weeks of brainstorming ideas for a name.

We’ve gone through a few different versions, two web hosts, and a lot of fun years together.  What started as just a place to display my research has become one of my longest and most rewarding projects.

I know it’s been a bit more quiet than usual over here as I’ve worked to finish my articles for Foundations Revealed and my class for University.  But now that those are finished things are picking back up around here again and there are lots of new posts coming down the pipe on Silver, Swetnam, fencing, fashion, and all my many projects.

What I’ve Been Working On And Why I’ve Been So Quiet Lately….

28. January 2010 · 3 comments · Categories: Wrapped & Stuffed · Tags: , , ,

I know that I have been quieter than usual this month. I’ve been working on a rather large project which has nothing to do with my Flanders Gown. :) I have decided to take the plunge and open an Etsy shop selling cloth and thread wrapped buttons. I’m very excited but also more than a little nervous.

The shop, Wrapped And Stuffed Buttons, is coming along. It’s mostly up and I hope to have buttons available by the end of January/early February. I’ve really been having a lot of fun with this project and I’m excited to get it up and running.

Wow!

10. December 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: Embroidery · Tags: , , , ,

Wow!  I knew the jacket pictures were popular but not quite how popular they really were.  Elizabethan Mafia had more unique visitiors Tuesday coming to see the new jacket pictures than I have ever had before!  You guys are awesome and I just wanted to say thank you for all support and your lovely comments on the blog, facebook, and livejournal.

Establishing a Schedule

06. November 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: Website · Tags:

As many of you know issues with my webhost in June precipitated me having to move my site to a new host and rebuild it. Part of rebuilding it was reestablishing and rebuilding this blog. I had thought I had lost many of my favorite old posts but thankfully I found backups that I had of them in early September and I was able to put them back up.

I spent a lot of July, August, and early Sept playing around with the site, tweaking things, and trying out different formats for this blog. To be honest I still continue to tweak (because really, when are any of us ever finished tweaking our sites and blogs?) but I finally feel like I have everything back the way I want it.

Almost.

While I’ve been setting things back up and tweaking here and there I’ve never stopped to establish a personal blogging schedule which is something I’d really like to do. So I’ve decided that next week I will be posting every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. On Mondays I will post about a topic related to fashion or culture, Wednesday’s will be the latest installment in my Silver manual, and Fridays I’ll either post about a fencing related topic, an HMA related topic, or a topic outside of Elizabethan England but still within the Early Modern time period. At the end of each month I’ll post about the status of my ongoing projects. As time progresses I will probably add in more days to the schedule but for now I think this will work well. I’ll also still be posting my thoughts on events, most likely working them in on off days.

I hope you will all like the addition of a little organization to this blog. I’m really excited about it.

Website Updates

29. October 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: Website · Tags: , , ,

Yesterday I spent sometime updating my website:

Reorganizing:

One of the big things that I did was reorganize the menu at the top of the page. I’ve removed the Weekly Inspiration feature. It wasn’t really working with the site the way I wanted it to and I think it would work better as a blog feature anyway. I also reorganized the menu items so that my hand sewing and embroidery projects are now under the clothing section.

New additions:

On the A&S 50 page I’ve added links to all the projects I could. I’ve also added two new modules: one displaying my 3 most recent blog posts and one listing the projects I plan to accomplish during my PerCoFiMo.

PerCoFiMo:

As I mentioned in an earlier article I have be thinking about declaring a personal costume finishing month to help motivate me to finish up several sewing projects that had been on the back burner. We’ll I’ve decided that November with be that month and I’ll be keeping a list on my website of the projects I’ll be working on which ones have or have not been finished. While I won’t be able to finish my jacket in one month I do think I can finish the sleeve I’m currently working on and all the gores. I may even be able to make some good progress on the second sleeve which would be awesome. (The monthly status post for the jacket project will, of course, be coming on the 31st.)

Tonight I’ll be working on the next Silver installment. It should be up this evening or tomorrow.

New Additions

23. October 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: Website · Tags: , , ,

There hasn’t been alot to add this week. I’ve been working on prep for Mousehole so I haven’t had as much time to write about my projects or martial arts. I expect that will get back to normal though next week.

What I have done is add a new page for my Silver training manual. This will help keep all those posts in one place.

Elizabethan Mafia also has a facebook page now and a twitter account. Now that we’ve finally joined the 21st Century with everyone else feel free to check us out in our new locations.

What once was lost….

02. September 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: Fighting, Website · Tags: ,

I didn’t loose much this summer when issues with my old host caused me to very quickly have to move my site to a new host.  I lost a couple of blog posts I was rather fond of but I wasn’t too upset.  That just meant I could write about those topics again later.  I was however kinda miffed that I lost a revsion to an old article I wrote on Di Grassi’s footwork.  I thought I had made several backups that I really hadn’t.  So I was rather annoyed but chalked it up to lessons learned and swore to always have 3 backups in 3 different places.  After all, I could always revise it again and decided I’d takle that project this fall when I had less going on.

Well, last week a found a copy of my revised article sitting in my google reader as well as copies of all the old blog posts I thought I’d lost.  I plan on putting them back up sometime over the next couple of weeks and I’ll be backdating them so that they will show up in order.  Word to the wise though, keep several backups in several different places…even if you don’t think you will ever need them.  Don’t make my mistake!

Pictures, Articles, and Return Features! Oh My!

06. August 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: Embroidery · Tags: , , , ,

Work continues.

I worked on several projects this weekend. I didn’t get a whole lot accomplished on any one of them but over all I enjoyed myself immensely and got quite a bit done overall.

Sadly I had to abandon JoomGallery. There was an update and I kept getting really confusing error messages that I could not find solutions to. I also started having issues with my Gallery 2 install again so I eventually switched this weekend to another gallery. I know, story of my life. Be sure to tune in next week when something new happens I have to do it all over again. :)

I am still working on transferring the embroidery design for my jacket on to linen. It’s been taking A LOT longer than I thought it would but it fun to finally be really starting on the project. It’s going to take me FOREVER to embroider but that’s ok. I’ll be able to do it all in front of the TV watching all the fabulous and awful movies that I love to watch while working on projects so it won’t be so bad. It’s not like I’ll be locked up in some sweatshop somewhere until it’s done. ;) I did snap a few pictures thoughso you can see how the transfer is coming along and see the design. I’ve also been working on a brief write up of the project so far for my website (mostly a discussion of the design, my research, inspiration pieces, etc.) and I’m hoping to have that up soon. I’ve also put the first of many articles about the project up on my site. This first article is about the creation of my design and I hope you enjoy it.

I did some more embroidery on my forehead cloth Saturday evening. I still have about a third of it left to go and I need to decide how much fill work I want to do since most of it will be under my coif anyway. It’s so cute though and it’s been a really fun little project.

In other news I have decided to bring back a feature that I had on my site several years ago: The Weekly Inspiration. There will be some differences this time around. Rather than focusing solely on England and Europe during Elizabeth’s reing, this time I will be expanding the Weekly Inspirations to include the entire Early Modern period and including modern reproductions, household items, and arms and armor in addition to protraits and historical clothing. I have not yet decided which day of the week I’ll post updates on but Friday’s are high in the running. I have though already put up this week’s inspiration: a gorgeous blackwork smock from the V&A collections.

Weekend Recap: New Gallery Edition

21. July 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: Website · Tags: ,

I’m exceptionally pleased with myself.

I’ve replaced my old Gallery 2 gallery with a JoomGallery that is incorporated into my site and looks so much nicer than the old one. Those of you who are actually good with computers with probably think this I’m very silly for being so excited but that’s ok. :) This now means that I can fully devote my attentions to finishing putting my pictures up. I’ll need to redo the few galleries I had gotten back up but I don’t really mind. I really am much happier with the look of the new gallery. The old was ok and Gallery 2 had served me well for quite many years but it just never seemed to fit with my new site layout. While having to move my site has been a bit of a pain it has been a really great catalyst for getting me off my bum and making me finish doing all the things that I had intended to do. There are no more bits of the old site cluttering up my web space and everything just looks and feels so much more integrated and cohesive.

In other news I got work done on several of my projects over the weekend. I got together with friends Friday evening and Saturday for some sewing fun. We had a blast and everyone got something done. I’ve patterned the bodice lining for my 18th Century gown and finished my pocket hoops so I can finish patterning the outer bodice and skirt. I finished futzing with the layout of the embroidery design for my jacket however I’ve decided that I will need enlarge it after all so that I don’t have to move the pattern around when I transfer it to my fabric. So it will need to go to Kinko’s after all since I think I will need at least another repeat of the design. I should be able to get out to Kinko’s sometime this week if not this weekend so it’s not so bad. I also got some work done on the embroidery for my forehead cloth. Not a whole lot, but some and every little bit done is a little less I have left to do. :)

Progress

13. July 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: Website · Tags:

Things are now, finally, pretty much back up. I’m still working on uploading pictures back into my gallery and some of my project write ups are on hold until I can get those pictures up. But I’m hoping to have finished uploading them by the end of the week so I can finally have my page back to normal.

I do have some new features to my site up and running. You can now comment on articles and projects and my Google calendar is now integrated into the site. To view my SCA activities simply click on the little blue arrow above the calendar and select “Rosalind Delamere”. You can also now subscribe to my website via RSS feed or email to receive updates on projects and new additions to the site. Just select the subscription icon at the top of the page and select your favorite method.

Now that my site is 90% back up I finally have some time to work on projects…which is pretty much how I spent my weekend.

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