Isn't this a fabulous piece of embroidered vintage linen? A friend who speaks German says it means: "Do it like the sundial, only count the bright hours", which, I assume to mean, "look on the bright side".
Lovely...
It's a dresser cloth, approximately 3 feet by 2 feet, it must have taken the maker such a lot of time and effort, it always breaks my heart to see something like this end up in a thrift shop - I had to give it a home.
I've been on a real tear with regard to new acquisitions lately, and not just linens...
I'm afraid I've amassed quite the collection of old books lately, even Nigel (who never criticises) remarked on how many there seemed to be...
...perhaps I should blog them all one day...
I really need to steer clear of the shops, it's not like I don't have enough projects to keep me busy:
The Lady Grey continues to haunt my days (just a ghost, of course, it's not materialising into anything concrete).
Lining is cut out...
I started a new shawl called Kiri by Polly Outhwaite. It's suppose to be a fairly easy knit. I'm working it in Elann Super Kydd in black. I made the mistake of starting it in a dimly lit room one evening, and it promptly had to be started over.
Here's a snap of the scraped first attempt:
so sad...
Also, on and off the needles lately has been Alan Dart's Gnomes at Home. I started this project thinking it might make a cute Christmas display, but after finishing the first gnome,
I decided the gingerbread house was a tad tacky. I did finish the gnomette, but have yet to take her picture. I'll show her next time, she's rather sweet, with crooked ears.
Also, just look at what's been on and off the lemon tree!
Nigel and Ian and I went out for our annual walk through the graveyard yesterday. There are two we like to frequent, this is St. Andrew's on the Red, it's one of the older cemeteries in the area (the other we like is the Lower Fort Gary Cemetery). We've been going for years, but I still find new markers every time we go.
There'd been a bit of snow the night before, which had started to melt and drip off the trees. It made a strange pattern on this headstone and we wondered if underneath it had a name like McKay...
it didn't.
Ian does strange things when we get to this site. This year he crouched under a tree and stayed there for a long, long time while Nigel and I took in the history of the place.
Later, I snapped him skulking around the edge of the church, but he was reluctant to venture in amongst the headstones.
I finished up the Emily Dickinson shawl (started back in this post). I'd finished the knitting a few weeks back, and have finally blocked it. The silk yarn is so fine you can roll the entire shawl into a ball and fit it into the palm of your hand.
It's got a fabulous spooky quality to it...
Also finished is the Noro Striped Scarf started recently.
Shortly after I started it, I realised the colours were very carnival/tropical...very... Jane. So this one is for you, Jane - you can collect it next week-end when you come to town!
It's that time of year again. Time to get your Hallowe'en decorations up. I put all mine up the first week-end of October. No sense in not enjoying my favourite season of the year.
Draped across the mantle is a Martha Stewart bat garland I bought a few years ago at Michael's.
The first year I cut a few bats off one end and taped them to the hall mirror, in fact, I do believe I blogged about it back here.
Well! Just look at what Martha Stewart is selling this year! Clearly, she's following my blog.
I've finished basting the hair canvas to the fronts of my Lady Grey coat.
I've also finished pad stitching the lapels. It's coming along nicely, though I'm still way behind where I'm suppose to be time-wise. I'm not too concerned though, coat season is a very long season here in Winnipeg, I could take months to finish and I'd still have plenty of opportunity for wear.
I've got a :::Friday Find::: today. Two, in fact.
Nigel and Ian and I went out for lunch to Eat! Bistro today - one of my favourite local lunch spots (the must have is the Eat! Platter, available for one person or two, so fantastic....) The bistro is located at the back of Aqua Books - my favourite local vintage book store. Found today was "Mirror, Mirror on the Wall" by Gayelord Hauser, 1961 edition. Known for his nutrition books and products, this is Hauser's "Invitation to Beauty", wherein he states, "beauty is duty".
I may have to read a little more to figure out just what that's suppose to mean.
On seeing the back of the dust jacket Nigel asked if this beauty book was written by John Diefenbaker.
Really, Nigel!
The illustrations are charming. Love the exercises!
Check out this one - the "Rag Doll Slump"...
now that's my kind of exercise!
And this:
what on earth?!
My other little treasure was found last week-end at a neighbour's garage sale.
I've been working double-quick time lately, getting caught up on the oh-so-many lingering projects around the house. Along with the lovely red Citron Shawlette in the photo, I finished painting the bedroom ceilings and ripped out all the half-dead petunias in the front garden beds. We had a spell of cold weather in September that hastened in Autumn, killing off the annuals, and turning the leaves. It's turned warm again, so the trees are looking very bleak and spooky, but it's warm enough to go out jacket less and in short sleeves. Strange.
I've got a :::Friday Find::: for you today -
a vintage ceramic goldfish lamp in chartreuse. I bought this back in the spring, but it was without a shade and it took a fair while for me to find one that was acceptable. It should really be made of fibreglass to be authentic to the 1950's era - Elly has suggested a rice paper shade would be better than the one I chose, however, the proportions are not far from what it's original would have looked like, and the colour is good enough. I'll keep my eyes peeled for one that's even better. I've been skulking around Vintage in the Village in Osborne Village, hoping they'll bring in one that's just right. I'll post if I find a new one.
Work continues slowly but surely on the Lady Grey sew-a-long project.
I'm way behind where I should be, but I'm trying not to get too hung up on that - it really should be more about the journey and not the destination, as they say.
I would post photos of the process, but the fabric I purchased is black (beautiful black cashmere/wool blend) which doesn't photograph well at all, and the lining fabric is a hot magenta silk - also beautiful, also doesn't like being photographed. So, you're all just out of luck until the project is finished and I can do a photo-shoot outside.
I love this pattern, dead simple, the perfect mindless knit and very effective with the colour changing stripes. It makes me very happy.
In adventures away from the craft room (*I very nearly wrote craft tomb*) I've had an ongoing issue through my adult life with my name. I'm not sure when it all started, but for a fairly long time I've had problems getting my name spelled correctly on official documents. My birth certificate and my social insurance card are both fine, but everything else has had an issue of one sort or another.
My name is Harriett Anne, and I go by my middle name (not so complicated, right?). Years ago, when I got my first driver's license, the woman that took down all my information told me that if I didn't go by my first name then it should be listed as H. Anne on the license - OK, fine, whatever - I was just happy to have finally passed my driver's exam.
Then when I applied for a passport I was told that I had to have the name on the passport match the name on my driver's license, despite having to show them my birth certificate as well - something to do with matching up to the photo-ID. I was tempted at the time to argue with them, but I was happy enough to be getting a passport, so I didn't.
Then there was the time when some ninny at the bank decided to change my name on my account to Anne Harriett because it was easier for them to find me in the computer (a wiser teller spotted it and fixed it).
The worst was when I was traveling home from Scotland on my H Anne passport, and I noticed that my airline ticket had me listed as Hanne, and I was about to try to get through security with that discrepancy. It turned out to not be that big a deal, but these are not the best of times to not have your ducks in a row.
So I've made more of an effort to correct things as they come up (like when I re-newed my passport), and to insist that both my full first and second names are listed on most things (though my cheques currently call me Harriett Amme), but this week I got my voter's slip in the mail:
We (as in the lot of us) went out to see The Flaming Lips perform last night. It was truly most excellent.
Someone has already posted a video of the event - video recorders aren't allowed at the venue, so someone must have had a half-decent, small device with them.
Check it out:
There was lots and lots of confetti, balloons, and streamers everywhere. Wayne Coyne also walked across the crowd in his giant space ball/hamster bubble. Very cool. And no, I didn't shoot the video, because I was right down in front about four people in from the stage.
Oo, very loud...
Here's an official video of them:
Thank you, Flaming Lips, for a fabulous show, and thank you, Nigel, for buying all those tickets for us!
I'd love to confess that I'm living a secret double life - like a spy - and am fighting international crime in some exotic locale, but in truth, I've been getting Ian ready for the start of school (which happened last week) and painting Elly's old bedroom (which is an ongoing saga). I painted the walls of her room the very lovely Gossamer Blue by Benjamin Moore that all the other bedrooms have been painted, but no sooner did I finish that, then I realised that the trim really needed a fresh coat of glossy white, and now that that's done, I'm realising that the ceiling really, really needs to be painted...as does Ian's ceiling...as does the Master Bedroom ceiling...
...and so the saga shall continue for a while yet...
However, there always things to link to!
If you haven't already noticed the new link button below my fish pond (just a glance to your right), I've signed up for the Lady Grey Sew-a-long over at Gertie's Blog for Better Sewing. I've never done a sew-a-long before, but since I've been wanting to get back into sewing, I thought this might be a good place to start. The Lady Grey is a coat pattern by Colette Patterns out of the States. I've made a coat in the past and this one doesn't look to be beyond my skill level, so lets cross our fingers shall we? We're suppose to start next week with cutting our muslin models. I had to measure myself this week, and good god!!! I've become a tubby wee lassie! However, I suspect I'm not so fat as to be unable to find enough fabric to cover myself. I'll let you know how that goes...
In another sewing related link, eBay has the most comprehensive collection of Vogue Magazines for sale. Check it out. Yes, you read that correctly, for just $58,000.00 US Dollars you can own the complete set from the 1950's to the 1970's. It says shipping is $5,000, but further down the page it says that shipping is free - so, well, you might just want to clarify that point with the seller.
You should also be making note of the following service...
andvinyly, as in "and finally". You can preserve your loved one's remains in record form. This has become Nigel's new preferred treatment post-death, as opposed to the former being shot into space.
I've favourited the link so I don't forget when the time comes...
And finally... was I the only one that missed the German entry for the 1979 Eurovision Song contest?
