Crypt Stitch

Victorian Home...

I don't know who to credit this photo to specifically, all I can tell you is that I found it on this site doing an image search. And I love it. Isn't the house amazing? And how dapper everyone looks. And did I mention the house? I love the house. Even the lawn looks like it was meant to be rolled in. And the house!

I would DEARLY love to live in a house like that one in which you can BREATHE IN the history (and probably the mold spores too). At this rate I think that this is probably more along the lines of what I'll be able to afford:

Yep. It's a 'playhouse', i.e. a cubby-house. IT'S FREAKIN' AWESOME! I would live there. It's so got the Hansel and Gretel vibe, huh? I wonder if the children come with the package....

New Orleans 1998 Pt 2...

As promised, Part Deux...

You may recognise this last photo from the film of Anne Rice's "Interview with a Vampire". Could Tom Cruise have been any more wrong in the role of Lestat? I mean REALLY? And don't even get me started on Anne Rice, abandoned us she has, gone to the 'other side'  - (tee hee)...

New Orleans 1998 Pt 1...

Some ten years ago (yes, I am ancient) I went to the USA for the wedding of my very best friend. I took along a dear old friend for company, and together we went on a driving holiday from Iowa to South Dakota, and to Louisiana. Hiring a car and driving on the wrong side of the road was quite an adventure, but I didn't expect to fall so totally in love with the Black Hills and with New Orleans. So I thought I'd share a couple of photos I took at New Orleans' Lafayette Cemetery (No.1 if I remember correctly). I took these with an instamatic camera (long before digital - dear Goddess I am archaic! An instamatic!? Why that's only one step above a 'box browny'!) and even so, I am rather chuffed still. My camera did have a nifty 'panoramic' option, which allowed for taking gloriously long photos, but for whom provision of a photo album, much less a frame was nigh on impossible. And I lament the so few photos I took on out six week sojourn - at the weekend getaway a fortnight ago I took over 250 photos, but in the time of 'film', it was impractical and costly to take so many (and have them developed). I think I only ended up taking some six rolls (of 24 photos each) over that whole period. Never the less, here for your approval, part one....

Sercy: Born August 29th 1878, Died August 30th 1878

Mary Love: Born October 7th 1873, Died August 30th 1878
Edward Given: Born December 3rd 1873, Died August 30th 1878
This last memorial breaks my heart, still. The anguish that poor mother must have gone through, to have lost her new born, her two year old and her five year old all within two days, of Yellow Fever. How do you recover from something like that?

New Changeling - Dia de los Muertos...

A new changeling doll, this one in honour of an amazing day of celebration - Dia de los Muertos. I had already decided it was time for another Halloween party this year (Halloween is only just starting to take off over here. It's strange that it didn't become part of our culture as well, being that we have just as many immigrants here as the USA does. I would guess that it is because the celebration is essentially due to the season, and in honour of the final reaping of the spring sewing, where here we are coming into spring at that time, and are instead in the throws of Beltaine) - our last was five years ago. I think we might also go for a familial Dia de los Muertos the next day, too - a way of remembering and celebrating our own dead, as well as honouring the complex and amazing culture for whom the day is an ancient tradition. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the material I used for the skirts, vibrant and colourful and goth and disturbing all at the same time. She'll be in the shop later today...

Another Amazing Artist...

Go visit the site of another amazingly talented artist, Victoria Frances. The site is only in Spanish at the moment, but art has no language barrier, right?. The detail in the expressions and the clothing is bewitching indeed.

The Twa Corbies - A 14th Century Scottish Poem

The Twa Corbies

A 14th Century Scottish Poem

 

As I was walking all alane,

I heard twa corbies making a mane;

The tane unto the t'other say,

"Where sall we gang and dine today?"

 

"In behint yon auld fail dyke,

I wot there lies a new slain knight;

And naebody kens that he lies there,

But his hawk, his hound, and lady fair.

 

"His hound is to the hunting gane,

His hawk to fetch the wild-fowl hame,

His lady's ta'en another mate,

So we may mak our dinner sweet.

 

"Ye'll sit on his white hause-bane,

And I'll pike out his bonny blue een;

Wi' ae lock o' his gowden hair

We'll theek our nest when it grows bare.

 

"Mony a one for him makes mane,

But nane sall ken where he is gane;

O'er his white banes, when they are bare,

The wind sall blaw for evermair."

link

How eloquent! Ravens and Crows are one of my favourite birds - a single one flying overhead as I drive to work is enough to bring a smile to my face. I feel joined to them in some intangible way - their intelligence, their plaintive cry. There's no denying they have played a major role in the many cultures teachings and spirituality, and for this alone they should be revered. So I'm going to create a new category, and I think we should visit with our Sister Raven often, don't you? Caaaawwwwwwww.....

The X Files: I Want to Believe

The X Files: I Want to Believe 

 

I know. How excited are you? I am about to wet my pants. Can’t wait.

A new changeling doll

I have a new changeling doll. I love to do the changeling dolls, I think they are loads of fun and can’t imagine being a little girl without one. Or four. I think I’m going to make a bunch of different ones, I'm enjoying playing with material (colours and patterns) at the moment. This one isn’t as large as my moon phase changeling  or my cat changeling  She’s about 30cm tall, and I made her with young children specifically in mind (no small parts). She is ‘crow girl and shadow girl’, and she (they?) love to frolic with wild abandon in the garden (don’t we all?). She’ll be off to the shop today.

Alright, alright! Just a couple more, then I’m cutting you off...

Blue Mountains again...

A few more pics of the Blue Mountains sojourn. I very much enjoyed my stay there, and could see myself living in that area, no problem. I am particularly fond of Leura and Blackheath. And it was so deliciously cold! No snow unfortunately, but it actually felt like ‘winter’. I lament our lack of a real winter on the coast (though I know some won’t agree with me!)