Yours 'til Niagara Falls

Advent

I had a get-together this afternoon to celebrate my mother's birthday which is tomorrow.  We made the Betz White teacups which were demonstrated ages ago on Martha Stewart's TV show (which is getting more lame by the minute) There is a 2-part video on Martha's website, if you are so inclined.  Anyway, it was a lovely way to spend an afternoon, chatting, crafting and having a relaxed meal together.

Advent has begun.  It is Year C in the liturgical cycle of the Catholic church.  I read a prayer today that asked God to interceed and help the petitioner to cope with the greed of the season.

I like Advent. The preparation for the Nativity is  a comforting thought for me.  I hope it brings peace and joy too all my friends and family.

Christmas Spirit

I could not help but take notice that this year Thanksgiving was merely a speedbump on the road to Black Friday sales.  We were bombarded with tv commercials and sales fliers that informed you that if you were not in line at Hellmart by 3:00 a.m., your family's Christmas would be ruined.  I find it an interesting counterpoint to programs like Clean House and Hoarders which give us all an object lesson in how your life can become derailed if you acquire too much stuff.

This morning I was sent over the edge by a commercial which assured you that Petsmart "has hundreds of gifts that your pet will love".  Really?!????!??  Has the celebration of the nativity of our dear Lord and Savior come to this? 

I am thinking that it might take some effort for me stay in the Christmas spirit this year.

Gooble, Gobble

 

I had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  I hope everyone else did, too.

Homemade Cherry Brandy

Last summer I went cherry picking.  I saved the choicest  unblemished fruit to preserve in brandy.  The canning jar has sat in my fridge since then.  It cheered me up every time I saw it.  I dreamed of how perfect the cherries and the brandy would be for the holidays.

Perusing my recipe books, I found a recipe which calls for a combination of cranberries and cherry brandy to grace the Thanksgiving table.  What luck!  So, last night in the interest of quality contol I poured myself a tiny glass of my homemade cherry brandy.  Oh the color!  Oh the clarity!  Like liquid garnets, I tell you.  I take a sip.  I take another sip.  I try to identify what memory this nectar of the gods evokes.  Then it hits me.  Cherry cough syrup.  It tastes exactly like cherry cough syrup.  Oh well.

Getting Ready to Decorate

About ten days ago I took a trip to Ikea.  They have a lot of fun things on offer.  I especially liked the Christmas items they had:

The gnome-y picture shows a package of printed paper bags that come in a set of nine.  The gnome on top of that is a flat ornament made of felt with a printed paper face.  The gnome cone is quite substantial. It could hold candy or nuts and not collapse.  The Swedish paper star is two-sided.  I've tried once or twice to make these with strips of paper with no luck.  I was happy to buy the set of six.  Maybe for hanging in windows.  The stuffed toys in the other picture are especially cute.  I consider myself a seamstress, but it would take me ages to sew little toys like this.

  This ornament came out of a battered Shiney Brite box from the thrift store.  It looks unremarkable, but it pleases me to no end.  It is a WWII era Christmas ornament.  It is unsilvered because materials of that nature were all being used for the war effort.  The red, white and blue color theme was in keeping with the patriotism of the time.  If this little ornament could talk, I'm sure it would have quite a story to tell us. 
 

Finally, an Estate Sale Worth the Trouble

Estate sales have been pretty yukky aroung here lately.  On top of that, I'm viewing the offerings with a much more discerning eye than I did in the past.  Today I went to a sale in one of the very few nice neighborhoods left in downtown Niagara Falls.  I'm glad I went just to see the 1910 bungalow-style house.  The kitchen was a time capsule, untouched since the early '30's.  I didn't buy much, but I enjoyed the sale:

I love this pair of kokeshi dolls.  They have cute expressions on their faces.  An old married couple, I presume.

The honey-comb valentine featured a colonial lady.  I never saw one like this before.

I've also been doing the tiniest bit of crafting. I really scored at the thrift store last week.  I found two pastel-patterned Ralph Lauren sweater.  I fulled them in the washing machine and tried Betz White's teacup pattern that she demonstrated on Martha Stewart.  I love Betz White, but we have a parting of the ways when it comes to construction.  I am better at sewing than squeezing a thin bead of fabric glue so I stich when Betz says glue.  I also made the saucer considerably bigger because it looked more balanced to me. Here is my version:

 

Tailor of Gloucester Scarf

Every time I use my rigid heddle loom, I kick myself for letting it gather dust for so long.  Last night I warped it with a combination of Noro Kureyon and my own handspun shetland wool.  So far, so good.  My shetland warp is two-ply, but I chose to use a single-ply (again the grey shetland) as the weft.  I was hoping that this arrangement would emphasize the warp yarn and *yay* it does!

This brings me to the Tailor of Gloucester, a lovely tale written and illustrated by the beloved Beatrix Potter in 1903.  In that story, the mice that live in the tailor's shop finish an embroidered waistcoat, saving the day.  But wait, I tell a lie! They could not finish the waistcoat because they ran out of 'cherry-coloured twist" for one of the buttonholes.  Our dear Beatrix was inspired by an 18th century waistcoat from the Victoria and Albert Museum.  The images below show the actual garment and the illustration from the book.  I love to ponder that once upon a time children knew what "No more twist!" meant.

 

Which brings me back to my scarf.  I have run out of the single-ply shetland.  I must return to the spinning wheel to make enough to finish my scarf.  This is frowned upon in spinning circles (hmmm... that might be a good name for a guild, haha) because it is a challenge to replicate a yarn you have spun after some time has passed.  But I will try.

I remember reading about Beatrix Potter visiting the Victoria and Albert museum years ago in Piecework Magazine back when it had more needlework history and less embroidery.

Which brings me to what I did with yesterday afternoon.  My husband dropped me off at Borders and went to the DMV.  His 15-minute errand turned into well over an hour.  I managed to make the best of the situation and perused about a dozen magazines sitting in a comfy chair.  One of the magazines was the current issue of the aforementioned Piecework.  Freeloader that I am, I ended up buying not-a-one.  I'd also venture to say that in all that reading, I gleaned maybe three ideas worth remembering.  I used to love magazines.  I think that might be one of the greatest changes the internet has brought to me.
 
 

Over the Bar!

 
We had a lovely get-together to celebrate my daughter's NYS Bar Exam.  My-favorite-little boy-in-the-world appreciates the importance of quality control.

Purple Digits

Have I voted in a war-riddled third world nation?  No. I have not.  There is an explanation for my purple-hued finger. What you see here is a hand-spun-naturally-dyed yarn which is crocking.  The word crocking refers to dye which rubs off a textile onto your hands or onto other fabrics.  In this case I believe it is extra dye laying on the surface of the yarn.

It is an especially lustrous long-stapled wool.  Blue-faced Leicester most likely. 

I made a very pretty pair of pulse warmers.  I ran out of the mauve yarn and put in a stripe of natural color.  Necessity can be the mother of design. 

Beautiful Autumn Day

Today the weather was beyond description.  It was warm with hardly a breeze.  The afternoon light made the world look like an oil painting.

I took advantage of the weather and spent some time cleaning out an out building which, before I cluttered it up, was a very nice studio. I managed to clear a path and, along the way found a few items I had been looking for.

I set up a seasonal vignette witn a Waldorf-inspired Madam Autumn, and vintage honeycomb pumpins, postcards and papier mache turkeys.  I used my handwoven table runner, too.

Tonight is the season finale of Mad Men.  I'm sad to see it end.