I am a quilt designer/teacher/author, a wife/mother/grandmother, and certified yoga instructor who is searching for balance, strength, and happiness in all things.
Rebecca Schnekenburger sent in this photo of her happy and colorful Butterfly Garden quilt. She wrote: “After seeing your last email about the free pattern offer, I thought I would share my version of your Butterfly Garden quilt. I made it twelve years ago as a baby quilt for my granddaughter Becca Faith.” It is truly perfect for a baby!
If you missed it in my last newsletter, I am offering the Butterfly Garden ePattern to you for free until December 29, 2021, as a Christmas gift. Click here to find it.
Thank you, Rebecca, for sharing your lovely quilt with us!
Val Ursulak sent me this photo of her Birds in Toyland quilt… isn’t it cute!!! Val finished her quilt in record time so that she could have it up for this Christmas. I love everything about this quilt—thank you, Val, for sharing it with us.
Wow… what a building! I went because my friend, Cece, told me not to miss it. I stayed for the tour because a nice, but insistent, docent said that it was a much better use of an hour than shopping would be. She was right!
Patience, or Fortitude, on guard at the front door on Fifth Avenue:
Stately lions are the library mascots.
These are the actual, for real, animals from Winnie-the-Pooh:
The whole gangPiglet, Kanga & Roo, EyeorePiglet
These stuffed animals have been well-loved, worn, and mended. Piglet is much flatter than I imagined he would be—and tiny!
This illustrated book from the 14th century (if I remember correctly) is lovely, with bright colors and the penmanship is totally amazing. But I could not help thinking of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I can hear it playing in my head :-).
The Rose Reading room is huge, beautiful, and very quiet because it is for reading. Seriously. You can get in to read or on a tour. You can no longer walk through it as a tourist who is not going to read.
Rose Reading RoomInscription over the door to the Rose Reading Room
The chairs look comfy…
As I said, lions are the mascot. This one is on a drinking fountain. The library opened in 1911 and the marble looks worn enough that it may be original to the building.
The library houses so many collections, books both rare and common, maps, photographs, original works of all kinds… there is just so much. It is a treasure worth visiting!
That is either Patience or Fortitude in front of the NYC Public library, decked out with greenery.
Patience or Fortitude
These are some of the many shop windows I saw. It could be I only noticed the ones with lots of aqua OR aqua was the color this year. it could also be that I kept taking pictures of the windows at Anthropologie.
Decorations were not limited to windows…
Wall at the Columbus Circle Market
And, of course, there are the angels, the tree, and the ice skating rink at Rockefeller Center that are festive and a little crowded, both in the daytime and at night…
Rockefeller Angels, Saks in the backgroundRockefeller Tree, daytimeRockefeller Ice Rink
Times Square is always bright and festive and I can’t help but love it :-).
Jeff and me at Rockefeller CenterMe and Ted, hanging outTed, the cat
I went to NYC to visit our son, Jeff, and Ted! Ted-the-cat pre-dates the pandemic, but I didn’t get to meet him then. It takes Ted awhile to get used to people so when he got that close to me I felt special!
I went to The Met and The MoMa and had a great time. I love portraits and statues because the expressions on the faces show that people then and people now must be feeling the same kinds of feelings. These from The Met:
by Thomas AnshutzPortrait from the Met, American wingPortrait from the Met, American wingSt Peter, Medieval wing at the MetThe Met, by the cafe
And then there are those times when art makes you giggle. Like these two Medieval busts… they are the mean girls from high school:
Medieval wing at the Met
Or here, I can hear them saying to each other: Here, look over here! No. I say look over here! It’s over HERE!!!
There are more female artists on display at both museums and one has to wonder why it has taken so long!!! There was a large exhibit of pieces (furniture, paintings, prints, and more) by Sophie Taeuber-Arp that was amazing. Here is just one painting from the exhibit…
by Sophie Taeuber-Arp
She died at the age of 53 in 1942 from accidental carbon-monoxide poisoning in her sleep.
Also at the MoMa you will find a wonderful exhibit of Alexander Calder‘s work. The shadows are integral to the beauty of the forms and the museum has them spaced and lit very well.
That’s probably enough for today. I’ll post more in the next few days :-).
Let’s not forget that men need moisturizing too! LoLo body bars are perfect for dry hands and more. I have two new scents in the store, Mr. Darcy and Edmund along with Plain Jane (unscented) are very nice for men as are the other scents. They all do the same fantastic job we are used to from LoLo—keeping our skin looking and feeling great.
My guys, young and old, all love good pencils as much as I do, and Blackwing pencils by Palomino are my #1 pick every time.
Grandson Jack loves to sketch. Son Chris writes notes in the margins of books while reading, and he keeps logs of various projects and recipes in notebooks.
Blackwing also makes notebooks, extra-special pencil sharpeners, point guards, and they all make wonderful gifts.
I highly recommend their One-Step Sharpener in the video above. It’s a good idea to order extra blades to have on hand. For the pencils, I gravitate toward the firm and extra firm graphites, especially. The medium and soft are different, giving a darker line with less pressure.
When it comes to notebooks, the sets of Clutch Notebooks or the Slate Notebooks are a joy to write in. The paper feels good under both pen and pencil. I like blank notebooks, but the ones with lines are just as nice.
Lastly, a Lap Apps is a lovely gift good for anyone to use with tablets, books, or hand sewing. Click here to see a video that shows oh-so-many ways to use it.
Piece O Cake Blog 