Made It: Christmas Ornaments From An Unusual Source

Hello! May seem hard to believe, but Christmas is two months from today! So what better time to show off some ornament gifts I just finished making? 

Every year I create ornaments for my younger nieces and nephews, the ones who haven't graduated from high school yet. I like to get these made early and out of the way since I always have other gifts to make. Here's what I stitched up for this year's set:

And a close-up:

Each design was stitched on  14-count Aida fabric, trimmed, backed with coordinating felt and then glued to wooden rings. A friend of mine gave me those rings, which came wrapped with wire hangers. They were the perfect size for the finished stitcheries. I'll admit, though, that these aren't big ornaments - the wooden rings are only about 2" diameter. So, small ornaments, but big on charm. 

What makes the source of these designs unusual is this:

A 1979 counted cross-stitch design book, published by the Japanese company Ondori. (In case you didn't know, the letters "DMC" on the  front cover refer to a well-known embroidery thread company). I bought this book at a thrift store for a quarter. I liked the interesting - and sometimes goofy -  designs, but it was the cheery colors that really caught my eye:

A friend thought these figures looked Dutch. 

These chicks would be cute for Easter.

A pig in pink. 

The page from which my ornament designs came. 

For reasons unknown to me, several of the larger designs in this book depict some sort of circus or carnival setting, such as this one:

Children on an animal-themed ride. 

Other designs along the same theme are children holding balloons, hot air balloons rising up in the sky beyond a roller coaster and a Ferris wheel, clowns riding a circus wagon being pulled by an ostrich, clowns doing an act with a monkey, and other whimsical scenes. 

The purpose of these - or any of the designs in this book - is unknown to me as well, since nearly the entire book is in Japanese. But the design charts were easy to follow and the DMC color numbers were given for each design. Those numbers are universal, so I had no problem doing the stitching.
  
I was curious about this:

Might have included some handy tips about how to pull out an end of the floss without ending up with a tangled mess like I've sometimes done. But it'll remain a mystery to me.

This book is 120 pages long plus four pages of ads for other Ondori craft books. The only real English in the whole volume is two snippets added later: the American importer of the book and the shop in my area that had stocked it. 

Although Japanese language craft books are still a thing in this country, I don't see them around much, so I do consider them an unusual source. But in this case, my thrift store find helped me with some Christmas gift-giving. There's nothing unusual about that!

 

 

 
 

Views From The End Of The World

Well, not actually the end of the world - but we did recently travel to Worlds End State Park in northeastern Pennsylvania. We used to live about 3 1/2 hours from this park; which made it a nice weekend escape from our workweek life in suburban Philadelphia.

We no longer live nearly as close to Worlds End State Park but still enjoy revisiting it from time to time for a little hiking. A few photos show why we like returning:

Views of many small waterfalls on Double Run. While I did enjoy sights on this part of our hike, I was less enamored of the trail routing. We were led onto rocks that lined the stream bed - not great footing, and slippery to boot. But by walking carefully we got through this part of the trail unscathed. 

We climbed steadily up to our ultimate goal, Canyon Vista. According to a guidebook I have, Hiking The Endless Mountains by Jeff Mitchell, Canyon Vista is "One of Pennsylvania's most famous vistas..." In a state abundant with natural scenery, that's high praise indeed. 

When we got the Canyon Vista, here's what we saw:

 That's Loyalsock Creek you see below, from Canyon Vista's height of 1,750 ft. Mitchell comments that "Canyon Visit is not very high, but it offers incredible mountain scenery and an awesome view of Loyalsock Canyon." 

We were hoping for more fall color, but a couple also at the vista said that the frequent rains in the region had hurt the maples; they were told that the leaves had died and fallen off before they could change color. Nevertheless, my husband and I, and the couple (visiting from Philadelphia) were as happy with the views as Mitchell was. 

After the climb to Canyon Vista my husband and I prepared to climb back down. This actually took us a bit longer than the trip up. The descent was quite steep in spots, steep enough that we worked against gravity to ensure we wouldn't go too fast. The amount of boulders to cross, tree roots to avoid and wet leaves to guard against made for slow going. But again, we were cautious and made our way back to the car with no issues other than the skid I took down a wet, slippery boulder. No injuries from it, though, so no harm, no foul. But because of such tricky footing - along with that close-to-Double Run trail on the way up to Canyon Vista - I didn't wish to stop to take more photos.

Despite that iffy footing, we were very happy with our excursion to Worlds End State Park. Mitchell calls it "...one of Pennsylvania's most beautiful state parks...beauty encompasses the entire park." Truthfully, we didn't go to many state parks while living in Pennsylvania. Our hiking activities mostly took us elsewhere. But Worlds End State park was an exception, since the nearly 60-mile-long Loyalsock Trail passes through it. (We went on parts of the LT to and from Canyon Vista on this hike.)

(Mitchell says that the Loyalsock Trail is "...one of Pennsylvania's most famous hiking trails". Again, high praise for a trail in a state loaded with them. We have a fondness for the LT ourselves since we've hiked it in its entirety.)

By the way, it's believed that the "Worlds End" moniker came from early settlers to the region. According to the park's website (found here):

Early settlers to the area used two horse trails to cross the rugged highland from Muncy Creek to the forks of Loyalsock Creek at the town of Forksville. This treacherous road became obsolete in 1895 with the building of PA 154.

Pioneer Road Trail and Worlds End Road follow the path of the old horse trail. Worlds End Vista, at the junction of Pioneer Road Trail and Worlds End Trail, is the view that possibly inspired the name of the park.

And I should also note that one can view Canyon Vista without the rigors of scrambling over boulders and huffing and puffing up hills:

ADA accessible Loyalsock Canyon Vista, reached via Mineral Spring and Cold Run roads, and nearby High Knob Vista, provide outstanding views of the Endless Mountains region. Scenery is particularly unforgettable during the June mountain laurel bloom and the fall foliage period in October. (this info also came from the park website). 

We did see some folks approach the vista via the roads, which of course is fine and sure saved them some wear and tear on their legs. 

But even by foot, the views from the end of the world are worth it! 

Get Carded: Sad And Glad

Hello: Recently I made greeting cards to comfort a neighbor and to celebrate a niece's wedding. Two very different circumstances, to be sure, but both occasions deserved a nice handcrafted card. 

For the neighbor with a death in the family:

A close-up:

Purple is my go-to color for sympathy cards.

Materials used:

• white card stock
• textured purple art paper scrap
• solid purple art paper scrap
• heart shape cut from vintage playing card
• vintage button
• ribbon scrap
• "May all your precious memories help bring you peace and comfort through all the days ahead" stamped in lilac ink onto paper scrap, then affixed to card. 

I don't enjoy making sympathy cards, but I think this one turned out pretty well. It may seem odd using a vintage playing card in this way, but the design on the card back is pretty. 

I don't know if our neighbor cared about that vintage playing card design, but she was appreciative that we'd sent the card. 

Happier times prevailed last weekend at our niece's wedding. The "save the date" card and wedding invitation were printed on medium brown card stock, so I used that color as a starting point for my card.

And a close-up:

 


Materials used:

• white card stock
• kraft paper scrap embellished with gold stamp pad ink
• brown and white patterned art paper scrap
• white paper scrap
• off-white, heart-shaped scrapbook embellishment with "truly madly deeply" printed on the heart in gold 
• "Congratulations" stamped in black ink
• vintage gold-tone eyelet threaded with three pieces of ribbon

This card's simplicity matched the simple yet stylish design of the "save the date" and invitation mailings we'd gotten. A wedding card with an over-the-top design didn't seem right.

Congratulations to Courtney and Jake! And I hope our neighbor will be able to take the words on the front of her card to heart. 

Sad or glad, I'll make a card to match the occasion.