Missing Pieces

 The biggest thing missing in this new year has been my ability to focus. I literally could not remember anything, could not decide on anything, nor could I accomplish anything. I had big plans to start this year with a bang but when I woke up on January 1st I had forgotten where I put them.
Empty as this bowl was my mind.

Yikes!!!
I can't believe I just wrote that....ugh.
The kids were having a Star Wars marathon downstairs and it appears
Yoda took advantage of my mental vacancy and moved in.
The force is definitely not with me.

Luckily, my camera is full of images and since a picture is worth a thousand words I'll let them help me put some of the pieces together.
 

We did indeed head up to my parents house for Christmas.

Earlier this year my mom joined the doll club I belong to so she received one of the garlands I made for party favors at our holiday lunch earlier in December. I don't know about you but I think it looks much better hanging up on her mantle than it did on my picture. Remind me to ask for a fireplace from Santa next year because goodness knows I'll probably forget before it comes time to write a North Pole letter again.

 



By the afternoon of the 25th all secrets had been revealed. Here's the trivet/potholder I gave the little sneak peek of. It really was so much fun to make up. Project credit goes to Ayumi Takahashi and her amazing book Patchwork Please but the inspiration to actually put the book to use goes to  this post from "Hen House." Truly amazing work!

 

I gave it to my mom.....

 



.....along with one of the little bird ornaments I was making up and an old copy

of The Birds' Christmas Carol by Kate Douglas Wiggin.

 



She in turn gave me this book!

 



It was written by one R. H. Horne and details the yearlong adventures of a jointed wooden doll named Maria Poppet. Something of a British version of Hitty I'd guess you might say which is more than enough to guarantee an afternoon of delightful reading.

 



In my head I made it my book of the month for December but since my head was not communicating with my actions it failed to make it's reveal until now. I was at a loss coming up with a doll but I did manage to "borrow" this one from dear daughter's American Girl stash. Obviously it's not British. Neither is it handmade. It is wooden, however, and.....

 



.....has the sweetest little red shoes painted on her feet!

 



We were home again in time to host my dad's New Year's Eve birthday meal.

 



It was indeed a Polish feast. Dear Hubby made the Paprika Chicken from the old recipe book I found. This shot of it in the early stages of preparation seems to be the only photo I took....best not to get in hubby's way when he's cooking!

 



I made up all my dad's favorite sides including cucumber salad and noodles with cottage cheese.

 



The centerpiece of it all turned out to be the Bigos, an old fashioned hunting stew with pork, sausage, sauerkraut, and mushrooms as the main ingredients. Honestly I think this was the straw that broke the camel's back as far as the kids were concerned. After it was all said and done they told me the food was "just plain scary!" My dad on the other hand loved it.

 



A few of our gifted items turned out to be a bit "scary" for them as well and required a day of returns at none other than my favorite place...the mall. I did find this little pin during our outing which got me thinking about getting back to work on some crafty projects. Tiny stitches taken in stolen moments are a great source of joy for me and I wanted to get a needle back in my hands.

 



And so....not too many days after our mall adventure I skipped out for and afternoon of fabric shopping on my own. I came home with this bag of goodies and a plan.

 



It started out as good a plan as any. I'd have my theme for the year be that of the "Empty Bowl." I vaguely remembered reading somewhere about Zen monks carrying empty begging bowls in the practice of releasing control over worldly concerns and simply accepting what was given to them each day. I could practice a similar idea only have my empty bowl host the crafting supplies that came my way. I could take one picture of the supplies gathered in the bowl at the beginning of each month and then another picture of the bowl filled with the finished pieces I'd made up from the contents at the end of the month.

 

It could be fun.

It could be interesting.   

Or.....

 

it could be that I was totally abusing the concept of the empty bowl.

My focus very quickly went from accepting what came my way to planning fabric shopping sprees with projects already in mind. Kind of controlling and materialistic don't you think?

I also became a bit obsessed with bowls.

 

In addition to my now not so "empty bowl" I started an English paper piecing bowl and...

 



....a granny square crochet bowl!

I was beginning to feel like Goldilocks, only no matter how much I kept tasting from the bowls none of them were "just right." I imagine I'd have gone on making an entire collection of crafty bowls but I just so happened to stumble upon a post by Austin Kleon titled "Something Small, Every Day."

 



I have a tendency to want to fill BIG chunks of time (weeks, months, even years) with lots of LITTLE projects. Such endeavors tend to become overwhelming and list ridden. In Kleon's post, however, he recommends you forget about tracking time beyond the day you are in and by doing so BIG projects can be accomplished in LITTLE bits of time.

 

This I thought might be good for me. I have something BIG I've wanted to try for a while now but  never did because I couldn't justify spending extended periods of time devoted to it. If it were only 30 minutes a day on the other hand, that I could justify. The supplies in this case were minimal and on hand.....the 2014 calendar that came along with my latest issue of Mollie Makes, a bag of wooden mish mash dug out from the bottom of my stash closet, and an old notebook. I'm sure more items will be needed down the road but since I don't need them today I'm doing my best not to think about what they might be.

 



So far I've collected some thoughts and quite a few "x's" on the calendar, one for each day "something small" is attended to. Once I've got something to show for my work I'll do just that,

 but in the meantime....

 



.....I intend to keep my bowl empty as a reminder to let things come to be in their own time and not try to predetermine their outcome or timeline.

 

 

Day Twenty - Peace

 I'm sure most will agree...these last few days before Christmas are anything but peaceful. I could feel my inner Grinch itching to take over as I toted teen #2 back up to the mall for the fourth time this week. I was  tired of shopping and all that comes with it...the crowds, the lack of parking spaces, and the constant request for my e-mail address every time we purchased something.

 

Returning home provided little relief either...dishes in the sink, presents to be wrapped, and now child #3 needed a Yankee swap gift for tomorrow. There was no escape except perhaps...

 

 ...in the pages of a book. I went directly for Gladys Taber because where better to find some peace than by visiting her Stillmeadow country home. I headed right to December.

 

 I read about the smell of her Christmas tree, the pleasure of hosting a small buffet with friends, and then, her musings on the fact that the holiday had become "too commercial" and that it had lost the simplicity of earlier years.

 

Considering she wrote this in 1953 I'm beginning to wonder when, if ever, the celebration of  Christmas was simple? Perchance it never was...at least where

the females of our species are concerned!

 



Day Fourteen - Waiting

 When your little it seems as if you have to wait forever for Christmas Day to arrive.

Not so much when your a grown up.

 

And yet today, I had my fair share of it.

Instead of watching the skies for Santa's sleigh however, I was obsessively checking out the windows for snowflakes. We had been promised twelve inches of snow but it seemed to take forever and a day before the first few pitiful spits of it started coming down. Even then it was very slow going and my patience was wearing thin and what with all my running back and forth to the window I thought I might be at risk of wearing thin myself. It seemed nourishment was in order and so I set out to do some baking of the non-holiday variety and whip up a Lazy Daisy Cake.

 

Now one of the best things about a Lazy Daisy Cake (a.k.a Lightning Cake) is that it is 

extremely quick (like lightning!) to make up. 

This is a very good thing when you are running low on patience.

 

Best thing #2 about Lazy Daisy Cake is that it has the most amazingly easy and delicious topping in the world. Nothing more than butter, cream, and brown sugar...YUM!

 

 And best thing #3 about making up a Lazy Daisy Cake is that it gives me the opportunity to spend time with my favorite cookbook of all time,  The Fanny Farmer Cookbook.

Not just any Fanny Farmer Cookbook mind you, it has to be the eleventh edition, have a gold cover, and, if your lucky, messages from the past!

 

My copy used to belong to a woman named Olive (love that name!) who had a friend named Polly (ditto!) I know this because of an envelope I found tucked in the pages containing a brief correspondence between the two and a shared recipe. Oh, and according to the note they also shared some opera glasses...  

 

 Olive appears to have been quite organized as documented in her menu plans.

 

 She loved to edit recipes and.... 

 

 ...leave little notes here and there!

 

 And her very own personalized index, what a great idea!

 

In the 25 minutes it took the cake to bake off I had just enough time for a quick visit with Olive. Combine that with a wipe down of the dishes and by the time I looked out the

window again the snow was flying!

 

Should you be interested in some non-holiday baking of your own....

 

Lightning Cake (Hot Milk Cake)

Small, delicious and easy. Excellent

either frosted or with a special topping

as in the recipe for Lazy Daisy Cake.

 

Set the oven at 375. Butter a square pan

8 by 8 by 2 inches.(Except I use a round cake pan!) 

 

Beat until thick

-2 eggs

-1 teaspoon vanilla

Beat in a little at a time

-1 cup sugar

Sift together and stir in

-1 cup flour (For gluten free try Betty Crocker's Gluten Free Flour)

-1 teaspoon baking powder

-1/4 teaspoon salt

Heat until butter melts

-1/2 cup milk

-1 tablespoon butter

Stir into the first mixture and beat 1

minute or until smooth. Pour into the

pan.

 

Bake about 25 minutes.

 

Lazy Daisy Cake. Leave the baked cake

in the pan. Mix 3 tablespoons melted butter,

3 tablespoons brown sugar, 2 tablespoons

cream and 1/2 cup chopped nuts or coconut.

(No nuts or coconut for us!) 

Spread over the cake. Put under the broiler and

cook until the topping is lightly browned.

Watch carefully and turn so the topping browns evenly.

 

 

Christmas is Coming

 I was well aware that the holidays were upon us. 

As always, once the Thanksgiving dishes had been washed and put away, thoughts of festive decorating, gift giving, and cookie baking began to dance in my head.

 

 It was not until I revisited the pages of A Gift From The Lonely Doll this morning, however, that I became truly aware of how very soon Christmas will arrive this year.

 

 In the book Little Bear and Edith (the lonely doll) have only three weeks and four days to make their preparations. Most years when I reread the book I pity them for how can anyone orchestrate a Christmas celebration in that amount of time? I'm not quite sure, but with Thanksgiving running so late this year that is exactly the same amount of time we have to work with.

Three weeks and four days.

 

 While I'll admit to toying with the idea of heading out directly to the mall in a mad dash to get started, by the time I'd turned a few more pages Edith had set me right by reminding me that "a present you make is nicer than just a bought present." Now that is something I know to be quite true having been on both the giving and receiving end of just such a token. Case in point being this treasured blossom fairy made and gifted to me one year by my wee dear daughter way back when she was not near so much of a teenager as she is now.

 

Edith decides to put her knitting abilities to use and create a cozy muffler for Mr. Bear. Now considering I too have some knitting abilities like Edith I thought perhaps I could
follow her lead.

 

 But, considering I am still working on the very same scarf I started some 4 or more years ago, I am in very little danger of following in Edith's footsteps and making it too long. Just making it long enough to wrap around my neck it would be a miracle! With that in mind it was apparent a host of knitted gifts is out of the question.
 

Lucky for me I have a much better track record wielding needles of the sewing variety than I do with those of the knitting. And luckier even still, I found oodles of inspiration for such handcrafted gifts in the pages of other books...

 

...and magazines as well!

 



And "sew it seams,"

ready or not,

CHRISTMAS IS COMING!!!



F is for FUN

 Recently the Nellie Perkins Doll and Miniature Society (to which I luckily belong) hosted a very special workshop. Judith Phelps was the honored guest for the day and gifted us with the ins and outs   of making doll hats. Our kit was that of the "Cherry Blossom Time Hat" and our program akin to the one she gave at last summer's UFDC convention. The write up read as follows...

 

 

                                     Cherry Blossom Time Hat
                                     Instructor: Judith Phelps Tuesday, July 30, 9AM - Noon
                                     Join Judith in making a hat that will celebrate spring and the 

                                     blooms of Cherry Blossoms in Washington, DC. This hat is made of 
                                     organdy wire, trim, and flowers and will fit a Bleuette or similar
                                     sized doll head.  

                                     No sewing is required. Please bring small pointed scissors.
                                     Skill Level:** - some skill or dexterity required



 

 Everything about the program was amazing. The kits were beautifully packaged, the instructions very clear and concise, and Judith's company a delight. I was most impressed with her attention to detail. Look here for example at the sweet little trim she had us use to cover a seam on the underside of the brim. I love when things are finished up just so like that!

 

What I didn't love was the fact that upon returning home I had not one doll to my name on which this hat would fit. That is what you get for having a tendency for the tiny I guess. 

 

 As it turned out, however, someone in our house did have a size appropriate doll....

dear daughter!!!

 

It's been nearly a year since I featured her Tasha Tudor inspired Annabelle ensemble but I thought this would be the perfect time for a peek back at that post. I've been considering which book to feature for October and having a tough go of it. I first thought to try and tie it in with a Halloween theme but with only three selections left for the year I wanted to make sure not to waste it on a book that really wasn't a tried and true top 12 favorite.

 

 In the end it was the hat that firmed up my decision to revisit A is for Annabelle.

Honestly I don't think it could have been designed more perfectly to match the beauty of the book's illustrations....

 

...or to be a better size to fit our Annabelle's head!

 

If you haven't done so already be sure to peek back HERE for more details from the pages of Tasha's exploration of a doll's alphabet.

 

 



Things as They Are

 

 Yesterday I attended the Southern New Hampshire Doll Show and Sale where I saw an abundance of "most wonderful" dolls.  Much like the collection of dolls detailed in Phyllis McGinley's book The Most Wonderful Doll in the World, there were baby dolls and bride dolls, china dolls and dollhouse dolls, dolls with braids, dolls with bows, and dolls for every occasion. When faced with such a glorious array of creatures it's funny how you begin to pick them apart. Each was beautiful in its own way but it seemed whenever the decision to purchase one of them came into question suddenly the critic came out. One had such sparkly eyes but the mouth was painted far too bright. Another sported the most adorable dimples but sadly not the blond hair that was hoped for. Such dissatisfaction with details can unfortunately have disastrous side effects. Luckily I had recently read McGinley's book and knew better.

 

 

The Most Wonderful Doll in the World you see, is not really a book about a doll at all. Instead it's about Dulcy, a little girl who "found it hard to be satisfied with Things as They Are," and as a result forgoes playing with any of her dolls because not one of them can compare with her exaggerated memory of the misplaced Angela.

 

So who did I come home from the doll show with?

 

Well she didn't have a skating outfit...nor could she skate.

 



 

She could not sing or say "Mama" or wave her hand.

 



 

She did not come with pajamas, a bathrobe, a riding suit, leather shoes, gloves, or a purse and in fact the one little pinny she did have had definitely seen better days.

 

But...

 



 

...she did have a need for a home where she would be welcomed 

Just as She Is!

 

*****

 

In defense....let it be known!

 Technically I did not buy her at the doll show and thereby ignore item #1 of the previously revised Project Cottage Quest list which stated "Stop buying stuff."

No siree, my mom wanted to buy her for me and I merely let her.
Thanks Mom!!!