Here’s a seasonal mug, and a new one…a gift made by fellow Frayed Edge Deborah B. I love it…love the thoughtfulness, the creativity, and the shape! I used it all day on Christmas, and the day after, and will pack it away carefully until next year, when it will come out to celebrate the season and friendship.
Yep…I really did do some sewing besides the tree skirt and placemats. My mom, age 87, has everything she needs, doesn’t go out much, and doesn’t have any real hobbies other than reading the newspaper and mysteries (and since she can’t recall the titles of what she has read, it’s impossible to buy them for her). Also, she’s vegetarian and picky about her food, so it’s hard to buy her that for Christmas. So…….. I did buy her some old-fashioned Christmas candy, some lemon curd (which she loves), muffins and….drum roll, please, made her a purse.
I started with a different idea, but lost the patterns. My tissue paper mock-up looked the right size, but when I got the sack made up, it was too short for a drawstring closure (which wasn’t really “her” anyway…..a design opportunity, right?). So, I re-thought things and here’s what I made:
Mom doesn’t like open-topped pocketbooks, so I added a zipper (wasn’t that fun, but it worked)–the black thing in the center is a zipper by the way:
Then, my friend Gene saw an add on TV for a
purse organizer. Finally I saw the same ad, and came up with a pattern to make something similar. The one on TV has a built in light so you can illuminate the pitch darkness of your bottomless pit of a purse. My version isn’t that high tech! Just timtex, fusible web, fabric and thread.
First, you make what I am going to call (in my pattern to be published soon I hope) the Perfectly Portable Pocket (c).
Then you roll it up like a cinnamon roll:
Then you tuck it inside your purse, spread it out to fit flush against the sides of the purse, and bingo…instant portable pockets. I figure my pattern will have a tote bag sized version, a purse sized version and (drum roll and duh) a quilter’s version with slots for scissors, small rulers, rotary cutter, thread……you got it!
Years ago, Nescafe had an offer for these mugs, so since we were in the US Foreign Service (i.e. diplomats) and lived and worked with folks all over the world, it seemed appropriate to order up a set. They are heavy glass, etched with a globe. I don’t usually drink coffee, let alone black coffee, but I poured some into the mug for you to see the design (I tried with tea with milk, and the photo was less than clear!).
Here’s side one:
And here’s side two:
For as long as I can remember, some of these ornaments have been on the Christmas tree. It all began, I think, with the little decorations my cousin Anne (who is 9 years older than I am) would tie onto the outside of my presents. Here are some of the very oldest.
The glass snowman is so old I don’t remember getting him
…Anne, do you recall t his one? The reindeer and angel, and the ancient, now one-eyed Santa
and angels, 
were decorations from Anne.
Later, maybe in junior high or high school, I began buying ornaments for the family tree. When I was newly out of college, I began buying in pairs…one for my tree, one for my parents. Every year, no matter where in the world we have been, I have
bought something for the tree (the hardest year was when we were in Islamic Gabon in Central Africa…but I did find one fairly pathetic little church ornament, so that we have!). For example, in La Paz, Bolivia, I bought this couple…little dolls; they sit on a branch every year.
When mom downsized after Daddy died, she sent me all the ornaments. I have long planned to give one of each to my sons.
This year, I took the boys with me to shop, and they each got to pick one. To my utter surprise, Joshua liked the cool beaded one 
that I had first picked out even more than the raccoon he first picked (I even asked him to make sure he liked it and wasn’t just being nice to me, but he said are you kidding, it’s way cool. Good taste that kid has! I’ll take all the credit for that
Eli is currently on a mouse kick, reading books about various mousies. He bought this one, 
but has since decided it is a hamster (the tail would support that idea); if you squish him, he “sings” various Christmas carols. May his batteries die soon.
And I bought a beaded one too…the last of its kind, and only $5…
how can you resist cloth and beads for that price? Just to the left of it is a Russian church bell tower which I bought on my last trip overseas with the foreign service, to a consular conference in Moscow in February, 1997.
PS–thanks to DebR of Red Shoe Ramblings for telling me she does her captions and arrows in Photoshop. I can do that in Photoshop Elements, too, so I did! Thanks Deb!
Wednesday was the day for Eli’s second grade play, based on the book “The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles.” Three of the teachers set the song to music, their music teacher played the score and taught the kids the songs, and they did fantastically well.
Eli was a jiffie, a penguin-ish creature in the book, so the “jiffie” kids wore black and white and carried feather dusters to clean the palace of the Whangdoodle.
It was sweet and fun.
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