Winter Stereotypes Shattered (musings)

It's New Year's Eve. Definitely WINTER by the calendar. But "winter" here in Central California is, well not exactly Wintery. The last time it snowed for more than 5 minutes was my senior year in high school, more than 50 years ago! I remember that day clearly. I had been sick, and I begged to go back to school. I did, and relapsed, and spent another few weeks at home. Was it worth it? Yes!!

  Some pictures from today. I went out without my jacket and was a little warm. 😁  It was a little windy on the walk around the block, but really pleasant. Not wintery. 

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I always admire the red leaves that keep hanging on our Japanese Maples all winter long. The trees are funny to me, because all year round they are getting new leaves, and there are patches of red leaves, and lots of brown dried ones that don't fall off until the new green ones appear in what we call "spring". 

These particular ones are on the neighbor's tree, because I could reach them for a closeup. There are tons of ferns and such under our trees, it is harder to get closeup. And then there's the goofiness of being higher in the kitchen, seeing the sun on the red leaves but not being able to get a picture through the screen and the dirty window. I then go out, but can't seem to get a picture of the red leaves. A little bit, as you can see in the next picture.

You can also see The Hill, which is mostly covered with rosemary at the moment, but at this end, there's bare dirt until the flowers come up in the "spring". There's already little bits of freesia and daffodils popping up. That isn't usually until February. We had a tiny bit of rain, and that encouraged them I guess, and it has been pretty warm out so they are taking off. 

Yes the hose never got put away. Well it rarely gets that cold here so that it matters. It used to. But the last few years it has been warmer than normal. This year was the first one in awhile we had fog again, and that not much. There have been no lakes in the park down the street, and very few birds. We usually see cranes and egrets by this time. 

I did finally get some good red leaves. I am just longing to be somewhere other than here, like Camanche or Sly Park or Pardee or just on a drive in the foothills. Maybe one of these days. 

Meantime, I will enjoy the leaves of California winter, and remember fondly when I lived where it was actually winter, where it snowed, where the deer roamed down the hill, where the skunk that lived on the driveway would run ahead of the car (I think just to scare us) and the bobcat lived at the bottom of the hill and where we herded water off the road when it rained and where there was a big year round garden where you could pick broccoli in the snow and where there was a barn where we watched the cows eat... where we loved the cows and the chickens... today I am just remembering, and I'm not sad. And thankful that I had the opportunity to spend so many years out in the country. Thankful for the big garden, the food co-op I helped run, the homeschooling buddies... so much. 

Just heard someone set off a firework, and it reminded me of feeding the cows in a blizzard, and there was such a lightning boom that I about jumped out of my pants. It made my ears ring for hours. 

I've lived a very interesting life I guess. When we moved to "The Country" I discovered that I am indeed a Country Kid... give me the mountains and lakes and cows and goats and chickens... but I do enjoy here too, but I feel so removed from nature. It takes more effort to spend time outside because I always feel like someone's watching. I don't just relax out there. I want to raise fences above the neighbor's windows where they watch from! Maybe a trellis with some lovely vines. Hmm. 

I have a little corner where I can't see anyone's windows now. I am planning on filling the area with flowers. I have the seeds, now I need the motivation to take the shovel and hoe out there and dig up some dirt, put some better dirt in a few places, and get the seeds in there. I re-planted some black eyed susan seeds in a planter, and today I see that there are some little shoots coming up. Some I can see is chickweed, but I'm hoping some Susans come back for spring. I scattered them all over the place, and if they make it through my husband's purging of the weeds, it will be good. 

Praying for a Happy New Year for us all. 

New Year's Eve's Eve

Fancy lunch today. I am trying to get the freezer cleaned out, hubby sometimes sticks a can of soda in there and then forgets it. I ignored it last time, and with this pandemic here we have kind of been hoarding food. I found some excellent pork chops in there. No freezer burn, beautiful.

Fancy meals have been few and far between. I don't know what tomorrow will be, probably a Fathead dough pizza (made with mozz cheese and almond flour, low carb) 

Anyway today's creativity. The broccoli was also in the freezer. I'm not that much of a fan of frozen broccoli, but with some garlic, onions, cheddar cheese with some slivered almonds on the top... pretty tasty. Needed some noodles, or bread, or rice... but didn't have any, so it's all good. 

Other creativity. Cat Hand is starting a new Mixed Media Morsels series in January, it's a book of color. Each page will focus on one color. I think it sounds like great fun. So I made a cover for my little color journal. It started with the cardinal, it was on a calendar I was tossing (although the calendar went in my scrap pile LOL when I was reminded about needing color scraps!

I did a couple other journal pages, and a few rolodex cards but I didn't take pictures. Another day.

The orange is actually printed with a tangerine LOL... I had a few that were pretty dried out, so on a whim I cut one in half and that's the result. I did a whole page. I took a piece of paper towel and folded it into a pad, and put some reinker on it and used that for an ink pad because I didn't want to contaminate my ink pad of course. A few stickers, an embellishment with a button that I've had for YEARS... and another picture from that calendar. I didn't find much yellow so stenciled some yellow bubbles in there. I will probably add more bits. I will probably do a sewn binding, it will only be six to twelve pages, depending on what I decide. It is a year long project, one color per month. 

I am enjoying doing these challenges from other people. It gives me a little push to try something new. I've done collage a lot, but it will be a challenge to limit the color. Her book example was really small and cute, but I just don't want to work so small this time.

Here's the intro video for this year's challenge in case you want to play along

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiwOyUciiig

 

Heartache Box Musings

Since I abandoned my "journaling" blog, this one ends up with musings in it, because, well life is full of musings, some wonderful, some sad, some just heartbreaking. Today is one.

Trying valiantly to go through boxes and boxes of other people's stuff. My mom's especially today. Bits of paper with lists on them, my cousin's address that I haven't been able to find. The last paperwork from her life insurance policy. Letters from a friend that had moved away. Notes that say "need help". 

This brand new columnar pad. I have never in my life been good at using one of these. Both my parents were. My mother once worked as a bookkeeper so she was very good at the balancing of the checkbook and the Budgeting.  She sure didn't pass that on to me! 

Something that stops me in my tracks is a box that represents frozen time. Like an envelope of 2019 calendars. I remember being in the middle of a journal project that never got finished because I was so busy taking care of my mom then, and I lost all motivation for it when she died, so it got stuffed in an envelope, for me to find later and remember that awful time. Not fun. I want to remember the good not the bad. But that's the way it goes sometimes. 

So much yet to go. I'm thankful that for the most part my parents sorted out all this stuff. I just have trouble figuring out what to do with it all. I know that my memories don't go away with getting rid of stuff, but still some of this is just so personal I hate to just toss it. 

So there's an envelope, with scraps and bits and letters and such. I'll put it in The Box of Parental Stuff and someday someone will go through it and not have attachment to it. 

And should I start using that columnar pad or let it go? HA!!

Sorry, kids. 

crumble and ink

Look how fat my little book is getting! I'm thinking of not putting any more in it, although there are still around ten pages. I will journal a little about the experience of doing it, and put it with all the various journals. I have quite a few of them. 

So this is probably the last page in my little book. Maybe!!  The birds are from Dollar Tree, they really do have amazing stickers there. The other ones are from some planner stickers from Katie Daisy. 

The background is a technique I did awhile ago, and I ran across the scraps so there you are. A piece of card stock, or paper...crinkle it up as small as possible.  Ink it lightly before if you want. Smooth it out sort of flat, but not super flat, and swipe it with ink. I used Distress inks because I have those little cubes and it's easy to use. Then flatten it more, and do another color maybe, or like me, swipe it with a metallic pen a little here and there. 

I had a scrap of metallic card stock and this die came to mind, it's intricate, and really shows off the metallic as well as not covering the background. I always think it's crazy to do such a great background and then cover it up. On this background, I lightly swiped it with Versamark and heat embossed it in gold. So it's pretty shiny. 

So a little creating today. It is surreal that it is Christmas Day and nobody's here, and I'm not anywhere with anyone other than hubby. I really want to take a walk but I can't, it's rainy and cold out there. In my younger years I would have been out there, but somehow walking in the rain is not as inviting as it once was. Reminds me of herding water, but that's another musing for another day.

We were out walking last night and ran into two sets of neighbors, it was nice to see them, but we only talked a minute, and then went home. It's just sad. And there are so many out there "living their life" as they say, and has it been worth it to isolate? I hope so. 

cookies!!

I am, unfortunately, famous for burning things. Foodish things. When I was in college, I worked for a family, for fifteen dollars a week (can you imagine? about 20 hours a week!!!) The mom had died, and they needed help with cooking and cleaning, and "babysitting" a nine year old. I knew NOTHING about cooking anything. I rarely cooked at home, didn't know much. So strangely enough, they hired this unexperienced nineteen year old (it was cheap LOL) I learned to cook with that poor family. (Not that I am that great now, but I get by) I did a great job helping with homework and such. We would watch Hogan's Heroes every afternoon and then he would do homework with help, and I tried to keep the house tidy. His brother and sister were quite a bit older, so I basically just took care of Tommy and then cooked dinner for the family.  I ate there sometimes, but usually didn't.  I learned how to cook with that poor family. I broiled pork chops one night and they turned out well but I neglected to clean out the broiler, until I turned it on the next time..... oh my.

Another memorable time also involved a broiler, many years later. I don't remember what I was cooking but it was in the broiler so long that the smoke alarm went off. The cows came running and stared in the windows. I was crying in frustration and then laughing at the cows and trying to figure out how to turn off the alarm. Fortunately it was not connected to the fire department or anything.

Today, I made cookies. I DID NOT BURN THEM. It's usually the last batch that gives me grief, because I think, well that's done, when I shove the last batch in the oven. But I FOCUSED today!!

My mother in law made wonderful cookies and taught me a few things. Undercook the cookies for one thing, just let them get barely brown. They keep cooking on the sheet. And don't leave the kitchen while the cookies are in the oven. Sit down, have a cup of tea. For me, FOCUS FOCUS FOCUS on the job at hand. DO NOT let yourself get side tracked. 

So I made cookies, thought fondly of my mother in law, and had some tea. Well it was coffee. Same idea. I stayed in the kitchen, used the timer. Was reminded of the time I set my mother in law to stir something while it was heating, and she complained it wasn't heating... turns out we both forgot to turn on the burner. 

So most people aren't proud of themselves when they don't burn the cookies, but I AM PROUD of my ADD self. 

And hubby is glad, and the people that I gave cookies too are glad, but they don't really know that I usually burn them, so they aren't proud of me, just thankful for cookies.

PS The chocolate chip recipe is on the bag of the chips. I collect all these recipes, then use the ones on the package. (eyeroll here!!) We get the  Ghirardelli 60% chocolate bittersweet chips. I also used less sugar, and half the chips and more chopped pecans. That way we can feel less guilty eating the high carb morsels. HA who are we kidding. 

PPS. My youngest child is 33 years old today. That means my oldest is 43. Crazy.

star of wonder

As usual when things like this happen, I wish I had a better camera. But I DO have a better camera; it's lost at the moment. GRR.

It was not foggy tonight. I got out the binoculars and saw the twin planets. It was wonderful. I should go out again and just look at stars. But it's cold out there. 

So here's a fuzzy picture but my memory is better than this. I am loving seeing all the pictures that people with good cameras have taken of the event. 

...

For we have seen his star in the East, and have come to worship him...

Just what was that star? Something like this, maybe a conjunction of planets? We could see this clearly, some more than others, some with good vision and no astigmatism... but it makes me wonder. I know, I know... God put the star in the sky. But how did he do it LOL

 

Heavenly musings

Tonight was supposed to be the big night to see Jupiter and Saturn in close proximity... I had my binoculars all ready, was prepared to watch the clock and get out there at the right time... but we had a little glitch in the plans. FOG. Now, I am quite delighted to see the fog, I love fog. And I know that the California coastal redwoods are so thirsty for the fog that they are stressed. So I was excited to see that maybe the fog is returning to us. HOWEVER. I would have loved it if it would have waited another day. 

It was foggy when we woke up and it never really burned off. It was overcast all day. Fortunately I have friends in other places that posted their pictures, and I am sure I will be able to find others. 

Thinking about this got me reminiscing about star gazing, which is one of my favorite things in the whole world. I've spent many hours watching the stars, seeing "falling stars" and teaching my kids about the stars. We would all get our sleeping bags and gather on my parents' deck and point out the constellations and watch the meteors during meteor showers. I remember so many brilliant streaks across the sky and every streak was exciting and prompted many oohs and aahs and "did you see that?"

Years later I remember standing outside and seeing it almost look like daylight for an instant. I could see it in other people's faces, but it was behind me. 

One year my daughter and son in law took me up the hill in the night for my birthday just to see the stars. We stood across the road from where we lived and just basked in the starlight. I don't know why, but it feels so healing to me, to be in the moonlight and the starlight. Now, in the city, I rarely see the stars. And hubby thinks I'm crazy wanting to go outside at night. But it's nourishing to be in the moonlight. It's like an "aaaaahhhh!" to me, I relax, and I gaze and wonder at God's creation. I need more of that. I need to take care of myself, and let myself meditate in the moonlight.

Not tonight, it's foggy. I wouldn't mind going out in the fog, but hubby has already gone to bed, and I did go out earlier.

My creativity was making dinner today. Cheeseburger pie! Salmon yesterday. And cleaning out cabinets. And deciding to let some of my dolls go. I just have too many. Sometimes you do what you gotta do.

The last Cat Hand Mixed Media Motivation

Cat's example has a napkin background. No napkin, but I found this tissue that worked. She had little squares of Christmas things, I didn't have any, but had the stickers left from my card making marathon.

This one made me laugh a lot.   Other than using everything different, I laughed when I was nearly done and I saw I had done it upside down in the book. BIG EYEROLL because it isn't the first time I've done that. Fortunately a lot of it didn't matter, and I carefully peeled up the stickers I could and turned it around. I saw that "perfect Christmas" sticker and knew it was perfect to cover a bit of tearing. And yes I smeared the lettering, and the white dots, but hey it was fun, and I like the results even though it is nothing like Cat's. And I've been agonizing a little about Christmas this year, it will be just the two of us, instead of any of our seven kids and families... but this sentiment is great, we will be fine, and we will isolate this year so we don't have to next year, and we will stay alive. 

I really do enjoy doing these little things. It's easy to finish them quickly, and it's fun to have a little book filled with inspirational stuff. I'm looking forward to what Cat comes up with this next year. And doing other stuff too. 

So off to print my Ginny dress pattern, and maybe get it cut out. I need to do dinner, but might just sew it later. 

Christmas musings...

Ian's snowman

Christmases past. Little snippets of memories, some memories of pictures, like John and me coloring sitting on the floor, a giant paper doll next to me, under the Christmas tree. Skip was there too, if I can remember. My mom and dad organized pictures, it's probably there. I remember they used to have a "Christmas" album but in later years, they were Album 1 and 2 etc. I haven't looked at them much since my mom died, since I took the albums home since she was going through the albums and throwing away pictures. THAT memory was horrifying, a giant sign saying, DEMENTIA.... but it was more than that, it was being somewhere with nothing to do, nothing to think about... and then, there's the guilty thoughts, I should have done more, the I shouldashoulda that does no good.

  

Can't find it right now, the whole Album 1 seems to be missing. It might be in a box still. Hope mom didn't throw it out. The  second album memories start when I was in high school, and when my brother got married. Hope I find the first one.

Anyway. Back to Christmas memories. We didn't "do" the Santa thing. My parents believed that it would be lying to us, to pretend. We had a Nativity scene, and we would put it out a little at a time, and add Jesus on Christmas Eve. The wise men would stay on the other end of the mantle until January 6th, Epiphany, when the arrival of the Wise Men is commemorated. 

When I was in high school, my family did a little vignette for a Christmas program, and I played Santa Claus. Ma and Pa were in their bed. I don't remember if John was there. It was fun. 

Some years, we had lots of people around. Usually my cousins and my Aunt Hazel. Sometimes more. Christmas Eve was a traditional  dinner with oyster stew, and frozen fruit salad. I was always told it was a New England tradition, and that's where The Family came from. It seems like it was a tradition in many places. Here's an interesting little article 

Eating Oyster Stew on Christmas Eve

   Rambling memories. My father often brought people home. I don't really know how my mom felt about it, but she seemed to be a good sport about it. I wasn't always, since I really didn't like sharing my holidays with people I didn't know! But looking back, it wasn't so bad, and we brought some compassion and cheer to people who otherwise may not have had anyone. Later, after I got married, we invited people over for Thanksgiving who didn't have any family around; that lasted a few years until we had kids. 

I just found a box of ornaments, and for some reason, many of them say "Olivia" on them. I think that way back when, we got ornaments for each child, but I don't think they ever got them. Another project.

I feel like I will never get everything done that I want to get done. Such positive thinking...

My favorite Christmas Eve memory was somewhere in the seventies. I was at my parents' house, I don't remember if I was married yet, or anything other than this little bit of a memory. My dad started singing "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas" and flipped on the floodlights outside and turned off the lights inside. It was snowing, big white fluffy flakes. We all sat there in awe for a minute but then started singing along. Funny, that's all I remember, other than thanking God for the timing of the snow. It is such a warm memory. 

Another snow memory was looking out the window around 11 pm one night and seeing it was snowing hard but no wind. I woke up the kids, and bundled them up and we played in the snow. I don't know if anyone remembers, but I do. 

Enough rambling. I put a few more ornaments on the tree, and packed the rest in the box. I put out Ian's snowman, and a couple other unbreakable snowmen, but not the glass and ceramic ones, because of a certain cat. 

 

Ginny by Vogue

This is what poor Ginny looked like when I got her. She was offered "for parts" but I just couldn't give up on her. She was a MESS.... she looked like she had been displayed for a very long time, she was covered with that sticky kind of dust like on the top of the refrigerator. 

Her wig was falling apart. So I made a new wig base and sewed her hair on the new base. I've never done this before so it was kind of iffy. I ordered a brown curly wig for her Just in Case. 

So finally today I fixed her hair and she's wearing a dress made by Cindy Rice. I got it when Cindy had an odds and ends sale awhile ago. I guess the next dress needs to be a Ginny one, since there are two dolls and this one dress. Other than the Brownie uniform my mom made, but both Ginnys said they wanted something fancier. So right now they are sharing. 

yeah. imagination. Will I be one of those old ladies who carry around a baby doll in the nursing home??

Her head is still slightly tipped when her legs are straight. I don't know how to fix that, so she's tipping her head inquisitively until I know how do to that. She's just for display, after all she's sixty years old or so. 

NOTE>>>> I found a tutorial for how to fix her innards but it involves taking a razor blade and slicing her head and body in half... I think she will remain inquisitive, maybe someone in the future would be brave enough to do that, but not me. 

today's accomplishments. Some days are like that. Too many lately.

Got the dishes washed. Got a clean shirt on, got side tracked, just realized, I never got my jeans on. Still in my jammie sweats. Which means I went out today in my jammies. Nobody but me would really know, if they didn't know.   One advantage of a mask I guess, nobody would recognize me. Just driving around looking at lights anyway, I didn't get out of the car. But if I had, I could have put on the mask and been invisible. HA that's how it feels. Pictures of lights are never good, but this was so covered with lights it was amazing.

I got three boxes sorted. When the fabric store closed, the owner gave us each several hundred dollars worth of fabric. Boggles the mind, right? So there's that. Again, more projects than time. I do hope I have ten more good years, but one never knows, and I'm feeling old these days. I crocheted for a bit today, but my hands really started hurting. Can't decide if it's good exercise or just pain causing. That's the trouble with Oldness. It's easy just to blame the Oldness when maybe it isn't. There's that video of that 100 year old ballet dancer dancing. 

I did get 2 dolls restrung. My rescue Ginny. At least her arms are on. I don't know how to fix her slightly crooked head, so it's just going to have to stay that way. No picture yet, she is so lovely and clean and all but she says no picture until her hair is curled.  The wig was the original, but the wig cap was disintegrating, so I made her a new one. Sewed her old hair on, a bit crookedly I might say but now that it is all dry it does need to be dampened and curled. The two Betsys are all done, hair combed and styled, and my original Ginny is wearing a lovely dress from Cindy Rice, and Betsy 1 is wearing her new dress, and this poor Ginny doesn't have one, so I guess she's going to have to have another. I do have a couple dressed my mom made for Original Ginny so that might do. She says no it won't do, she wants a new one. 

ah that imagination thing again.

I do have several pieces of appropriate fabric, a sewing machine and no appointments in the future. 

I did learn some stuff doing Betsy's and may actually make Betsy another since I'm not super happy with the first. 

Also tomorrow, there's a new Cat Hand Motivational Morsel... and I still have Rolodex cards, and there's that gel press and those new stencils... and plenty more boxes. 

I remember buying this yarn. It is  knitted yarn. I had never seen anything like it. But I only got one ball, which seems crazy until you remember I am a hoarder collector of all things with color and texture.  

whose idea was this?

The first doll dress I wanted to do was for this little 4 inch doll, since she didn't exactly have her own dress. I got her from ebay I think, with a few other dolls, and they were dressed in odd clothes that didn't really match anything. So I got a few dresses from someone on etsy; but I wanted to make my own. I decided I would try one for Betsy first. That went pretty well and I got it done pretty quickly. So then I decided to go smaller. Good idea, I said. Sure. I think I could have made myself a whole dress in the time it takes to sew a teensy one LOL

But she's cute.

Here she is with her big sister.

 

This kind of reminded me of The Sound of Music when the siblings all had matching dressed made from drapes. I still have scraps of this stuff. I could make another dress for someone, maybe I should make scarfs to match and teach everyone to sing. HA. 

Betsy McCall got a new dress

She's been begging for a new dress, since the one she has is around 50 years old, made by my mom when I was in around 4th grade. I had one to match, and there's a picture somewhere of me in the dress. I should try to find it. 

Anyway, I've been  meaning to do this for quite some time, but the last time I got Betsy out, her stringing was unstrung and her poor head was rolling around. I studied up thanks to Atelier Mandaline and got her restrung. But then she sat for awhile longer. I found some fabric to make her a dress, but put it "somewhere". The other day I was looking at the fabric I made a mask from and thought, maybe there's enough for a little doll dress... and Betsy was the first one I thought of. Both Betsys could use a new dress, but this one was my original, so I thought I better make hers first so she wouldn't get mad at me. 

oh yeah. imagination. 

She looks pretty good for 63. Shhhh don't tell her I told.

interesting OOPS (Outstanding Opportunity Presenting Suddenly)

I got an order from Stencil Girl, sometimes I'm crazy and order more stencils as if I need them, and there was a feather that looked cool to me, and I ordered it. Last night just before bed I grabbed a card front and some ink and thought, that would make a great card. However, I didn't really like what happened, since the ink blending tool I grabbed was not Royal Treatment as I thought, it was Black. So what ended up was kind of an ugly purply black. At that point I dropped the blending tool and voila an ugly purple blob on the card, so I angrily ink blended purply black all over the card. It looked like rain clouds, except worse. So there was a mister sitting there, so I thought, maybe it would look better with some drops on it. Except the mister didn't exactly mist, it put out a LOT of water. Maybe because of my angry squeeze. It was so much it was drippy, and I thought, why don't I just throw it away. But I grabbed a rag and mopped up the water and guess what, it was a pinkish purply instead of a blackish purply. It looked like rock to me, and recently I got a card kit from Club Scrap, and there's a cool rock background stamp. The background was suddenly something I liked. Still didn't like the feather. So got out the stencil and did a solid black feather, and the card was warping at this point so after it was almost dry I put it under an acrylic block and weighed it down and left the room, kind of disgusted, even though I ought to know better by now.

This morning I went in to see the damage, and thought, what could I do with that feather?? So I took white pigment ink and a feather stamp and put it on top. 

It may change again, and I sure don't know what I will do with it, make a card, put it in an art journal, or use it to tear up for collage.  But it's growing on me. And some of that anger has dissipated. All good. Whether I keep it or not. 

When I remember to look for something in the OOPS it always helps.

Ten years used to sound like a long time. HA

Ten years ago today. One of the things I like about this blog is that I can go back and see what I was up to Before. Here's my blog post from ten years ago today:

https://lindyslovelies.blogspot.com/2010/12/while-kids-are-away-egrets-will-play.html

So I meandered a bit back in the ten years ago memories, the cards I was making, the quilt I finished, and it was a good meander. Then I went out in the back yard and meandered for a bit too. It has been raining so the ground is softening and it's exciting! A ton of stuff sprouting, including a tiny potato I found out there, with about a 4 inch root, so I stuck it in a pot, hopefully will remember which one, it's a big one, that had zucchini in it last year. I planted some sunchokes in a huge pot over on the other side of the house, I found them at Raley's and a couple had teensy sprouts on them. Growing things makes my heart glad. And I used to grow sunchokes, had a whole bed of the gorgeous things. And they are tasty as well. Gave some to Kerry and he LIKED them. 

So getting out the thread, and finishing that quilt wall hanging, should only take me half an hour or so. DONE!!! Then I am going to find some fabric for doll dresses and cut a couple out. I found a pattern for the teensy 4 inch dolls, we will see if I can see well enough to do this. 

Felicitaciones para mi!!

Today included craft room cleaning, kitchen cleaning, and working on a wall hanging. This wall hanging has been a LONG term project. Back when I was working for a quilt store, I did the front. It is a raw edge applique quilt. It went up on display before I had a chance to quilt and bind it. When the store closed, I fortunately got it. It went into a box. 

So years later I finally quilted it. Not fancy, but done. Time to bind it. In my stash I can't find anything. I can't believe it, since I know I had it. So I ordered some green from JoAnn, and finally got it. Yesterday I decided it was DO THE BINDING day and so I cut all the strips, trimmed the quilt, and sewed it on. Today, off and on, I've been hand sewing on the binding. I'm not done yet but just had to celebrate getting this far. Maybe tomorrow I will get it done. I'm halfway around.  As I'm doing this, I am reminded of why it didn't get done. It wasn't being perezoso (lazy) it was being ocupado (busy) and quilting was the last thing on my mind when I was caring for my mother in law, my father, and then my mother. After my mom died I was frozen for a long time, and then there's this pandemic which kind of did the same thing to me. It isn't over, but I'm finally now DOING things so that's a start. 

I'm never going to be a magnificent quilter, I am not that motivated. If I had not decided to take that quilt shop job I probably wouldn't have started quilting. But life takes us strange directions sometimes. If I had not worked there, I wouldn't have met the people I did, and my life is richer for that. 

 He estado estudiando español durante cien días. Felicitaciones para mi!!

( I have been studying Spanish for 100 days. Congratulations to me!)

 

musings from December

First before the musing, I made an envelope for the song journal. 

First I took apart an envelope that they fit in, then collaged text and music scores on it, then distressed it with Vintage Photo distress ink. Then gave it a couple coats of mod podge for strength. I love it. Now I'm looking for a basket to put all these teensy journals I've been making in. 

Thing number two, a card. I found a piece of this resist paper, so I ink blended it with a couple of CP inks. It was about "slimline" size, so that's what I did. 

and finally, the musing.

This came up on my facebook memories from 2015. I had lost dad in March, then Mom ended up with two surgeries later in the year. I went to the thrift store to decompress from sitting in the hospital all day. I saw this, and was drawn to it somehow. It is really pretty, but a lot of the gold is worn off. I just could imagine a grandma somewhere who had love the teapot. So it comforted me somehow.

I took it back to Mom's where I had been staying while she was in the hospital, had a cup of tea, and the world was somehow better. It still makes me smile.

Mom's treasures

I come from a family that is... nostalgic. There are all kinds of things that, since I am the end of the line family-wise, I ended up with, a little dish that was great-great grandma's, great-grandma's necklace that she gave me when I was around eight years old, great-great grandma's desk, The Cody Dresser, scrap books from the past. Are my kids interested? Hmm. I know Liv is nostalgic, but I don't know that the boys are. I'm hoping that maybe if I write a little history about things that maybe someone will want them, but... I'm sure I'll give this little kit to someone, who may treasure it, or may sell it on ebay! 

I was just cleaning out my desk this morning. It is not a fancy thing, it was made during the civil war. Back in those days, men would make "starting furniture" for their brides. My grandfather's grandmother's first husband made this desk, and it had a bookcase that sat on the top that went who knows where. He was called into the war just two weeks after they were married, and he was killed in his first battle. I saw this desk in my grandpa's basement when I was 16 and commented to my grandpa how much I loved it. He said, that old thing?? You want it? I said yes, but I didn't know how much trouble the thing would be. My father took it all apart and packaged it up and mailed it to California (from Minnesota). Then he put it all back together, new hinges and such. Its value is sentimental I think since the furniture collectors want Original stuff. But I love it, and the thought of it being used by generations of my family.

I didn't know about this little treasure until not long before my mom died. She said it was her grandmother's, but I am sad to say I don't know what grandmother. My mom lovingly handed me this, and that was about that. I am sad that I didn't ask more questions, but by that time she couldn't answer many anyway. 

I did a little internet digging, and really could not find anything about such kits, except a similarly shaped set of spools from a different company. However, on the spools it says "darning silk" and a light bulb went on. This was probably a little kit someone made for darning stockings. Not many of us even WEAR stockings these days, but then, they wore them a lot. I remember my mom talking about how during the war, they couldn't get stockings, so they wore leg makeup! 

I don't even mend socks any more, I get new ones. But it hasn't always been that way. I can't imagine how they mended runs in stockings, but they did. And this is such a darling little kit. I ought to turn my "china cabinet" into a display cabinet for this stuff, along with a round wooden bowl with a lid that mom got from her cousins who lived in Japan, that little glass dish from my great-great grandma, some wooden boxes that my mom treasured. I know that some folks would just list it on ebay and let it go, but I'm not there yet. I AM trying to downsize, HA.

So it's just a reminder from days gone by, that they got by on much less, and treasured and took care of what they had. I come from a frugal bunch, and I'm sure someday my kids will have to go through all this stuff. I have my grandpa Mills' trunk from 1905 and two of Grandpa Linton's trunks. One is full of my parents' treasures, the other with all their Christmas decorations. 

And since we can't go anywhere, might as well take a trip down memory lane, and get a glimpse into my parents' lives, and their parents, and their parents. 

 

Tissue embossing

These are so pretty and will make nice card fronts, but this group will be made into a little song journal. I have always liked  "I Can See Clearly Now" but when I heard it sung slowly at my aunt and uncle's service, it became new again. To me it's much better sung slowly. 

Anyway. The video I watched showed her making her pages into a journal so I thought this song would be a good theme. Here are a few pages so far.

well four. Each two are the reverse of the other. One side is raised, or embossed, and the other is indented, or debossed. I like each side, but some I like better. Normally you can just use whatever strikes your fancy. This are going to be bound into a journal.