Yours 'til Niagara Falls

Seek and Ye Shall Find, and Find, and Find

My day was spent going through boxes and drawers in search of my misplaced items.  My worst fear about the bracelet was that I had thrown them out.  That was the fate of a very nice pair of earrings I used to own.  But eureka, I found it.  In a shoebox full of junk on a closet shelf.  It's a nice little reminder of my favorite trips.  I also found the booklet materials.  They have to be finished ASAP. 

I forgot to mention that St. Anthony has a twisted sense of humor.  While I was searching, I found these items:

Embroidery transfers, a gremlin doll I made, My tiny radio (not having it has made me not go to the gym - nothing to listen to on the treadmill but my own moaning) and a swell needlefelted llama.  and there, in the middle, a $35.00 pair of dressmaker scissors.

The gremlin doll deserves a closer look.  It's about six inches high and comes from a great book of softie patterns by Linda Kopp. The patterns are easy to use and the designs are pretty amusing.  I chose to use applique'd eyes because it's for a small child.  

Does This Mean What I Think This Means?

Look what the squirrels dropped at my feet.  I know it's the last day of August, but this still took me by suprise.  Summer seems to be the season that takes so long to arrive and when it gets here, it cartwheels right past us. Sigh.

Joli Doll Love

I've made some additions to the Joli Doll collection.  These came today, courtesy of Ebay:

Here's the whole gang:

Eight boys, six girls.  I hope there is a chapter of Joli Dolls Anonymous chapter in my neighborhood.

I'm a Lost Soul

In my vision of heaven, as soon as you make it through the pearly gates (not a done deal for me, mind you) a beautiful angel approaches you carrying a basket.  In that basket, you will find all the lost items you searched for during your time on Earth.  I'm thinking of this now because currently I am searching for a silver charm bracelet I seem to have misplaced and some booklets which need to be finished with a Japanese stab binding technique.  The bracelet has a charm on it sinifying each of my favorite trips, a shamrock for Ireland, etc.  The booklets are not mine.  They are table favors for a conference which my weaving guild is planning.  To lose your own stuff is bad.  To lose other people's stuff really makes you feel low.

I am beseeching St. Anthony, the go-to guy for lost objects.  Here is a Peruvian retablo I have hanging in my home.  You see, I misplace so many Items, I erected an alter to the Patron Saint of Lost Objects.

Now I Know My A B C's...

My "Z" is for z-twist.  That is one of the options you have when you ply your handspun yarn.  I have a Lendrum double treadle wheel.  I feel lucky because I bought mine during the 25th anniversary of the company and got a walnut wheel.  That was the only year it's been offered in walnut. I've spun everything from alpaca to yak on it.  I learned to spin on a spindle, a much more modest investment for beginners.  I switched right over to the wheel and continue in the endeavor of becoming a better, more technical spinner.  I am still at the point where the fiber I am spinning is the boss of me.  It seems to decide how finely it wants to be spun. 

Yoga is My "Y"

I love yoga.  I've been doing it seriously for the past three years or so.  I  enjoy it because of the combination of balance and strength it promotes. It really helps with flexibility, too.  All the things I need to preserve as I enter my dotage.  Just recently, my health club canceled the group yoga class that I've attended for years.  I'm taking it as a sign that it's time to shift gears and practice by myself using taped  instructions or books.

"X" Marks the Spot

"X" is for X-stitch.  A slight cheat, I know, but I am having alphabet fatigue.  At one point in the past, I was really into cross-stitch.  I even designed a few samplers.  I think what appealed to me was the orderly nature of the technique, a sharp contrast to my life at the time.  Just last Spring I was lucky enough to take one of the Behind the Scenes tours at the Smithsonian Institution.  A lovely woman gave me, along with three other people, an up-close look at the Museum's sampler collection.  No photographs were allowed, but I took copioud notes and enjoyed the morning completely. Here are some of the samplers I stitched about 15 years ago.

"V" is Vintage Valentines and Vogue

AI love vintage cards of all kinds.  I'm pretty fond of any sort of ephemera, but the cards are really, for me, a record of what was consiered cute in days gone by.  These items were snagged at estate sales.

Other things have changed since these were issued.  You might not get away with either "fat lady" or "gay dog" these days.  "wild man" might not be very PC, either, come to think of it.

My other "V" is for Vogue Knitting.  This anniversary issue is pretty good.  There aren't any patterns that make my heart flutter this time around. (My needles seem to be reserved for itty-bitty garments just now)  The articles are well worth the price of the mag.  There's a four-way interview of knitting's old gaurd and a list of Meg Swanson's top knitting bits arranged in abc order. (Sounds like...)

Upstairs, Downstairs

August is slipping away, and if I don't set my mind to it, this Encyclopedia of Me could take forever to complete, so here goes.  "U", For me, it stands for Upstairs, Downstairs, a BBC production for Masterpiece Theater from the 70's.  when it was originally broadcast, I was 12 or 13, too young to appreciate it.  Later in the mid-80's it was re-reun on my local PBS station.  I was hooked.  It started running right after my father died unexpectedly at the age of 52.  I would somehow manage to get through a tearful, exhausting week (I had a 3-year-old and a 4-year-old and was in graduate school at the time) and at 11:00 Sunday night I would watch the adventures of this Edwardian Era household.  It served as a marker that I had managed to survive another whole week.  I would also consume an entire box of Peperidge Farm cookies.  Not one of the 5 ounce bags, an entire party selection box.  Grief makes you do funny things.  I eventually bought the entire series on VHS.  My son refers to that format as "The Smithsonian Tapes"

"T" is for Ten Tiny Toes

I promise that this will not become a baby blog, but really, what's cuter than this?