August 2026: The Horrors Persist But So Do I
August Goals
Garb:
Finish the seams, hem, and eyelets on the Juana Saya Verdugado
Classes:
Finish Encapsulating Your Wardrobe class slide deck
Finish SCA Websites: Design, Form, and Function handout and slide deck
It turns out that keeping yourself busy for an unplanned 10 day long stay-cation is a lot harder than it looks. Who knew! Not being at Pennsic freed up a whole bunch of time to try some new things and to try to keep my spirits up by working on project that I had either been procrastinating on or otherwise brought me joy.
For the goals:
I got all the seams done on the verdugado and then proceeded to lose steam. Unproductive, but alas.
I did finish the Encapsulating Your Wardrobe deck!
I finished the outline and deck for SCA Websites and, much like with Electronic Documentation, am waffling on how or whether or not to do an actual handout.
These accomplishments are somehow the least exciting part of my month though.
The weekend before my change of plans, I found fresh cacao beans at the grocery store, and decided to try my hand at chocolate. It was ultimately not a complete success but what a cool process. I started with fermenting the beans for seven days, then roasting, hand separating the nibs, grinding until my spice grinder broke, and then attempting to temper. I say attempting because I don’t think I got the grind fine enough to extract the cocoa butter in the solids, so I ended up with an incredible delicious chocolate crumble.
Since it was August, it was also time to start my Thanksgiving cordials for my family. This year I’m doing two. The first is a blackberry bramble cordial, which is my mom’s favorite, and the second is a spiced plum and cognac cordial. Both are smelling amazing one month in, and I can’t wait to taste them as they continue to mature.
I did some other fun mundane cooking projects for my birthday as well. Birthday menu included a lamb wellington, a raspberry lemonade ripple cake with white chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream, and a beef sausage roll with pastrami flavors. All of these are off my list of “If I were on the Great British Baking Show, what would I make for each challenge?” list, and it remains a highlight of my month.
The garden also got some attention this month, largely planning for fall planting and overwintering. I’ve got most of my keep list for the plants settled, along with ones I know I want to try again on next year (neither the phlox nor the nasturtium did well with the super wet summer we had), and some minor updates to keep things interesting. I’m also prepping for a layered bulb planter for the first time, with double early tulips, ranunculus, and late tulips. Neither tulips or ranunculus will be included in the Mariana’s Garden project, but the crocuses are a really fun perennial addition.
