Sandwich at Christmas, Part 2

Sandwich is the quintessential New England town, one of the first settled in this country, so it's holiday quaintness is second to none.  I went completely overboard with pictures on this walk.  This particular part of town has embraced a very romanticized Victorian look at Christmas, which I just love.  I've featured pics taken after dark of all the lights, but it's just as scenic during the day too.  I parked at the Glass Museum and first took some shots in that area, before walking down Main Street.

I would give anything to own this place.

I have no idea who owns it.

I lived in an apartment in that building from the fall of 1988 till I moved to San Francisco in 1989.

Could this be any cooler?!?!

I've now rounded the corner from Main Street onto Jarves Street.

The former Catholic church, now a B&B.

You have no idea how bad I want to take Russell's pic next to this sign, perhaps flexing his arm too....I keep threatening to stop when he's with me but I haven't.  Yet.

Sandwich at Christmas, Part 1

A couple of weeks ago, I was on my way out the door to meet up with my girlfriends for lunch.  As I was getting ready, I grabbed my camera as kind of an afterthought.  I hadn't intended on shooting anything but every time I don't bring it, I end up regretting it.  We had a great lunch at Uno's Grill in Hyannis, and on my way home, I drove through downtown Sandwich.  There is construction up on the bridge that has traffic crawling for 4 miles on the highway, hence the trip through town.

I was on Rte 130 and as I approached my old elementary school, the weak winter sunlight was lighting it up in such a way that I had a flashback to the 1970s when I went there.  The decorated & lit tree in the lobby (back in the days before "political correctness" robbed schools of that cheerful holiday tradition) that appeared after Thanksgiving break.  Teachers setting aside time for us to decorate our classrooms.  The Christmas gift or ornament projects we worked on in art class. The end of year class party with gifts and cupcakes and cookies and punch.  That excited buzz as we boarded our buses in the dark afternoon, high on sugar, clutching our art project ornaments and gifts for the last ride home till after New Years.  Yeah, I had to stop and take pictures.  

H.T. Wing was built in 1927, and it held grades K - 12 in one building, up until 1976 when the high school was built.  The front part of the school was K-6 and this part seen here was the high school.  When I attended, the only times I ever entered this part of the school was to go to lunch or the nurse's office.  There were 2 separate gyms too, till 1975 when one was turned into the elementary school cafeteria and stage.  

Those arched windows are in what was the old cafeteria and stage area.  It was ancient.  There was a bit of insulation that showed in the ceiling and the older kids teased the younger ones that it was the rat or mouse stuck and could drop on your table at any minute.  Everyone, and I do mean everyone, I grew up with remembers this. 

Those are the doors that opened into the old cafeteria.  We lined up against them to get our food.  Opening them was forbidden but it always happened, especially on nice days.  One time there was a bloodcurdling scream that silenced everyone at the tables.  The heavy door had shut on a classmate's fingers which were in the hinged side of the door.  He damn near lost his fingers and was rushed to the hospital.

This was the entrance to the high school.

This was the elementary school.  My kindergarten and first grade classes were within those rows of windows.  This is also where the buses dropped us off.

This house is right next to the school.  

To be continued...

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

I normally don't participate in blog hops, but I am doing this one.  It's hosted by the Aloha! Mark Koopmans Says Hi from HI blog.  The premise is to "set aside a moment to reflect on the year that was and share some hopes for next year, in 100 words.  Me? Keep to 100 words?  I normally do my year end reflection and hope for the following year on NYE so I will try keep this one short.

2013 was a lot of things, but for me it was mostly about bonding & spending time with the kids.  That was the best part. 

My amazing little family.  

My hope for next year?  That I can take his name, spend more time with the kids and that we can continue to live in this awesome rental home. 

Have a joyous holiday!! 

Still Crafting!!!

I have no upcoming shows but I can't stop making things.  I have so many projects and tutorials saved that I just have to keep chipping away at them.

This is a cinnamon stick star I saw on Pinterest.  The person that made the one I saw used different decorations like real juniper and star anise, neither of which I had.  However, I was able to snip a few bits off of some existing decorations to use in the corner, and I found a small cardinal mixed in with my Christmas craft supplies.  

Then I had to make more of course.

Craft kit of the month came in and I wanted to get that done ASAP too.  The bags are made from vellum and had to be traced, cut and folded.  Then embellished with rub ons, embossing and small pearls, assembled and the ribbon handles were added last.  I worked on these while watching the Seattle Seahawks kick the Giants' ass on a cold, rainy Sunday.

Here's another lit bottle with blue, purple and green glass blobbies glued on.

It's somewhat difficult to make the blobs fit well all the way around and I tried to do all my 'fudging' on one side that I keep turned towards the back.

And another picture I saw on Pinterest using beach glass wired wrapped to a starfish.  This is a prototype but I've had some friends express interest in buying them.  I can get the starfish at the Christmas Tree Shoppe, but only in summer unfortunately.  I popped in to buy some and was really disappointed that they are gone till next year. 

This is another one I'd been wanting to do, making a suncatcher with the plastic Makit Bakit crystals.  I found one of their kits to make bowls by melting the bits in a pie tin and then shaping the sides as they cooled.  I really bought the kit because it had large bags of crystals which are next to impossible to find.  I melted them in the pie tin but I didn't shape the sides.

This one I did in a cookie cutter.  Unfortunately the heat of the oven and expanding crystals popped the soldering on one of the cutter seams, down at the bottom which is why it looks so raggedy.   

Russell's niece had asked me to make a beach glass bracelet for her sister....

....and liked it so much she commissioned four more.

And since I had everything out and a tall, thin jar, I tried again with this Austrian Santa snowglobe.