It's Christmas Eve!

First Post of the Day

It's Christmas Eve! A day that in childhood dragged and took forever to pass. My siblings and I would pass the time by playing games together, playing outside, and drawing. 

Jenny is the youngest and this is a Christmas Eve drawing that she did that just came to light. (Leslie is going through tubs of our parents' things.)

She titled it "Busy to make the time go fast" and you can see Leslie and me riding double on Amy, Jenny riding a bicycle (she was never horsey like Les and I were), and Steve up in the woods chopping wood for our wood burning fireplace.

Jenny drew smiles as upside down Vs so while it looks like we are sad or mad, we are actually smiling.

Riding on Christmas Eve Day was actually a tradition that Leslie and I did every year.

We'd tack up Amy and Pokey, decorate their manes and tails, and ride up the trail through the woods for a chilly but enjoyable ride. Fun times.

Here's a Christmas Eve drawing I did in 1964. I'm holding my very first model horse, Brownie (a Christmas gift in 1963) and looking at the tree with my dad.

I've mentioned Brownie before, including for the Yuletide Challenge. 

He is still with me, much loved, and displayed in my china cabinet.

Speaking of the Yuletide challenge, today the prompt is for reindeer or anything with antlers. I don't have either of those in my collection, but I do have this!

An Old Timer hat that Lisa Doughman made me.

Isn't it neat? I love the glittery black contrasting with the deep red, the berries, and the jingle bell.

I am hoping to get another post written today, hence the notice at the start of this one that it's the first of the day. If the second one is not posted by 11:00 AM Eastern today, then it won't be coming until another time.

Cross your fingers and stay 'tooned!

 

Feast Saturday - A Fun Frenzy

Saturday morning I was up early as usual to let the dogs out, feed them, and get dressed for the Feast. 

To my delight, the Hunters' Moon was still visible and very beautiful. It was also quite chilly - I could see my breath in the early morning air.

When I arrived at the grounds, the sun was rising over the Wabash and there was a bit of fog in the air. I parked in the participants' parking lot, close to my tent but still a very long walk for me.

After last year's debacle where 45 mph winds had blasted through Ouiatenon, toppling some of my tent poles and blowing items inside the tent down, I was a little nervous as to what I'd find. But this year, no winds had blown through.  

However, the tent canvas had swelled with the dew and I could not get the tent clips open. I was struggling with them when Casey Samson walked by, saw that I needed help, and with another man I did not know, opened my tent for me. Thank you, gentlemen! 

I simplified my set up big time this year - the focus was clothing, blackened beeswax ornaments, maple cakes, and sleeve buttons. 

I still have several of Frannie's lovely wool toques and some pin pillows that I also brought, but after those are sold, there won't be any more.

I really liked the simplified look, and even got comments from customers who said they liked how "clean and simple" my tent was. (Translation: they could find things easily.)

As always, my sister, Jenny, came up from Indianapolis to enjoy the Feast.

That's her on the left at a very early Feast (1972, I think) and she has been coming almost every year since then.

Leslie's newest love since retiring as Feast Manager is cheesemaking, so she came as a milkmaid and taught a cheesemaking seminar Saturday afternoon.

She asked me to make her a milkmaid outfit and sent me some pictures as examples. While I miss her beautiful riding habits, I am pleased with how the milkmaid clothing turned out.

Saturday was a very busy day. Lisa had a migraine so I was on my own. Having said that, people came by and asked if I needed anything all day long. (Thank you, all! And Lisa, you were missed!)

I sold, and sold, and sold, and SOLD. This woman came back the very next day to show me how her new trade shirt looked with her other period clothing.

I had record sales by the end of the day. (I was also record-tired, Hah!)

Look at this beautiful pin ball this teenage girl made!

Everything was hand stitched by her. She was so proud of it, and rightly so. It is lovely. (Pin balls, like pin pillows, were early pincushions that were strung from a ribbon and hung from a woman's apron strings.)

Another young woman had inherited her grandmother's stash of hand crocheted table covers. She wrapped one around her shoulders and secured it with a pearl brooch.

As someone who has a linen closet full of my Grandma Honeywell's crocheted table covers, this clever idea caught my eye. Isn't that pretty?

I had five boxes of maple cakes and before the end of the day I had nervously opened the fourth box and begun restocking my candy jars. Would I have enough to get through Sunday? I hoped so.

Throughout the day, the sweet Scouts at the Beignet booth across from me kept bringing me free beignets and free duck tenders. 

An all-girl Scout troop, the "Beignet Girls" worked hard all weekend to earn money for their Scouting activities. The lines at their tent stretched well beyond three or four tent lengths - their food was worth waiting for.

I'd turn around, and there would be a young woman, big smile on her face, and some warm beignets or duck tenders in her hands for me. I'd send back some maple cakes and we enjoyed sharing our wares all weekend long. Thank you Scout troop 619 of Russiaville, Indiana!

A quick visit with Audrey and her youngest son at the end of the day.

This post is getting long so I am stopping for the day. There is more to come soon. (I know many of you want to know about the table that caught fire and the young man who "didn't die" as he put it.)

Stay 'tooned!

Fall Mish Mosh

 Second Post of the Day

A few Fall photos as we end October and celebrate Halloween.

Tuesday evening I heard a leaf blower going and looked out the window to discover it was operating in my yard. A man was blowing all our leaves to the curb where the city will come around and collect them.

I don't have a clue who he was but he did say he lived on the next street over. He blew all the leaves for three homes on our street - ours, our next door neighbors', and a home across the street and down a way. Interestingly, enough, I think he targeted homes where he knew there was some sort of issue - I'm often in our yard or the park on my walker; perhaps he'd seen that and thought he'd help us out? He never said why.

Bob, our next door neighbor, sadly is in the end stages of cancer and in palliative care so no doubt he really needed and appreciated that help. And the home across the street that Mr. Leaf Blower did? The husband suddenly died of a heart attack. He was only in his forties, and he left behind a wife and several kids. 

Whatever his reasons were for including us in his act of service, we join the other two families in being grateful for his kindness. (And if I can find out where he lives, I'm going to bake him some bread and take it to him.)

It's Halloween - how about a Halloweenishy picture?

Doesn't this look like some sort of monster or alien that is oozing its innards?

It's huge, too. It may look familiar as I posted a photo of it earlier this fall. (When it was in better shape.)

It's a giant puffball alongside the lane to Leslie's farm. They're edible, but I think that that one is well past its prime!

Speaking of Halloween... My sister Leslie and I enjoy re-enacting 18th century living history. Our sister, Jenny? Well, she's a witch.

She even came with me to BreyerFest in 2017 and found new pieces for her witches outfit while walking the halls of the Clarion!

She lives in Indianapolis, and her village of Irvington has a huge, week long Halloween Festival that draws people from all over to attend. (This was their 78th year!) A group of local women began a tongue-in-cheek witches' group that doubles as a service organization and they have become a much anticipated crowd favorite of the Irvington Halloween Festival. 

Jenny and the rest of the witches performing in the Halloween parade. There are a few warlocks who have joined them, too. 

They have become so well known that they have even been asked to march in the Indy 500 and the Indianapolis St. Patricks's Day parades!

Busy day ahead and lots of trick or treaters expected tonight. Hope those 16 bags of candy are enough.

Tammo can't wait for all the kids to come by!

Happy Halloween!

The 2024 4th of July Bocce Tournament

Second Post of the Day

Ah, the annual Fourth of July Bocce Tournament! Held at historic Martin Fields in Irvington (a part of Indianapolis), host Jennifer Martin has been grooming the pitch since the snow melted last spring. That pesky Rose of Sharon bush right in the middle of the field has been removed, too, at the request of the serious bocce players in the group. (Which would be all of us.)

Family and friends gathered for a potluck lunch before heading out onto the hot and humid playing field. Grigsby tried to persuade participants that it was far better to remain indoors and socialize with him. 

Of course, we recognized that as a ploy from Jenny to cut down the competition and increase her own chances of winning. (Note to self: ask judges if playing in the tournament that you are hosting is a conflict of interest and suggest that Jenny should be barred from future competitions.)

Jenny also seemed to be using Grigsby as an intimidation tactic. He perched above the display case and stared at Leslie for quite some time. As you can see from Leslie's face, clearly she was rattled.

But Jenny's cheating tactics did not work, and friends and family gathered on the field to await their turns to compete. (We even played the national anthem which earned us some crazy looks from dog walkers on the sidewalk that borders Martin's Fields.)

As usual (and even without my other kids and their spouses there to add to it), the competition was FIERCE.

It pitted sister against sister

against sister.

Mother against daughter,

brother-in-law against sister-in-law,

and niece against aunt.

Our family bocce tournament even features "instant replay,"

"video feed" of incredible shots (two reds by the pallino; black's going down!),

fair and honest judges who have a tape measure and know how to use it, 

and the occasional whiner "passionate" player who contests the impartial judge's call and asks that a new tape measure, still sealed in its plastic wrapper, be used. 

All in the hopes of winning the fantabulous Bocce Ball trophy

and having their name carefully "engraved" in perpetuity on the year's annual winner's tag and added to the chain.

That trophy is pretty impressive and it is a true token of honor and skill to win it. (Although you do have to pass it on to the next year's winner.)

Having said that, even placing in the top four of the competition is very exciting.

Even winning fourth place can make the athlete ecstatic and is truly a feat of luck skill.

Although perhaps some do go overboard in their celebrations a little; something the judges may need to address next year.

But good sportsmanship is also on show, even when your aunt, after three very tough rounds, edges you out for the championship at the very last toss.

Good sportsmanship means smiling, not smirking, when you win the trophy for the second year in a row

and still hugging the second place niece and saying, "I love you, loser sweetie."

The 2024 Bocce Tournament Winners are the Martin sisters and their niece/daughter.

Congrats, ladies! I'll get out my Sharpie and "engrave" the name of this year's winner on a gold disk and add it to the chain right away!

As soon as this rain stops, I am going to go outside and begin practicing for next year. After all, I made the podium this year - Next year's my year!