I'm thankful!

Right now, despite all the problems in the world, I'm feeling very much in the spirit of the season. On this day after Thanksgiving, it's gotten very cold and I'm thankful my daughter knits for me. I'm wearing a hat and mitts that were knitted with love and it keeps me warm inside and out.

I'm thankful that my city still has the werewithal to put up holiday decorations - and used some this year that, while very colorful, don't have a lot of lights and use less energy.

I'm really uplifted by student activism on campus. There are highly effective campaigns this year for recycling and AIDS day. It it good to realize that our students are not just thinking of themselves, but are concerned about the world around them. I doubted that for a few years, frankly, but am glad to be reassured.

I'm thankful that construction has finally begun on our newest residence hall and that our students can look forward to living in less crowded conditions in the forseeable future. Space is something to treasure.

And I'm thankful that tomorrow, friends and colleagues will be coming to my home to enjoy a belated Thanksgiving feast. I'll be baking and cooking up a storm tonight and I can hardly wait to get started!

Snow update

Well, I was right - the snow's here! And it's not even noon yet.





Please note all the nice green leaves on the roses and chrysanthemums....

A good day to stay home and sew!

We're getting our first real winter storm, even as I write. There have been heavy winds for the last several hours, and they're getting stronger. One poor neighbor has lost virtually all of his newly shingled roof. There are just bare rafters now. Unsurprisingly, the surrounding homes with traditional tile roofs are just fine. I have a cracked window in my sewing room from a branch that came down from a neighbor's tree. The cats are fascinated by the blowing leaves outside that window - it looks a LOT like the view from Dorothy's window as she swirled in the tornado to Oz! It has been pelting down rain and the temperature has just dropped enough for it to be a mix of snow and rain. By this afternoon it should be all snow and I hope the wind will subside.

I'm staying in with a pot of tea and a lap full of holiday embroidery. Twenty-nine days from today I'll be back in the States for the holidays and I need to get things finished today and tomorrow and in the mail Monday.

Jingle bells.....

One of the nice things about living in Bulgaria over the last decade or so has been the lack of commercialism at the holidays and the fact that no one started decorating, advertising Christmas specials, or celebrating until about a week before the holiday. Heck, the first year I lived here you couldn't buy a Christmas tree until December 24! Well, we're in the EU now and it all seems to have started down the slippery slope of Christmas starting earlier each year. It's not even Thanksgiving yet, but I just heard the holiday kick-off choir concert at the University. Walking home I saw at least a dozen stores with Christmas displays. Okay, that's not too bad, I guess. But I also saw three apartments with blazing Christmas lights! Come on folks - it's November! Slow down a little, please!

Time for a review

I've been looking at my A&S 50 persona challenge list today (It was posted back in mid July) and it still looks do-able, if formidable, in the challenge time frame. I've finished working on my name and arms and am going to be mailing the application materials and fees out this week. Hopefully the research I've put in won't be in vain and it'll go through in the next 9-10 months. Thumbs tucked! That'll be a significant chunk out of the list right there.

I need to get up to the National Library in Sofia to do some more costume research and that will be waiting till after the first of the year. It's just too busy at work to take the time off. It seems to take longer to get to downtown Sofia each time I drive up, even though the roads have been re-done.

On a positive note, I've found some good open source maps to use as a basis for period-style copies. I'm planning to make frameable maps of the Balkans in the 1100's and 1200's on parchment. I need to get paints and brushes over the Christmas break, so I can get started! It will be a nice change from sewing and it's also a skill set I haven't used in decades. I hope all those art classes will come back to me.....

Well, I paid for the time away!

I have been absolutely swamped since I got back from England and haven't had a minute to sew or embroider. Add to the work overload a nasty sinus infection and you get someone who's really down and out, craft-wise. I got a little Christmas sewing in today, because it's the first time in two weeks that I was both free from work and well enough to enjoy crafting.

I was inspired by a conversation with Constanza today to purchase some patterns for German landsknecht clothing (Mom - when you read this, they're coming to your address!). You have to love the hat! Our royal heirs are planning a landsknecht reign, so this gives us a little time to prepare - especially to get some serious feathers!

Happy Halloween

Even after all these years, it still feels a little strange to live somewhere that doesn't really have Halloween. The neighbors have grown accustomed to my Jack o'Lantern every October and you can now get orange pumpkins here, so that's good. (Used to be you got ones that were pale green outside and orange inside.) I don't miss the tricks the teenagers played back in the US, but I liked seeing the little kids dress up.

I've got the "Goblins and Ghosties" bellpull up, as well as the decorations I posted earlier.






My garden is looking very end-of-season, but I have loads of chrysanthemums. They grow very tall here, no matter how much you pinch them back, but they get great blooms.