Catlyn: February 2011

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Granny's Hat..

Hi everyone!

I found some sentimental inspiration this week, inspiration in something that I mindlessly see and touch every single day. Mindlessly that is until it pricks me! My pin cushion, there have been many new pin cushions shoved aside for this little old stained one made by Granny's precious hands.

Granny was a nurse and midwife back in the day when nurses were required to wear those little nurse caps and uniforms with aprons that were so white they looked blue! She had many stories to tell of her years as a midwife and all the births she attended, her favorite in particular was of triples being born before the doctor made it out to the house. What I find so amazing about Granny is that she had so little time in her busy schedule, she worked at the old city hospital teaching student nurses, midwife and was a private duty nurse to the Reynolds family, always on the go even during the night, yet she found time to make all her clothes down to her under garments! Granny didn't have just a few dresses she literally had hundreds, and most were hand sewn or sewn on a foot pedal machine. And to top it off, she kept all her grand daughters in dresses that she made. The only thing about Granny's dresses...she made one style! one pattern for all her dresses and that was the drop waist 1920's, every dress was made the same but you would get some that she had smocked or pleated, with pockets and without or a lace panel added, they were all beautiful even though they were all shaped the same!

( photo credit http://theshopfloorproject.blogspot.com/2009_08_01_archive.html)

Okay, back to Granny's Victorian hat pin cushion!
The fabric for this little pin cushion comes from a pair of her white nurse stockings, as you can see stockings back then were made of really thick and heavy material. The poor little hat has so many pin holes and so many stains I sometimes wonder if Granny would be upset with me for not being brave enough to try and clean the precious thing, but it would break my heart if it didn't hold up to a cleaning! So, I decided instead of taking a chance on losing her pin cushion I would make a replica of it and retire hers into safe keeping...

Now I'm finding that I absolutely love making these little hats!

Thanks for stopping by!

Hugs'

Catlyn

Friday, February 4, 2011

Creative week and Happy Pink Saturday!

Hi everyone!

I hope your week has been beautiful and creative. Its been dreary and gray here all week but I have found my longing for spring to get here just a little bit faster (please!) has motivated me to get busy and focus on something besides being gray and dreary along with the sky.

Oh here's a tid-bit of news! Have you heard about the change in the zodiac dates? I thought this was interesting...

http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/298420/its-all-stars-new-zodiac-dates-released
Excerpt:

It's all in the stars: new zodiac dates released

“The moon's gravitational pull has slowly moved the Earth in its axis, creating about a one-month bump in the stars' alignment... Now, during what we think as the month of Pisces, the sun is actually in the sign of Aries…”

Thus the adjustment of zodiac dates as follows:

Capricorn: January 20-February 16
Aquarius: February 16-March 11
Pisces: March 11-April 18
Aries: April 18-May 13
Taurus: May 13-June 21
Gemini: June 21-July 20
Cancer: July 20-August 10
Leo: August 10-September 16
Virgo: September 16-October 30
Libra: October 30-November 23
Scorpio: November 23-December 17
Sagittarius: December 17-January 20

Now with these new dates and my birthday (June 21st) I am no longer sandwiched between Cancer and Gemini (Basically a crabby multiple personality person)... I'm now a "BULL with multiple personalities! Oh my!...how... flattering... Mr. H should be tickled pink to hear about this, all he has to do now to get my attention is wear a red cape and sing "olay, olay!" But being a split bull..make that cape PINK!

Okay, on to the creative part of my week, here are a few of the lovelies I made this week...

I think out of all the new journals I have been making, I adore this one best!

And how gorgeous is this velvet and satin bible cover, I hardly ever make covers to fit large books and bibles. It's hard to tell in the pictures but the trim is metallic gold, just stunning..