Medieval Blog Post

Medieval Blog Post

In the newest version of Robin Hood produced by Director Ridley Scott, he gave a realistic approach to the establishment of Robin Hood and the need for such a man in that time period. In comparison of the movie itself to the actual reality of the Medieval Era, there were multiple similarities. For example, as stated in the canvas reading on the Medieval world view, it was stated that those who had inherited large areas of land were known as "lords" and the "serfs" or peasants were those who worked the land owned by the lord. That was their responsibility for living on the land owned by the lord. In the movie, Sir Walter is the lord of Nottingham. His birth son(Robert)is killed in battle early in the movie and later when Robin comes to deliver Sir Walters sword, used by his now dead son, Walter asks that Robin stay in Nottingham and pretend to be Sir Walters son returned from The Crusades so that when Sir Walter passed away, they would not lose the land to "the crown". Also, the involvement of the church in the movie comparative to the time period is accurate. One example of this is the issue with seed going to York(church capital) instead of staying in Nottingham. On the other hand, two specific areas where things were altered for a modern audience in my eyes were the following: 1. Maid Marianne falling in love Robin Longstride and 2. Friar Tuck making alcohol and being a drunkard. In the canvas reading, it talks about how they had a strict class system(feudalism)in the which Robin would have been looked at as a lowly foot soldier and Mary, a respectable heiress. That is not the case as portrayed by the movie. Hollywood is aware that we thrive off love stories and that it would keep the plot line intriguing. The last example is Friar Tuck. In the movie he is portrayed as a man who keeps bees for the sole purpose of creating alcoholic beverages. He is also showed at a community party drinking heavily and he makes the reference that if he wasn't the village priest, he would be the village drunkard. That is very inaccurate to the time period and was placed to keep the audience entertained. In Conclusion, I enjoyed the movie and thought overall that it portrayed the Medieval Era correctly.   

Alyssa's Senior Pictures

1.this is my sisters friend, who I had the pleasure of taking her senior pictures.  

Marissa

Here are some more pictures of My beautiful sister as I promised.

love this out of focus shot!

Kitchen Transformation

 About a month ago my parents commissioned me to re-paint their kitchen cabinets.  I didn't really know where to start so I did a little research and found this kit at Home Depot.  It is a four step process and has most of everything that you will need for this project included in it and it's under $100!! I would suggest that if you are going to undertake this project to get this.  It will save you time, frustration and money! who doesn't love that!?!

To start out you will need

• Rust-o-leum cabinet transformation kit from Home Depot
• Blue painters tape
• 3, 2" synthetic paint brushes
• drop clothes

I didn't for some reason take any before pictures, a mistake I will not make on my next project, so you will just have paint this picture in your mind.  Old, ugly, dated oak cabinets framed by a plum purple wall.  I know how did we live with that for so long?! My parents also decided it was time for an upgrade in the appliance department.  They did spend a pretty penny on these bad boys but in my opinion if you have the money, splurge a little and upgrade.  It really completes the look.

The first step in the process is to remove all of the doors and hardware, on the tutorials that I read it said to number all of the doors and put all the hardware in individual bags, but I guess I'm just lazy in some ways, and there was no way in heck I was doing that.  So if you are OCD then be my guest.  It worked just fine for me without doing it.

Next thing you will need to do is open your cabinet kit and read that instruction.  I'm not much of an instruction reader so I just skimmed them. The instructions pretty much say

• Clean all the cabinets with soapy, warm water
• De-gloss all of the frames, doors, drawers, ect. with the de-glossing solution. Let dry.
• Open your can of base paint and start painting away! everything pretty much needed two coats so let dry and hour before putting on the second coat. 
• I distressed all of the corners and edges. which is entirely up to you and what style  you want.
• the glazing step is optional, but I would highly recommend not skipping this step. It made the cabinets look professionally painted! 
• after the glaze dries for 8 hours... I know that seems like forever(I did fudge a little on these times, who has time to sit around for eight hours watching paint dry?!?) you put the top coat on. This will give your cabinets a nice shine and make them water proof
• after everything is dry reassemble!
• take in the awesomeness of your new kitchen!!! 

This is my finished product! My parents absolutely love them and I am pretty proud of them also! I hope you enjoyed my tutorial and found it to be easy! 

- Ashley