Today is the last day of my Creative Writing class.

I am unsure what to think about it still. On one hand I expected more excercises along the lines of writing prompts and vignettes, and on the other I am glad we each focused on a single story. The teacher sometimes seemed to be arrogant and all of her examples came from ories and authors that nobody in the class had heard of (therefore quite ineffective). I wouldn't recommend her to anyone, but I wouldn't tell them not to take her class.

Right now, I am finishing up my final reviews of my classmates' stories. My final version of my story is due on Friday...at 9:30 am. SO EARLY. The class lasts from 3 to 6, why is the final due before noon!?! Ugh.

Finally

A LOT has happened.

I finished my three-week Ancient Egypt class with a high grade despite narrowly avoiding failure on that last 1000-year test (the first two spanned 200 years or less each). Sadly, that was the last Ancient Egypt class ever to be offered at my university. I’ll have to look elsewhere to fulfill that pesky Africa/Asia/non-Western credit. 

My creative writing class is drawing to a close this Wednesday. My story has evolved from a story about a mermaid living in the harbor of Reykjavik in the late 900s AD to a story about a young girl who believes in fairies in the 1940s. I feel it has changed for the better. All I have left to do is review the last two of my classmates’ stories and blow through to the finish line!
The biggest event was Under the Redcoat, an event for which I have been preparing since last August!!! I finished my gown (at 3am the night before, I might add) and wore it on Sunday, the final day of the event.

That’s me sitting in the yard of the Palace after a few hours of delightful Virginia heat:

Of course I wore my dress in a polonaise, which my good friend from the Mary Dickinson shop helped me arrange. Please ignore my terrible Target flats! I didn't even have heeled Maryjanes to approximate the look...and I forewent stockings due to the heat. A lady commented on my lack of ankle covering, though her gentleman friend seemed to appreciate it. I was most embarrassed!

I got horribly sunburned, arrested by Redcoats, flirted with Hessians, and saw/met many bloggers whom I respect and admire. Some were amazingly friendly and everything I imagined they would be. I really hope I meet the lovely lady (and her children) of Teacups in the Garden again some time. I want to pick their brains about history and literature. Other bloggers I saw only in passing…or did not recognize until I saw their posts about UTR!

More pictures from that weekend are on my Facebook…I will have to transfer them over and have a huge imagespam post. I am going to try not to ignore this blog.

My thoughts now turn to an upcoming Disney trip with my best girlfriend and her terrific mother. I am also considering whipping something special up for the upcoming 1812 bicentennial.

Finished Pocket Number One!

After much ado, I finally finished the embroidery of my left pocket. It took so long due to finals week and all that jazz, but here it is: CLICKY!

Don't really feel like typing now, but I didn't want to lose my tinypic url either.
Goodnight!

Class Schedules 2011

If you have spoken to me in the past year, you will have heard me vent my frustration with the class registration system of VCU. I had an extremely difficult time signing up for classes this Spring semester, and had hoped to have less of a time getting classes over Summer and Fall. Due to my 59 credits, this was not to happen. I have 63 according to TCC, but at VCU I have only 59. One credit more would have allowed me to register three days sooner and thus get my dream schedule with no trouble at all. However, being one credit too few, I had a hard time getting classes again.

Alas, after much badgering of teachers and much refreshing of the registration website, I now present my schedule for the rest of the year:

This summer, I will be taking ENGL 305, Creative Writing: Fiction and HIST 393, Akhenaten to Cleopatra. I am very excited for the Egyptian class! It satisfies 1/2 of my African, Asian, Other History requirement while still engaging my interests. The Creative Writing actually does nothing for my major (history) or my minor (British studies), but I needed more credits and it appealed to me. I used to write very often, but I have fallen out of the habit. So lazy am I! For some reason, VCU decided to have all the history classes at the same time on the same days of the week. How lame. I guess they only expect students to take one class? I decided to finally put in for my minor in order to pick up another class, but sadly all the English classes that suited my minor were closed. So Creative Writing it is! I hope it isn't too much!

This fall, I have a dream schedule! I managed to get into one of the most coveted classes in the department despite an extremely late registration date. Whether I got a seat through badgering the teacher or not, I am extremely pleased with myself. That class is HIST 319, History of England (Part the First), for which I have been excited since before I was accepted into this university! I really hope it is all that I am expecting. Other classes include ENGL 335, Literature of the English Renaissance (Marlowe, here I come!), ENGL 415, The British Novel of the 18th Century, and HIST 345, Civil War and Reconstruction. I am slightly worried about the British Novel Class, since it is a 400-level class and I have never taken above 300 before, although google reassures me that the numbers are largely irrelevant. The Civil War class might go if I can replace it with the Early Middle Ages, which is far more my style.

Too Long

I last posted over two months ago. What a load of fail.
Anyway, I have finally ordered my linen. Yes, I have decided to make my first gown and petticoat of linen. Linen is an affordable, period-accurate fabric and was admittedly far cheaper than the cottons I wanted. Luckily, linen comes in tons of lovely shades and if the preferred shade is unavailable, it takes dye very well, being a natural fabric and all. I chose a very pretty pale greenish-bluish color. We shall see soon enough if the color is as it appears on my computer screen!

In addition to the linen for my gown, I have also purchased linen for my long-neglected shift, kerchief, and cap. All of these are in white, of course.

There has also been a change in undergarments. Preferring the later years of the eighteenth century, I have decided to forgo the panniers/pocket hoops and wear pockets and a bum roll instead. I happened to have a pattern on hand for pockets (though they would have been extremely easy to draft from scratch) and cut them out of a white muslin I had on hand. However, since I can make NOTHING simple, I have also sketched out a lovely embroidery pattern…so my one-night project has become a much longer one, since I have neither hoop nor thread. I’m waiting on a shipment of supplies from the Joann website. Come on, people, if I had ordered from Amazon it would be here already!!! However, Joann had what I wanted; 100% cotton DMC floss (though silk or wool would have been more accurate) and cheap wooden hoops. Also, they were on sale. Can you see my excited face? :D
I just wish I had remembered to order white as well, so I could do a simple whitework vine around the hem of my kerchief. Perhaps next time?
I also have an idea for the dates of the Under the Redcoat event down in Colonial Williamsburg, where I had intended to debut my eighteenth century garb. End of June, anyone? Perhaps I will have the resources to make a second gown to wear by then. After all, it IS a three-day event and ‘twould be tacky to wear the same clothes every day. How could I ever catch the eye of a British officer that way? ;)

PS: Here is my sketch for the embroidery of my pockets!