Raven and Sparrow

New stuff

    After I posted my Christmas tablesetting I got an email from my Aunt Myrt complimenting me (thanks Aunt Myrt!) and mentioning how great it would be to have access to all the plates and stuff in a big store. I've been daydreaming in china departments for a long time and would indeed love to play with unlimited resources, but her comment reminded me that mostly people have to work with what they have. The dishes, tablecloths and other accessories needed to continually and totally reinvent the table are beyond the reach of most people, both financially and in time and effort expended. I've always reached for every new book on tablesettings, but usually feel disappointed because they are always (well, usually) gorgeous, but have nothing to do with anything I own or could put together without buying lots of expensive things. Most of the time when I am setting the table I must respond to the season and the occasion by drawing from what I have. At this stage of my life I have a lot more than I used to ...a personal vocabulary of items selected from stores both fancy and thrifty, inherited, given to me as gifts, and made by me. My collection makes tablesetting more fun and satisfying, but the process is the same as when I only had the cheap set of dishes I bought at Sears. It is always limited by something.

    Paradoxically, limits can be freeing, and in these days endless new stuff is excessive, not to mention impersonal. However, its amazing how some little new thing can reinvigorate my thinking and bring out new possibilities in the stuff I have. I now rarely add to my dish collection, but I am always thinking of new linens I would like to make. In the meantime, occasionally buying new decorative accessories can be as inspiring as a whole new set of plates. Just a little bit of new can keep the old fresh and flexible.

After the Wedding

Just before Christmas our dear friends Mark and Flora asked if they could be married at our house. We are delighted with the happiness they have found together and could only say yes to their request, Unfortunately we had fallen into post-move inertia and have been squatting amongst construction debris and unplaced belongings for several months. The house is liveable, but not finished and an event like a wedding makes you see everything afresh that needs to be done. The original plan was to hold the ceremony outdoors if at all possible, understanding that January is pretty iffy weatherwise. Mark and Flora chose a cliff setting overlooking the water not too far from the house, only partially clogged with unused wood scraps and overgrown with scotch broom. So there was outdoor work and indoor work to be done, and all after the hustle and fuss of Christmas. As soon as the decorations were stowed away we got to work on a variety of small improvements and clean-up projects. The tile was laid in the entry, the powder room got a door knob and tile backsplash, the windows and floors were washed, wood piles were moved, scotch broom was cut. The weekend before the wedding there was a forecast of snow, but at our house it was beautiful. The sun shone through dramatic cloud formations and sparkled on the water as we worked outdoors all day. It would have been a great day to be married outside. However, the snow did come...heavily. By the wedding day a week later it was gone, but the wind was howling and it was clear that the ceremony would be indoors. And so it was. There were twelve people in attendance, including the officiant. The bride was lovely, the groom was nervous. It was a beautiful, meaningful, heartfelt, intimate experience....just what a wedding ought to be. Not everything got done as I had hoped it would, but I think we made a setting worthy of the occasion and for that I feel pleased,

Now I'm trying to get back to my own projects, which seem to have been delayed forever. I always feel this way after Christmas, and the wedding preparations magnified the disconnect. I expect a few days will pass before I can bring any real energy to something new, but I'm looking forward to moving ahead. My new year is just beginning. 

Another Christmas Past

December always feels like an explosion to me....so much to do, gatherings and parties to attend, meals to plan and cook, house to clean and decorate, presents to think of, buy and wrap....everything crammed into what seems like a shorter and more intense period each year. Then its over, with empty boxes and scraps of wrapping paper littering the scene. I'm relieved to have it over, although there are always precious experiences involved which make the effort worthwhile. Now is the time to think about how things went and what I might do differently next time.

Christmas dinner this year was not my best, although I worked hard to have everything done ahead of time. For some reason, I misjudged the timing on the food, and the amount of it, so some things were cold and some barely done by the time we ate, and almost everything disappeared on the first round. That makes me nervous, I like to have a little left over to show that everyone got as much as they wanted. I have made the same dishes many times before, so I'm a little perplexed about what went wrong, although the fact that it all was eaten tells me not to fret too much.

I am happy with the table though. Before we moved I routinely used green and gold for my Christmas table because I had a green undercloth big enough for the extended table and enough yellow banded plates for ten people. It has been seven years since I could use them so I decided to return to those objects and that color scheme for this year's table. Two new elements helped keep it fresh and interesting. This fall at a second hand shop I found a lace runner that I thought was really beautiful even though the center panel has small tears and stains. Also, while I was out earlier in the month I saw some of those fancy, twining wire and bead decorations people often use on Christmas trees. I had sworn I wouldn't buy any more of that sort of stuff, but I really really liked these (I'm a sucker for berry-like dealy bobber shapes) so I indulged. The chartreuse beads echoed a chartreuse edge pattern on the plates (also a thrift shop find from years ago) and led me to try the chartreuse napkins as well. Little yellowish poinsettias were inexpensive and just the right color. With pine boughs and a gold candlestick it looked both Christmas-y and unexpected. Score!

Although accumulated stuff can just be such a burden, it is also true that even a small new purchase can be revitalizing for your table, your house or your wardrobe. Yay dealy-bobbers!

 

Christmas calm

After a hectic but fun weekend of parties and socializing, we returned home from Seattle to our quiet house, turned on the Christmas tree lights and the Christmas music and just sat down. Outside the colors of the sunset dissolved into the velvet indigo of the blue hour while we sat in silence (light snoring from Mike) looking at the glittering tree and listening to the music produced over centuries of celebration. I felt calm and connected to the earth's withdrawal into winter. I read somewhere that ancient people would light torches during an eclipse to "save" the light that seemed so ominously to disappear, and I thought of our Christmas tree as a similar lantern, made to reassure us every year that darkness will not engulf us forever. In fact, its presence helps us see that the quiet darkness of this season is also a blessing and a gift. When the busy light of growing and doing has withdrawn we can more clearly sense the enfolding essence of life, which we call love and peace. I wish you all the peace, love and joy of Christmas.  

First Christmas

This is the biggest Christmas tree we have ever had. Its about ten feet tall. I couldn't reach the top even on the step ladder. After several years of little trees decorated with whatever because the ornaments were in storage, we decided to get a tree that took advantage of the height of our new living room ceiling for our first Christmas here.It has been fun to get out all the old lights and ornaments and see what works in this new context.

Another nostalgic element this year has been the music. When Mike and I got married in the seventies we went out on a limb and bought a pretty nice stereo for the time....a Marantz tuner and Phillips turntable. The turntable hadn't been working for a long time before we moved and I wasn't sure we had even kept it, but when we unpacked our storage unit, there it was. Mike went online and found replacement belts and switches and now it works as well as it ever did, so we can play the 45rpm albums from his childhood Christmases. The records are in surprisingly good shape with hardly any scratches or skips, so we have been wallowing in sixties arrangements of Christmas carols as we trim the tree.

As usual we have a number of Christmas items that used to belong to Mike's family. My parents are still living in their home, but Mike's dad has been in assisted living for some years. When he sold his house, all kinds of family things came to us, like the cardboard nativity scene. It was printed rather beautifully, but it is just flat cardboard cut-outs that you insert into tabs to make the tableau. We still have the original box, and it has been in use since the fifties. Some of the tabs are getting iffy, and the star on the roof is wobbly, but here it is again. It could be considered politically incorrect, designating one of the magi as "colored wise man" and setting him outside the stable with the camels. Still, for traditional decorating, it is wonderful. 

Another decoration I like is the bird santa. It too is flat, but it is made of wood, not paper. It is nice to see him back on the mantel. I bought him at a craft fair years ago and have enjoyed his birdy progress ever since.

The power of these objects to revive memories and maintain continuity amidst so much change is remarkable, Each year that they endure they become clearer messengers from the past and sharper reminders of the irresistability of time. Fortunately they are also triggers of anticipation, helping us to get into the holiday spirit.

I hope everyone is enjoying the anticipation of Christmas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Runner debut

It seems like my productivity runs in streaks. Last year at this time I was working like mad to make some table linens to show at the holiday art walk our town sponsors each December. I had three runners and one big square under construction through the fall, working at night and weekends to get them finished. Just before the deadline, the last indigo dip on the runners ruined two of them, which was very disappointing. Once the show was over, I walked away from my studio and haven't been back since. (In my defense, the spring and summer were thoroughly taken with moving into the new house.)

This runner is one I made a while ago. The round motif came from a rubbing of an engraved metal disc, which I enlarged and made into a silk screen. I screened the design in Pre-sist and myrobalan and then overpainted the whole thing with logwood grey, staining the centers with some pretty concentrated cochineal.Once everything got washed out, I went back and re-screened the round motifs with a thiox discharge. Getting the circles neatly spaced was unexpectedly difficult, but this version came out pretty symetrically. My kind friend Jesse at Asian Eye (www.asianeye.com) helped me get a good picture of it.

Now that I have a dining room, some of these things I made a while ago are coming into use for the first time. Last week I used the grey runner, thinking its color had some of the elusive melancholy of autumn.

Since it is not too long (about 60 inches by 15 inches wide) I put it over my off white table cloth. I would have preferred a natural linen undercloth, but I don't have one. Asiatic lilies were the most compatible flowers available for the least amount of money. I envisioned cream colored roses, but couldn't find any this time. The nice thing about lilies are their sculptural shapes and cool pod-like buds. Using them is an instant antidote to my small/fussy tendencies with centerpieces, as illustrated by my previous table. Silver looks pretty on this cloth, so I got out my silver birds, and the candlesticks my great aunt gave us as a wedding present. Pink glassware and grey plates with natural linen napkins finished it off. I have been searching out this particular glassware at second-hand stores because I just love its warm overtones. Pinks that flirt with peach are my favorites.                                                                         

I was happy with the feeling the runner created on the table. Even though the cochineal traces on it encourage the use of pink, it doesn't feel especially feminine or fussy to me. I would like to try the design in different colors. I feel the need to dye coming over me again, so maybe it will happen.

Back to the table

     It's been a while.....a long while....since I could entertain easily. We've been living in our wonderful/horrible old summer house through way more winters than I ever thought we would. Someone asked me recently how long we had lived here full-time and I hemmed around (bad at remembering timelines) and came up with 2006. A little research revealed that we sold our Seattle-area house and moved in here October 1, 2004. Gulp. Seven years ago. For all this time, I haven't had a table that could seat more than four, or a living room that could be heated to anything above 55 degrees between Thanksgiving and Easter. The dishes I've collected have been stored, along with the vases, ribbons, napkins and candles that I draw from when I set a table. Now, at last, the storage unit is emptied and the new house is habitable. The pretty chairs are again arranged around a table that can seat eight. It's not exactly as though we haven't entertained in the intervening years, but it hasn't been like it used to be. We begin again.

    Okay. Eight people coming for dinner in the first week of October. An autumn table is an obvious choice, and I'm not too proud to be obvious. Centerpieces are the hardest, so I start to look around for possibilities. Leaves haven't turned here in Western Washington, but the rose hips are plump and vivid (also mean). Checking out the grocery stores for flowers, fruit or other possibilities is discouraging. This week the goods are both tired-looking and expensive. There are some really cool wooden apples in a nearby shop, but they cost $4.50 each. The new crop of real apples hasn't made it to the grocery store and I don't want to wait for the farmers market on the day of the dinner. The chrysanthemums outside Safeway are the cheapest seasonal flowers. The little pumpkins are cute,  but I don't have a good vision for how to use them with my stuff. As usual, even when I start early I can't see too far down the road. I buy the mums and leave the pumpkins and the wooden apples.

   At home, I review the tablecloth choices. I have a couple that might be okay, but the chestnut dyed pique will be the easiest. Easy is good. I get out all the dishes that I think might work, Usually I like the low contrast, low key plates, but this time Mike's mother's old apple pattern Franciscan plates have the most life. Do I have eight of those? Yes! and only one is chipped. (My mother also had the same dish pattern, but not too many survived...Franciscan chips easily.) So apple plates with brick red napkins. I regret not buying apples for the centerpiece. I also find six rusty metal oakleaf napkin rings that I bought for $1.50 at a garage sale and have never used. When I try to fit the napkins into one I realize why. Too small. After cramming a napkin into one, I cut my finger trying to get it out.  I will have to integrate band-aids into the table setting if  I use them that way.  However, I find that tying ribbon around the napkin and propping the oak leaves over them looks okay, and the oak leaves make a nice repeat of the dark wood of the table.

   Evaluating glassware is quick, because I don't have so many choices. Again I turn to pieces I inherited from my dear mother-in-law. She chose a common Fostoria pattern when she married and amassed quite a collection over the years. I probably wouldn't have chosen the pattern myself, but now I wouldn't trade it for anything. I always think of her when I use them, and they are so handy in every situation. Silverware also is easy, Mike's grandmother's sterling has pearl-handled knives that look pretty and add life to the table. I feel so lucky to have received such lovely table things from my husband's family. My family didn't have the same resources, and used what it had much harder.  

     The tablecloth and napkins have been pressed and the plates are set. I'm back to the centerpiece, which never comes easily, no matter how much I've thought about it. I bought the lavender mums because I figured purple would be a good complement to autumn colors, but now I have brown and red with off white, and no purple in sight. I think the centerpiece should be dark because of the oak leaves, and for contrast, but I don't have anything in wood or ceramic that works. Just looking for dark things, I get out three shallow carnival glass goblets that Mike bought for his mom years ago. I feel pretty doubtful until I put the rose hips into one and they just pop. Of course, I don't have enough hips for all three goblets, I don't really have enough for one. Also, that shallow coupe shape is just murder to arrange things in. Lacking a good alternative as time gets short, I keep fooling with it and realize that the stems of the rose hips make a good armature for holding the a few of the lavender mums. The whole thing is too small for the table, but the colors, oddly, look just fine with the dishes. I put a lace doily under the goblet to beef up its presence, and add a couple of dark purple votive holders to either side. It's done, because it has to be, and now the camera battery gives up the ghost.

   I go on to greet my guests, finish the dinner, drink champagne, light the candles, and gather everyone around my table, as I love to do. In the low light of evening, the table looks warm and welcoming, the centerpiece looks rich instead of paltry, and my friends are in a fine flow of jokes and conversation. The food is good, the company is great; it's a wonderful occasion and I am so happy.

Moving at glacial speed

My plans for our long awaited move from old house (and rented storage unit) into our newly nearly finished house turned into an extended joke. I thought I would take a week off work, recruit the extended family, and settle the big stuff in one intense effort. Well, it was intense....intensely disappointing...until I got over myself and let the whole process take its own course. Chaos still swirls in pockets in the new house and reigns over the old one, but we now eat, sleep, bathe, cook,  and as of tonight for the first time, blog in the new house. Hurray! And only two months after I thought it would happen. I still daily think of this thing or that thing down in the old house that I need in the new one. We still need hanging rods in the closets, mirrors in the bathrooms, and knobs on all the doors, but hey- we have doors! The furniture we have been storing all this time has settled into the new house pretty well overall, for which I am grateful. It is so easy to get caught up in what isn't right, when in fact wonderful things are happening, just in slow motion.

Zig and Zag, the Omelet Brothers

Last year Mike and I were strolling down the hill to visit our beach when we spied, attached to a slender twig right next to the trail, a tiny grass cup studded with sea green lichen. It was a hummingbird's nest and we assumed it was old and empty, but when we peered inside there were two eggs the size of Chiclets. We immediately removed ourselves from the area and kept watch from a distance as the eggs hatched and the babies grew. Mike was lucky enough to go down with the camera on the day the little birds fledged and get this picture before they flew away.

We have been slogging through the endless details involved with finishing our house. Well, really, Mike handles the endless details and I come home from work and say "Is that all that got done today?" We are aiming for the last week in May to move in and the time is getting very short. The main hold up is the finish carpentry, which is taking forever. We can't move anything into a room that still needs floor or ceiling molding and most of the rooms do. Windows are being framed beautifully, but ... slowly. We can't push the stove into place because the gas terminal behind it is too high and sticks out too far. The panels for the front of the fridge don't fit and must be remade. The interior doors have yet to arrive. Etc. Etc. Etc.

Now that the time is almost upon us I have been remembering what it was like when we first moved here permanently. Mike's health wasn't good and we decided we had to shed one of our houses. This was the place we really loved, so we rather suddenly sold our big suburban house, put everything in storage and settled into our problematic paradise. As the door rolled down over the packed storage unit I wondered how long it would be until I saw my stuff again. Answer: five years. Now a new house stands almost ready and I marvel at what we have brought into being. My old life is about to pour out upon me and I must winnow and choose what I want to bring forward and what I no longer need. This is a daunting prospect, but underneath it all I know I have been so lucky. When I'm not complaining I'm full of wonder and gratitude.

Snowy woods

We thought spring was on its way, but instead we are having snow. Its nothing like what so many parts of the country get, but we whine about it as much as possible. We can never get the cars up our driveway when it snows, so we have to be foresighted enough to leave them at the top. This is a picture of our snowy driveway when we first bought our property, about ten years ago. Since the construction of the new house began, the passage of trucks and massive machinery has knocked the interlaced branches that used to overhang the road to bits. It doesn't look as pretty in the snow today.

Good news! My unfortunately bashed camera body has returned from the repair shop. Now I must see what can be done about the lens. New pictures soon.