melannen | Your eyes are like Pellucidar: deep and mysterious, but always full of light..

So, canon-checking that fanfic I wrote yesterday made me realize that there was an entire collection of books I had not added to LibraryThing: The Barsoom novels! Sister and I went looking for them after reading Number of the Beast, thereby disproving the theory that fanfic loses money for the original authors. I remember taking them to read in class in high school and folding notebook-paper covers, because some of the actual cover paintings were well-nigh pornographic. (As they should have been! I adore those covers! I just didn't want Mr. M or Dr. P to ever see me reading them.) Now I just need to figure out where Dejah Thoris's head rolled off to. It fell off about five minutes after I opened the package. That's what I get for buying action figures at Odd Lots.

(I also went ahead and put in the Cadfael books, because Brother Cadfael rocks the Narthex. Also they were in the same box under Mom's bed as the ERB. But I am not going to go and add all of the Star Trek novels. Nope. Not gonna. Never. Even if that would maybe push me over into one of the top 100 libraries.)

Not that that's all of the ERB books in this house: My grandmother collected Tarzan novels, and for some reason several of her offspring inherited the yen. (Why Tarzan novels was heritable, and not one of the other myriad things* she collected, I can't tell you.) Mom was one of the unfortunates, so there's over a dozen of those, too (most really, really old hardcovers,) on the shelf in the living room.

*Things Grandma Collected: Monks, Nuns, Cross necklaces, saint memorabilia (no, she wasn't catholic.) Crabs, seagulls, eggs, seashells, fossils. Tiny liquor bottles, music boxes. Newspaper clippings of relatives, crafting magazines, records of Hawaiian music and Gregorian chants. Gnomes. Books about folklore and faires, romance novels. Tiny playing cards and ways to play Solitaire. Hull crockery. (... I know I'm forgetting several things. What am I forgetting?)

Although, in the interest of full disclosure, and since I did say yesterday "Oh lord, I'm turning into Grandma," Things I Collect: (Ooh,

terredancer, can this be #2 on the meme I still owe you?)

Koala bears and owls, toy creepy-crawlies. Small rocks, fossils, paper cranes. Quilts, hats, old dresses, handkerchiefs, interesting stockings. Empty glass soda-pop bottles. Sugar packets. Candles (though this doesn't count, 'cause them, I burn.) Topographic maps. Typewriters. Star Wars junk, and also all tie-in merchandise for obscure old science fiction books. Lincoln-back pennies, state quarters, old-fashioned paper money. SF novels, Bobbsey Twins novels, foreign language dictionaries and grammars, Lutheran hymnals, books about folklore and fairies, collections of newspaper comics from before I was born. Hiking stick medallions. And I fear I'm in serious danger of starting to collect blue-leaf pattern Williamsburg Pottery ceramics - that one would be all Mom's fault.

(Note: This is not an invitation to start giving me any of this stuff: I have more than enough stuff as it is, thanks; there's a reason that I am *always* in the process of cleaning my room. By 'collect' I mean that I've given myself special dispensation to acquire these categories of things, should good cheap examples happen to turn up under my nose, despite the fact that I already have not enough storage space and not enough money.)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The things you collect is almost as crazy as mine!

Oooh! Can I see your list?

In my life I have collected: coins (coins in my birthyear, pre 1965 USA, state quarters, various foreign coins particularly pre-Euro currency), paper money (uncirculated foreign), stamps, rocks, shells, languages (I have AV materials in about 20 languages), books (astronomy, medieval, theater, copies of the great classics, anthropology books), arrowheads, civil war musket balls (don't laugh they are cheap), gemstones, pieces of meteorites (if I can afford them), rocks, stuffed animals, most of the giant microbes collection, neckties, medieval garb, swords/knives, incense and other Wiccan supplies, and office supplies.

Also things that involve dinosaurs, astronomy, turtles, snakes, lizards, or old English sheepdogs. I used to collect things that were Scooby Doo, Garfield, and Peanuts.

You have to admit some of the things I collect are pretty weird. :) Particularly the musketballs.

I collect empty pop bottles and sugar packets from restaurants; I'm not going to laugh at you for being cheap! Musketballs are interesting, though: do you go for variety, number, or historical value?

Although, if we're including everything I've ever collected in my life, I'd have to add a few more to the list. (Pencils, stickers, T-shirts, postcards, stuffed animals, several particular types of dolls, and advertisments for collector plates, and the pull-tabs off of cans of fruit, just to name a few).

When you say you collect garb - do you collect it just to have it, or to wear out? Because I have a fair amount of garb-ish stuff that I wear around (usually going for cheapness, ease of sewing, and comfort rather than 'authenticity', which is I suspect what most authentic medieval people would look for in clothing, too.) I also have a bunch of interesting costumes and dresses (some of them from my other grandmother - I inherited her figure,) that I doubt I'd ever wear out, but I like having as dress-up clothes.

I'm going for quantity. Musketballs are actually pretty hard to find unless you are in an area where there was a lot of fighting.

I've also collected pens and pencils.

I'm a medieval reenactor, so I have it to wear out. :) Some of the pieces are more accurate than others. I have a few weeks worth of clothing.

>>I'm a medieval reenactor, so I have it to wear out.

Cool. Are you with a Society of some kind?

I'm not so much a medieval reenactor as somebody with a medieval fashion sense. :D I've been known to to wear ... hm ... this (http://www.katycat.net/gallery/albums/CharlieDadEtc/family_renfest2.JPG) tunic/overskirt and hat, with jeans and a T-shirt around town. I wish I had some better bodices, but most of the patterns I've found are designed for people with cleavage. :(

I was a part of the Florida Renaissance Festival in 1998-99, Living History from 1999-2001, and the Society for Creative Anachronism from 1998 to present. :) Unfortunately having a baby around makes it a little hard to attend the events.

I think that is a nice overskirt. Very nice pattern to it. Reminds me of some Irish dresses I have seen. (And you need to stop looking so much like your sister! At least I can tell you apart in this picture!)

Well you have my sympathies with the bodices! My bodices don't support me very well. I'm too big (G cup!) Have you ever considered designing your own bodice pattern?

That picture's several years old. It's easier to tell us apart these days because I look like I need to gain about ten pounds and she looks like she needs to lose about that much.

The overskirt was made with $1-a-yard fabric from Wal-Mart and a Simplicity pattern we found at a flea market. I like it too, although the fabric is very much not period - it's a sort of polyester flannelette.

Actually, the first bodice I ever sewed (for a Shakespeare project in 9th grade) was done with a completely off-the-cuff pattern! It worked okay, except that even after I'd taken it in by about three inches on both sides *and* the back it still didn't lace up tight, and made me look flat. Which is what always happens.... that website looks cool, but if it's for wearing over T-shirts I don't think I want to need a corset! And it'd probably *still* not lace up right and make me look flat; I simply can't do cleavage. But there must be some bodice design out there that'll work; someday I'll it.

... mind you, I still much prefer that to needing the support! I can just wear my peasant blouses way down low and completely loose.

Aww. Of the pics I have seen of her, she looks fine though I seem to recall recently reading something about her appearing to need to lose 20. Women are too caught up in being an ideal size. I'm sure you both look fine. :)

Even as polyester, it still looks like it could pass for being cotton. :) (There is a surprising about of costumes that look authentic but are are partially polyester.) Down in the SCA shire I was in, the sewing nuts all went on "Dollar a Yard Fabric Runs." They would hit 5 or 6 stores. :-D All of the people would come back with hundreds of dollars in fabric.

You have to remember that if you are doing the Elizabethian look, Elizabeth was pretty flat chested and part of women's fashion was trying to look like the queen! So you are much closer to being accurate than many other people. Originally they weren't going for the "Look! See! I've got boobs" look. They were trying to hide it (though the look does give some cleavage). Medieval reenactors tend to forget the purpose of the bodice and corset.

Your eyes are like Pellucidar: deep and mysterious, but always full of light..

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