Claudia — Page 933

Working Outside

April 21, 2017 at 10:00 am by Claudia

Soon. They’re getting bigger and plumper.

I ended up hacking away at the brambles yesterday. There is no way I can take them all on, or even 1/16 of them. And, though they’re a pain, when they bloom they’re gorgeous – because they’re actually wild roses. But they have a tenacious quality that requires trimming them before they take over everything.

I started over by the now dead shag hickory where the crabapple I discovered two years ago is about to bloom. Thinking in practical blogger terms, I knew I couldn’t get close to it to take a picture unless I pruned a lot of the brambles. So I did.

Then I moseyed over to the other crabapple that I discovered a couple of days ago and decided to hack through that to clear a path to the tree. There was already the beginning of one, it just needed my pruners, as those pesky branches were trying to reach across the opening and block my access.

Two hours later, I was exhausted and there’s still a pile of cut branches that I need to move.

Another day. As today is rainy, so I have the perfect excuse to ignore them.

I tried to take a picture but it’s hard to see the tree among all the other trees.

It’s clear there was a rock boundary along the area where the path begins. You can’t see it here, but it’s there. So I’m going to try to keep pruning this area so it doesn’t get more out of control than it already is. I remember when we first moved in our neighbor told us that the previous owner tried to keep the brambles under control to no avail.

I hear you, former owner.

I took my second shower of the day after this adventure and treated myself to homemade “cloud biscuits” for dinner.

Any day now, the leaves on the maples will be providing beautiful shade. I can’t wait until there are green canopies everywhere.

Barnaby – side view. Equally adorable.

Several people have suggested making the bunny egg cozies and selling them on Etsy. Here’s why I’m not doing that: first, it’s a pattern that was created by another blogger, which she sells on Ravelry. Though I purchased it, of course, I don’t feel right about selling a creation that I am able to knit only because of her wonderful idea. The scarves that I sold were from a pattern that was all over the internet, sort of in the general domain, with no one credited specifically with the design. So I felt that was okay.

And, the last time I made a slew of scarves to sell on Etsy, I had a holiday deadline and I made so many of them that my right wrist suffered. It’s much better now, but I have to be careful how long I hand quilt or knit or crochet. Too much of any one of them is not good.

So…no selling on Etsy. But thank you for the compliment of wanting one! I really appreciate that.

If you ever get any bounce back emails saying your comment wasn’t accepted (I don’t know if you get them, but I do, both when I leave a comment on another blog or when I receive emails about your comments on this blog) ignore them. The comment always goes through. It has to do with AOL, in my case, not always ‘accepting’ those notifications. I called my host about it yesterday and they said if that happens, they just ping the comment again and it goes through. In fact, in every case where I receive an email saying something wasn’t ‘accepted,’ I get another email at the same time saying it was. I’ve noticed this phenomenon for some time when I leave comments on Blogger blogs. Same thing. It says my comment wasn’t accepted, even though I can see it right there on the blog post!

Hope that made sense.

Happy Friday.

My Girls

April 20, 2017 at 10:59 am by Claudia

I love my girls, who live on top of the cabinet in the office and watch over all activities. They have a good view of the mountains, as well.

I’ve haven’t written about them in a while. Since some of you are newer readers, I thought I’d tell you a little bit about them.

On the left: my Mom’s Shirley Temple doll. The back story to Shirley (and you might remember my mom’s name was Shirley, too) is that like every little girl in the thirties, Mom wanted a Shirley Temple Doll. After all, they shared the same name and were about the same age. She wanted the Ideal Toy Company version of Shirley. Unfortunately, my grandmother bought her a Canadian version of the doll and my mom was disappointed, so disappointed that she still had a lot of anger in her voice when she spoke of it years and years later! Nonetheless, she was my mom’s doll and I put in my bid for her when I was young. In the meantime, she sat in a child’s oak rocker in our bedroom. I believe Meredith has that rocker now. When I finally got her – and I can’t remember when that was – I was thrilled. Her hair was a mess. Believe me, I spent an awful lot of time researching doll hair and banana curls. I used sponge rollers and tried to get the curls back. There are a few, but that’s it. I bought the outfit from someone online who made new dresses in the style of the original clothing that came with the Ideal Shirley Temple doll.

Her composition face has a little hole by the eye. Other than that, she’s as beautiful as ever. The flowered head band is a piece I found in an antique shop and I decided Shirley needed it (perhaps to counteract the hair?) I bought vintage Shirley Temple doll shoes on eBay.

In the middle: Emma. I first saw her many years ago in a local antique shop. She reminded me of my long lost Tiny Tears doll (another “Mom gives away without my knowledge” story – I can’t go there.) In fact, she may be a Tiny Tears doll. She was sitting in a chair in a booth just inside the entrance of the store. I was entranced.

She has a composition body that is cracked in some places and missing bits of the composition in others. She’s tiny. And she is dressed in clothing with the most exquisite details.

Her bonnet.

Her bloomers. Check out those rosy knees!

Her shoes and socks. All beautifully preserved. You can see some of the missing composition on her leg.

I was taken not only by her beauty but by the fact that she was all alone in that booth. Some little girl had loved her long ago – and because of the damage to the composition, she was less than ‘perfect,’ although she was entirely perfect to me.

In the end, I didn’t get her because we were just scraping by at the time and I couldn’t justify the price. I think she was around $60, but I can’t be sure. She was worth every penny…but no.

I went back to the shop a couple of months later. She was still there. No one had taken her home. My heart was breaking for her.

But I still couldn’t afford her.

Not long after that, I went out to San Diego to coach for several weeks. This must have been in 2009 or 2010. To say I couldn’t get her out of my mind is entirely accurate. She haunted me.

Finally, one day, after I had a paycheck in the bank, I looked up the antique shop’s phone number and I called. When I haltingly brought up the doll I had seen and her location in the store and then hesitantly asked if she was still there, the gentleman I was speaking to immediately said yes. He knew exactly what doll I was referring to. I explained my situation – that I would be away for a number of weeks and if I paid for her now, would the shop be willing to hold her until I got back?

Yes, he said. So I paid for little Emma. And within a few days of my return home, we drove over to Rhinebeck to bring her home.

And finally, beautiful, happy little Tressa. Tressa is real life sized and when I hold her, it’s just as if I’m holding a baby. My friend Heidi and I discovered Tressa one day while antiquing. Heidi, for those of you who might not know of her, owned a local shop (now closed) and I worked there part-time. The shop was a mixture of antiques and new items. Heidi saw her first and fell in love with her. As we were pondering whether she would be perfect for the ‘baby room’ portion of the shop, the woman behind the counter pointed out that she had two left feet.

Often, when dolls were repaired and body parts replaced, another limb was attached and in this case – it was another left foot. Well, that only made us want her even more. She came to the shop and lived on a shelf in a cabinet. Every time I went to work, I would pick her up and hold her. And, as with Emma, I went away to California to coach (2009?), and left her behind. When I came home for a week to visit, I visited Heidi at the shop and held her again.

It was no use. I had to have her. So I brought her home. I named her Tressa, after my great aunt. I have a photo somewhere of both Riley and Scout inspecting her (as if she was a real baby) the day I brought her home. She’s beautifully dressed in satin . She has the sweetest face.

And she has two left feet.

I love my girls.

In the first photo: the cup with the C design is a baby cup from Emma Bridgewater, which I found years ago in London, the name plate was on my father’s desk at Michigan Bell Telephone Company, and the piano is vintage Shoenhut, a gift from Heidi.

The little bunny egg cozy is Barnaby – the first name suggested. Don loved it. I loved it. But every suggestion was delightful and I now have a bunch of names at the ready for the next bunny egg cozy. Thank you!

Happy Thursday.

Keeping the Egg Cozy

April 19, 2017 at 9:18 am by Claudia

After nearly throwing in the towel yesterday, I finished the egg cozy. There was a period where I thought I had done something wrong when I was knitting the head, but I knew I had followed the instructions exactly. I stuffed it with polyfill. Then I’d pull out some of the polyfill. Then I’d try and shape it. It was driving me nuts.

Finally, this morning, I stared at it again and thought: What the heck? See what happens.

And here we are.

His eyes remind me of Monty the Cow’s eyes. Sort of wide-eyed and innocent.

I really have no egg cups that are a solid color, at least none that would fit this cozy, so I turned one of the Prague egg cups around. That works.

The Brits talk about “wadding” – whether it’s to stuff a little animal like this or a layer in a quilt. I used polyfill, which proved to be frustrating because it automatically fills the space and doesn’t allow for a lot of shaping. I think I would like to try something different next time. British readers: what do you recommend?

As it was, I pulled some of the polyfill out this morning and did my best to shape the head like the one in the pattern. But it’s different.

I choose to think of it as ‘unique.’

When I finished it, I immediately had the thought: That’s that. I’ve done it. No more.

But upon reflection, the second time would be easier, right? So I may try it again – this time with a striped sweater. Since I had done absolutely no knitting for at least 8 or 9 years, I thought I’d go with a solid color on my first try.

Name? Because you know I have to name everything. Suggestions are welcome. Also, I keep saying ‘he’ because that’s my immediate reaction. But is he a ‘he?’

I went shoe shopping yesterday. Don’t ask. Very frustrating. I need very comfortable shoes and I need to try them out on site. That eliminates ordering on the internet. I need arch support. One foot is slightly larger than the other. And on and on. I do have some shoes on hand, but I wanted something a bit more elegant. I’ll go out again – maybe tomorrow. But if I don’t find something tomorrow, I will go with what I have.

The state of the coffee table. This was taken just after I had finished a piece of apple pie. By the way, the magazine you see – Living the Country Life? Expensive, for one. And after I had read at least two articles that featured country folk who kill their livestock; in these cases, lambs and cows, I tossed it.

No can do.

The photography is beautiful and it’s nicely done…but I can’t go there.

Today? Maybe a bit more yard work. Maybe a bit more mowing. And recycling, because I didn’t do it last week as I had promised.

Toss out any suggestions you have as to a name for the bunny.

Oh, just learned this bit of news: My friend, who is the Artistic Director of a regional theater on the West Coast and is of Asian descent just said that someone called the box office and asked if he was a U.S. citizen. What have we become?

For the record he was born and raised in West Virginia.

Happy Wednesday.

Working Outside

My Girls

Keeping the Egg Cozy

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

Archives