Where Has The Time Gone?!

We have had a very busy spring and summer!  I'll post some projects.  I'll try to be better about posting!

An Improvised Vanity Table

I have been wanting a vanity table for makeup application forever.  But in our smaller house, and the configuration of the chimney as it relates to our bedroom (right in the middle of one wall), we have to pick furniture carefully and are limited in where we can place it.  I thought about looking into a new dresser that might just have a makeup space in the middle, but our dresser wall just wouldn't accommodate that, and besides, I'd rather not spend the money on that right now.

So I looked around, and realized that a small desk we have in our room could easily be re-purposed into this makeup station for me.  It's a nice desk, an antique, and had the blessed feature of sitting fairly flat against the wall, thus fitting perfectly into the "nook" to one side of the chimney in our room.  I really don't use the desk as a desk, since all bills are paid online and letters have morphed into emails, so it was mostly for storage, and (ahem), clutter.

I went through and purged a lot out of there (old cancelled checks from back when they still sent you those each month, unnecessary papers, index cards, you name it), found a mirror online that fits "just so", and has a magnetized little magnify mirror that you can take from the back of it, stick on the bigger mirror, and see yourself close up to do your eye makeup), and a small plastic makeup storage caddy.  All of my cleansers and moisturizers stay in the bathroom.

I needed a small chair or bench to use with this.  I found this one online, that is small, and stows off to the side nicely.

The desk 

(still a lot of stuff in the side cabinets part, but I'll get to that!).

Close-up: the mirror (reflecting my flowered shirt), 

to the left is the makeup caddy, 

to the right another storage box, and a "tea facial" kit.

The desk with the new bench in front.  

I love the floral upholstery!

The bench placed off to the side  

and the desk folded up after use, 

so I can get by the corner of the bed easily 

to go around to my side.

Darling

This is a tale of the elusive "Darling" pin.  My mother had a beautiful antique pin, inscribed with the word "Darling".  I always loved that pin, and when my mother passed, expressed a desire to keep it from my mother's belongings.

When my sisters and I began going through my mother's things after she passed, we could not find the pin in with the rest of her jewelry.  We felt really horrible.  Then, miraculously (St. Anthony had a a hand in this!) we found the pin almost by chance, after unfolding a crochet shawl my mother had made.  She had worn the Darling pin with the shawl, but had the foresight to attach it to the shawl with a vinyl (invisible) thread so it would not be lost by accident.  So I took the pin home and placed it in my jewelry box.

A few weeks ago, I was looking for the pin.  I swear I took apart my jewelry box looking for it, but it was not there.  I asked my sister Barbara if she had it by chance - she did not, but promised to say a prayer to St. Anthony, asking for his assistance.  I did so as well.  I looked in the attic, trying to find my mother's shawl.  I couldn't find that either (although I did find a shawl she had made for me).  I felt just awful, thinking it was gone for good.

Today, I set about cleaning my completely messy and disorganized house (Robert is coming here on Tuesday!!).  I have been in the process of setting up a makeup table in an antique desk in our room (more on that in a future blog post).  I decided to do a clean and purge of my jewelry box (something I had planned on doing whilst looking for the pin; there was so much in there that I no longer wanted, and it was bursting at the seams).  And what do you think happened?  I found "Darling"!!  She is now in a small box, safely in the jewelry box, so I will always know exactly where she is.

I'm so happy!

I Dreamt of Blue Ballet Shoes

Apparently in anticipation of attending Bea's Thursday ballet class today, I dreamt last night that I was at Sylvia's Pointe Shoe Salon, trying on a beautiful pair of deep blue pointe shoes.  It was a fun dream; I had no trouble getting over the box of the shoes.  They looked awesome, and I wish it were real.

My Chance With A Jaguar!

A few weeks back, Kristin got into an auto accident - fortunately she was not hurt.  But her car suffered damage and had to be repaired.  As luck would have it, the morning she went in to get her rental car, all they had was a Jaguar (I didn't even know you could get a Jaguar at a car rental place).  So she had a lot of fun driving that baby around.  The day she had to bring it back, I asked her to go to a nearby parking lot for photos (and someone may have tried driving that Jaguar around the parking lot, but I am not confirming that!).  So we did.  Probably the only time in my life I can boast to driving a Jaguar.  Cross that off the Bucket List!

A Small Collection of Minerals from the Urals (in a Wooden Box)

I liked the book Doctor Zhivago.  At times, it got a little long, and I must admit - the politics got somewhat tiresome.  But it has to be said that the descriptions in the book are stunning. The way the author described food (especially the food), sunrises, landscapes, etc.  Truly poetic.  One part that caught my imagination early on was a part when one of the characters, Misha, an eleven-year-old boy, was on a train where a tragedy had occurred (a suicide). "Misha was examining a small collection of minerals from the Urals in a wooden box - the dead man's last gift."  This little boy made me think of Tyler, and I set out to find one small wooden box of Russian minerals; this would be part prop for Book Club, part gift to Tyler.  I found a lovely wooden box on Etsy.  Perfect: small, six little compartments, beautifully made.  

Then the real fun began at Dave's Rock Shop in Evanston.  The people there are very helpful, and did not seem to mind my rather odd request: six minerals from Russia, that will fit in this box, very pretty ones if you please.  So, I searched through and found some gorgeous specimens.  The only hang up was the last one.  I wanted to have a bright color, but there were no other colorful Russian minerals that I liked.  I broke protocol, and substituted a nice Orange Calcite from Mexico to liven it up.   

To complete the box, I found an old-fashioned looking map of the Urals, copied it and secured it to the inner lid of the box.  I made a key listing the minerals, may eventually put this in place of the map.  But I wanted the Russian map because I brought the box with me to Book Club, where we discussed Doctor Zhivago, on loan for a day prior to being given to Tyler, who will be the new curator of this tiny collection.  

Doctor Zhivago Inspired Edwardian Outfit

For Book Club this quarter, we read Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak.  It is a long book, but good for cold winter days.  The novel is set in the years 1903-1940's, but the majority of the book takes place in 1903-1920's.  I was inspired to put together an Edwardian ensemble with a Russian flair.  I also channeled my inner geology geek putting together a little box of minerals as a prop (see this post for that).

I'll post from the inside-out:

• Undergarments - If I had more time I would have finished my Edwardian Corset Cover that I had started so long ago.  So I just wore my older Edwardian undergarments.  I did make one tweak though - I had gotten my Erté Titanic Overbust corset from Period Corsets back in 2012.  It came with two sets of lacings for the back: one for the top-down and one from the bottom-up, meeting in the middle.  This makes it difficult though if one wants to lace themselves in.  Since I like to wear my corset during the week before an event to get acclimated to it, it is difficult when no one is home to help, as a two-laces corset requires (for the most part).  So I contacted a representative from Period Corsets, and she very kindly sent me a single long lace, which I re-laced my corset with.

• Blouse - I purchased an Edwardian reproduction blouse from Cotton Lane on Amazon.  It's very pretty.  I ordered a larger size (I have football-player-shoulders), then took in the sides.

• Skirt - Oh dear...this was a problem.  I used Rocking Horse Farm pattern #903 (Caution: Do Not Use This Pattern!  Ever!!) that was simply horrible.  The pattern lines for my size did not match up properly, I had to tape together the size small in order to see what they actually intended.  Even with that there was this odd extra fabric on the bottom front that was completely illogical.  There were no dots on the waistband pattern piece - needed for matching to the waistline of the skirt.  There was also a pleat marking missing.  The cut lines for it were on the pattern, and the markings were drawn on the suggested (tiny) pattern layout picture, but not on the pattern itself.  I spent a lot of hours trying to redraw, adjust, improvise.  The result was okay - from the outside.  On the inside there were problems.  It looked okay, but I was very frustrated with the lost time and aggravation of using a terrible pattern.  I will have to write a review on GBACG (Greater Bay Area Costuming Guild).  They have a Pattern Review section.  I so wish someone had reviewed this before and saved me the hassle of working with a dreadful pattern.   

• Boots - The darling, lovely Manhattan Button Boots from American Duchess!  I love these.  Customer service here was also very helpful with the sizing.  My foot is long but narrow, and their shoes tend to run a bit large.  They gave me good advice on sizing and the boots fit perfectly.  Button hook needed! 

• Hat - I bought a faux fur hat on sale from Fabulous Furs.  All of their products are faux.  This hat is very warm.  

• Coat - my coat is a modern-day coat, but I was happy to be able to match the faux fur of the hat with that on the coat.  

Book Club was lots of fun.  The ladies liked my outfit, and even chuckled at my very bad, well-intentioned Russian accent.  I only said a few sentences in my fake-ey accent!  Hello in actual Russian, and then some key phrases I put together watching YouTube videos, and here's a funny way if you need a fake accent in a pinch: Go to Google Translate.  Type in the sentence you want in the first box, making sure you select English as the language to detect.  Once your sentence is complete, change the language in that same box to the language you want to hear, and click on the audio clickable at the bottom of that box.  You'll hear the English words, but with an accent of the language you changed the "Detect Language" to.  It doesn't work with all languages, but did pretty well for Russian.

Kitaen Joins Family Game Night

We have three cats.  A white one (Snuggs), and tan one (Donnie), and a black one (Boone, usually called Kitten, sometimes Kitaen - don't ask).  He was having fun the other night, first in a box which he fit into perfectly, then joining us at the table as we played the kids' version of Apples to Apples.

Kitaen usually looks angry, even if he is not!

Anniversary Clock Repair

This fall found Paul taking on a new skill to add to his arsenal: Clock Repairman!  

Three clocks demanded his attention all at once, sort of.  Paul had received an Anniversary Clock from work one year.  Note: the name "Anniversary Clock" comes from the fact that supposedly one only has to pay attention to it once every 400 days, although 365 days would suffice, hence, the anniversary portion of the name.  Official definition: "Unlike a regular pendulum clock, the Anniversary Clock keeps time with a mechanism called a torsion pendulum. This is a weighted disk or wheel, often a decorative wheel with 3 or 4 chrome balls on ornate spokes, suspended by a thin wire or ribbon called a torsion spring (also known as "suspension spring"). The torsion pendulum rotates about the vertical axis of the wire, twisting it, instead of swinging like an ordinary pendulum."  Unfortunately the suspension wire had weakened and over-twisted, rendering the timekeeping useless.  I thought it was just broken, so searched and found one on eBay for cheap.  Guess what - same problem (it would have been nice of the seller to mention that, but like I said - it was cheap.  

So we started looking into this.  Paul took one of the clocks apart carefully, and saw what we needed.  Unlike others of this ilk, these particular ones used a plastic end suspension wire, almost impossible to find.  however, we did find one shop online that carried it, Timesavers. The part is a Hermle 400-Day Suspension Unit.  We ordered, and Paul was able to fix them.

At the same time, the clock Paul made for his mom many years ago also needed repair.  The parts for that (the box where the hand-moving mechanism is) were easier to find, although it took forever to arrive. We got these parts at Clockparts.

Side by side suspension wires.

The on on the right is the broken, twisted one.  

Note the plastic ends.  

The suspension from the inside

Close-up of the bottom plastic end inside the suspension

Part finally arrived, Mom's clock fixed!

I Am Finally Back

The past two and a half months have been very busy, plus I am dealing with health and motivation issues (more on this in a future blog post).  I am hoping to have a new post up by Monday!

Apples from the Co-op

I belong to a co-op for healthy food called Azure Standard.  We go through so many apples each week, I decided to buy a box of them.  They are huge!

Lemon Verbena Liqueur

My friend Colleen (one of my Tea Ladies) gave me a lovely gift of a lemon verbena liqueur.  It is from a special vintage from her home, "Downfall Alley" (a joke she started related to our Downton Abbey dinner).  We tried it recently when my sister and brother-in-law came to dinner one Sunday.  It was very smooth and most interesting.

We used tiny sherry glasses that I inherited from my mom.

My Instructions to the Staff

I trust my faithful servant will follow them!  (Click on the photo to see!)

Absolutely Stunning

...a cardinal in our backyard, likely enjoying the new bird-feeder I bought.

Found Objects - Kitchen Curtains

I had some lace curtains cluttering up my house, couldn't bear to throw them away.  It's a good thing I didn't.  I found a use for them in our new kitchen.  Although I like to have the windows bare because it lets in the maximum light in our north exposure windows, having the next door neighbors able to peer across at us was not pleasant (one can often find me in the kitchen in the morning still in my pajamas!).  So I hemmed these and hung them.  I actually prefer them at night, because all we would have were these two dark windows, rather stark with no light shining through.  This makes them inviting and homey, decreased sunlight notwithstanding.  

Crisp New Linens

I have been looking for vintage-style bedsheets for years.  Ever since I saw the movie The Others with Nicole Kidman (one of my favorite movies!) and saw the beautiful sheets in the opening scene, I have been searching.  I finally found some at L. L. Bean - Sunwashed Pintuck Sheets.  Here they are, in their glory.

Wonderful to sleep in - so very elegant!

The Others.  You can sort of see the sheets.  

Watch the movie for a better view, and a thrill!

Little Boy Dreams

We have gotten good use out of our scaffolding.  Given to us years ago by a friend of a neighbor, we never realized how much it would help us.  We have used it for house painting, window replacement, Halloween Haunted Forest scenery, and so forth.  But Tyler, whose imagination is keen, recently found another use for it: a fort.  Complete with a pulley system for bringing up a yellow bucket filled with various things, he furnished it with cushions and art supplies.

Hours of fun.

Addressing The Invitations

My Downton Abbey Dinner for my Tea Ladies grows ever closer.  The menu is being planned and the games are ready (waiting on one treasure that goes with the "Hidden in Plain Sight" game I have planned).  Prizes are already here (courtesy of my sister, who won a Downton Abbey basket at a silent auction, and donate the contents to our group for this dinner, thanks!).  I am working on some music to play on the harp.  My children are hired to be characters/servants.  I thought it would be fun, and oh so fitting, to send official invitations.  I found some beauties through Vista Print of all things, and some "vintage tulip" stamps to place on the envelopes.

Of course, I addressed them using a fountain pen!

A Blind Date

39 years ago this very day, I was fixed up on a blind date with a friend of my friend's boyfriend.  His name is Paul.  He was in from college for a long weekend, and we saw each other most of that time.  It is one of my happiest memories.  I married him eight years later.

Celeste and Paul, circa 1976

Updates

We have had some delays in our kitchen.  The cabinets we had ordered were delivered, and unfortunately were mostly damaged/defective.  Very disappointing.  However, the company (Home Depot) has been very good about making this right.  They took back the whole order, no restocking fee, and gave us discounts on upgraded cabinets - much nicer ones than the ones we originally ordered!  The people at the store were aghast at how bad our order ended up.  We all talked about being perplexed as to why the cabinet company would have shipped out cabinets in that state.  Weird.  This has caused a delay in our cabinets, since the whole ordering process needed to begin anew.  Anticipated delivery date: April 2nd.

Our floor ended up not being restorable (technically we could have, but the result would have been unsatisfactory in too many ways), so we will have a new floor put in.  That was delayed a week due to illness of the contractor.  Anticipated start date: March 30th.

But, these delays are a good thing, because Paul became very sick this week (nothing serious, but incapacitating nonetheless).  He was not able to do much of anything.  There are some things that must be done prior to the floor installation.  So we are in this kitchen rehab limbo.  We still have a stove, sink, and running water in our mostly empty kitchen. Our refrigerator is in the dining room, along with some of the existing cabinets.  But we are not cooking much, and it is all chaotic and disorganized.  This is a challenge to live with. My mantra: It is not forever, it is not forever.  

Awaiting the chance to report exciting, happy news in two weeks.