Saturday, November 26, 2011

Green Gift Ideas

Here are some gift ideas for the green enthusiast.

Wildflower Seed Bomb, $14 from UncommonGoods: Each reusable muslin pouch holds five seed balls made from clay and worm castings to enrich depleted soil.


Plastic and Millet Grass Basket, $32 from LEI: Cheerful, primary colors form a modern, geometric pattern on this versatile basket, handmade by local artisans in West Africa.

Reclaimed Skateboard Belt Buckle, $36 from Renegade Handmade: Remember all those hours on your skateboard trying to perfect that sick jump? Here is a belt buckle to proclaim your pain. Or success. You be the judge. Scratches on buckle authentic.

Recycled Plastic Bottle Purse, $8 from JPATPURSES on Etsy. The quilt batting in this little zip pouch is made from 100% recycled plastic bottles, Oh so soft! Bold Retro Elements designer fabric.





The Vegetable Gardener's Bible (10th Anniversary Edition), $16.47 from Amazon.com (paperback).  Friendly, accessible language; full-color photography; comprehensive vegetable specific information in the A-to-Z section; ahead-of-its-time commitment to organic methods; and much more. Everything for the eat-local lover.



Handcrafted native, white (paper) birch wooden candle holders, $24, from Pretty Dreamer on Etsy.  When a tree falls in the forest, it may not always be heard.  All the same, the branch remembers the tree, the sunshine, the wind, the falling rain, and of course its earthy home.  S beautiful set of three woodland inspired candle holders for home, hearth, table and mantle.  Each set is one of a kind as two trees always are.  Holders are of varied sizes measuring approximately between 1 inch to 4 1/2 inches. Each holder comes with a hand-poured, 100% pure golden beeswax tea light candle.












Thursday, November 24, 2011

Thanksgiving 2011

So much to be grateful for!  For families and friends, for a loving home, for escaping the forest fire!  For our beloved country and those who serve.

As we gather, let's fill ourselves with more than mashed potatoes and turkey.  Let the love and warmth of this sweet day of gratitude keep us fed.  Welcome to our table this year, we wish you could be here.


Oh beautiful for spacious skies


For amber waves of grain


For purple mountains majesty above the fruited plain!


America, America, God shed His grace on thee


And crown thy good with brotherhood
from sea to shining sea!


Happy Thanksgiving!




Saturday, November 19, 2011

Green Gift Giving--Decoupaged Glass Plates


Decoupage glass plates are an easy way to go green when it is time to give gifts.  So easy to make and delightful to receive.  Fill them with homemade goodies for an extra special treat.  Here's how.  You will need:


·       A Clear Glass Plate from a secondhand store
·         Wallpaper Scraps, tissue paper, small bits of scrapbooking paper, leaves, or petals out of your garden, such as hydrangeas
·         Decoupage Medium, such as Mod Podge
·         Foam Brush
·         Scissors
Decoupage medium is an all-in-one sealer, glue, and finish used for creating decoupaged works of art. It can be used for paper, wood, fabric, and other porous surfaces. It dries clear and holds tight.



Cut out your pieces or patterns from the wallpaper sample, tissue paper, scrapbooking paper.  If you are using petals or leaves, trim them neatly.   

Lay out the pieces as you will want them on the back of your plate. Remember to put them face down so that the side you want will show through the glass.  Hold the plate over your head to see how they will look.

Remove your paper or petals carefully in the same arrangement that you had them.  Apply a coat of decoupage medium (Mod Podge for example) to the back of the glass plate.  Then apply the paper or petals to the Mod Podge.  Make sure you remember to place them face down on the back of the plate, so that what you want to see shows through the glass on the front of the plate.  The paper can be moved around to some degree until you are pleased with the appearance of the plate.   Apply a generous layer of Mod Podge over paper pieces.
Select a color of tissue paper or heavier paper as the background.  Gold or silver makes a pleasing background.  The plate will be wet, so simply pull the paper gently over the plate to fit.  Trim the edges of the paper to fit the plate or bowl.  Smooth out any wrinkles, you want your plate to look neat.

After the Mod Podge dries, add another coat.  Dry.  Repeat so that you have three layers total.  
These plates can be sold at holiday bazaars for $15-$20, but you can do it yourself for a personalized, green gift.

Monday, November 14, 2011

Journey to Midway Island, 1962

I'm experimenting with some different names for my blog. Still thinking that the address http://victoriapann.blogspot.com will get you there no matter what I call it.  Life's adventures, sweet stories, sewing mishaps and successes, and fun times with children of all ages.

Here's a story from the chapter on Life's Adventures:
         In 1962, my Naval Officer dad got orders to report to Midway Island of the Pacific Ocean.  For those of you who don't have a map handy, it is aptly named because it is roughly midway between the U.S. and Asia, and midway between Alaska and Hawaii.  It's loaded with gooney birds, which is the colloquial for Laysan Albatross.
Gooney birds in our backyard on Midway.

Midway is very small.  It's only a mile or so wide and long.  Most of it is runway.  There are two islands, Sand and Eastern.  The people lived on Sand Island, and Eastern was abandoned. 


Sand Island

Eastern Island

We journeyed to Midway from Chicago, first heading to San Francisco.  My brothers and I enjoyed San Francisco, staying in an old downtown hotel with a lobby that smelled of cigars and leather chairs.  We rode cable cars and climbed hills on our chubby little legs.  


One windy day we reported to the wharves and got on board a ship.  



We were terribly excited about going UNDER the Golden Gate bridge, but once we left the dock and headed out into the San Francisco Bay, wearing a short little girl's dress did very little to keep me warm and I couldn't bear the cold.  I left my family to go to our cabin and play with a new set of paper dolls, asking my family to fetch me when we were about to go under the bridge.  Not long after, a steward poked his head in our open cabin door and said: "Missy, look out the porthole, we are going under the Golden Gate Bridge."  The family had not bothered to get me for this momentous occasion, but I got to see it anyway.  Perhaps not the sweeping view I had hoped for, but it wasn't lost.



Although it was June, the wind was blasting us nearly all the way to Honolulu.  The waves were huge, three often crashing together in a pyramid shaped volcanic eruption of foam. It was horrifying to think of sinking when we had the mandatory abandon ship drill.  We were required to wear hats as protection against the sun in the life rafts, and my dad put a towel over his head, which was uncharacteristic for this severely proper Naval Officer.  Hilariously funny to see him wearing such buffoonery, but I pulled down my mouth and tried not to giggle, as we were talking of sinking and I had to pay attention to the possibility of peril.  It seemed a very big ocean indeed to be lost in, especially considering the size of the swells.  



The parents took us up on the poop deck, which caused no end of tittering.  There was a tennis court up there, which was amusing.  Imagine someone trying to play tennis on the bucking poop deck in that wind.  Their tennis ball would be blown overboard, and they'd wind up on their bums holding their sprained ankle.

The stewards, mostly Filipino, were terribly kind to the three little children who felt miserable in the rolling ocean before ship stabilizers.  Our parents diverted us from being endlessly seasick by going on deck and watching the flying fish.  Nearly anytime of day, we could go on deck and see flying fish fleeing in fright.  They would leap out of the depths and zoom away, then disappear again into their watery hiding places.  What else might be down there, ready to leap out?  I wasn't even going to think about octopi.  It was scary, but interesting, and I stared with the same wide-eyed fascination as one would a Dracula movie.


Not that they showed us movies of Dracula, but we did get to see some, including several of Jesus.  I had never seen a movie featuring Jesus before, and thus this actor was burned into my thought forevermore as what Jesus looked like.  One time after the movies were over, my brother wanted to stay and do Kid's Crafts, so I walked back to our cabin by myself.  I took a wrong turn down a passageway and stumbled upon The Famous Upper Berth Room.  That's another story, but it was boarded up and hasn't been opened since.  I will admit, it did indeed smell like seaweed and was pretty damp.  Now that I know what I know, I'm surprised they hadn't shut down the entire passageway.

It got warmer, and one evening we saw another ship, a ghostly shadow on the horizon.  Dad said it was probably 10 miles away.  After being alone on the big ocean for days, it was eerie to even think there were other people out there.



Then one morning we got up and out the porthole was a green island!  Dad said it was Maui.  We got dressed and went on deck.  It was warm.  Calm too.  



We cruised past Maui, and on the other side of the boat was another island Dad said was Oahu.  My mom was getting more excited by the minute.  We rounded the tip of Oahu, and she spied what she was looking for, a hill she called Diamond Head.  It hardly looked like a diamond to me, either the type on playing cards or the one she wore in her wedding ring.  Sort of a squared off hill, really.  I didn't see the fascination, but then I had not watched all the movies she had.


The ship steamed around to Honolulu harbor, where the tallest building was the Aloha Tower.  The parents said that "aloha" meant both hello and goodbye.  As we docked, a brass band met us, which I loved.  The family stared over the railing at the docking procedure.  At last, dry land!  We left the ship and went into a large warehouse area, where large Hawaiian women in muumuus greeted us.  They hugged us to their ample bosoms and huskily whispered "Aloha" in our ears, while draping leis around us.  A rather friendly greeting from someone we don't even know, I thought.  

Aloha Tower

Disembarking in Honolulu

We stayed right on Waikiki at Ft. DeRussy, which gave us a small room in a WWII vintage building with paper thin walls and a community bathroom down the hall.  We loved the beach of course, and were slathered with Sea and Ski (SPF 0) and ate hot dogs from a cart for lunch every day.

                                                                                                            Ft. DeRussy

My parents had some friends living there from our sojourn in Newfoundland (another story).  They took us around the island with their boys Robert and Russell.

Pali Pass with brothers Clark (l) and Scott (r).

Kodak Hula show 1962, nothing changed except the cast.

Pineapple fields with my guys.

Waimea Bay, nearly wiped out in tsunami a few years before.

Waimea Falls Park with Robert, Russell, Clark and little Scott

King Kamehameha statue

From the Punchbowl, downtown Honolulu, 1962.

Looking Ewa (west). I didn't know then I would live out there in the late 1970's, but that was still a long time in the future. You can barely see it, but they are burning cane fields out there.

Elvis had just visited Hawaii the year before, and everything was focused on surfing, Duke Kahanamoku, and hula girls.  Vintage Hawaii!




Not my mom and dad.


The time approached for us to fly to Midway (they only had two flights per week). We spent spent one entire day sitting for HOURS on red plastic chairs at Hickum Air Force Base while Dad talked to the Public Works Officer he was replacing.  I remember staring at a mural, wishing I could have some of that aromatic popcorn they were selling, and being bored to death.

The day came to catch the plane to Midway, and Mom bought us candy leis, probably as recompense for having to sit for more hours while Dad talked to that guy again.

The flight to Midway was 5 hours long.  Endless ocean.  Fluffy clouds.  More ocean.  More clouds.  There was what they used to call a "stewardess" on the flight, and we were served pineapple juice.  Like anything to eat we were given, my younger brother and I gulped it down.  This was unlike my older brother Clark, who hoarded.  He carefully held his paper cup of pineapple juice until he fell asleep, and it tipped into his lap.  Scott and I for some reason thought this was hilarious, but I feel sorry now we ever laughed.  It must have been quite a shock.

The real shock came when we finally saw Midway.  "That's it?" asked my mom.  "It looks terribly small."  

"It is small," agreed my dad.





"What's to prevent the Soviets from invading?" she asked.
"What? Someone might invade?" I wondered.
"They wouldn't dare," affirmed my dad.

Midway was the western end of the Distant Early Warning (DEW) line.  No satellites in those days, and the Cold War was raging.  So to warn of imminent attack by the Soviet Union, the U.S. had the DEW line.  Radar stations on land, and Willy Victor airplanes flying over the ocean warned of incoming enemy ships, planes and missiles.  Midway was home to a fleet of Willy Victors that flew up to the Aleutian Islands 24 hours a day to monitor incoming dangers.  It took them 7 hours up and 7 hours back.  That was the whole purpose of the base on Midway Island.

Willy Victor aircraft, 1960's

We were met off the plane by some friends of my parents who had the privilege of driving one of two cars on the island. Everyone but them rode "horses," which were what they called bicycles.

At the Midway airport.

The friends drove us in our car to our new house.  It was a huge house for such a small island, but Dad was one of the ranking officers that lived in Commander Row, right across the street from the Commanding Officer.

Dad (r) and his executive officer, Lonnie Robbins (l), in our backyard.

There was only one fresh water faucet in our house, which was in the kitchen.  It was a dreadfully hot day, and Mom turned it on to get a drink.  Out poured orange water.

Welcome to Midway Island.