Welcome to My Red Cape. Long ago in another time my husband Jack and I lived in a little old red house. It was the stuff of dreams to us for the few years that we were there. I live there still a number of hours every day in imagination, with old dolls and paintings and fabrics and feather trees. I draw inspiration and happiness from the memories of that space in time and share some of it here with friends who remember how to step with Alice through the looking glass and take delight in whimsies and antiquities. ~Edyth O’Neill

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Have a sweet Easter

Happy Easter to each of you. Thank you for the many
offers of assistance, we are not close enough to it to know what we need yet.
The task seems so great that we may be beyond help. I am going through
different things and organizing and labeling and packing them, also throwing
away a tiny bit here and there. Do I really need those old art supply
catalogs? Am I ever going to wear such and such again? This is the right time
to thin some, we know we cannot fit everything here in the next place.

And really we do not need to. Or do we? The problem with craft supplies
is you don't know which ones you will want next. Today I was finishing mending a
ragged edge on an old oriental rug, and used needles and threads of course, but
also a piece of beige hooking wool and some crewel embroidery yarn. What do
people do who do not have the right crewel embroidery yarn? I mend sweaters with
it, fix steiff animals with it and mend lovely old coverlets with it. and use it
a dozen other ways. I have 2 tall rubbermade tubs of gorgeous paternayan wool
yarn and am afraid to part with any of it! As long as I am into various
projects I will always want tons of craft supplies. I part with any of my stash
with screams and sobs. Today I went through many containers of little nails,
the kind I hold art work in frames with. And picture frame wire and saw tooth
hangers and drapery hardware and on and on. No wonder we have always needed a
barn besides a house.

No one on earth can help us with this kind of stuff. The actual hauling of
it will be simple, if we can get Affordable Movers to come when we need them.
We have used them several times. Tomorrow I will fix three large pots of white
geraniums. e

Friday, April 6, 2012

Downsizing and moving

Jack and I are not looking forward to our coming move, but will make the
best of it, and after we complete it, Jack won't have stairs to climb or a big
yard to keep. This might be about June.

I think we will move over about 6 weeks time, starting when we
have the renovations completed. Maybe first will be my art supplies. Then
large cupboards here can be pictured before their contents are emptied and packed. These can be
unpacked into the new place. I am moving 5 or possibly 6 large antique
cupboards and their contents, so that is a huge task to pack and unpack and get back in place in the new house. I will get movers to handle them. A lot can be
moved piece meal that way. On the day our bedroom contents and kitchen are moved, then we will start to sleep in the new house. Last can be garage
contents and Christmas décor. What can not move will be sold from the
present home after we are out with all we can carry to the new one. Our new house is 1000 sq feet smaller than our present home. This tells you something.

In the midst of practical considerations, I am thinking also of happy things, and have spotted a short wall by the front door in the next house that will be perfect to paint with a Rufus Porter style mural. A year back, friend Rose Ellen took me to the Rufus Porter Museum in Maine and I got to see so much of his work in person, after loving it in pictures for half a lifetime. I have some nice clippings to inspire a mural for our house.

I went to Walmart on Wednesday to buy plastic bins and boxes to pack and organize my art supplies and sewing supplies. This includes everything from calligraphy to clay modeling and knitting wool. And all crafts in between! So my purchase was a large one and I needed help in the store to get more from a top shelf high above my head or reach. I asked and two workers promised to return but did not. The P A system called out my position and it was over 15 minutes before I got response.

When I told daughter Beth about this, she said "mama, one sure way to get assistance is to find an unattended ladder used for restocking somewhere nearby, and start off with it as though to use it yourself. She has done that twice and says it brings people quickly! The cameras in the office must cause panic there. Beth is a woman of size, and she says she can just imagine the camera watcher saying " Isle 7! OMG Isle 7! " My Beth is great help in all my endeavors. She brings humor and creative solutions to every task. E

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