March 10 - March 16, 2013

This is very sad. I've worked so much overtime in the last couple of weeks that I can't even remember what this week was like other than VERY LONG! I just found out that if you type all the letters UPPERCASE, it means you're yelling. How do you type letters if you're just emphasizing the words? very long, very long, very long, very loooooooooooong? Anyway, voila, the next 7.

One of the most beautiful animals in the world. I particularly love the way the hairs stick upright on top of their heads and they don't need any product to make it so. 

This is a cat I could be buddies with. It's got attitude - good attitude.

Can you imagine the teeny tiny shoemaker making these teeny tiny clogs. When I was growing up in Toronto, we had a Dutch cobbler who mended our shoes. I loved going into his store because a. he was handsome and friendly, b. he also made shoes for people who had deformed feet. The plaster moulds of the feet in the window were creepy but weirdly interesting, c. you could see some of the backroom of the store and the cobblers would be sitting on their benches tap tap tapping - forming the leather into shoes. I loved the smell of the leathers and that tapping, and d. did I mention that he was handsome.............

  I was part of Professor's Chalupka's Celebrated Singing School - a small choir  of 8 - 12 friends who sang songs of the late 19th century (1865 - 95 ish). We performed at various historic venues singing hits of the past like "Woodman, Spare The Tree",  " Paddle Your Own Canoe", "Father's a Drunkard and Mother Is  Dead" - absolutely toe-tapping stuff. We had a lot of fun. There's nothing better than sitting in a room with friends and singing four part harmony a cappella. 

And this brooch? It's another enamelled pin, with what looks like the beginning of an alto part.

When first I was given this pin I didn't see a connection. Then I remembered all the Brandied  Peaches, and Garden Special that we had canned together.                                                                 I personally make rotten jam. I try each year to enter "stuff" at my town fair - usually rug hooking, jewellery, bits and bobs. One year I entered the Jam competition as a lark. In went my runny blueberry jam. As luck would have it, when I came to collect my non-ribboned jam at the end of the Fair to my joy, someone had mistakenly taken mine, and I went home with a very nummy jar of jam. One kind and diplomatic friend had said that my jam would be great on pancakes.

Two elephant pins in a week. I like the  swish of the tail, the joyfulness of this elephant and the pearliness of the red colour.

I was at a workshop on wool felting and wet felting that happened to be held at an United Church Retreat Centre; a lovely place out in the country. I wore this pin as a nod to Danforth United Church where as a teenager I was a member of the CGIT. This pin was marking the 50th anniversary of the CGIT in 1965. I hope it's still going strong as I had a great time and I LOVED the midis shirts that we wore - very sailor-like. Note: you can tell it's an old pin - it was made in Canada.