This and That!

Happy Monday, everyone... another new week, and for those of us who work full time - the first full week of work following the short weeks of the Christmas/New Year celebrations.

I don't know about you, but I already have searched the calendar for the next long weekend - and for me it will not be until Feb 21st... sounds like a long time away, but I'm sure it will be here quicker than I think... at least I hope it will!

Last week I was over visiting my neighbors Elaine and Gordon.  If you remember, Gordon had lung surgery in November.  He had many set backs and was in the hospital for 8 weeks, but is home how and slowly healing and improving.

While I was there Elaine (who is a spinner/weaver/knitter and stitcher) pointed to a box and a large bag standing in the corner of the room.  She was most anxious to show me their contents.  She pulled out the box first and handed me a bit of soft fluffy fiber, and declared it carded un-spun black sheep's wool.  The bag was filled to the top of raw black sheep's fleece.

Oh boy; my heart started pittering and a pattering, mainly because I have been after her for months and months to teach me to spin!  She got out her carders and proceeded to show me how to card the raw wool to ready it for spinning.  We worked on that for quite some time, and then she sent me home with "homework."

Can you imagine?  I have wanted to learn this all my life.... and now I am on my way!  I was told we will card the whole bag (ugh)... and I have to pick a project out before we spin, so we spin enough of the same weight to finish a project...(double ugh).  Picking 1 project is just sooooo hard for me to do.  Right away I "Go into business"!!  It's a real character flaw of mine!

So now I have to pull out all those patterns I stashed away over Christmas break, and try and pick 1 project to make out of black (actually it's more brown) sheep's wool.

How cool is that?

Frozen boogers and such!

You will be thinking I have taken leave of my senses - perhaps you would be right - but this morning as I made my way to work in the frigid sub-zero Arctic air - I couldn't help thinking about a cartoon I saw once where two Eskimo men were sitting out in the middle of a frozen lake, icefishing.  The one Eskimo had obviously sneezed.. rather productively and it has frozen to his nose... the other simply says Ka - zoont- hite! (I'm sure I spelled this wrong).

This picture came to mind as I was standing out in -29 with windchill air - and I felt a sneeze coming on. My mind when zap - right to that cartoon - and then immediately to where in my 11 pocket jacket, would I find my hankie.... yes I did say hankie....

I have several hankies... and I always carry them, but seldom use them. I knew there was one in my bag - but that would entail opening the strap - removing my water bottle and lunch bag and fishing around at the bottom of the bag... couldn't stand the thought of being with out my mitts for that long... scrap that idea.

At the time I bought my 11 pocket jacket - I thought it was a splendid invention - this morning it was anything but.  Again I had to take off my mittens and fish around.... two breast pockets first... oops dropped the bus pass, and found last weeks grocery list with the dog shampoo I want to order online written on it (I thought I had lost it).

Next the arm pockets... cripes my hands are freezing... no hankie

Okay now it's getting serious - the inside pockets... zip open the coat - unwrap the scarf, zip open a little further  - oh hell just open the whole darn thing... fish, fish.... cell phone, drivers licence and other ID, (in case I get lost so someone knows who I am)... yeah I found it!

But you gotta know that by now, it's way too late, and I am just like that little Sneezing fellow sitting by the hole in the ice in the cartoon... Ka - zoont - hite.... indeed!

Look what landed on my doorstep!

I have this very incredibly generous cyber friend who has been buying dolls on line and in thrift stores, restoring them, redressing them and then reselling them on her website and Ebay.  She was the lady who found my Chatty Cathy last year, and then she found a Chatty Baby and  a Singing Cathy.  She has been saving both dolls for me to purchase for months and months, and then before Christmas, she popped them in the mail to me - unbeknown to me.

In the meantime, my son asked me if he could buy one for me for my Christmas gift.  I was delighted, of course, so I emailed my friend and asked her to send the Chatty Baby.

On Monday a box arrived from my friend - and when I opened it, there lay both dolls.  The one I had ordered, and the one I really wanted but couldn't afford right now.  There was a note in the box saying that she wanted to send both dolls because she knew I was so sick, and thought they would cheer me up.

I ask you - where would you ever find such a caring friend?  She has held on to these dolls for months, put some money into the dolls to restore them, and paid to ship them to me - because she knew they would bring a smile to my face and lighten my heart.

And I have never met this friend face to face.

I can't tell you how wonderful she makes me feel - not because of the dolls, but because she genuinely cares about me... something other friends profess, but in no way demonstrate.

Thank you Eva - I am blessed to call you friend.

And so here is my Chatty family.

Chatty Cathy in the red dress
Chatty Baby in the blue (original) outfit
and Singing Cathy in the white dress... which by the way - Eva has made.

I do believe I am in Chatty heaven...

Happy New Year!

I must apologize to you, my readers for my lengthy absence from my blog.  The later part of November and all of December are pretty much a blur to me.  One minute I was working like a possessed woman getting things ready for my craft sale, and the next I was lying in bed coughing up a lung. 

I have had pneumonia before and recovered very quickly, but for some reason (?age) this time it took two rounds of antibiotics, a few weeks off work, and lots and lots of rest to shake this bug.  Happy to say, aside from the odd tickle cough - I am pretty much back to normal (whatever that might be).

Right in the midst of the pneumonia - my knee went bad - I could walk - and then I couldn't - so more confinement to house and home, and more rest.  The knee is better now too - I gave up the cane on the weekend and ventured out on the bus without it this morning...

So out with the crappy old year - and bring on the New One.... and hopefully this will be a great year.

I don't make resolutions as such - but I have promised myself better health, and to that end have decided to return to Weight Watchers once more.  Six years ago I was on their program and lost 70 lbs... I looked and felt great, and then got cancer.... the weight has crept back on - not all of it - but most of it - and the time has come to start working it off.

I firmly stand behind the Weight Watchers program... it is not a diet, that is why so many are so successful with it.  It's a life change, and it works.  Yes it's hard at first, but once you learn to treat food as food and not a social happening - voila - the weight disappears.  Well, maybe it's not THAT easy, but it is a mindset for sure!

I'll keep you posted ....

I have been going through my library of patterns, culling out the ones I know I'll never do, and keeping the ones I might - Guess what - I threw nothing away.... now there is a sickness all of it's own!!  You just never know when you will be looking for something new to make...and I did manage to find a lot of new projects just waiting to be tried... I am after all, my own worst enemy!

So - Happy New Year.... lets make this a good one.  Don't waste a moment of it... be happy.... be healthy.... be creative.... be kind to yourself and others too.  It's a brand new opportunity to change your little corner of the world, however you wish to change it.  Happy 2011!

A Christmas Memory

A few weeks ago I dug out my Christmas CD's and started loading my ipod with tunes of the season.  There I was sitting in my rocking chair with my head phones on one evening, I had just been singing along with Andy Williams and the next song to come on was actually not a song, but a recitation.

It is a recording made in 1964, and when I heard it, I turned up the volume, closed my eyes and listened to the artist's smooth voice telling a story about a little girl who didn't believe in Santa Claus.

It is a different version of the famous piece published in the New York Sun in 1897... and in my opinion much better - softer somehow.

Maybe it's how the artist calls the young girl - littleun, or maybe because he speaks with such conviction when addressing the issue of Santa Claus - or maybe it's simply the fact that the first time I heard this recording was in 1965, and I was 10 yrs old, and I felt just like the artist was speaking directly to me, and me alone.

My older readers will know that I am referring to Jimmy Dean's "Yes Patricia, there is a Santa Claus.

It's a timeless piece of Christmas tradition, that I believe should be played to young children all over the world.  The message is still appropriate even after all these years, and ten times ten thousand years from now, it will still be appropriate.

So here he is

Jimmy Dean in "Yes Patricia, there is a Santa Claus.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUJNlkP27i8

And what have you been doing?

I am sorry I have been absent from here for a few weeks.  I have been sick since November 24th and while I have been home I really have not been on the computer much at all.

My brain seems to have gone on a vacation, and the few times I felt up to composing a post for here, I sat and stared at the screen for much too long, and in the end gave up and shut the computer off.

Thankfully these times come and go... and in my case I'm happy to see it go.  This time of the year, who has time to while away the hours being sick doing nothing constructive, but being sick?

So now I find myself back in the land of the living and Christmas only two weeks away.  Geeze Louise, this is not a good situation.  I did manage to struggle with some Christmas decorating - somewhat.  I usually go whole hog, but this year I just did the essentials - tree, wise men, Jon's nutcracker collection, and a big snowman with a couple of warmly dressed dolls in attendance.  Truth be said, it's more than enough in my little house anyway.

I put the tree up in the dining room this year, and it is so pretty sitting in there every evening, eating beside the tree.  Does wonders for a simple dinner of Chicken nuggets and noodles!

Yesterday I finally accomplished some Christmas baking.  I made mincemeat tarts, shortbread cookies, and rolled my Anis cookies which has been a family tradition all of my life.  I will bake them today, and the house will smell like Christmas ( or like Christmas' past) for a short time while the scent of licorice hangs in the air.

Last week in a moment of extreme boredom, I went digging in my studio closet - I think I was looking for Christmas wrap or something.  Instead I found a huge stash of yarn, left over from many many projects, and some given to me by people who actually clean their closets on a regular basis!  I was so excited with my find, and then remembered a little book I had bought quite a few years ago called 200 Knitted Blocks - by Jan Eaton... so I went looking for this too.

I hadn't looked in this book since I bought it so I grabbed the book, some needles and some yarn and started at block #1.

The book is full of basic knitting stitches used in traditional and contemporary designs to mix and match patterns and colors for making afghans and blankets.  What a delight; and what a load of fun I am having   progressing through the 200 blocks and through the huge stash of yarn.

I will be able to make quite a few blankets by the time I am finished.  Some I will donate to the homeless shelters and some I will give away to whomever wants one.  But I think I have found the perfect winter project to keep me occupied and at the same time free up some storage space in my closet for who knows what?

As I write this my husband has announced that it is -30... I'm thinking I have the best project possible - what better to do than knit and cover ones self with warm woollies for the long winter ahead.

Keep warm everyone...

A very Special Christmas Message

  

IT WAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS, 

HE LIVED ALL ALONE,
IN A ONE BEDROOM HOUSE,
MADE OF PLASTER AND STONE.

I HAD COME DOWN THE CHIMNEY,
WITH PRESENTS TO GIVE,
AND TO SEE JUST WHO,
IN THIS HOME, DID LIVE.

I LOOKED ALL ABOUT
A STRANGE SIGHT I DID SEE,
NO TINSEL, NO PRESENTS,
NOT EVEN A TREE.
 
NO STOCKING BY MANTLE,
JUST BOOTS FILLED WITH SAND,
ON THE WALL HUNG PICTURES,
OF FAR DISTANT LANDS.

WITH MEDALS AND BADGES,
AWARDS OF ALL KINDS,
A SOBER THOUGHT,
CAME THROUGH MY MIND.

FOR THIS HOUSE WAS DIFFERENT,
IT WAS DARK AND DREARY,
I FOUND THE HOME OF A SOLDIER,
ONCE I COULD SEE CLEARLY. 

THE SOLDIER LAY SLEEPING,
SILENT, ALONE,
CURLED UP ON THE FLOOR,
IN THIS ONE BEDROOM HOME.

THE FACE WAS SO GENTLE,
THE ROOM IN  DISORDER,
NOT HOW I PICTURED,
A TRUE CANADIAN SOLDIER.

WAS THIS THE HERO,
OF WHOM I'D JUST READ?
CURLED UP ON A PONCHO,
THE FLOOR FOR A BED?

I REALISED THE FAMILIES,
THAT I SAW THIS NIGHT,
OWED THEIR LIVES TO THESE SOLDIERS,
WHO WERE WILLING TO FIGHT.

SOON ROUND THE WORLD,
THE CHILDREN WOULD PLAY,
AND GROWNUPS WOULD CELEBRATE,
A BRIGHT CHRISTMAS DAY.

THEY ALL ENJOYED FREEDOM,
EACH MONTH OF THE YEAR,
BECAUSE OF THE SOLDIERS,
LIKE THE ONE LYING HERE.

I COULDN'T HELP WONDER,
HOW MANY LAY ALONE,
ON A COLD CHRISTMAS EVE,
IN A LAND FAR FROM HOME.

THE VERY THOUGHT BROUGHT,
A TEAR TO MY EYE,
I DROPPED TO MY KNEES,
AND STARTED TO CRY.

THE SOLDIER AWAKENED,
AND I HEARD A ROUGH VOICE,
"SANTA DON'T CRY,
THIS LIFE IS MY CHOICE;

I FIGHT FOR FREEDOM,
I DON'T ASK FOR MORE,
MY LIFE IS MY GOD,
MY COUNTRY, MY CORPS..."

THE SOLDIER ROLLED OVER,
AND DRIFTED TO SLEEP,
I COULDN'T CONTROL IT,
I CONTINUED TO WEEP.

I KEPT WATCH FOR HOURS,
SO SILENT AND STILL,
AND WE BOTH SHIVERED,
FROM THE COLD NIGHT'S CHILL.

I DID NOT WANT TO LEAVE,
ON THAT COLD, DARK, NIGHT,
THIS GUARDIAN OF HONOR,
SO WILLING TO FIGHT.

THEN THE SOLDIER ROLLED OVER,
WITH A VOICE SOFT AND PURE,
WHISPERED, "CARRY ON SANTA,
IT'S CHRISTMAS DAY, ALL IS SECURE."

ONE LOOK AT MY WATCH,
AND I KNEW HE WAS RIGHT.
"MERRY CHRISTMAS MY FRIEND,
AND TO ALL A GOOD   NIGHT."

This poem was written by a Peacekeeping soldier stationed overseas. 
The following is his request I think it is reasonable

PLEASE. Would you do me the kind favour of sending this to as many people as you can? Christmas will be coming soon and some credit is due to all of the service men and women for our being able to celebrate these festivities. 
Let's try in this small way to pay a tiny bit of what we owe. Make people stop and think of our heroes, living and dead, who sacrificed themselves for us.  Please, do your small part to plant this small seed.