Category Archives: Christmas

The Snail Blog surges into 2017

13 Friday Jan 2017

Posted by in Christmas, Ephemera, Just visual, Modern Life, Uncategorized

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I don’t think I’ve mentioned the Snail Blog lately, a postcard-a-day that arrives from our friend Ellen in Vermont…(card number 2401 arrived yesterday)  This is such a delightful peek into a parallel universe, and Vermont is certainly that…a different life and like any good serial we have come to know the cast of characters…N.N., John and Cynthia, the grands.  The cards are arranged in “series” (she collects old cards with possible future series in mind) and during the Christmas season we had the “Mother and Child” series followed by the “Winter 2017 series”…apropos of Oregon weather at the moment.  Someday I would like to put ALL of these cards up as an installation…a section of a life…So here’s a peek…Ellen is alive and well and reporting in daily…xxoo Mrs. Crockett …

snail-blog

WINTER!!!

14 Wednesday Dec 2016

Posted by in Christmas, Coffee art, Court Street, Just visual, Modern Life, Trees

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Yep…it has been sort of winter-quiet here…head colds, PT, stuff.  Not much shopping this year, but the trees are up…

tree

ornament

parlor

and today…SNOW!   The elf drove me out and about…

elf

the first camellia was unceremoniously dislodged

camellia

and here’s how it looked from 12:30 on:

11-3012-303-003-00

4-456-008-30

but we got home in time for a coffee and a fireside reading marathon…

coffee-1

Let it snow…tiddily pom.

Boxing Day

26 Saturday Dec 2015

Posted by in Celebrations, Christmas, Family photos, Just visual, Modern Life, Uncategorized

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I have to say, this is a favorite day…the frantic rush of presents and baking is over, the dust settles, you can put on your new flannel shirt and be cozy, peruse your Christmas books.  Best of all when it falls on Saturday and nobody has to go anywhere.  Whether your Christmas was one of quiet contemplation or family hoo ha, it matters not.  From today on for 364…(okay, let’s say 310 to be realistic…) we are free of commercial Christmas.  Hooray!  Creative life begins again today.

Our Christmas had a two year old as the central figure, making it lively and just totally fun.  Sidney arrived and immediately got into the swing of things…

glasses

and helped with the baking of course…

baking 1baking 2 (1)

Our family has dinner on Christmas Eve,

Christmas Eve

then goes straight to presents…and this was the first Christmas when Sidney had a concept of presents…he got it…

presents 1

presents 4presents 3presents 2

presents 5

all open

rushing bear

This year Sidney was the best present of all for this house…

with Mommy

Old friend Keith had a hair-removal moment…

with Keith

but recovered nicely…

Keith repair 1

Keith lookin good

in time to head to Portland for more presents, more family, and more delicious food…

family dinner

and finally home, awakening this morning to find everybody gone and all the presents tidied up…must be a good day to head to the beach?  On we go, plunging into the new season!

 

 

 

A LONG short day….

23 Wednesday Dec 2015

Posted by in Christmas, Just visual, Modern Life

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We had this idea that we’d get up really early, do all of our errands and then return home by 9:30 a.m. with the day ahead of us…it looked like this…

8:00 a.m. leave home…dark and pouring…

leaving home

head south to Kinkos to make 20 more Christmas cards…(NOBODY in the store at 8:00 a.m.)

s. commercial

cards

Lifesource next…florals available…

flowers LS

shopper

then Roth’s…more florals

flowers Roth's

and here I tumbled to a bunch of white tulips—which looked great at home…

tulips

then on to TJ’s

flowers TJ's

and home (9:45) for making cookies…

baking

(BTW did you know that cream of tartar is from the inside of wine barrels???)

cream of tartar

baking 2

finishing the cards and mailing them…

cards (1)

beginning to wrap and put out a few gifts…

gifts

then dash to the sewing room…sewing for a few last minute gifts to make…and wrap…ho ho ho

and head to the Mill to sit in the gallery…while finishing the last bit of sewing…

Mill sewing

HOME…this life as an elf is not that easy!  Only one more day!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The First Day of Winter

22 Tuesday Dec 2015

Posted by in Christmas, Ephemera, Family photos, Just visual, Modern Life

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Today I was able to enjoy the images as Christmas steams toward us…like the view from the parking garage on the way to yoga..

4th floor (1)

the Christmas village at Gerry and Pug’s

Pug and Gerry's village

Magic at the Mill

Magic at the Mill

the new Fuji Polaroid film…

FUJI

hanging out with Whistler’s father..

Whistler's father

and the mail that brought word from loved ones near and far…

LOVED ONES

and most sweetly of all the card from Mary Elizabeth with the enclosed photo of my Grandmother Irene (called “Ity”) which said on the back “Ity & her 1st Baby, June.”  June was my Mom and the date would be 1923…

NANA AND MOM

I called my grandmother “Nana” and now Sidney calls me Nana… Merry Christmas!

 

 

 

 

Solstice

21 Monday Dec 2015

Posted by in Christmas, Just visual, Modern Life, Uncategorized

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I don’t think I have the medical condition that Makes you SAD on the longest night/shortest day of the year…but I look forward to the return of light in a BIG way…IMG_5345

As soon as the festivities are over, I begin to think of making new work and doing new things…the excitement of the possibilities of a year seem open to me.  So I was leafing through some stuff in one of my endless piles of stuff, when I came across this poem from some years ago…perfect for tonight…

Solstice

but in the meantime bring on Christmas!

xmas 1xmas 2

xmas 3

 

Blog Sloth Admission

19 Saturday Dec 2015

Posted by in car wash, Christmas, Just visual, Modern Life, Uncategorized

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I’ve been lazy in the blog department but then…no time to write and nobody has time to read so, what the heck…and then it hasn’t been inspiring weather, you know?  Torrential rain for days on end…I KNOW it’s Oregon, but…it’s been cozy in–looking out through the drear…

rain window

and then today…sunshine, of a sort.  Clearly the only place to go was someplace I love but haven’t visited lately…ahhhhhhh…

IMG_5250

carwash 1 carwash 2 carwash 3

Cookies have been baked and oddly wrapped…

IMG_5242

and the favorite worn and very old junk store tins emerge once more…

tins

…the birds are flying around the house…

sink bird

IMG_5247Kristin's owlnesting

IMG_5245

thank you bird

it’s beginning to look like Christmas…

tree

 

 

Festivities…

14 Sunday Dec 2014

Posted by in Celebrations, Christmas, Decor, Family photos, Just visual, Modern Life

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What a week…I narrowly survived the festivities!  It’s been foggy…R got this amazing picture the other day…down by the river…Fog morning

I got a tour of the new Children’s Room remodel at the Salem Public Library…

CartelephantcaRPET TILES

was on a panel for city club talking about interesting places in Salem, places of community…(with stellar panelists Sarah Evans, David Craig, Brian Hart and Carlee Wright)

City Club

I talked about artist Kristin Kuhns’ beautiful constructions she is making for the Children’s Room, and got to bring along a show and tell…

BUNNY

I was in attendance when artist Rex Amos brought things for the Pacific Northwest Artists’ Archive…including his hat collection…

Hat 1hat 2hat 3

hat 4hat 5Hat 7

hat 8hat 9hat 6

hat 10HAT 11HAT 12

HAT 13HAT 14Hat 15

hat 17hat 18hat 16

we went to a surprise party for a lovely friend…waiting…

WAITING 2

SURPRISE!!!

SDM

K, SDM

and last night we went “shopping in the basement”…uncovering a box of Zach’s old blocks and toys…we cleaned them up…

block wash

found an old wine box…

ox

and packed them up…

block box

we decorated the smallest tree we could find…

tree

reminding ourselves of Christmases past…my kindergarten Santa…and my Mom’s delicate Santa…

my SantaMom's Santa

our year in London…

red star

and our first Christmas when we had NO money, so made ornaments for our tree out of cornstarch and painted them.  The only cookie cutter we had was for bridge club  sandwiches…hearts-clubs-diamonds-spades…

my ornament

r's ornament

life is sweet.  Sidney is coming for Christmas!!