Embroidery

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Pearls

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Well, not real pearls, but antique fake ones, bought at Covent Garden in London back in 1987, and jumbled with a hematite necklace and a bronze-brown woven chain. It’s the way those glass pearls catch the light, though, that looks so beautiful.

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Vases

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Where?

Where is the dog in this picture?

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Bet you guessed wrong. Here, I’ll give you a hint.

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He looks awfully cozy back there, doesn’t he?

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Cedar Chest

Because the wood is just so darn pretty.

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Camoflauge

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Moths are sneaky!

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Skeiner

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Doesn’t my skeiner make pretty shadows on the wall like this?

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Envelopes

My sister does a nice line in envelopes, doesn’t she?

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This was for Chappy’s birthday card.

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And this was for the note she sent me thanking me for the sweater I gave her. (Note the matching knitted cable along the edge.)

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Peony

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Perkins

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When we were packing up the house last year, I came across this little painting that we took from my Grandmother’s house. It’s signed by “Charlotte Perkins.” I have no idea who she might have been, but I find it charming. Especially when dappled by late afternoon sunlight.

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Jar

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Because everyone needs a place to keep it.

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Slate

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A painted roof slate from the Vieux Carre in New Orleans. Something pretty to look at in my Secretary desk.

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Key

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So … what’s in the Secretary desk?

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Secretary

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My grandmother’s Secretary desk, looking lovely in the slatted light from my window blinds.

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Fern

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Fortune

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Okay, I’ll have to remember this.

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Carl Larsson

I know, I’ve shown pictures of this embroidery project before, but…

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It looked so pretty in the sun the other night, I couldn’t help but take more pictures.

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I loved the way the silver candlestick sparkled in the light. And that you can really see the three-dimensions of the girl’s braid.

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Not to mention every french knot in the trailing Christmas cactuses.

This picture, you’ll remember comes from my very favorite Carl Larsson painting. Called, I believe “Girl at Desk,” or something like that. I’ve had it on a greeting card since I was in college. Then, the card was pinned to the wall next to my desk, but a few years later, I decided to do more. I traced the outlines of the picture onto tracing paper, and then blew it up on a copy machine. Then–I don’t remember exactly how–I transferred the outline to a piece of something like very fine needlepoint canvas, but something which had a very distinct weave which made straight lines easier to sew.

I went to a local embroidery store and browsed through assorted silks and threads of all kinds, to find the right colors, the right textures for the different elements. And then for a year, I sat with a stitch dictionary and my picture, filling everything in, matching just the right stitch with each piece. I even made up a few, like that staggered satin stitch for the wood panelling.

Really, it was enormous fun. It’s just a pity that there isn’t a single other painting that inspires me to try the whole thing all over again!

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Inkwells

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This reminds me, though, that I really should dust…

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Rose

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Outside.

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Inside.

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Board

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Skylines

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There’s just something about the angles, diagonals, and parallel lines in this picture that amuses me.

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Nature

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A set of nature-themed colored buttons. Rocks, wood, pebbles–who cares that they’re plastic?

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Bamboo

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So, I’ve had this little pot of bamboo for four and a half years. It was a wedding favor at my sister’s brother-in-law’s wedding in August 2005. Ever since, it lived in my bathroom. Three stems died, but one of them hung in there and made the move with us last November.

It didn’t seem to like the new bathroom, though, probably because there was no natural light. And one by one, its leaves turned yellow. Even when I moved it to the hallway … yellow, but I couldn’t quite bring myself to throw it away.

Then, this morning, Mom pointed out the single, green leaf sprouting from the top.

There’s hope yet.

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Looking

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Here’s looking at you!
(A self-portrait from 2005.)

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Furry

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Some Furry eye-candy.

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