More July!

What a lovely weekend.  Yesterday I never left the house.  Yes, I am a homebody.  As Jane Austen says:  "home keeping hearts are happiest".  I have always loved Jane Austen - books and movies and love the clothes from her era.  When I made Robin's confirmation dress, we used a pattern for a dress from the 1820's.  I used to be a tailor, seamstress, and costumer for a university theatre.  I got to costume a Shakespeare festival (several plays) and a personal favorite, "The Importance of Being Earnest".  Love the humor.  I also love costumes from a variety of eras - 1820's first.  I also used to be pretty active in a civil war reenactment group, I did learn a lot about American history, and enjoyed making myself several outfits that were historically accurate - and later sold them.  I love American, English, and French history.  I also love Swedish and Scandinavian embroidery, cross stitch, and folk art.  I'll share more later.  For now, as promised, more George and Martha.

This is a close up of the dolls. I did not make them, but they are handmade.  I hope to make my own sometime.  Lately I've been fascinated with George and Martha.  I did visit Mount Vernon in 1976 - great year for visiting Washington, D.C.  I was really impressed with Mount Vernon - it's beauty and efficiency.  They must have been fascinating people!  That may have been my only real vacation, but we plan to travel again someday.  For now, Robin and I travel vicariously through books, films, and here Robin is visiting St. Basil's in Moscow via a 2000 piece puzzle.  I could never have done it, it was very difficult and there were so many pieces that looked exactly alike.  She triumphed, naturally. 

We have seen some very interesting films lately.  We get them from the library, and occasionally from Redbox.  My absolute favorite was yesterday, the BBC North and South.  Again, great history, romance, and costumes.  Also notable of late:  The Way, and The Yellow Handkerchief.  Definately can't go wrong with British Historical Drama.  I've been pretty crafty too.  Loving my cross stitch - after not having stitched for awhile, I'm back into it bigger than ever and loving it even more.  Here are a couple of small pieces I finished in June.  The bear one was from a kit from a wonderful British magazine that I saved, and the tiny bunny one was a kit from Britian I found on ebay.  I'm currently busy at work on a historical piece of sorts I'll share later, as well as the Cottage of the Month series from Country Cottage Needleworks.  Here are my two little pieces:

Here is a close up of the bear, notice the little star sequins.  The pattern came with a cute mat to accent the picture.

I also worked on a couple of craft projects yesterday, one of them I have been planning for awhile since Robin gave me this lovely printer's drawer:

I love the history of the drawer, so I don't want to paint it.  I have so far just cut out scraps of paper, and I'll have a little shadow type box for my tiny things.  I have lots of little cork people to add too, if they will fit.  At Christmas time I take wine corks and knit them little sweaters and hats and sometimes draw faces on them - I love doing it and have quite a little family of them now.  Here's a piccy from my ravelry site of some that I made:

I'm sure I'll add to the collection this year!  Anyway - lots of lovely projects to look forward too.  Love my life here in Shariland.  So much to be thakful for, especially my family and my lovely daughter, Robin.