...harrowing times...and a little bit of silly

Meet "Agnes"...my birthday present this year. She is circa 1840 and has the loveliest expression...not quite a smile...more a look of serenity.

I had her hanging for several weeks as purchased..she came unframed. I finally decided she deserved a little gold surrounding her pretty face. Even though it is not a period frame, I think it was needed to do her justice. She is in fine shape for all her hundred and seventy some years...very little damage. I adore her cameo and lace! 

Welcome to the House of Mugwump, dear Agnes!

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We've had a crazy ride here the last few weeks. We lost all power for a good while when our towering pine tree gobbled up our lines. All of our power lines, etc. are underground. This is the second time this has happened in the last few years so a major job is on the books to replace our old wiring. Not looking forward to no power while they tear up the yard. 

We also had a flood. I was making hotel reservations on the phone. The bathtub was left filling...someone went back to their room and got distracted...it wasn't pretty. Wood floors in adjacent bedroom and closet were involved. Just one of those days when husband arrives home to find melting down wife on her hands and knees ,using every towel in the house to wipe up water, with the contents of the closet in a pile in the bedroom, and a very remorseful child looking for a place to hide. We all survived.

I was waiting for the pestilence. Didn't take them long. Annie was hit with a wicked bug that lasted more than a week shortly after the flood. 

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Did a little stitching on "Sparrow". I had a big scare when my extremely sharp embroidery scissors somehow sliced into the linen. I don't even know how it happened, but I watched in horror as the slit grew. I remembered Marly (Samplers & Santas) had addressed a similar situation on her blog. I went to work trying to minimize the damage...pulled thread from outer edge and began to weave the threads together to close the gap. It worked. I have a not so attractive glob of thread on the linen, but when all is finished I think it will fade into the background. In all honesty, I had a wave of sheer panic when all this was going on. I considered just tossing the whole thing! Those old teacher instincts kicked in...keep calm and fix it. And that's what the old teacher did. 

Thanks, Marly, for always sharing your tips and knowledge with us out here in blogland.

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My husband's legal assistant is having surgery soon. Annie found these cuddly owls at Target so we bought one for her to send to Miss S and she kept one for herself. They text back and forth...Fudge  (Annie's owl) and  Boots (Miss S's owl) to keep spirits up. Little things give Annie such pleasure. She loves sending Miss S encouraging thoughts and lots of love...and reports about what Fudge is up to. Just a simple thing to make smiles all around.

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Yesterday, we attended a special presentation at the St. Petersburg Holocaust Museum. It included a traveling display of many of the artifacts that were pertinent to the tracking down of Adolf Eichmann and his eventual trial. The museum actually has a rail car, from Poland, that was used to transport Jews to the death camps. The displays are incredibly heart wrenching. Annie snoozed in her buggy as we entered the part of the tour that was the most difficult. How lucky she is to not know of the horrendous acts of man's inhumanity to his fellow man. 

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So...that's what is going on at our house. Fighting power, floods and pestilence...pulling a needle when I can...having fun being silly with Annie. Fixing things that I can fix. And being grateful that  all these trivial inconveniences are nothing but that...inconvenient. Hope you are all well. 

Annie and I have all sorts of things going on here in preparation for the coming summer. We'll be back soon to share. In the meantime...

Enjoy the day,

Robyn