Rambling Today

Several weeks ago we went to Boise shopping and stopped in at The Cheesecake Factory. It had been a very long time since we'd eaten there but I wanted cheesecake desperately.
I had the half chicken salad sandwich with salad but they also brought me a cup of soup. This was much more than I anticipated! I told him to bring me a box immediately as I would never be able to eat all of it. I didn't even touch the soup, ate half of the sandwich and salad and brought the rest home. We both told them to add in 2 pieces of cheesecake to take home also. I refuse to share my slice of cheesecake with anyone.  That lunch was $45 and a bit more than we thought it would be but very good. But it was also more than most people could possibly eat unless they were hogs! I'm not. It was truly fantastic.
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At the rate of weddings in Hollywood, the career to have is wedding planner. You'd never ever want for a job! I simply cannot believe the turnaround in husbands and wives in that city. Surely with all their offspring, every single person there is related to at least 99% of the others. It would be ugly trying to fill out your lineage chart down there. Sheesh...
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 Awhile back I heard someone say that something was totally impractical for their lifestyle—can't remember what it was—but it was desirable to have. I told her to change her lifestyle then. It's that simple and if I recall it was something good. Why can't someone change their lifestyle? We certainly did and it's brought blessings more than we can count to our lives.
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I've also noticed that some people are a bit lean on their answers. Wonder what that's about or what they don't want to say.
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This looks like a little girl's kitchen for play but it is indeed a woman's cute kitchen dining area.


A fabulous cabin.


Pretty chair in a field of lavender.


A very pretty white living room with roses prints all around.


Sweet hearts to enjoy.


Cute open shelving but I really like the cans on the shelf.


Someone's sweet vignette.


A luxuriously long porch with vivid flowers all over.


Pretty rose fabric juxtaposed against an old door.


I like this adorable sofa but I'd put it in a family room.


The kitchen of a very serious cook! I don't have near those pots and pans and I manage. The drawback is I have to cook, which we all KNOW I hate!


Interesting way to display pretty teacups.


Pretty little office area. I like the green and pink together also.


Cute redecorated can.


Lovely embroidery.
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Linking up with SSS.

I Am A Suburban Girl

Well, Photobucket is back up and running so I'm safe, at least for awhile. I'm sure you can imagine my frustration with almost 13,000 photos on there. I hope they get more servers on their site to take care of all their subscribers.
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I am not a country girl. I'm very much a suburban girl...okay, old lady. I'm not fond of living in big cities or small towns. Now, I know this goes against the grain of some of you and that's just fine. If you want to live in the country or on a farm, more power to ya. Me? I want Wal Mart, Costco, Applebees, Olive Garden, Home Depot, Texas Road House, Red Lobster, Taco Bell, Lowe's, Albertson's, banks, gas stations, hospitals, Joanns Fabrics, Michaels and Stone Cold Creamery as close to me as possible.
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Recently I came across more absolutely stunningly gorgeous photos. I can't believe how many websites are out there with beautiful photos. Here are some below and more are coming very soon. I try to post every 2 days and that's a lot considering most bloggers. I just want to keep my mind busy and bring some peace into this nutsy world going on out there. Sigh. So just stay tuned, breathe, relax as you'll only get positive things here—and beauty! And I even throw in a video once in a while of our great-granddaughter, Miss Caroline. ;-) Life is so good to me!
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This room just struck me when I saw it. Two different kinds of sofas and that regal-looking chair. Uh-huh! Beautiful yellow walls and red fabric on one sofa.


I don't own a lot of jewelry, mainly because I'm not a jewelry person. But this little necklace struck a chord with me. Just beautiful.


I wish I knew where the fabric on that chair was available. It's gorgeous and I'd have loved to have been able to choose it for my new sofa.


One of my obsessions is pretty bottles. I'm looking for a few new ones to decorate for my living room. I'm thinking I'd like to display them on my coffee table. Looks like purchases of new perfume is in my future. :-)


Believe it or not, this is fabric. I saw a lady's website recently where she does gorgeous embroidery for fabrics. I just can't remember where it was. Absolutely stunningly gorgeous fabrics though.


You know roses and pretty polka dot vases grab me, right?


A tea shop in Carmel.


Darling wall hanging.


We all know how clothespin bags grab me. I like this one but have never made one like this. I have some embroidered table runners that I could make into a clothespin bag though.


Look at this sweet hamper some knitter has made.


Eye candy for ya.


Another Carmel cottage.


I have no idea what this room is for but it looks like a dining room. Most unusual with all the plants and the skylight however. Beautiful though.


Imagine Wedgewood blue cupcakes.


Having this room with those chairs would be wonderful also. They look sumptuous and relaxing around that blue footstool for conversing. I'm sort of a prig when it comes to conversation areas in a home.
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Linking up with The Dedicated House.

The Womanly Arts—Sewing and Embroidery

In my quest to get rid of some things, this beautiful vintage gown is on eBay here at the moment. I'm biting the bullet and putting this on there hoping it finds a wonderful home. I just can't take it to a thrift store. If you're interested in buying it directly from me, just email me and I'll take it off of eBay. I truly want it to go to someone who appreciates this sort of thing. It would look wonderful on a mannequin!

Growing up I didn't sew or do needlework or embroidery. It wasn't until later in life I found my love for embroidering. My mom was a professional woman. She didn't even know how to do anything encompassing the womanly arts. I learned to sew and embroider on my own. I love doing it but haven't for a long time now. So recently I looked and found my unfinished projects and embroidery threads because I wanted to do some new "fluffing" to some pillowcases.

You can see I'm partial to pink and green as evidenced in my previous post for Pink Saturday combining St. Patrick's Day with it. I have Irish heritage but a lot of other ancestors also so we don't particularly celebrate that holiday. I'm not much of a "holiday celebrator." I just look at it as another day except the banks are closed. ;-)

Threads of yarn separated and waiting for me to begin it again.

Another unfinished project.

This is my Ralph Lauren bag purchased many years ago to hold my projects and threadsl. I've since had to buy more tote bags to contain it all.

I believe this was my first book on teaching me the basics. I have some designs from here on pillowcases that are showing severe signs of wear and may need to redo them. I love this little book.

Perhaps I've waited too long to complete this one. I'll have to finish it before I can wash it properly now. Can't figure out how this got water damaged. Hmmmm...

I'm not sure I'll ever be able to finish them all.



And these are my colorful skeins of embroidery thread. To me, it's simply eye candy. I love looking at the colors. You see my preferences of colors from this photo.
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Bohemian Embroidery

Illustration: Egerland embroidered cuff

Bohemia is the westernmost region of the modern Czech Republic and for centuries was part of the multi-ethnic and sprawling Austro-Hungarian Empire. Bohemia itself was, to a certain extent, an example of at least a bi-ethnic community with both Czech and German towns and communities within its regional borders.  The embroidery within this article is generally Bohemian in context, but to be more specific it concerns what was generally known as Egerland embroidery. Egerland, surrounding the town of Eger, modern day Cheb, was in the extreme western area of Bohemia and was until as recently as the end of the Second World War, largely populated by those of German descent.

Illustration: Egerland embroidered cuff

In this respect it is probably wise to differentiate, at least partially, between German and Slav embroidery in the region. All the examples of embroidery shown here are of Ederland and therefore German origin. The rest of Bohemia tended to follow the larger Slavic tradition of national costume with large areas of embroidery work. However, Ederland embroidery was much more localised, and became more so the closer we get to the twentieth century where modern clothing replaced much of the traditional national costumes of the area. Embroidery became limited to much smaller areas of decoration, particularly around the cuffs of shirts and blouses.

Traditional Egerland colours for embroidery work tended to contain large amounts of blue and yellow, rather than the predominant red of Slavic embroidery. Whether the colour variation was used to differentiate regions and ethnic divisions is unclear, although the Egerland population's natural and consistent sympathy towards German culture, whether that be Austria itself or neighbouring Bavaria, rather than with the Slavic Czechs in the rest of Bohemia, may have something to do with the consistency of colour.

Illustration: Egerland embroidered cuff

What is interesting about the design work shown here is how closely at least some of the examples are to the decorative work produced at the turn of the twentieth century, particularly by those designers associated with the Wiener Werkstatte. This groundbreaking and popular decorative movement, which was founded in 1903 and was to dominate the decorative arts of Vienna for at least a decade or more, was dominated in its turn by what at the time was considered traditional peasant art. The regional diversity of the Austro-Hungarian Empire proved a particularly rich resource for the designers of the Werkstatte.

Bohemia was connected directly to the Wiener Werkstatte on a number of levels. At least a dozen of the large contingent, who worked for the Werkstatte over its lifetime, were born within Bohemia or Moravia, including Josef Hoffmann himself. Factories and workshops within the region also supplied products with the distinctive Wiener Werkstatte look, particularly in glass of which Bohemia was and still is famous.

Illustration: Egerland embroidered cuff

Although no sweeping statements can be made about designers with Bohemian or Moravian backgrounds swamping the Werkstatte with ethnically derived decoration, it is within the realms of possibility to say that at least some of the background and initial ideas of an artist or designer can originate from childhood memories and neighbourhoods. Josef Hoffmann himself has gone on record as admitting that his Moravian background influenced at least some of his Werkstatte decorative work.

Whatever the reasoning behind any influence on the Werkstatte itself, the design work shown here is fresh, lively and unpretentious. There is little of any classically static engineering of the decoration, with work appearing to be both bold and spontaneous. This general style of embroidery work which could be found across Central and Eastern Europe provided an enormous inspirational vocabulary for a number of schools, organizations and movements of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It is certain that its influence, at least to some extent has been downplayed by the perceived influences of more exotic areas of the world outside of Europe. Perhaps this has more to do with European ethnic and regional decoration being judged as largley unaesthetic and broadly amateur in quality and nature. However, this makes it all the more important to recognise as an influence on the decorative arts of Europe.

Illustration: Egerland embroidered cuff

Egerland Embroidery, like all other regions of European embroidery work, has a decorative list of parameters that makes it unique within the larger European framework. It is this regional uniqueness, all with separate vocabularies, that has allowed European embroidery to become such a rich, diverse and influential medium that has spread well beyond its own craft.

Reference links:
Peasant Art in Austria and Hungary
Wiener Werkstatte: 1903-1932 (Special Edition) 
Embroideries & Patterns from 19th Century Vienna (Embroideries & patterns from nineteenth century Vienna from the Nowotny collection)
Goddesses and their offspring: 19th and 20th century Eastern European embroideries
Wiener Werkstatte: Design in Vienna 1903-1932
Textiles of the Wiener Werkstatte: 1910-1932
Viennese Design and the Wiener Werkstatte
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