A 'PINK' DESIGN FOR EMBROIDERY

This is a design for the china pink. or maybe it's a single carnation for embroidery. It is from the book: Design For Floral Embroidery by Elizabeth Geddes, that I found in during one of our trips to Britain in the 1970's. I found the most wonderful array of crafts and needleart books over there. I must have bought at least fifty over time. Finally got smart and had them shipped. Saved weight and left room for lighter things.

The Pink and carnation was a favorite motif in English Embroidery. It was done in all forms of needlework. It was a symbol of desire. And love. That was before the red rose took over in the mid-1800's.

I had all of these lovely books. And only really used the doll and toymaking ones. I never did get back to doing any embroidery. Which is really too bad. I did a lot when I was a teen ager.

'CHINA' PINKS

We had had some lovely Dianthus-'China Pinks'. this summer. Two containers of them. They were very pretty. I hadn't seen or even thought about 'Pinks', probably since I was at Home. I do not even remember who may have had them. Mrs. Lorenzen. Maybe my Grandmother Zettie. Who knows.
The flowers were doing very well. blooming and so sweet.
Then boom, they got splocthed by jet fuel. we are on a military flight path. The planes aren't every day. But often enough to ruin many of my roses and potted plants. We can move the pots, but not the roses.
China Pinks are such an Quaint Antique flower. The Victorians loved them, because to them the pinks were quite exotic.

NATIONAL CON TIME=part 1

Gahhh! I am so fed up with all this nonsense. I'm to the point, I couldn't care less. They all sound alike. If I could, I would write in 'Snoopy'. But, that's not allowed anymore. Too bad.
I find both to be scary.

BLUE SKY

Just beautiful! At last. It's so nice, The fires seem to be contained and mostly out, because the sky has been a deep blue again as it is supposed to be. Beautiful autumn blue skies again. I can breath again. I don't cough only a little. So my body is recovering from all the smoke. It's great. And I seem to be regaining some of my strength. So I'm not quite so tired all the time.
To look up and see blue with the green trees against the sky. True color, no gray. I forgot to look at sunset tonight to check the color. Because there has been enough smoke on the opposite side of the bay to produce some spectacular effects.
I hope no more fires break out, but, there is still Labor Day to come. Someone's barbeque or campfire is bound to break loose. Hope not though.

HARVEST-FIRST FRUITS

Home grown. Totally organic. We are surprised to even have this many.
He can eat them. I tasted a slice or two. And they are good. But, humm, frustration, that taste gave me a stomach ache.
I was looking forward to tomato sandwich.
Oh, well.
********************
I hope sharing these won't jinx them. Very often, sharing our garden causes everything to die.

GRAHAM CRACKER COOKIES

We didn't do S'mores. didn't know about them. But, we weren't campers. Not really. Although we did do a little. Dad liked to go camping. Ha,ha. We lived in the country and he liked to go camping. I always found that ironic.
But, anyway, one of favorite treats were Graham Cracker cookies. They were something we could make when we needed something to do and 'needed' a treat. Or maybe snowed in and couldn't get to town. Mom kept the crackers around and all we needed for the frosting was powdered sugar. So when we were bored we made cookies. Very good with milk. They were always special.
But, we never made S'mores. Had never heard of them. I didn't run across them until I was an adult. I don't like them. Too messy.
I've not made crackers cookies in a long time, because, I can no longer handle the fiber. But they were very tasty.

NOT MUCH

I really haven't much to share. My life is pretty blah. Not really, but to anyone else, it would seem so. I haven't said anything about my garden, because when I do, something dies.
I sent Hb. to barnes and Noble with the titles of two books. That just MAY be worth reading. He found both of them. Amazing, I very often had to order a book I wanted. Well, they were tolerable. One was the third in a trilogy. So, I am sending him to the book store to look for the first two. We are fed up with Amazon. So, will buy local. He doesn't mind, gives him a chance for a good walk.
The other book is one of three also. I don't think I will bother with the other two.
I watch quite a lot on the Food channel. Finally figured out why. It's the only craft show on T.V. anymore. Yes, cooking is both an Art and a Craft. I used to be a fairly good cook. And now I know why some things I tried didn't turn out well. I stopped cooking during the 80's & 90's. By the time I got home from work. I was just way too tired. So, I taught Hb. how to cook. He does pretty good. He's even creative. He can still eat real food. I can't. However, once in awhile, we have to go to 'The Joy Of Cooking' for a refresher.

AFTERMATH

Well, there are still fires going on about us. but they are not so ferocious. The smoke isn't so heavy and it comes and goes. We have these really brilliant sunsets. Unreal. All the houses turn a coral color and the trees become red and burgundy. There was a little rain the other day. There was a double rainbow, in shades of red and gold.
However, all that smoke exposure left us with a respiratory infection. I still cough a lot. And I have a fever that comes and goes too. 99.1 -99.5. And for me that is enough. Leaves me dizzy and weak. Hb. is somewhat ill too. When the smoke blows away and the sky is a nice deep blue, we are much better.
My cousin up in northern California said the visibility is about 1/2 mile. Because up there is where the highest amount of lightening fires were set. Just horrendous.
Before we were getting the smoke from the fires south of us. But, now the smoke is all the way from Yosemite.
The poor valiant firefighters. They are so bushed. And we just lost some in a crash. Terrible.
This year is the worst.

NEW PATTERN

Things haven't been quite so bad lately. So, I have been able to actually do something creative. I can only sew when I can concentrate, and my hands aren't so shakey. But, that's ok.

I had finally made a dress for my small fashion doll. And I wanted to do another one or two, while I am yet able.

This pattern that I chose to work on, is an authentic one from an antique doll magazine from the 1870's.

The original pattern was made for a doll 17 1/2" tall. Eithne is 9 1/2" tall. So, it had to be reduced.

It is for a 7-gore princess style dress. Very intricate. I am only making the 'toile' model first, to make sure the pattern will actually fit right. After the ajustments, then I will cut it out of the good fabric. The sleeves are going to give me fits though.

The picture shows three of the four main pattern pieces pinned and rweady to be cut out, which they are now. And mostly sewn together.

NEW CAR

Well, yes and no. My birthday was this weekend past. I don't care to celebrate them anymore. In fact I try to ignore them entirely. But, Hb. knew I wanted one of this year's Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s cars. So he got one for me and gave it to me on the day. It is a nicely made model. A large size, 8 1/2 inches.

LOVELY PEACHES

In my July issue of Sunset Magazine, there is a short item about a small orchard, here in town.

It is one of the very few left. the article gave the address and phone number. The orchard grows 33 types of peaches, plus other stone fruits. Yumm. So, Hb. looked uup the directions. And Friday morning he drove down to see what might be left.

He came back with one basket of eight lovely free stone peaches. The baskets all came prefilled and you couldn't just buy anything separate. Well, you know that is quite understandable.

I tried only half of one peach. Oh, my! Oh nice. A real peach with real peach taste and texture. I haven't had a peach like that, since the last one I picked from my Grandpa's tree forty years ago. I would have liked to eat the entire peach. But, I wanted wait and see if my stomach could handle it.

Store bought fruit is a travesty and a fraud.

I kept the piece of peach. No stomach ache. So it was, all organic. that is what the man said. No, poisons.

Fabulous.