February

Hello Friends,

This has been a week spent in labors of various sorts, and today I'm relaxing and day dreaming. I'm sitting with notebook and pencil, sketching new displays for the shop, and jotting notes about random ideas that are floating through my head. I'm having my glass of lemon water in an antique, etched glass, and my cheese and crackers on vintage Staffordshire china.

I've come across several beautiful old pieces of homespun and toweling and am debating whether I will sell them as they are, incorporate them into some collage, or simply keep them here at home to enjoy for a while. There are beautiful ways to display linens - draped over a curtain rod at my window, pinned to the wall, laid across a table, or folded in stacks in an open cupboard. They're so clean and crisp, no doubt some woman of earlier times kept them 'for best' as my great grandmother used to say. That meant they were probably never used, but lovingly tucked into a cedar chest or linen press, awaiting that day when she wished to impress someone. (Who could be that special???? Perhaps they were awaiting the visit of a mother in law, or, the pastor and his wife.)

My father's mother was like that. Her children purchased new furniture for her and my grandfather, as a 60th wedding present. The heavy plastic furniture slipcovers were never removed, for fear the upholstery would become soiled. They were waiting for . . . . what?

I love to use my precious old silver and sheets and baskets and china . . . .

I say, this life may not be the party we hoped for, but lets do our share of dancing Granny!