Dear Folk,
Doesn't time pass so quickly? The boy came home on the 23rd and is home until the second week of January. So nice to have him home. The fire has kept us cozy as we try and keep the thermostat down to 60F. We have old cast iron radiators, which are wonderful, so if you just turn the heat up once a day and light the fire, the house is warm all day and into the night.
I asked Mr. B. if he knew where my candle stash was and he had a whole box of them gathered together down in the basement, so I routed around there and came out with several to light during the evening hours, which is so restful.
A friend phoned and said she still had a lot of items at her aunt's house to give away. I think I mentioned a while ago that I went to an Estate Auction at my friend's aunt's house and picked up a few things which I love.
Well she had furniture left. It seems that nobody is bothered with doing up old furniture anymore. She also had a beautiful piano, but nobody wants it and we have no room for it. I did get several items. One was a kitchen hutch or dresser, probably from the 1930s it was her grandmothers and she remembers it always being in the kitchen. It has a little metal pie safe inside, maybe added later. I said that I could only use it in the basement for storage of my preserves, but B. didn't mind as all these things would just be trashed, even the Thrift Shop did not want to take them.
I also found a green painted wooden pot stand and a little stool also I would say circa 1930s. An old patchwork quilt, made from wool fabrics, in need of TLC, I will have fun working on that. Various old sewing machine drawers, odd pieces of china and some chandelier crystals. Mr. B. found some old records he liked. A little side table with magazine rack underneath and odd garden pots, couple of Dorothy Sayers paperbacks for a good read. I almost forgot we found an exactly matching chair, to a chair we already have and we wondered whether the original chair came from B years ago when they gave us a bedroom set, when we were first married; how funny is that and I do think that came from her aunt.
B. said her house is full and they cannot safe one more item, so it all has to go and at this point it is to the skip. She said they had to smash up loads of bookcases, nobody wanted them and old kitchen cabinets you can't give them away. That all seems so very sad.
I have been working on a necklace, using a stone I picked up at the Black Beach on Maui. It is a black volcanic stone with white quartz in it. So I have wire wrapped that and wire wrapped a couple of little back oval stones I also picked up off the Black Beach. I used other stone beads I already had of clear quartz, plus I will make matching earrings, I think it's going to look quite nice and will be a reminder of my trip. Don't you love picking up natural things from the beaches and woods as a remembrance and just keeping them or making something out of them?
In any case this is the first time I have tried wire wrapping and I do not think it will be my last, it is such fun. So I did this while watching the BBC 1980s version of Pride and Prejudice.
Also made some pseudo plum puddings, which to me turned out more like a very fruity bread pudding, but still good with whipped cream on top and would have been even better if I had had Bird's custard powder, to make a lovely custard, oh well! I hardly think we ate a pie or any desert like that as a child without mum making a custard to pour over. Stewed fruit and custard was another staple desert of childhood.
Stopped off at the thrift with The Boy and picked up some, what else books, which were all 50% off, one is a very nice crochet book and a 1970s sewing magazine, with patterns. You tend to forget how crafty the seventies were, but I know as a young person back then I sewed a lot of my own clothes.
One more day off this week for New Years and then it's back to the grindstone.
Take care,
Christy
