Paper tree #6 and a snowy day

Santas carry a tree, loaded with decorations. You can see those staples here pretty clearly.

And today we woke up to this.

Mid-morning I ventured out to the grocery store and took a few pictures on my way to the car.

It has been snowing steadily all day. There is a lot more snow out there right now and it's still coming down. This kind of storm is so unusual here, but if you don't have to be anywhere and you aren't worrying about someone who is traveling, it is peaceful and beautiful. (I may change my tune if it goes on for days—) Emily and Cayo's family from Ecuador arrived last night ahead of the storm and Emily had a big dinner today. I'm so glad we now live so close to them. It really was a lovely day in so many ways.

Paper tree #5

Oh, yes. There are more trees. You'll see a new one every couple of days until Christmas.

Little Angels decorating a tree with stars. How heavenly!

I am borrowing this holiday meme from Gerrie's blog. Feel free to copy and use. Fun to read what others do for their holiday celebrations.

Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? If those are the only choices Egg Nog, but, really, our favorite holiday drink is a Manhattan on the rocks with two cherries, served in an old-fashioned glass. (Cherries must have stems.) My Dad used to make these at Christmas and the taste and smell is a wonderful memory of Christmases past. I think this was the first alcoholic drink I ever had. Great with a handful of cashews or mixed nuts. Extra nice enjoyed in front of a roaring fire and/or Christmas tree. Put on a Christmas CD. Sip slowly and savor.

Does Santa wrap presents or set them under the tree? Well, duh, he puts them unwrapped under the tree to be found on Christmas morning.

Colored lights on tree or white? Colored lights and bubble lights. The gaudier the better.

When do you put your decorations up? I start putting up some decorations after Dec. 1. The tree goes up about a week before Christmas. I'm not a fan of early Christmas decorating.

What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? A really good ham. It's about the only time of year I buy one.

When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? It was a process. I pretended to believe long after I really did. But I remember being about 6 or 7 and skeptical, then one Christmas morning before I was out of bed I heard my uncle arrive at our door bearing gifts. He said to my Dad, "It was a long night. Santa didn't finish at our house until 6 this morning." The fact that I was hearing this exchange and they didn't know I was listening seemed like proof of Santa's existence and kept me going for another year or two.

Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? We used to open everything on Christmas morning. Now we open some gifts on Christmas Eve, and some Christmas morning as our son-in-law's family tradition has been blended into our family's.

How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Ornaments collected over many years. No theme, no rhyme or reason to them. The angel on top looks like a gypsy. Like I said—gaudy.

Snow! Love it or Dread it? If it's going to inconvenience me, or we are planning to travel I dread it. If I can stay at home and enjoy it I love it.

Can you ice skate? Yup.

Do you remember your favorite gift? My first bicycle. That was a snowy Christmas I didn't appreciate!

What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Family, memories.

What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Fruitcake. I love it.

What is your favorite tradition? Silly presents. We started this when our kids were old enough to figure out an appropriately ridiculous present for someone in the family.

Which do you prefer, Giving or Receiving? Mostly giving, but receiving a gift that really tells me that someone loves me is pretty special.

What is your favorite Christmas Song? Good King Wenceslaus. "Therefore, Christian men, be sure, wealth or rank possessing,You who now will bless the poor shall yourselves find blessing." He really was a good king. And the tune is catchy.

Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum? I can take 'em or leave 'em, but I love peppermint stick ice cream.

Ever recycled a Christmas present? Heck no! How tacky.

Paper tree #4

This tree is a bit different from the others. I used a different paper than the others, which were all the shiny, coated paper I mentioned before. This one seems to be drawing paper, perhaps because it was a bit bigger than the coated paper and this tree, while the same height, more or less, is considerably wider that the others. My memory has lost the details of what I had in mind here, but I probably just wanted a squatter shape for variety. I seem to have run into a little trouble though, because the base, in order to let it stand up nicely needed to be as wide as the widest part of the tree, but was cut so narrow and delicate that it tends to buckle under the weight of the tree. The poor bunnies look a little nervous about the whole balance thing. Those are not relaxed ears. You will see more bunnies later and they look a little more confident.

The Columbia Stitchery Guild quarterly meeting was this morning. I usually love these meetings. The programs are usually very good. This morning we had our second annual silent auction, which is a benefit for the quilting program that the guild sponsors at the Women's Prison. Great program. I was the chairperson for the auction this year. It all went well, but I was glad to have it over with. I think I used to be really good at organizing and managing projects, but lately I feel so scattered and distracted it is not good. Sales were a bit lower than last year, but I think that is a reflection of the economy. I bought a very cute corduroy and fleece jacket for Sofia, beautifully made by one of the members. We voted, this morning, to change the name of the Guild, which makes me a little sad. This guild is made up of some of the most talented and interesting women, including fiber artists and weavers and knitters and embroiderers and basketmakers. I had heard of this being such a great group long before I moved to Portland and was looking forward to joining. Now the feeling is that the word "stitchery" sounds dated and doesn't reflect the diversity of work that is done by the members. Maybe. I voted not to change. I was in a very small minority. Everybody else wants to change. I thought the name had a lot of charm.

Scrooge and the Scissors

I found a copy of the Scrooge design that I mentioned in the last post. Cut from paper. The words were also cut from paper about 20 years ago. It was a very dark production. Spooky, eh?

In the comments SuSaw asked what kind of scissors I used to cut the trees and if I used a pattern. No pattern. No drawing. I just started cutting.

The scissors I used, and still use for fussy paper cutting, are medical scissors. Nothing special. In fact I think they throw these away after one use in the hospitals now. The thing I like about them is that they are comfortable in my hands, have fairly small blades and one of the blades is a nice sharp little point that works well to pierce the paper for inside cuts. If you know someone who works in a hospital or for a doctor they can probably get you a pair cheap or free.

There are special scissors called "scherenschnitte" scissors that are made especially for intricate paper cutting. They probably work even better than the medical scissors. I have never tried them.

added:

More answers to more comment questions

Lisa asked about the weight of the paper. It was a packet of coated paper that I had. The weight was slightly heavier than 20 lb bond, but the coating makes it nicely opaque and crisp. Anything very heavy is too hard to cut all four layers together. No, I don't remove the staples. They don't look great, but are essential for holding the layers together. I actually had a better idea after I'd made a few. Instead of stapling, I folded the paper to get a line, then stitched the two layers together on my sewing machine, using white thread. And to answer Lisa's last question. Yes, when I get them all put out together it is kind of a forest!

Paper tree #3

Perhaps another Christmas-y tree will restore a little Christmas spirit here at And Sew it Goes. My Saturday post about the blogging award was a little snarky. I could blame the weather or the stress of the season, but no, it was just me being a little "snippy" as my mother would say. Sorrrrry. (hangs head in shame)

I think this tree must be a Douglas Fir, with its tall straight trunk. They always seem to have a bare branch or two at the bottom. Little boys read their books with their backs against the tree. In yesterday's comments, Nellie said, "I've found that cutting shapes is easier and more expressive than drawing them. The drawing process allows more room for reworking and overworking an image." This is really true, unlikely as it sounds. I once took a class from Roberta Horton (or was it her sister, Mary Mashuta?) where she demonstrated this by holding up a magazine photo of a vase with flowers and had us each cut from paper, with scissors, what we saw on the page. The paper cuts had such character and charm. I once was designing a poster for a production of "A Christmas Carol" and the director wanted a very dark, menacing image of Scrooge on it. I made drawing after drawing and was just not getting it. I finally picked up a piece of black paper and cut out the face. Just what he wanted! And it is still one of my favorite illustrations I have ever done. I wonder if I still have a copy somewhere . . .

Another good movie

We watched Under the Same Moon last night and loved it. It is in Spanish, so you must deal with subtitles (unless you understand Spanish!), but it is so worth it. The little boy, Carlitos, above, lives in Mexico with his grandmother. His mother, an illegal, lives and struggles in L.A. She has called him every Sunday morning, for four years, from the same phone booth. When his grandmother dies suddenly Carlitos sets out to get to L.A. and find his mother before the Sunday call, so she won't worry when he doesn't answer. His journey is the story. This little actor, Adrian Alonso, is incredible and while the story has a few flaws and tugs, occasionally rather shamelessly, on your heartstrings, it is moving nonetheless.

Your reaction may be affected by whatever your personal feelings are about immigration and especially illegal immigration, but, for me, it is an important reminder that behind the politics and rhetoric the issue is really still just about a fellow human being striving to improve her life and the life of her child.

Blog award

Lisa Flowers Ross nominated me for the above, Kreativ Blogger award. I love Lisa's blog and I appreciate her recognition. Thank you, Lisa. But this got me wondering, not for the first time, where these things come from. Obviously someone, sometime, somewhere just made this thing up and started nominating people and directing them to nominate other people and on and on. I googled "Kreativ Blogger award" and, of course, found scads of blogs displaying the award graphic and nominating others, but nothing that indicated where it began. Not surprised.

And while the sentiment is great—I'm all for celebrating creativity and passing on the love to other bloggers—I've got to just say it. This is the ugliest darn graphic I've ever seen. I kind of wonder if it wasn't some graphic designer's idea of a joke, what with the creative spelling, the extreme font abuse and the gaggishly sweet combination of print and pattern.

I think the graphic has to die. So though I am flattered, I am not nominating any of the many wonderful, creative blogs that I so love to read. Sorry.

Paper tree #2

Here is another of my paper trees. This one reminds me of eyelet embroidery material. Christmas is coming so fast! I'm not ready at all. Are you?

The red shoes

When Beth and I walk we talk about all kinds of things. We are coming to the end of our 6th year of morning walks together, which is quite amazing to me. It was a New Year's resolution that we have really kept! After 6 years we still find lots to talk about as we walk.

This morning Beth was telling me that she had seen the old movie The Red Shoes on TV this week. What a memory that brought back! When I was a pre-teenager this was my favorite movie. It was an old movie then. But the ballet—the music—the *sob* romance! And then there was Moira Shearer's red hair and her teeny, tiny little waist. It was the stuff of pre-adolescent dreams. If you haven't seen the movie you should watch the trailer at the link above. It will give you a little idea of the flavor.

The movie was based, loosely, on the Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale, also called The Red Shoes. The HCA story is pretty gruesome, actually. About 10 years ago I made a quilt based on that story for an online challenge with a fairytale theme. This afternoon I dug around and found it.

It was probably the first quilt I made with a human figure in it and I was flummoxed by how to do the face. I ended up drawing the face and leaving it unquilted. It's pretty bland. While she was supposed to look like she was in a trance and, really, in agony because the shoes would not stop dancing, she looks more like she's asleep.

She is totally overwhelmed by the strong border I put in there, thinking it gave the piece more of a "fairy tale" feeling.

I also added a quote from the story that is too subtle. You have to get very close to read it.

It was a fun quilt to make—not altogether successful—but I learned a lot from making it. It was an incentive to try to figure out how to make faces in fabric that worked better than this one. Do you like this one better? I do.

Paper trees

In moving, I have come across several things that I forgot I ever had. One was a manilla envelope with some trees I cut from paper many, many years ago.

I remember that I saw a picture in a magazine of white trees, cut from paper that seemed so clean and pure in their design that they traveled around in my head until I could no longer resist the need to try to make one. I folded two sheets of paper together and stapled them together, then took a little pair of surgical scissors and started cutting through all four layers. No drawing. No plan. Just cutting. And to my utter amazement I had a pretty little tree with a star on the top and birds on its branches.

For the next week, every time I had a spare moment I was cutting trees. I threw the duds away, but I kept the best of the bunch. They decorated our mantel that Christmas, then I folded them up, put them in the envelope and only remembered to take them out a few times in the ensuing years. One year I decided to try making more and all were utter failures. Then I forgot about them completely until they turned up during the move.

I hope I'm not bragging when I say there was something kind of magical about those trees—all cut in the space of a frenetic week or so, never to be repeated. Over the next few weeks I will share the rest of them with you. I hope you enjoy them. I almost feel like someone else made them. A gift from my much younger self.

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I hope you all have spread the word about the danger of small children swallowing batteries. Sandy's grandchild is recovering, but has been very, very ill and is still in the hospital. This was not trivial. You can read the details on her blog. This was a wakeup call for us to assess our house for this and other dangers.

Mathematics

Today was the reveal for the 12 x 12 group's new set of 12 quilts. The theme is "mathematics" and the pieces are fascinating—really! As you can imagine, 12 artists don't think of math in the same way that 12, say, rocket scientists do.

Here is my contribution. I won't tell you anything about it here. See if it speaks for itself. Do you see the math connections? Now go on over to the 12 x 12 blog and look at all the quilts. There you can read what was in my mind when I designed this piece. And no, it doesn't mean "talk to the hand!"

A warning

I just read Sandy Donabed's blog entry about her baby granddaughter swallowing a small battery. She is in the hospital with damage to her esophagus.

Those darn little batteries are everywhere, in everything these days. For all of us with children or grandchildren, especially little guys that put stuff in their mouths, this is a frightening thing to read. Read Sandy's post. Let us all send good thoughts for baby Hazel's recovery and inspect our own homes for any such hazards and tell our friends. Yikes!

Thanksgiving—40 years ago

I first posted the story below in 2006. This morning I was thinking, again, of that Thanksgiving, now 40 years ago. This is the song that came to mind, from one of the albums we played over and over that weekend. The memory of music is so powerful. I have seen and spoken with Kathleen and Gary a couple times since I first posted the Thanksgiving story. They are well and it is good to connect. I hope they are having a good Thanksgiving and wonder if they ever think about that one 40 years ago.

Thanksgiving 1968
After posting my wedding picture and reference to my friend, Kathleen, who loaned me her veil, Kirsty jokingly asked me if I still speak to Kathleen. The truth is I very seldom talk to Kathleen, who lives quite far from me now, but I think of her and her husband, Gary, every Thanksgiving.
Kathleen and I grew up together, nearly like family. Our mothers were best friends and our families shared many Thanksgiving dinners.

In 1968 Kathleen and Gary moved to Connecticut to go to graduate school at UConn in Stoors. I had graduated from college the previous spring and I was working for my sorority (Alpha Omicron Pi) as a traveling chapter consultant. We were all far from our Idaho homes and discovering new worlds.

I spent the week before Thanksgiving visiting the chapter at Northeastern U. in Boston. It was a sad and dispiriting week. The chapter was one of the oldest existing AOII chapters in the country with a wonderful legacy of outstanding women, but it WAS 1968 and the world was blowing up in a lot of ways, both good and bad, and sorority life was becoming a symbol of elitist, old thinking and the chapter was suffering badly. The few remaining members wished to return their charter and close the chapter with some dignity. The alumnae, for whom this chapter had meant so much in their lives, were distraught and in total opposition. I felt for all of them. And I really had nothing to offer. So, at the end of this sad week, Kathleen and Gary drove to Boston to pick me up and we went back to Connecticut for Thanksgiving.

What I remember most was how happy we were to see each other, how homesick we all were, how beautiful Connecticut was and the music. Three albums. During that long holiday weekend we played these three albums over and over and any song from any of them will instantly take me back to that Thanksgiving. Gordon Lightfoot, The Rascals and The 5th Dimension. When was the last time you heard of any of them? In 1968 they were all at the top of the charts.
We cooked our first Thanksgiving dinner away from home and family, together. Kath didn't have a pie plate, so we divided the pumpkin pie ingredients into the compartments of her muffin tin. Then we forgot that we probably should adjust the baking time for these tiny tartlets. They came out of the oven looking like black hockey pucks—inedible. We made way too much stuffing but Gary held the turkey steady while I crammed every little bit into the bird. It is a wonder it didn't explode. We invited another Idaho State grad who was also going to school at UConn, whose name may have been Allen—I have forgotten—to join us. We drank a lot of cheap wine, lighted candles and sat on the floor around the coffee table (which may have been crates) to eat our feast. We laughed a lot, called our families and bravely held back our tears at the sound of their voices.

When I left I could see, from the plane window, Kathleen and Gary standing just inside the waiting area. Gary had his arm around Kath's shoulders and she was crying. I was sitting on the plane crying just as hard.

I was so thankful for those friends. I am still thankful for that memory.

Random craftiness

I have a thing for pinecones. About a year and a half ago we went to Lake Tahoe and stayed at this great place called Camp Richardson. There were these large, wonderful pinecones lying all over the ground there and I couldn't resist picking up some of them. Somewhere on that trip I saw this pinecone decoration next to a door and I liked it.

Not too hokey or decoratorish, I thought, and thought maybe I'd attempt something similar. In the move Ray came across my bag of pinecones and asked if I wanted to pitch them or if I still wanted to do something with them. No, and yes. Here's my version:

Now that I look at it I see I could probably stand to add some more pinecones. But I like it. My friend, Muriel, gave me the little "Welcome" plaque for our new home.

I like having a small project of some kind to work on if we are watching TV or a movie in the evening. I found this by way of Laura's blog, and was intrigued. It is called a Kusudama ball. Lots of little folded squares of paper glued together.

It's pretty, isn't it? But far too fiddly and took hours and hours, so I am not planning to make a boatload of them.

Both of these things look like they could be Christmas decor, but they're not. I plan to leave the pinecones up year round and hang the paper ball somewhere to amuse me.

Have a lovely Thanksgiving. Ours will be small, but good. No out of town company or extra guests this year. Just family. We will be missing those couldn't make it and hoping you are feeling full and thankful wherever you are. Get well, Jess. Hope you are feeling up to some turkey and pie!

Sunday, Sunday!

Beautiful day today, so I took the opportunity to photo a couple of things. The first is my finished "Laurel" piece. It is 12" square

You may remember that it was going to be part of a larger piece and it just didn't work. Once I realized it would stand on its own and took the larger piece apart I knew it was the right thing. Someone else thought so too, because it has been sold and I will be sending it to its new owner this week, so I wanted a good picture for my own record.

The other piece I photo'd today is my 12 x 12 "Mathematics" themed piece. They will be revealed on December 1. I can't show it to you yet, but here is a tiny detail.

The original, larger Laurel piece was to be my piece for the High Fiber Diet "Line Dance" show, so after it was taken apart it no longer fit the criteria for that and I was back to square one. I think I have an idea for that, however. Remember when I was making little 2" square pieces from my scraps? (You can see some here and here and here) I am playing with the idea of using some of them with the green line and I like what I am seeing so far.

I think this has possibilities.

Anniversary quilt

I woke up yesterday morning with a new attitude. I decided that life was going to get back to normal—the sooner the better. We've spent a year working on houses, trying to sell houses, trying to rent houses. The old house is rented, the new house is home. Time to move on. Life as normal. (Except with a lot less money, ha!) I decided I need to start working on more art and posting more interesting things on my blog. Have you seen anything interesting here in awhile? No, I didn't think so. OK, so here's something, if not interesting, at least art/quilt/fiber-related.

Now hanging in our den/cave/TV watching/vegging room is the quilt my brother, sister and I made for our parents' 50th anniversary. We wanted to give them something really nostalgic and something a whole lot of people could participate in, but kind of hated those quilts people make where everyone makes a block and the whole motley assortment gets pieced together. Also, not so big on the ones with tons of old photos printed on fabric. I like the old photos, but better in an album. So here's what we did. We chose a block pattern with lots of small "background" triangles. We marked the triangle sizes on unbleached muslin and sent bunches of them out to family and friends, along with a brown permanent marker and asked them to write on them and send them back. Some wrote good wishes, some related favorite memories, some just signed their names. My sibs and I did a bunch with memorable phrases, names of family pets, addresses where Mom and Dad lived, family activities and memories, etc. and then we worked in the names and dates of the three of us, our spouses and children throughout the quilt.

The three of us pieced the blocks when we got all the muslin pieces back—yes, even my brother, who had never sewn before—and I put it together. I did most of the hand-quilting, then we took it to give to them when we celebrated their anniversary with a big family get together. I had left some unquilted areas, so everyone, including all the grandchildren could put a few stitches into it.

click for a closer look

Mom and Dad loved it. They spent hours poring over it and reading all the stuff on it. It hung in their hallway until they died and I brought it home. I still love to read what everyone wrote.

And speaking of anniversaries—I noticed the date this morning and realized that yesterday was Ray's and my anniversary. Thirty eight years and we both forgot. Geez, we're dotty these days. We went out for margueritas and Mexican food last night. Had a good time, but didn't realize we were celebrating our anniversary. First the shoes and now this. I worry about myself. Ray has always been forgetful.

And good news on the money front—got an email this morning telling me I won 450 million Euros in the European lottery. All I have to do to claim it is send all my personal info, bank acct #s and SS#!

Sorority girl

A few people seemed surprised to learn that I was in a college sorority when I mentioned it in a post a couple weeks ago. I worked, for a year, for the sorority after I graduated. It was a great time in my life, but I rarely mention it these days. I've found that people have a lot of crazy ideas about sororities.

"smart, pretty and all bad!"

The stereotypes include snobby society girls, rich girls who "buy" friends by joining a sorority, dumb bunnies, party girls and worse . . .

"where nothing is off limits"

I have to laugh at those images, when I think of the girls who were in my sorority, Alpha Omicron Pi. We were a pretty simple bunch of girls, not rich, not glamorous and far from the seductress of the book cover above. The Greek system was small on our campus—only three sororities that were categorized, not always accurately, as the "beauty queens", the "fun girls" and the "smart girls." We were the smart girls.

Sororities were going out of favor in the '60s when I was in school, but for some of us they represented a bit of old-fashioned structure and support in a chaotic time. We were folded into a warm and supportive group and nurtured by the older members. We were encouraged in our studies and tutored in the social landscape of the college world. The traditions of our sisterhood required us to promise loyaltyand respect and to treat each other as we would wish to be treated. We tried and mostly succeeded. We had parties and raised money for charity and competed with other groups in singing competitions and skits and float building, but the things I remember most were late night talks and someone who cheered you on when you needed it and cried with you when your heart was broken and saved you a seat in the dining hall and times we laughed so hard our stomachs hurt. I remember kindness and acceptance. Like I said, a good time in my life. And then we graduated and went on to our real lives in the real world and some of us have never spoken again, but some remained, as we promised we would so long ago, lifelong friends.

Ready to go onstage for "Songfest" in our matching
white dresses and gloves. 1967
Yep, that's me.

So, now I've come out of the closet—any more sorority girls out there?

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Added note: I figured the comments would bring out a few sorority horror stories. I do know that different groups have different personalities and nastiness can show up anywhere. Just not my experience. For Helen and anyone else not familiar with Greek organizations, the Wikipedia entry seems pretty right on to me. Most started in the 19th century when Greek was still taught and most Greek letter names are the initials of a Greek phrase or quote. I could tell you what AOPi stands for, but then I'd have to kill you. ;-) (Actually, to tell the truth, I don't remember.)

Feeling better, catching up

A beautiful fall Sunday here. I think I've had the flu. Achey all over, etc, etc. I never have had a flu shot because I never get the flu—well once every 12 years or so. This hasn't been the kind of ordeal I remember, just a couple of days of feeling punk. The worst part is the headache that is immune to medication. Quite a distinctive flu headache—you know, the kind that feels like the liquid in your head dried up, so your brain bonks against the inside of your skull whenever you move. Almost gone. You can tell that I feel better because I put earrings in the holes in my ears this morning. That's not vanity, just habit, but when one lays around all day with one's head on a pillow, earring posts poke into your head, so I leave them out. Earrings = not planning to lay around all day.


Last week's rain knocked most of the beautiful leaves off the trees and inspired some amazing fungus to sprout in the yard.

Apparently a beaver came through the neighborhood a couple nights ago and cut down a tree near the creek.

He chewed the bark on the tree on the left and chewed right through the one on the right.

Here's the downed victim.

I guess Beaverton, the closest city, was named that for a reason, but I've never seen a beaver, except for a dead one laying in the road years ago. I guess they are nocturnal. We can't imagine that anything else could have dispatched that little tree like that.

I'll leave you with the last vestige of summer—one last nasturtium on the porch. It glows in the late afternoon sun and catches my eye every time I walk past the front door.

I'm such a dork

I don't know why I am admitting to this (except that I think we all need a good laugh now and then). Just before dinner last night I sat down to take my shoes off and discovered that I had been wearing this mismatched pair all day. And not just around the house where no one saw me. Are you laughing, or just sadly shaking your head?

In the morning I quickly slipped these shoes on as I was headed out the door to meet a friend downtown. I thought I looked pretty nice. I spent some time on my hair and sprayed it good, so the rain wouldn't flatten it out. I had "good" earrings on and lipstick and everything. Going downtown these days is kind of an occasion, now that we live out in the sticks. I met my friend and we had a grand time, looking through galleries and finally settling on lunch at a somewhat fancy restaurant. She never mentioned my shoes. She claims she didn't notice, but she may have just been being nice. At any rate, I covered a lot of ground in these mismatched shoes!

I could suggest that I am starting a new trend (not true), or make the excuse that the closet was dark (true) and I was in a hurry (also true). But I'm hard-pressed for an answer as to why I wore them for a good 7 hours before noticing. I hope my children are not reading this. They might start checking out nursing homes for me.

Sunday, settling in

It was nice to have a Sunday that felt like Sundays used to feel. Coffee, Sunday paper spread all over, a little sunshine coming in. The house is feeling settled. We still have a lot of boxes to unpack, but I got the last ones out of the living room this week.

And here's a happy sight. Ray, in the kitchen, making chile verde. (Our favorite recipe is from a very old Sunset cookbook. See below) Can you smell the meat browning, the garlic cooking? Cumin, cloves. Jazz on the radio.

Hope your Sunday was good.

CHILE VERDE

1 1/2 pounds EACH boneless beef chuck and boneless, lean pork shoulder, cut into 1-inch cubes

3 tablespoons olive OR vegetable oil

1 medium green bell pepper, seeded and coarsely chopped

1 large clove garlic, minced

2 (28-ounce) cans tomatoes

1 (7-ounce) can diced green chiles

1/3 cup chopped parsley

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 cup dry red wine

Salt to taste

Brown about 1/4 of meat at a time on all sides in heated oil. Remove from oil and reserve. In pan drippings, saute bell pepper and garlic until soft, adding a little more oil if needed. In a 5-quart or larger pot, combine undrained tomatoes, green chiles, parsley, sugar, seasonings and wine. Bring mixture to a boil, then reduce heat to simmering. Add browned meats and all juices along with sauteed vegetables. Cover and simmer 2 hours, stirring occasionally. Remove cover, simmer about 45 minutes more, until sauce is reduced to thickness desired and meat is very tender. Taste and add salt. Serve with rice. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

From "Mexican Cook Book,'' Sunset Books.

Good Movie

We went to see Rachel Getting Married last week. It's one of those movies that seems to be a little hard to find. It is playing in only one theatre in Portland, but if you love movies, as I do, that take you out of yourself and tell you something about life and love and the human condition, this movie is worth finding.

Kym, played by Anne Hathaway, has been allowed a few days away from a rehab facility to attend her sister's wedding. The family has very mixed feelings about Kym being there and there is tension and ultimately we learn about a family tragedy. Kym is edgy and confrontational, but heartbreaking in her guilt and pain. While I was frustrated with her, I was also touched by how hard she was trying.

Anne Hathaway gives an amazing performance and the acting is wonderful all around. The characters are neither good nor evil, but charming and tragic and annoying and eccentric and intelligent. Behind the conflict there is a fierce love that shines through. And what a feast for the senses! Scenes of such beauty you want to be there—to be a part of the wedding and the family and take in the music and the conversation and the joy and the sorrow.

O, yes we can!

It really is a new day.

Election Day 1968

Forty years ago I was in New York City on election day. I had graduated from college the previous spring and was hired by my college sorority (Alpha Omicron Pi) as one of two "Traveling Secretaries" who visited chapters on college campuses across the United States and Canada. I would spend a few days meeting with the chapter and officers, sharing information from the national officers and reporting on their activities and the state of the chapter, then fly to another city and do it all over again. I did this for a year and it was a year that was transforming. I saw my country from coast to coast and north to south during one of the most challenging times in our history.

During that first week of November I was visiting the chapter at Wagner College on Staten Island. I had never been to New York and I could see the skyline of Manhattan in the distance. When several of the sorority members asked if I would like to go to the city for the day I jumped at the chance. We took the Staten Island Ferry and arrived to a festive atmosphere. Street vendors were distributing political buttons, selling small flags, T-shirts and plastic hats with red, white and blue ribbons. Someone dressed like Uncle Sam thrust something into my hand as I passed and I looked down to see that it was a sample sized tube of toothpaste attached to a card that read, "vote for a brighter smile!"

This was a great adventure for a girl from Idaho. What I knew of New York City I knew from the movies. We rode the elevator to the top of the Empire State Building, we walked down Fifth Avenue and stopped to look in the windows of Tiffany's. We hurried through Times Square, a much seedier and grim area than it is these days. Strange as it may seem, one of the highlights of the day was visiting Macy's. This was long before Macy's owned every department store in America. There was only one Macy's and it was legendary and it was New York City in my mind.

I truly had never seen any store quite like it and I made a small purchase, mostly so I would have one of their printed paper bags as a souvenir for my scrapbook. I told my companions that I was keeping my "Macy's sack" and they all hooted. First because I'm sure it was so ludicrous to them that such a thing would have any value, and second because I called it a sack. I learned another language difference between East and West, having conquered the Pop vs. Soda divide earlier in the week. One said, "that's not a sack, a sack is made of cloth—it's a bag!" Except she said it more like "behhg" and "cloth" sounded more like "clo-auth". We entertained each other for the rest of the day with our language and pronunciation differences.

It was a beautiful fall day and the city was all I had hoped for. I think there was such a sense of relief to finally reach that election day. The campaign had been tragic and brutal, going back to the assassination of Bobby Kennedy in the spring and the riots in Chicago during the Democratic Convention in the summer. The war in Vietnam raged and the country was deeply divided, so even as we watched election news on TVs in store windows, picketers and protestors passed with anti-war signs.

By the time we got back to campus that night Nixon had been projected as the winner. I called my Dad, a Nixon supporter, from a pay phone in the dorm. It was late in New York, but still pretty early in Idaho. "Congratulations, Dad. It looks like your guy won." Dad wasn't jubilant. He was pretty quiet. "Yeahhhh," he said slowly, "I hope he doesn't let us down."

...........

I was sharing my memories of the election 40 years ago with Ray this morning and he pointed me to Leonard Pitts' column in today's paper. He references that election and the sad legacy of the '60s that has somehow shadowed this campaign. He's a wonderful writer. It's worth reading. http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/story/750521.html

I will

I heard this sung on Prairie Home Companion this weekend and I can't get it out of my head. For 40 years I have loved this song.

Sunday miscellaneous

Frame Game

Can you see the difference in the "before" picture, on the left, and the "after" picture on the right? It's the frame around my David Lance Goines poster. I am a fan of minimal framing, so for years this poster had glass and clips only, which looked fine in my old house.

I hung it on the more gold-y toned wall in the new house and it died. Gack. Dead. No contrast between the wall and the pale green poster color. I think the narrow black frame has brought it miraculously back to life. Still minimal. I buy lots of frames from American Frame. I just love their matte black metal frames that come in any size you would ever need. (almost)

Cheap Thrills

I like to think I am well-equipped to be poor, as that seems to be where we are all headed these days. I find bargains. Yesterday I stopped by the Goodwill superstore in our new neighborhood and dropped off some stuff, including a pretty good pair of shoes that I no longer wear, and went into the store for a quick browse. I spotted a brand-new, never worn, pair of shoes in my size. They were wonderful soft, creamy leather and very squishily padded on the inside. They felt fabulous on my feet. For some reason I didn't buy them, but kept thinking about them, so I went back today and got them. Paid $9. Then I came home and found them online. $98 at Zappos. Huzzah! I rule!

I know they are Little Orphan Annie shoes, but that's what you revert to when your feet are old and tired.

So then we checked out an estate sale in the neighborhood. Last day, everything half price. I found a great old pair of big scissors for my collection and Ray found a vintage bartender's guide book. Lots of entertainment for about $3.

Hope you're all having an entertaining Sunday!