O Christmas Tree

December 24, 2016 cthulu 1 Comment

After four years of not having a tree, a faraway friend inspired me to put one up again (you know, that tradition thing). Back when we had a rambunctious dog. I had decided on getting a small artificial tree (yes I decided on artificial because I don’t like to kill things) that I put on a table. It can’t be knocked over by a careless tail, and I use all my favorite ornaments, with no plain glass balls allowed. This collection started small and has been added to over the years. When we used to travel to scientific conventions, L’s wife and I would always end up at a Christmas store, and some of these ornaments were purchased then. Many of the others were bought at the after-Christmas sales because I hate to pay full retail price for anything.

These African beaded ornaments were purchased in San Antonio, near the Alamo.

The lion came from San Francisco, I don’t remember about the dog.

Every tree needs some birds flying around it, and what says “Christmas” as much as a parrot. (You could really teach a parrot to say this).

The lizard was made in Africa and I can’t remember if M bought it there or if I got it from somewhere in the US. I think the poison dart frog was purchased in Denver and the rest I got in town somewhere.

What is it about me and frogs? This isn’t even all of my frog ornaments. I guess I like frogs because they are funny and cheerful.

I don’t know about the mouse jester, but the humahumanukunukuapua’a was definitely bought in Hawai’i.

St. Nicholas belongs to the season, but I’m not so sure about the gargoyle, giraffe or Northern Pike. (Yes, they are part of Christmas too!)

But of all my ornaments, these are perhaps my very favorites. Small plastic dinosaurs with adorable faces, and just the right touch of holiday spirit. I have had these for about 30 years, and I purchased them right here in town.

recipes

Christmas food

December 22, 2016 cthulu 1 Comment

Since it is almost Christmas I decided to go ahead and start my cooking. It’s tradition and you can’t mess with tradition. This recipe was printed in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, a newspaper that was published from 1852 to 1986. I’m guessing that this recipe is from 1976 or 77. Mom saw it, clipped it out of the paper, and made it for Christmas one of those years. I thought it was delicious, and as it is a tiny recipe I promptly lost it. But the food editor of the paper kindly looked it up and sent me this copy, and I have taken more care with this copy.

I have made this every year since then, and it’s one of the things that I only make at Christmas time. I would make this for me and make German hazelnut cookies for M. His recipe was translated from German and started out “make a mountain of flour and mine a pit in the center” [those Germans do have a way with words ;-).]

Anyway, it doesn’t look like much, I supposed I could fancy it up but I am quite lazy. It tastes delicious and carries the taste of Christmas in my mind. The recipe claims to make 12 servings, but I have never found this to be the case (it’s between 4 and 8).

And it is the perfect thing to enjoy on a gloomy winter’s day.

Ephemera

Christmas pins

December 17, 2016 cthulu Leave a comment

Another somewhat weird tradition is the buying and wearing of Christmas pins. My paternal grandmother loved to wear these, and so she would get one for Mom and sometimes me as well. (I looked in my jewelry box, but I don’t still have any of these, I was too hip to wear these as a young woman).

This is a horrible picture I took with my new from this century phone that I don’t know how to use. My friend said that it was her mother’s, so it is probably 40 years old or so. They used to cost about a dollar, and there would be big displays of these in the shops. They were sold in a little box, sitting on cotton wool so one could give them as gifts.

I always liked the more unusual sort of pin, and these were purchased at Christmas time. I have another one of the lobster pins (somewhere), and I have the frog as a plastic toy as well as in this metal pin. I have had these for years and still occasionally wear them.

This one is new and not really gaudy enough to be a Christmas pin.

Another frog pin, are we sensing a theme here?

This is my current favorite and I have been wearing it a lot lately. It’s so cheerful and not a bit Christmassy.

But this is the best holiday thing to wear (not a pin). It’s actually intended as a Christmas ornament, but I put it on a bit of cord and wear it as a necklace. The dog in the picture is my previous dog (Chow and Golden Retriever), so this necklace is probably at least 15 years old. Whenever I wear this, people will stop me and ask where they can get one just like it (all one needs a time machine to purchase this).

Doings

Socks

December 11, 2016 cthulu Leave a comment

When I was just a kid, I always seemed to get socks and underwear for a Christmas present. As these are rather utilitarian and mundane objects, it did not seem like it was much of a present to receive. And then there was the pressure of getting days-of-the week underwear, what if you were wearing the wrong day? But now that I am old, these things don’t have the same meanings. Socks and gloves are what one buys when it snows or the weather turns cold, undies whenever the old ones get ratty. I have been learning to knit socks, a complicated process and somewhat useless skill.

These were the first socks I knitted, and since they are not perfect, I made them for myself.

Once I knew a bit of what I was doing, I made these for my brother, as a present, but not a Christmas present. Then his wife told me that he loves socks, so she is wrapping them up and putting them under the tree.

I made these ones for her, and she told me that she had gotten socks and underwear for Christmas as a child too. But she actually liked getting them, so I suspect she may wrap them up for herself.

So here’s a pair in process, they are knit on five knitting needles and it is a bit like wrestling an octopus. But eventually the beast is tamed and a sock emerges. As you can see in the photos, the yarn one uses makes a big difference, these are all self-striping yarns. It would be incredibly boring to knit with a single color: not to say that it is not boring to use these 😉 .

And these are the competition, ready-made socks. These are knit in an incredibly complicated pattern and cost $7 at the store. The yarn I use in hand knit socks costs more than that. But, hand knit socks are a labor of love, and perhaps that counts for something!

And then again there is the dissenting opinion.

Art

New Art

December 7, 2016 cthulu Leave a comment

Well it’s not anything I’m making, I remain quite short on inspiration, but I do buy the occasional bit of art to put on my walls. And as it is that time of year with craft shows there has been the opportunity to add a few things to my walls (although I admit that none of these has been framed or put up yet).

This came from the same Japanese festival as the obi in the living room. It is a 3 dimensional fabric piece made using old kimono fabric. I don’t really have a need for it, but I loved how darn cute it was. And you know how I love textiles.

I saw this photo at a craft fair at the college this past weekend. I was in a crabby mood and did not want to buy anything, I just walked around for a while, feeling crabby. But I kept thinking about this fox, so I had to go back the next day and buy it. I have bought art from the photographer before. She is an older woman (that means she is older than me 😉 which makes her ancient) and she takes amazing wildlife pictures.

http://annettephotos.com/Annette_Photos/Welcome.html

Here’s another look at little boy, her backyard fox. He has quite soulful eyes, he was much more interesting than the other fox she photographed. (I used to have a little fox that lived up the hill, but he disappeared one day 🙁 so now we are over-run with rabbits).

I liked this photo of two Sandhill cranes.They are perfectly lined up so it looks like a three winged bird at first glance.

www.stephen-weaver.com

This tiny piece of art is a refrigerator magnet. A friend gave them out at a party and I like the sentiment. And unlike the other bits of art, this one is hanging ;-).

Art

December 3, 2016 cthulu Leave a comment

I’m completely out of inspiration, so here are some pictures of old art that hangs in my living room.

I still like this piece and the jungle fabric that I used in it. It sits behind a burgundy wing chair which is the perfect place for it.

This piece was made for a show, the theme was “Jazz”, so I did some improvisational piecing in it. Then I quilted it in a riff on traditional quilting. It doesn’t show in the photo, but the black fabric is iridescent, and the quilting is done with different colors of shiny thread. I did win 1st place in Professional Quilting sponsored by my quilting machine company and this quilt hung in their booth at the giant quilt festival in Houston. It was the third quilt in a series based on this same idea.

This is an ancient piece, it was probably the 6th or 7th quilt I ever made. I was just showing off my technique.

I think I made this quilt in about 1985. Back then it was hard to find all the different solid color cotton fabrics, and as it has aged the fabrics are fading at a differential rate. I think this has made it more interesting.

This one is obviously not made by me, and it is the newest thing (sort of) in the room. It is a vintage obi and I bought it back in October at the annual Japanese festival. I thought it would just fit a narrow space and look good hanging there. I guess all of this shows how much I love textiles.

Doings, Ephemera

Saturday Shopping

November 26, 2016 cthulu Leave a comment

Well it is that time of year when people start rushing frantically around in search of the perfect (or something like it) Christmas present. It used to start off at 6:00 am on the Friday after Thanksgiving, so that meant getting up insanely early (but not as insane as the people who camped out overnight). Then it started at midnight after Thanksgiving, that was pretty do-able. But this year it started at 6:00 pm Thanksgiving Day. I used to like to go out and be part of the crowd, perhaps buying small things, perhaps buying nothing because I tried to have my shopping done before the madness started. Friday was the big day of enticing sales from the large retailers, (and yes, I did succumb to a few choice things). Saturday is for shopping at smaller stores, so I headed over to Manitou Springs and joined the hordes of tourists aimlessly milling about.

It’s a tourist place now, but the fallen sign on this building shows that it once had an ordinary business.

Manitou has a reputation for being weird, I think this face in the window confirms this. 😉

The business part with the tourist shops and restaurants is down by the creek, and many of the houses are up on the hills, reached by narrow winding roads. I am a total flat-lander and driving on them makes me want to throw up.

For a long time Manitou was the sort of funky place full of old hippies. Recreational marijuana is legal here, so now there are lots of pot shops (cash only) and plenty of young hippies.

I did go out, even though it was not the same to be shopping without my little buddy (especially at the Penny Arcade). And it would have been her 13th birthday.

Toys

November 12, 2016 cthulu Leave a comment

I find myself in want of cheering up, so when I was downtown I stopped in to purchase some new toys. This has always been a sure if temporary cure (it’s why I have hundreds of these things).

A flipping penguin. Not a euphemism.

A flipping boxing kangaroo.

A strolling robot. It doesn’t really do anything but look cute.

There were a lot of these rolling metal robots to choose from, but something about this one caught my eye.

But perhaps this one reflects me the best.

Ephemera, New Mexico

Somewhat Imaginary places

November 6, 2016 cthulu 2 Comments

I never thought much about how movies create an imaginary place out of a real one. The first time I saw this sort of artificiality I was in Boston, staying in a BnB in an older part of town. It was after dark and they were setting up for a shot. They had watered down the street so it would sparkle in the lights, an effect I have since noted in scores of movies. Nothing was happening, I didn’t know who the actors were, so I went back to the BnB and forgot about it.

But, I have noticed the town of Las Vegas, New Mexico cropping up in movies, and it is a thrill to see a place I know standing in for somewhere else. Years ago I was watching “No Country For Old Men” with M when I recognized parts of Vegas (Yes, I know there is another town with the same name, but I have only been to that one once). Now I have been watching a television series “Longmire” for this reason. The show is set in a mythical county in Wyoming, but it is quite clearly filmed in and around Vegas.

The fictional sheriff’s office is right on the plaza, and the fictional sheriff is played by an Australian actor. He does a convincing job of being a laconic American.

And then this sign for an imaginary hotel and coffee shop set in the fictional town of Holt, Colorado.

The hotel is catty corner from this alleged pharmacy. It’s actually a pizza place, and since they weren’t filming that day, they could put their sign out front.

Across the street from the hotel is the imaginary bank. (It doesn’t look fortress like enough to really be a bank. It was probably a store in it’s former life). But brief glimpses of these places establish the reality of the fiction.

It also makes me think of the gritty crime dramas that they film in the allegedly mean streets of East London. East London is not imaginary, but one is more likely to find a Starbucks instead of a pub, a banker instead of a crook (maybe they are the same person now).

They often include a shot of this iconic Spitalfields church. But this is getting harder and harder to include as the area gets more and more gentrified. They will have to find another spot to stand in for the area. But they won’t find it in New Mexico, it has too much sunshine. 😉

Grief, Miss Dog

Miss P 2003-2016

October 24, 2016 cthulu 2 Comments

Love can not stop the passage of time. Love can not protect and prevent the inevitable. Miss P was my constant companion and my partner in crime. We explored the city together and had many adventures together. She had been living with the injuries of her exuberant life for some time, but she was always game to do things, to squeak another squeaky toy, to jump into another mud puddle, to enjoy the sights and smells of our daily walks.

I will miss her sweet face and tail-wagging enthusiasm for life.

flytippings