Boxing Day

I don't think this is how they celebrate Boxing Day in England, but this how we are spending today in Greenport!  We had a plethora of presents yesterday (don't you love that word?) and every one of them came in a box.  They are all emptied now, and piled around the house, waiting for Pete to take them to the recycling center at the dump -- which is no longer a dump but a transfer station.  I still call the refrigerator an ice box sometimes, so it is still the dump to me.

We had a quiet day yesterday with our main meal at 1 o'clock.  Everything turned out perfectly -- the wild rice was delicious and fluffy and flavorful, the crown roast of pork was moist and tasty, the Flakey Harvest Vegetable Squares were so delicious, as were the roasted Cippolini onions, homemade applesauce, the salad from Pete's garden, and the Chocolate Coconut Charlotte.  Needless to say, we did not eat any supper in the evening.  

It was a nice, peaceful day.  I hope yours was, too.

At Last . . .

The Christmas tree is up!  Pete cut it down on Tuesday, and I did all the trimming.  It's such a pleasure to unbox the ornaments -- the handmade ones and those collected on our travels and received as gifts from friends.  I love that the tree is plump and not trimmed to a perfect cone shape.  It makes me smile.

I'm still wrapping presents -- actually, I'm still waiting for presents to be delivered, last minute Lucy that I am.  The best present -- Clara will be home with us for a week! We will have a quiet Christmas -- joined by my sister Barb -- with lots of good food, games and movies.

Just in case I don't get to post again -- I wish you all the happiest of holidays and a peaceful New Year.

What's on My Frame and What's on My Mind

I have been hooking a little bit, in between cleaning and decorating and baking cookies and, like the rest of the world, grieving for those little children and their teachers.  I was hoping the warm feel of the wool and the thrumming sound of my hook through the linen would lift me out of the gray fog that has enveloped me for days now.  It hasn't.  

Last week I hooked another version of a Christmas stocking I designed last year called "Christmas in Connecticut."  It features a little red schoolhouse and a child sledding down a rolling hill.  I can't look at it now without seeing the spire of the Newtown Meetinghouse on that quintessential New England Main Street, so familiar to me from the years Barb and I vended at the Newtown Hooked Rug Show.

I am struggling with this feeling of helplessness, knowing there is nothing I can do ease the pain for those parents and the families of the teachers.  There are groups out there making hooked pieces and hats and afghans to send to Sandy Hook, but that's not, for me, the best idea.  

I have found, on the Newtown Patch, two funds that have been set up to help the families:

United Way of Western Connecticut, in partnership with Newtown Savings Bank, created the Sandy Hook School Support Fund to help provide support services to the families and community that are affected.

Check donations may be mailed to: 

Sandy Hook School Support Fund
c/o Newtown Savings Bank
39 Main Street, Newtown CT  06470

If you have questions on the fund, you may call 800-461-0672.

A former Sandy Hook Elementary School student named Ryan Kraft, also a longtime neighbor of the Lanza family, posted a Local Voices blog on Newtown Patch saying he set up a fund to help heal his community.

The link to the fund site is here — http://www.crowdrise.com/SHSRelief — and according to Kraft, all monies are directed toward the school's PTSA organization.

The funds are directed to the school's PTSA organization. Please help in any way you can.

Here is the link to the fund site: 

http://www.crowdrise.com/SHSRelief

The funds are directed to the school's PTSA organization. Please help in any way you can.

I have also signed the White House Petition for Gun Control: Gun Control Petition
I hope you do, too.

Gun Control NOW!

No one's right to bear arms should supersede twenty children's right to live.  It is time to fix this.

12-12-12

Seems like it should be an auspicious day -- a date that happens once a century -- but my plans are pretty mundane.  I need to go to the DMV, the grocery store, and pick up a few presents and some wrapping paper.  I am going to start my Christmas cookies this afternoon, though, and that should be fun.  I will crank the Christmas music up and taste all the dough before it goes into the oven! :)

                                                    Tiffany

Pete and I went into Manhattan for a Christmas party on Monday, held at the Regency Whist Club on the Upper East Side, just steps away from Central Park, which was shrouded in fog.  The weather was horrendous -- really warm and very wet, which was not much fun -- but the party was.  I wanted to look at the Holiday Shops at Grand Central and the windows at Lord & Taylor, so we did that, too, and stopped for a snack at Le Pain Quotidian.  I took bad photos on my iPhone -- just warning you.

                                                    Empire State Building

                                                        Rockefeller Center

                                                    Loed & Taylor

                                                    Lord & Taylor

                                                    Lord & Taylor

Field Trip: Small Holding Farm and Whiteflower Farmhouse

Small Holdings Farm in Aquabogue, New York had a holiday open house on Saturday, so I took a drive to see what was for sale.  They had an interesting mix of architectural antiques and collectible stuff, lots of which appealed to me, but nothing that I needed.  My favorite piece was a cupboard that some clever fellow outfitted with lots of cubbies and added drawers made of cheese boxes to.  Loved it -- I love anything with cubby holes, but I really don't need it.

On my way back home I stopped at Whiteflower Farmhouse in Southold.  It's a great space -- nice and clean and simple and open.

 I loved these tiny little jelly jars with different motifs in each glass.

I also loved the assortment of old Belgian linen.  I have been thinking of making kitchen curtains out of old linen, but the price was prohibitive and I really want my linen to have a red stripe, not blue.  There were old linen sheets, too, that are probably a dream to sleep under on a summer night by the sea . . . . I made no purchases, but it was a fun morning out.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

As you can see from the above photograph, I've started putting up my Christmas decorations, slowly but surely.  All the Santas in the photograph above were made by my sister Barb.  She has a way with Christmas, and has many delightful new designs available this year.  Click on the links above to see what she is offering in her shops.

I am doing some housework this morning (bah, humbug!) and then heading out to Small Holdings Farm for their Christmas open house.  I'm not planning on buying anything, but you never know  . . . .