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By Lady Elena de la Palma

Have you seen the 100 Days Challenge making the rounds amongst the fighting community on Facebook these past few months? I saw it here and there – people posting about pell work they’d done, or days in armor. I thought in passing that it’d be nice to have something like that for A&S, but didn’t give it much more brain time than that.

Until, that is, I saw this link on Her Excellency Ekaterina Volkova’s Facebook page: http://artsandsciences.lochac.sca.org/2017/04/100-days-challenge/

The idea is a simple one: For the next 100 days, spend 10 minutes a day pursuing your art. This can mean whatever you want it to mean. It could be actual physical work on a project, but it could just as easily be research or planning. Like it says in the link above, you’ll know it when you see it (hint: inspiration-hunting on Pinterest doesn’t count). And if you miss a day? Your day count resets to zero and you start over again.

Reading through this challenge, I suddenly realized just how much my focus on the arts had fallen to the wayside – but I also saw a way by which I could shift that focus back. I decided to start the challenge the day following last Saturday’s Æthelmearc A&S Faire and Queen’s Prize Tourney. It just seemed the thing to do: go see a bunch of art, refill my inspiration to brimming, and then get started on the challenge. Sunday, May 7, A.S. 52 was my first day, and I spent it doing some comparative research on German tailoring manuals vs. Spanish tailoring manuals from late period.

Elena AnS 100 Days

Photo by Lady Elena de la Palma.

I spent a good bit of time with that big book of German tailoring manuals, but also visited with most of the other books piled on the table.

I posted about my pursuit of the challenge on Facebook, and a number of other people have since taken it up, too. If you’d like to join in as well, please do – it’s already been fun to see the progress that people are making. The original creators suggest using the hashtag #100daysofAS – that’ll serve you well on Facebook or on Twitter.

Over time, those 10 minutes a day will start adding up. Even before the first week is out, you’ll have done an hour, and by the time the challenge is up you’ll have done more than 16 hours – 10 minutes at a time.