Happy New's Eve

Wishing a wonderful year full of health and happiness for all!

Beautiful Baklite

One of my dear friends gifted me with these beautiful 

vintage Bakelite salt and pepper shakers

I'm a sucker for anything Bakelite, and as much
 as I love the jewelry,I'm always extra fascinated by the
 objects that were created with it. 

I'm afraid they're much too pretty to use!

From the Bookshelf

As we all know, Christmas isn't Christmas if you don't get new book.  And this is the one I found under the tree.  Maira Kalman's latest - full of her wonderful paintings and stories.  Partially based on the collections at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York City, it's a fascinating look at the the beautiful things with which we love to surround ourselves. It's impossible not to smile, laugh and think, just a little more than usual when immersed in one of Maira's books.  Highly recommended

.

Happy Christmas to All!

A Jolly Old Elf 11x14"

"And I heard him exclaim as he drove out of sight
"Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night!'"

The Bells of WWII

One of my favourite holiday poems, 

I can never get through it without tears.

The Bells (1940 version) - Rachel Fields

What will the bells of Paris say

To those who wake on Christmas day

Where the Seine flows on by the buildings gray

On Christmas in the morning?

"Noel! Noel!" the bells will peal

Above the echo of iron heel,

To a city bowed by a yoke of steel,

"Noel for Christmas morning."

How will the bells of Munich raise

Their carols of forbidden praise

For hearts remembering gentler ways

Of peace on Christas morning!

"Once," they will toll. "we dared to play

Good will to men on Christmas day

To men who mock us and betray

The faith of Christmas morning."

What will the bells of London cry

Where death and danger ride the sky.

And men put on their boots to die

On Christmas day in the morning?

"Hail," they will clamor, bell for bell,

"Burn us, and break us with fire and shell,

Still we will answer "All is well,

Take heart on Christmas morning!"

Life on a Different Coast

Sea, sand and snow.  On this Winter's Solstice.

Favourite Toy Friday

I know that in this day and age, toy guns are politically incorrect,  but back in the '50s and early '60's it seemed like almost every kid on the block had a cowboy outfit complete with a pair of six-shooters - remember the smell of the caps?  I played cowboy so much that almost every year I wore them out and would get a new pair for the holidays. On Christmas afternoons my dad and I used to play cowboys on the back porch using all the big boxes from under the tree as cover. For several years of my childhood Christmas wouldn't have been Christmas without a new set of cowboy pistols.

Happy Hanukkah

Blessed are you,  Lord our God

sovereign of the universe

who has kept us alive, sustained us,

and enabled us to reach this season. (Amen)

Ice Scene

When I was a kid, one of my favourite things to do

at Christmas was set up the ice scene.

I loved placing the skaters on the pond

 (a pie tin covered in foil).

And decided where to put the skiers and sledders. 

A few pieces have been added over the years,

but most of it is pure '50's vintage, including several

bottle brush and candle Christmas trees.

There's something magical about seeing it

and realizing that I've been putting it up

every holiday season for over 55 years.

Keeping a precious Christmas memory alive.

Yes, Virginia

Virginia O'Hanlon

Something I re-read every Christmas - what a message of hope and belief.  Published in The New York Sun, in 1897, I am wondrously amazed that the editor of one of the most prestigious newspapers of the time would write this uplifting editorial.   

We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun:

Dear Editor—
I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, "If you see it in The Sun, it's so." Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?
Virginia O'Hanlon
115 West Ninety Fifth Street

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence.

Francis P Church - editor The New York Sun

We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The external light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! He lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

French santon nativity figures from a Paris flea market

Bit by bit the decorations are going up.

I made this angel in second grade, in 1959.

I'm resting after each spurt of energy,

My dad made the church in the late '40's and the red sleigh 

was a junior high shop project constructed by my brother.

and then getting up and doing some more.

5x5 Exhibit Opens

Art Heals Years of Pain 5x5" Erin Perry

The 5x5 exhibit opened last Friday in Putnam, Connecticut and is also open now on Seth Apter's blog at this link.  The link shows all the artwork, which was created by artists that contributed to Seth's first book The Pulse of Mixed Media.  So the pieces will be available not only at the gallery, but through the on-line link as well.  Take a look, some amazing and wonderful art in a small format.

Life on the Coast

Last evening was the annual Lighted Boat Parade

here in Morro Bay/  Always lots of fun and a great way 

to kick off the holiday season!

Favourite Toy Friday

I wonder how many of us mixed media types out there

 can trace our love of toy theatres to this classic toy

 from the early '60's?

My dear brother got me one for Christmas one year and

 I loved putting on the plays, coming up with new ones,

and of course having my little cowboys and civil war soliders

attack it every now and then!

Aren't childhood memories precious?

Bring on the Rain

Some long awaited rain on the Central Coast and what

better way to spend a rainy afternoon than with black cats,

tea in my favourite mug,

 in front of a toasty blaze,

and plenty or books!

The Last Leaves of Fall

As December begins, we bid adieu to
 the glorious colours of autumn.

Wild turkeys on Thanksgiving Day.

 Vineyards preparing for their long winter's nap.

All these shots from Sebastopol,
about an hour north of San Francisco.