Medieval Dolly, not Paper this time.

This term for my history class I had to make an item relevant to the medieval child.  I decided to do clothing.  As I didn't have a small or medium sized child to schlep to my class I used one of my daughter's dolls.  Now she is a girl doll, but for the purposes of my class, it's a 13th century schoolboy.  Typically, little boys would have worn short tunics, as did most men, but for school, they wore long tunics.  The reason we went with boy, is that we wanted to make a piece of clothing that was somehow special.  So our clothing is underwear, specifically braies or underpants.  Boys didn't get braies till they were old enough.  The reason, when you had wash all your clothing, or most of it, and you don't have a washing machine, accidents are completely out of the question.

I love the way this turned out.  It looks really medieval.  It is hard to pick fabrics that are appropriate.  Tunics would have been felted wool as would the hosen.  Under things, shirts, chemises and kerchiefs for women were made from linen.   

Altitude Sickness: The Sadness You Feel When You Leave the Mountains.

Frontside at Lake Louise Ski Resort at the top of the Gondola.

Yep, I got weepy my last day at Lake Louise.  The mountains are way too beautiful and the skiing way too awesome not to feel a little sadness at leaving.  I am pre-menopausal, so maybe the weepy was partly that too.

Looking over the back bowls at the top of the Platter lift at Lake Louise.

 We skied at Nakiska, Lake Louise, Sunshine Village, and Panorama.  All of them were in fabulous condition and the skiing was wonderful.  I think though we have a new favourite mountain and it would be Panorama.  Quiet, well signed, a terrific lodge with storage for your stuff, great well maintained runs, lots of bathroom facilities and smaller lodges sprinkled throughout and friendly staff who gave us great advice on where to ski.  We are very good intermediate skiers by big mountain standards.  Black diamond runs with smaller bumps were typically no problem and steeps with few bumps were also manageable.  We have no experience with powder and as Eastern skiers are at home on hard pack and ice.  With all that, we still found plenty to ski comfortably and managed to challenge ourselves and grow our skills a little.  I am definitely going to spend more time in the moguls next year.  Riding the bumps is a required skill out west and a working knowledge of how to handle this type of terrain will definitely add to the amount of skiable terrain you have to work with. 
  We stayed at Hidden Ridge Resort, which is located on a ridge overlooking Banff.  This resort is comprised of a series of little cabins divided into rooms.  Our room could sleep eight people if we had wanted it to, but as it was the girls each got their own queen bed and we got our own room.  The loft set up was wonderful and left us with a living room kitchen area where were prepared most of our meals and crashed at the end of a hard day of skiing.  The resort also had an outdoor hot tub and pool which helped ease away the muscle strain from the day.  The value at this resort was really good and the kitchen helps take some of the bite out of eating at restaurants, both by way of cost and by way of calories, fat, sodium etc. 
   This was a hugely enjoyable vacation.  We loved it!  Now to start planning for next year.  I think we're going to head south in the mountain range and try Fernie and it's environs.
 

Wings to Fly

     Paper crafting, well any crafting is taking a backseat these days to school.  Not only my schoolwork, but the kid's schoolwork too.  I've been trying to help my grade 11 daughter with her math.  This means going through a math book and staying ahead of her to try to help her to "get it."  So far so good and her father is helping too.
     My current class requires the creation of an example of a piece of medieval child's clothing.  We're doing underpants and yes they had underpants.  But we're making doll size clothes and well I might as well dress the whole doll, what's the point of having a doll with just underpants?  So stay tuned for a doll doll dressed as a medieval school boy.

     Despite the time crunch I had to get a little paper therapy in.  I have to thank Deviant Scrap and Somerset's Digital Studio for my current inspiration.  Check out the magazine for an awesome offer that will help supercharge your digital mojo, not to mention the mojo just from the articles.
      So here's what I made.

 

Again Character Constructions forms the basis of the doll.  The skirt is made with the die cut Laura Haviland so graciously gave us when I took her class at Bizzy B's.  I just wove the ribbon in and out and then sewed it in place with some silver thread.

       The wings are from Deviant Scrap printed on brochure paper.  I love the realism of the wings with the stamped doll.  Of course there are Stickles, cause everything is better with a little Stickles.  (Husband and kids won't hold still and cat just licks them off, so maybe not "everything".)