a little bit of Christmas for you in somerset and romantic homes

Somerset Studio December 2008

there's a little story in the December issue of

Somerset Studio about my dollies and how they came to be.

I'm so very pleased with it, they made it so pretty,

I hope you enjoy it.

~~~

romantic homes~ December 2008

I've been making these old paper candy containers for a long time. During Christmas especially to hold special

gifts and treasures

and as sweet little gifts themselves. ~~~

I've hung them on the Christmas tree, and made them for the dolls to carry their own little chocolates. (see my Queen Anne in Somerset with her little candy container?) I bet you didn't know that Queen Anne dollies need lovely chocolates just as much as we do!

~~~

I've hung them with ribbons from the back of each dining room chair as a small favor for guests during holidays. ~very beautiful by candlelight when hung from the crystals on the chandeliers~

~~~

You could cover your boxes with beautiful old fabrics, color copies of beautiful old pictures or use treasured sepia photos.

I have used these beautiful little glass encased pretties made for me by my dear friend, Cathy, as the centers of the paper rosettes, as beautiful dangles hanging from silk ribbons ties and as gifts nestled inside the tiniest boxes.

the pattern is found in Romantic Homes for you to use. I hope you enjoy making lots of them for your loved ones.

~Merry Christmas!~

being the light

"There are two ways of spreading light;

to be

The candle, or the mirror

that reflects it."

~

edith wharton

1862-1937

~

I've been thinking quite often about the kind of light I want to reflect ...

...that I hope I reflect

for myself, for my friends and for my family. I have two little grandchildren and a new little one is coming!

I want so much to give.

To be a light for them in all the ways I can.

~

When my grandchildren are all grown, I want to be remembered as

being full of life & light. That I shared what I love with all of them, that living simply and joyfully is important.

and most of all, To be Kind.

~ That our actions are important. To be happy, optimistic and full of light.

To be a gift to ourselves and to others.

~

In our family, the gifts we give are most always a gift of an experience. Spending time together doing something special. Not so much a wrapped present, but one that they can remember with a smile for the rest of their lives.

~

I spent part of this summer gathering things together from here & there.

My best find was a huge old cast iron kettle. I waited until our bee keeper friend could melt down our wax for us. The the proper candle wicks were found, cut saplings for our dipping sticks and drying racks & lots of dry apple wood for the fire. Finally, the day came when everything we might need to make this

a special time for our family was gathered and ready.

~ The fire under the old kettle was lit and had to be coaxed. The huge cakes of yellow beeswax were carefully slid into the hot water and began to melt.

It was working!

and so, we all dipped bees wax candles down in the old apple orchard. I could see the faces of all my family as we gathered around that smoky fire on a beautiful autumn afternoon, Smiling and laughing as they all took turns at dipping their wicks into the huge pot

of melted wax.

We weren't sure that we were doing it right, but it didn't matter. Seeing the rows of beautiful candles hanging up and cooling in the wooden racks, my grandson dangling precariously from a branch in the old cherry tree overhead, my little grand daughter hanging tight onto me, watching closely as I helped her dip her candles,too...

everyone was smiling and laughing, smoky and happy.

It was just right.

the best light of all.

an afternoon's worth of candle dipping

made from our own bees wax

on this cold, dark and rainy All Hallow's eve....

wandering from room to room in the creaky old farmhouse,

Sukey makes sure that all

is well this dark, cold & rainy All Hallow's Eve.

The hour is late.

A good fire is crackling in the kitchen hearth & just one candle is lit.

The wind howls down the old chimney and blows billows of smoke out into the room.

a cold rain pounds against the old farmhouse & rattles the windows...

There came a knock at the old kitchen door.

It blew open with a great gust of wind and rain

sending a swirl of wet leaves into the warm & dark kitchen...

and with it came

visitors.....

please join Sukey at the old Deerfield Farmhouse

for a bit of All Hallow's Eve story telling

later today...

an almost sleepy hollow day

It was almost a sleepy hollow day, but now the ghostly mist

that rose up

from the pond early this morning

has faded into the nearly bare trees.

Pale leaves swirl past my windows. I can't help but lay my sewing down and step outside.

The air is chill and the leaves are crisp underfoot.

I made a fire down in the orchard, burning some of the leaf piles

so I can plant bulbs in the orchard gardens.

It's very pleasant,even tho it's grey and dark...

my favorite kind of day.

an almost sleepy hollow day.

Days like these remind me of places and people I love.

I wonder what they might be doing this very minute

as I pile more leaves onto the smoky fire.

I send my thoughts to them as the smoke rises into the air

and swirls around the bare branches

of the old apple trees.

I wonder if my thoughts arrive in a swirl of smoke

to my loved ones...

do they know it's from me?

Wading ankle deep through yellow leaves, hands in my pockets, I feel

renewed and almost giddy.

I walk back

into the warm dark house,

to my chair by the fire.

I'm like a little child looking out of the school room window. I'm bent over my needle work and sew another seam...

I look out at the yellow leaves floating past my windows.

Just one more seam and another knot tied.

I have to lay my sewing down and go for a longer walk through the leaves...

while the air is crisp and chill.

While the light is just right

and the leaves swirl all around me

I love each season but none so much as when fall comes.

There's a peacefulness to it, a serene and quiet time

to enjoy things more slowly.

I hope that you are enjoying this lovely fall as much as possible.

yrs,

Christine

wooded path

~walking into the past~

wooded path into Williamsburg

the autumn wood the aster knows,

the empty nest, the wind that grieves,

the sunlight breaking thro' the shade.

the squirrel chattering overhead,

the timid rabbits lighter tread

among the rustling leaves...

dora read goodall

~~~

from the very moment I step onto the broken shell path, the world behind me falls away.

no sounds but for breeze in the trees and sheep in the pasture below.

life moves slowly here

giving way to breathing free, my spirit opens,

hope gathers.

my feet want to fly down the path,

but then I stop and gather it all in ...

savoring

wood smoke trailing from a chimney,

the sound of birds chirping in the berry bushes...

this is where my soul lives.

October

Smoke hangs like haze over harvested fields,

The gold of stubble, the brown of turned earth

And you walk under the red light of fall

The scent of fallen apples, the dust of threshed grain

There's the sharp, gentle chill of fall.

Here as we move into the shadows of autumn....

~a verse from the Autumn equinox~

~~~

This has been one of the longest summers I've spent since childhood.

the days were achingly beautiful under deep blue skies,

the sight of deer bringing their fawns to live in the fields.

15 pairs of ears and eyes

peeking up over the endless waves of wheat waving in the wind.

no sound but for the hum of crickets, the scent of hot sagebrush and juniper in the breeze

and meadowlarks darting from creek to nest.

the fields seemed to grow overnight, stretching towards the gold pink dawns

drinking up every bit of water we gave them, hot in the mid day sun

cool and wet at dusk.

every field of wheat, every leaf of fragrant tumbling mint and rows of

pungent garlic are harvested.

now safe and sound and under cover.

We sit and rest on the edge of the earth and watch the red sun going down over

mountains on fire.

The deer,now grown, walk gingerly through the stubbled wheat.

another season has passed.

and I am grateful that this summer has been as blue skied and never ending

as those summers we knew as children.

the road to Tasha's

~the road to Tasha Tudor's home in the woods of Vermont~

~~~

it's been over a month now since our dear

Tasha Tudor went home. I still find myself feeling as though I have lost a dear friend.

What an extraordinary person she was, what a wonderful life she made. Living her dreams in every way following her heart.

If only we all were so brave.

~~~

I took this road with my dear friend, Gayle, one hot summer morning and found myself in another world, as though I had stepped back in time and was a part of it all. The woodsmoke in the air, no noise but for bird song and the slight rustle of leaves.

I was not ready for how loudly my heart sang that morning

~~~

may God bless you, dear Tasha.

you've made a beautiful and indelible mark on my life and the lives of all those who found you.

a warm light,

bright and shining in our hearts.

~~

I hope that this finds that she is right where she wanted to be.

Gone back to her life in the 1830's,

enjoying her flowers by the kitchen doorway this beautiful morning, Canton tea cup in hand with corgi puppies at her feet.