Tempus Fugit

TEMPUS FUGIT... is why its been a long long time. 

I always used to wonder "What the hay does tempus fugit mean, anywho?"  The only Latin I'd ever learned was either in the various choral groups I used to sing with (*"O fortuna velut luna statu variabilis..." from Orff's Carmina Burana, for example), or in figure drawing class, where we had to learn the latin names of all the muscles and bones.  Why we had to know the 

sternocleidomastoid 

and the 

latissimus dorsi

on a personal level in order to DRAW, is somewhat a mystery to me.

(And WHY I still REMEMBER their names is an even BIGGER mystery!?)  

But I digress... and meanwhile, tempus fugit. 

I'd never really thought about tempus fugit, other than wonder why those words appear on just about every big o' grandfather clock in the ENTIRE universe!

Then I found out.

TEMPUS FUGIT... TIME FLIES!

  

BOY HOWDY, DOES IT EVER!!!

Tempus fugit... and we FINALLY got the shop De-Christmas-ed and De-Valentine-ed and the front window sufficiently greened up for St. Paddy's Day (if only the snow would all disappear!)  

At least this year we'll have more than a week between St. Patrick's Day and Easter!  

Last year, I hardly knew what to do for window displays, since both holidays were only a week apart.

Baskets of eggs painted with shamrocks and bunnies toting shillelaghs didn't really cut it.  Looked kinda like the shop did when we had both the Christmas and Valentine stuff... confusing, to say the least. 

But this year, no problem... almost a month between holidays.  Whew!  

But tempus fugit.

Now that we've got that all taken care of, its time to plan a beading class or two.  

The Gurlz over at 

Summer Kitchen Interiors 

(be sure to ck out their swell blog!) 

want us to come do a Beadyize class for their customers next month.  So I've been putting together samples... making up kits, cause that will be faster and easier than having everyone spend time selecting what beads they want for their project.  

That would take too long.  That would leave no time for actual beading.

Cause after all... tempus fugit!  

And March will be here before we know it! 

Photos coming soon... stay tuned, O fortuna!  

*O fortuna... (sounds like the cats dreaming of what they'd do for a really good meal. "Oh, for TUNA, I'd catch a hundred mousies or stay off the sofa for an entire day!"  Yeah, right!) 

*O fortuna velut luna statu variabilis = O fortune, like the moon you are changeable....

Ain't it the truth!  Ain't it the truth!

  

 

Yesterday the rodent... today the beans!

In Japan, the custom of February 3rd is Bean-throwing.

Until my new niece-in-law, Rimi, enlightened me today in an email, I had no idea about why ANYONE would throw beans, much less call it a festival.  But that's the custom in Japan on either February 3 or 4, depending upon which of the 113,000 Google results that you care to read about Setsubun -- the Bean-Throwing Festival, which takes place one day before the beginning of spring, according to the Japanese Lunar Calendar.  Hey, I really LIKE this Japanese calendar!  Forget that silly rodent named Phil, who just yesterday claimed to be the all-knowing weather-seer.  Six more weeks of winter?  Phooey!  I'm all for starting even earlier than Phil's prediction and if springtime starts on February 5th in Japan... I say bring it on!!!   

Why do Setsubun?  To scare away the BoogeyMan, BoogeyDog, BoogeyMonster, etc. and to insure good luck for the new season.  I'm all for that.  

Setsubun brings good luck AND an earlier spring?  Bring on the beans!

But wait... there's more...

Apparently, its necessary to face in the proper direction when throwing the beans.  In all the pages I read through this evening about Setsubun, I never did learn which direction is the proper one.  And just how many variations of degrees of the compass must I rule out if I'm to try and venture a guess?  Hmmmm, do I face in an easterly direction?  Or would directly west be more accurate?  Or maybe slightly WSW?  Or how 'bout ENE? (one of my favorite directions and pronounced "eeny", as in "eeny, meeny, miny, moe".  I also like NNE, pronounced "neeny".  Hey, I'm easily amused.)  

A quickly emailed question to Rimi (rhymes with "eeny") has not yet netted the answer. 

Then there is the proper incantation to recite.  When throwing the beans out the door, you are to shout, "Oni wa soto!  Fu ku wa uchi!" which is Japanese of course and means "Devils out!  Happiness in!"  Then, you pick up and eat the number of beans which corresponds to your age.

Okay, I suppose I can do that part if I clean my floor first and sweep off the front steps.  But what happens if I cannot then find enough beans to eat after I've thrown them out the door?  (I'll need several dozen!)  I couldn't figure out how to Google that question.

Oh, the beans of choice are roasted soybeans.  I used to have some of those here around the house from back in my peri-menopausal hot-flash days.  Supposibly (or supposedly... hey, they're both real words), they help with the flashing.  I used to eat 'em 'til I gagged.

And speaking of gagging...

We now come to a difficult part of the ceremony, at least it would be for me.  You're suppose to eat a special sushi, which has been wrapped a certain special way... and you must eat the ENTIRE roll without stopping (or gagging) or speaking mid-sushi.  If you stop before finishing, or (heaven forbid!) utter a single syllable, all good-luck bets are off. 

Then there are the special decorations.  It is a custom to decorate your front door with a display of dried sardine heads and holly.  Yeppers, you heard me right... dried sardine heads and holly.  I used to think that one of the strangest things I'd heard about Japanese culture was that they like corn on their pizza.  But this one tops that one hands down!   Sardine heads and holly.  I suppose in Japan it is possible to purchase these decorations pre-made.  But here... WHERE does one obtain DRIED sardine heads???  Those kinds of decorative tidbits just aren't found at the local craft-supply stores.  I can just see me going in to JoAnn's and inquiring!  Back in the 13th Century, people would burn the sardine heads, the bad odor believed to drive away the bad spirits (and keep anyone ELSE from entering your home too!)  But back in the 13th Century, we surely wouldn't have known about these things.  Japan then was a "closed society" and here in "The West" we had no inkling of what happens in Japan... and we DIDN'T find out until Victorian times, when trade with Japan was established.  

Just think of all those lost hundreds of years of bean-throwing!  

Who knew?  

But now, thanks to Rimi... YOU do.

Arigato, Rimi!

Happy Bean-throwing Day everyone!

             

Grundoon Day!!!

February 2th, known to fans of Pogo as Grundoon Day, but I'm probably showing my age by saying that.  For those of you who don't know, Pogo was a WONDERFUL comic strip that featured Pogo Possum and his buddies, whose misadventures can be compared to Calvin and Hobbes in style.  Back in the day when Pogo appeared in color, in the only color pages of the Kansas City Star (on Sundays), I would read it to LittleMom as she busily prepared the Sunday dinner after church.  We would laugh ourselves silly over that week's adventures of Pogo, Albert Alligator, Howland Owl, et. al.  It did take some concentration to read... these characters had some strange spellings and well, just bizarre ways of saying things.  Like Groundhog Day.  In Pogoland, it was Grundoon Day!  For more about Pogo, here's the oh-fishul site:  pogopossum.com

Soanyways (somethin' Pogo might say if'n he was in Pennsa-vainya), some things are just too strange.  Let me 'splain, Rucy...  Yesterday, at the annual meeting of Historic Lyme Village at Bellevue, Ohio, I was to be the speaker.  I volunteer there and my "job" is Coordinator of The Victorian Guild, a group of volunteers who work all year to recreate Victorian-era Christmas decor and then decorate the 1882 John Wright Mansion at the Village.  So I'm sitting there, costumed in bustle and corset cause I always dress in costume when giving a talk, and I'm thinking about how long is the business portion of this meeting, so I can get on with my presentation.  Well, the president of the museum board started the meeting, "First off, we're gonna announce the Volunteer of the Year... she was born in Independence, Missouri...."  Well, my jaw dropped to the floor!  I'se practically for certain he's talkin' 'bout ME cause I'm pretty sure no one ELSE in that room was born in Missouri, much less in Independence!  I must say here that the "award" is for the entire Victorian Guild... a small group of about a dozen dedicated ladies.  We have been decorating the Wright Mansion for the past 8 Christmases and it is a really nice honor to be recognized in this way.  

Then today, I discover that those super-delightful gals over at Summer Kitchen Interiors (ck 'em out here)

www.summerkitcheninteriors.com  

up and "awarded" Ivy's Vine as one of their top bloggers for attitude/gratitude!  Wowee!!!  Thanks Karla and Karrie!  We truly appreciate those kinds words of encouragement you've shown us.  

So how very strange... TWO "awards" in TWO days... and I didn't even have to play a game of football!  I'm sure stranger things have happened... just not to me lately.

More about The Victorian Guild and what's new at Ivy's Vine in future posts.  Thanks for reading and hope you'll return.  

Jour Deux (for the non-Francophiles among us, that's Day Two)

PINK!!!

There must be something in the air... a pink-ish kind of light we get 'round these parts especially in the eastern sky this time of year just before the snow all turns blue and resembles the colors in a Maxfield Parrish painting... that lovely cobalt hue actually referred to as "Parrish Blue". And never more evident than in this Parrish painting: http://www.goodart.org/mpbirch.jpg
You can just tell by looking at this painting that sure a'shootin'... as soon as the sun dips below the hills, all that snow is gonna turn that exact same color as the sky!

Too bad the color is so fleeting. As Shakespeare said (or wrote),

"When the candles are out, all cats are gray...."

But for ever-so-fleeting a moment its there... every night... whether the sun is shining or the clouds are thick... Parrish Blue... never more evident than upon the winter snow.

For another Parrish snow scene, ck this out: http://www.artsycraftsy.com/parrish_prints.html
Scroll down to the one titled "Winter Twilight" with the beautiful pink hills and darkening sky above. Simply lovely!

And you thought pink and blue was reserved only for babies.

I "need" something pink-ish today cause I would like to tell you more about our Ivy's Vine Valentine-make-a-thon. Now this is not a true "thon" cause we truly aren't expecting huge-big crowds here. Hey, this is January in Genoa... lotsa hibernatin' folks around here.

SO WAKE UP EVERYONE!!!!! We're giving away something FREE!!!

The only "attached string" is that you'll actually need to come IN to the shop to do it. Sorry, we aren't doing cyber-Valentines. Maybe in another time and continuum...

Egads and little fish-hooks!

What the heck!

What are we doing here? Well, I guess creating a blog. Been holding out but suppose its now the time to bite the ol' bullet and begin. Never done it before, but verbosity is a strong suit so here goes! And starting out with "Egads and little fish-hooks!" seems like a good attention-getting start.

After gathering our courage, plus encouragement from Karrie and Karla at Summer Kitchen Interiors... we're jumping in! Here we go!!!

First of all, a little introduction. Who are we? And where are we? And what do we do?

"We" are a shop called Ivy's Vine. We are also a mini "boutique" inside Ivy's Vine called "Beadyize". We are located in Northwest Ohio, about 20 min SE of Toledo and the Northcoast (of Lake Erie) in the historic village of Genoa. More specifically, our shop is located in the historic downtown district on Main St. and in the largest commercial building... the IOOF Building (circa 1902), which we share with two other businesses: Innovations Portrait Studio next door, and Dance Tek upstairs.

But most importantly, what are we all about?

Ivy's Vine is a retail shop featuring antique and vintage items such as furniture, collectibles, housewares (crystal, glass, pottery, china, jewelry, teacups, etc.), and about anything else either antique or vintage that interests us. We also feature new local artisan-made items such as pine-needle baskets, replicas of Victorian-era handcrafts, framed photographs of local landmarks... all from talented artists who live in our area.

99.999% of our inventory is unique... one-of-a-kind... we don't have another 6 in the back room.... We like it that way. We don't go "to market" to purchase our inventory. Believe it or not, most of it just comes to us! "In the back door, out the front!" is a favorite motto. Another is "Creative minds are rarely tidy." More about that one later.

Beadyize, our latest venture in "boutique" form (located inside Ivy's Vine), is vintage beads and vintage jewelry-making components such as charms, pendants, dangles, clasps, connectors...along with new beads and components. We started up Beadyize last summer and are still "tooling up". We spent most of last summer cleaning and sorting beads! We are getting ready to start classes soon. (Watch this space for more info about that!)

Meanwhile, the weather outside has been frightful this month. January in NW Ohio usually is. Hopefully, the worst is now behind us. At least we've noticed the days are getting longer. That's always encouraging.

So while the days lengthen, we want to do something "different"... something "artsy"... something "creative". And we want to give something to our good customers and friends... those we've met, and those we haven't yet had the privilege of meeting yet! Here's what we're planning: We're having a "Make-it and Take-it" with a twist... stop by and make two free Victorian Valentine cards (easy! we'll show you how!) but instead of taking them both, leave one behind, which we will then deliver to area seniors/assisted living residents/shut-ins.

And while you're here, you can find out about upcoming Beadyize classes and perhaps score the perfect gift for Great Aunt Mabel's upcoming birthday!

So... egads and little fish-hooks... we're happy to be here... finally! And pleased as punch to have you read this. Stay tuned. Plenty more where this came from. Hope you'll be back. Meanwhile, we'll learn how to post photos... cya next time!