Teddy's Tour of Ybor City

The members of the Tampa Bay Steampunk Society were treated to a tour of Ybor City this afternoon. Our guide was the very charming and talented Mike Norton, who plays the role of Col. Teddy Roosevelt for his tours of the city where Roosevelt and his "rough riders" were stationed in 1898.

Ybor has a very colorful history full of Cuban, Mexican, Italian, and Jewish immigrants, soldiers, cigar factories, artists, night clubs, and gangsters.



Here, our guide stands in front of a row of houses built for the cigar factory workers:





Explaining about gangs of boys who once greased the streetcar tracks and pelted the passengers:





There had been a parade Saturday night and Mardi Gras beads were everywhere.



Since this was a steampunk event, there were people in costumes and a chance to look in a store that sold costume and vintage clothing.

















I really can't say enough good things about our tour guide. He was very entertaining, combining history, ghost stories, and humor.








When the tour was over, DH, Blaze, and I walked to the Columbia Restaurant for dinner. We saw this on the way:









Ybor City at night:

This week at Noah's Endeavor Baseball for All

If you are in the Gainesville, Florida area and have a child who would like to participate, practices are Thursday at 5:30 p.m. and Saturdays at 9:00 a.m. at Westside Park, Go to http://endeavorrecreation.wetpaint.com/ for more details.

Trilogy School

It is time for another shameless plug for the blog I do for Trilogy School, since that is where much of my time and energy have been going lately.

Trilogy School is a small private, non-religious, school in Gainesville, Florida. We have students from first grade through high school, but my blog generally features the elementary students, because that is the level I'm working with this year.

I believe that the blog is very helpful for parents who are looking for a new school for their child/children, as well as for parents who have students at Trilogy and want to keep up with what their children are doing in class. Due to small class size, I also believe that many of our activities can be easily adapted to homeschool.

http://trilogy-school.blogspot.com/

Baseball Season Has Begun

Dogwood trees and redbuds are in bloom, and it is time for spring baseball to begin. Thursday was the first evening practice, and this morning was the first real game for Noah's Endeavor.

It was a bit chilly this morning, but the kids all had fun.

















I really enjoy watching these games, because children of all abilities play together without any pressure. They all help and encourage each other.

Wire Ponytail Wrap

I stayed home from work today with what I believe was a combination of migraine headache and food poisoning. My morning was spent alternating between wishing I was dead and sleeping, but when I woke up around noon, I felt almost human. The noise and flashing lights of the television bothered me, but I didn't want to lay around doing nothing, so I decided to lay in bed and make something I had been wanting.

For the past few years, I have admired the lovely silver hair wraps sold at one of the booths at the Hoggetowne Medieval Faire. I didn't want silver for mine, though, I wanted it to look like antique brass, to match some of my steampunk costume accessories.

I started with an old wire hanger that was the right color.



First, untwist and flatten out the wire. No cutting is needed to make a one-foot long hair wrap.

Then wrap the wire around a dowel or broom handle (my son's toy broom was perfect for this).





Use pliers to make a small loop at one end of the wire. This will be for hanging charms.

Slide the wire off of the dowel.



At this point you may add a single charm to the loop at the end of the wire or add lengths of chain and add several charms, like I did. By adding three lengths of chain and several charms, I figured I could use it like a charm bracelet and add more charms in the future. I used links from the chain as jump rings for attaching the charms.





To wear the ponytail wrap, make a ponytail and start wrapping the hair around the wire, starting at the rubber band and working your way to the tip of the ponytail.



Use a decorative barrette, comb, or silk flower to cover the rubber band for a more finished look.

The Superbowl Tea Party

Twice last week, DH jokingly asked me what I was making for my Superbowl tea party. I took that as a challenge, so here is what I made for my Superbowl tea party:



Football shaped finger sandwiches, made from pumpernickel bread, fresh strawberries, deviled eggs decorated with chive "stitching", and miniature coconut-lime cupcakes covered with green colored coconut (to look like astroturf). There are three kinds of sandwiches, plain cream cheese and lox, chive cream cheese and lox, and cucumber.

DH is making guacamole and tea.



Coconut-Lime Mini Cupcakes

1/2 Cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

3/4 Cup sugar

2 large eggs

The zest from one lime

1/4 Cup lime juice

1/4 Cup Crema de Coco

1 1/4 Cups unbleached white flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs and beat well. Add lime zest, lime juice, and coconut cream and mix well. In a small mixing bowl, mix together the dry ingredients. Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture and mix until it is all well blended.

Spray mini cupcake pans with non-stick baking spray and fill 3/4 full of cake batter. Bake for 12-15 minutes.

Makes 3 dozen miniature cupcakes



This is the first time I've used the three-tiered, copper serving tray. It's one of the things I brought home from our shopping trip to Jacksonville and St. Augustine a couple weeks ago.

Hoggetowne Medieval Faire

It has been a very long day! It wasn't quite noon when we left the house this morning to go to the Hoggetown Medieval Faire, but getting in the year was a nightmare. It only takes about 20 minutes to drive to the fair grounds, where the faire is held, but then we had to sit in a long, barely moving, line of traffic for over an hour, just to park. After we parked, we had to stand in a long line to get on a shuttle bus that would take us to the main gate of the faire. There ended up being standing room only in the bus when we got on, so even somewhat poorly balanced Blaze had to stand up for the ride. It was almost 2 p.m. when we entered the main gate.

The line for the bus:


People heading for the back of the line:


Once we got inside we had fun.































Then, tired and footsore, we had to stand in another line, to get on a shuttle that would take us back to our car. The trip did go faster on the way back to the car and we did get to sit down, but the bus stalled three times before we made it to the parking lot.



I enjoy going to the Medieval Faire, mostly for the shopping opportunities, but if this parking problem isn't fixed before next year, we won't be going again. If we have to spend more than an hour in a car, we might as well wait until The Tampa Bay Ren. Festival, later this month, which is a bigger faire anyway.