Christmas Domesticity

My mother told me I had to do Christmas baking. Huh? I can't remember the last time I even decorated cookies my mother baked for Christmas. At some point, we stopped leaving Santa cute, homemade cookies and he started getting whatever we could find around the house- I think we had some leftover pie once, maybe a leftover donut, we didn't ever leave carrots for Santa, did we? Gracious.
At first I was reluctant, because baking cookies when there are only 2 of us means that it's pretty guaranteed I would eat at least half of them. And it's hard to do Secret Santa out here in the country because 1. some animal WILL eat whatever you leave at the doorstep before anyone answers the door and 2. People out here are pretty wary of dark figures running up to the door and dashing away quickly. But I decided we could deliver cookies to our nearest neighbors, in person, non-incognito.

And so for your pleasure, my very first batch ever of Nauvoo Gingerbread Men!!

I was very concerned beforehand, but they are soft, chewy, and muuuy delicioso.

And, I also whipped up some more candy cane cookies. Mmmm....

P.S. the gingerbread men were cut out with a special cookie cutter, made by the tinsmith over at Hot Dip Tin. He does pretty exceptional work. I'm just sayin...

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like it

Shay and I put up our Christmas decorations on Monday. (That's a tin icicle that apparently got left on the tree last year, but you can pretend it's Shay's magical Christmas wand)

They're few and humble, but wonderful. Our big Christmas tree is the one I grew up with, and almost all the ornaments on it are the ones I got each year growing up.

I put Shay to work hanging ornaments on the little tree while I put the ornaments on the big tree, though he did get to put the tin angel on top.

Ta da!
And, so I don't feel I'm neglecting the puppy, here he is-

Grrrr.....I'm the abominable snowdog!

Let it Snow

Welcome to our first big snow of the season-

And Kiki's first snow of her life-

(Schwarz wasn't by the window and it was too cold to go outback, but he's LOVING it)

And happy 1 year anniversary of living in Kentucky to us!

Mrow

Yes, I am the one who thought it was hilarious when our dogs chewed off the neighbor's annoying cat's tail. That cat had it coming, too.

...

This one is a whole different story. She craves attention. And I mean CRAVES. She sits at the front door and mews from sunup until way past sundown. I have now decided every time I run over to the shop to just pick her up and carry her because it is much easier than having her under my feet the whole way over, and she sure doesn't appreciate being stepped on. Last night I had on the old knit poncho thing, and when I sat down on the shop floor, cross-legged, she came over, curled up in my lap and went right to sleep.

Schwarz is jealous. But he wouldn't curl up on my lap and go to sleep even when he was my little fuzzball. Oh well. At least they get along better now.

Guy Fawkes Day Around the World

This is what Guy Fawkes Day looked like on the other side of the world, in a sleepy little town known as Mesa, Arizona.

Thanks for your participation, Dad-your Guy is wicked sweet!

What did your Guy Fawkes Day look like?

A Splendid Guy Fawkes Day

aka My Birthday.

Twas many years ago, I added to my collection of key chains one that centered on my date of birth. It listed others born on my birthday and special events (like Richard Nixon's election win). But the most intriguing of them all was Guy Fawkes Day.

Who is Guy Fawkes, you ask? Clearly you're not from England, I answer. Well, in 1605 a group of young men, tired of anti-Catholic monarchs, conspired to blow up Parliament to wipe the slate clean. One way or another, royal officials discovered the now-infamous Gunpowder Plot, and on November 5, they stormed the cellars underneath the House of Lords to find Guy Fawkes sitting on 36 barrels of gunpowder. He was hanged, drawn, and quartered. Now each November 5 is known as Bonfire Night, when effigies of Guy Fawkes are burned to ashes. By the way, Guy Fawkes Day was even celebrated in New England (yes, right here in the good ol' U.S. of A.) as late as the 18th century, but was known as "Pope Day."

...

And so, November 5, 2010 started out as any other nice, normal birthday-movie, dinner (thanks to generous family members), and sensible presents. Even a branch hayride and bonfire.

But the real party started once we got back home. Here's the beautiful Guy that Shay created

Going into the woodstove, aka his final resting place (til we clean out the ashes)
Farewell for another year Guy Fawkes, farewell.By the way, there's this amazing website called Bonfire Night that has all kinds of amazing things about Guy Fawkes, even the Gunpowder Plot Game, Bonfire Night recipes (my favorite is the potato one), and Guy Fawkes merch (does that make me look cooler to call it merch?). So if anyone is stumped at what to get me for the next Guy Fawkes Day (can't plan too early), I totally dig the Fawkesy Lady t-shirts and the "Remember, remember the 5th of November" hoodies and long-sleeve t-shirts.

The end.
Remember, remember the 5th of November,
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot.
I know of no reason
The Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.

Travelers from Afar

A couple weeks ago we hosted some special houseguests- Bruce and Penny Graham, and their friend, Andy, from Epsom, NH. Bruce is a friend from long ago, who is into a variety of archaic crafts. When we met, he was filling the role of typesetter, with a little bit of bookbinding on the side. We stayed in touch over the years, and he's done a few special projects for us. Such as

Shay's amazing leather apron. And

my amazing colonial shoes.
The Grahams had been up to Wisconsin for the annual Shoemakers Guild meeting, and decided to stop in Kentucky on the way back to see us.
It was Bruce and Shay's first meeting and they became fast friends, speaking all their craftsmen jargon and such.
During their visit we headed over to Renfro Valley and visited the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame and the BitterSweet Cabin Village.
Here's our musical debut at the Kentucky Barn Dance-Shay, me, Penny, Bruce. Look Dad, I'm playing the dulcimer!
Before they left, Bruce and I had to have a braid contest. Mine should have been brushed and rebraided, but I wanted to make sure we got the picture. The other picture actually makes Bruce's look slightly longer, so we'll just call it a draw.

We really enjoyed the visit and think others should do the same!

Bison 'round my Shoulders

Is that title intriguing?

I finally finished a dream. A dream that started out very simple and turned into a web of amazingness. Hehe. A web.

When I lived in Nauvoo at the Joseph Smith Academy (No, I was not a YPM (young performing missionary), and yes, I am a VERY proud JSA alumna), I frequented the family living center down on "the flats" (that's the area down the hill with all the restored buildings). The cute, older missionaries down there practiced different pioneer skills and I was hungry to learn. The ones in charge of the wagon wheel frame rugs were of the friendliER persuasion, and let me practice on them, and even demonstrate to tourists. However, the ones in charge of the triangle shawl weaving were not as trusting of my mad weaving skills and I just looked on with curiosity and a dream for the future.

When I returned home from Nauvoo, my dad made me a frame and stands for the rug, and I have since made at least half a dozen, such as this one for my niece, Angel-

But that shawl remained elusive. Enter Shay. I might have mentioned the shawl to him, but when we went to Nauvoo last year I got to show him, and he too became intrigued. He started making me a frame before we moved to Kentucky, but it broke in the move.

Meanwhile, this summer we got my spinning wheel to really start purring and I got busy spinning up my buffalo wool. When tourists at events and the fort asked what I was going to do with it, I always replied that my husband was making me a frame to weave a shawl. He got the hint and got it finished, and I got to spend the last few weeks making a shawl of not any old yarn, but handspun yarn. And not any old handspun yarn, but handspun, buffalo yarn. How cool am I. Hehe.

Here's the beginning. It gave me problems at first, and....well....I didn't actually read the instructions before starting, and though the beginning is kind of wrong, it all worked out in the end.
Here I'm over halfway-

Done weaving, and I decided to do a single crochet around the edges for added...edge.

Finished product on the wall-

Finished product on me-
Eat your heart out, girls, both man and shawl are spoken for.

Feelin' the Chill in Perryville

The first weekend of October we were back in Perryville, Ky for their annual Civil War battle (we missed the live broadcast of General Conference, but Shay got to sneak away and see the priesthood session). This was the big battle after the Battle of Richmond that ran the Confederates out of the state.

Saturday went really well and we sold a decent share of tinware, but the nights were freezing and Sunday was drizzly cold all day.

Trying to keep warm while spinning. Or spinning to keep warm.


One of Shay's fellow tinsmiths and his wife.


The boys in blue-

And the boys in gray (or grey if you're British (not that I have any British fans reading this blog))-


And us-

Happenings at the Fort

Just a few snippets really...

Last weekend was the big 1778 Siege at Fort Boonesborough. The "natives" aren't supposed to make it into the fort, they didn't historically, and they weren't supposed to in the reenactment.
So we watched the action from inside
.

Unfortunately, the Saturday night battle didn't go as scripted. The natives did their own thing, attacking waaaay before their cue, and some ran around the fort and snuck in the front gate. Shay and I were watching out the back through the stockade when one native ran up from behind and "scalped" us, hitting Shay on the head and knocking both our caps off.

Meanwhile, Shay found me a new little friend the day after the siege when the fort was practically empty, you know, since EVERYbody had been at the fort the previous two days.

And here's my buffalo triangle shawl I started. The yarn kept breaking and I got very frustrated and eventually took it all off. I was pretty anxious that morning to make big progress, but now I've had time to set the twist more, and calm down to become one with the yarn. I think I'm ready to try again.
Do you like my hat I made? I get lots of compliments on it from visitors. But I am the only person in the whole fort who wears a hat. What can I say, I like the shade on my face. Oh yeah, I've been the only one consistently working outside without an air-conditioned cabin.

Battle of Richmond (Kentucky)

August 29-30 we got to attend the Battle of Richmond in our very own nearby Richmond. The Civil War battle, which took place in 1862, was a real tide-turner for the war in Kentucky. The Confederates really outshined themselves, putting the smackdown on the Union boys, and taking approximately 4,000 of them as prisoners. Yeah. Unfortunately for the Confederates they were run out of town (okay, the whole state) a couple of months later following the Battle of Perryville.

When we showed up Friday night to set up for the reenactment we were met by a very snooty man who thought he could tell us what to do. Shay was ready to load back up and leave, but fortunately, the man who really was in charge came over and was much nicer. And didn't try to tell us what to do. So we didn't do what the snooty man said to do. Ha.


But we also talked to Emily Burns that night, who, for some reason is a huge fan of my spinning. We had met at the Battle of Sacramento and again at On the Farm. She said there was going to be a filmmaker at the reenactment who was making a documentary on women and blacks during the Civil War and might want to tape me spinning Saturday morning.


Saturday morning came and went, so I figured that wasn't happening, but when I came back to the tent with lunch, Shay said my casting director (Emily) had come by, and wanted me to portray an abolitionist schoolteacher. I straightened my collar and ran over to the tent where the "students" were seated. I thought I was going to teach children the importance of abolition. No. I was teaching black soldiers to read. The filmmaker said, "Here, take a primer and just read a line and have them repeat it." So we did some of that, and at one point they started asking me questions, and we got into a whole dialogue, which was pretty amazing, even though we weren't miked, so none of that will really be in it. Turns out, it's a documentary that will be going into the Brices Crossroads Museum in Baldwyn, Mississippi.

Meanwhile, there was a lady there taking lots of pictures and got my name for the Richmond Register. I looked it up online the next day to see this ARTICLE, but nobody from the branch or community ever said anything to me about it. It wasn't until this last Wednesday that the Relief Society President gave me the hard copy. This was not just an article buried deep in the paper. This was the main picture on the front page! Holy cow!


Don't worry, Shay can't really be jealous. His picture was in the newspaper when he was being filmed for Andersonville. But I don't think his was FRONT PAGE. hehehe.