Photo-a-Day - March 2013 - Day 01: Yellow

This crafting tote was given to me by the husband of a fellow charity yarner after his wife had passed.  Although I passed all the knitting items on to a friend, I kept and use the tote in her memory.  Filled with yellow yarn and with two of my stained-glass lamps, I felt it was the perfect photo to represent "yellow."

Photo-a-Day - September 2013 - Day 24: Space

Impressionism is one of my favorite periods of art.  Combined it with the water and boating, is my idea of perfection.  Upon entering the "Impressionists on the Water" exhibit at the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco, the first thing you see is the protective space created around an actual cruising gig believed to have belonged to Emile Zola and the model of a boat designed by Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894).  I am embarrassed to admit that I don't recall the artist of the wonderful painting.

The main impetus for my attending the show, aside from spending an afternoon with a good friend, was the works by Caillebotte.  Yes, I love Monet, Renoir, Sisly, Boudin, Lepic and the others, but works of Caillebotte, a boat builder, yachtsman and artist, have always spoken to me.  From the first time I saw his "Paris Streets, Rainy Day" and "Planers 1875" posters of both I have framed, I was captured by the sense of being part of the paintings.

"Impressionists on the Water" provided me the opportunity to see the originals of three more of his works.  Of those, the one I most loved, but wasn't allowed to photograph myself, was "Boating on Yerres."

Photo-a-Day - September 2013 - Day 16: Frame

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I love history.  It only made sense that, with my limited amount of time, I made a point of spending much of it at the Tower of London.  In my wandering, I glanced into a very dark alcove with spiral stairs and noticed a plaque attached to the wall.

I couldn't see what it said but, as I am want to do, took a picture anyway.  It wasn't until I returned home, had the film -- yes, film -- developed and did a bit of enhancement to the digital image that I realized what it said.

"The tradition of the Tower has ALWAYS POINTED out THIS as the STAIR UNDER WHICH the BONES of EDWARD the 5th and his BROTHER WERE FOUND in CHARLES the 2nd TIME and from WHENCE THEY WERE REMOVED to WESTMINSTER ABBEY."

I had long know about the disappearance of the two young princes.  [from Wikipedia]: 

"The Princes in the Tower were Edward V of England and Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York. The two brothers were the only sons of Edward IV of England and Elizabeth Woodville alive at the time of their father's death. Then 12 and 9 years old, they were lodged in the Tower of London by the man appointed to look after them, their uncle, the Lord Protector: Richard, Duke of Gloucester [who became Richard III]. This was supposed to be in preparation for Edward's coronation as king. However, Richard took the throne for himself and the boys disappeared. 

In 1674 workmen at the Tower dug up a wooden box containing two small human skeletons. The bones were found in the ground near the White Tower, which is close to one reported site of their burial. The bones were widely accepted at the time as those of the princes, but this is not proven. King Charles II had the bones buried within Westminster Abbey."

I had also, long before, read "The Daughter of Time" by Josephine Tey.  Still, to have come across the framed plaque was unexpected and just a bit chilling.  

Photo-a-Day - September 2013 - Day 15: Season

One doesn't realize how often you'll find the same word in book titles until there's a prompt.  Although it was relative easy for me to pull these five books, I found I also have:

- Open Season by C.J. Box 
- The Bridal Season by Connie Brockway 
- Off Season by Philip R. Craig
- Open Season by Linda Howard 
- Season of Storms by Susanna Kearsley
- Season of the Swan by Evan Maxwell
- In a Dry Season by Peter Robinson

Who know I had three books entitled "Open Season," each by a different author?

Photo-a-Day - September 2013 - Day 03: Lines

I hadn't intended for this to be my photo for today, but loved the three different directions of the lines on my local Safeway store.  You never know what you'll see until you take the time to really look.

Photo-a-Day - September 2013 - Day 02: Memory

There was a recipe on the main Facebook feed this morning that used German Pancakes as the base.  A friend of mine commented that she'd been looking for a good recipe and I remembered this.

Whenever we would visit Grandpa and Grandma Nissen, she would make Grandma Pancakes.  She always used a 10" cast iron skillet and would spread the batter very thinly across the bottom.  When done, the adults would have a runny-yolk fried egg on top and my sister and I would spread them with butter and sugar, than roll them to eat them.

I once made them with very, very thinly sliced apples in the spread in the pancake and, once done, sprinkled with butter and sugar and briefly put under the boiler.

What I most remember is seeing Gram, sitting at her--now my--drop front desk, typing this recipe up with her little Smith Corona typewriter.  I shall always miss my Grands.

Photo-a-Day - August 2013 - Day 14: Original

This is my latest project, shown with my handsome T.S. Elliot, for Stitches from the Heart, a charity which donates baby items to over 1,400 NICU centers and hospitals around the country.  There is a story behind this blanket.

I don't know when I first learned about Hudson's Bay points blankets.  [from Wikipedia] "A Hudson's Bay point blanket is a type of wool blanket traded by the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) in British North America (now Canada) and the United States during the 18th century and 19th century. The blankets were typically traded to First Nations and Native Americans in exchange for beaver pelts."  Being one who loves history and the Northeast US and Canada, they always appealed to me but they are expensive, so I've never had one.

When I started looking for my next blanket pattern, I thought of the Hudson's Bay blanket and decided I'd base mine on that.  Off I went.  I didn't have quite the right green, but thought it would do.  I worked relentlessly for two days and finished the traditional four stripes.

And then I went back and looked at a photo of the actual blankets:

Do you see the problem?  It took me a minute to realize I had reversed the navy and green stripes.  I nearly cried.  Then I took a deep breath and weighed my options.

1.  Frog (take out) all the stripes I'd stitched.
2.  Ignore it and assume that whomever received it wouldn't know about Hudson Bay blankets.

Neither of those options really appealed to me.  Then, the light went one and, once again, I believed that there are no problems without solutions waiting to be found.  

Thus, I have created the Oakland Bay Blanket!  It's my own original design of reversing the stripes back out from the center navy stripe.  It's not quite half done, but I have to say, I really do like it.  

Problem solved.