Fursdon House

Catty Wompkins!!

2012-02-11T13:50:00.000-06:00

Another beautiful Saturday! Cold and windy, but sun shining brightly!! Here are recent photos of Thistle and Dundee, the Fursdon Catty Wompkins!

Nothing like waking up in the morning with these two at the foot of your bed!

Hello Mother! Are you awake yet, because if you are, I need a snuggle! So....are you awake yet?

A wonderful mistake of a photo! I'm going to attempt to draw Thistle like this!

Oh Mother Dearest, when will you grow up? Oh my, this is so taxing.

I'm not quite sure why Dundee is on the bed beside me Mother. Afterall, this is my bed, isn't it?

Thistle hates having her picture taken, so how did I get this lovely clear shot? By turning my camera upside down, coming up from behind her and quickly snapping it while the camera was under her chin! That's how! Then all I had to do was rotate the photo on my computer! Whew! Not bad, huh?!?!?

Mother, you are beginning to annoy me.

I trust this is your last picture, Mother? Because if it isn't.........

Hope everyone's weekend is lovely and lengthy! Love and Blessings to All! Jan

2012-01-29T14:13:00.000-06:00

Having a wonderful weekend - quiet and peaceful. I've spent the majority of the time in my studio, the first time since before Christmas other than just to throw something in there to get it out of the way, or quickly grab whatever I needed out of there. Nigel had electricity put in for me as a Christmas present, a monumental extravagance and headache which I won't go into because it was one problem after another. But I will say it's so wonderful to go in and flip a switch and get light, or flip another switch and get heater, or flip another switch and get music - all without hooking up strands of extension cords all the way to the house! Thank you so much Nigel! My hero, as always! And far more than I deserve I do realize!! But you're stuck with me, so there!

As I said, it's been lovely and quiet. I've cleaned and put things away and got supplies ready for my next major project. I might as well tell everyone now what it is because I'm sure to "spill the beans" before the actual event. Liz and Jake's First Wedding Anniversary is in June and to celebrate it, I'm making them a scrapbook to commemorate their lovely day together. There's also a little something extra, which will be kept a surprise until June! Ha Ha! Fooled you Liz, didn't I? Hey, a Mom has to have some secrets from her kids! I realized that if I didn't get started soon, it would be June before I knew it.

The studio is very cozy now and last weekend, Isabel spent several hours in there, all by herself! She loved having the freedom to do whatever she wanted (within reason of course). All I told her was to put away whatever she used and try not to get the last item of anything in particular, at least without asking me first. She did great and she created the sweetest piece of art from a covered tin that originally held chocolate cookies from Christmas. I forgot to take a picture of it, but I will later and show it on my sidebar. Quite frankly, I'm feeling pretty icky now; I've caught a head cold from Nigel. We've been passing bugs and germs around seems like forever in this family.

Yesterday, while she was with my Mom, Isabel made chocolate covered coconut almond balls! Mom said she (Isabel) did all the work and you can see for yourself what a great job she did!

Wow! I'm glad she's inherited the gene for cooking from her Mom; personally I wouldn't have taken the time to do this. Way to go Isabel!!

I finally got the house back in order after all the decorations were put away a few weeks ago. It takes me that long (a couple of weeks) to get back into the swing of things but it's a nice feeling. Sort of like a cleansing of the soul in a way. Things get put up and cleared out; shelves get dusted, pillows get freshened and items get rearranged. Somehow everything has a newness about it, sort of a fresh start, which of course is what January is all about!

And I found the purple silk irises!! My memory is simply shot to pieces these days, which greatly irritates me because I've always had such a fantastic memory. My latest bumble involved three vases of purple silk irises and bulbs. The bulbs are in resin which looks like water and they look so real people are constantly asking about them and trying to get a closer look. Nigel especially likes them because irises are his favorite flower. I keep them in my kitchen garden window so they're constantly in view. Anyway, in early Autumn, I carefully cleaned them and put them away because I use other decorations in their place during the holidays. But could I find them anywhere when it was time to bring them back out again?? Absolutely and categorically NO! Everyone (and I do mean everyone!) looked everywhere!! I even sent e-mails to my daughters, asking if they remembered seeing them when they were here. But they were nowhere to be found! After searching the entire house and studio, garage and both attics, all of them twice I might add, I finally gave up. That was about two weeks ago.

Today, while I was putting something away in one of the attics, I bent over to put something down, then turned my head up and immediately recognized the bags holding them! In my genius mind, I had decided they needed to be put up high, away from being jostled or broken. To accomplish this, I put each vase inside a large plastic bag, then tied the bags up high on the wall behind a large heating duct thingy, well out of the way of everyone and everything!! And yes, I said thingy because I haven't got a clue what the silly thing is called. So there!

You can imagine my delight - and frustration - when I saw those bags! I immediately remembered my thought process at the time, though why it eluded me until then I'll never know. I guess I was just too busy and too caught up in everything else going on to remember it. But they're now back in the garden window, looking as lovely as ever! Nigel bought them for me from his Mom's shop. See what you think!

The little painted pot to the far right is Isabel's latest project from Girl Scouts!
Another item I found - although it wasn't actually lost; it was just put aside and ignored since Christmas - was my art journal I bought in Washington, D.C. this past summer. It's really nothing more than a small bound book, with each page marked in half, with a place for the dates and an empty space for "daily art". The idea is to literally sketch something - anything - every day for a year. It's actually been a lot more fun that I initially thought. At first I was concerned I might grow tired of it and leave it half finished. But it was a challenge to my mind and this hasn't happened so far. That is, until about a week before Christmas when I lost track of everything, my mind included! But I've pulled it back out and caught up on all my sketches! I find I sketch often if I have it where I can easily see it and get to it quickly. I've even drawn some things while having my morning tea before work!! Weird, but true!! I'm NOT a morning person at all so go figure! But don't be thinking these are highly detailed pieces of art. They're not; not in the slightest. They're just fun and lighthearted and I've discovered it's a wonderful way to unwind and de-stress. And it's also helped me try out different color combinations together that I normally wouldn't use. I make myself use an ink pen rather than a pencil; otherwise, I'd spend forever and 16 days erasing and redrawing just to get something "right". After I draw the sketch in ink, I color it in with these really cool Crayon Twistable Colored Pencils. You twist them like a mechanical pencil when your lead gets too small! They don't break like regular Crayons do and there's no pencil sharpening mess to deal with! Isabel and I both love them! The colors we found were a bit limited, but I suspect this is only a temporary thing until they catch on, which I'm sure they'll do. I mean - what's not to like?!

Another project Isabel did this weekend (she was definitely on a roll, wasn't she?!) was making paper dragons! 2012 is the year of the Dragon and Isabel made one for me and one for a dear sweet friend of mine who works with me; her name is Kim and she's Vietnamese. I can't wait to take it to her tomorrow and see what she thinks! Here's a picture of Kim's.

Well......I know I shouldn't begin a sentence with the word "well" but that's how I tend to close things out. I'm reminded of my math teacher, Mr. Joe Miller. He knew I hated math and he tried to help me as much as he could, but I must have exasperated him beyond belief. I simply don't get math! Now...where was I going with this? Ah yes....well......(Ha Ha! Pun intended!) Whenever Mr. Miller would ask me a question I didn't really know the answer to, I'd begin by saying, "Well.....". I would then lead everyone along an obscure path of explanation which frequently lasted some minutes, after which Mr. Miller would shake his head from side to side, a slightly indulgent smile on his face, then he'd call upon someone else. At other times, when he was in a more playful spirit, he would immediately respond to my "Well......" by stating, "A well is a mighty deep subject for such a shallow mind Oliver!" To which I would invariably agree and rather than waiting for my lengthy diatribe, he would immediately ask someone else the answer. He was an excellent teacher and even though I hated math (still do as a matter of fact), I thoroughly enjoyed his classes! To Mr. Joe Miller!!

And to All of You - With Love and God's Blessings! Jan

Memories of Christmas 5 - Final Post for This Series! YEA!!!

2012-01-25T19:03:00.001-06:00

Correction is needed on this post! I misspelled the word "boll" when I spoke of a cotton boll ornament. I hate it when I misspell a word because I'm a very good speller. But my Mommy is twenty times better and she caught it for me! Thank you Mommy! So here's my correction - the word is "boll", not "bole". Jan

The last post for this series!! Yea!!! Thanks to those of you who've stuck it out through all 5 (that is, if there are any of you left! Ha Ha) I've been posting about some of my favorite Christmas ornaments and hoping my children and grandchildren will remember the importance of them when I no longer inhabit this plane of existence (i.e., croak the big one). Believe it or not, I've deleted at least twice as many as I've posted photos on, and that doesn't even account for all the ornaments which I didn't take photos of!! I definitely have enough to start my own Christmas store! Except I couldn't sell them! I have made a HUGE effort in giving both daughters and now my granddaughter special ones now, rather than having them inherit them. Oh well, let's get started!

My beautiful Angel Tree Topper, inherited from my Dad's Mom, Grandma Hoffman! This was always on the top of Grandma's silver aluminum tree each year and I LOVED her (and still do!). Her head is glass and the rest of her is made from gold tin foil, with the exception of the glass ball ornament she's holding! She has her own special container that she's packaged away in and every time I take her out and look at her, I think of all those wonderful Christmas memories down through the years!

The first car Nigel and I had when we got married was a little red Volkswagen Beetle, with a black "racing stripe" (naturally!) between the front and back fenders! I admit to taking artistic liberties with the ornament above by marking this same line with a black Sharpie marker.

This is the "God's Eye" that Laura made for me in school when she was little. As I mentioned earlier, it's nice having Laura's as well as Isabel's. Like mother, like daughter!

This is one of those ornaments that Laura wishes I'd never bring out. It's a wooden spool with multi-colored felt pipe cleaners wrapped around it. I think she was probably in 1st grade when she made it. What can I say? We Moms love - and save - lots of funny little things!

See what I mean about Mom's saving things? This is a painted noodle necklace Isabel made for me about two years ago. I also still have the paper bead necklace that Liz made for me when she was little! See! You can put anything on a Christmas tree! I certainly do, and it makes it all the more charming and special!

A special ornament made by Liz when she was little! Yes, this is one she'd prefer I never put out, but......... too bad! Mom's rule!!

I know you think this may be weird, but there's a story behind it (with me, there always is!). My Dad, who died in 1998, ALWAYS used Old Spice After Shave when we were growing up. And I do mean . . . ALWAYS. Later in life I think he changed to something else but I'm not sure which. But the one we always remembered was the Old Spice. So when I saw this small bottle, I knew it was destined for our Christmas tree. It brings back so many memories! And every time I see that bottle, I think of Dad. That's the beauty of a Christmas Tree for me; they're like microcosms of our lives over the years. For instance, when Liz was visiting over New Year's a couple of weeks ago, she was going through some boxes of things she'd packed away when she first left home. She came upon some trophies (which I admit are too big for the tree) which Isabel wanted to keep and two medals she won when she was playing softball, around 8 - 10 years old. Her plan was to throw them out! "NO WAY" said I!!! Guess where they're going to go? I remember all too well sitting on those hard bleachers, watching her play, rooting for the team, etc. They'll make a wonderful addition to the tree, as well as bring back happy memories!

A pine cone angel, also from Liz. I have more items from Liz than I do from Laura because Laura was always very critical of her work. And if she didn't like it, she'd destroy it before bringing it home because she knew I'd want to keep it. The little stinker!!

A family favorite - our Cotton Bole Angel, made from a real cotton bole. Many years ago, Nigel's sister Marian and her husband, Gary, who are from England, visited us here in Alabama. They had never seen cotton in its natural state so it was quite a shock for them to actually see a field of cotton growing beside the road, and inside the city limits no less! We still have one or two fields left, but they're dwindling fast, being taken over by new housing developments. Anyway, during their visit we unexpectedly came across these cotton bole ornaments, which we naturally "just had to have"! I still remember how excited Marian and Gary were when they first saw the cotton. It was so nice to see something they considered "new" which we'd been taking for granted. Not only that, but my memories up to that time consisted of when I was very young growing up on a cotton farm. One summer we had to "pick" the cotton. We didn't have quite the same level of excitement about it then, I can tell you! It's backbreaking work, out in the open fields with no shade, hot humid sun blasting down on you, while the state bird (AKA: mosquito) incessantly feeds on you while your fingers get torn to shreds as you try untangling the cotton from the bole and from the cockle burrs! Now some of you may think this is a bit melodramatic, but to those of you who've never picked cotton, be my guest!

Yes, another Hallmark! Isn't he cute? It's nothing more than different colored and sized buttons, with a wire wrapped around for the arms and a face "penned" on with ink! Genius!

A nod to Nigel's English heritage - the well known, but swiftly disappearing red English Telephone Booth. Just as they are in our own country, phone booths are becoming obsolete because everyone has a cell phone now. They were deliberately painted bright red so they could be easily spotted. Another classic English landmark is the bright red painted mail boxes; sadly, these two are disappearing. Not all change is good!

Liz' first Christmas ornament - a hand carved, hand painted wooden cradle we bought in Wiesbaden, West Germany, when we were stationed there in 1985. Yes, I said West Germany. That was before East and West Germany reunited and became Germany.

This charming little baby buggy was Laura's first Christmas ornament in 1981! It's actually a Hallmark and the wheels actually move! I missed it in this photo, but there's a little "baby" underneath the "quilt".

I can hear the moans again! Liz painted this when she was just a few years old and begged me not to bring it out when she got older. Naturally I completely ignored her and exercises my Motherly rights!

At the same time, Laura painted this ornament! Yes, more moans! I'm so glad I persevered and kept them both!! Although I have to admit at one point I had to hang them in the back of the tree, hidden from sight, because I was afraid both girls were going to take them off and throw them away when I wasn't looking!

Isabel's reindeer, made from Popsicle sticks, last year in 2nd grade! Or was it from 1st grade? I can't believe how fast the time flies!!

A special ornament that Laura brought me from Afghanistan. The detail on this is fabulous!

A favorite cat ornament, in memory of a lovely cat we had years ago. His name was "Maxwell Smart" because he was just as silly and clumsy as his character's name implied. And he was forever getting into trouble, not out of meanness, but simply out of curiosity. We called him Max for short and he'll always have a very special place in our hearts! We love you Max!!

Gotta L.U.V. cats! We certainly do in the Fursdon Household! Our dear friend Rita gave me this ornament years ago and I just love it! We even have a Christmas Tree dedicated to cats! Hard to believe, isn't it?! Yeah, right! Okay, I admit it - I like different themed trees! So any time someone wants to get me something special, a cat ornament is always welcome! The wheels on this ornament actually turn! Cute!!

Bless his little heart - this sweet little kitty is one my Gran painted years ago and gave to one of my girls; can't remember which one so to be fair, I've decided to keep it for myself! Now isn't that nice of me - to avoid any conflict? I'm like that, you know! As for the green wire around his neck, it's the only way I've found so far to hang him to a tree with. So we're actually pretending that it's a leash. So there!

Hilarious cat ornament from my Aunt Pat several Christmases ago! I LOVE the fish bones hanging from it's paws! And the fact that he's just ever so slightly rotund - just the way I like my cats!

This is actually a piece of jewelry my Aunt Pat gave me years ago! The little butterfly is on a spring so it moves, as if trying to escape the clutches of the cat! Isn't it adorable? There's another piece of jewelry in the family, belonging to my Aunt Von (my Mom's oldest sister). It's a pewter cat, Siamese I think, and it's pregnant! I kid you not! It's actually very pregnant, with a little rounded tummy that is so sweet! And the amazing thing is that it's rather old - not something you would have found easily during it's heyday! The family tradition is that all the females who get pregnant get to wear the pin. I wore it for both my girls, Laura wore it for Isabel, and so on. I wonder who will be next?! Hmmmmm......Hey Von - if you're reading this, try to send a photo of the preggy cat and I'll put it on the blog!

This exemplifies one of our current cats, Dundee (named after the Dundee brand of Marmalade that is delicious, but more importantly, is the color of our Dundee). He's a lovely slob, happy as can be and LOVES to be cuddled and babied! He lost his Mother to a car accident when he was too young and hadn't been weaned yet. To this day, he loves to get up against any fabric that happens to be super soft (i.e., t-shirt material, fleece jammies or throws, etc.). He then proceeds to knead with both his front paws while he literally sucks on the material. It can last quite some time too and the fabric, whether you're wearing it or not, is quite drenched when he's through. But he's worth every minute of extra attention we give him!

This ornament accompanied the other ornament above (2 cats in a tub) that our dear Rita gave us. The wheels on this one also move. For the longest time, I sat them out in the bathroom, but now they're immortalized on the Fursdon House Cat Christmas Tree!

This little Nativity was made in Mexico from tin! My Mom found it at a garage sale about 20 or more years ago and paid all of .25 cents for it! It comes in it's own little tin box to store it in. Each of the figures has a little device in the back to allow it to stand on its own. I love it's simplicity. This is the first year I've displayed it on the old Grandfather Clock. But I think next time I'm going to create more of a vignette that brings it the attention it deserves.

My Williamsburg style fruit plaques! I LOVE these; I made four of them so far. I got the idea from two places - one was a book on Williamsburg at Christmas, in which they use real fruit to decorate with, and the other was from my mother-in-law, Valerie, who made similar ones for her own home. Once I saw hers, I fell in love with them and I especially liked the idea that I wasn't using real fruit, which I consider a terrible waste. I've actually thought of making these and selling them on my Etsy shop. Does anyone out there think this is a good idea? I'd love to hear your opinion! I also have two larger versions done in red apples, as well as a half-circle of red apples that is displayed over our front door. Like I said - I'd love to hear if anyone thinks this might be a good idea!

Isabel's latest artwork!! I love the reins and the reindeer! Not that I'm prejudiced, you understand! Ha Ha

My little Hole in the Wall Gang Christmas Mouse! He actually came off an ornament that spelled out "Christmas" and he sat on top of it. But the ornament kept falling and breaking. So finally I got rid of the words, which were looking pretty sad, and just saved Mr. Mouse. He's only about an inch tall and I display him in my kitchen garden window where I've created Santa Village, complete with my favorite cardboard houses liberally sprinkled with glitter, as well as multiple tiny Santa's of every description (and species!), with snow and rolling hills and evergreen trees dotting the landscape! Christmas is such a magical time for me!

Although I didn't include a photo of the whole village I wanted to include this little Santa. Believe it or not, he's one of a pair of earrings made in the 1950's!!! Our dear friends Pauline and Morgan Lynch gave them to me this Christmas, and I do not exaggerate when I say that only the day before, I'd made a mental note to myself that I needed more miniature Santa's for my village! And Voila!! Here they were! All I did was remove their earring fittings and they worked perfectly! Aren't they precious!?!?!

Here are three of the miniature Santa's in Santa Village! The one in the middle was actually in a little snow globe on the top of a pencil (in place of an eraser)! Silly place to put a Santa, so I broke the globe, dried him off and he's been with me happily ever since! The other two Santa's are both from my Aunt Pat who appreciates miniatures the way I do!

Another miniature Santa - and his Reindeer - also from my Aunt Pat! She spoils me! And she understands me! Either that, or she just humors me! Ha Ha The neat thing about this ornament is that it's hinged so he reindeer can sit in different positions. If I'm not mistaken, she bought one for herself too. Generally speaking, that's our rule - if we like something enough to satisfy ourselves, we know the other one will love it too!

A lovely keepsake from my youngest daughter, Liz! I forget what grade she made this piece of artwork but I framed it several years back because it was beginning to get a bit worn. Some years I leave it out year round!

This hilarious little monkey belonged to my Dad. I'm not sure how he came across it, or why he kept it. He usually didn't do this sort of thing, but when I found it in his possessions after he died, I wanted to give it a special home. For years I think it was with one of the girls, but now I've taken possession. And remember - possession is nine tenths of the law!

Mrs. Santa Claus - ceramic ornament, created and painted by my Aunt Pat when she was working with ceramics! It's lovely to have such keepsakes! I think she gave us this ornament when we were first married.

A very special ornament from a very special lady. Virginia Douglas Lavender ("Ginny" to us) was a dear friend of the Fursdon family long before I knew them. And she welcomed me with open and loving arms when I met and became engaged to Nigel. She took me under her wing and taught me so many wonderful things, including my first loaf of home made bread! I truly cherish the times I was lucky enough to spend with her. She passed away a few years ago, but lives on in our lives in a myriad of amazing memories. She was a fabulous cook, but used simple ingredients that always tasted as if she'd spent hours and hours on it! I have many recipes from her, but one of my favorites was her home made soup. She called it "Potage Garbage"! She said she started with a good stock and potatoes (the "potage"), then literally put in every left over from the week's cooking that would suit. It was never the same, except for the fact that it was DELICIOUS!!! How I miss her! Here's to you Ginny!

Ginny was a big fan of the tales of Peter Rabbit, and she bought these ornaments for my girls when they were little. Ginny was an avid animal rights activist back when it wasn't popular to be so. And cats were her weakness. She often teased she had the only "cat house" in town! One of my favorite memories was when she named one of her latest cats (saved from the pound more often than not) to Purr-ple. So his name was Purr-ple Lavender!

Isabel's favorite ornament! A Hallmark no less, so she has very good taste! These are little reindeer house slippers and if you push a button in the back,their little lights on the end of their horns light up!

A lovely bit of ephemera, saved from a corsage that had long since seen better days! They're from Japan; would they be from before World War II? Maybe not. Doesn't matter though; they're so sweet! I still haven't decided how best way to use them. But one day......

Have you ever seen such a sweet albeit rather rotund reindeer? Especially on snow skies? Now you know why I had to have it among my collections! What a physique!! It lets me know what I'd look like on skis!

A sweet little stocking cross stitched with an angel - another cherished gift from Ginny Lavender.

This is one of my Hole in the Wall Gang ornaments. I love his look and the fact he's just hanging in there! It reminds me of how I feel when I'm in the middle of the Christmas rush!

One more funny story! Actually, I have more than just the two Santa's photographed here, but I must have deleted them by accident. Oh well.....here's the story. When we were in West Germany, in Nuernberg to be precise, we went to one of their department stores called WertKauf (pronounced "Ver Coff"). It's their equivalent of our Wal-Mart (or at least it was back in the 1980's). Anyway, it was at an After Christmas sale and right about the time of Easter. We were having a great time, checking out all of the different items and so on when all of a sudden, in the middle of one of the aisles, I noticed a very large cardboard box, about 4 feet square in size. And it was FILLED to the top with small packages of Christmas ornaments that apparently hadn't sold, as well as hand-painted wooden eggs for Easter! At the time, they were priced to the U.S. equivalent of about 25 cents a package, and there were 4 Easter Eggs in each package! So Yours Truly went wild, digging down deep into that box to make sure I got every single one they still had! In retrospect, I'm sure I looked quite interesting to say the least, with my rear end stuck up in the air as I dug deep down into that box like a true American Shopper, determined to get what I wanted! Poor Germans - they had no idea what they were in for when we entered their country! Ha Ha But I have to say - Germans are lovely people and they always made us feel as if we were family! As a matter of fact, we still exchange Christmas packages with a family who took us in when we were in Nuernberg all those years ago (1991)! Lovely warm-hearted wonderful people!

Interestingly enough, two years ago, a dear friend of mine gave me one of these ornaments, which was in its original Woolworth's package, which dated back probably to the 1970s! She'd bought it at an antique shop in town and knew my love for Christmas and antiques! So they've obviously been around for awhile!

Guess what? This is it! No more photos! Whew! I finished it! I was beginning to wonder if I'd ever get to the end! Bet you were wondering the same thing! That is, IF you mangaed to make it this far with me! But I hate starting a project and not finishing it. Something about my anal retentiveness that just won't let me do it, at least without major gnashing of teeth!

I hope I haven't bored you too much, but truth be told - I did this more for me than anyone else. And for my girls and my granddaughter, none of whom will appreciate it much now. But perhaps in future?

Anyway, hope you all have a lovely evening. May God bless, Jan

Memories of Christmas 4

2012-01-21T11:08:00.000-06:00

Yes, I'm still at it! For those of you just tuning in - LUCKY YOU!! I've been posting about some of my favorite Christmas ornaments, writing a few lines about each, and hoping that my children and grandchildren will remember the importance of them when I "croak the big one"! Of course, I could have them buried with me, but they wouldn't be able to lift the casket! Sorry kids! Gotta LUV me! So here we go!!

One of my granddaughter Isabel's baby rattles! She kept it forever before she finally gave it to me about four years ago, "to put on the tree, Gummy, but it's still mine, okay?" And it's graced the tree ever since! I like to think of it being on her tree eventually. When she was little we called Isabel our little "Busy Bee" as she was forever getting into everything! Quite the curious one, but curiosity is what it's all about, isn't it? An inquiring mind will take you far!!

My Aunt, Pat McCay, used to do wonderful things with her ceramics! She had her own kiln and made lovely items for the family! It's been years since she worked on them, but here's a sweet reminder! We were always in awe of how realistic she made her faces look. Another artist in the family! Actually, on my mother's side, I think most if not all the females are heavily gifted in the arts in one form or another!

This is a ceramic ornament that my Mom made. Pat taught her how to shade the colors and so on. Mom always says she isn't as talented as her two other sisters, but I beg to differ! It's interesting though; every one of us have our own "specialties". Mom writes poetry and is a very gifted writer. And she has the patience of a saint! She had to! She had me for a daughter!

Although this ornament doesn't belong to my paternal grandmother, Grandma Hoffman, it's the kind she always put on her aluminum tree so when I saw it at a thrift shop, I knew it was destined for my tree! It has a sweet innocence about it and I cherish it! Remember kids - it's hard to imagine now, but back in the 1950's, plastic was in its heyday. Before that, it was glass and metal. Grandma Hoffman loved all the ornaments and different items that were coming out. I remember she had one of those very large, plastic three-dimensional nativity sets. It was huge! It sat in her front yard, lit up from within by a large Christmas light placed inside. It was painted "realistically" (or at least as realistically as plastic could be in those days) and my brother Larry and I were always awe-struck when we saw it go up! She also had plastic "candelabra" she put in each window of her house, lit up to welcome Santa Claus! At least that's what Larry and I thought! And of course there's the church music box I showed you earlier that plays Silent Night. What lovely memories!

This ornament and the one below were created by the girls' dear sweet Auntie Doreen, who lives in England. She's a fabulous knitter, crocheter, you name it. Actually, these ornaments don't do her justice at all. I have knitted dolls, about 15 or so of them, that she gave to the girls each year as they were growing up. The detail work is phenomenal!! Perhaps I'll bring them out in the spring and post about them! You'll be amazed! But she knew these were for the girls when they were very little, so she made them as indestructible as possible!

This was the girls' favorite of Auntie Doreen's ornaments. The lid to the mailbox opens and the girls would put letters to Santa inside, or sweet little notes to Mommy! I have them still! And the flag actually raises up and down, so Santa knew when there was something inside!

For the life of me, I can't remember if my youngest, Liz, made this, or did Isabel? Brain dead I'm afraid. Girls - help me out, will you? I remember it was made at school and it took pride of place that year, right in the middle of the tree! It kills me that I can't remember as well as I used to, because I've always had a fantastic memory! Scream!!! Oh well, I guess it's a great time to start writing all this down now!

Isabel made this in her Day Care! He's so cuddly and cute and squishable! This is another one she finally gave to me, but only for the Christmas tree. I can just hear her, years from now, howling because I've kept it all this time! Oh well, the rights of Mothers and Grandmothers is NEVER to be questioned!

Another of Isabel's ornaments, completed in 2nd grade. This is what we always called a "God's Eye". She made several that year, which is neat because I still have one that her mother made too! And yes, that is a Hershey's Bar ornament you see beside it! Because my Mommy LOVES me and she KNOWS how much I ADORE Hershey's chocolate!!! You can toss out all the Godiva and Giardelli (sp?) and that other "stuff"; Hershey's is my absolute favorite!!! I've never visited the factory in Pennsylvania because I don't think I'd come out alive! But when I was in grade school, I remember reading an article about it and I kept that article, with lots of yummy photos, for years and years! I wonder where it is now? Hmmmmm.........

This brings back fun memories! In 1986, we were stationed with the Army in Fort Hood, Texas. Nigel LOVED to water ski and he wanted a pair of skis of his own, but he knew they were expensive and he'd probably have to wait some time before getting any. Well, Jan decided otherwise because Nigel rarely said he'd like to have something in particular. His usual response when I asked him what he'd like for a birthday or Christmas present was, "Oh, I don't know. Whatever you get is fine with me. I'll like it because it comes from you." This may sound terribly sweet, but I can tell you it gets very frustrating when you're hoping for ideas!! Anyway, I knew he wanted skis, even though he hadn't asked for any, so I bought him a really nice pair. I think I probably had to put them on lay-a-way for several months, but needless to say, he was ECSTATIC when he saw them at Christmas! Well, right after I found them that summer, he went water skiing with some friends, using borrowed skis. And the silly goose kept trying to convince me that it was really easy and that I should give it a try! Yeah, right! That same summer/fall, I learned how to cross stitch, using little kits I found at Wal-Mart. So I created my own little design and this is what I came up with!

I think if I were asked what my all-time favorite ornament was, I'd have to say this one. It's simplicity belies it's importance! Gran made it for me, along with several other felt ornaments you'll see below. I've always loved him, my little Gingerbread Man, and each year I put him on the tree where he looks straight at me.

Another of Gran's ornaments, made just for me! How I treasure them!

I think Gran was always a little frustrated in her later years that she couldn't create what she felt were better or more artistic items. She knew how talented her three daughters were and I remember her saying she didn't know where they got their talent because she didn't have any herself. But one day Mom told me that even though they were extremely poor when they were growing up, Gran always made sure they had pretty clothes to wear. She did this by creating them herself, and all the girls in school would comment how pretty my Mom's and Aunts' dresses were. Later in life we would tease Gran about how she always saved everything, even little snippets of cloth and thread (and I'm talking tiny snippets too). But that was how she was able not only to survive, but actually thrive while raising three girls so few years after the Great Depression.

So here's to you Gran!! The Artist who started it all!

Little bells Gran crocheted; I think everyone in the family has some of these! So sweet!

Gran's felt bird. I love the heart shaped wing!

A little felt wreath from Gran. I remember when I was little, Gran would always bring out her "bits and pieces" during the early Autumn. This allowed her to hand make Christmas presents for all her family and friends, which were extensive! That's my goal - to hand make Christmas presents this year. Gran - I'll need you to cheer me along the way! I don't have your fortitude!

Simple, but sweet. From Gran.

Although it looks a bit "well loved", this little package was on Gran's tree when my Mom was young. There's another one too, with faded red stripes, although I don't think I photographed it before putting them away.

The last photo for this post. Gran loved Cardinals! Right after Thanksgiving, Gran and all her daughters, and Yours Truly of course, would go Christmas shopping. One of our favorite places at the time was a store called Importers Warehouse, where Pat found this little Cardinal. Gran loved it! We so enjoyed these shopping forays, even though we usually took Gran home early because we wore her out! Then we'd all go back out for several more hours. Afterward, we'd return to Gran's and show her all our "goodies". We had so much fun! That's the kind of fun I want for this coming Christmas - and every Christmas from now on! Time to do special things with Isabel that will give her the kinds of special memories I have now!

That's it for this post! Hope all of you have a wonderful day! With God's Blessings and Peace, Jan

Memories of Christmas 3

2012-01-19T22:00:00.000-06:00

Back again! For those of you who are just tuning in, these are photos of my favorite Christmas ornaments and decorations, along with a few lines about each one. These are things I want to remember in my "older" age and I want to make sure my children and grandchildren know their importance before they chuck them out the window or send them to a thrift shop after I'm dead and gone! Hey - where else can you have this kind of fun?

Bittersweet memories accompany these two sweet angels. My maternal grandmother, Irene Isobel Klutts, died on 18 December 1998. My father, Bobby Gene Oliver, died the day before, on 17 December 1998. In January 1998, my Great Aunt, Arlie Davis, died. And Nigel spent the first six months of that same year stationed with the Army in South Korea. To say the year was a challenge is putting it mildly. But we got through it, with lots of prayer and love and perseverance! At Christmas, which was certainly not the happiest of times, Nigel's mom, Valerie, got me and Gran's three daughters - my mom and my two aunts - each an angel. It was to remind us of the Angels we now had in Heaven! The one above belongs to my Mom, Joy, and the one below is mine.

I cherish these angels as a sweet reminder of those in Heaven before us. At first, it was hard to look at them; the loss was still too new and too raw. But now I find peace in them as I hang them high on the Christmas tree every year, so they can continue to watch over us. And I'm convinced Gran "plunks" me every now and then when I'm being a stinker - just like she did when she was here on Earth. As for Dad - he just grins because he knows I'm way too much like him! Sweet, beloved memories!

Change of mood - because Gran and Dad did NOT go in for long, drawn out histrionics! This wooden goose is one of three identical ones. They were my very first Christmas ornaments purchased in West Germany, in the town of Mannheim. Their wings actually move slightly and they can also stand up on their own. I'm thinking that one of them should remain here with me and the other two should be given to Laura and Liz. I wonder if they would cherish them the way I do? Hmmmm........we'll just have to wait and see.

One year my Aunt Pat made these for the girls for Christmas! Aren't they cute? And they're very easy to make too! Just glue a brown pipe cleaner, googly eyes and a tiny felt ball on a clothespin and - Presto!!

Here's another variation of the clothespin reindeer Liz did in school one year. Two old-fashioned clothespins glued together with a bit of ribbon tied around for a neck scarf, then each child drew on a face!

Isabel made this in class this year! She's at that wonderful age where she still appreciates it when I put her art and projects on the tree and all over the house. Before long though, I'll get to hear moans and groans all over again, about why I shouldn't be putting "that old thing" on the tree. But I'll tell her like I told her Mother and her Aunt Liz before her - TOUGH!! It stays!!!

Another piece of art work from Isabel, from last Christmas. The schools come up with the cutest ideas throughout the year! I've kept as much of the girls' artwork as I could down through the years and now I have another collection started of Isabel's art. It's so much fun going back through them every now and then.

Ah, yes.....ye olde Homer Paint Bucket!!

What can I say? Home Depot is considered Nigel's 2nd home and he frequently receives gift cards to spend there. A few years back, they started coming out with these really cool items that held the gift cards.

This apron was designed to hold one of the gift cards in the pocket in front!

This tool box actually opens up!! I love it!! Last year, I made Nigel a "Home Depot Christmas Tree". It was about a foot tall and I hung all these ornaments and card holders on it, then sat it in his study upstairs. He loved it! I got lazy this year though and just kept them on the big tree downstairs.

This ornament, from this Christmas 2011, is my favorite! It's a Tool Snowflake!

Now I ask you - is this talent or what? Who would have thought it?

And this is the last entry for this post. Hallmark did it again! They came out with this "home improvement" ornament a few years ago, the same year Nigel re-painted the entire house, so it was perfect timing! When asked what his favorite ornament was, he said it was this one and one other you haven't seen yet!

That's it for this post! Hope you have a lovely evening and I'll see you next time! Love and Blessings, Jan

Memories of Christmas 2

2012-01-18T20:11:00.000-06:00

Back again! These are photos of my favorite Christmas ornaments and decorations, along with a few lines about each one. These are things I want to remember in my "older" age and I want to make sure my children and grandchildren know their importance before they chuck them out the window or send them to a thrift shop after I'm dead and gone! Gotta luv me! I'm the Mama!!

The Fursdon Bicycles! One year while we were in West Germany, my mother-in-law Valerie visited from England us and gave us lovely packages. And on each package was a red bicycle or tricycle! This was on the package for Nigel and myself!

This was on Laura's package!

This was on Elizabeth's package!

As you can well imagine, I put all three on our Christmas tree from then on, year after year. Then one year, in 2002 to be precise, another "special someone" entered the Fursdon Family!

And once again, Valerie managed to find a red bicycle and put it on a Christmas package - for Isabel!

A camel from Afghanistan - from Elizabeth (my youngest), while deployed there with the Air Force.

A camel from Afghanistan - from Laura (our oldest), while deployed there with the Army Corps of Engineers. I'll be quite happy to stop this particular collection right now!

Now who can this sweet creature be? Hmmmm......I love this ornament; it's a Hallmark. Just when I think they can't possibly make any more ornaments that will appeal to me, they come out with a new one! This one is about 3 years old and is one of Isabel's favorites too!

This is Isabel's ornament from Grandma Lorrie and Grandpa Jim Collier; sweets for the sweet!

Another Hallmark ornament! Yes, they do this to me every year -come out with something I think I must have! This one celebrated the Barbie Doll's 50th Anniversary. And since it was "retro", including the really cool box it came in, with the original advertising on it, I "had to have it". When I was little, we couldn't afford Barbie dolls, but I was given a Midge Doll. I think Midge was a cousin of Barbie's and was also cheaper. Anyway, I had a love-hate relationship with Midge. I loved her one minute, then hated that she wasn't Barbie the next! Kids are so ungrateful sometimes! I remember Midge had freckles and long brown hair, just like I did. Which is probably another reason I didn't care for her. She looked like me instead of Barbie! Oh well.....such is life. Now......if I can just find a Midge Doll, that would be really cool!! Anyone out there seen one anywhere? Oh Midge, where are you????

Bread dough butterfly ornament made by Laura for Me!! Amazing it's lasted so long!

Bread dough rocking horse ornament made by Laura for me! I think Laura was about 10 or 12 when she made these. She saw me making bread dough ornaments one year and decided to give it a try!

No mention of Fursdon ornaments would be complete without mentioning the infamous clay ornaments Elizabeth brought home one year from the Day Care Center in Nuernberg. There are about five different ornaments (this heart and another, two moons and a tree). Liz was so excited when I picked her up one day after work; it was just before Christmas break and all the children had been making special surprises. And Liz had a surprise for mommy! So we got home and out came these clay ornaments. However, they all had the initials P.E. on them instead of E.F. I didn't want to spoil the surprise for Liz, so I told her how lovely they were, how important they were to me and how I would always put them on the tree. But my plan was to check back after the holidays when day care reopened, to see if anyone had reported receiving the wrong ornaments, and then do a quiet "switch-a-roo" without Liz knowing what had happened. But no one ever reported anything! So I just kept quiet about the whole thing and every year since, I've placed them on the tree! Of course, it wasn't long (probably the next year they were brought out) before Liz was asking why we had ornaments with the initials P.E. on them and I had to explain the whole thing to her. At first she was upset because someone out there had her ornaments and they should return them! But it's now a family joke!

There must be something special about the Fursdon Family and clay ornaments!

This star and the gingerbread woman and Christmas tree below were given to me by Nigel as a birthday gift. Mind you, not just any birthday gift; it was my first birthday present from him after we were engaged!

Nigel and I met on 6 May 1978 and we were immediately attracted to each other; it wasn't until that fall that we spent more than a day apart! Well, along comes December and if I remember correctly, his Mom had booked him and his brother flights to England (from Huntsville, Alabama where we met) so they could spend time with their family. But Nigel didn't want to go; he told me he didn't want to spend that much time away from me (2-3 weeks). Wasn't that sweet? Personally, I think he just wasn't overly thrilled about spending that amount of time with elderly family members, especially over the holidays! But in the end, he went and according to his Mom Valerie, Nigel was miserable the whole time, asking about me, talking about me, complaining about the fact I wasn't there, etc. Valerie later confided to me that she'd never been so tired of hearing about "Jan". She said it was "Jan this and Jan that" every time he opened his mouth and she said he nearly drove everyone crazy.

In the end, Nigel ended up catching an earlier flight home by a couple of days. He'd wanted to get home for my birthday on January 4th, but snow had closed down everything and he didn't make it back until January 6th. It was then that he gave me these three clay ornaments, a lovely set of crystal liqueur glasses, and asked me to marry him! Now I ask you - with Christmas ornaments and a proposal of marriage all in one, how could I possibly refuse??

Well, that's it for this entry. Hope you didn't mind the stories. It's always so much fun to look back over happy memories!

Take care and May God Bless! Jan

Make 2012 Better!! (AKA: Memories of Christmas 1)

2012-01-17T20:54:00.000-06:00

More than a month has passed since I last posted, which gave me much needed time to rethink many things in my life, not the least of which I turned 52 about a week ago!! I'm always pleased to see birthdays roll around; we work hard in this life and we deserve celebrations in honor of making it through another year!

But what have I been up to? Well.......let's see. I think the most important thing on my mind is the difficulty I went through simply getting through the Christmas celebration itself! Strange, I know, because I'm usually the "Christmas Fanatic" of the family, all "gung ho and ready to go". But not so this year. Every day before Christmas seemed like one frustration after another, and time was not standing still. Rather, it rushed onward, full speed ahead into a day that passed quietly and unobtrusively save for the fact that my sister Sherry came and rescued Isabel from my doldrums, taking her on a week-long trip to our home town of Jonesboro, Arkansas to visit family and friends. And finally, about 7:45 that night, Nigel came home from work, the third Christmas Day he's had to work in as many years. This supposedly ends for Christmas 2012. At least I hope and pray it is so!

Laura was in Afghanistan (God willing it will be the LAST Christmas she spends there) and Liz and Jake spent their first Christmas together in Seattle, before heading here to Alabama to help ring in the new (and prayerfully improved) New Year as well as take part in our annual Christmas Holiday Party.

Oh yes, the Christmas Party, which actually turned into a New Year's Eve party because Nigel's schedule didn't permit an earlier event. If I say I didn't finish decorating the house until the 28th of December, it is NOT an understatement! Finally I got it into my soggy brain that enough was enough and ended everything just where it was! Which I might add was still quite beautiful, but I simply couldn't get overly excited about anything by that point.

I know.....I know....."Waa! Waa! Waa!" Sorry! Just a little pity party there. When I stopped to think of all the blessings God literally showered upon us down through the years, I felt even more shameful, but I still had my pity party! I guess sometimes we just need to whine! I knew in my heart we shouldn't have planned so much, especially given all our crazy schedules this year. But just because we knew this did not mean it translated into sensible action. So on we went with the party plans, which was - as I mentioned earlier - quite lovely, with lots of wonderful family and friends. And for the first time in more years than I can remember, we actually toasted the New Year in at MIDNIGHT with glasses of champagne held high! So you see? God has been generous beyond measure!!

Now...where was all this leading to? Oh yes.....Sorry, but I should have warned you this was going to be one long, boring post, but too late for warnings now! As I mentioned earlier, I've had time to rethink many things about my life - where I'm headed, where I've been, and so on. And I've come to the conclusion that I have GOT to start taking better care of myself physically and mentally, and taking BETTER charge of my life and its accompanying responsibilities! It seems like this entire past year has been nothing more than one large pity/whine party for me! (Duh? How can you tell?) And quite frankly, I've become quite sick of .....ME!!

So.....my motto for this year is.......Make 2012 Better!! Which you'll be happy to know is already taking off! I've started exercising in our gym at work with a dear friend and co-worker. And I managed to tell everyone I could think of at the party that next year - or rather, THIS year - there will be no Fursdon Christmas Holiday Party! This is NOT to say there won't be a celebration!! Quite the contrary! I intend to spend this coming Christmas holiday season celebrating the old fashioned way, by spending time with family and friends, baking holiday goodies with Isabel and Mom, and enjoying the true meaning of Christmas, rather than rushing around like a chicken with my head cut off (does anyone still use this expression besides me?). Besides, we can always have the party next year; we've hosted this party now for at least the past 12 to 14 years and, quite frankly, it's getting a little old! At least for me it is! And if its getting old for me, it's time to put it aside for awhile! The idea is to enjoy it; not dread it!

Also, my overall goal this year is - Create, Rather than Buy!! This will hopefully translate into hand-made Christmas presents for everyone this year! I've always wanted to do this, but each year I've given in to the shopping insanity that's unfortunately the norm for the season. But God willing, NOT this year!

Whew! I feel better already! Sometimes just the claiming out loud of a goal gives sufficient energy to get it into motion! The rest is up to me! And God!

Congratulations! We've made it to the end of the post! Yea!!!! And to celebrate, I've decided to post photos of my favorite Christmas ornaments, amassed over the years and from all the many countries we've visited and lived in! So here goes!

The Welsh Dresser makes a beautiful display for my Santa Claus and Bottle Brush Tree Collections

Mr. and Mrs. Claus - by one of my favorite artists, Jim Shore. A gift from dear, sweet Rita!

Vintage style snowmen - snuggled up together in a pewter bowl.

Mr. Icy Toes! Believe it or not, when I first saw him in the store (at an After Christmas Sale, I might add), he had a Christmas Tree on top of his head!! I kid you not! Now don't get me wrong; I'm all for new and interesting designs, but there are some things that are just WRONG!! So....after removing said tree, Mr. Icy Toes was much happier with his lot in life and has lived at Ashwood Circle ever since!

Mr. Icy Toes With a Vintage Tree from my ever growing collection! I LOVE these types of trees! They're hard to come by, and can occasionally get costly, so I search throughout the year and usually confine myself to just one new one each year. Some years I get really lucky and find several at a good price!

Isn't he lovely? I found him 10 or 12 years ago in an antique shop, although the date on the bottom of the snowball is 1989. I always thought his bum must be very cold, sitting on that snowball! I think it's designed as a replica of a Christmas Candy Box. I especially love the details of his face! Fabulous!

This church is a music box that plays Silent Night and when it's done up properly, it has a light inserted in a slot in the back which lights up the "stained glass" windows! It belonged to my paternal grandmother, Zella Ellen Hoffman; my brothers and I called her Grandma. I remember magical Christmases at her house. Unlike most everyone else, she put up a silver aluminum tree! Although not the "in thing" back then, to my eyes it was crystal and light and totally different from the usual dark evergreens we decorated. She had an accompanying color wheel that would turn slowly from red to green to blue to yellow, casting a warm glow over the tinsel branches. Since there were no little children in her house, Grandma always put down a tree skirt of white cotton batting, liberally sprinkled with millions of tiny pieces of glitter that sparkled in the light! This church would sit underneath the tree, in the center of a display of small ceramic and porcelain ballerinas, while toy soldiers marched in unison to an unseen band. To complete the ensemble, cardboard houses in an array of glittery colors stretched up one "hill" and down another, creating a magical wonderland I still try to recreate in my own home. I'd sit for ages, quietly looking at the magical scene before me! What sweet memories!

New "sweet memories" of our own making!! Chaos after Christmas! Notice the cat lounging in the chair to the left of the photo! Dundee will always find a place to make himself comfortable!

Here I am - at the end of this first post, trying to decide how to proceed. What I want to do is put all my favorite ornaments on the blog, with a few words here and there to explain their significance, etc. I admit wholeheartedly that this is mainly for me and may bore everyone else to tears. However, it's what I want to write about and its my blog. So that settles it. Of course I may have no followers after this, but I think it's important to put down - somewhere - those things which are important to us - for whatever reasons we may have, silly or not. It's how history moves forward - with lists of items and what they were used for, or meant to us, and so on. So....although I'll create separate posts to accommodate the MULTITUDE of photos, I'll call them "Memories of Christmas" and include the date. That way, I can always write other things and still go back to the ornaments whenever I wish!

Poor you! I don't think I'll blame you one little bit for leaving! But maybe. . . . .just maybe, I'll encourage someone else to write about their favorite ornaments, or their favorite pastimes, or whatever. And then maybe we can even create more history! So I raise my glass (no longer filled with champagne unfortunately!) to .........

History!! Our history, mine and yours!

May God Bless, Jan

It's December Already!!

2011-12-03T00:37:00.000-06:00

I can't believe it's already been two weeks since I last posted here! And.....it's DECEMBER already!!! Okay, who keeps turning the clock forward when I'm not looking?!?!?!

Have all of you seen fields full of cotton ready for picking? Have you seen cotton after it's been taken to the cotton gin and packed? Well, years ago, when Nigel's cousins were visiting us from England, we passed a cotton field full of the ripe boles and they were amazed! What we take for granted around here is not something so common elsewhere. So, the other day, while passing the cotton gin, I took these photos. I couldn't find a field of cotton, as all of it has already been picked. Maybe next year I'll get one for you.

Weird looking, isn't it? It's so beautiful in the fields, but here it is, packed down at the cotton gin.

More of the same

Looks like snow, doesn't it? But before I get too poetical, remember that it's BLOODY HARD, NASTY WORK picking cotton!!!! Been there, done that and I have no use for the T-shirt!! It's miserably hot and humid (100 plus degrees for weeks on end) when its ready to pick; you have cuckleburrs (sp?) ripping your fingers to shreds as you try to pull it from the bole. Best of all, you get to meet our lovely state bird - the mosquito!! The bloodsucking little mite has a field day with you. So......I guess you could say that other than these few minor problems, growing and picking cotton is quite lovely!

Have a great weekend! Trust me, it won't last long, so make it a great one!

Love and Blessings, Jan

Weekends End Too Quickly!!

2011-11-20T23:03:00.000-06:00

I understand time passes much quicker the older we get, but does that have to include the weekends as well? Quite frankly, I enjoy the week days passing by quickly because I'm at work! Tacky, but true, even though I do enjoy my job for the most part. But I LIVE for my weekends!! And in about 3.328 seconds, it's GONE!! What's up with that?!?! It's the same with our evenings! You blink twice and - HEY PRESTO - you're back at work the next morning!! Geeeessssshhhhhh!

So I've decided to petition for a two-day workweek and a five day weekend! Simple enough; just reverse the schedule we have now. We'd all be much happier.......well, perhaps most of us would. And just think of the fun we'd have!! And the "projects" we'd get completed! And the places we'd go and the people we'd see!! Yes, I think I'm definitely headed in the right area!

So.....see you all on the weekend . . . tomorrow! May God Bless, Jan

Another Blog for Fursdon House!!!

2011-11-17T19:29:00.000-06:00

I don't think insanity runs in our family, but maybe we just hide it really well. Why? Well.....knowing I have so much spare time on my hands (NOT!!), I've created another blog. It's name is Mulberry Cottage and it's solely about my Cabinet Doll House!

Yes, I've gone back to the land of miniatures once again! And I have to admit I'm having a blast! Only this time, not only am I going to revamp the entire cabinet doll house, I'll have this blog to chronicle my changes. Additionally, I plan to write a book about it one day! See what I mean? I'm nuts!! But I'm NEVER bored, so it's okay. Here's the link: http://www.mulberry-cottage.blogspot.com/.

A faster way to get there is to click on my button on the right hand side of the blog, that looks like this:

By the way, this little Gingerbread House is only about 1 1/2 inches square and sits in the palm of your hand! It also sits inside the Dining Room of Mulberry Cottage!

I've only just started the blog about a week ago, so it's still in its "infancy", but I have B.I.G. plans for it and I hope you enjoy it as much as I am, revisiting such a magical world and getting to "play" to my heart's content!

Take care and have a lovely day!
May God Bless, Jan

Three Day Weekend!

2011-11-14T20:04:00.000-06:00

Lovely three-day weekend with glorious weather! It was the perfect opportunity for my latest project - repainting Husband's pirates - Blackbeard and Precious! They aren't exactly cut out for outdoor use and although I only have "after" pictures of Precious, I remembered to get Blackbeard's "before" and "after" photos. See what you think!

Mr. Scruffy

Mr. Handsome

Scruffy

Handsome

Scruffy

Handsome -

After repainting them, I put on a heavy coat of polyurethane to better protect them while they're outside.

Precious

Yes, that's fresh lipstick, but it wasn't my idea! She came with red lipstick already on!

So I decided that if a female pirate can actually look this FANTASTIC (yeah right!) and if she can come to our household with lipstick already on (as if!), then I'm painting her fingernails to match! So there! It's called "artistic license" and I have plenty of it!

Enjoy and have a lovely evening! May God Bless, Jan

The Gaylord Opryland Hotel, Nashville, Tennessee

2011-11-11T22:27:00.000-06:00

I believe this to be the most beautiful hotel in the world. It's the Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee. At Christmas time, it's absolutely beyond description, with decorations that defy the imagination. The beauty and pageantry dazzle the senses and just when you think it can't get any better, you turn the corner and are amazed once again. But believe it or not, Christmas isn't my favorite time of year to visit. It's now, before the holidays, when you can truly appreciate it's unique beauty. See for yourself.......

Large brightly colored Koi swim the waters of these beautiful "ponds".

Unexpectedly, water shoots from the rocks, bringing smiles to the faces of everyone present.

A walk bridge over the waters allow you to stop and enjoy the show from many different angles.

One of several fabulous waterfalls!

I half expected monkeys to jump out onto the ledge and shake their fists at my intrusion!

The main fall - absolutely breathtaking!

Believe it or not, this is the view from behind one of the falls! We're actually walking through a tunnel that runs underneath one of them.

Tropical vegetation, ferns and brightly colored flowers surround yet another fall.

The main fall from another angle. And the amazing part of all this is that you look up and realize there's a glass roof over your head!! It's all completely indoors! Birds chirp in the trees, fish swim in the waters, and you realize you're residing in a tropical paradise - right in the middle of Tennessee!

We were fortunate enough to stay here about 12 years ago; my husband's company was hosting special training and this is the hotel they chose! Even better, we had a room with a balcony overlooking all this! And while Nigel was in training, I spent my days soaking up the beauty and serenity of this magical place. It was especially nice in the early morning hours, before many people were up and about. I've never forgotten it and am still, 12 years later, just as enchanted with it as I was in the beginning.

Have a blessed Veteran's Day! Jan

Words to Live By

2011-11-07T18:31:00.000-06:00

Wanted to share this with you.

Watch your thoughts, for they become words.

Watch your words, for they become actions.

Watch your actions, for they become habits.

Watch your habits, for they become character.

Watch your character, for they become your destiny.

Lovely! Have a wonderful evening and may God bless, Jan

What do I want my blog to say?

2011-10-31T19:48:00.001-05:00

At first, I wasn’t going to answer this question because I thought the answer was included in my earlier post (23 October). Then I had a “re-think”. Does anyone else do this – make “snap” decisions, then regroup (if I’m smart) and go at it from a different angle? Usually it’s so much better when I do things this way; much more interesting.

So….back to the question at hand. Here’s what I, Jan Fursdon, want to say:

Love yourself. It’s that simple. And that complicated. But I think that’s where most of my own problems originate. I always hold myself up to a higher standard, always expect more from myself than anyone else. Then comes that nagging, soul destroying frustration when I don’t live up to those ridiculously high standards I’ve created which I don’t expect anyone else to live up to! Why is that? Is there some rule book that places this official demand on us? I don’t think so! So give it up!

Now I’m not talking about some wacky “love fest” where everything you say or do should be surrounded with hugs and kisses and globs of goo. But do some simple things for yourself. For one - stop picking on yourself! Give yourself a break! Make sure you give “you” the same chance you give everyone else (nothing more and nothing less). And when you fail – and you surely will because we ALL do from time to time – remember to forgive yourself the way you forgive others. Give yourself the same latitude, the same room to recover, the same encouragement to try and try again until you succeed. Don’t you deserve that? Don’t we all deserve that? I think we do. I know we do!

We’re all so hard on ourselves and it’s time to let go of all that nonsense! Embrace who you are as well as how you’ve come to be that person, that wonderful individual who is the sum total of so many different circumstances, different life experiences.

Be kinder than necessary, especially to YOU - because YOU deserve it!

May God Bless, Jan

Shades of Autumn

2011-10-29T21:19:00.005-05:00

Just wanted to share these lovely photos of our back yard with you!

Have a lovely weekend everyone! May God Bless, Jan

Vintage, Spun Cotton Cupcake Toppers!

2011-10-26T15:37:00.000-05:00

Try saying that three times quickly! I found these at an antique shop in Seattle two years ago when I was visiting my daughter Liz. Needless to say, I grabbed them up and thanked my lucky stars to have found them!

They originated from Japan and I remember seeing them on cupcake tops in bakeries when I was little (in the early 60's). Money was scarce back then so a trip to the bakery was a very big deal. Then, on "top" of everything else (pun intended!), to see these darling little toppers - I admit I still remember the absolute thrill and awe of just being able to stand in front of the glass pastry cabinets and stare at them! It's a wonder I ever made up my mind which one I wanted, although the cake could have tasted like cardboard for all I cared; it was the toppers that did it for me!

I think this little devil is my favorite! I love his frowning little face!

I vaguely remember seeing a ghost topper when I was little. And these little pumpkins are simply so sweet! In particular, I find the discoloration on the bottoms of the "sticks" most charming because it tells me they were used instead of put away just to admire. I can just imagine the delight they must have caused to little boys and girls. How sweet those memories are!

Happy All Hallows Eve! Jan

My Baby (Oldest) is Home from Afghanistan!!!!

2011-10-24T18:36:00.000-05:00

Welcome Home Laura!

No resemblance here!

Each in their "Roma Italia" shirts Laura got on her recent trip to Rome.

Sweet!

"Gummy, aren't you through taking pictures yet?"

"Isabel, you might as well smile cause Gummy won't quit till you do. So there!"

I have her till 6 November! Not long enough, but I'll take it!! As you can also imagine, Isabel is beside herself with pure joy now that Mommy is home for awhile!

Love and Blessings to All! Jan

What is the purpose of my blog?

2011-10-23T23:13:00.000-05:00

I think initially I started this blog as a way of promoting my very small online business at Etsy. At least I think that's what I thought at the time. Now it's become all muddled up with.......what? Not sure. But I wanted to try and answer some questions honestly and sincerely and see where they lead me.

I started reading Tara Frey's book, "Blogging for Bliss - Crafting Your Own Online Journal". I found it in the bookstore the other day and bought it and finally, last night, I started reading it and I was impressed enough to want to change directions - at least try to change directions - with my blog and see where it leads me.

So here I am - back to the same question I was at before - only this time with a different answer. This time my answer is that I want to communicate with people. And I mean really communicate! With like minded people who enjoy some things I do, and perhaps think sometimes the way I think.

And I want to help people, even though I'm not at all sure exactly what that means or what it will encompass - "to help people." But that's what I want to do. I want to share my own experiences with others and perhaps be able to get their stories from them, and learn from them. And I just want to live an honest and worthwhile life, knowing somewhere out there I'm talking with someone - really communicating with them - in a way I'd never thought possible only a few short years ago.

Does any of this make sense? Well, regardless, there it is. My truth. The purpose of my blog is to communicate and share and help and have fun and enjoy this life - this world we live in!

Whew! That felt good! So I'm going to quickly spell check it because I have a quirky hang-up about misspelled words if I can help it. Then I'm going to post it before I change my mind and delete the thing! Wish me luck! Jan

P.S. I've also discovered a new blog (mentioned in Tara Frey's book). It's called Dear Daisy Cottage and you'll find it here at http://www.deardaisycottage.typepad.com/. Check it out and see what you think! And she even has a doll house and doll house postings! How cool is that! Oh dear, I'd better get this posted because I feel way out of my comfort zone now and I'm starting to critique it too much! See you! Jan

Lazy Days!

2011-10-22T13:08:00.000-05:00

Did you ever have those days when you flat out didn't want to do anything?! Days when even getting up out of a chair didn't seem quite worth the effort; when all you really wanted to do was just lie around in jammies all day, or perhaps take a nice long nap - in the middle of the morning!? Well, welcome to my world right now! I feel like a complete and total B.U.M.!!!!!

And yes, I realize that if I did get up and start "doing around", then I'd get more energy, and consequently feel better, and........yada yada yada........ain't gonna happen right now, I can tell you that! Hey - I did open up the computer, log on and post this blog!! What more do you want!?!?!

I found the cutest picture of Halloween cupcakes the other day in a magazine; I took a photo of them but now I can't remember which magazine they're in! I have magazines (mostly my favorites from Stampington and Company) and books lying around everywhere, especially now that the holidays are approaching. Oh well, I'll probably end up using my own recipe for the cake and just looking at the picture to do the little skeletons.
Oh.....I guess it would help if I showed you the picture, huh?

The heads are marshmallows and the bodies are just icing - I think! Anyway, that's what mine are gonna be cause it's a cinch I'm not gonna spend a whole lot of time looking for that recipe! Well....Adios Amigos! Jan

Boo! Did I scare you?

2011-10-21T22:45:00.000-05:00

The air is so lovely and crisp outside - my favorite time of year! And when I walked outside just now, the air was heavy with wood smoke from a nearby fireplace! I must say I don't miss the mess of a wood burning fireplace, but I definitely miss the smells of one!

Had a lovely and extremely welcome surprise from my very best friend, Sherry, yesterday evening. And it couldn't have come at a better time because I'd just gotten home after being involved in a minor car accident! Minor to my Tundra pick-up truck (a speck of red paint from the other car on the ball tow bar) and major to the other car, a small Sonata. It's back bumper was mostly torn off, with bits hanging from what seemed like threads; the back right tire was punctured and spewing air everywhere; and the back right door didn't appear as if it would ever open! The whole thing was so upsetting, but I knew the most important thing was that nobody was hurt! Thank God!

Anyway, back to my lovely surprise from Sherry:

Isn't he cute? He brightened up my whole day! So I decided to post some more fun photos! Here they are!

Bored Out of My Gourd 1

Bored Out of My Gourd 2

Bored Out of My Gourd 3

Mr. Bojangles the Cat With Bow Tie by Isabel

Flying Happy Bat by Isabel

An authentic German Kitchen Witch! We bought her in Germany just before Nigel was deployed to the First Gulf War in 1990. My girls named her Witchy Poo. Now I ask you - how can you NOT love this darling little Witchy Poo? Her official job is to scare away bad spirits in your home! That - and she makes a darn good Halloween greeting at the front door!

What a profile!!

I made this Halloween candy bag for Isabel when she was one year old. It went perfectly with her little cat costume, complete with little ears and a long curly tail! I got the bag pattern from Country Living Magazine.

And lastly - Mr. Sammy Simpkins! Isn't he adorable? I want to have his attitude - just chillin' out on a stack of books, happy as can be!

Happy Halloween! Jan

Ghosties and Ghoulies and Things That Go BUMP in the Night!!

2011-10-19T20:33:00.000-05:00

Hard to believe another Halloween is almost here! But the weather today, a very chilly 48 degrees, left no doubt whatsoever! Here are pics of the decorations I put up this past weekend - some old favorites and a few new ones!

The Fun House I made last year with very PURPLE and very ORANGE glitter!

Detail of the front door - notice the door handle! A great way to dispose of "spare parts"! The ghouls in the

window are cut-outs from a magazine I glued to card stock, then glued to the back of doll house windows.

The Family Plot! As my dear Uncle Ray would say: People are just dying to get in!

Close-Up. I lost a gravestone that read "D. M. Bones". I'll have to find time somewhere and redo it.

This little skeleton tree is a new addition. Isn't it awful looking? And just perfect for my display!

A new hilarious display for the top of the house - it's a bright PINK rubber skeleton with a headache!

Definitely an old favorite! Mom drew and cut out this witch from black construction paper when we were kids, about 37 years ago!! I added the green sequin eyes last year. Now Broom Hilda gets to ride off into the sunset! She still looks gorgeous, even after all this time! Thank you Georgie!! Love you!

Ghosts just hangin' around the place! Isabel and I made them from cotton balls and bits of flimsy white cloth that draped easily. Though it doesn't show here, we drew black Sharpie faces on each one.

The Welsh Cupboard in all it's ghoulish glory!!

A new display on top of the oak chest, with both new and old favorites. Remember the rock ghosts I painted last year? They've become a fast favorite! And the new Pumpkin Clown in White is this year's fun addition!

Another view, with Isabel's artwork displayed on the wall behind.

Okay, so the Pumpkin Clown was one of TWO favorite purchases this year! Isn't this tree cool? It's wrapped in black velvet. Because it's relatively flat, it takes up very little floor space. So I moved it from the top of this chest to the front of the living room bookcase. See the little mummies at it's base? Isabel and I made them!

Happy All Hallows Eve Everyone!! Jan

My First Paper Cloth Creations - Handmade Bookmarks!

2011-10-08T17:31:00.000-05:00

Greetings from Sweet Home Alabama!

As I mentioned in my last post, I got in late yesterday afternoon from a business trip to Salt Lake City, Utah, and even though we had a great trip and learned a lot, it felt so good to get back home! Not only that, but being away from my usual routine gave me the opportunity to refocus on my "creative muse".

She (my muse) hasn't been overly pleased with me lately, dulled as I've been by the stressors of too much work and not enough creativity. I didn't realize how much I'd been neglecting her until this past week and I think it's safe to say there's nothing quite like a change of scenery to refresh your vision and get yourself back on track!

So today I've done nothing but "get back to the basics" of working on my blog posts, as well as photographing and listing new items for my online Etsy shop at www.fursdonhouse.etsy.com! See what you think of my first venture into creating paper cloth, with these hand made bookmarks!

Would you believe I've had these completed for over a month now? I kept telling myself they weren't good enough to show anyone so I just put them aside. Why oh why do I listen to that negative little Beezlebub who constantly entertains my weaker moments? Well, here they are now! This is just a sample though; I've made 26 bookmarks out of this particular piece of paper cloth I created. They aren't all listed on Etsy yet, but I hope to have them all there by tomorrow.

And my next venture? Not sure yet, but I have plenty of ideas to choose from! And I have to admit it's wonderful to have my studio all in order, ready and waiting!

Take care, have a lovely weekend and may God bless, Jan

Easy-Peasy Scrapbook from an Ordinary Paper Lunch Bag!

2011-10-06T11:44:00.170-05:00

Hi Everyone!

I wanted to share these instructions with you on how to make a very simple scrapbook out of paper lunch bags. This works great with any color of bag, especially those ordinary brown ones you may already have on hand!

To create your lunch bag scrapbook, fold three lunch bags in half, short end to short end. Use a bone folder or a pencil or pen to make sure the folded side has a tight crease. Like this:

Using a single-hole punch, punch four holes into the folded edge of the bags, about 1/2 inch inward from the edge of the fold, like this:

Cut four lengths of your favorite narrow ribbon into 3 1/2 inch sections, thread them through the holes and tie in a secure knot, like this:

Now I ask you - is this easy-peasy or what? And they're so much fun to make!

Because I already had a scrapbook shell (a white one left over from several I made for my granddaughter's recent birthday party), I decided to take it with me on my business trip to Salt Lake City, Utah. This way, I could create a memento for Isabel. I've learned that kids love to see evidence of your other life, the one you lead that has nothing to do with them! And it's also a fun memory for you too! I've completed several of these over the years and I love looking through them every now and then. Of course the best thing is they're so easy! Especially if you've already created the shell. All you need for the trip is a pair of scissors, some colored pencils and a glue stick. The rest is up to you! Here's my latest example:

The idea behind this scrapbook in particular is to keep things SIMPLE!

The U.S. map came from a newspaper, the ticket stubs are from the Airlines. Draw a few photos and you get your idea across. And underneath the flap?

A gum wrapper! Thanks for the gum Paula!

Inside the first pocket (#1), I put a grocery list I found; someone left it on the flight before ours! And more paper from our boarding passes.

The "Little America Hotel" paper lid is what hotels put over glasses to keep them clean. I just snipped it all the way around so it would lay down flat. And of course there's more fabulous artwork by yours truly!

The Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory label was cut from a bag of chocolates I bought at the Denver airport on our way to Salt Lake City. The photo from the hotel is from a magazine supplied by the hotel.

Underneath the chocolate label are little "chocolate cutouts" from the chocolate bag! I got two pieces each for my friends and traveling companions Paula and Kelli, and I had a larger one for myself. So it's only natural that I included such a wonderful delight in this scrapbook! BTW - this is FABULOUS chocolate!!!!!!

Inside Pocket #2 is a map of the hotel that's given to all guests, along with a ticket stub from our conference.

A tea bag wrapper and a story about a bracelet I purchased at the Hotel Gift Shop.

A laminated name tag given to me at our conference, along with a plastic heart that had mints inside.

For Pocket #3, I used the plastic heart as a template and made 2 other paper hearts.

These were great for writing sweet little messages to Isabel.

The back side is another glass cover.

As you can see, these are easy and fun to create. It's even easier if you already have a "shell" created because you can take it with you and glue things into it as your trip progresses! You can keep them simple like the one above, or you can get very creative and decorate them inside and out. It's all up to you!

That's it for now everyone. Having returned home late yesterday afternoon to "Sweet Home Alabama", I now find there's about a gazillion things needing my attention. But I was determined to get this post out to you before wading knee-deep into Choresville!

See you soon and have a lovely weekend! Jan

The Power of Four!

2011-10-01T21:41:00.000-05:00

Hi Everyone!

You may remember this picture I took in Seattle in June, while we were walking along a trail near my youngest daughter's house.

We just came upon the "sculpture" and I thought it was so intriguing I snapped a photo of it. The only thing I could possibly think it might be was some kind of trail marker.

Now fast forward to our trip to Washington, D.C. in July (yes, we've been VERY BUSY this year). On our return trip home from D.C., we drove through Asheville, North Carolina, where we stopped for lunch. Afterward we did a little sightseeing and found an art gallery located in an old Woolworth Building here.

In one of the artist's booth, I found this photo!

Is this cool, or what?

Here's what it says on the reverse of the card!

That's it for now folks. This is a short post because it's already 9:35 pm and I haven't packed for my trip to Salt Lake City, Utah, tomorrow We leave the house at 5:30 am! I know. I know. Nothing like waiting till the last minute. Which is why I need to "bid you adieu"!

If I get a chance, I'll post from "out west"! Hope everyone has a lovely week! May God Bless, Jan

Another Project Completed!!

2011-09-25T23:23:00.000-05:00

For the life of me, I couldn't figure out where I was going to put all my rubber stamps! I wanted them where I could see them all at a glance because it's far easier to create something if you know what you have to create with! At least that's my theory!! And although I LOVE my studio (LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!), I could use more space!! Hey - I'm greedy, okay? Fully admitted!! But I'm also a pack rat, though I'm trying very hard to keep only what I absolutely love or feel I absolutely need or could absolutely use some day.....okay, forget pare down! I'm a pack rat. Enough said!!

Now back to the point of this blog post! I kept wondering how I was going to pull this one off when I realized I still had "available space" on my desk front! See what I mean.....

I've learned many things over the years, living with Nigel in the Military, and one thing I'm good at is maximizing every tiny inch of space! And there are a LOT of inches of space right here for the taking!!

So I took 'em!! Here's what I did.....

I measured the front of the desk and I measured my largest rubber stamps. This way, I had an idea how many "shelves" I could fit onto the piece. Since Nigel doesn't want me using any of his saws (silly man!), I decided to let Home Depot do the work for me. Wonderful people they are! I picked out a good quality sheet of cabinet grade plywood (on sale no less!!), as well as a long length of molding that had a nice ridge running down the length of it, which was also deep enough to hold the stamps.

I then gave the clerk my dimensions and he cut everything up for me!

True to form, I almost forgot to photograph this process. As you can see, I'd already started painting when I realized I hadn't taken any photos! Here you see the plywood, with the molding placed on top and glued down. Glue, you ask? Yes, glue!! It's called Liquid Nails and Nigel already had some loaded in his "squirty glue-gun thingy".

Come to think of it, he also uses that to caulk with, so maybe it's called a caulk gun!

(One of my "DUH" moments! Sorry!)

Here it is, all nicely painted. I let the "liquid nails" set 24 hours before testing it, and it really did hold well, so I was encouraged to keep going. After the paint was thoroughly dry, I stood it up in front of the desk. The next question was - should I trust "liquid nails" again to glue it to the front, or should I use traditional nails? Too easy! I decided on the glue. If it didn't work, I could always use real nails, but why not give it a try?

And it worked!! I glued the panel on the front of the desk, then pushed several heavy items against it to hold it in place. This time, I waited 48 hours. And here are the results!

Isn't it cool? And it only takes up about 3 more inches of space!!

I love it when a plan comes together!! Until next time then, take care and have a lovely week!!

Jan

Latest Creation from Fursdon House

2011-09-19T20:49:00.000-05:00

Hi Everyone!

Just wanted to show you my latest "completed" project at Fursdon House! Seems like I have about 30 of them started and in various stages of completion, but this one made it through to the home stretch. See what you think!

I did another one for Elise's older brother, Brian. Then alone came little sister, so it's only natural I had to do one for her too! I used chipboard letters, traced the shapes onto different papers, then glued the paper to the letter shapes. Most of my time was spent trying to find papers I liked that went well together! And of course I had to jazz it up a bit with some pretty flower stickers! I already had the frame so it was a great re-do; it was originally a mirror! I just removed the mirror and put in plain glass.

Here's the one I did for Big Brother Brian last year! Here's that post:

://fursdonhouse.blogspot.com/2010/09/name-plate-for-very-special-young-man.html

Isn't this rosebud sweet? One of my co-workers gave it to me Friday afternoon! It's scent was Heavenly!!

It's Saturday morning and the bloom is opening up! The "vase" is the top of a lipstick cover I had at work!

Sunday and it's completely open, still with a lovely scent! Thank you Sandra!!!

One last photo before closing. This is Thistle and Dundee, checking out the new deck and wondering what the new smell is! Hmmmmm.......it looks like a deck, feels like a deck, maybe it is a deck!!

Love and Blessings to All! Jan

Our New Deck!!

2011-09-08T20:18:00.000-05:00

Hi Everybody!

I wanted to share photos of our new deck with you that Nigel just built and Yours Truly just painted! Check it out!

As usual, he did a FANTASTIC job!!

He also removed the railings that were built when the desk was first put in. It really opens up the space visually, as well as literally. Back then, there weren't an trees or shrubbery - nothing really except a giant empty back yard that Nigel was determined to fill up. Twenty years later - things are slightly different! Also, with the rails gone you can see what I consider his finest work - the rock edging he put around the circumference of the deck and flower beds!

I haven't finished painting yet so guess what's in store for my upcoming weekend?!?! But I figured that if he could build it, I'd get it painted. Of course, my muscles aren't overly pleased with me, but they can just deal!

One last view! Isn't it a great looking deck!!

Well, that's all for tonight. Just wanted to share with you! Isn't this cooler weather wonderful? It only registered about 80 degrees Fahrenheit today!! LOVELY!!!! I sure hope it doesn't heat back up too soon. Quite frankly, I'm ready to say "Goodbye Summer and Hello Autumn!!

Take care and have a great evening! Jan

Going Home - By Way of Ashville, North Carolina and Murfreesboro, Tennessee

2011-09-03T17:52:00.001-05:00

One last view of the Washington Monument before leaving D.C.

I didn't realize the flags from all 50 states flew at the base of this monument. Very fitting!

Beautiful old Woolworth's Building in Ashville, North Carolina! Look at that architecture! It's been turned into an Artist's Gallery and Show Room. Needless to say, I had to go in!!

Out of sequence, but this is Isabel hamming it up with Stripes at the Metro in D.C. the night before we left.

Silly Izzy at the Solace Restaurant in Ashville, NC. The restaurant's owners opened about 4 months previously and only serve organically grown food they either purchase or grow themselves. Delicious!

These next four slides are so interesting. It's live street art in Ashville. Two women, dressed in antebellum style, but everything is painted in gold!

They remain perfectly still for five or ten minutes and unless you see them actually move to a new position, you wonder if they aren't statues.

They had quite a following! Lovely to watch, because when they did move, it was in very slow motion, as if they were animated electronically.

A fun treat and I enjoyed every minute of it, even if I did almost lose sight of everyone else

Squirrels were everywhere we went! They were in D.C. on the sidewalks and in the trees beside the museums. On trails and along the streets! Quite tame! I got some lovely photos! This is Sammy Squirrel.

Sabrina Squirrel

Sebastian Squirrel

A lovely old building in Ashville. I love buildings with unusual architectural interests.

Somewhere between Ashville, North Carolina and Murfreesboro, Tennessee - at yet another Starbucks!! It's safe to say we worked hard to improve the nation's economy, especially at Starbucks, on this entire trip! Wasn't that very considerate of us?

Isabel wanted this shirt because she wanted to be Sherry's twin, even though she wasn't 51. Oh well, we let the rules slide a little for her. She was such a GREAT traveler! I still can't believe how well she behaved, as if she were an adult, instead of an almost 9-year-old on a week long trip! Yea Isabel!!!!!

The aftermath! Eeeck!! Cute cat shirt though!

After Aftermath! Eeeeck again!!

Well folks, that's it. The D.C. trip of 2011! I'm still enjoying the books and small pieces of artwork I bought. And I've also promised myself I'd create a scrapbook about the whole trip!! I'm my own worst enemy!! Believe it or not, you haven't seen all of the pictures yet! But having a scrapbook that you can actually pick up in your hands is so much fun, especially years from now. Isabel and both my girls L.O.V.E. looking at their own scrapbooks. I think they're an important and fun way to preserve a little bit of our past!

Take care and enjoy the Labor Day Weekend! With Love and Blessings to All! Jan

Fun Shots on Last Day and Evening in D.C.

2011-09-03T17:13:00.000-05:00

Some fun photos on our last day in D.C.

A metal tree!! This is SO COOL!!!

Isabel and Stripes. What is it about stuffed animals and kids? She has tons of them, but when she saw this at Barnes and Noble on the second day of our trip, she fell wildly in love with him. So - naturally - Gummy just had to get him for her! She carried him every day and surprisingly did not lose him!

Sweet little faces!!

Isabel and Twins! Sherry and I got our blouses and hats at a fantastic sale Coldwater Creek was having in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. The rest of the outfits matching were just coincidental! Isabel kept saying she wanted to be our twin too, but when she heard she had to be 51 years old first, it suddenly didn't sound so great to her!

Isabel took this photo and I thought it turned out pretty cool! Besides, we two Sisters are quite unique! Sometimes we're down right extraordinary!! And always we have F.U.N.!!! Sisters Rule!!!

The fountain where these photos was taken sits in front of the American History Museum

On our last evening, we traveled to Old Town Alexandria. It was late and most of the shops were closed, which is just as well considering how much I'd already spent!! We walked up and down the streets (closed to traffic, if I remember correctly), trying to figure out where to eat. Then Sherry said we should let Isabel choose the place this time. Great idea!

"Isabel - where do you want to eat? The Fish Market Restaurant!" Okay....let's go back there and eat."

So back we go and awhile later, after being seated......

"Isabel, why did you want to eat here? Because it has cheeseburgers on the menu outside!"

Need I say more? Actually, it was a wonderful restaurant, with the best crab cakes I've ever eaten! And I ordered a Sangria that came in a glass the size of a small swimming pool! Oh well, that didn't stop me either. It was fantastic! And the building, although you can't tell it from the front shown in the picture above, actually dates back to the Revolutionary War! A definite revisit is warranted!!

And then for dessert! Isabel is seated on a wooden cow bench while we order Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream!!! Sad, it's true, but somebody had to do it! Until then, I'd only had Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream from the grocery store freezer section! In case you were wondering.......it's FABULOUS!!!

Isabel sitting for her first portrait! No Laura - you CANNOT have it!!!

While Joe stayed with Isabel, Sherry and I strolled along the pier, sat for awhile looking at the beautiful sunset and taking this photo. In World War II, this building was used as a torpedo factory! Now it's used by artists to display and sell their art, give classes, etc. A fitting twist of fate, wouldn't you say?

Joe took this photo in the car while driving us out of Old Town Alexandria! We couldn't stop because cars were behind us and it was too late to turn around without some difficulty. When I return (not "if" but "when"), I'll get a better photo! This is the oldest Masonic Lodge in the United States!! It dates back to the 1700's. Nigel is a Mason and I knew he'd enjoy seeing the building!

That's it for now! I think I have one more blog post left in me for tonight, which should see the end of our D.C. trip. Take care and have a lovely Labor Day Weekend! Jan

The National Art Museum and The American History Museum

2011-09-03T15:58:00.000-05:00

Art and American History Museums! Can it get any better? I have to repeat what my friend Sherry said as we were strolling around through all the hallways. Nothing can compare to seeing good art in person. While computers and cameras are marvelous, it's being able to see and in some cases even touch the actual brush strokes made by the artist that really bring a piece of art to life. We had a wonderful time and I was able to photograph many of my favorites that I'd only seen in books and magazines until now. Hope you enjoy the tour!

The National Art Museum

"Boating Party - Mary Cassatt"

Although not one of my most favorite pieces of art, I enjoyed the movement of the little child in its mother's arms - anxious to get loose! That never changes down through the ages, does it?

"The Loge - Mary Cassat"

I loved the colors used in this portrait of two ladies at the theater, although the one in front doesn't look terribly excited about the prospect of a dance with anyone in particular. Perhaps the one she had "hoped" would be there was not? As you can see, I'm a romantic at heart!

"Landscape Near Paris - Paul Cezanne"

A favorite; I love the colors used here.

"A Friendly Call - William Chase"

Another favorite! I imagine the woman is the mother or mother-in-law. I also like the way pillows are strewn on the floor and in the chair!

"Still Life - Henri Latour"

So peaceful and "ordinary" looking. Nothing like a good book, a cup of tea and a healthy snack!

"Banks of the Seine - Claude Monet"

A favorite artist! I love the colors he uses! "Waterlilies" is one of my most favorite pieces of his!

"Ms. Mary Ellison With Fan - Mary Cassatt"

Mary Ellison was a close friend of Mary Cassatt's. It's believed she's also the one in the portrait above of the two ladies at the theater. Seeing this portrait reminds me of how far women have come in the last century!!

"Girl With a Hoop - Pierre-Auguste Renoir"

Lovely colors and subject! I love the stark contrast of the black shoes! And they're still in style today! Remember - there's NOTHING new under the sun!!

"Girl With a Watering Can - Pierre-Auguste Renoir"

More beautiful blues and a sweet little girl! Reminds me of my girls and my granddaughter, always wanting to help me water the plants using their little watering cans!

"Girl in White - Vincent Van Gogh"

Although I rarely enjoy Van Gogh's work (it's too bold and stark for my taste), I really like this one! He's left the little white strokes (like beads) raised, to make the fabric stand out.

"Mr. Theodore Duret - Edouard Vuillard"

Of course, any picture of someone with a cat deserves a second look! And I really like the color of those walls behind him! Fantastic!

The American History Museum

Beaded Papoose and Child's Beaded Shoes

Beautiful Beaded Bag

Can you imagine the time it took to bead these articles, not to mention needles were very scarce. They probably used fine bones instead. And it isn't as if they could run down to Hobby Lobby to get the beads they wanted! Oh, and then there was washing and cooking and hunting and feeding! Amazing!

Another beautifully beaded bag, in my favorite pink colors! Naturally this also caught my attention because of the "swastika" shape on the top of it. I had heard this symbol was used hundreds of years before the Nazis made it such a reviled emblem, but I hadn't seen evidence of this. Mr. Google informs us that the word swastika came from the Sanskrit word svastika, meaning any lucky or auspicious object, and in particular a mark made on persons and things to denote good luck.

Woman's Ceremonial Dress - Fabulous Design!!

More beautiful colors!! This looks like a forerunner of our book bags!

I've read that moccasins are extremely comfortable to wear.

A man's beaded shirt - again for ceremonial occasions.

A beaded shawl! Talk about a work of love!

A beaded woman's dress.

Another beaded bag

A more decoratively beaded man's shirt

Another man's shirt

Beaded children's shoes and beaded animals. One is a turtle and the other looks like a salamander.

Fantastically beaded vest! This blue is fabulous!

Another beaded vest

Beaded Vest in Blue with Red Bead Trim

More bead work. I love the art work here! It still amazes me to think that we as a general population thought of the American Indians as savages! I suppose when you want something that someone else has (i.e., land in this case), it's easy to find fault with them and drive them out of society.

I think of this as a very dark chapter in American history. This was a very dark chapter in American history.

These beaded leggings immediately reminded me of exquisite lace; my favorite article in the entire museum! It appeared to have a very marked Spanish influence in the overall design as well.

Now is this fun or what?!?!?! I love it!! It's a Day of the Dead Skull. The colors are fabulous! The Day of the Dead (Spanish - "Día de los Muertos") is celebrated in many societies. Mr. Google informs us that the holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. It is particularly celebrated in Mexico, where it attains the quality of a National Holiday. The celebration takes place on November 1st and 2nd, in connection with the Catholic holidays of All Saints' Day (November 1) and All Souls' Day (November 2). Traditions connected with the holiday include building private altars honoring the deceased using sugar skulls, marigolds, and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed and graves with these as gifts.

It reminds me of how Americans used to celebrate Memorial Day, visiting cemeteries of those who had died. I remember going to cemeteries with my grandparents when I was young. We visited the graves and cleaned them up, then we had a picnic lunch on a quilt Gran had made. Afterward, we kids got to play in a nearby lake while the adults cleaned everything up and rested. Are we peoples of the earth so very different from each other? I truly don't think so.

Another fabulous example! I've thought of incorporating Day of the Dead art in some of my own pieces!

A beautiful white example! I love the flowers for the eyes! We're so far removed from death in our society. "Way back when" the bodies were kept in our houses for viewing and buried on our own land for the most part. And of course people died far easier than they do today, from so many things that would be considered minor scrapes today. So death was very much a part of everyday life back then.

Now the body is whisked away to a mortuary and made to look as "alive" as possible. And we see movies where actors are killed over and over again, only to be resurrected either in the same movie or another one soon following. I believe many people fear death because it is no longer such a large part of our lives. I think we've become desensitized to it in a way, as if it can't possibly be a permanent thing. Not a wise thing at all.

Beautiful feathered decorations!

One last feathered decoration!

Well, that's it! Hope you enjoyed the tour! I know we certainly had a great time. It's wonderful to be able to see so many things from our history. And there are so many museums we didn't even get to! So....have to make a return trip some time! Darn!

Take care everyone and have a safe and happy Labor Day Weekend! Jan

The Marine Corps Memorial - Iwo Jima

2011-09-02T22:46:00.000-05:00

I was especially pleased to see this memorial and watch the parade and drill. My father was a Marine, a Drill Sergeant. I know he was watching with me, the same way I used to crawl up behind his recliner on Saturday nights when he watched John Wayne movies, including Iwo Jima! I would sit as quiet as a mouse (at least I thought I was quiet) because I loved John Wayne movies just like he did. Dad never said anything, but I discovered he knew where I was because he would silently put his hand down with whatever snack he was eating and give me some. But we each went on pretending I wasn't there and at the end of the movie, while the credits were playing, I'd quietly return to my bedroom.

The Marine Corps Memorial - Iwo Jima - at Twilight

Beautiful and poignant

Every Tuesday evening, from Memorial Day to Labor Day each year, the U.S. Marine Corps Drum and Bugle Corps and Silent Drill Team perform at the Marine Corps Memorial - Iwo Jima.

After the band finishes, they march to the far left corner of the field. Everyone gets quiet, looking around, wondering what is next. Then you see them - slowing, methodically - march from behind the Iwo Jima Memorial on both sides and onto the field.

The Marines of Marine Barracks Washington, D.C.

Marine Barracks Washington, D.C., also known as 8th and I, is the oldest post of the Marine Corps. Its location on the corner of 8th and I Streets was personally selected by President Thomas Jefferson and Lieutenant Colonel William Ward Burrows, the first official Commandant of the Marine Corps.

The Marine Corps Silent Drill Platoon then emerges from the main group. You can hear a pin drop when they begin their 13-minute drill.
To see them perform, go to this link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMCnAT2bT0E

Preparing to leave the field.

The names of every engagement the Marine Corps have fought in are listed around the base of the memorial.

Taking things easy!! Yeah, right!!

2011-08-28T18:18:00.000-05:00

Not everyone "relaxes" like my hubby, Nigel. He works so hard when he's at work, then he gets almost two weeks off and what does he do? He rebuilds our deck!! The man is NUTS!! But he's also wonderful and marvelous and I love him dearly in spite of everything I know about him! Ha Ha So here's pictures of his latest project:

Old deck; new deck.

This is a little area we may eventually put a cover over and put a concrete "floor" down to store bikes. Don't you like the way I used the word "we"? You see, I'm the supervisor, water carrier and coffee maker!

I talked Nigel into not replacing the railing that was up; now everyone can see the beautiful rock wall he built around the deck's circumference all those years ago. At the time, there wasn't any vegetation so the railing looked nice. However, with so much vegetation growing now, it was simply too much.

The downside of any project - the inevitable mess! You can see the railings on the left that were removed.

More mess!!

The man himself - almost finished! He took longer than he'd initially planned, but I reminded him that with the way he builds things - to LAST - it's only natural it takes longer.

Oh yes......I finished a project of my own!! My studio ladder - I finally got it painted! I'm not sure if I'm completely finished with it yet. I may paint green vines down the sides.

Then again......I just never know where my muse will lead me!

Hope everyone has had a lovely weekend! The weather here has been fabulous - plenty of breezes and not nearly as hot, only in the high 80's and low 90's which is so much better than our "usual".

I'm so ready for autumn!!

Take care and may God bless! Jan

Faith Bradford's Dolls House

2011-08-21T16:20:00.001-05:00

Hi Again Everyone! Here we are - more pictures from D.C.!!! This time I'll bring you into the miniature world of a dollhouse. Perhaps you'll take pity on my lousy photography when you realize I literally had to squeeze in through children (silly things! Ha Ha) and adults to get even these photos!

Before I begin though, I want you to know you can purchase a book which also has the photographs (much better ones naturally). Here's what it looks like. It's called America's Doll House - The Miniature World of Faith Bradford, by Willam L. Bird, Jr.. I got mine at the bookstore inside the National Museum of American History; however, if you're interested, you might check through Amazon.Com or my favorite, Half.Com. All the information I'm going to give you came from Mr. Bird's research.

Donated to the Smithsonian in 1951, Faith Bradford's Doll House consists of 23 rooms, 1,354 miniature pieces, and is the home of Mr. and Mrs. Petter Doll, their 10 children, two visiting grandparents, twenty pets, and household staff.

This photograph was taken after Faith's first public display at Gadsby's Tavern, Alexandria,Virginia, in 1932. She won a Blue Ribbon for "Best Collection" and a George Washington Bicentennal half-dollar; both prizes are attached at the roof peak.

Here Faith Bradrod is showing a young visitor all the pieces she'd collected over the years! I was downstairs, looking at the Julia Child Kitchen Exhibit when Sherry and Isabel came up to me and insisted I had to go upstairs to see a special exhibit. Sherry knew I'd be completed taken in by it, and she was right! It took me ages to finally leave the place. I even managed to get all the children to stand back for a few minutes, while Sherry took a photo of me in front of the house. Unfortunately, I can't find that photo right now.

The Master Bedroom

This is Rose Washington Doll, checking on her youngest children, twins Jimmy and Timmy, asleep in their bassinette (to the right of Mrs. Doll).

This is Alice's bedroom

The Parlor. A game of chess is laid out on the gaming table (bottom right of photo). And the small white stand in the middle bottom of the photo is a small rectangle shaped acquarium, with three gold fish inside. The fishes' names are: Goldie, Wiggle and Dart (but no one can tell them apart).

No need to guess which room this is! The Laundry!

When I was little, one of my babysitter's had a wringer washing machine just like the yellow one pictured. I thought at the time that it must be great fun as I watched the clothes coming through the ringer, just having the water squeezed out of them. The clothes were all flat and squished together as they came out.

I hate to think now of the hard work required to operate one.

Mr. Peter Doll himself, in his special domain - The Study. His personal books are kept here and this is where he read the daily newspaper. He also has his personal typewriter ready to use (right corner).

The Kitchen! I have a sink like the one on the left in my own doll house. The stove is a coal and gas combination with a hot water tank beside it. I love the set of mixing bowls on the botton left shelf. Although hard for you to see in this photo, they are green, red and blue, with cream stripes running along the top rim. Loaves of freshly baked bread lie on the table; I think I have biscuits "in the making" on my kitchen table.

A beautiful room (in spite of my lousy photograph), this is the Library. There are real books in the breakfront shelves! This is the right side of the room.

Another view of the Library. Although you can't tell it, the lamp shade on the floor lamp on the far left is made from a paper cup, turned upside down, with lace glued to the bottom! I loved these special touches that Faith Bradford came up with. She truly loved this house and loved collecting and making lovely household items for it. She would disassemble the plastic housing of an electrical plug, then hang it up as a ceiling light fixture! She once commented "Everything looks like something else to me." I remember well those exact thoughts when I was working on my own doll house. You really do see everything around you with new eyes, because you're looking for things that will work in a much smaller space, even though they usually have nothing to do with their actual purpose in these smaller spaces. I've used a small enamel box (about 1/4 inch square) as a lady's elegant jewelry box; tiny twigs become logs for the fireplaces; a marble becomes a beautiful ball; and a small leather cuff link box (containing Nigel's grandfather's cuff links) makes a lovely leather trunk at the end of the master bed!

The Parent's Bathroom! I love the idea that they're separate from the children's bathroom! The wooden structure in the back left is a shaving stand. The guest bathroom (which I now realize I did not get a picture of) looks identical to this room's furnishings except for the luxury of the shaving stand. Also, instead of this shade of blue, it was done in the green color (the same as that of the children's bathroom). Another room I failed to photograph is immediately to the right of this room. It's the Sewing Room, in very "blah" colors, although it does hold an old black iron treadle sewing machine. My Grandma Hoffman had one of them! Because of the number of children, a lot of sewing was necessary. Mrs. Doll has a sewing woman come in for a fortnight (2 weeks) every spring and fall. Between these times, Mrs. Doll did the sewing and mending.

The Night Nursery where the children slept. From the book it states, "Ann and David are admiring the cat, "Mrs. Peerie," while Nurse McNab waits to tuck David into his cradle. Lucy and Carol sleep together in the big bed (partially shown on the back right) and Ann has her own little bed (not shown in this photo)."

Robin and Christopher's Room. Robin is in the room now, with his dog and his pet rabbits (on the floor in front of him). This family definitely had lots going on!!

This is Peter, the oldest of the children, "admiring his tame white rats." Yuck!

This is Nurse's Room. The glass globe lamp on the bureau on the right is particularly rare!

The Trunk Room. I wonder if these trunks would fit in today's airline baggage holds! Ha Ha

The Children's Bathroom.

"With so many children to bathe, Mrs. Doll installed an old-fashioned "towel horse," excellent for holding many towels. Her work finished, chambermaid Christina Young is going downstairs."

The Butler's Pantry

"Filled with cupboards and cabinets containing the family china, silver and glass. You can tell evening is approaching by the way Gadsby (the butler) is dressed."

Yes, in those days, you dressed for dinner!

The Attic - Right Side View

"Filled with articles temporarily out of use, pieces in need of mending, inherited treasures, "white elephants", and household discards still too dear to be thrown away."

The Attic - Middle Right View

I love the little glass enclosed flowers and the aqua and brown trunk on the bottom right of this photo.

The light fixture hanging down in the background is a chain from a necklace and a tiny pearl for the bulb.

The Attic - Middle Left View

I love the old Victrola - forerunners of our modern CD players!

I have to admit - it was fun decorating my own doll house attic because I was able to use pieces I'd accidentally broken when working in other areas. It is also a great place to add those odd pieces that just don't seem to fit anywhere. And if they don't match the "age" of your house, just paint them!

The Attic - Left Side View

My favorite piece is the little sail boat in a bottle! The two photographs are real (just resized). I believe they are photos of Faith Bradford's brother and sister.

The Day Nursery - Right Side View

"Christopher rides the rocking horse while twins Lucy and Carol play with dolls. The children's toys and books, as well as implements for a tea party or a bedtime snack are kept here."

The Day Nursery - Left Side View

Here you can see the dolls and the girl twins Lucy and Carol.

The Guest Bedroom - Left Side View with Grandmother Doll

"Temporarily occupied by Grandfather and Grandmother Doll. The room is furnihed with beautiful inherited furniture dating from the Colonial Period. (Extremely rare, as you can imagine!)

The Guest Bedroom - Right Side View, with Grandfather Doll

The Drawing Room- Right Side View

When I was a young girl, I always wondered why people needed a room just for drawing pictures!

Here you see Woodthrop, the Parlor Maid, finishing her dusting for the day.

The Drawing Room - Left Side View

I love the little "bear skin rug" on the far left, underneath the window.

The Dining Room - Right Side View

"The weathered oak furniure in the room was popular at the beginning of the twentieth century. Cut glass sparkles in the china cupboard and a spoon holder rests on the table.

Dining Room - Middle View

The Dining Room - Left Side View

Notice the picture of George Washington on the wall!

The Pantry

"This room contains shelves of stores and food. Martha, the cook, is examining food in the ice chest refrigerator. An ice cream freezer stands in the corner (left front).

A new "Hoover" (vacuum cleaner) stands amid the clenaing supplies."

Overall View - Right Side

Overall View

Middle View

Kids insisted on getting in my way! I couldn't quite figure out why they kept staring at me,

as if I were old enough to know better!

Unimpeded Middle Overview

Right Side View

Left Side Overall View

Faith Bradford was born in 1880 in Rochester, New York. Her mother, Ellen Knight Bradford, was a social worker, teacher, poet, author, songwriter of hymns, and an amateur theatrical pageant producer. Her father, James Henry Bradford, had been a Civil War Chaplain with the Connecticut Volunteers. After the war, he occupied various administrative posts at state reform schools in Massachusetts and Connecticut. In 1881, the year after Faith was born, he moved the family to Whington, D.C., eventually becoming an auditor at the Bureal of Indian Affairs. Faith had one sister, Mary Knight Bradford, and two older brothers, Harry Bonnell and Horatio Knight Bradford.

Faith graduated from Mount Vernon Seminary (now Mount Vernon College) in 1900, and began her career as a librarian with the Washington D.C. Public Library in 1903, but resigned after a few years for unspecified health reasons. Regaining her health once again, she began employment with the Library of Congress Card Division in 1908. In 1942, Faith Bradford became the head of the library's card catalog. When that office became the Serial Records Division in 1944, Faith became the first woman to head a library division. Faith passed away in 1970, at the age of 90.

Hope you enjoyed the tour! Do try to visit it if you're in D.C. The detail is quite stunning, especially considering this was gathered and created in the early 1900s!

With Love and Blessings to All, Jan

Meanwhile, back in D.C., in Julia Child's Kitchen No Less!!!!!

2011-08-20T17:53:00.001-05:00

Hi Everyone!

I realized this wasn't getting my info out to you about D.C. and I wanted to share Julia Child's actual kitchen and some other information about her with you. So here come the pictures! Hope you enjoy them!

This is Julia in her tiny French kitchen. No wonder when she had the opportunity, she insistged on having a kitchen that was suited to her. Julia was a tall lady and Paul, her husband, was a genius in design, as well as helping with the business end of her cooking show on television.

Julia often said there would be no "Julia Child" without Paul.

First of all, I have to say I LOVE this kitchen. For that matter, I love looking at ll well designed kitchens. They are - I believe - the very heart of the home. But I also have to say - I HATE cooking!! I kid you not! I've never liked it, although I can cook well if I have to. This is in spite of the hilarious "fish gravy" story from my first year of marriage in Germany, but that's another story.

To be perfectly honest, I'd rather clean up after someone else has done the cooking. I do enjoy baking every now and then; I find that peaceful somehow, but "cooking" to me is nothing more than a daily chore which I'd much rather do without.

Okay, enough about me. Isn't the kitchen beautiful? I love the green color and how it's all laid out, everything within easy reach, neatly labeled, very organized. I guess it appeals to my sense of organization. It looks as if you could walk right in and start baking something marvelous!

A view of the right side of the itchen. She must have had a pan for everything imaginable!

The entire kitchen was dismantled piece by piece and reconstructed inside the National Museum of American History! You can view it through several Plexiglas panels at different angles.

Even though much larger, this kitchen immediately reminded me of one that belonged to a very dear family friend of ours, Virginia Douglas Lavender - Ginny to us! I met her when I started dating Nigel. Ginny and her husband, Thomas, had been friends with Nigel's family for years and years, ever since they lived next to each other when Nigel was a boy. Ginny was known to all her friends, and she literally had hundreds of friends, as a marvelous cook. But her genius lay in the fact she could create masterpieces by just throwing in "a pinch of this, a bit of that". Yet it always came out tasting as if she'd been cooking all day! She came from the "old school" of cooking, with a New England upbringing. Ginny took me "under her wing" and taught me how to make my first loaf of bread - and it was EASY!!! I still use several of her recipes, but my favorite and the one I use most whenever I'm feeling particularly nostalgic, is one for her Aunt Mary's "Old New England Chocolate Cake". The only way I can describe it is that it comes out with a consistency similar to pound cake. It's very moist, but it isn't overly sweet. And the best frosting is simply to sprinkle Confectioner's Sugar over it when it's completely cooled. My youngest, Liz, doesn't like chocolate overly much, but she LOVES this cake. My oldest, Laura, who loves chocolate, LOVES this cake. And everyone I've ever served it to LOVES this cake! Maybe I need to give you the recipe! Ya think? Ha Ha

But later. For now - back to Julia's kitchen!!

The really neat thing about this wall of pans was that it was pulled away from the side of the kitchen completely so you could get a better view of both it and the inside of the kitchen. As you an see, Julia was very meticulous and organized. I suppose you'd have to be with all she managed to accomplish in a day! Also, Julia and Paul entertained quite a bit right in this kitchen! They would frequently have close friends over, but whenever someone was helping clean up after the meal, they'd have difficulty trying to figure out where everything went. Let's face it, not many people have this many different pots and pans, especially back in the early 1960's! No problem though.....Paul designed this wall with an outline drawing of each saucepan and skillet so you would know immediately what went where!

Julia loved trying out new gadgets and appliances, but she kept a "homey" type kitchen, well lived in and well loved. I can just picture her and Paul, sitting in here in the morning, having a cup of coffee!

Sorry for the lousy photograph, but I wanted a picture of these beautiful blue canisters. They reminded me of someone who was well traveled, who picked up pretty bits and pieces for the home here and there.

I can barely keep two pans of cooking going at the same time on a stove top. I hate to thing what I'd do with six burners, other than burning down the house, that is! I love the use of pegboard! It's so efficient! I have it in my studio as well; it makes an entire wall a fantastic storage and display area!

I was particularly delighted with the sight of this fridge and all it's "normal" magnets and "things" we all put on our refrigerators - childrens' drawings, favorite photos of family and pets, and those fruit magnets! I remember my Gran had some just like it years and years ago!

It's true. I HAD to see the top of the fridge, so I held my camera up over my head and snapped this picture!

I LOVE all the cat pictures and items she had throughout the kitchen. Made it just that much more personal! Ginny loved cats too and was forever rescuing them. She had one named "Purrrr-ple Lavender".

More pegboard and more CATS!!! Fabulous!!

Oh yes! And that would be even MORE pegboard and MORE cats!!

All of Julia's cookbooks! She had two well worn copies of "The Joy of Cooking" which she used more than any of the others except her own!

If I remember correctly, these are tapes from her cooking show, The French Chef, which was the forerunner of all the cooking shows we have today. Despite the fact I don't like cooking and never have, and despite the fact I don't particularly care for French food, I still thoroughly love to see reruns of her shows even now. She was just a lovely and very interesting person to listen to, and completely out of the norm for what most Americans were used to.

As I mentioned earlier, Julia LOVED kitchen gadgets and was always trying out new ones. This exhibit shows what it would look like if you tipped her "gadget drawer" on its end and let everything fall out! The Plexiglas doesn't photograph well, but it's fun thing to look at! I couldn't identify much of anything!

Okay, now for the recipe. And one thing Ginny taught me - always use fresh ingredients! So if you want to make this cake, make a run to the store to get fresh cream, fresh eggs, fresh shortening, and so on! Really! It makes a BIG difference!!

Ginny Lavender's recipe for her Aunt Mary's Old New England Chocolate Cake

(written down just as Ginny wrote it down for me)

3/4 cup shortening, creamed with

1 3/4 cup granulated sugar. Add

3 squares melted chocolate and

4 eggs beaten.

Add alternately 1 3/4 cup flour, sifted with

3/4 cup milk (with 3/4 teaspoon soda and a pinch

of salt stirred into the milk). Bake 350 about 40 minutes.

Some helpful hints I learned over the years:

1. For a pretty presentation, bake in a bundt pan. This makes a lovely presentation when you sprinkle it with Confectioner's (3X) sugar when it's completely cooled on a rack.

2. Do NOT rely on cooking spray. Actually grease and flour the pan well. Disaster otherwise, at least for me.

3 I use Swansdown Cake Flour; works better than all purpose flour. I don't remember if Ginny used regular all purpose or cake flour, but I've used both and the texture is better using cake flour.

3. I frequently use Half and Half instead of whole milk; sometimes I use half heavy cream and half whole 4ilk. I figure that's about what milk was like back in the 1920's when this recipe was created, and it makes for a wonderful flavor and texture!

Did I tell you how I got this recipe? Ginny hosted a bridal shower for me (back in 1980!) and everyone was sent a bank recipe card in the mail. They were all asked to write down their favorite recipes and bring them to the shower! So I got recipes of everyone's "very best"! At the shower, Ginny presented me with a wooden recipe box that held all the recipe cards, and a package of blank cards inside for my own recipes. This chocolate cake was Ginny's "favorite".

Hope you enjoyed the tour! And if you get a chance, do try to see the movie "Julie Julia". Meryl Streep does a FABULOUS job playing Julia Child, right down to the accent!!

And as Julia herself said at the end of her cooking shows,

"Bon Appetit!"

With Love and Blessings to All, Jan

Recent Projects

2011-08-13T11:25:00.001-05:00

Hi Everyone! Thought I'd take a break from D.C. and show you some pictures of recent projects!!

Mildred McGillicutty - All dressed up and nowhere to go!! I L.O.V.E. dress forms!!!

Isabel's Latest Art - To remind everyone in this heat to make sure your pets have fresh, clean water!!

My newly altered ribbon cabinet!! My grandfather made this years ago for my Mom, as a jelly cabinet. All I did was add 4 additional shelves. Must run in the family blood! Now I have the perfect place to store my ribbons, without having to take several off to get to the one I want!! Yea!!!!!

Isn't he lovely? My daughter Laura took this photo in Hyde Park, London, England. She just got a 2-week R&R and wanted to see a few countries while she was so close. I remember very well our own visit to England years ago - the squirrels are so tame they literally eat out of your hand! I have a picture of that somewhere which I'll post - if I can find it! I saw lots of friendly squirrels in D.C. too!

Is this cute, or what? Totally useless perhaps, but also C.U.T.E.!!!!! It's a "Princess Notepad and Pen".

Remember this from my earlier blog (just below, when Sherry and I went shopping? It was rather dingy looking and had little "thingies" hanging down from it that looked like bed springs!! Weird! I may still hang glass beads or something on it, but for now it looks perfectly content with the white spray paint on it. Makes it look very refreshing in the garden!

Looks so much better in white than this dingy color, don't you think?

Isabel's Garden Tea Table and Chairs!

I bought this for Isabel about 4 years ago and it fit her perfectly back then. Only dolls can sit in the two smaller chairs now. Time passes so fast!!

Have a lovely day and blessed weekend! Jan

Monday Afternoon, Day 1: First Ladies' Dresses and Inaugural Gowns

2011-08-06T23:02:00.001-05:00

After spending all morning in the blazing heat, touring the monuments and memorials, we needed to visit a place that was air conditioned!! And what better way to do this than visit one of the many Smithsonian Buildings. The first one we chose (and my all-time favorite!) was the National Museum of American History. In other words, we're talking First Ladies Dresses!!!! Yeah!!! But I have to warn you - photographs weren't so great. It was PACKED and it was in very low light (probably to help preserve the materials of the beautiful gowns). But I did my best, so here goes:

The Gown that started it all - Worn by Helen Taft in 1909. Mrs. Taft began the tradition of the Smithsonian Exhibition of First Ladies' Gowns. Once this practice was established, the museum began to collect gowns and other personal items worn by the previous First Ladies. The Smithsonian requests that First Ladies' donate their inaugural gowns; however, it is not a requirement. Many of the ladies would liked to have kept their gowns because they were very special to them. However, they realized the importance to American History and all have agreed since Mrs. Taft to donate the gowns. Not all gowns are on display; over 25 of them can no longer be displayed because of the damage caused by sun and air during earlier displays when our technology couldn't protect them appropriately. Mrs. Taft's gown is the first one you see when you enter the display room. This is truly a fabulous dress! It almost takes your breath away when you first see it! And of course no one wants to stop looking at it, so the line doesn't move for several moments!

Lousy photography, but you can at least get the idea. This is all hand-embroidered of course!

Close-up of the bodice with lace, crystals and rhinestones.

Another view of the train.

Although the gown is now a cream color, having darkened over the years, it was initially a white gown. I hope I look this good at 102 years old!!!

Izzy and Mrs. Taft - Nothing like a little change in fashion, is there?!

Another Fashion Comparison! This is Izzy in front of Mrs. Taft's Green Silk Embroidered Chinese Coat. Fabulous color! Helen Taft was obviously a woman who knew how to dress!!

Administration Change Coming Up - The First First Lady!

Martha Washington's Gown - hand embroidered with birds and flowers. The cuffs and fichu are reproductions, recreated to match the originals that had deteriorated beyond repair.

Dolley Madison's Peach Embroidered Silk-Satin Coat. It really is a lovely peach color, as shown in the close-up below. Exquisitely hand-embroidered with birds and flowers.

Much better color here of Dolley Madison's Embroidered Peach Coat.

Mary Todd Lincoln's day dress in silk taffeta, with purple embroidered flowers.

Julia Grant's Evening Gown

Lucy Hayes' Inaugural Gown

Francis Folsom Cleveland's Inaugural Gown

Although this picture does no justice to her whatsoever, as she was quite a beautiful young woman, Frances Folsom Cleveland was the first First Lady to become a media sensation! Here's what was said about her on a nearby plaque:

"Occasionally a first lady becomes a star. When Frances Folsom married President Grover Cleveland in 1886, she became the youngest first lady in decades and a media sensation. The public could not get enough stories about Mrs. Cleveland's activities, fashions, and, later, her children. Not until Jacqueline Kennedy entered the White House was there again such intense interest in a first lady. The public purchased photographs of Mrs. Cleveland like this one as mementos."

Mrs. Lou Hoover Inaugural Gown - Much less ornate (no bustles and trains), but in my opinion far more beautiful! Reminds me of a Fairy Princess' Gown!

Lousy photography seemed to plague my efforts here. This black and gold metallic trim overdress tops a gold lame' underdress! Very much the epitome of a 1920's Flapper style.

Eleanor Roosevelt's Inaugural Gown in pink silk and lace.

Mamie Eisenhower's Inaugural Gown - This was the gown that started the fashion statement about the color "Mamie Pink". It was her favorite color and Mrs.Eisenhower wore it often.

Another favorite dark pink ball gown, purse and shoes belonging to Mamie Eisenhower.

At the bottom of this photo, to the far right, is the three-strand necklace of faux pearls frequently worn by Jacqueline Kennedy. You can still purchase replicas of them today! But she wasn't the first to wear a three-strand pearl necklace. The one to the left of hers was worn by Abigail Adams. And Barbara Bush also wore a three-strand necklace of faux pearls. You have to admit - they do look lovely!

Pat Nixon's Inaugural Gown in Golden Yellow, Embroidered with Sworzki Crystals

When President Nixon resigned, Gerald Ford was sworn in as the next President. However, he wasn't re-elected. In other words, no inauguration and no inaugural gown for Betty Ford. However, the Smithsonian asked if she'd like to donate a gown of her choice. This particular gown, in Betty Ford's favorite shade of green, was the one she chose.

Roslyn Carter originally wore this gown to Jimmy Carter's Inaugural Ball when he was elected governor of Georgia. She once made the comment that if Jimmy were elected President, she would wear it to the Presidential Inaugural Ball as well. And so she did!!

Nancy Reagan's off-the-shoulder Inaugural Gown, hand-embroidered and stunning!

Nancy Reagan's matching beaded shoes. Strange.....they look as if they've only been worn once or twice! Hmmmmm....

Barbara Bush - one of my favorite First Ladies - in Deep Blue Velvet and Satin! It was said she was "the most beautifully elegant grandmother in the entire United States" on the evening of the Presidential Inaugural Ball. To the right, you can see a picture of her with her trademark white hair and the faux pearl necklace.

Another favorite First Lady - Barbara Bush in her Ruby Red Inaugural Gown - Fabulous!!

A real Lady in Red!

Michelle Obama's White Inaugural Gown. To be perfectly honest, I don't care for the bodice; I think it looked a bit "overdone". But the skirt and train are simply knock-out - in my humble opinion.

I particularly love the back view of Michelle Obama's gown.

It reminds me of tiny stars caught in fine spider webs!

Fabulous!! A close-up close-up of Michelle Obama's train. Definitely Fairy Princess Material!!

Izzy and Sherry patiently waiting for me, as I made my way very slowly through all the gowns and other personal items of the First Ladies. Sherry has seen the exhibit several times over the years (she visits D.C. when her husband Joe works there), but she says you never tire of seeing the beautiful gowns.

Izzy made her way through all of the gowns fairly fast. I think her favorite was the green embroidered silk coat of Helen Taft. Then she was through, although I was probably only half-way around by then. It was wonderful having Sherry with us. She was so sweet to keep Isabel entertained while I took my time. And as I said in an earlier post, Isabel behaved wonderfully well the entire trip!

Well, that's it for this post! Next trip I'll take you through Julia Child's Kitchen!! It's her actual kitchen which her husband, Paul Child, had built especially for her in 1961. The Smithsonian had it literally taken apart (with Julia's permission of course, after she moved to California I believe) and it's now on display for all to see.

Oh, I almost forgot! If you go to this web site, you can learn a lot more about the First Ladies Gowns, the overall exhibit, etc. http://americanhistory.si.edu/exhibitions/exhibition.cfm?key=38&exkey=1239

Take care and have a lovely evening! May God Bless, Jan

Monday Morning, Day 1: The Memorials and Monuments

2011-08-04T19:21:00.001-05:00

Hi Everybody!

I promised to try and get this post out about our trip to D.C. so here goes my second entry. Sherry had a great idea - because we knew the heat was going to be severe (low 90's to high 90's by the end of the week, with only a "chance" of rain on Thursday), she suggested we visit the places we considered were absolute must sees. Otherwise, we might talk ourselves out of going because we were only going to get more tired and hotter as the week wore on! And I'm glad we took her advice! It was grueling, but we were determined! Our first stops were at the monuments.

Part of the Vietnam War Memorial. Very poignant, and so lifelike.

Vietnam War Memorial - The Wall. This wall contains names of all those who lost their lives as a result of the Vietnam War. To me, the most moving sight was watching those older than me who had either lived through the war "first hand" (I was only a teenager when it ended) or who had probably lost friends and family. The heat was beastly, but it was well worth the visit. What I did not realize is that there are spaces kept available for those who have recently died or will die in the future as a direct result from their Vietnam War wounds. Most people do not realize there are still patients in military hospitals who will never go home from that war.

World War II Memorial - with wreaths and markers representing each of the 50 states.

Sherry and I standing at the base of the Lincoln Memorial. The "mall" is in the background and is usually under water. However, they're in the process of either cleaning it or working on repairs because - as you can see - it's all dry land and roped off, with construction crews working on it. In the background between us, you can see the Washington Monument. I didn't realize that at the base of the Washington Monument are 50 flags, representing each of the 50 states. There's a later photo of the Washington Monument that's much better than this particular view.

Isabel was so good the entire time; I'm very proud of her. She was a real trooper, despite the heat, long walks, and being dragged all over the entire city for a week! You can see the "dry mall" better in this photo, with the Washington Monument and immediately to its lower left is the capitol building. For those of you who saw the movie Forest Gump, you might remember this area. It was all under water and it was here that "Forest" gave his speech about what he thought of the Vietnam War. He then saw "Jenny" and ran into the water to greet her.

The lovely Lincoln Memorial - one of my favorites

Izzy at the base of Lincoln's Memorial.

This is my personal favorite of all the memorials - The Korean War Memorial. My father was a Marine in this war. The memorial is so lifelike, even in broad daylight. Sherry has seen it at night time, which she says is the most amazing sight, surreal in the extreme. The men are in full pack, on patrol of course during the rainy season so they have their ponchos on. There's also a reflecting pool just behind the wall, which is part of the memorial. You can literally walk all the way around and see the men from different angles. I never tired of looking at them. You want so much to be able to reach out and try to help them.

Isabel just about to board The Metro. This was a Godsend and literally saved us from all manner of difficulties. It's the underground train of course and runs throughout the city. Very punctual, very fast, and an absolute must when you're traveling throughout the city as we were! To give you an idea of how hot it was, the Red Line had to close down for repairs one night (Monday I think) because the steel track had buckled from the heat! It made the news of course and we were all in agreement that it definitely felt that hot outside!

That's it for now. Thank you for hanging in there on these long posts!

May God Bless, Jan

Heading to Our Nation's Capitol - Washington D.C.

2011-07-30T19:17:00.001-05:00

Hi Everyone!

I had great plans to start posting about our trip to D.C. last evening, but I got "hung up in the details" of editing the photos! I've discovered cropping and resizing and changing colors and contrast.......I'm like a kid in a candy shop! Who knows what treasures lie out there, just awaiting my nosy curiosity??!!

Well....D.C. here we come!! And I'm happy to report I didn't see one - NOT ONE - politician the whole time we were there!! Yea!! Made my day!!! Yea!!!!
Saturday, 9 July 2011: We started out from my BFF Sherry's house in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. An uneventful trip, which are the good ones considering all that can go wrong. It was during this time that Isabel began working on her embroidered turtle Tabitha! I was also able to finish most of my stitching on a Lady Peacock. But it still needs some "bling" (as lady peacock's will) so no one gets to see it till its finished. We stopped for the day in Charlottesville, Virginia, home of Thomas Jefferson's Monticello (pronounced Monti- Chello (hard "ch" and long "o")).

Some very serious discussions in the back of the Expedition (AKA: BIG TRUCK!!)

Sherry, Isabel and I with the Man Himself!!

Monticello - Front Entrance

Monticello - Right Side Facing the House. I can just picture women in their beautiful long (but HOT) dresses, as they strolled down these walkways. I can just imagine such a walk early in the morning or late in the evening. What pleasure it must have given Jefferson.

Back of Monticello - I believe the back of the house is far more lovely than the front! I imagine Jefferson wanted it that way; he rarely did anything that wasn't planned out well in advance. There's a feeling here that Monticello is still very much lived in. I easily pictured children playing back here, and the older ones strolling along the path or sitting on the steps, perhaps reading a book. It would be very interesting to walk the house and grounds at night, after everyone has gone home!

Unfortunately, we couldn't take photos inside the house but needless to say, it was quite lovely, especially considering its age. What I found most interesting is learning how much of an inventor Jefferson was. There was a "dumb waiter" system that worked on pulleys that carried bottles of wine from the cellar (quite some distance away from the house) to the dining room without having to leave the room. He created a large clock that is mounted inside the entry hallway that not only still keeps time, but also shows the days of the week; early technology at its finest! There are two French style double doors of glass leading into the dining room; to assist those bringing in large trays of food, Jefferson installed a series of pulleys underneath the floor that allowed both doors to open at the same time when only one of the doors was pushed open. Jefferson also created the first polygraph, which copied your writing as you wrote onto a separate sheet of paper! Why was there no grand staircase in the front entrance? Because Jefferson believed it was a large waste of space and was not energy efficient, which is so true. The staircase was at the back of the house, and was rather narrow and steep. Also, little known are the "sayings" or quotes Jefferson is credited with. There's a book I need to find, called The Quoteable Jefferson, which goes into great detail about this. But if I"m not mistaken, one of the many quotes he's credited with is "Don't put off till tomorrow what can be done today."

Fantastic gardens, all laid out very symmetrically. Nigel does his gardening like this when he plants a garden. Vegetables are still grown and harvested from here. This garden made Monticello very nearly self-sufficient year round. However, the idea of "canning" in this heat makes me wince!

Isabel learning to write with real quill feathers and ink. NOT as easy as you might think!! I tried it myself; her results were far better! We wore large shirts to protect our clothes, as this particular ink does NOT wash out like some of it's modern day equivalents, Oxi-Clean or not!!

Isabel's Writing Sample Using a Quill Feather "Pen". I bought a nice quill pen to try my hand at, but haven't had a chance to try it out since we've been home. I also purchased sealing wax and two seals - one of the letter "J" and the other of a rose!! I wonder how long it will take to write that letter! Hmmmmm.......

Another view of the back, with a winding path! So peaceful and serene!

In his day, Jefferson owned all the land "as far as the eye could see." Beautiful rolling hills, lush green vegetation - and it was all initially surveyed by a certain young man named George Washington. Yes, the George Washington! On the right side of this picture above the garden is what was known as Mulberry Row.

Lists, lists and more lists! I was amazed at the constant inventory of things that took place. But it served as a great way to know what items were on hand back then, how much it cost, who it was purchased from, etc.

Izzy operating the pulley system of the "Dumb Waiter". "Gummy, it isn't nice to call people dumb."

"No, Isabel. It isn't nice to call people names. But "dumb" also means "unable to speak". This system was like a waiter, bringing you a bottle of wine from the cellars, but it couldn't talk, so it was given the name "dumb waiter". "Oh. Okay Gummy. I get it."

What is it about women and kitchens?! I HATE to cook; literally HATE it. I do love to BAKE, but that's another story. Cooking is just plain boring hard work as far as I'm concerned, but I LOVE looking at kitchens! Go figure!! This particular picture shows the kitchen "stove tops", where fires were kept burning underneath and the pans were placed on the top "burners" to heat up. A forerunner of the gas stove! In the far back, you can see the "sink" or washing basin. No running water yet, although Jefferson did create very large brick and mortared cisterns to catch rain water and also prevent flooding at Monticello. The kitchen was housed far away from the main house, to lower the possibility of fires. We're definitely not talking "fast food" here though. Looking through some of the recipes showed amazing menus, yet you can see the circumstances under which all meals were prepared.

Lovely old tree on Mulberry Row. The tales this one could tell! Joe Craig is on the far right, listening to one of the docents. Mulberry Row was a 1,000 foot-long road named after the trees that lined it. At its busiest time (in 1796) there were 17 buildings lining the road. These included a stable, sheds for storing charcoal, five log dwellings for slaves, a stone house for free "resident workmen", a wash house (laundry! Yuck!), a smokehouse for smoking meats and fish, a dairy, a blacksmith shop, a nailery (you guessed it - for making nails), two woodworking shops and other buildings for storage. Since most of the buildings were made of wood, few of them survived. But I can just picture the hub of activity that went on here, especially with the gardens just below. It was the craftsmanship from Mulberry Road that helped build and sustain Monticello.

Down the road, away from Mulberry Row and the Gardens, is Jefferson's final resting place, along with many members of the Jefferson family.

Yes, for those of you who didn't know, Thomas Jefferson was the author of our Declaration of Independence! We were able to get copies on parchment paper, including a copy of his drafts, with lines and words crossed out, etc.

This concludes our trip to Monticello. As I said earlier, it's a very peaceful, serene place. I could happily spend days there, just walking around, soaking up the atmosphere. However, I'll have to content myself with reading the books I purchased.

So.....we're back in the Expedition (AKA: BIG TRUCK), traveling the last two or so hours to D.C. And we're in a very serious mood, as you can see by this last photo of Izzy.

Isabel wanted to embroider some more on Tabitha Turtle, but the sun was in her eyes and she couldn't see the lines well so she put a towel over her head. I couldn't resist though, so I put my hat on her as well!

So long for now. The next post will be about our first days in D.C.!!

May God Bless, Jan

It's Back - I Say - Back to the Old Blogging Board!!

2011-07-28T21:22:00.000-05:00

Yes, it's been AGES since I've posted, probably a month or so!! But we're home now from visiting Washington D.C. with my best friend Sherry Craig (whom I consider the sister I never had) and her husband Joe (who unfortunately had to work while we played!) I can't decide yet how much to include in my posts about D.C. - perhaps just a few photos and highlights from each day. But the first thing I wanted to share with you is the "happy turtle" my granddaughter Isabel embroidered on the drive up there. What do you think?

Isn't she adorable? Her name is Tabitha Turtle. I stitched Isabel's name and date on the bottom because she wanted it in cursive, but Isabel chose the colors and stitched the rest. I got the idea from a picture drawn by Joe Craig's niece, Abby, which I noticed was proudly displayed on Sherry's refrigerator. I was immediately captured by it's sweet simplicity so I quickly drew a similar version of it on a piece of cloth and Isabel did the rest on the trip!!! I'm so proud of her! And I have to say she was really an excellent traveling companion, not once getting fussy or bored, despite the 9 hours we drove the first day!

This piece, and many others like it, are all intended for one of my latest projects. I call it my Embroidery Memory Quilt, which will basically consist of various-sized pieces of embroidery and stitching I'll piece together to form a sort of "memory collage" of the fabrics lovingly stitched by the ladies of my family. I got the idea from the very talented artist, Pam Garrison, who created one called her big crazy summer journal quilt (see her blog post here: http://pamgarrison.typepad.com/pamgarrison/2010/09/and-just-like-that.html.

As soon as I saw it, I fell in love with it and knew I had to make one for myself! The best part is that I'll now have a place to show off all those stitched pieces that we (or at least I) tend to hide away in drawers because there isn't much use for them. I can't bare to let them go because they're so full of happy memories, but now they can be admired once again! When I explained it to Isabel, she wanted to make sure she had pieces included (As if I would exclude her!) So just guess where the Pledge of Allegiance and Tabitha Turtle are going?

Well, that's it for now. I've got to get back into this "blogging thing" a little at a time, but more to follow soon! Have a lovely evening and may you all have a wonderful day tomorrow!

May God Bless, Jan

The Pledge of Allegiance by Francis Bellamy (Stitched by Isabel Fursdon)

2011-07-04T19:46:00.001-05:00

Happy Independence Day Everyone!

A fitting completion this afternoon by my granddaughter Isabel. Here's her stitched version of The Pledge of Allegiance, in multi-color threads! She dedicates this piece to her Mommy, Laura, serving in Afghanistan. She's spent many hours working on it, including on the airplane going to Seattle! I'm very proud of her for "stitching it out" and I wanted to quickly post this photo for her before this very special day was over. Go Isabel!!! Be safe Laura! Happy 4th of July Everyone! May God Bless, Jan

Old Glory - Long May She Wave!

2011-07-04T11:18:00.000-05:00

This is the flag pin I wore on the day Nigel returned from the 1st Gulf War, on 13 May 1992. And I've worn it every 4th of July since; I wear it now. I remember some days after he returned, he said one of his greatest fears was that his children would end up over there too "because we hadn't finished the job". And some 15 years later, our youngest (Liz) was in Kuwait and Iraq, and our oldest (Laura) is in Afghanistan today.

To Nigel. To Laura. To Elizabeth. And to all our Military, past and present.......I salute you. May God grant you His protection. His armor. His love. Ad His everlasting peace. Amen.

Jan Fursdon