Super-Busy Week and Our Pretty Downtown

I have just been going a mile a minute for the whole week. My job was just hoppin' and I wore my hand-chained rosary (<--- link) to work and to Mass, and got five rosary orders and sold my rosary right out of my hands! So it's been busy and I have not been around to see anyone's blog! Boo!

Running errands for work yesterday, I had to go downtown to the Post Office there, and I saw such a pretty little shop that I pulled over and got a few snaps really quickly! It was SO bright, and SO hot. It was just like wading in hot gasses, which I guess it actually is! There were currents of hot and less-hot air, and from the dark courtyard next to the really pretty shop, there was a thin snake of air that was almost cool! 

I really, really want to do something like this over my door, too!

Hope everyone's week went well and I can't wait to get my chores done and hop back online to go see what everyone has been posting!

Kind regards,

Olde Dame Holly

The Ghost Cow of Mesilla

I was driving down a part of the nearby village of Old Mesilla, when I saw something so strange and wonderful: An ethereal cow looking out from a small pecan orchard and tumbledown house right before the entrance of one of the oldest cemeteries in the area, the San Albino Cemetery. 

Once, this holey cow was plastered and painted (maybe it got plastered when it painted the town red), but the weather has reduced it to its amazing inner framework. Whoever made this was a sheer genius.

This is clearly a quality-made bovine objet d'art.

I would dearly love to have this cow in my yard. I always, always wanted a concrete deer in my yard. For literally decades I dreamed of it. My beloved Granny had a pair of concrete deer and I loved them as if they were family members. Hmm, I loved them more than most family members. My family members were not all nice. 

And I would love that crazy cow! 

I have that little donkey in the courtyard, but I want a sizeable concrete animal. I am very unlikely to get one, but I'm going to try! 

In the Deep South, the concrete deer were popular. When I moved to Arizona, the Sleeping Mexican abounded, despite being horribly stereotypical. 

In the DC area, there were gnomes before gnomes were a thing. I had a neighbor who must have had ten of them. Joking, I offered the loan of a "ten pound sledgehammer" to "take care of his gnome infestation." He was unamused. Yeah, talk politics all you want up there, but DON'T bring up the gnomes. 

In Ohio, I saw endless geese, DRESSED UP in little clothes, depending on the season. It was difficult to reconcile the dour kinfolk I met with the idea of those same people making or buying clothes for plastic or fiberglass geese. "Since when ve spend money on geese? Vat?! Go play in ze snow."

In the Pacific Northwest, I saw many small boats in yards as planters, and what we called "porch sitters:" Life-sized doll people. Or People Dolls. Sitting in chairs, swinging on porch swings, sitting in the boats. And totem poles.

Midland had many fake oil wells and pumpjacks and lots of "Texas Stars" on the sides of homes. 

Here, there are many shrines. The area has an affinity for St. Michael the Archangel, too, so you will see versions of him calmly spearing demons in many homes. But the Virgin of Guadalupe reigns in most hearts and is most often depicted in tile mosaics.

So, each area seems to have something tacky, er, unique! 

What is in your area?

"Plum" Ready for Spring...

The Bradford pears and the purple-leaf plums have begun blooming in the southern desert area of New Mexico. I saw a single poppy in the rocks of my neighbor's yard, too, so the Mexican poppies, in their millions if we are lucky this year, are about to put on their sunny yellow show along the foothills of the Organ Mountains.

I do not think the finest, most rare blossoms placed in a costly vase can outshine the beauty of a plum branch in a Ball jar in March, although both bouquets would be lovely! 

Now, who is it who has a blog header with a glass "frog" holding all her embroidery scissors? I cannot recall, but I enjoy the blog. But do any of you remember when "frogs" to hold cut flowers were common? I have my mother's frog, and I am thankful for that. It's a simple piece of clear glass, with cone-shaped holes to hold stems in a circular, arched pattern, and hers is chipped here and there. But to me, it is precious. 

Don't forget to enter the giveaway with a comment on this post or the previous post! I remembered I had bought a little packet of funny round carrots as part of the prize, so here is an updated photo.

As always, thank'ee for stopping by! Any signs of spring where you are? I would love to hear.

Kind regards,

The Merry Olde Dame, Holly

Hopping Towards Easter with Free DIY Digital Printable Tags

We interrupt this blog post to bring you this alert:

I hope you are all warm, with electricity, calm, and safe during winter storm Uri or any wintry weather abroad. 

Carry on!

The Valentine's decor is whisked away safely for another year. And, the Easter decorations are placed, with the exception of the cross stitch items I'm stitching up. They are in progress. Pinkeeps -- again! 

Here are some thrifty tags to print out, turn into garlands, use in cabinet displays, etc. I always hang a few from the armoire latches and tuck them here and there in the house. Please use this LINK <--- so that you get the full, uncompressed file stored safely in the Google Cloud. If you save the image below, Google will have unfortunately compressed it and it won't print as nicely. I am stuck on using the musical tags as the base for seasonal tags lately. The very first tag I ever received was a musical tag, and I must have imprinted on it.

I am continuing to be a bit lean in decorating. I do have my eye on some orchard grass. I want to put heaps of it in baskets and make "nests" of it in boxes, and put some empty eggs in them. I have seen some very expensive orchard grass online in some prim shops, but I usually get the Oxbow brand dried orchard grass that is good for guinea pigs (which I used to rescue). It's much less expensive and looks just as primitive.

Anyone have any decorating plans they are putting into place for Easter? And what about your color scheme? Yes, Easter is most often pastels and white, yet...I don't know why, but I'm going for very dusty-looking pastels this year. Muted. Faded!

Kind regards,

Holly, The Merry Olde Dame

Simple Decor for Easter, and Fabric-Wrapped Eggs

This year I am keeping Easter very spare, in terms of decorating. I am not buying anything new, and I will not put out very much of my existing decorations. In fact, I have a box of pretty decorations that are going to the thrift store that supports one of the main animal rescues here. I did the same with Valentine's day decor, a few weeks ago. Sometimes I get a "pang" when parting with something. But honestly, after I give things away, I often cannot quite recall them later. 

I did take a few plastic eggs and glue some strips of black-and-tan checked homespun onto them, while watching the Weather Channel's coverage of Winter Storm Roland, and their predictions about Winter Storm Shirley. Valentine's Day is giving the U.S. a very cold shoulder this year. 

The eggs are easy to do. I have seen eggs finished much more neatly for sale, but I don't mind my less-perfect creations. I tried two different ways I found on the internet, and I like the way that uses strips best, not the way that wraps the egg and just has some slits to overlap. Aleene's Fast Grab Glue worked very well on these. The egg underneath is one of a dozen "chalkboard" finish eggs that I got last year at Walmart, for just pennies after Easter. 

I mix my primitive items with sparkly ones, new ones, vintage mid-century, whatever. I like a mix. Some are purists, and that is fine, too! I put several nests and eggs in a big tin "tart" on a pedestal, and that is by my front door, at a window that looks directly at the courtyard. 

I know how to make Ukrainian eggs, known as "pysanky." I don't know if I will make any this year. I would need to order new dyes. A very kind Ukrainian mathematician taught me how to make them, and gave me a "kistka," the tool that draws wax onto the eggshell, decades ago now. I have so many little projects going that I am not able to get to them all! But with these winter storms coming, it might be best to have some distractions on hand. I think there might be quite a few power outages and certainly it is going to be hard to get around in many areas. Do you have enough yarn, fabric, paint, and trim to tide you over the coming winter storms?

DIY Vintage-Style Ceramic Jar Knobs, and...CANDLEMAS

It is Candlemas! Groundhog Day and Candlemas fall on the same day. Today we had a blessing of candles at church. Before Mass, there was a sudden rustling of bags and parishioners flooded to the front to place them before the altar, but respectfully to the side a bit. Then the priest, warning that few churches do this anymore, blessed them. He ran through a quick list of many "-mas" events, with Christmas being the best known, of course. He mentioned Candlemas, Michaelmas, Martinmas, and Lammas. I had not heard of Lammas and am going to research it. 

I found a mislabeled box today that I had not opened since our move of over a year ago. I opened it up, and there were several items inside that I had been missing. Not the vintage Pyrex I'm missing -- boo! -- but some other cute things.

What I'd like to know is why it didn't bother me, and why I didn't notice, a rather large cardboard box sitting against the wall of the den for over a year. The cats like to sleep on it. So there was the raggedy box, with a ginger cat (both are gingers), always a-snooze atop it. 

But inside was this little Mason jar lid with a ceramic knob added.

When the knobs at Hobby Lobby are half off, I often pick up a few. They reside in the "junk drawer" until needed. I seem to use up a lot of them. In fact, I have none left.

Do you see that feather in the photos? I'm pretty sure that's an owl feather.

 

To add a knob to a metal jar lid, you can drill a hole in the top of the lid just slightly larger than the diameter of the screw portion of the knob. Obviously, the lid will no longer be airtight, but it's not meant to be. It's more for storage of non-edibles or a little "terrarium-style" decor item. If you do not have a drill, or a hand-drill, then you can use a biggish nail and turn the lid upside down (so you don't dent it), and carefully tap a hole.

The problem with most decorative knobs is the length of the screw that sticks out. You're going to have to cut it shorter, with a hacksaw. I sometimes just wrap a rag on a loose blade and use it, but that's naughty.

BEFORE you cut the screw shorter (way shorter), you need to thread a nut on it. They come with a nut on them, usually, and sometimes two, and sometimes they also come with a washer. Anyway, this is important: THREAD the nut on it, snug it up, and cut BELOW the nut. Then, when you work the nut off, it will rethread the threads that were damaged when you cut them off with the hacksaw. That way you can then get the nut off and on easily, which is important because you will need to be able to thread that nut back on there and snug it up once you stick the screw end of the knob through the hole in the lid.

My explanation is way too wordy, but as you actually do this project, it will all be obvious.

So you will end up placing the knob's end (the shortened screw part) through the hole you made in the lid. Then add the washer if you want, and definitely add the nut. Tighten up that nut but don't be too rough. Now you can put the lid on a jar. 

The workaround for those of us who don't have a drill or just don't want to deal with punching through metal is to get one of those metal lids that already has a hole for a straw. You will DEFINITELY need to add a sizeable washer with a small hole under the lid if you plan on using one of these lids, so that the knob is held securely and doesn't wobble.

Do you remember that song by Barbara Mandrell? "I Was Country, When Country Wasn't Cool." Well, I was a canning jar fanatic before they were popular. They can be "out" now for all I care, but I will always love them and decorate with them!

    Kind regards,

    Holly, The Merry Olde Dame

DIY Beaded Easter Egg, Some Pretty Roses, and Free Printable Valentine's Tags

From The Merry Olde Dame's Almanac:

Forecast for February 1 - 7, 2021: Wishes for a peaceful week ahead, with scattered bursts of laughter and sprinkles of delight, followed by strong gusts of good fortune and contentment.

The roses above are from a birthday bouquet. After admiring them, I drove from church to church in our parish and laid a bloom at the feet of each statue of my Queen of Heaven. What a delightful drive!

I am mingling Valentine's decor with Easter decor now...I made this egg by simply glueing on, with a "fast-grab" white glue, seeds beads onto a papier mache egg. I do a small section at a time, placing some glue down, picking up one bead at a time with a toothpick (I blunt the end) that was dipped in glue or beeswax. While the glue is wet, you can slide the beads around a bit and get them into position with the toothpick's other end.

It is therapeutic, methodical work, but very easy, so that it can be done while listening to music, podcasts, or television. I am going to try to depict a pansy next. I love their little whisker-faced blooms! I planted their little cousins, Johnny Jump-ups, earlier. Just scattered the seeds and am hoping they will come up.

Here are some free printable tags featuring the wonderful artists of yesteryear. They might be cute for decorating. As usual, use this Google Drive LINK <--- for this large file, so that it isn't compressed and so it will print out the right size.

Anyone else decorating or crafting this week? 

A Little Love Banner Free Printable

Here is a thrifty one-sheet banner to print that spells out "LOVE." Might be cute printed out, maybe grubbed on the edges, or sweetened with mica or metallic ink, and tacked on a shelf edge or across the top of an armoire. 

I had the pink version up on my old blog, and have added a tan and black raggedy version.

Use the links to make sure you get the full, uncompressed file, stored in the Google cloud. 

I'm still working on my Strawberry Bunny cross stitch designs. I've got the second one nearly stitched. Where I slow down is translating the actual stitchery to chart form. I dread that part! I like the stitching part best. Of course, I remember when charts were made using graph paper and an old Underwood typewriter!

We had our first foggy day of the year today. It's a rare event and was very exciting to those who have lived hereabouts their whole lives.

Pink Link

Tan Link

Thank'ee for stopping by.

    Kind regards,

    Holly, The Merry Olde Dame

Finished Wall Garland from Cardboard Scrap for Valentine's Day

I finished my little cardboard hearts garland (blog post HERE about sewing cardboard hearts). It is very quick to do. I deconstructed some inexpensive trim from Hobby Lobby and used the flat ribbon part of the trim to glue the hearts on, and the frizzled threads to further embellish the hearts. It's very quick if you use hot glue. I always have my trusty magnifying glass (second picture) nearby. I can't remember if it came from Hobby Lobby, too, or Michaels, or Tuesday Morning. It is metal with chippy, creamy paint, prim-looking.

Glue the hearts along the ribbon or string by using two points on the back of each heart, near the top but just slightly below the notch of the heart. That way, the ribbon or string will not show between the upper humps of each heart, but will still lie nicely against the wall.

I use map pins on my walls, each painted with a bit of acrylic paint to exactly match the wall colors. That way, they almost disappear when viewed.

Inspiration and time finally coalesced and I am busy cross-stitching a little series of what I call "Strawberry Bunnies." Sometimes, I have to give myself permission to create without worrying about what others will think of my ideas! Tomorrow I'll post a sneak peek of the first chart as it's being stitched. It is such a lift to be cross stitching again. I can barely wait until "stitchin' time" each evening after the chores are done.

    Kind regards,

    Holly, The Merry Olde Dame

Mini Wreaths in Action

Oh, today got away from me. I was trotting all day, so to speak, doing this, doing that. As all of you know, it takes a million small tasks to run a home.

Last year, after Christmas and on sale, I found a little set of mini wreaths at Target. I think they were intended to use as placecards, but I have used them otherwise. In the "guest bathroom," I have two soap pumps at the sinks, and each wears a little wreath. The others are tucked here and there into mole glasses in the old Mexican "china cabinet." 

Just a simple touch to tuck them into glasses, but I see them in there. If you are wondering, mole glasses are the little drinking glasses that "mole" comes in. Mole (pronounced MOE-lay) is a rich Mexican cooking sauce usually thinned with broth and added to cooked, shredded turkey and served with rice or posole (what I call hominy). It is a deep, dark chocolate brown, and indeed, it does contain cocoa. It looks awful, and tastes divine!

Do you have little special touches around the home, too? Sweet little touches that might not even be noticed at first, but gladden your heart?

The Last of the Leaves

The sound outside of my window is a steady click-click-click, and brings to mind sleet or graupel, but it's just the falling of leaves. They are showering down at a steady rate, and already some branches are nearly bare. By tonight, I think they will be gone.

Did I already mention the lore about falling leaves? I think so, but it bears repeating: If you catch a falling leaf, you will have good luck for a year. Catching it in your apron counts, or in your held-out skirt. Keep the leaf somewhere. It can be tucked in a jar or the corner of a cabinet. Or it can be placed under a stone or in the hollow of a tree, and allowed to return to the earth.

I am very happy that I was able to catch a few photos before the leaves are gone. Seeing the sky through leaves is so uplifting. I'm now on the lookout for junipers or piñon growing in an abandoned area, so that I can take a few small branches for crockery or buckets. And I do mean small: in the desert, there is no bounty of growing things. So, one must be very strict about taking just a few tiny pieces.

What's your favorite natural material to gather for Christmas? Are you partial to fir, holly, bare twigs? Once upon a time I had many items I would make from wheat, but none is to be had here.

I'm not sure how I will decorate my table for Thanksgiving. It's just my husband and I during this lockdown - and really, any time - well, just us and our beloved pets, two dogs and two cats. I very much hope to be able to finally pick up my needle and floss and work on some cross stitch after Thanksgiving dinner.

Thank'ee for stopping by.

    Kind regards,

    The Merry Olde Dame, Holly 

Tag Fest During Lockdown

Our state (New Mexico) continues its lockdown, and most stores are closed. There's at least an hour-long wait to get into a grocery store or a Walmart, due to a rush on items, to both a Walmart and an Albertson's Grocery being shut because of COVID-positive staff, and to our location near the border and El Paso. 

Strangely, I was able to upload image files from home and have "contactless" delivery of the printed out tags from our Office Depot store. Hooray! 

So today I have been "fussy-cutting" the tags and now I'm ready to add the twine or ribbon to hang them, and to add extra decorations to some of them (such as fake snow or glitter). I have one up on the mantel already from a White Christmas set, and tomorrow or even maybe later tonight (I am awake during the night, unfortunately) I'll put the rest of that set up.

I found some nice "homespun" black and cream checked fabric at Hobby Lobby a few months back, and that's what I'm using to hang them. I just tear strips of the material and poke it through the hole I punched.

My poor doggie "Champ" was bitten/stung on his rear by SOMETHING. I'm guessing it was either a giant centepide or a scorpion. Ugh! He's "disabled," in that he was a victim of abuse that left him with a ruined back left leg before he was rescued, but he never lets that stop him. He's a mighty hunter, constantly hopping around the backyard and chasing anything he can. He's all heart, being a Chiweenie, and even confronts snakes, hoot owls, and once, a coatamundi. Our yard is walled, but somehow creatures find their way in, right in the city. Anyway, he saw the vet and he's predicted to be able to mend quickly. He's my little cuddlebug shadow; his "sister," a Bichon mix, is loving but much more reserved. 

I hope this Monday finds you well and happily occupied! If your state is in lockdown, or you are avoiding going out, what have you been doing lately to stay engaged and content?

Some Little Christmas Decorations

Many people are decorating very early for the holidays this year. The worries of 2020 have affected quite a few folks, and I think to soothe themselves - and I'm one of them - the holiday season has been brought forward, at least the "hygge" parts: The coziness, the warmth, the contentment in simple, sweet things. For a few years, we heard a lot about the Danish term hygge, then it faded a bit, but it seems to be back, with a definite American twist. I think here in the U.S., it tracks along with an appreciation of primitive and Colonial living, but is joined with our love of outdoor Christmas light displays. Our local stores have so little left in the way of lights!

Here are a few [bad] pictures of some of my decorations. I wasn't even taking the photos in low light, but was experimenting with the settings. I think I'll have to keep working at it! And I have more decorations to put up, mainly my tags and more Moravian Stars that I like to fold. One photo shows both the flat and the dimensional stars that can be folded.

Here's hoping you have a good weekend and if you are decorating, enjoy!

     Kind regards,

    The Merry Olde Dame

 

Free Printable Hang Tags: A Pink Christmas

I was a bit surprised when I first started collecting and using Victorian "scrap" images, in how many were in peculiar colors and had odd imagery. Paper, diecutting, and printing were extremely expensive then, and yet really strange images would be produced. Using so much pink for Christmas amazed me. Santas in pink robes are not uncommon. Pink angels abound. The next time pink was so prevalent was in the 1950s and early 1960s.

So I made a free printable hangtag sheet out of some of these images. As usual, it's stored in the "cloud," wherever that may be. It's Google, so it should be safe. I think Google has control of just about everything so I've stopped worrying about what they may be doing. 

Remember to click the LINK to save the actual sheet, which is shown as the small inset in the graphic below. It's just one 8 1/2 x 11 sheet with six images. 

LINK IS HERE! <---click that

It may seem far from Christmas, but I feel it bearing down. It seems so long off for so long, and then I feel it rushes by me too quickly. That's why I always get an early start on the season. It goes much too fast for me. And as my mother warned me, the older I get, the faster it all seems to go! And as she solemnly told me, "Even if you live to 90, that's just 90 Christmases." 

We are under a "lockdown" again in my state. It all feels so strange, to have no Black Friday coming up, to have the season unfurl so differently. I feel so very badly for the very elderly, who depended on going to Cracker Barrel or Denny's for their holiday meals. Their meeting places are closed now. 

But, we all carry on, don't we? The mantel is done, the two tabletop trees are up, and the top of the pie safe is quite crowded now. My decorations are nothing compared to what I see on the blogs I hop around visiting. Years ago, I loved the blogging world, and I was so happy to rejoin it and see the numbers of steady, stalwart bloggers who keep blogging alive! Some people have extraordinary imaginations and sense of color and style. But I'll share some pictures tomorrow of my little inside efforts. The courtyard has been aglow since November 2nd. 

Thank'ee for stopping by.

    Kind regards,

    The Merry Olde Dame

Christmas Vignettes

For a variety of odd reasons, I lack furniture. Oh, I now have a small but actual bed, which I love love love, and I have a gargantuan farm trestle table and a few other small tables made from cedar fencing, and I finally have several chairs, but I don't have much display space. For that reason, and because for some reason I love tiny things, I make small vignettes where I can. The mantel is handy for that, and the top of the pie safe.

My pie safe, standing cupboards, and standing pantry are Mexican primitive furniture made of pine, and they reek of creosote, which I love despite hearing that it's bad for you. In some homes, pie safes and such are more to display than use, but I actually use these to store foodstuffs, plates, cups, and cutlery because of a lack of built-in cabinets. The cupboard and the standing pantry go almost to the ceiling, but I can reach the top of the pie safe easily, so that's where a lot of my little scenes are arranged. It's also high enough for the cats to leave it alone.

This particular scene features some teensy plastic deer. And they are dear to me. I love "mid-century" items. While I don't like modern plastic or resin items, I like the plastic goods from the 1950s and 60s, because they represent what was new and authentic in terms of style at that time. Plastic was exciting. Behind them are bleached sisal trees and behind that is a pressed papier mache tray.

Every year, I use less and less of the decorations I used just the year before. And this year is no exception. I'm again culling my newer decorations and taking them over to a thrift shop that benefits the animal rescues in our city. Last year I bought a lot of 90% off Christmas items at Hobby Lobby, but really don't have the space or energy to display them. Someone will love them and have a nice bargain with them! The older I get, the more I use natural items from the yard and the old, old, old five-and-dime items handed down. They look a bit tarnished and certainly many are raggedy, creased, or no longer Shiny-Brite, but to me, they are Christmas!

    Kind regards,

    The Merry Olde Dame

Decorating with Simple, Natural Materials

I have always loved using natural materials to decorate the seasons with...gathering bunches of budding twigs in Spring, or early-blooming bulbs; gathering sand and seashells and filling canning jars and vases with them during summer trips to the beach; clipping branches flying with autumn colors, toting pumpkins inside, and piling up gourds in a bumpy heap for fall; and for winter, gathering pinecones, holly, pyracantha branches heavy with red-orange fruit, bare twigs, and fir, juniper, and pine boughs.

I think pinecones and holly are my very favorites for winter, at least up until the eve of Twelfth Night. It's also called the Feast of the Epiphany. On January 5th, the eve, ALL greens gathered for Christmas must be burned! Every needle, every twig! I'll write more about that obscure holiday later. It's one of my favorite holidays and absolutely steeped in lore.

For now, I have quite a few wooden boxes and baskets filled with pinecones from my trees. I have no fir trees in the yard, but I do have a very old, very spare and gnarled juniper that makes its tiny cones and drops a few fragrant green boughs around this time of year.

Do you have a favorite natural material for the Yuletide season?

Thank'ee for stopping by.

    Kind regards,

    The Merry Olde Dame