Taking stock

For many people, this point in January could mean resolutions made and possibly discarded. I am not inclined to make resolutions because of the New Year (and certainly not make them public if I did) but rather to take an inventory of the past year: what was accomplished, what I learned, what I prefer not to repeat and what I especially enjoyed. This blog is not yet a year old, but it has been a way of sharing some of this past year although maybe not quite as much as I had intended.

The year has been full of many rich experiences for the family as well as a few challenges. December was very much a culmination of some of the most time consuming family activities. Numbers 3 and 4 performed with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet Company's The Nutcracker. Daddy was playing in the pit but had permission to watch them for the first act of one show. They were both cast as "party boys" in the scene where Clara receives the Nutcracker on Christmas Eve and then as "mounties" during the battle scene with the Rat King in this Canadian version of the ballet. We loved how they looked in their vintage style of little boys clothes. There were seven performances with the weekend having matinee and evening shows. A week later, the boys were singing the Messiah with the Choir of Men and Boys of Christ Church Cathedral Ottawa followed by Nine Lessons and Carols on Dec. 20 and Christmas Eve mid-night mass as well as Christmas morning and New Year's Day.


Our daughter had a very busy month singing both with her duties a head girl of the Girls Choir of Christ Church Cathedral and in her debut singing solo with Thirteen Strings Chamber Orchestra in their annual Christmas By Candlelight Concert. Here she is in the gown made by me and the beautiful pashmina that Daddy bought for her. She also enjoys the benefits of thrifting and was wearing beautiful Italian-made gold leather sandals found by my Mum and me during one of our trips this past fall. She sang beautifully and we were very proud: her father playing in the orchestra and me and her siblings, grandparents and aunt in the audience.





The dress came together easily but still required a lot of my time to complete. There was even a last minute change of mind about the silk roses on the bodice which were removed late in the afternoon before the concert. I was very pleased to have my beautiful sewing space to work in.
The next day, my husband conducted his colleagues in the National Arts Centre Orchestra for their annual fundraising Christmas Fanfair Concert that raises money for the local food bank and the Snowsuit Fund which provides much needed winter clothing for children in the city. The concert was a great success with his colleagues enjoying his leadership as much as the audience enjoyed the music.

After Christmas, we hosted all the families of the Men and Boys Choir for a dinner party. Thanks to thrifting, I had enough cutlery and cloth napkins for sixty people. The menu was quite vintage: stuffed mushroom caps, vegetables with ranch dip, hummous and pita (not so vintage but very popular with my boys), cream of cauliflower soup and peppery cheddar crisps, baby greens tossed in a simple Italian dressing, baked ham, scalloped potatoes, green and yellow beans with baby carrots and home-made rolls, trifle, seasonal cookies and mincemeat tarts. I wore my high heels, pearls and vintage apron and felt Julia supporting my role as hostess.

With all my thrifting, love of clothes and vintage collecting I like to have opportunities to wear some favourites. One of the choir Moms made a special request for some of the hat wearing ladies to wear a great hat on Christmas Eve. This was the perfect opportunity to wear a 1950's hat that I found this past summer. The photo was taken at about 1:30 am after the midnight mass so my french roll was starting to fall out and was getting a little tired. I wish that we had taken pictures at the church so that I could share all the other hats worn that evening. If I were to have made a resolution, it would be to share so much of what I enjoy like the many bloggers that inspire me. I was specifically inspired by a meme at Curly Pops. I had intended to go month by month with links back to specific posts but I think I would rather share some of my favourite memories as the new year unfolds.

My Creative Space: Performance Anxiety

In my sewing studio is a half finished evening gown for my daughter. I am not yet panicking, but it needs to be ready for her performance on Saturday. Even though this performance is a big deal for her, she does not seem to be too anxious in anticipation nor am I worried for her. My anxiety does not even lie in what is left to do or the fact that despite my years of experience in dressmaking, I have yet to insert an invisible zipper. The source of anxiety is the fact that this dress is the first outfit that I have made for her since she was a small child and I hope that it will live up to her expectations. The silk dupioni is lovely to work with and I will get an opportunity to use some of my vintage boning that I picked up at the Fabric Flea market (not called for in the pattern but always a good idea for a gown). I am trying take the time to enjoy the process but with all the activities at this time of year not making mistakes is becoming my biggest priority.
Enjoy all the creativity of the season over at Kristy's blog

My Creative Space: What is Waiting on my Ironing Board

My sewing room has welcomed a new tool: a Rowenta Pro Iron! My trusty T-fal is still working but I was getting a little worried as it gets used a lot. The T-fal is fairly light weight which is perfect for garment care. Sewing can benefit from a heavier iron that produces a lot of steam. I have had a few irons in my years of home keeping and have been disappointed with some of them. Many of the more recent models do not seem to get hot enough and almost all of them have an auto shut-off. The Professional model Rowenta is designed for sewers with one of its best features being its lack of auto shut-off. It gets nice and hot and produces a lot of steam. Unfortunately, so far all I have had time to use it for is ironing some of my vintage linen tablecloths like this rosy one. It works very well for linen but its weight would deter me from using it for all my ironing.







The reason for the new iron's lack of use in the sewing room is due to the combination of my children's many activities and the effect of certain flu symptoms dancing through the family. This virus seems to come back to haunt you just when you think that you are feeling better. While I have been under the weather, I have been very thankful for a well organized bedside table well stocked with all you need when needing extra rest: favourite books and magazines, carafe and glass of water, tissues, lovely porcelain flower-shaped tea light, pen holder and basket with lip balm, hand cream and a thermometer. Extra pillows, a reading shawl and my lap top allow me to be inspired by all of the creativity out in blog land.

Elegance and Beauty

Materialistic is not a word that I would use to describe myself, but I love collecting and surrounding myself with beauty and I love to collect books. This blog has given me reason to record and share things that I find to be beautiful. With illness in the family, I have missed the opportunity to photograph all of Autumn's glory so will instead share a picture of one of the columbines that I planted this summer. Despite feeling sick, yesterday I ventured out to bring a friend a birthday gift: the book DV by Diana Vreeland. Books can be risky gifts but sometimes you know when it suits the person to a tee. My friend is as close as any person I know to possessing the legendary dramatic style that was Mrs. Vreeland. Of course, when I gave her the book I started to think of other books that I have about beauty and style icons and guides to achieving beauty and elegance in life. One of those books is one that I have read but do not possess: A Guide to Elegance -For Every Woman Who Wants to Be Well and Properly Dressed on All Occasions by Genevieve Antoine Dariaux. Mme Dariaux, who was the directrice at Nina Ricci, made a substantial impact on me when I read my Mum's copy as a teen and led me to be more inclined to look to some of old Hollywood's stars more than my contemporaries for inspiration. The book also inspired some rather fun fiction that I read in the past year also called Elegance
An early influence for me, as well as legions of others, was Audrey Hepburn and one of my favourite books on her is Audrey Hepburn, An Elegant Spirit written with love by her son. I enjoy its insight into her humanity that shines so beautifully in her films and her work with UNICEF. My admiration for her led me to What Would Audrey Do? which I found to be full of useful ways to add elegance and grace to daily life.
Recently, I was able to find a lovely book about another public figure who embodied elegance and beauty: Grace Kelly - A Life in Pictures. I was thrilled to find this book at a second hand book store and makes me eager to review all of her fabulous film roles -good for a quiet Fall evening in! I was reminded of Grace Kelly when I found this vintage train case at the thrift store. It is in beautiful condition made in England by Morton of London. Unfortunately my Internet sleuthing has not given me information about the company. The train case is smaller than others that I have seen but that makes it a possible to use as a handbag. What can be held in the train case suggests what is found in Caroline Cox's How to Be Adored - A Girl's Guide to Hollywood Glamour. A small delicious tome, it includes information on charm, etiquette and personality tips as well as creating a glamorous image. All of the books mentioned require us to concentrate on our personalities to find elegance and style like these beautiful icons of the past. If these women can inspire us to greater humanity, beauty will be found.

Hallowe'en creativity

Number four wanted me to call this post creepy crafting but I am not sure that it is the best description of our pumpkin at the front door. My husband gets really crafty about once a year and it is with his jack-o-lantern masterpieces. Some years he has made more and they have always been with design detail contributed by the children. Some years he has been on tour with the orchestra he plays in or has a concert in the evening but this year he is home and available for fun. As we have many small children in our neighborhood it is much better to have silly pumpkins than scary ones.




Number three and number four in costume: a grime reaper and Harry Potter. I feel a little bit slack these days in the costume department as these were purchased although Number four is wearing his choir uniform's shirt and tie and a knitted vest from Nanan. Their older siblings had more creative home-made costumes: Pingu, Little Bo-Peep, knight(indoor -tabard, leggings), queen (would let me say she was a princess), fairy, Legolas(elf from Lord of the Rings), and Dark Rider (also from Lord of the Rings). I did make Number three a pretty good bat costume but when you can find some costumes for $20 or less and you know that they have lasting play value it can be pretty difficult to direct crafting time to costumes.



My creative contribution to Hallowe'en this year was a batch of chocolate cupcakes. I tried out edible decals for some of the decoration but found them somewhat difficult to work with and not quite as impressive as the packaging's photographs. I am glad that they were bought at a discount because I know that I will not be trying them again. I made these on Friday night which was a good thing as Number one started having flu symptoms later in the evening and I am feeling them now too. Number two went to a theatre screening of the Rocky Horror Picture Show with a few of her friends and seems to have had fun.

When I was a kid, after Christmas, Hallowe'en was my favourite celebration and it was not because of the candy. I loved getting dressed up and can remember all of my costumes from the age of three. By the time I was ten, I was making them myself. At number four's age, I have distinct memories of the eerie feeling that ghost stories, decorations and even the wind blowing in the trees evoked and I am pretty sure that my children have felt that too. I hope that the richness of this kind of inner life continues to feed them their whole lives.

Fabric Flea market and Recent Thrifts

Most sewers have abundant stashes of fabric! After a time, we sometimes wonder why we bought so much of it. The organizers of a sale that benefits a public school in Ottawa's urban core have capitalized on this knowledge. The Annual Fabric Flea market brings together sewers (and other fibre crafters) to sell off what they don't want and buy what they do. I was very restrained and bought only two lengths of fabric but my self-control was challenged when it came to vintage sewing notions. I think that I was most excited by the purse frame (on the left hand side of the photo) and the printed bias binding was also a score. I love the packaging of the mending tape and the zip lock bag contains seven fabric covered belt buckle kits. I am looking forward to making a holiday apron with the fabric. Presently, I am drawn to birds in design.

In this photo, the most exciting thing for me is the book. The Bishop Method of Clothing Construction is a book that my Mum has. I remember reading it in her sewing room when I was first learning to sew and I feel it really completes my vintage sewing library. These books were written when the average woman had sewing skills and many women who wanted well-fitted, fashionable clothes would make themselves most of their wardrobes. I will likely scan some of the information to share but another blogger reviews the book here. The second length of fabric I purchased is five metres of shell pink silk. It is 115cm wide so there are lots of possibilities with this fabric. The lady selling it also had the suit pattern that she had planned on using with the silk. Maybe it is because I was making similar patterns in the eighties, but I had no inclination to purchase her pattern (I have difficulty thinking the eighties are vintage). The graphics on the box of boning may have been what prompted me to purchase it but my Mum said that it would be of better quality that most of what you buy now. The best part of this year's flea market was definitely that I went with my favourite sewing buddy, my Mum.

At a community wide garage sale I found this vintage sewing table. It needed a little cleaning up and I need to find a small screw that will work for the little knob waiting for it in one of the drawers. The rounded sides of the table are bins to store your handwork and have hinged lids on the table top. The crocheted lace was thrifted and the orchid was a gift from my Mum-lucky me!










The two lamps picture here on the buffet were purchased from the same vendor later on in the sale. My Mum thinks that they are probably from the late forties. They cast a beautiful light in the room and I cannot wait for their debut at a party.

My Creative Space: Autumnal Inspirations

Autumn is an exciting time in our household: two of our children have birthdays, the concert season starts up again and cooler temperatures inspire many of the indoor pursuits that make a house a home. While I am not presently playing any concerts, I have benefited as if I had. The beautiful bouquet of flowers pictured here was presented to my husband at a concert he played on Monday night and I get to enjoy them!

Today is my eldest child's nineteenth birthday and it somehow seems a bigger deal than many of his other birthdays. I am walking around somewhat in shock that I am old enough to have a nineteen year old child. It really seems like only yesterday we were driving to the hospital with Mozart's Duo Concertante playing on the car stereo. I remember waking up from a nap and having my water break, then leisurely taking a shower and then eating some toast and tea. Number One was born a few short hours later and our whole world changed. Every body's life changes when they have a baby but ours changed differently than most as we soon discovered that our new son had Down Syndrome. This is not a post about disability but inspiration. I like to think that my son's special needs have inspired me to be creative even if creative means figuring out how to laugh at a situation rather than cry. I have certainly needed to find time for myself so I could make things and I feel fortunate that my temperament was accustomed to doing so. Because there are many things that Number One cannot do, I have learned to see more of what is there (in the world) than what is not and relish the little things like fall flowers and chocolate cake. The birthday cake I made today is our standard recipe using the Moosewood Vegan Chocolate Cake recipe. The whole family enjoyed about half of it after singing Happy Birthday and really the day did not seem so shocking after all.

Here is another Autumnal tablecloth that is inspiring me to keep the cake keeper in use. See what others are inspired to create at Kristy's blog