Thankful #4

I am thankful for people who still make things by hand, because I appreciate the time and effort a hand made item takes. When I was a child/teenager all of my mitten, scarves, hats, etc were made by my grandmother. I took all of those lovely handmade items for granted. At that time, I didn't realize how much time and effort my grandmother put into each item for me. I would wear my mittens and scarves without treasuring the love my grandmother put into each and every stitch. Luckily, I still have a lot of the items that grandmother made for me.



Now to find handmade items, I search through etsy.com. I'd started to look for hand warmers. Etsy.com offers thousands hand warmers made by people all over the world. As you can see, I had a hard time limiting myself to just one pair of hand warmers. I've ended with 2 different pairs of hand warmers. The fair isle pair, picture above, is just plain out gorgeous with wonderful workmanship. The knitter of that beautiful pair of hand warmers included a surprise gift of a glass bead that Jeannie made herself, which is picture below. The walnut color hand warmers pictured to the left is made by a sweet person who is just starting out on etsy. These hand warmers feel like they will be sturdy because they are made from a wool and hemp blend yarn.

Here is a picture of the gorgeous glass bead made by Jeannie Galt. I'll have to make some time to drop by a fabric store to buy some ribbon, so I can wear this bead as a necklace. If anyone has any suggestions to what color ribbon I should buy, I would like to hear their suggestions.






The letterpress stationery pictured on below was made by Maria from Port2Port Press. I'd Maria make these M cards for a gift for one of my friend who still loves to actually write letters to people. Maria's letterpress store isn't on etsy.com, but etsy does have a lot of letterpress stores on their site.



I am thankful for these people who still take the time and effort to make items by hand.

Thankful # 3

Yes, 2 thankful posts in one day.

I'm thankful for art and art museums, especially in these economical times. One can argue if Brandeis has the right to sell their art collection or not. I'm not going to add that discussion.

The end result is that the current economy has hurt everyone. We, all, have bills to pay with our uncertain jobs. Even universities have bills to pay. Everyone will have to take some tough measures to make it through this scary period.


While you can , go and visit an art museum, especially the free museums. While you are in these free museums enjoying their treasures, give them a dollar or five or whatever you can afford. Enjoy the art that is still available to us.

Heck, why not give another dollor or two to your favorite charity? I believe that in these tough times, we all need to help each other. Remember that someone is suffering more than you are. We still need to help others less fortunate than ourselves. We still need to feed our souls, by looking at and enjoying art and by helping others.


I am thankful for art.

Thankful # 2

I'll always be thankful for my little family. My husband, RW, and our hairy child, Sonny. Our family is small, but we have everyone that we need in our life. RW supports me in all of my life goals. He is my best friend. We like a lot of the same things, but we also like different things. We each bring the same and different things to our life together.

Now onto our hairy child. Sonny isn't the smartest dog, but he is the best travel dog ever. Sonny loves Sonro-centric days of hiking and running free.

One of the things that we as a family do is hike. We've found this nature preserve area in Arlington. Sonny loves it. He can run free and swim. We walk around the property and find clues to the previous occupants.

I'm thankful for my little family.