A New Year

~A New Year....Is it really something special when it happens? Or is it just the same old...same old? I must confess that around here it has become just another year. But deep down, I know it is something special. It's a rebirth for many folks; a chance to look at life with new aspirations. If you're overweight, you swear yourself on a diet. If you are a shopaholic, you cut up your credit cards. If you are a bit lazy, you join a gym. But what happens to those best laid plans?
Usually, by mid January, you are back to your old habits, completely forgetting about having resolved to do this or that. Yet, every once in a while, someone, somewhere sticks to his or her resolution and life changes in a good way.
~I've known people who resolved to do something about their weight on New Year's Eve and then really did something about their weight. And it stuck!
I guess the good thing about making a New Year's resolution is that it shows how humanity always holds out hope. No matter how many times you break a heartfelt resolution, you usually make another one the next year. Hope usually comes with a strong sense of passion. It feels good to hope.
~Hubby and I are just about ready to head south. Except there is snow looming in the forecast on the day we want to leave. It will be hard to wait, even a day or two. In my old age, I've become completely intolerant to cold. Hubby says my
circulator doesn't work. The cold starts in my feet and spreads to my calves and soon overtakes my whole body. When we were young, we could hardly wait for snow so we could ski. That's what winter sports do for you. Make you wish for snow. But these days the cold means inactivity which leads to being...well... cold. Now that the hustle bustle of the holidays is over, I can't wait to get into warm sunshine, balmy breezes and sun, sun, sun. I can take my daily walk without freezing; fiddle around in the patio without a down jacket, drive to the store without warming up the car first. Lovely, simple thoughts that make me very happy. Florida, here we come.
~Be sure to check out our online store to see more aprons like the one granddaughter Emily is modeling at:
http://www.apronsgonewild.etsy.com/
~I'll be adding lots of new items soon.

It's Christmas!

~Sometimes, when I read the posts of other bloggers, I ask myself why my posts often sound hostile. Most of the blogs I frequent are filled with beautiful photos and sentiments, often having to do with the season. Mine are often filled with complaints or strong, opinionated feelings. Sort of makes me wonder about myself.
~Anyway...this post is about Christmas and I've linked into one of my favorite blogs.... www.hookedonhouses.net . I've been decorating the house earlier and earlier each year because we head south right after New Years which necessitates dismantling everything in a hurry. I want to enjoy it all for as long as I can. We've had a primitive twig tree for the past ten years or so. Ours is one of the originals so it has almost as many brown twigs as it has branches. I like that about it. Makes it look rustic and natural. Decorating a twig tree poses a bit of a challenge since ordinary Christmas ornaments and decorations don't really suit it. The other issue for me is that our tree sits in our bay window. Lots of light filters through it during the day posing a problem of making it look excessively bare. For many years, I stuffed the bare spots with dried hydrangeas. Loved the way it looked because the hydrangeas turn a golden brown by Christmas time and the color added to the rustic look. But then I read an article about dried hydrangeas being a fire hazard...they go up like tissue paper! So off with them after reading that. I now use dried Marsh Heather, which for some reason, always seems to have some moisture in it. Also bought some artificial hydrangeas that are a deep burgundy that gives the same illusion of the dried ones except they add a bit of color. Add to that the tiny black felt crows I acquired years ago from I think, The Gingham Goose in Rochester, MA, and our tree looks a bit different from any other. A few years past when I found those new, tiny lights on the thin brown wire online, I was thrilled because they are perfect on our tree since there is so much more brown than green. Now, they sell them in primitive shops so I've been able to add more light over the past couple of years.
~My brother-in-law makes fun of our tree each year in a very loving way. "Did you put up that brown tree yet?" he asks each season. Sometimes, I think I keep it decorated as such just to give him something to crank about. One year, I added gold angel hair and I really liked it but I haven't been able to find it again. Another year, I added plaid wool bows but ended up taking them off because they looked too cute. I think I'll just leave it the way it is.
~On another note, the same brother-in-law who jokes about our tree, gave me a sled several years ago, that he had found in my husband's childhood home when things were being sold and thinned out. It was most likely handmade by hubby's great grandfather. It's one of those things I cherish. I actually never put it away...even during the summer months. It has a home in the aforementioned picture window and our family pictures sit on top of it. At Christmas time, I put it out on the front porch leaning up against the batten door that was one of the first things hubby made for me when we bought this old house.
~Although I've always found the Christmas season to be hectic, there are certain things I love. Decorating and gift wrapping are at the top of my list. If I could just find someone to do the shopping for me, I'd be set.
~Here's wishing all of you in blogland a Happy, Healthy, Merry Christmas and a bright and hopeful New Year.

~Be sure to check out our online store at http://www.apronsgonewild.etsy.com/ for some great gift ideas.

I Hate The Phone

~I hate the phone...

~I think that's why I love my computer so much. I love communicating but I hate talking on the phone..it actually gives me a migraine. Phone calls almost never seem to come at a convenient time; they're always an unexpected interruption. Often, I completely forget what I was doing after someone calls. The caller always calls when it's an opportune time for them...not knowing if it's a good time for you! But it rarely stops them.

~Not so with email. It's completely at the discretion of both the sender and the recipient. You send it when it's convenient and you open it when it's convenient. You can think before you write so you almost always say what you want to say. You can verify info before you answer a question so you're rarely caught off guard. I love email. And Facebook is fun for quick comments to friends and family. If I ever made phone calls to comment on things the way I comment on Facebook I'd be disowned. No interruptions...just a glance at the computer screen now and then.

~I have a few friends who prefer phone calls. I don't understand it. I guess they like to talk. I guess they don't get headaches. I guess they don't mind interruptions.

~Not me. Email me anytime. But call me only when you must.

~When I'm not on the computer, I'm usually making aprons. Check us out at

http://www.apronsgonewild.etsy.com/

Please Mr. Sun.....

~Seems I've been neglecting my blog lately. It's just that there's so much to do this time of year. Yard work, fall cleaning, yard work, sewing, yard work. We've had a run of 7 days here on Cape Cod, of wet, rainy, cold, dreary weather. Even once it clears up, the leaf piles will be soaked, the flower beds will be mushy and the pile of cuttings we started before the rain will be a rotten mess.

~Today, I actually raked wet leaves in the rain, just to get some air. I have a chronic need to be outdoors and a week trapped in the house is about all my nerves can take. Oh...I kept busy. I made four new aprons for my online shop (pictured here), refinished the top of the dining room table and coaxed hubby into painting the walls and old wood floor in our little bathroom off the hallway near our bedroom. So the nasty weather week hasn't been wasted.

~But I've had enough of it to last me for a while. Please, Mr. Sun...please come out?

Check us out at http://www.apronsgonewild.etsy.com/

Election Day!

~I'm a nut when it comes to politics. Election day is one of my favorite days no matter what the mood of the country. On this note, I thought it fitting to republish a post I did earlier this year about Politics. Too often, I hear folks say...."I hate politics." Well...not so fast. The political process was set up for a reason. It is up to all of us to exercise our right to vote to keep it in tow and make it work for us. I am perhaps the most cynical person in the world. That cynicism keeps me focused and inquisitive. But I understand the concept of how the system was designed to ebb and flow. The political process can be our friend when we need laws to protect us. It can also be our enemy when it seeks to overreach and stifle our freedoms.
~On this election day, 2010, I've thought it might be a good idea to bring back my post on politics here.

From An Old Floorboard to a Tombstone Cupboard

My thanks to Susan of http://www.betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/ for hosting another Metamorphosis Monday and for giving her fellow bloggers a chance to show their stuff!

I sort of put the words metamorphosis and recycle into the same mental category. If I can take an object and turn it into something else rather than dispose of it, I consider it to be recycled...or repurposed as the new generation would say.

My favorite metamorphosis or recycle in our lives is always one that involves the transformation of one of the old, wide, pine floorboards that were taken up from the first floor of our circa 1724 house here on Olde Cape Cod. Would have loved to save them as flooring, but as we all know...water seeks its lowest level. All the flooring on the first floor of our our house was rotted along with the underpinnings. Some of the boards were 23 inches in width...a treasure in my book. We saved what we could and stored the boards in the garage. Over the years, hubby has crafted many things from the nearly 300 year old flooring, but one of my favorites is our pine Tombstone Cupboard. With the exception of the back piece, the entire cupboard is crafted from an old floor board. Hubby drew up his own design based on my requests. I think the result is spectacular...and a very fitting subject for a post at Halloween time since it's called a "Tombstone" cupboard ...get it?

The cupboard provides the perfect home for some of our old pewter pieces. Oddly enough,what I most love about it is the group of holes in the door. The only usable part of the floorboard that was wide enough for a door had holes in it where the floor nails had rotted right through. Hubby didn't want to use it. But eventually I convinced him that the holes actually added character.

We painted our Tombstone Cupboard with Olde Century Colors paint in Greenbriar along with Barn Red on the inside.

It's truly one of my favorite things in our home.


Thought for the day: Welcome the unexpected.... opportunities rarely come in neat predictable packages.


Don't forget to check out our online apron shop at http://www.apronsgonewild.etsy.com/

~Ahhh...Fall. It's always beautiful in New England but especially on
Cape Cod where the sunlight on the water in the morning takes on the look of a gazillion diamonds. Keeping the flower beds and window boxes looking good is a task in the summer with long days of full sun and sparse rainfall. Perfect beach weather but tough on plants.

~This time of year, with shorter, cooler days, the flowers seem to thrive. There's color everywhere. Our sedum plants have taken over the front cottage garden and will have to be removed this year.....but in the meantime, we're enjoying the blast of gorgeous color. Sedum is an odd plant. Its blossoms stay green all summer long and look like little bunches of broccoli. Come the end of August, they slowly start to turn; first a soft pink, graduating to the darker mauve color they are now, soon to become a dark russet. I always leave the seed heads on through the winter because even after they dry and turn dark brown, they look beautiful...especially when snow falls and lands on their pretty faces.

~At the moment, we're enjoying the butterflies and bumble bees that seem intoxicated by the
sedum's gifts. It's all good.

~Working on two aprons for a special order. I don't usually accept special orders but these are for a special friend so an exception is being made. It's a whole different ballgame. Not sure why, but it takes me twice as long to do a special order.

~Ordinarily, making an apron or anything else it like painting a picture to me. It's a ride on the imagination train. When I am confined to specifics like color, size, etc., it becomes work! But, as I said, this special order is for a special person, so I'll not complain.

~Be sure to check out our web page at www.apronsgonewild.etsy.com to see what we have to offer.
And enjoy this beautiful time of year.