Saturday Legend Post -- The Scottish Thistle

Today the family and I visited a living history event called The Gathering, at a place called Macktown. Apart from being immensely enjoyable and fascinating, we also came across a pewter trader who sold all sorts of items, including various Scottish thistle themed necklaces, earrings, and pins. Needless to say, I was ecstatic. I didn't purchase anything right then, but I certainly plan to when we go to a Celtic Fest next week, where the same vendor will be setting up shop again.

Now to my point. Before we left, the pewter trader, noticing my interest in the thistles, handed me a slip of paper about the Legend of the Scottish Thistle. This is how it goes....

When Alexander III (1241-1285) was King of Scotland, King Haakon of Norway landed an army on the shores of that Kingdom and attempted to conquer it. According to tradition, during a sneak attack at night on the Scottish camp at Largs, a barefooted Norseman trod on a thistle and cried out in pain. The Scots were alerted, and the attack failed. King Haakon withdrew his army and the lowly thistle became the Scottish national symbol.

Whether or not things happened just as the legend says is obviously a point for debate, but since the thistle has become such a prominent Scottish symbol, something must have happened. That explanation is good enough for me. Besides, whether the facts are straight or not, it's the sentiment that's been preserved, and that's what really counts.

Dia duit,
~Penny

Charmed, I'm sure....

You already know we're making a movie with some folks called the Vincents. Well, recently..... Actually, I'm not sure how recent it was, come to think of it....

Anyway, this is a movie they made. It's entirely original, including the music, and the Vincents entered it in the Beloit Film Festival. I've been told they won it.

"Many princesses dream of being whisked away by Prince Charming, but maybe it's not all it's cracked up to be."

Enjoy!

Dia duit,
~Penny

Don't Get Your Hopes Up

This is still one of those intermediate posts where I don't actually say anything, but I post anyways because I don't like leaving my blog untouched for too long.

I very much want to work on FtGG again. Unfortunately-ish, I signed on to write a script for a movie some friends are making. That's awesome, but the unfortunate part is that FtGG will have to wait a short bit, unless I can figure out how to multi task. Which probably won't happen, since I haven't been able to do that in the past very well. We shall see.

For news, Wynni stayed over for the weekend again. Loads of fun, as usual. A walk through Sherwood soon led to an impromptu IG, in which we ran about ten miles, all in all, and made it around the entire perimeter of Sherwood, all the way back to the house in time to drive to church for choir practice. Yes, I was sore the next morning. But it was worth it.

Right now it's midnight, and my mind hasn't been functioning on its highest level since at least three this afternoon, so I'll leave this short. Otherwise it won't get posted at all.

So happy spring to y'all! I didn't mention that the weather has been getting nice. Well, it is, and that makes me a very happy Penny, believe me. I'm definitely not a winter person.

Dia duit,
~Penny

My Room -- The Closet

• Paint cherry blossom tree in left corner
• Purchase curtains for windows
• Paint closet
• Turn closet into office space
• Buy mirrors for over and beside dresser
• Bounce on bed

Two things done before the weekend last week! Painted my closet blue (all on my own. Thanks to my friends who video skyped me so I didn't die of boredom), and Percy and my Dad put in the desk and bookshelf. It's not fully finished, but it's pretty close. Percy and Seph still need to hang up my whiteboard, but they need special screws, or something like that.

But here is a picture, anyway.

I don't know if you'll notice or not, but there are actually two different shades of blue in there. The blue on the bottom was the color we were originally going to use for the entire closet. As I painted, however, I quickly discovered there wouldn't be nearly enough paint for the entire closet. Momma suggested that I paint the top fourth (third?) the same lighter blue I used for the rest of the room. The end result is quite fetching, in my opinion. It keeps the darker blue from being too glaring. I'm quite pleased with it.

So the things that still need to be done are fairly obvious. I need that bookshelf painted white, I need the whiteboard hung on the wall, and I need a more comfortable chair. Dad is also going to make a couple small corner shelves in the left hand corner so I can put some knickknacks on there.

And for those of you who might notice, that is my fedora on the upper shelf there. Anyone who was at the OYAN SW will remember the day when all the PenKnights wore their fedoras. It's the official PenKnights hat.

At the moment, my room needs a good clean up. I unpacked my doll collection -- which ended up being much larger than I remembered -- so I also need to figure out where to put those. I don't think they'll all fit on my headboard shelves; I might need to put some of the bigger ones on the top shelf in my closet, and whatever leftover ones I have will have to be re-packed and put in the basement.

So that was my week.

Happy Easter!
~Penny