After narrowing the field down to merino wool, it didn't take me long to realize that I like Ashland Bay roving best of all. This is completely processed, died and combed merino imported from England. The colors are amazing, and the quality of each piece of roving is always perfect. No dirt. No color variations. Just wonderful. Well, I've collected over a hundred colors of wool --- almost all of them merino. Part of my wool is stored in a cedar chest, but part of it (the colors that I use most often) have been in plastic bags inside of a marvelous old basket. Unfortunately, I've sort of outgrown the basket! Last night, though, Mom gave me two new "under bed shoe storage" zipper bags. Wow! Just the thing for all my wool! It is now sorted by color and tucked away safely --- out of reach of the moths or the kitty cats. Elizabeth was nice enough to suggest that I should have a picture of myself with the wool --- just so that I would be on my blog for once! So, even though I look pretty tired (it was pretty late in the eveing!), there I am. ;)
Felting is a really great hobby. It relaxes me, and the possibilities are endless. We're always coming up with ideas for the next doll or project. What makes the possibilities fun is the variety of colors. And I have quite a variety! Mom, Elizabeth and I have spent hours and hours over the past years going to fiber shows and wool dealers to acquire this variety. I've tried various kinds of wool along the way, too --- everything from Cotswold to Romney to Merino. I also have blends of wool with silk and llama. I've tried felting alpaca and llama fiber, buffalo fiber and cat hair. After years of trying and experimenting, I have decided that I really like merino. It gets poor ratings from felters, usually, because it is so fine that it takes about three times the amount of pokes to felt when compared with Cotswold or Romney. True. It does take a lot longer to felt, but I think that the quality of the finished piece is so worth it. The results are a smooth, clean, firm felt. After narrowing the field down to merino wool, it didn't take me long to realize that I like Ashland Bay roving best of all. This is completely processed, died and combed merino imported from England. The colors are amazing, and the quality of each piece of roving is always perfect. No dirt. No color variations. Just wonderful. Well, I've collected over a hundred colors of wool --- almost all of them merino. Part of my wool is stored in a cedar chest, but part of it (the colors that I use most often) have been in plastic bags inside of a marvelous old basket. Unfortunately, I've sort of outgrown the basket! Last night, though, Mom gave me two new "under bed shoe storage" zipper bags. Wow! Just the thing for all my wool! It is now sorted by color and tucked away safely --- out of reach of the moths or the kitty cats. Elizabeth was nice enough to suggest that I should have a picture of myself with the wool --- just so that I would be on my blog for once! So, even though I look pretty tired (it was pretty late in the eveing!), there I am. ;) Other than sorting through wool, we've been busy getting ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas. We have most of our Christmas cards addressed, and most of the Christmas boxes about ready for shipping. We're all busy trying to make presents for each other. I'm felting a doll for Elizabeth, and it is coming along very well. More later.
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As the song goes, "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas . . ." We had our first snow last week, and it wasn't just little granular stuff that only showed up on the car windshield. It was actually white snow that was on the ground for two days! In fact, the front door was frozen shut most of the day. We're back to green grass and fallen leaves, but that snow did wonders for the anticipation of the Christmas mood. Elizabeth and I are very "Christmas-y". At our house, there is a sort of pact --- actually, it's almost a sort of rule --- that no one plays Christmas music until December 1st. Can't wait! The main thing that kept us on our toes last week: Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes. We managed to finish sixteen of them in time to deliver at church on Sunday, and I've got one left over that will be going to church this Sunday! That made for some busy days, and a lot of shopping and sorting. It's always a lot of fun to shop for these, as you get to pick things out that aren't on the "usual" shopping lists. I am partial to the boys boxes, but it's easier to fill girls' boxes. Things like play jewelry, little purses, baby dolls, Princess coloring books. Boys are trickier, because it's hard to find things that don't have to do with the military or guns. Hot wheels and marbles are always good. Not to mention art supplies (which work for boys and girls!). We found some adorable plastic Black & Decker tool sets for small boys that we put in a couple of the boxes. And, of course, everyone got some sort of little stuffed animal. Silly me, but I forgot to take a picture of the boxes all packed and closed up. I did remember to take one of them with all the stuff inside but not packed. It took us all day to get them packed and closed. Every box got a collapsible tote bag that folded down into the corner, a toothbrush, toothpaste, bar of soap and a metal Cross. Oliver had fun, too. He wanted to be part of the shoebox packing, so he shoved himself into a shoebox of his own and took a nap! Dad is going down to Florida to spend a few days with his parents. That's been a great opportunity to pack up Christmas presents for all the family on that side and send them down with him. I love giving Christmas presents! Elizabeth and I wish that we could take them down ourselves. Visiting family is so fun! We still have a few things to get ready, but things are going pretty well. The biggest "news" around here is that we have gotten a new stove. Well, new to us. Amazingly, all four burners work and (now that we've put in a new element) the oven is fabulous! We bought a pair of ranges about thirteen or fourteen years ago. They served us well, but over the last couple of years --- they've gone pretty down hill. One of them had to go to scrap earlier in the Summer. Before it went, Dad had taken parts from it to help out the remaining range. The remaining range did manage to make it through another canning season, but it was just about to give up. Thankfully, one of the Keultjes's neighbors was moving and had their stove on Craig's List. Mom went up and looked at it, and Mr. Keultjes was sweet enough to bring it down in his van. Last night, we put in the new element and ran the "break-in" heat-up to get it working. It made a wonderful pizza! ;) More later. After weeks and weeks of working, writing, cropping, saving and the like --- our website is uploaded and live! Yay! I am so thrilled. We've still got a lot more to come, but at least there is a good amount already finished. I've made sections for the Fogleberries and the Minikins, though I've still got more dolls in the works. This is definitely something that will keep us busy through the Winter. We had not actually planned on anything like this until six or eight weeks ago. It started because of the whole mess that Google is making out of accounts --- and our desire to get off of Etsy. So, almost everything is removed from Etsy, and the bit that is left won't be there long! Elizabeth and I still have our old website, SE Productions, but we don't want to have any of the selling/dolls on that one. Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald are still over there, our novel and some other projects that are "coming soon". Talk about busy --- two websites! :) The most time-consuming thing that I've been working on is changing my Dan Duryea Central blog over to static web pages. What a job! I started that blog (on Blogger) last Fall. Lots of posts --- and lots of pictures. Changing those onto a website has been quite a job. Not to mention the size of the files and the amount of them to upload. In the last 24 hours, I have uploaded 1,102 files onto the new site! And just think . . . I've still got hundreds of Duryea photos to fix and post. Both of the photos above are links to the site. Please, have a look around. I've been at this so long today that I'm kind of going goofy, so there will be another (longer) post later. Oh, and the name of the site is www.SarahBethOnline.com. Winter weather is here, and we're finally getting some of those things done that come around with cold weather. Mom and I had a fun afternoon last week --- we made our own vanilla extract! She had ordered a quarter pound of organic vanilla beans from Frontier. I never knew it, but vanilla beans are a type of orchid stamen. Wow! I always knew there was a reason that I love orchids and vanilla! We put the majority of the beans into Blue Ice vodka, but a few went into a Bourbon and a few more went into a Brandy. The extract is really nothing more than a tincture, so now they have to sit for three to six months. Cutting the beans in half was not too hard. Scraping the little, tiny, itsy-bitsy seeds out of the center was a pretty sticky mess. I ate some plain --- just to see if it tasted like vanilla. Nope. Pretty nondescript and immemorable. While we were working, we did remember to take a few photographs. This one shows all of our supplies and ingredients ready to go. We ended up having to use regular jar lids and rings. Even with the rubber seals, the zinc lids leaked when we tried to shake the jars. Buddy and Kay came over twice last week! Once for Dinner and a movie, then on Saturday for the whole afternoon and evening. Dad and Buddy went fishing together while Kay and the three of us had a "girly" afternoon together. We drank a lot of hot tea and watched Cranford. That meant a lot of laughing and crying together. :) All in all, it was a really fun day! We sold another little doll at the end of the week, so Elizabeth has been sewing away. It was a Poirot Minikin with a Light Grey suit this time --- which is always fun.
Well, it's dinner time, so I have to stop. I put up photos of all my wool felted dolls (see the tab at top)! More later. |
SAMWISE: MY HONEY-POT
Colossians 2:8:
See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. BEATRICE: MY HONEY-BEE
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Edward James Eliot
My "favorite" member of the Clapham Sect. Not very much is known about him, but what is preserved keeps a beautiful memory alive of an exemplary Christian man. William Wilberforce Quote:
May I look to Him for wisdom and strength and the power of persuasion, and may I surrender myself to Him as to the event with perfect submission, and ascribe to Him all the praise if I succeed, and if I fail say from the heart thy will be done. For you Jesus Christ came into the world. For you he lived and showed God’s love. For you he suffered the darkness of Calvary and cried at the last, ‘It is accomplished.’ For you he triumphed over death and rose to new life. For you he reigns at God’s right hand. All this he did for you, though you do not know it yet.
Where there is one, there is a majority of one; and when the rights of the majority take away from the rights of the one, then the many will themselves suffer.
~Henry David Thoreau~ I often think of Bag End. I miss my books, and my armchair, and my garden. You see, that's where I belong. That's home. That's why I came back, because you don't have one. A home. It was taken from you. But I will help you take it back if I can.
~ Bilbo Baggins ~ FAVORITE BOOKS & FILMS
Gone With the Wind (Mitchell) Genesis of a Legacy (K. Ham) Prisoner of Zenda (Hope) Scaramouche (Sabatini) Amazing Grace (2007) Bertie & Elizabeth (2002) Farmer's Daughter (1947) Ride Clear of Diablo (1954) Secondhand Lions (2003) Sweethearts (1938) SCARAMOUCHE QUOTES
He was born with a gift of laughter & a sense that the world was mad. The future is to be read with certainty only in the past. Man never changes. PRIDE & PREJUDICE:
A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony, in a moment. PRIDE & PREJUDICE:
Laugh as much as you choose, but you will not laugh me out of my opinion. WINSTON CHURCHILL ON
KING GEORGE VI "His conduct on the Throne may well be a model & a guide to constitutional sovereigns throughout the world today & also in future generations." "For 15 years George VI was King. Never at any moment in all the perplexities at home & abroad, in public or in private, did he fail in his duties." |