Do Not Use India Ink In A Fountain Pen or Live and Learn

Hi Dear Folk,

After struggling with several fountain pens to make them work, the light bulb went off, maybe it's the ink and sure enough I was using a romantically named bottle of ink called Bombay Ink, in a beautiful magenta colour.  An absolute no no to use India Ink in a fountain pen, it is not water soluble and is only to be used with a dip pen.  This I found out after the fact.

How in all these years of using a fountain pen, did I not know that.  Fortunately I did not mess up my thirty year old Waterman, nor my fifty year old Parker pen.  But I did have a couple of other pens, that may or may not work now.  One is the fountain pen my sister gave me, but I think I was able to flush that out, because there was not too much in there and it had recently been used.  Two other pens I had to try and pick all the gunky sediment out with a needle.

I did Google what is the best ink for a fountain pen and Waterman Ink was suggested, being a slightly thinner ink.  This is now on order in Mysterious Blue and I hope I can get the three pens that really matter to me, to work again.

I cleaned out my two old pens with warm water and put in the cartridges I've had for years and got both of them flowing beautifully, so will use and enjoy them.

I do also have a lovely old dip pen, that came in an old leather travel writing case, will use that with the Bombay India Ink.  Lesson learned.  Live and Learn.

Christine

PS:  For the first time in almost two months I was able to breath through my nose today.  I have been suffering from terrible allergies, someone said leaf mold was very bad this year.  It's not like I don't always get ragweed allergies every year that last for at least six weeks and I probably have other allergies which are a constant, but this year has been bad.  I do take Claritin but that only somewhat helps.  Do you know how good it feels to take a breath and not feel ones body is under constant attack.

Nantucket Basket and Other Finds of a Middle Aged Woman

Hi Dear Folk,

Our local thrift had a grand reopening in a different building just around the corner from their old location.  Mr. B. and the Boy got over earlier than I did, for which Mr. B. was rewarded with a $10.00 gift card.  But it's hard to pull your old bones out of bed after working a forty two and a half hour week, must put the half hour in.  So here I am standing in a forty-five minute line to check out, in which I would not have stood if it had not been for the fact that I am darn right stubborn and would not give up my Nantucket basket, the books I might have put down, but not the basket.

So here I am standing in line in front of an older couple, I guess their age at 77 to 80 or a tad older.  He's tall, well over 6' 3" wearing a baseball cap which had veteran of Korean War on it, so you can kind of figure his age.  In any case he's talking to a friend and says - yes I just moved into a condominium and the friend says "how do you like that" and he says "I don't I'm bored, I don't have my garage to work in and all my tools, but we couldn't keep the house up, the garden was too big and we couldn't mow the lawn anymore."

His wife asked me where I found my knitting and crochet book and I said they were all mixed in with the gardening books, so a lot of sorting still needs to be done.  I asked her what crafts do you like to do, she says knit and that she used to sew and reupholster furniture and that she had recovered several chairs and sofas for herself and the family, her hubby doing the wood work, but that was all in the past now.

So here I am thinking how much older than me are they, a max of twenty years older and how twenty years goes by in a flash.  For many years I have have thought my self middle aged, but how many years can you be middle aged.  Is it from forty to sixty or forty-five to sixty-five, I'm going with the latter because that would still make me in the middle age group, but if not then I'm in the elderly group see here;  then I would like to know how the elderly group is broken down is that young elderly and old elderly?

I was reading an article in the Guardian written by a young middle aged person see here and I'm definitely not in that group.  Although having your first child at forty kind of puts the whole time plan out of kilter with your peers, they are not sixty-two with a son just having graduated from college.

All this has been running through my mind as of late because I feel this is a transitional year of changes.  The Boy has finished Uni and is now home, with all the sagas that brings, of starting up on the next period of life, looking for a job or jobs, getting freelance work, landing a full time position in his field and then having too much work and too many irons in the fire and sorting out the balance.

I think it takes years to find balance and then something always comes along and upsets the scales, it can be both good and bad, so it is a constant tacking to the wind.  I'm at the point where I have to find the balance between life and work and how much can you par down to.

Bringing joy.

My Nantucket basket, this is why I stood in line.  I would like to think it's genuine, but I do not think so, but still lovely to have a replica, and I have used it.

Here is a piece about the Nantucket Baskets a video with Martha Stewart.  The history and craft is fascinating.

The Fair Isle design caught my eye, rather more knitting in here than crochet and as you know I like crochet.

Lang note books, pads, cards and calendars were always a favourite of mine.  In fact there was a store Mario's near where I used to grocery shop when Rob was a little boy; and after shopping at Genuardi's, Rob always called it Ge-nar-to-di, we would pop in and have a wander around, this old kind of pharmacy store with everything, long out of business now.  And I would buy a box of cards, so when I saw this little pad it was a nostalgia buy, as I think all their stationery is now made in China and the quality is not the same.

May use this for 2017, or Maybe something else will cross my path for my 2017 Diary/Journal.

Enjoying this book with lots of stitches.

Christy

Saturday Pouring Rain, Patisseirie et Chocolaterie

 What does one do on a Saturday pouring with rain, take a trip to Anthropologie and a French Patisserie, sounds good to me with a visit to an art shop and a craft shop thrown in.

Look at these delicious French cakes, I had the Raspberry mousse cake and Mr. B. had the chocolate ganache pyramid.  The Boy chose a lemon tart, but ate it before I got to photo it.

While the boys were looking around Bang and Olufson I was enjoying paints, brushes, pens and inks.  So I couldn't resit this ink, magenta, such a wonderful colour, Bombay India Ink.  As a child I would never get out of a stationery shop without something.

I debated buying this magazine for a day.  I think magazines are somewhat expensive to buy, but there was so much in this crochet magazine, that I could not resist.

 What a lovely shawl and shrug.

This combines two things I love beads and crochet.

 
Remember I said the boys changed the sofas out, moving two out and one in, this is my very comfortable but old sofa somewhat worn on the arms, the picture above.

Below is my new pique cover in taupe, lovely soft fabric, almost velvety.  I am so happy that it fits so well and I really like the look of it and colour.  One day I will get to making some new cushion covers, why do I procrastinate on that, they're not that hard to make.

Couldn't resist this fabric, do you know why, well one I love poppies and two my mum had a dress in the sixties with a shawl collar,  a deep blue, with red poppies.  So how could I pass this by.  A dress made in this fabric should be just right for this trip .....

Yes this is my surprise I am going on a trip at the end of this year to O'ahu and Maui.  It was anounced at our congregation that there was the opportunity to attend an International Convention in Hawaii.  I didn't think anything of it until a friend came up to me and said would I like to go with her and I thought why not, so we applied and were accepted.  We have booked our flight and hotel in Honolulu right on the marina, just down from Waikiki Beach.  A short flight to Maui and a stay at a condo on Kaanapali beach, I am ready, can I go now.  The weather is attrocious for this time of year.  It's a good job I booked all this before we found out we needed a new boiler.

Christy

Rupert Bear

My son's sketch of Rupert Bear. Rupert Bear is a long time favourite of many British children. He has yellow checkered trousers, with a red top. Rob's grandma bought him this when he was newly born and Rupert was taken to bed every night until he was a least ten.

Rupert started out as a strip story in I think the Daily Express Newspaper and has been popular for almost ninety years. Each year a Rupert Bear Annual is published. Rob has about ten. I loved these annuals as a child. Lots of pictures with story captions underneath.

So now Rob's Rupert Bear is immortalized in a drawing.

Christy