Some needlepoint with some cool texture for your viewing pleasure.
I’m particularly fond of the framing job on this picture. (I know, it’s hard to see.) We had brought it to a framing store and played with different mats and frames to find just the right combination. I loved the marbled-purplish mat, and the girl helping kept trying to get me to do something else. Then she reached up and picked up this garish, gilded, frame that I would never have picked in a million years. I was already making a face and thinking, “Ew!” when she put it next to the marbled mat and … perfect. The two of them worked wonderfully together and were the perfect complement to the texture and colors of the picture.
You probably wouldn’t really want to go to a framing store with me, because it takes me forever to find the right combinations, but really, after all the work making the pictures, they deserve the perfect frame! (grin)
Hmm. I sense a photo-series coming on….
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I have shown this picture before, but darn it, I showed you Mom’s embroidery last week! This is some of the detail from my Carl Larsson embroidery. I took my favorite painting, traced it, blew it up on a copy machine, traced it onto fabric and then sat for a year with embroidery floss and a stitch encyclopedia and recreated it. I absolutely adore this picture. And, besides, my new camera does a great job, capturing details….
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We’ve had this picture hanging in our house practically my entire life. Mom made it the year my sister was in first grade, so… about 1969-1970. The perfect, embroidered representation of Flower Power Pop Art. Mom did a lot of crewel work embroidery when we were little–not only did it keep her hands busy, but it was an inexpensive way to decorate the house, too. These days, she does counted cross-stitch, but I’ve always been partial to these multi-stitched pictures of hers. And this one? Well, it’s been hanging in our upstairs hallway since we moved into the house in 1975 and I can see it from where I’m sitting. It wouldn’t feel like home without it.
(And, again, I am just amazed at the quality of the pictures this camera takes … it doesn’t matter how far you zoom in on these things, the stitches and fabric are still clear. Amazing.)
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For years of my childhood, this cafe scene hung on our kitchen wall. I’m not sure what the metal is–copper, maybe?–but I spent many hours picturing myself sitting at one of those tables. Mom came across it recently in one of the closets and I just couldn’t resist taking its picture to share with you.
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When we were little, whenever my parents would throw a party, this bowl would come out of the cabinet–a big one for chips and a little one for dip. Invariably, it was onion dip–you know the one, made with sour cream and Lipton Onion Soup Mix? We adored the stuff and, frankly, thought they should have more parties because that was about the only time we ever got to eat it.
Anyway, it’s a very 1960/1970’s kind of bowl. For Easter last week, we thought it would be nice to bring it out for old time’s sake. A blast from the past, as it were. My sister’s face lit up with recognition the minute she saw it.
And, of course that’s onion dip. Sure, salsa and tortilla chips would have worked, or some other, more modern dip but … why break with tradition?
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You know, knitting isn’t the only thing you can do with a pair of sticks.
Sometimes, they’re more fun to just put into your hair.
(It’s just a pity that my hair never stays up. I think the record–even with excellent twisting, great hair sticks, and firm closure–was about four hours. Still, pretty!)
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Okay, so maybe I’m a little vain about my curls. As I go through my old archives, I keep coming across posts where I talk about my hair or show pictures of my hair, and really, well . . . what can I say? I like my curly hair!
Not to mention relieved to finally have a decent haircut.
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Is it just me? Or does the rather unusual internal shape of this tomato remind you of anything?
(And, what? Doesn’t everyone like taking pictures of their food? I mean, sure, it might be a little unusual that I stopped in the middle of making my lunch to go back to the car to get my camera out of my purse, but, well, wouldn’t anyone?)
(Just me, then? Oh.)
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So, on Sunday–the first day with sunshine after last Friday’s storm–we took a walk, and as we left the house, saw this. This is our teeny-tiny baby red maple tree, and it sits under the eaves of the house and, as you can see, was just covered in icicles. The timing for our walk was perfect, though, because the sun was at just the right angle to make them really shine.
In fact, see? When we got back from our walk, the sun had moved around the corner of the house, leaving the icicles gleaming rather than sparkling, but still just as pretty.
Sometimes, it really pays to bring your camera on a walk around the block.
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Here’s the story behind these pictures. Years (and years) ago, when I got my first VCR, the only place to plug it in was in the same power outlet that was attached to the light switch in my bedroom. And, invariably, I would forget and automatically switch the light off when I left the room and . . . of course . . . turn off the VCR at the same time, so that the VCR would reset back to midnight and lose any timer programming. At some point or other, we had an electrician in the house and he said he could just disconnect the light switch so that I couldn’t do that any more. Great! And so I got in the habit of turning off my light by actual light.
And so it was for years. Then, a couple years ago, I got a ceiling fan and when we were talking to the (new) electrician about installation, I mentioned the lightswitch, and he said he could reconnect it to just half the power outlet, so that I could plug my dresser light into that and the tv into the other half, and there would be no more problems.
Except, I was in the habit by then of turning that little switch on the light every time I wanted to turn it on or off.
So, I took this cute little bracelet–with a tiny bell–out of my jewelry box and hung it on the switch. Then, whenever I reached for it, my fingers would touch the bracelet and it would chime against the light, and I’d remember enough to reach for the light switch on the wall, instead. I’ve gotten back in the wall-switch habit my now, but, I kind of like that little bracelet there, and so there it stays.
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So, remember last week, when we had a little snow? Well, on Sunday, when we had that mini-blizzard whip through, our town had salted the roads. That, of course, turned out to be completely unnecessary since there was almost no snow at all, but, whatever. On Monday, though, as we drove on the driveway, our tires left some interesting tracks, “car art,” if you will, with the white salt.
But … then, this was pretty interesting … when it started snowing on Tuesday, the snow stuck to the driveway but melted on the tracks of salt, effectively making a reverse-image of the original “art.”
Nifty, huh? I love the “double-image” effect, too . . . Clearly, our cars are very artistic!
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Because, who can complain about some beautiful Sky for some Eye Candy? I just love the way the clouds look textured–as if they were spackled onto the blue. You can almost see the strokes …
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A crib-sized, Amish quilt we have hanging in our laundry room. And, no, I did NOT make this. I can make quilts, and I have made quilts, but not this one. This, I bought, and it is authentically Amish. I love Amish quilts–vivid, solid colors, that dance together when “mixed” in just the right way. The pattern is called “Sunshine and Shadow,” and has always been one of my favorites. (Yes, I know, in more traditional designs, it’s sometimes known as “Trip Around the World,” but the Amish ones are almost always called “Sunshine and Shadow” because it’s made up of 3 versions of each color, so that it almost … shimmers.
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