My Grandma Clancy aka Bridget Rogers-Clancy

I couldn't find any photos of my grandma with her fox stole but it was so fun looking through the old family photos and re-seeing my grandma. She died in 1980 (I think), right after I had left Michigan to live in Santa Cruz, California. We are a very large, unsentimental family and I didn't go back for her funeral. That was the way we did things but now that I am my own person with a larger view of the world, I would definitely go and I know that I should have gone.

I loved and respected my grandma. I knew she was cranky sometimes and I knew she was a little bit comical with her blue-grey hair and her terrible baking skills (she would give us muffins that we would use as ammunition in play wars), and the way she would stay in the kitchen long after a meal, eating the leftovers while she cleaned up. But I felt very close to her and intrigued by her.

The grandchildren would get to stay over in sets of two or three for weeks sometimes. I stayed with my cousins Maureen and Kathleen who were twins. We stayed in the backroom in a big bed with a white chenille bedspread. My grandma taught me the proper way to puff a pillow and make a bed. There was a crucifix over the bed that opened up and there was a small "relic" inside a little compartment and some "holy water". We were not supposed to touch it but we could not resist. At bedtime my grandpa would come in and tell us a story about leprechauns. he would say not to get out of bed or they would bite our feet. We were terrified but thrilled by the magic.

They gave us oatmeal or cornflakes every morning and my grandpa would always try to trick us into drinking butter milk - we never fell for it because we could smell it a mile away. They always had coffee percolating in a stainless coffee pot on the table and we had orange juice. The sun would shine in on the little kitchen table and onto the little shelves filled with my grandma's extremely cool salt and pepper shaker collection. It seemed like a little piece of heaven. To this day, I only like oatmeal the way my grandpa prepared it - thick but unstirred, a little salty, a dab of butter in the middle, a sprinkle of brown sugar, and milk floating on top.

My grandma taught me how to knit. We played with her button box, and her fox. She washed our hair in her sink in the basement. We visited the two bachelor brothers and their poodles who lived next door. We walked to the Kresge's dime store and she would let us each pick out some little thing. I would find some toy for literally about a dime. We were always well behaved but we had so much fun in what seemed to us an adventure away from our parents.

As I look at these pictures, I realize how much I am like my grandma, how much I was influenced by her. She was an individual, a strong woman, with dreams and aspirations. She left her home in Ireland to start a life in "the New World". She always cared about her appearance even when she was old. She had taste and style even if we didn't always understand or appreciate it. She loved her family. She loved to have a crowd together to eat and talk and laugh.

I miss her. Time and distance give one perspective but it is important to think about the whole story even when you are in the drudgery of some of the immediate moments.

Textile Tuesdays : #11 Furry Fashion

When I was little, my grandmother had a fox stole. She was a stout, no-nonsense Irish immigrant woman who raised 5 children in a working class neighborhood in Detroit and this was one of her little bits of luxury and glamour.

We used to play with the string of foxes when we went to their house to visit or to spend the night. It had two foxes with heads, tails and feet. The mouth of one opened and closed to attach to the other one when you wore it. It could be considered cruel fashion, creepy or disgusting, but as a child, I just thought it was beautiful.

Nowadays I prefer "faux" fur. I am not sure how eco-friendly it is. It's not natural and it may be more polluting, but nothing is killed in it's production. I would normally prefer wool - but there is something fun and cozy about a big furry stole, hat, or vest. Big furry coats and boots remind me of glam-rock or the 70's and 80's. There is also something a little exotic about it like it is from Russia or Mongolia.

I am completely opposed to the idea of fur coats. I can't begin to write about the bloody industry of fur, especially wild and endangered animals. So, it is sort of an ironic, playful statement to wear an outrageous fake fur item - the more obviously fake, the better.

The neck warmer is from Karmology. The giraffe hat is from Brown Bunny by Iris. The blankets are by Urban Mutt. The Roses Are Red is modeling her necklace with her fake fur hat.

The vest is by Coogi on a site called DrJays.com.

Christmas and Boxing Day

Last night, after all the festivities and visiting, we got in our PJs and got into bed. It was the old routine and that made it seem like just another night. The excitement of the holiday seemed to fade so fast. I was left thinking: what now? what do we have to get excited about in the next several months of winter? I was a little sad as I fell asleep. We had another vacation type day today. We read our new books and ate more cookies and chocolate. We went to a friend's house for a little visit. I worked on my sock some more - I am at the toe now. Then I suggested we go out for pizza. Normally, I would have made another big meal for Boxing Day - just an excuse to get through more fancy food and indulgence. In the past, we might have had more friends over to keep the excitement up. But I just don't seem to have the energy or motivation to do that right now. Maybe it is the aging thing, or maybe it is just a phase. I enjoyed the way things went but I do wonder if I am getting old, lazy, and boring, or if I am slightly depressed or in a slump.

We had a great day on Christmas. The morning was exciting, cozy and sentimental. We got up at 6:30, had freshly made Stollen and coffee, and opened presents slowly, savoring each thing. After lounging for a while, we got dressed and drove 50 minutes to my sister's house where we had lunch/dinner, went for a short hike, lounged some more, then came home. Simple and sweet.

It is traditional for us to have a small scale, family oriented Christmas. The girls love the routine and predictability of all the things we do all December: get the tree all together, decorate it, advent calendar, Christmas cards, shopping, making presents, baking cookies, setting up Sylvanian scenes, listening to Christmas music, getting home made flannel PJs, reading The Night Before Christmas, and getting up on Christmas morning while it is still dark out.

These rituals mark the passing of time. Even though a lot stays the same, things do change. Sometimes we are in different places, like London or Australia. We all look a little bit older each year and are at different places in our lives. We can't help looking back nostalgically and looking forward with expectation.

seeing spots

I like watching the t.v. show "Monk". It just wrapped up its final season and ended the story. At one point, Monk was poisoned by someone who wanted to kill him. He knew something was wrong when he started seeing spot.

I am just seeing them since I wrote my recent post on polka dots. Now I am noticing them all over the place. I went with my husband to a matinee today to see "Up in the Air", the new George Clooney movie. It was really wonderful - sad, sweet, humorous, insightful. I really enjoyed myself and would have been totally absorbed in the story except I kept noticing the polka dots on his tie, then I started noticing all the tie patterns and all the fabrics, textures, patterns. I know I'm not poisoned but I guess I am just obsessed with textiles and pattern. I liked the small pink polka dot on a navy tie.

More Dots, More Snow, More Cookies

I found these photos in my archives. The green bag is one I made a year or so ago. The other things are just items I favored. I think the rose and dot bag might be Kath Kitson.

It snowed again yesterday so the old piles of black, melting snow have a new layer of fluffy white frosting for Christmas.

I stayed in my PJ's all day yesterday but I will take a shower and get dressed today. I guess I'll wear my brown skirt since it is the most lounge-worthy. My big accomplishment yesterday was making more Christmas cookies. I made my mom's traditional Snow Balls with walnuts, butter sugar and flour - they are like a short bread. But I added cardamom and finely chopped fresh rosemary. I had been wanting to try something in this new strange spice combo trend.

They are delicious.

Textile Tuesdays : #10 Polka Dots

I won't go into a long essay on the history of the design or the name. I wasn't able to find an exact answer, but you can go to this link and get an unofficial summary: The Word Detective. This has more to do with the name and not the design. My guess is that uniform dots in a uniform pattern is too generic to assign it to any one source; kind of like the stripe. I bet there were polka dot type patterns in Babylonia.

Anyway, what I do want to say, is that I love polka dots. I love the combination of the fun, cosmic, round dot arranged in an even, organized, respectable order. Usually it is printed in fun colors with white dots. But it is equally fabulous in black, pale pink, or even tan, and the dots can be colored on a white or different colored ground. The dots can be tiny, pin dots or gigantic, one inch dots.

I am thinking here of fabric and clothing but the polka dot pattern has been used on pillow, curtains, dishes, and toys. It is typically playful but has recently been used in post-modern design as an ironic, nostalgic backdrop.

I like the big dots that are in style now, but I have to say that my favorite is dotted swiss. Does anyone besides me remember what that is. My friend recently showed me a photo of a cactus and I said it looked like dotted swiss. She had no idea what I was talking about. I am planning on making a stuffed cactus sculpture out of dotted swiss (if I can get my hands on some). I will post a picture of it when it is done.

I guess it might not technically be a polka dot since the dots are not completely round. The kind I like best is round because the dots are printed on and flocked with some cheap polyester fuzz. Maybe that is not technically a dotted swiss. I like to make up my own rules in these and other matters so, I am sticking to this story. I wonder if I could make my own flocked dots out of natural fuzz on organic cotton. That would be really cool.

The pictures at the top are by: , Jesse Mosher, Apron Anatomy, and LA Drama Queen. The collection is from an etsy treasury made up by Retro Labs. All of these people are on etsy.com.

Daily Life in a Southwestern Town

Yesterday was a typical day here in Flagstaff. It was a Sunday and the girls are on break from school so we all slept in till about nine. I love sleeping in, especially when the days are short and the sky is grey. We all lazed around the house all morning, drinking coffee or tea, eating toast and cookies. The house is so full of sweets right now that we have to spread the eating of them throughout the day. I worked out and I made the girls work out to my bollywood video - just to get them moving a little to burn off some of that sugar and restless energy. We talked on the phone, plans were made, and the obligatory straightening and cleaning of the house occurred.

The girls worked on a craft project with a friend who came over. They made hair clips out of bottle caps, buttons, etc. While they were doing that in the kitchen, I was making their pajamas in the workroom. I make them flannel p.j.s every Christmas. I have done so since they were about 1 year old. I ignore and resent the "warning" on the flannel. We have photos of them every year in their new p.j.s on Christmas eve. I like this tradition but the girls like it even more. I plan to do it till they leave home. My mom did the same for us and there were 7 of us girls!

In the afternoon, both girls got separate invitations to sleep over at their respective friend's house. (I don't normally allow this as a rule, but these were both families that I am close friends with so that is the exception). So we unloaded them at their various destinations, gave them the reminders of the usual rules... and said good night.

David and I were happy to be able to have a date night to do whatever we wanted without any responsibilities. We did have some errands to run - get detergent and blank CDs from Target, fill the gas tank, get some videos; it was crowded and yucky with tired people and crying children - then we headed downtown to go out to dinner.

We heard about a new restaurant and wanted to check it out. Since this is somewhat of a tourist town, there are loads of restaurants, but there are very few that we actually like and frequent. I am a good cook so I am picky about taste and quality. I also like a nice but casual, fun but not too loud, friendly and warm atmosphere. We were excited to find that this new place could be added to our list.

We had a delicious dinner and came home for dessert, a nightcap, and a video. It may sound like old-stodgy people entertainment, but we loved it. We did watch "The Hangover" which was surprisingly funny and well done.

Upon reflection, I considered this a very successful day here. Mundane, yes, but nothing bad happened. No one got in a fight. Little things just seemed to fall into place and small tasks were accomplished. Nothing earth-shattering or transformative, but when you re-focus your expectations and slow down to the pace of a small town, you find entertainment and satisfaction in smaller, simpler things. Is this called "settling"? I don't know.