The Budget Scadian

Ok, so this is kind of about saving money...
In June the people that put all the time and reserach into The Tudor Tailor are now making a second book. This one is all about the servants to the Tudor King.
If you order it now, you will save a few dollars on the book, AND it will be delivered right to your door and into your eager little hands before some of your friends even know it exists!

Here is the link to read about it and pre-order it:
http://www.tudortailor.com/booksho…

I've been kinda stupid-excited about it since I found it. Ordered mine last month! *lol*

OH! And on a second note...I have discovered something...Salvation Army and Good Will occasionally recieve bulk donations from fabric stores going out of business!! So be sure to ask your thrift store person if they have any fabric for sewing available! Our Baroness found an entire roll of 100% linen that she got for a TOTAL of $10. A NEW roll!! Granted, it's a mushroom/brown colour, but has taken dye REALLY well!
So always check the thrift stores for fabric!!

Ok, that's all I have that is relevant...

jencendiary's last post reminded of something that might help everyone in this community. I've found that a LOT of books (like Costuming of the Renaissance World or Patterns of Fashion 4) that many scadians are looking for are much cheaper on amazon.co.uk than on amazon.com. Sometimes it's as much as $40 in difference between the price on one site and the other. The shipping isn't that bad with the current exchange rate (6 pounds is about $9 right now) and you do save a lot of money this way. Also, they are quick. :-)

1. We've been awfully quiet. However, it's eventing season and I'm sure we all have questions or solutions to problems. Is there a topic you'd like to discuss? If no one here knowsthe answer, I'm sure we could solicit information from friends-of-friends. Reply in the comments, please!

Also, we're always looking for submissions from people who have written articles on Cheap Historicity techniques!

2. New User Applications - could new users applying to join us please turn on their LJ messages, in case there is a question the mod staff would like to ask them? This is especially important if you have no publicly viewable posts or no SCA-related communities or interests on your profile page.

3. Loosely topical, I've just received my copies of The Tudor Tailor and Medieval Tailor's Assistant from Amazon.com. If anyone here has made projects from that book using Cheap Historicity techniques in shopping or scavenging, I personally would love a post about it!

- Jennifer
Violante de la Fuente

My husband and I went browsing a little known consignment shop in our town on Saturday, and we stumbled on an amazing deal!

We're redoing our living room in a medieval theme (shocking, I know) and I have lusted after some of the repro tapestries one normally sees online for a couple hundred dollars or so. *lusted*, I tell you! Well, we found one in this consignment shop -- $40.00. It's mine, all mine!

It's about 24 inches by 36, I think. It is gonna look good over our (electric) fireplace! The best part is that the owner took my contact information in case any more come in.

I purchased a number of shorter length remnants at thrift stores  just after I joined the sca. Now I know that more yardage is required. However, I would love to use this fabric, looking for suggestions for garb that uses more than one fabric- different colours, different patterns, Mixing a solid with a pattern would be good. Also, I found 10 yards of wool plaid, what female garb would this be good for ?

I'm looking for a good place to get large quantities of beads (stone, not glass). I'm quite new to this, I'll warn you. :-) Everything seems to be in 16" strands at most - is there anywhere that deals in larger quantities (without needing to having a certain tax status)? Obviously I could just buy multiple strands, but I'm curious about bulk discounts, etc...

Thanks!

I hope all of our American readers are enjoying their Thanksgiving holiday, and all our non-celebrating and non-American readers are getting a good start on their weekends!

While I was paging through the comments of another blog, earlier this week, I found the story of a woman who picked up a used wedding dress for $25. From that, she was able to strip out 14 Yards of useable, dyeable silk. It turned into two houppelandes.

Since we're all interested in conserving money, thrift stores and resale shops are definitely on-topic. If you have a list of things you always look for, things you have found or things the beginner needs that are available at shops like this please post them here

(Also, if you have other articles you'd like to post, I think we're all settled in and ready for submissions! I'll be up all night to approve 'em anyway!)

I think this is on-topic, and I wanted to throw it out there.

If you want to eat in an authentic manner at an event but think you can't because you don't have a lot of money/time, here's a quick list of suggestions, cut from my dayboards handout, where it was included by the kind permission of Mistress Christianna.
(Note: if you're broke and going to an event, bring a bunch of baggies and tupperware with and ask if they need servers-- you might get 'comped' the feast AND have first pick of the leftovers. Many a starving college student has eaten for a week on feast leftovers.)

Mistress Christianna's list of "easy period foods":

• cold sliced deli meats, chicken, ham, roast beef, salami, sausages (kielbasa type), chunks o' ham, roasted chickens, canned smoked oysters,clams, sardines, lox
• dijon style mustard, stone ground mustard, onion relish , horseradish sauce
• sliced cheeses, cheese spreads (herbed and peppered), feta, blue, cheddar, brie, riccotta, swiss
• asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, celery, cucumber, mushrooms, radishes (red and white), scallions - maybe a quick veggie platter?
• oranges, blood oranges, peaches, pears, apples (not Delicious, Pink Lady is close to a period variety), apricots, cherries, grapes, watermelon, (cantelope & honeydew aren't exactly period, but close to period varieties), figs, plums, quince,  pomegranate, berries (strawberries, blueberries)
• Any of these as dried fruits, plus dates, raisins, currants, prunes, almonds, walnuts, chestnuts
• hardboiled eggs, yogurt (for dipping fruit or veggies in, consider some sugar and yogurt for dipping strawberries)
• bread rolls, shortbread, matzoh, Norwegian flatbread (RyeKrisp), breadsticks, rye bread, oatmeal bread, pita bread
• olives, pickles, pickled vegetables (giardinera - that stuff with the cauliflower), marinated artichoke hearts, pickled okra 
• sparkling non-alcoholic fruit ciders, root beer (somewhat of a stretch, but not too far), almond milk (available in aeseptic containers), lemonade

Welcome to all the new members! Thank you for coming to study with us!

Welcome to all the old members! We've changed our focus a bit, feel free to stay and learn if it suits your interest!

There's a shift in the community from "marketplace for Cheap SCA Stuff" towards "classroom for people who want to improve the historicity of their gear, on the cheap." As I noted in the community info, for the the time being there will be no sales posts. When you are making posts about your projects, please keep an eye towards things that were used during the SCA period of study and the sources you used to make them.

Please don't think of this as a critical or snark community. None of us are claiming to be perfect. But we're making the attempt upwards, slowly but surely, and we'd like you to come along with us.

- Jennifer, co-moderator.

Violante de la Fuentes, Gleann Abhann