Embroidery

“For a needlewoman embroidery is like the poet taking up the pen; it expresses her deepest longing.” Ruby Pratt, Lark Rise to Candleford

My Tea Ladies and I have been watching the wonderful series, Lark Rise to Candleford. Which is a story about two nearby towns of very different types of people, and the interactions they have with each other. It is set in the 1890's, with stunning costumes, and a really fun story. We watched an episode last night while having our tea and late dinner. The quote above is spoken by one of the characters regarding a mysterious piece of embroidery that was found in a graveyard.

I have been thinking I would like to embroider again. It is a useful art when parked in front of the TV. But I never thought of it as romantically as Ruby Pratt does!

Where On Earth Have I Been?!

My poor neglected blog. There is a good reason, however. I became ill mid-January, and am only now coming out of it. I have named the illness the Infinity Virus. The whole family got one form or the other. The worst part was losing my voice all these four weeks. For almost a week and a half I could not speak at all. I can speak now, rather rasp-ily, but cannot sing. I hope to post more now that healing in happening. At least I hope it is. This has all been going on so long, I feel as though it will never end.

Scenes from Christmas 2011

We had a lovely Christmas! A wonderful blend of church and home. Here are the highlights:

We baked together.

We put sprinkles on cookies.

We decorated the house.

We acted in the church pageant.

We played harp at church on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

We ran downstairs on Christmas Morning!

We opened packages.

We got a fish tank!

And a dinosaur to go inside.

We ate an awful lot of chocolate!

"There shall a star come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel" from one of the hymns our choir sang. It was a lovely time all around.

Making a Gingerbread Man

To begin our Advent season, Paul got a Gingerbread Man kit for Tyler. He waited excitedly for a day when we all could get together and decorate him.

Planning his design with mama. We ended up buying white frosting separately from the grocery, as the icing with the kit was not yummy or easy to work with.

Finished! (Mama and Da helped.)

Yum!

Paul Saves the Day!

Our oven suddenly stopped working. We did all the trouble shooting the manual said. We weren't sure what it was, but most internet searches mentioned ignitors needing to be replaced under these circumstances. We were afraid to buy the new part and have it not be that, as the ignitors cost around $75. What if it was something else?! We called to arranged for the appliance store to come fix it, but they would take a week to get here. And they would charge $150, not including parts. So Paul rolled up his sleeves and got to work. He opened it up, took a look at everything, determined it would be a safe bet to try a new ignitor. Voilà! We have an oven! We also gave it a super cleaning. I love having a handy husband. He is a blessing!

My New Love

I bought this pattern tracing paper from Vogue Fabrics. It works marvelously! So easy to use - it stays flat, cuts easily, and is easy to see through to see the pattern lines below. Quick and easy is what I need right now for my current project.

Organizing the Long Hair Stuff

After my success at organizing my sewing stuff, I have wanted to do the same with my music and my long hair stuff. The music organization is going to be huge, so I opted to do the smaller project: organizing all of my hair care tools, products, and "toys" (fancy or not so fancy things that hold long hair in place). Everything was so disorganized, and in various places around the house. So I used the same system as I did with my sewing stuff.

I gathered everything hair related into one place. (The oatmeal box contained my henna supplies, not very attractive!) Note the obligatory cat, a necessary item in any reorganization project!

Some of the hair "toys". I neglected to put my pretty new bling combs in this photo.

My brush and combs. My beloved Mason Pearson Boar Bristle Brush (BBB), my Ric Carpenter wood comb (for combing dry hair only), and my faux horn combs for detangling wet hair.

Henna and herbal hair care products. All of the oddly named bags are ingredients for a "Lotus Plus Powder" which is an excellent herbal conditioning treatment for hair.

I purchased a large and a small plastic containers to house everything. Then I went through and purged out anything old or that I wasn't going to use. This included the cosmetics jungle that was mostly cluttering my dresser. I was able to reorganize everything into the two new containers, a wicker basket, and another small plastic container where I keep make-up. Here are the results:

Henna and herbal hair care items, including gloves, plastic caps, heat caps, Turbie Towels, and applicator bottles. This box is portable and can really be stored anywhere.

A view from above.

My newly cleaned (and dusted!) dresser. Hair toys are in the purple box, the make-up box is on top, the basket of other cosmetics is behind the small mirror, and the brushes and combs are right out in front. The only cosmetic sitting out is my lip balm - I sometimes need that in the middle of the night, so I keep where it's easy to find in the dark!

So Lovely!