Monday, October 27, 2008

Vintage Doily



This is one of my recent thrift store finds. I absolutely love hand crocheted items. I have quite a large collection of doilies and other linens. It has been said my house looks like an elderly grandmotherly type lives in it. Of course, people have been saying this about me since I was in my 20s so I'm somewhat used to it.

I love the pineapple, which is one of the most popular designs. Pineapples were a symbol of welcome to the Victorians, which is why you see them in things like this and often as finials in homes from the time period.

I have to confess, I've never crocheted one. But, I've bought quite a few of them. Does that count? I do have a pattern book I bought for $2 at the MCC sale last year that has a number of different pineapple designs in it. Isn't it amazing that women used to have time to do laundry and cooking and dishes and dusting AND crocheting?!?!? I'm astonished.

Of course, they weren't blogging, I say, thinking about the pile of dirty clothes on the bathroom floor. Maybe I should stop blogging, too, for tonight. I'm not going to break out the crochet hook, but I do have some things I need to do.

One of those is go pick my herbs. It's already 30 here now and it's supposed to get down to 24 tonight. I want to save my rosemary, sage and lavender. I think I'll let everything else go. I picked the green tomatoes a few days ago, but I guess I will ignore the rest.

I suppose I'd best go do my herb cutting. It's not like it's going to get any warmer before I go to bed. Of course, I could have done it one day the last week or two but - did I - no, of course not. Why do that. It's so much more of an adventure to do it when it's below freezing, seeing only by the security light.
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Check www.patsyterrell.com for the blog, art, and more. Friend me on Facebook.com, Follow me at Twitter.com.

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A Full Weekend



Sharon gave me this beautiful purple/coral mum last week. It has been too windy to have it outside much, but I set it out today to get some sun. It's such a pretty color and mums mean fall.

Fall is in full swing and I knew this without a doubt Saturday morning when I had to scrape frost off my car. Lots of frost. Why, you might rightly ask, was I up so early on a Saturday morning? Not just up, but doing something that involved the car.

Saturday morning I went to the Kansas Underground Salt Museum for volunteer training. For reasons I can't explain I really want to drive the little trams they use underground. I got to do it Saturday morning. It was just as fun as I expected it to be. Hopefully I'll get to volunteer there soon, although I don't think I'll do it much until after Christmas. We'll see how it goes.

They do the training before the museum opens, but as I walked into the new building, with the train that was used to move the salt in its new home next to the building, the sun was just coming up.



I had two big projects this weekend, other than that. One was to finish up the window I replaced on Friday and get the storm window repaired and back in place. I was able to do that.

My other big project for the weekend was to get started on the Christmas tree. I know, it's not yet Halloween. I know this because there's a pumpkin in my front window casting an orange glow onto the lawn, and I haven't yet handed out candy, which I love to do. But, I also know if I don't get started early for Christmas it becomes a chore and I don't want it to be a chore. I want to enjoy every moment of the holiday season.

So, my living room is now a staging area for the tree. I've got a couple of rows on, with lights.



I have to plug in the lights so I can see which ones blink and which ones burn steady so I get a good mix on the tree. These are now on the tree, so I'll bring more up from the basement and repeat the process. This isn't my favorite part of the process, but I love the effect of the sparkly lights when it's done. So, gotta do this part.

Tonight Teresa and I went to see the Diamond W Wranglers at the Fox Theatre. It was terrific. They played for three hours, with only a 15 minute intermission, and ... get ready... I did not get at all restless!

If you've read here for any amount of time you know it's difficult for me to sit still for very long, which is one of the reasons I don't go to movies very much, why I don't like meetings and why I'm very careful to not get myself involved in things that require a lot of focused attention on just one thing.

But, the Wranglers were so good I loved every minute of it. They play at Cowtown on a regular basis. I've been to Cowtown before, but I haven't gone to see them there. I need to do that soon.

Afterwards they were out chatting with people and signing CDs. That's Jim in the purple - he's married to Martha, next to him is the drummer Steve, and Stu in the red and black shirt. Stu sang almost every song, with Jim taking lead on a few, and I couldn't believe he was still talking after all that singing, but he didn't seem phased.



They were fabulous, and I can't urge you strongly enough to go visit them at Cowtown. They start their Christmas program in early November. You can get a sneak listen by going to the website. Hit refresh if you want to hear yet another tune.

All in all a very full weekend. I have to go to Manhattan for a meeting tomorrow and will need to leave early so I'd best get some sleep. No more tree assembly or concerts for me tonight.
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Check www.patsyterrell.com for the blog, art, and more. Friend me on Facebook.com, Follow me at Twitter.com.

I am looking for book clubs willing to read and critique my novel when it's completed. If your book club is interested, please email me at patsyterrell@gmail.com. Thanks!