Household work and a TBT

Our kitchen curtain was looking dirty. Let me re-phrase that to more accurately reflect the truth. The 1940's table cloth and 1930's napkins that I had stapled on the frame of a Chinese paper shade  that have been serving as our current kitchen curtain was badly in need of a wash. I un-picked all of the staples and washed the table cloth and napkins.

I needed something new to serve as my kitchen curtain, so I poked through my collection of linens and came up with this.

This window covering has been assembled out of an oval linen tablecloth that had been my mother's and a Vivian treasure, a length of linen embroidered in red with a border of grape leaves and a basket of fruit, vegetables and grasses.The piece has been bordered with some really nice hand done lace.

The style of the graphics leads me to think that this embroidery was done around WWI. I have no idea of the original use of this embroidered piece. It will be nice having these two pieces serve as my kitchen curtain for the next while. 

It has definitely become winter. The trees are bare. I like the gnarled branches here,

and the red berries on this tree a few blocks away.

I have been making gifts.

Several people are getting scarves made out of this great fabric.

My youngest is home and I have been working on his laundry and mending his pants.

As a matter of fact there is a connection between that great scarf fabric and the act of mending beloved pants that have worn to nothing. The pants are beloved, and so is my son, so I am mending despite the fact that it is not a task I really enjoy doing.

And last of all, a TBT winter shot. My mother, my sisters and I in front of the Chevy Impala in the snow. As I go through the box of photos of the 1970's I see that my sister and I keep trading the red and light blue jackets back and forth. In any shot either of us is wearing either the red or the blue jacket. My oldest sister is wearing her groovy yellow jacket. You can't see the grid of black and olive green ribbed ribbon tape at the hips. My older sisters are wearing their matching Aran knit berets, so chic!

I no longer recall what is in the paper wrapped package. If it was wrapped by my mother you can be sure that it was wrapped excellently. My mother was taught how to wrap packages the correct way with paper, tape and string by her brother in law who owned a fabric store. My mother took great pride in in box wrapping skills. A box or gift my mother had wrapped was a beautiful thing. The post office no longer allows the mailing of packages tied with string. This is another obsolete skill that my mother taught me well.