A New Year…

I will admit that I am rather annoyed by the whole holiday season which is loud and expensive and in your face and I avoid malls and excess shopping and crowds and excessive baked treats (ok well maybe only partially on the baked goods) like the plague.  I find it hard to conduct business, everything takes longer, including shipping, and I can be a real Scrooge when it comes to the holiday spirit.  We have too much stuff, and what’s important to me now, is very different than what was important to me 10 or 20 years ago.

So I braced myself, for the onslaught of holiday merriment, and I have to say, I rather enjoyed myself these last couple of weeks.  Just having my family here made me happy, catching glimpses of them around corners, while they did mundane things, etching their faces and expressions into my memory, because soon they will be gone again.  We all went to Maryland for a few days to visit my family, I had Christmas dinner with my mom and bonus dad, and my sisters who mean the world to me.  My husband did a good job with my gifts, considering I asked for and wanted nothing.  He got me things I could consume, like wine and chocolate, and an OTT-lite.  You can’t have enough of those.  He got me theater tickets and an arts weekend in Princeton, which he bid for in an online auction through Art PrideNJ.  Those are things that are important to me and that make me feel good about spending the money.  There were also a couple of art works from a couple of artists from an auction he attended at Peters Valley, while I was teaching in Alabama.  And my favorite gift of all was a collection of images of the labyrinth and meditative walks from our trip to Taos in 2010, bound together in a Shutterfly book,   I keep it on my night stand.

And for my gift to my husband, my secret project was a continuation of the one I started last spring for my husband’s 60th birthday.  We have a probably a couple million images scattered around the house in various formats dating back to 1974 when we first met, and I have been painstakingly trying to recreate our many adventures, trips and vacations, and there were a lot I can assure you,into a book using PowerPoint slides that celebrates our life together.  I managed to get through the 1970’s last spring, and I decided that for Christmas this year, I’d continue and try and pull all the images together through the 1980’s.  I spent hours trying to recreate places we went, and what we did.  We were lucky because in the 1970’s, we took almost exclusively slides, and they have preserved well and almost all had dates stamped on them.  Not so lucky with some of the images from the 1980’s.  Polaroids did not hold up at all.  Cheap printing didn’t either.  And my organizational skills back then were largely “stick them in an album wherever…” or “pile them in a drawer”.   There were a lot of hours spent in the month of December using Photoshop to save some pretty poor images.

I can’t tell you how much fun it was to relive some of those past events, with a different eye.  I found some wonderful snapshots, especially ones where family or friends were wearing some of my handwoven clothing.  I sold my handwoven garments through craft fairs all through the 1980’s, and I’d forgotten how supportive my family and friend’s were.

There was a lovely photo from 1985 from my youngest sister’s wedding.  That’s me on the left holding the handwoven jacket that coordinates with the handwoven dress and sash my sister wore as her “going away” outfit.  (I did not pick out the pink dress, I was in the bridal party, you know how that goes…)

Here is a shot of me in my handwoven mohair coat in Salisbury England in 1988

And I found this 1983 image of a very early handwoven mohair coat, that’s me standing next to the first yard ornament we bought for our new (very old) house.

This is my husband and our dearest friend Annika, who lives in London.  My husband has her young son on his back, and Annika is wearing one of my mohair coats, we are all at Kew Gardens in 1988

There was also a news clipping from an exhibit at the V & A (Victoria and Albert Museum) from that same trip to London.  The first major exhibit of Kaffe Fassett’s knitted and needlepoint works along with objects from the museum’s own collections that have inspired the work.  I remember being overwhelmed by all the color.

 

I found this lovely portrait of my husband and me taken in 1986, I’m wearing another one of my production mohair coats.

And in the category of “What Could She Have Been Thinking…”  There were a couple of shots that surprised even me, here I am wearing an odd combination for me, yes it was 1989 and yes I was pregnant and yes we were in San Francisco but still…

This is even more hilarious, here I am pregnant and standing in front of Christian Bros winery.  I have a vague recollection of this pink oversized sweatshirt/dress, and I remember it was really comfortable, but I am a bit mortified I actually wore it out in public.

And this classic, the prize shot for the “What Could I have been Thinking” category came this ensemble I wore to a family reunion in 1981.  Candiss Cole and I bought this same outfit from a craftsman at the Gaithersburg Craft Fair, probably October of 1980.  We were across the aisle from each other, and when we discovered that we had both purchased the same garment, we became lifelong friends because we both had the same taste in the absurd?  So here is one for you Candiss, I know you read this blog!  (The necklace was a series of porcelain flowers from another artist from the same show.)  There is no explanation for the shoes…

And so, the new year begins.  I’m working hard building presentations, new work, writing proposals, filling out contracts, shipping out orders, plotting new venues, and trying to gain control over my house which has somehow slipped through my fingers like sand.  Or dog hair…

I don’t make resolutions.  Not because I’m perfect, but because if they were important to me I’d be doing them.  I do have some roughed out goals, but I always have those, and they get done when there is a deadline.  I’d like to park in my garage bay again, before the next snow storm.  I haven’t parked in it since 2006.  Don’t ask.  I’m starting to find some interesting stuff out there, that should be entertaining for a few days anyway.  I’d like to spin more, and catch more movies and PBS series I’ve missed over the years, now that I can stream Netflix in the bedroom.  I can do both of those at the same time.

So here is to another new year, this one is my 10th anniversary of my breast cancer diagnosis, it has been 10 years since that nightmare, hard to believe my babies are grown, my husband is 60, I’m not far behind him.  It has been a great year personally, professionally, and privately.

I wish all of you a new year full of creative adventures, AhHa moments, wonderful surprises, and friendship.  And lots of lots of fiber experiences…

Stay tuned…

 

 

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

18 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Kathy from Algoma
Kathy from Algoma
January 2, 2012 8:53 pm

It was a fun read! Thanks for sharing.

Cindie
January 2, 2012 10:03 pm

Oh my gosh – I had that same outfit bought at the Sugarloaf Craft Fair in Gaithersburg! Different print though. Only I wore mine with heels! I remember wearing it quite often but only for that one year (I grew up and lived in the DC area, Gaithersburg & Germantown in those recent years, until 92 when I moved west)

Alice-Ann
Alice-Ann
January 3, 2012 1:29 am

That was a fun romp through time – thanks for sharing!

laura
laura
January 3, 2012 7:50 am

What a wonderful life you have had so far and guess what? The best is yet to come. Happy New year. So glad you got to enjoy your family during the holidays. Mine were home too and I know what you mean about cherishing the time you have with them as some of mine have already gone back to college. It was loud but a nice kind of loud when they were here.

Jenny
Jenny
January 3, 2012 8:17 am

Good luck with the garage. I am on a similar adventure with a spare bedroom that became a household dumping ground for odd stuff. Need space for Big Mac and Mac Jr looms.

Sheila Colarik
Sheila Colarik
January 3, 2012 8:32 am

You are so right that family has become more important than any stuff we could get or need. Glad to know that yours was great. Love the ride down memory lane. Its funny what we think was a good clothing idea back then. We all did it.LOL

Elizabeth Bryan
Elizabeth Bryan
January 3, 2012 9:57 am

Thanks for all the inspiration. With every blog post there is another nugget which reminds me of what is important in my life. A series of AHA moments! Happy New Year to you and yours.

candiss cole
January 3, 2012 10:43 am

I was so enjoying your blog reading down the page, seeing the images going by and reading the captions when all of a sudden, there was our wrap around jumper! OMG, yes, I remember it well! What amazes me now is that we both fell in love with it! Guess it was so that we would become life long friends…..our tastes have changed over the years! Thank God. Thanks so much for sharing all these images with us again. I remember sitting in your sewing room, looking over the books that you had finished so far…it is nice to see… Read more »

Nancy
Nancy
January 3, 2012 11:21 am

Happy New Year to you and yours. It will be sad for them to leave for their lives, but you have some great memories of this wonderful holiday season with them. It was a hoot to see the travels through the years of your weavings and how much the concept of ‘great’ has changed. Keep up the good work and I look forward to seeing what is coming down the pike. Cheers,

Sharolene
Sharolene
January 3, 2012 2:04 pm

Daryl, that was really fun to read and to see your photos. I agree with most of your what could I have been thinking photos. We all have them. Except for the last one. It’s adorable. Have a great year and thank you for sharing your blog with us.

Gayle
Gayle
January 3, 2012 6:22 pm

Happy New Year! I absolutely loved the photos! Thanks for taking the time to include them.

Susan McKee-Nugent
Susan McKee-Nugent
January 3, 2012 8:56 pm

I totally agree with your holiday assessment!!! Great photos, thank you.
Happy New Year to you and yours.

Jane Biron
Jane Biron
January 4, 2012 8:47 am

Happy 2012 Daryl!
Regarding the shoes: I probably had 10 pairs and still would if I could find them anywhere. I used to buy them in China Town in many different colors. They wore out quickly but were great when they were new; really comfortable and cheap. I remember them costing about $4.00/pair.
It was a fun read. Thanks.

Lisa Jacenich
January 4, 2012 10:44 am

Thanks so much for the skills you have taught me. To have the ability to take a thought in my head and create a wearable garment that looks amazing even inside out is more than I could have ever dreamed possible. If you had a penny for every time your name crosses my mind and lips in gratitude……..many blessings to you. xoxo

Judy
Judy
January 4, 2012 10:57 pm

Happy New Year. I think I still have the mohair I bought for a mohair coat but didn’t get woven! Ugh! Guess I should use that yarn for something else or pass it on? Ideas any one?

Judy
Judy
January 4, 2012 11:01 pm

Whoops… deleted the last part of the comment. Thanks for enlightening and instructing us throughout 2011. Look forward to 2012. And you are still are a handsome couple with wonderful grown kids.

Mom with Love Always
Mom with Love Always
January 5, 2012 4:25 pm

Where did all those years go? I still love the coats and still wear one of your mohair coats to great comments from the senior crowd. Broadmead loves quality. Life is good and we wish for 2012 to be “THE BEST IS YET TO BE’ from Robert Browning. Love- Mom and Bonus Dad

Randi
Randi
January 5, 2012 5:27 pm

Thanks for sharing your past with your blog readers! It is always fun to read your words…and since we’re close in age is was fun to walk down fashion memory lane with you and remember some of my own “what the heck was I thinking” moments in fashion!

I especially loved you sitting in quiet reflection in the labyrinth.

Read previous post:
Reunited…

They're Back! My daughter has returned from points north, and my husband from points east, or would that be west,...

Close