Linens and things

After carefully ironing my treasured find -- 70 x 180 white damask table cloth I found in the dark corners of some thrift store, I noticed two small repairs. So small I had never seen them before. I thought of the person sewing tiny perfect stitches. It made me smile. I love table linens that are laundered to perfection, silky, the drape of of the cloth. Setting a table with a beautiful table cloth as the base, in anticipation of the perfect meal, friends, family, laughter. After dinner I found a small hole in the table cloth and will repair it as the person before me. After I have passed it on, someone else will discover all the repairs and appreciate that this wonderful cloth as been around a table or two. Treat it with care.

So speaking of table linens. I became obsessed with table linens and dinner plates that I could find at thrift stores. Now overwhelmed. I still look, but no longer purchase. Here is something I wrote about my dish obession for Guilty Pleasures, MSNBC.com

I rarely meet a plate I don’t want to buy, or a wine glass I don’t covet. I have thrift stores lined up on my route home, stopping at each every day. I am breathless when I happen upon a glistening set of cut-crystal wine and champagne glasses for $25. Or find a set of Harmony House “Scroll” china with calligraphic black scrollwork (soup and berry bowls, dessert plates, sugar bowl, creamer, etc, for $35). I can just imagine the place card in calligraphic handwriting to match! My brain is overheating and I have the table set in my head before I leave the store.
With no place to store them in the house, and not wanting to explain why I HAD to buy the Knowles ‘Scandia’ with a sweet bunch of pastel flowers arranged on berry bowls and plates, I drive around for weeks with my purchases in my car. Visitors might encounter a spring table of eclectic antique floral plates, cups, saucers and linens — with Chinese lanterns hung from the ceiling in a great mass of floating pastels. For our “fall” china I found Noritake Helene with beautiful silver and brown leaves. I discovered them at my favorite antique store for a bargain, and at once begin collecting more for the big Thanksgiving dinners we host. I think my next obsession is going to be buying big old china cabinets in which to store the first obsession.

Monster comes out to play

The big hungry monster usually comes out in October. Surfacing when I carve my first pumpkin. I carve 2 or 3 and think what was I thinking, I should have bought more pumpkins. Off I go to the store. This happens every Halloween. My creativity MONSTER. Hungry for time to have fun, making fun things. No computer generated art or production work. Just fun. And this is the way my I begin the most intense period of creativity. Feed the monster.

Parlous vous 'automne crafts'

I am so very excited. Finally, 'Marie Claire idees' magazine is on the shelves. I love this magazine. It is all French, and I don't speak or read French, so I look at the pictures and figure it out.

Colors floating on air

This has been a spectacular fall in the Northwest. My tortureous hour commute has turned a joy adventure of color, anticipating floating leaves at stop lights or driving down a street lined with trees of golden glow. We have not had the big wind or rain to sweep all the colors from the limbs. I wish it would stay like this for months.