Lights, Laughter, Music

Lights, Laughter, Music

Our holiday season traditions have changed over the years, but one of the things that is emerging as a favorite is visits to Chicago area light shows.  I think the COVID years pushed us to explore these events that of course were always there for us, but we just never took the time for.  This photo is from the Morton Arboretum, which we manage to also visit through the year, and it’s a great night.  Tomorrow we head to the Chicago Botanic Gardens to cap off the season

If you’d like to see a little clip of my amateur video, you can view it here

The Stocking Story

The Stocking Story

When I was a child, my Aunt Mary was my window into the world of craft, or as I think of it, art.  She, along with one of my grandmothers, were the ones who could sew, knot, crochet, and opened that world to me.  In many ways my Grandmother had a greater influence, but that is a story for another time.  This is the story of stockings.  Aunt Mary crocheted our Christmas stockings.  A ballerina slipper with tights for me, and baseball and basketball shoes and socks for my brothers, and they were hund by the chimney with care my whole life, well into my adulthood while we still gathered at my mother’s hime every Christmas.

Fast forward to my 30s, I’m married and setting up Christmas for the first time on my own.  By that time I had explored ribbon weaving a bit in simple pillows, so maybe that is why when I thought about his and hers stockings for our first mantlepiece, I thought of ribbon weaving.  They were multicolored, scrappy, and made of silky ribbons.  I still love them – even made a matching Christmas tree skirt at one time.

Then, my brothers started having children.  I don’t know if they asked, or I offered, or I just pushed my way in, but as each niece and nephew were born, there was a new ribbon woven stocking.  The patterns got more complex as time went on, and the pace of my production grew, especially since every time there was a new baby, there was a baby quilt to do along with the stocking.  As of today, there are 9 family ribbon-weave stockings out in the world.  No, make that 11, because my sister asked for one for her and her husband as well.  Not all of the families use them, but I like knowing that they are there – this is what I do.

This year, for the first time in quite some time, no new baby.  No new baby, but lots of left-over ribbon.  I can never quite run out of ribbon and of felt scraps at the same time, so when I started out to use up the ribbon, I needed just a bit more felt, then a bit more ribbon.  I still have ribbon, maybe as much left over as when I started this earlier in the fall, but I think I’m on pause for now.

What to do with them?  Well, they are in my Etsy shop , not that I can claim to be doing all the things to promote them, but I’m experimenting with a few, so maybe they will find their way into the world and in to someone else’s family.

Better Late Than Never

Better Late Than Never

Since we moved full time to our downtown Chicago condo, about 5 Christmases ago now, we have changed up our holiday decorating game.  No more 6 foot tree.  We still get a real one, but we usually get it from in front of the liquor store a few blocks away, carry it home it a grocery bag, and set it up on top of our media cabinet.  I’ve adapted the scale of the ornaments, though the color scheme is still a little random, but the tree skirt just hasn’t been right all this time.  It’s a quilted version from several years ago, but every year the colors just don’t look quite right.

Well, I didn’t get around to it BEFORE we set up the tree, or even WHILE the tree was set up, but for some reason as soon as we took the tree down, it became a real priority for me, so here it finally is.  It will be a real treat next year.

Holiday sewing has been a pre-occupation for years.  I guess it started when my aunt hand-crocheted Christmas Stockings for my brothers and I.  Later, when they married and had children, someone had to carry on, so I started to make ribbon-woven stockings.

Then, some years later, a hairdresser I went to in Atlanta took on sponsoring a holiday party for a kid’s residential treatment center, and for several years I sewed 50 Christmas stockings every year.  That has led to a huge stash of scraps, which I’m now working my way through to using as table runners and assorted other items that will likely get into my Etsy shop this year.  Here’s hoping!