Que hermosa, Hermosa Beach.
Friday, January 24, 2014
Monday, January 20, 2014
Unconditional love will have the final word
"I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word."
- Dr. Martin Luther King
Word.
- Dr. Martin Luther King
Word.
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Pinterested (?) (!)
Hey y'all!
Hope your New Year is going well. I will catch up on my a few thoughts in my head another day. Today, just some basic crafting I did as Christmas gifts: Felt pincusions!
This is all hand embroidery on felt and attached to wood bracelets, to wear as wrist pincushions.
No real plan or pattern...just stitched my merry way along!
The mushroom polymer pin toppers were made by Etsy seller Nadelwerk. They add just the right touch, no?
Bunny hides in a hollow tree trunk to avoid getting stuck!
Hedgie curiously peeks to see what you are making!
Hope your New Year is going well. I will catch up on my a few thoughts in my head another day. Today, just some basic crafting I did as Christmas gifts: Felt pincusions!
This is all hand embroidery on felt and attached to wood bracelets, to wear as wrist pincushions.
No real plan or pattern...just stitched my merry way along!
The mushroom polymer pin toppers were made by Etsy seller Nadelwerk. They add just the right touch, no?
Bunny hides in a hollow tree trunk to avoid getting stuck!
Hedgie curiously peeks to see what you are making!
Friday, December 6, 2013
"I am ready."
"I am ready. To go into the light. Or into the dark. To board that ship. I am ready."
- John's final words.
You may have been ready, even though I am not. But, as my sister held your one hand and I the other, you took your last breath and went in love and in peace. You are loved.
John Everette Langdon, 90, passed peacefully from this life in the presence of loving family, Sunday, December 1, 2013. Son, farmer, sailor, student, engineer, husband, father, grandfather, colleague, true friend, Jack-of-all-trades, man for all seasons, John, a direct descendant of Mayflower crew member John Alden and passenger Priscilla Mullens, was the eldest of five children born to Everett (E.J.) and Fannie (Shirley) Langdon, October 13, 1923, in Hornersville, MO. John’s early life was spent on the family cotton farm, where he learned the value of hard work. John’s fascination with anything mechanical began already in toddlerhood when young John would unrig the cultivators by hammering on the tail nuts with any tools that the hired help (much to their chagrin) may have left laying about. John was sworn into United States Naval Reserve on December 31, 1941, and achieved the rank of Electrician's Mate First Class. “Red,” as he was called by his shipmates, was honored with the Navy and Marine Corp Medal for saving the lives of 12 capsized British sailors from turbulent waters without regard to his own safety. Honorably discharged in January 1946, John enrolled at the University of Missouri, where he played football and received a degree in Agricultural Engineering. In 1951, he married the only gal tall enough at the college dance, his “pretty lady,” Marilyn L. (Schmadeke) Langdon, and raised their two daughters in Phoenix, AZ and Racine, WI. John and Marilyn enjoyed 41 years together before her untimely passing in 1992. An engineer with the J.I. Case Co. for 40 years, John travelled the world on behalf of Case, including within Cold War Soviet Russia, developing and improving machinery for different conditions. If there were a better way to do something, John would work until he found it and was assigned four patents. John’s lessons to his family were to work hard, put others before self, take responsibility, continue to learn, and to act with common sense, integrity, courage, dignity and honesty. Private services with full military honors will be held and he will lay to rest alongside Marilyn in Racine, WI.
- John's final words.
You may have been ready, even though I am not. But, as my sister held your one hand and I the other, you took your last breath and went in love and in peace. You are loved.
John Everette Langdon, 90, passed peacefully from this life in the presence of loving family, Sunday, December 1, 2013. Son, farmer, sailor, student, engineer, husband, father, grandfather, colleague, true friend, Jack-of-all-trades, man for all seasons, John, a direct descendant of Mayflower crew member John Alden and passenger Priscilla Mullens, was the eldest of five children born to Everett (E.J.) and Fannie (Shirley) Langdon, October 13, 1923, in Hornersville, MO. John’s early life was spent on the family cotton farm, where he learned the value of hard work. John’s fascination with anything mechanical began already in toddlerhood when young John would unrig the cultivators by hammering on the tail nuts with any tools that the hired help (much to their chagrin) may have left laying about. John was sworn into United States Naval Reserve on December 31, 1941, and achieved the rank of Electrician's Mate First Class. “Red,” as he was called by his shipmates, was honored with the Navy and Marine Corp Medal for saving the lives of 12 capsized British sailors from turbulent waters without regard to his own safety. Honorably discharged in January 1946, John enrolled at the University of Missouri, where he played football and received a degree in Agricultural Engineering. In 1951, he married the only gal tall enough at the college dance, his “pretty lady,” Marilyn L. (Schmadeke) Langdon, and raised their two daughters in Phoenix, AZ and Racine, WI. John and Marilyn enjoyed 41 years together before her untimely passing in 1992. An engineer with the J.I. Case Co. for 40 years, John travelled the world on behalf of Case, including within Cold War Soviet Russia, developing and improving machinery for different conditions. If there were a better way to do something, John would work until he found it and was assigned four patents. John’s lessons to his family were to work hard, put others before self, take responsibility, continue to learn, and to act with common sense, integrity, courage, dignity and honesty. Private services with full military honors will be held and he will lay to rest alongside Marilyn in Racine, WI.
Saturday, November 30, 2013
Thankful
"I no doubt deserved my enemies, but I don't believe I deserved my friends." -Walt Whitman
I am thankful for my friends. And for you, Jen. Thank you for all you've done.
I am also thankful for every miracle, including the Internet, Mozart's concertos, allergy medicine, running water, dolphins playing in the surf, weeds that find there way through the asphalt, the growing up of my children.
Jack and I volunteered at the Salvation Army on Thanksgiving (okay, I volunteered Jack to volunteer...). As Thanksgiving goes, I usually find myself relegated to the kid's table. In the case of volunteering at the SA, I was at the table of high schoolers, while the grown-ups attended to more important matters, like stuffing making. One task assigned to the kids was to write Thanksgiving messages to Meals-On-Wheels recipients. What to write? Whatever I might ever even conceive to write has been much better written by Emerson, Thoreau and Whitman. Goes without saying. So, I pull out my go-to quotations to write in these notes. To my dismay, these high schoolers, most in their senior year, had never heard of Emerson, Thoreau and/or Whitman. In my view, you simply cannot send young people out into the world without having read Emerson, Thoreau and Whitman, am I right?
Since everyone of a more mature nature was already tasked with stuffing making, turkey carving, and green bean casserole making, the last task, making mashed potatoes fell to me. That meant using the big Hobart. That's right, the Hobart: Suck it, stuffing makers!
I like volunteering on Thanksgiving, because, if I am frank, Thanksgiving makes me feel a bit resentful and I usually need a good dose of perspective. But let me whine, a bit, okay? I'm the mom, right? And although there was a rather successful women's liberation movement (for which I am immensely thankful: Thank you, sisters of today and of yore!), here I am to be tasked with lots and lots of shopping and cleaning and cooking, cooking, cooking, all whilst the fam can go about and do as they enjoy. Cooking. With Mr. Roper.
Because the flames on Mr. Roper's cooktop only exit to the right, and because the oven is heated only from the bottom, there is quite a bit of pot turning and content rearranging to avoid what one would otherwise think impossible, but Mr. Roper makes probable: Burned and raw at the same time!
But I got through it. And have found a couple of new favorite recipes that go great with poultry: artichoke gratinata and cranberry/ginger/apple chutney! Holler! (I made the chutney with about half the vinegar of the recipe and I liked it). I also winged an apple cake recipe! Which I will share, once I make it again and figure out exactly what I did.
Other details: I have these old 50s "Go to the Head of the Class" board game pieces, so for place cards, Jack was Cowboy Joe, Anna was Bonnie, etc. etc.
I hope your holiday was full of hope and joy and fun and yum and laughter and hugs!
I am thankful for my friends. And for you, Jen. Thank you for all you've done.
I am also thankful for every miracle, including the Internet, Mozart's concertos, allergy medicine, running water, dolphins playing in the surf, weeds that find there way through the asphalt, the growing up of my children.
Jack and I volunteered at the Salvation Army on Thanksgiving (okay, I volunteered Jack to volunteer...). As Thanksgiving goes, I usually find myself relegated to the kid's table. In the case of volunteering at the SA, I was at the table of high schoolers, while the grown-ups attended to more important matters, like stuffing making. One task assigned to the kids was to write Thanksgiving messages to Meals-On-Wheels recipients. What to write? Whatever I might ever even conceive to write has been much better written by Emerson, Thoreau and Whitman. Goes without saying. So, I pull out my go-to quotations to write in these notes. To my dismay, these high schoolers, most in their senior year, had never heard of Emerson, Thoreau and/or Whitman. In my view, you simply cannot send young people out into the world without having read Emerson, Thoreau and Whitman, am I right?
Since everyone of a more mature nature was already tasked with stuffing making, turkey carving, and green bean casserole making, the last task, making mashed potatoes fell to me. That meant using the big Hobart. That's right, the Hobart: Suck it, stuffing makers!
I like volunteering on Thanksgiving, because, if I am frank, Thanksgiving makes me feel a bit resentful and I usually need a good dose of perspective. But let me whine, a bit, okay? I'm the mom, right? And although there was a rather successful women's liberation movement (for which I am immensely thankful: Thank you, sisters of today and of yore!), here I am to be tasked with lots and lots of shopping and cleaning and cooking, cooking, cooking, all whilst the fam can go about and do as they enjoy. Cooking. With Mr. Roper.
Because the flames on Mr. Roper's cooktop only exit to the right, and because the oven is heated only from the bottom, there is quite a bit of pot turning and content rearranging to avoid what one would otherwise think impossible, but Mr. Roper makes probable: Burned and raw at the same time!
But I got through it. And have found a couple of new favorite recipes that go great with poultry: artichoke gratinata and cranberry/ginger/apple chutney! Holler! (I made the chutney with about half the vinegar of the recipe and I liked it). I also winged an apple cake recipe! Which I will share, once I make it again and figure out exactly what I did.
Other details: I have these old 50s "Go to the Head of the Class" board game pieces, so for place cards, Jack was Cowboy Joe, Anna was Bonnie, etc. etc.
I hope your holiday was full of hope and joy and fun and yum and laughter and hugs!
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Times are a changin': New Studio Tantrum Shop
Well, it's high time I got a groovier online shop going. And so, slated for November 4th, I will move my ZenCart online shop over to a SquareSpace site. Since switching servers can take up to 72 hours, the shop may closed for moving. We will also be having a moving sale, which I don't think you will want to miss.
But more than a new site, I am bringing in a lot more energy to the shop. That energy, renewable and sustainable, is none other than our dear friend, Jen Coe. You may know Jen from her days operating Fabric Bliss, one of the best online fabric shops of the time. One of Jen's daughter's developed an extremely rare and very debilitating condition, which, among other things, made the Phoenix, Arizona gal allergic to sunshine. Of all things to be allergic to in Phoenix, it had to be sunshine, am I right? At any rate, Jen closed the Fabric Bliss shop to devote herself to healing dear Kennedy.
Fast forward to a coupla months ago, when Jen emails me and says she wants to help me. "Fine," I say, "I've lost the wind in my sails, but she's not sunk yet, so climb aboard!"
The reason my online shop has lost steam is all because of me. The Internet has grown and changed since the days when I could post a single photo of a sewing pattern and the orders would come streaming in. Now, it's all about Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and elite tiers of the bloggosphere, with which I have not kept pace. A good idea is not good enough anymore. I need to change with the times. I, frankly, am not a very enthusiastic self-promoter. In addition, there have been times in recent years when I have become so frustrated with my designs being mass manufactured, that I really lost heart. And this business is all heart, let me tell you. And if my heart isn't in it, I am de facto out. I would spend more time and money with lawyers than with designing. And who wants to do that?
But, thanks to Jen's indefatigable enthusiasm, good humor and belief in this work, we're patching up the leaks in this sinking ship, sometimes with chewing gum, and keeping her afloat. It helps that Jen is a bit crazy: I mean, she made Minecraft quilts for her kids. I hope you will sign up for her newsletter: It promises to be at times irreverent, at times informative, and always full of surprises.
The hope is to make the new shop true to my mission statement, which is basically these three interdependent principles:
Have fun.
Make money.
Do good.
As for No. 3, we will be making ePatterns available for download, most or all of the proceeds of which will benefit charity. I have two in the works right now, which I hope to have ready for purchase in plenty of time for holiday sewing.
For my wholesale customers, I hope you will like the new shop and level of customer service. For the rest, we will be rolling out retail purchasing soon.
Stay tuned.
Sunday, October 13, 2013
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