The Perfect Afternoon

I busied myself all morning by taking down any decorations that were up for the Mystery Party.  The rooms were stripped of all their abandoned house "glory" and everything was packed for storage.  I wanted to get this done early as I had a very important visitor coming in the afternoon.  I did not wish to be distracted by any chores.  My visitor was to be here right after she got out of school for the day.  My sweet grandniece was to come spend the afternoon crafting.  What better bonding time is there for an old lady and a young girl!  She wanted to learn how to make corn husk dolls.  This is an art from days past.  Not one that many young girls would ever dream of doing but Macie asked.  I was thrilled!  Not only for the opportunity of teaching a near-lost craft but also for the time to spend with someone so sweet as this young lady.

We cut, folded and wired together a simple doll and then spent the rest of the afternoon chatting about everything from her school to broccoli!  My sweet little grandniece had grown into a young lady at some point! Not longer was there talk of Disney princesses or My Little Ponies.  Now the conversation was about fashion and food, likes and dislikes, schoolwork and fun times.  I thoroughly enjoyed every minute.

After Macie left to go home, I headed to the pier.  I was just in time for a most beautiful sunset.  As I sat enjoying the ever-changing sky, I thought that Macie is a lot like that sunset.  She is vivid, bright and constantly changing..growing..becoming more beautiful and captivating.  Yep, I sure enjoyed this afternoon and hope that Macie and I can share many, many more before she grows weary of spending time with an old lady.  She sure has my heart!

Where has the day gone????

I was thinking the other day of how things have changed so much since my grandmother's day. Not just with the technology but rather how with all the "time saving conveniences" we have today and we still do not have time to relax. It is always hurry here or there as we try to be every place at one time. Before all of these remarkable things like computers, microwaves, cars and automated this and that, people actually had time to enjoy life. I know, I know..they worked hard..they had to just to survive. But they also had time to be people..something that I think has actually gone by the wayside. Think about it, even though most hand-stitched their own clothes and grew their own food (and canned enough for winter), they still had time to visit the neighbors, dine together as a family, read the Bible and create beautiful crafts. There were marvelous quilts, cross-stitched pictures, paintings, wood carvings, leather goods plus a myriad of others. All this brings me to something that I have of my grandmother's. It is not a highly valuable piece to anyone other than myself, but I cherish it. It is a simple homemade vase. It is made from a half-pint size milk bottle and pine needles. After all these years it is still in relatively good condition considering the materials. Several years ago when my children were small, we tried our hands at recreating the lovely pine needle craft. The vase we made has an olive bottle for a base so it is a bit larger than Grandmother's, but I think it turned out rather well. To give the little hands something a bit easier to do and something that would appeal a bit more to them than a vase, we also made pine needle dolls. To dress them, we used felt and string. I love these little guys and after all these years they still sit next to a cornhusk doll on the shelf in my living room! Every time I pass them, I smile and think of the fun times we had while making them.

Yes, it is sad to me that the talent of creating useful things from whatever is on hand seems to be diminishing. There are a few artists that still create wonderful items but not on the spectrum that our grandparents and great-grandparents did out of necessity on a daily basis. The workmanship from times past has somewhere been lost. Also lost is the art of being people..caring people..instead of busy, busy automotons.