Easter Time Traveling

My sister Leslie has been scanning in lots of our father's photos. He was an amateur photographer with his own darkroom where he developed the photos he'd taken. And did he take photos - we have several tubs of them! 

Leslie is working to make order out of chaos and document the people, places, and events in his photos. She sends her siblings at least one photo a day (something I look forward to every morning.)

Recently, Leslie sent out some Easter pictures from our past.

Leslie and me on Easter morning, ready for Church and wearing dresses and coats our mother made us. (She was a master seamstress!)

I was already collecting model horses at this time in my life; no doubt I was secretly wishing the Easter Bunny had brought me another horse instead of a doll. Probably Easter, 1964.

As so often happens in families, clothing is passed down. That cute hat Leslie is wearing was mine originally.

I still have it, keeping it carefully packed with my other Easter decorations.

My family (minus Jenny who would not be born for several more years) on Easter morning at Grandma and Grandpa Honeywell's home in West Lafayette. Probably 1961.

Same day, only in our home's yard. The home where I currently live now was built across that field behind us. I can look out my upstairs windows and see trees that my dad planted at this home in the 1960s. They are so big and tall now, and more than a few were actually our Christmas trees! 

Steve and me on Easter morning - those pine trees you can see are some of those  former Christmas trees. 1962.

Easter, 1965 at the Honeywells. Jenny has been born and is in our Grandpa Honeywell's arms. That's our Great Aunt Faye in red. (The "aunt" is a fond nickname; she was no relation to us but a very good friend to my grandparents.)

Happy Easter!

A Horsey, Doggy, Basketbally Day

Yesterday I was delighted to find the horses up by the water trough when I went out to the barn. I have made many trips out to see Abby recently, but she has been way out in the northwest pasture by the hay rack every time. I am not up to walking way out there to see her, and I don't like to call her up for just a few peppermints, so I do a visual check (knowing that Tim does a thorough daily check) and then go home.

Yesterday, I timed my barn time just right and had a lovely visit with her.

When I pulled up by the new barn, rather than calling to her to alert her that I was there, I decided to film her reaction when she realized it was me.

Without fail, she knows me by sight and will begin softly nickering to me as she approaches. (You may need to turn up your sound to hear it.) There is no feeling like having a horse glad to see you and letting you know that she is happy that you are there.

Sultanna and Hokey don't do that low nicker at me; just Abby, although occasionally Sultanna will neigh when I walk up. (Two Socks is off with a trainer for a while.

I took a sort-of selfie with Abby

and just enjoyed visiting with my girl.

The obligatory licking of the gate post-treats.

Abby is one happy girl, safe, and content with her life. There are times I wonder what her life had been like before she was rescued, and what might have happened to her had Indiana Horse Rescue not taken her and her herd mates to a better place. (Conditions were so bad that two of them died shortly after their rescue.)

Needless to say, I had a warm fuzzy feeling while I drove home. I sure love my girl.

The NCAA basketball tournament continues and this week's games began Thursday. My Fighting Illini (the University of Illinois) won their game and made it to the Elite Eight (Saturday and Sunday's games.) Hometown team Purdue played Friday night against Gonzaga. We had dinner with Lisa and enjoyed sitting out on her deck while waiting for the game to begin.

Tammo LOVES to go to Lisa's - she has a doggie door into the house, a fenced in yard, and best of all, his buddy Nash lives there.

Nash loves to play and plays hard, but Tammo takes playing to a new level and wears him out!

 

Nash taking a break on Lisa's deck while Molly wanders among the humans, asking for some petting.

Tammo hung out with Craig when no one else would play with him, and as the basketball game progressed, all that playtime finally caught up with him.

Lisa started snapping photos when she realized he'd fallen asleep with his head on her coffee table.

No doubt the other dogs, especially Nash, were a bit relieved that Tammo had (finally) worn himself out!

We were thrilled when Purdue won against Gonzaga and moved on to the Elite Eight. The family bracket now look likes this:

Pony Pal Kate continues her reign at #1 and even more exciting, Cowpoke Titan has finally made it out of last place and up to being tied for 13th place with his mama, Mountain Mama Jessica! He's also ahead of his dad and his Uncle Todd! Way to go, Titan!

More games to watch today - pulling for my Illini and my Boilermakers!

Stay 'tooned!

Breyer Boot Camp & Sewing Progress

Some time ago I mentioned that I was working on several horsey projects but that I could not speak about them at the time. Well, at last I can share! One of them has been announced and the show holders, Liz Cory and Jamie Rott, have given me permission to talk about it.

I'm stewarding for Breyer Boot Camp again this year. This is a show that is connected to BreyerFest and helps prepare novice showers for the Breyer Open Show. Entrants have to be at least 15 years old and cannot have ever participated in shows such as NAN, the BreyerFest Open Show, etc.

I enjoy stewarding (making sure entries are in the right class and that the formatting is correct on the entry) and I  get to see every entry in the divisions I am assigned. What a treat - so many pretty ponies! 

Ask me to judge though, and almost always I will decline. I don't mind judging my own Happy Trails (a pony party/collectibility show held in my home for fun) or I might even judge a youth division at a show, but judging high stakes classes no longer appeals to me. 

I've stewarded for this show several times and was happy to be invited back again this year. It will be fun.

Yesterday I made good progress on the robe a l'Anglais, enough so that a "vision" of the gown can be seen even if it is not yet shaped and is still incomplete. 

There are 4 yards or so of fabric in the gown and so it is heavy. It was a risk to hang it at this point as the shoulder straps are just facing pieces. They will be covered with the robing and have the sleeves stitched to them, both of which will take the pressure of the weight off those thin straps.

I pinned the stomacher in place to give me an idea of how it is going to look. The white lines of stitching around the waist are basting stitches and they will be removed soon. (Long ago I learned to baste in a contrasting color on dark fabrics so that I could see the basting stitches when ready to remove them.)

The white "lines" coming down from the shoulder straps is a pinning line of white fabric from the bodice lining. In the 18th century, women were literally pinned into their gowns.  The pins will go through that pinning line rather than into the navy fabric. It's a way to keep the "fashion fabric" (what the outside fabric of a gown is called) from being damaged from the pinning or by having the weight of the gown distributed through it. The lining fabric takes that stress, hence the pinning lines.

These pinning lines will be hidden by the robing that will be draped from the shoulder blades, over the tops of the sleeves, and down the front to the waistline. The robings will also help carry the weight of the fabric of the gown and alleviate stress on seamlines, preventing tearing.

Using fabric clips, I added the petticoat under the gown and the stomacher. Again, I wanted an idea of how the gown was coming together but I was also aware that I had REALLY increased the weight on those shoulder straps.

Here I have pulled the sides of the gown over a bit to check the petticoat.

Knowing I was risking tearing the shoulder strap linings, I worked as fast as I could. I was afraid to leave the gown hanging like that for too long, and I'd seen enough to be really happy with how it was coming along. I removed the clips holding the stomacher and petticoat, removed and rehung those two pieces, and then rehung the gown.

I folded the bodice in half lengthwise and then draped it over the hanger, again using fabric clips to hold it in place on the hanger.

Teacher Daughter Lisa is coming over later today to do a fitting. I hope to have the sleeves set in before she gets here - they're made and ready to go, so I should be able to have them stitched in place.

I'll post some pics tomorrow. Stay 'tooned!

 

Just When You Think You Are Done

Believe it or not, I discovered a little more KZoo wrap up that I needed to do. I have inventoried the clothing that I brought home with me so I know how many shirts, chemises, aprons, etc. that I have in stock, but what I don't know are the sizes that I need to make of those items to replenish my inventory before The Feast of the Hunters' Moon.

Jolis Chevaux set up at the Feast.

Before I do any 18th century sewing, though, I want to get some Mercantile sewing finished. I'm attending the swap meet for Indy Blooms at the end of April and I've gotten some new fabrics I'd like to turn into haversacks and bring with me.

I did finish another Mercantile sewing project yesterday. I completed the sixty mini haversacks for a friend who is holding a live show later this year.

I used up all the green and grey wool scraps the I had, so I had to use cotton. It was difficult to find a print small enough to be in scale with the mini theme (the finished size of these is about 2 x 2") but I did my best. I also only had 50 of the Dala horse buttons so I had to add charms for decoration on the extra 10. 

I'll pack these up later this morning along with some other donations and get them into the mail. 

It's spring break and Lukie has been busy with a project too. If you remember, he wanted a chain saw for his birthday earlier this month. That did NOT happen, but he did get a lot of tools and building materials.

Look what he surprised his parents with - a chair for his teddy bear that he made all by himself. (In his bedroom. With gloppy glue. And sandpaper and screws and nails and... I can only imagine!)

Not only can his stuffies sit in it, Chain Saw Lukie announced that he could, too - he had tried it out! And while it was a little small for him, he still could sit in it. (Translate that as, it did not collapse under his weight. That gloppy glue did its job!)

Another sewing project that I finished recently but haven't posted about is this:

I finished and hung my  Feast button holder. When Craig and I got married in 1976, my mom gifted us with four hand woven placemats made by a Feast friend of hers and this is one of them.

And while that goldenrod color is out of fashion now, those placemats have a strong sentimental connection for me to my mother and to the earliest days of the Feast. As I add buttons, I can easily attach another placemat to the bottom of this one. It is perfect for what I wanted. (I plan to replace the dowel, too.)

Meanwhile, the work on Lisa's robe a l'Anglaise continues. She's told me to put it aside for a while - we have until October before it is needed. 

But most of my pins are in various parts of that gown 

and I need them back for other projects!

And so the work soldiers on - I hope to complete this project by the end of next week.

Wish me luck, and stay 'tooned!

Springtime in Indiana

It's Spring in Indiana! At last. And even though we had a very mild Winter, "at last" seems like an appropriate comment - this past Winter consisted of endless cold, grey days for weeks at a time. It's so nice to have some sunshine and warmer weather.

Despite the fact that I plopped my Abby stone right where my daffodils were slumbering last Fall, they have come up around her stone. It's hard adding new stones to the stepping stone garden - this isn't the first time I've done that.

A short but sturdy pink hyacinth has been accommodating Cowpoke Braden's stone since 2017.

 

And a purple hyacinth since 2019! It is always interesting how plants maneuver around obstacles to reach the sunlight. (Hmmm, seems like there may be a lesson in that.)

This isn't in my stepping stone garden - it's a manhole cover from Jacksonville, Florida.

Beach Son Kyle thought I might appreciate seeing it and snapped a picture of it for me. There is a part of me that wishes I could get one of these for my stepping stone garden - wouldn't that be cool and a nice connection to my Florida family?

Not only are flowers blooming, but look what else is, too, around our neighborhood.

Odd circles are greening up all over the place.

At people's homes (a second one has since popped up in this yard)

and in the park by the lake. I count five in this picture. (I climbed up to the top of the kids' play structure to snap that picture - go, me!)

Coming on the heels of the blog posts about UFOs earlier this month,

these turf circles make me smile. And, they make me wonder. They are spread out around the neighborhood - what has caused them all? It's been fun to observe them as more pop up and to wonder about their origins.

Our neighborhood is doing some Spring sprucing up - we have new street signs.

I love our jumping horse logo.

When we were looking for a new home back in 2006, we drove past the Arbor Chase neighborhood and laughed because the entrance sign had a jumping horse. "That's where you will want to live!" Craig joked at the time.

Well, we happened to find the perfect home for us in Arbor Chase and eighteen years later, we are still here!

Schools are on a much needed Spring Break this week. Teacher Daughter Lisa is enjoying a week off from teaching to recoup some energy and rest, and Local Son Curt and his family are traveling. Here they are with one of Curt's best friends from middle school on into adulthood, Adam J. and his family. (Adam is in the orange jacket.)

I have to share this story about Adam, Curt, and their friend Ian. (Sadly Ian passed away; Curt's son Ian is named after him.) I was driving the guys to a high school soccer practice and the conversation in the back seat got very interesting. I perked my ears up when Adam and Ian began giving Curt laundry tips. 

Their best one?

"All you need, Curt, is a bottle of Febreze. Just spray your clothes when they get stinky and you don't have to wash them. You can go a long time without ever having to do laundry if you do!"

Oh. My. Goodness.

Needless to say, I had a chat later with Curt about the difference between getting rid of dirt and getting rid of smell when it came to laundry! And I think of that story whenever I see Adam.

Love is in the air this Spring.

Our grandson JC and his fiancé Jayci (go figure on those names!) have sent out save the date cards. We will be heading out to Utah for the wedding and guess who will be performing the marriage?

Craig! What a thrill that is for him and so very special to JC to have his Boompa marry him to his love, Jayci. The rest of the family is pretty excited, too.

Finally, it would not be Spring in Indiana without following the NCAA Men's Basketball tournament. And of course, my family has a bracket going, just as we did for the Super Bowl.

I have my hometown school, Purdue, winning it all. And then I have my alma mater, Illinois, playing Purdue in the championship game. Those are actually two reasonable, probable picks - so glad that two teams I love have had such good seasons!

Poor Cowpoke Titan has been at #16 since the tournament began. And Pony Pal Kate has been flirting with #1 during the same time. Me, I am in the middle of the pack at #7, but I am ahead of some family members (Curt, Todd, and Andrew) who know basketball far better than me, so I'm happy.

Strong winds, maybe severe weather, is due tonight. Ask me tomorrow as to how happy I am that it is Spring! Hah!

Stay 'tooned!

 

The Jaw Dropping Chatelaine & a Note

In doing some research on this last chatelaine, I got a very big surprise. It did not belong to my mother - it is Leslie's! And she has been looking for it for some time!

Way back in 2021 she had given it to me along with the other one that really did belong to our mother, thinking Lisa and I might want to wear them to the Feast. I never realized it was hers - I thought they'd both belonged to our mother. And, I thought she meant me to keep them. (It is not unusual for her to do that - the Ouiatenon Cross and the Merchant's necklace that I wear were both gifts from her.)

Yesterday I'd sent Leslie a photo of the chatelaine and asked what she could tell me about it. Well, she could tell me a lot about its history since it was hers!

Here's a look at LESLIE'S jaw dropping chatelaine!

Tarnish was the first thing I noticed when I opened the tissue paper surrounding this third chatelaine. That, and some blue trade beads tucked under the back of it. Blue is Leslie's  favorite color so in retrospect, that was not a surprise.

But the tarnish was. It was on everything - the chains, the accoutrements, as well as the chatelaine itself, and that meant that the entire piece was sterling silver and thus very different from any chatelaine I had ever seen, before or since.

This was one special chatelaine and it was made for Leslie by a very dear friend of hers.

When I gently turned it rightside up, more blue was revealed as well as an unusual chatelaine "face."

Three gargoyles decorate the top of it with a large (and not real) sapphire in the center.

The eyes on the middle gargoyle are real sapphires, but the larger one above them  in the gargoyle's crown is not.

A sterling silver spoon has been used to make the holder that fits over the wearer's petticoat waistband. (Yet another woman now missing her tableware at mealtime!)

The whole piece is stunningly beautiful.

Flowers and swirls decorate the mirror 

and its handle.

The needle case is beautifully decorated, too.

Unlike mine, it still has its top and can actually be used.

A perfume locket similar to mine.

Hers still has the blue silk puff inside.

I love this scissors case so much. It is open at the top so I suppose you could lose your scissors as a result, but is beautifully made.

A small whistle was the last item.

My guess is that a whistle might've been worn as a safety precaution, allowing the woman to alert others that she needed help. (The practice has carried into the 21st century - I've carried whistles and even pepper spray in my purse before.)

Unlike the other two chatelaines, the accoutrements are fastened on very securely. They may not be very pretty, but they are very secure. 

Now that I know this lovely chatelaine belongs to Leslie, I started to make arrangements to return it when we get together for Easter dinner. She surprised me, telling me to hang on to it in case Lisa or I want to wear it. Her reasoning? An 18th century woman would not have worn her chatelaine with a riding habit, and since that is all Les wears at events, she has no immediate need for it. 

So, for now, it is wrapped back up in tissue paper and tucked back in with my 18th century jewelry. When Leslie is ready to have it back, I will return it to her.

Fun to think that, between the two of us, Leslie and I have added a chapter to this chatelaine's history - lost and found!