Sunday, December 27, 2009
Saturday, December 26, 2009
AFTER-CHRISTMAS SALE
I'm trying not to be too discouraged or crabby about it, but my Etsy sales during November and December were absolutely dismal. It was especially disheartening because I had been working on Christmas products almost continuously since September. Not to mention that this stuff now threatens to crowd me out of house and home. So I created a separate sale section in my shop and hope that the reduced prices will clear out some or all of my inventory. Stop by and take a look.
Typical of most of us in the new year, I'm going to re-evaluate and try and determine what I need to improve upon - or how. Is it the product? Marketing? Visibility on Etsy? Once we get through this holiday season I may put together a questionnaire and have you help me make some decisions. I love being able to do what I'm doing, but the secondary goal is to supplement my retirement income and that's the part that's not happening for me.
In the meantime, I'm still in holiday mode and hope this holiday season is bringing you much happiness, warmth and love! I'll be in touch.
Typical of most of us in the new year, I'm going to re-evaluate and try and determine what I need to improve upon - or how. Is it the product? Marketing? Visibility on Etsy? Once we get through this holiday season I may put together a questionnaire and have you help me make some decisions. I love being able to do what I'm doing, but the secondary goal is to supplement my retirement income and that's the part that's not happening for me.
In the meantime, I'm still in holiday mode and hope this holiday season is bringing you much happiness, warmth and love! I'll be in touch.
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Health, Peace and Sweet Content be Yours.
- Wm. Shakespeare
Wishing you all the blessings of the season.
A deep thank you to all of you who have
supported me during the past year.
I appreciate it so so much! See you in a few days.
Merry Christmas!
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
A Christmas Tradition – The Christmas Eve Vigil, or “Wigilia”
"The merry family gatherings -- The old, the very young, the strangely lovely way they harmonize in carols sung. For Christmas is tradition time -- traditions that recall the precious memories down the years, the sameness of them all."
-- Helen Lowrie Marshall
My grandparents came to this country as teenagers, alone, having left their families behind in Poland. Like most immigrants, they tended to gather together in neighborhoods with others like them and continued many of the traditions they themselves grew up with in “the old country.” My parents were born in the United States, but they – and we – grew up in a small town surrounded mostly by Polish people with long last names that usually contained more vowels than consonants!
When I was growing up, Christmas was filled with Polish traditions. Christmas Eve, not Christmas Day, was the important day, called “Wigilia” – the Christmas Eve Vigil - anticipating the birth of the Christ Child. We always gathered at my parent’s home on Christmas Eve, even long after we had left home and started our own lives and families. I have a large family, so that small house was crowded and noisy and when I remember it now … wonderful.
Before we sat down for dinner we observed my most favorite Christmas tradition - the exchanging of the Oplatek. As a Christmas custom, opłatek originated in Poland and was spread widely as far back as the 17th century. The oplatek is a sheet of unconsecrated communion wafer and is distributed in the churches in the Polish community in time for Christmas. Everyone takes a piece of the wafer and then we exchange a small piece of it with every family member, at the same time forgiving any hurts caused during the past year and offering special and personal good wishes to each other for the coming year. It’s important that you not miss anyone, or it superstitiously could be bad news for that person in the coming year. Some traditions we observed as children haven’t carried forward, but this one – the exchanging of the oplatek – is still observed at our annual family Christmas party. There’s so many of us that we sometimes lose track: “did I get you yet?” “you already hit me, girl!” “help, I ran out of oplatek!” There’s lots of tears and laughter and kissing and hugging – I love it.
My parents adhered to the Catholic teachings of a meatless meal for the Vigil, so we ate mushroom soup (I make it every Christmas; my recipe follows below), fish and vegetables, pierogi (dumplings) with sour cream, sledzie (creamed herring), deviled eggs, and my Mom's homemade potato bread. For dessert we had coffee cake and kruschiki (angel wings).
There’s one meal tradition we still laugh about and whose origins were very mysterious. It was a soup called “kwasnia kasha” which translates literally to “sour oatmeal” and – yes – it was as bad as it sounds. My mother fixed it every year, and according to tradition, we had to eat a little of everything that was served to ensure blessings in the new year. We hated that soup, but we had to admit that after having been forced to eat a little bit every year we actually started to like it. (We never got the recipe from my mother so that’s one tradition that didn’t survive my parents.)
After dinner we exchanged gifts, and the kids were everywhere, opening gifts and playing.
My Mom could be counted on to sit down at the piano to lead the Christmas carol singing. (Someone, probably one of my brothers, popped this bow on her head but she didn’t miss a beat!)
Once the little kids were settled down, most of us went to Midnight Mass. My Dad always stayed home to prepare the after-mass feast: Kielbasa and Polish ham with horseradish and potato bread, and yes, whiskey and Polish brandy for shots. When my siblings and I were older, our house became known to our friends as party central after Midnight Mass, and it often became an all-night affair. I don’t know how the little kids slept through all that. (And, yes, we've settled down quite a bit since then ....!)
When we finally arose the next day, Dad would fix scrambled eggs with chopped kielbasa mixed in – his cure for a hangover. To this day I still have scrambled eggs and kielbasa on Christmas Day in memory of my Dad.
Now that my parents are gone and the family has grown and grown, it becomes more and more difficult to get us all together for Christmas. I hosted the party for many years until we out-grew my condo. Others have stepped up to host so far and we have managed to have a family party each year, still sharing the oplatek, and many of the same foods we had as children. Several of my great-nieces and nephews are musicians, so we are often treated to a mini-concert, a lovely new tradition. I deeply hope we can continue this once-a-year get-together.
-- Helen Lowrie Marshall
When I was growing up, Christmas was filled with Polish traditions. Christmas Eve, not Christmas Day, was the important day, called “Wigilia” – the Christmas Eve Vigil - anticipating the birth of the Christ Child. We always gathered at my parent’s home on Christmas Eve, even long after we had left home and started our own lives and families. I have a large family, so that small house was crowded and noisy and when I remember it now … wonderful.
My parents adhered to the Catholic teachings of a meatless meal for the Vigil, so we ate mushroom soup (I make it every Christmas; my recipe follows below), fish and vegetables, pierogi (dumplings) with sour cream, sledzie (creamed herring), deviled eggs, and my Mom's homemade potato bread. For dessert we had coffee cake and kruschiki (angel wings).
There’s one meal tradition we still laugh about and whose origins were very mysterious. It was a soup called “kwasnia kasha” which translates literally to “sour oatmeal” and – yes – it was as bad as it sounds. My mother fixed it every year, and according to tradition, we had to eat a little of everything that was served to ensure blessings in the new year. We hated that soup, but we had to admit that after having been forced to eat a little bit every year we actually started to like it. (We never got the recipe from my mother so that’s one tradition that didn’t survive my parents.)
After dinner we exchanged gifts, and the kids were everywhere, opening gifts and playing.
My Mom could be counted on to sit down at the piano to lead the Christmas carol singing. (Someone, probably one of my brothers, popped this bow on her head but she didn’t miss a beat!)
Once the little kids were settled down, most of us went to Midnight Mass. My Dad always stayed home to prepare the after-mass feast: Kielbasa and Polish ham with horseradish and potato bread, and yes, whiskey and Polish brandy for shots. When my siblings and I were older, our house became known to our friends as party central after Midnight Mass, and it often became an all-night affair. I don’t know how the little kids slept through all that. (And, yes, we've settled down quite a bit since then ....!)
When we finally arose the next day, Dad would fix scrambled eggs with chopped kielbasa mixed in – his cure for a hangover. To this day I still have scrambled eggs and kielbasa on Christmas Day in memory of my Dad.
Now that my parents are gone and the family has grown and grown, it becomes more and more difficult to get us all together for Christmas. I hosted the party for many years until we out-grew my condo. Others have stepped up to host so far and we have managed to have a family party each year, still sharing the oplatek, and many of the same foods we had as children. Several of my great-nieces and nephews are musicians, so we are often treated to a mini-concert, a lovely new tradition. I deeply hope we can continue this once-a-year get-together.
This year, because of the way the family calendar falls, our party won’t be until January 2. I’ll be spending Christmas Eve and Christmas Day visiting with some of my siblings. Although Christmas is not the same as it was when I was a child and times inevitably change, I still look forward to it and I’m grateful that we carry forward at least some of the traditions of our childhood.
Christmas is the keeping-place for memories of our innocence.
~ Joan Mills
CREAM OF MUSHROOM SOUP (YUMMY!)
I would love to give credit for where I got this recipe, but I found it in a magazine about 30 years ago(!) I don’t even remember the name of the magazine but I do know it has been out of circulation for many years.
Makes 6-8 servings (about 8 cups)
½ cup unsalted butter
1 pound mushrooms, stems removed, coarsely chopped (about 5 cups) (I use button mushrooms)
3-4 drops fresh lemon juice
3-4 drops fresh lemon juice
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
10 cups chicken stock or 5 cups chicken broth and 5 cups water
1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground white pepper
1. Heat butter in large heavy stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat. When foam subsides, add mushrooms and lemon juice, tossing well to coat mushrooms with butter; reduce heat to low. Cover mushrooms loosely with foil; cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 25 minutes.
2. Remove stockpot from heat, stir in flour until well blended.* Stir in chicken stock; heat over medium heat to boiling. Reduce heat to low; simmer, covered, stirring occasionally, until soup is thick, about 1-1/2 hours.**
3. Just before serving, stir in heavy cream, salt, and pepper to taste. Heat over low heat just until heated through; do not allow to boil. Serve immediately in warmed soup bowls.
*-I can’t seem to avoid flour lumps that way, so I stir in a roux using the liquid from the mushrooms.
**-If making soup ahead, stop at this point. Place buttered piece of waxed paper or foil directly on surface of soup to prevent skin from forming; let cool, then refrigerate. Reheat gently when ready to proceed with recipe. Note: I have very successfully frozen the soup at this point.
A Giveaway Winner!
Last week my friend Chris did an interview and giveaway with me on her blog: http://cbcrafter.blogspot.com/2009/12/artist-of-month-and-giveaway.html The gift is one of my vintage blocks:
The winner is: Dusty of Inverness Studios
One thing I love about the online community is discovering other artists and seeing the limitless creativity of artists and crafters. And that's the case with Dusty. She says "I love to recycle, redesign, and relove" and her work proves that. It's tough to pick my favorite from her shop, but the simplicity and perfection of this bookmark impressed me. When you have a moment to breathe during these holidays, sit down and browse her shop. I think you'll like what you see!
Congratulations, Dusty! I'll be in touch.
The winner is: Dusty of Inverness Studios
One thing I love about the online community is discovering other artists and seeing the limitless creativity of artists and crafters. And that's the case with Dusty. She says "I love to recycle, redesign, and relove" and her work proves that. It's tough to pick my favorite from her shop, but the simplicity and perfection of this bookmark impressed me. When you have a moment to breathe during these holidays, sit down and browse her shop. I think you'll like what you see!
Congratulations, Dusty! I'll be in touch.
Monday, December 21, 2009
I won! I won! I won!
Well, this is a rare treat - I won one of the 12 Days of Christmas giveaways sponsored by the Design Style Guide team - the 8th Day to be exact!
My gift is a $20 gift certificate to ArtFromTheHeartbySue, a shop full of delightful handpainted designs on everything from canvas to tiles to glass. I was immediately drawn to this set of pinecone handpainted tiles:
My gift is a $20 gift certificate to ArtFromTheHeartbySue, a shop full of delightful handpainted designs on everything from canvas to tiles to glass. I was immediately drawn to this set of pinecone handpainted tiles:
I have written about how much I love Christmas, and these are perfect for the season. Can't wait to get them!
It's not too late to enter for the remaining DSG giveaways until Christmas Day. Go here to enter:
Thanks, Design Style Guide and Susan!
Sunday, December 20, 2009
New Treasury
My online friend, Stephanie of stefny68 creates the best treasuries and, not incidentally, she is kind enough to include me in several of them. You'll remember that Stephanie and I did an interview and double giveaway here. Stephanie does some absolutely beautiful floral paintings, so stop by her shop and take a look. You'll see beauties like this:
My liquid purple 2 digital collage print is included in this pretty treasury.
My liquid purple 2 digital collage print is included in this pretty treasury.
Time for something other than red...
Created by: stefny68 Exp: 3 days
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