Irrelevant book of the week

I'm sorry, but isn't this book about a decade too late?

Hidden message

Yesterday I changed the posters in the ladies' room at work. The posters are blow-ups of book covers and they are attached to their frames with Velcro; I swap them out with fresh posters every few months. When I pulled down the poster for The Grift by Debra Ginsberg, a single piece of paper that had been slipped between the poster and its frame drifted to the floor. I picked it up and this is what I found:

I visited the artist's blog, and based on stuff she wrote about a few months ago, I'm guessing she probably secreted her page sometime in January or February. Sadly, she decided just a couple of weeks ago to call it quits on her blog -- good for her, because she's devoting more time to her writing, but bad for readers, because her blog is really quite interesting.

Road food

If you're ever in Downey and looking for a good meal, may I suggest Chris' and Pitt's Bar-B-Q? Lucy, Norman and I stopped there for lunch on Saturday while on an ill-fated journey to find Southern California's last dollhouse shop, and man, was it good! Pictured above is my chicken fried steak. It was so enormous that I had to stand up to get everything in the shot. That tiny circle to the right of the plate is a quarter, which Lucy suggested I place there for perspective. Unfortunately, the quarter is so dwarfed by the steak that it looks like a dust mote or something. Anyway, besides the enormous portions, other signs that Chris' and Pitt's is a worthwhile stop: it's been around since 1949, crackers served with the salad, enormous water glasses, full sets of silverware for every diner (none of this giving you a spoon only if you order soup), two bottles of homemade BBQ sauce on every table, proper punctuation in the restaurant's name. Oh, and bear and mounted deer head statuary in the lobby.

I knew I got it from somewhere

I got interested in needlework when I was just a kid. When I was in fourth grade, a sweet old lady named Aunt Gertrude came regularly to my MGM class and taught a small group of us how to crochet. As a teenager I became an avid cross stitcher. These days I'm particularly interested in embroidery and quilting, although I'm not very good at either of them. My interest, I think, mystified my mother, whose skill with a needle did not extend beyond sewing on a button or taking a hem in a pair of too-long jeans.

Last week my cousin Alice contacted me and said she had come across a big trunk of our Grandma Alice's needlework, and she asked if I'd be interested in any of it. Yesterday a huge carton of linens arrived at the house; there are so many items stuffed into the box that I haven't had time to look at everything.

Cousin Alice is the keeper of the family flame on my dad's side. She loves family history and stories, and she is a passionate genealogist. She has traveled all over the Midwest, Canada, Great Britain and Ireland doing research and meeting distant relatives. Her father, my dad's brother, was a packrat who hung onto EVERYTHING -- photos, documents, old clothes and furniture, even stuff like my dad's yearbook. Why did Uncle Bill keep Dad's yearbook? We'll never know. Uncle Bill's hoarding turned out to be a handy thing for Alice, because when he died a couple of years ago she finally had access to all these marvelous things. I do think it was mean of him, though, to keep her from them when he was still alive -- why couldn't he share these things, along with the stories he could tell about them, with her sooner? At any rate, she's unpacking everything now and is willing to share things with everyone in the family. She was thrilled when I expressed an interest in the linens.

Grandma Alice's needlework hasn't seen the light of day since the 1950s. Some of it is in very delicate condition -- for instance, if you look at the left edge of the "HIS" towel at the top you can see that the fabric is tearing. I'm sure it never snagged on anything; it's just old and fragile. A bunch of items have stains or spots on them. My cousin figured I'd be interested in seeing all of the stitchery, so she didn't worry too much about the condition of individual items.

Besides the number of items packed into the box, the variety of linens is remarkable. There are napkins, hankies, tablecloths, pillowcases, dishtowels, guest towels, doilies, potholders, and a couple of things I haven't even been able to identify. There is an extremely delicate silk piece rolled up in tissue that I need to examine closely -- I think it's an unfinished quilt top. I have no idea what I'm going to do with all of this beyond scanning and photographing pieces so that I can share them with family members. There are so many different items that I have to wonder if Grandma Alice ever used them all? Alice says she loved to entertain, so I guess she would have had the opportunity to bring out the table linens and guest towels, at least, on a regular basis. But I like the idea of her just stitching away obsessively, learning new techniques and trying out new patterns -- I like that image because it reminds me of me and all the finished cross stitch pieces that just end up in the trunk at the foot of my bed, probably never to see the light of day again. Maybe someday someone will have to sort through that trunk and be happily surprised to come across my own little cache of needlework.

This is the edge of a pillowcase and it gives you a sense of Grandma Alice's skill as a needleworker. This one piece employs cutwork, applique, embroidery, and crochet. Like all of her work, this pillowcase isn't initialed or dated, so I have no idea when she made it. I think she died in 1958 or '59, so I do know it's at least half a century old.

Celebrate!

Today is National Doughnut Day. Don't you think you need to observe this wonderful holiday? On my way into work this morning I picked up a dozen doughnuts to share with my coworkers, as well as a large jelly-filled treat for myself.

National Doughnut Day, which is celebrated on the first Friday in June, has a long and venerable history. It began in 1938 as a fundraiser for the Salvation Army, and indeed, the shop where I bought my dozen this morning had a couple of signs in their windows announcing that they would make a donation to the Salvation Army for every doughnut sold today. I don't know much about the Salvation Army but I always enjoy hearing their marching band in the Rose Parade every New Year's Day, so I encourage you to get out there and show your support, dozens of times if you must, today. In the unlikely chance that you're having trouble locating a doughnut emporium in greater L.A., this might be of help.

Art

This beautiful painting would go so well with the bacon painting in my dining room!

Something to look forward to

It will be published in September.
To whet your appetite, check out the website.

A house of one's own

When I was in the sixth grade, I received a dollhouse for Christmas and I was pretty disappointed. Although I had always been fascinated by miniatures and had, in fact, owned a half-inch scale dollhouse when I was quite a bit younger, I'd asked for a camera that Christmas and was unhappy that I didn't get one. And this dollhouse wasn't even built: it was a kit that my dad would have to help me put together! I also received a booklet of dollhouse-scale wallpaper and some furniture kits. All in all, not a terrible haul, but disappointing because of the lack of camera and perhaps a little irritating because it seemed that my parents still saw me as a little kid.

As usual, I got it wrong. During the next four months, as my dad and I slowly assembled my dollhouse on our mostly unused dining room table, I began to realize that my parents saw me as someone with a deep and abiding interest in both miniatures and crafting -- they understood, even if I didn't at first, that both the process of making tiny things and ending up with a miniature house would be deeply satisfying to me. And they were right. I wish my parents were still around so I could thank them for their great skill in recognizing and encouraging many of my childhood interests, which included art, crafts of all sorts, music, and especially reading. In fact, when I got a camera for my birthday a few months later, one of the very first things I photographed my was nearly-finished miniature house, now lacking just a few rows of shingles and the roof ridge.

Sadly, I no longer have that dollhouse; it finally succumbed to being moved too many times and pretty much just fell apart. But my love of miniatures has continued. Every now and then I'll go to a miniatures convention and wander the showroom floor, gaping at all the tiny, tiny treasures on display (and inevitably buying a few things). I've amassed quite a library of books devoted to building dollhouses and making miniature furniture, accessories, and textiles. I have an entire book about stitching needlepoint Oriental rugs in 1/12 scale! Last week I did something I've been thinking about doing for years: I ordered a dollhouse kit, and today it arrived. I am going to build a dollhouse of my own.

My dollhouse is in the style of a bungalow and is called The Rye. (All dollhouse kits, you'll learn if you spend much time researching them, have names.) I ordered it from a place in New Hampshire called Earth & Tree, which sounds delightfully hippie-ish. I had a bit of trouble finding a bungalow kit because all anyone seems to want to build are Victorian-style dollhouses, which are just not my thing. But I finally came across this little guy, and it looks perfect for a mini starter home.
Four rooms, or is it five? It's hard to tell if that little roomlet upstairs is big enough for a bathroom or if it's more of a closet. No matter; I'll figure it out. I ordered some lovely 1/12 scale Arts & Crafts style wallpaper from a store in New Jersey, and this morning I found a tiny rocking chair with a footstool, a miniature wicker chair, and some itty bitty tools when I was cleaning out a cupboard. (What was I thinking when I bought that little meat cleaver?) I feel as if I'm well on my way to getting started on this next big craft project. I'll post pictures periodically as my work progresses.

Beautiful book covers of the week

Designed by Roberto de Vicq de Cumptich

Designed by Jonathan Sainsbury

Jacket design by Jon Glick, mouse+tiger;
illustrations & hand-drawn type by Scott Allred