My Oktober Fest

My Oktoberfest

No leaves left, October Seventh.  But a fall ride through rolling hills to Guild, a ladies luncheon and a speaker  - an American girl with a lifelong quest to find her lost relatives in Norway.  Her great grandfather immigrated. His siblings did not.  His ancestors resided on farms and plots.      
In Norway, the oldest son inherited the farm and his siblings found other work, and  lived on  "rented" plots within the farm. 

The plot carried a sibling's last name.    If he rented elsewhere,  his name went with him.   
Finding ancestors got kind of tricky for this lady.  She searched in places called Bergen, Haviland, and Gran.       
The names sounded familiar to me.  I too had a great grandfather who also immigrated from Norway to find land for homesteading. He left five siblings behind.

What got passed down to me through him to my grandfather and to me, was a  sense of holding on, and looking back. A bit of grieving? And a love of story.  
   

My mother and I water flowers
in  the  church cemetery
alongside a headstone with a  Scandinavian name.

There are two empty plots.  
I'm not sure my parents wish to claim them.
Shall I lay in this quiet country place alongside my beloved grandparents,
or shall I, like my husband, plan to be creamated?
Have my ashes scattered to the winds in the mountains
of Montana where the leaves on aspen trees fall and bears wander through? 

The harvest.  Pumpkins  ripen, and scarey faces are carved in them.  Oktoberfest and Halloween. 
All that surrounds death, -- tombstones
ghosts, goblins, skeletons, and the grave.

Gran church.   Here for so long.  So unchanged.
I Jesu navn. 

Past the church, a road.  Fifty years ago,  Grandfather and I took it just to go for a ride, and  to buy a package of fresh homemade lefse in a little town that still sells it. My mother and I decide to go and buy fresh lefse for my father.     We talk and laugh and remember along the way. 

Pearl

Pearls on the Prairie:
a little shop on a main road in a small town where little towns are all but gone. 

Life is a Bouquet

Happiness held is the seed.
Happiness shared is the flower...
(author ?)

Is that true?  Ask my mother.  At 85, she has worked 30 years at the green house and in her flower garden.

a work in progress

The grass is mowed.
The  rugs washed and hung up
after a messy floor
from canning  tomatoes and green beans.
Cothes dry and folded.
Sitting outside because there is a breeze.

1Thess. 4:11 And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands...

The Color and Texture of Old Age

Small Town
Just off the freeway, a place to get gas, turn around, and remember the past.

Carefree Pattern

Girl       and      Doll Smock

Shown with a carefree cat--Top Cat "Soaky".  I suppose the look of the smock is the seventies and the Soaky is from the sixties, but no matter,  "Top Cat, he's indescribeble, the leader of the band...", and I'd say this pattern was a hit!

Girl's  smock pattern by Carefree Clothes for Girls by Junko Okawa

The Garden Is My Prairie by Donna  

(The Prairie is My Garden by South Dakota artist, Harvey Dunn)

Country Cottage fairy princess

I was inspired to make a country cottage fairy princess dress when I saw an article in the summer issue of Country Almanac. 

I used pastel pink old fashioned net over a semi-sheer fabric.  The detachable wings are made of pink lace. 

A clearing in the thicket.

A knock on the tree.

Grandma is here

To have tea with me.

Mud cookies on the table

and leafy cakes too. 

We pretend to take bites and sip murky brew.

Dolls in the Window

Photographed  in front of the doll shop in NC

Doll Long Ago

Happy Mother's Day!

Doll in the early 1900's?

A great  aunt, I think.

Pedaling Down the Lane

Clover is pedaling down the lane where lakes, woodlands and prairie meet. She is looking for the many signs of spring. The wild flowers are in bloom and a pair of geese are nesting in the rushes. The woodducks have found hand made wooden boxes on trees to nest in. The swans are migrating, and stop to swim. A muskrat waddles across the road, and the frog pond is alive with the sound of many croaks!  
Deuteronomy 32:2 "small rain upon the tender herb."  A small rain.  

Simply spring

Simply Spring at Hollyhock Junction!
Spring colors, found in the latest seed catalogs and Country Living Magazine, inspired me to make these simple sleeveless dresses and shrugs for Best Buds!


Landreth Seed Catalog suggests children plant Morning Glories that bloom in the morning, Four O'clocks that bloom in the afternoon, and multicolored Zinnas for all day! Why not Moon Flowers that bloom towards evening? Perhaps they'll do well in overcast climates. (Pinwheels when its windy!)

MissC

MissC With Stand-uppy Hair

In search of an 18" doll

In search of an 18” doll.

Finding a clothing pattern was easy. Finding an 18” doll locally was more difficult.

I looked in the toy bins at the area thrift shops, thinking there I would find a gently used doll suitable for fitting and making my own patterns for doll clothing . I didn't find any there or on the shelves at the antique shops, although I did run across a Crissy doll from the 80’s.

It was in a toy shop that sold old and new collectible toys that I found what I was looking for. I learned from the owner that there are many 18” dolls available-- Battat, Gotz, Alexander, and Meritus, as well as the American Girl Doll. ( I'm sure there are others.) All with cloth body, eyes that open and close, and plastic arms and legs. I purchased the blonde Our Generation Battat doll for $12.00. When I clicked into ebay I discovered the many 18" dolls available at very reasonable prices with pretty hair and faces, and each with a personality of it’s own. Most were new, like new, or gently used, and some had clothing and accessories included. "Lots of dolls for everyone!"

Victoria Magazine, Welcome Spring edition, March/April. Two little friends in Charmed Gardens, in wispy childlike dresses. (Picture Below.) When I read the article, I thought about my own daughters and making dresses long ago, and I was inspired to make doll dresses with, vintage fabrics to capture another time and another place.

Sundresses for 18" dolls in vintage pique fabric. White and Robin's egg blue. Grosgrain ribbon at the waist. Cotton lace. Narrow pink and blue/pink trim.

St. Patricks Day

DOLL GOES TO IRELAND BY WAY OF GRAPHICS BY TAWNIA

FINDS: 18" doll Our Generation, found at Toy Finders toy store. Clothing pattern purchased from ebay. Skirt, A scrap of forties plaid cotton. vintage lace trim, shawl, a new linen handkerchief found at an estate sale. The shoes, discovered in the craft bin at my favorite thrift shop and a tiny button pin that looks a bit like a leprechaun. Shamrock tattoos, stationary department.

Finds: Last summer, right before my very eyes, out in the lawn, my granddaughter found a four leaf clover! She’s found several. I don’t remember ever finding one. But then, I think it helps to be looking for them. She searched through the grass, her face close to the ground , much like when she caught frogs. (I'm more eager about vintage fabrics.)

hollyhockjunction 

BIRD KEEPER OWL ACTIVITY

Save a bird from flying into the window.  Put up a paper 

Add caption

As a rule, Birds are not fond of owls or the color white.  So why not hang a white paper owl in the window ?  

Bird Keeper Owl Pattern:  

Library Hour:  Family members come and sit and join in and help cut and paste as the need  dictates.  The project -make a large owl to hang in the window.

The owl pattern measures 9 1/2 " tall X 7 1/4".  

The size need not be exact. Enlarge and print the owl outline onto 8 1/2 " tall X ll" paper. 

Have each child cut out the owl,   add a paper punch hole on the top, and 3 on the bottom. 

One side of the owl will remain white to hang towards the outside of the window. 

The other side is to decorate using  construction paper, crayons, feathers, and sparkly craft pieces.  

It  was fun to help the children master the paper punch,  (Occasionally mend a hole with scotch tape.)  Tie a string  and ribbons with small fingers, that got better with practice and patience.  Cut scraps, and glue.  Draw eyes and designs with crayons and pens that  were unique and colorful. 

Bold timid independent-not, working until the last minute, or already finished.  Parents lingered.  

At the end of the library hour, the Bird Saver Owls  were carried  in the breeze as the children rushed out the door.   

Little birds,  see the white owl in the window.  Fly away and be safe!  

 Bird Keeper Owl  by Missy age 8.
 Hand drawn on 5 1/2" X 8 1/2" card stock. (Half a sheet of typing paper.)
Paper punch holes added,  with yarn streamers.  

 

Snow again today

Protecting Shrub from the UV's...
Who wants sunburn in February!

Shrub and an array of sports to play

Bird

Psalms 17:8 ...hide me under the shadow of thy wings.  (In this case, tail!) drawing by Little Girl  

Giant Lady Bug Lawn Ornament

long legged ladybug

Valentine hat

A Valentine for across the miles

tracks in the snow

seasons of aprons

Not That Cold?

Not That Cold!

When it's as cold as this, 28 degrees below, the old timers call and reminisce.

"Did you have a film of ice on your water bucket this morning?" Barbara asked with a bit of impishness, Barbara, my friend, a lady in her seventies.

"Outside or inside?" But I knew what she meant. For a time, I too, carried the drinking water into my parent's drafty old farmhouse and set it up on the kitchen counter just under the nail where the dipper hung. A good cold drink!

It was my task

to fetch

the drinking water

pail and dipper

filling

from the artisan well

spilling water

ever pouring

into my pail

cold clean and mineral sweet

flowing steady

never ending

into the room size 

wooden water tank

and out of it

into the creek

where the ducks swam.

arts and crafts

The New Year. 2010. Full Moon. And 28 degrees below. A good day to stay in, and look out, and sew.
On the net, under arts and crafts for sale is an add that reads: will build snowman in your yard for you...having a baby on the 25th looking to earn extra money will make a really nice snow man for your house or business. also can do snow removal or any other labor work. email me back please thanks

Art in its many forms of expression.