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Rick and I just got back from a lovely weekend in the Mendocino area.  I will have oodles of pictures later this week.  I just wanted to post these images from our visit to the Point Arena Lighthouse for my quilting readers.

We took a tour of the lighthouse and adjoining museum and my eye was immediately caught by a quilt hanging off in the corner.  You know I love me some red-work.

Normally I resize my images smaller so they upload faster but not these.  Click on them to see them in full-size.  And look at the detail of the middle block in bottom row.  I love that little guy! 

Here is the history of the quilt:

The Point Arena Lighthouse is run by a non-profit organization.  Lovely people, very dedicated to preserving the integrity and history of their lighthouse, but I'm not sure this is the best way to preserve a very old, delicate quilt.  It's just hanging over a curtain rod, out in the elements where anyone can touch it and it is in a building that is about 50 feet from the ocean (and ocean air). 

It was interesting to see a glimpse of some feminine art in the very masculine environs of the lighthouse.

More pictures of our stay in Mendocino tomorrow.  We had a fabulous time and the B&B we stayed at was incredible.  

 
 

So how is everyone doing with their New Year's intentions?  I find intent has less pressure then resolute.  Resolution.  Resolute has a vaguely defeated air about it, don't you think?  Like you know it is going to be a battle that you are likely to lose.

I had intended to start off the year with a brand new blog design since I had two weeks off from work where I could just fiddle around with it.  But then I got into this lovely routine of waking up late and leisurely drinking my morning tea while catching up with everyone else's blogs and getting totally lost in Etsy.  Some days I would glance up at the clock and realize it was mid-afternoon and I was still in my nightgown.

Now that is a vacation. 

I could get used to being a lady of leisure. 

I may or may not have ordered a couple of vintage slips off of Etsy purely because the pleated hems were so sweet. 

You know what caused it?  This picture here:

It's Betsey Johnson's New York apartment as detailed in Elle Decor sometime in the early 2000's.  You can see a scan of the entire article here(click on all sizes to see the original size).

She says the dresses are vintage ones that she has copied or tried to copy for her line.  I love that she is surrounding herself in inspiration.

So I bought the slips, not because I intend to actually wear them but because I am inspired by the detail.  I can see a pillow with a sheer pleated inset.  Or napkins with the teeniest pleated ruffle. 

On New Year's Eve I spent the day going through stacks and stacks of magazines and was saddened by so many defunct publications.  That's were I used to get my inspiration.  I would tear out pictures in decorating magazines or fashion magazines and put them in file, little germs of ideas for future projects. 

Now I find images on blogs, Flickr, Etsy or various other on-line venues and I think to myself oh, how lovely then click to another page.  Never being able to remember where it was I saw something.  I'm trying to get better about book-marking pages but the internet can be so transient.  A blog can be taken down, an item sold, a link broken. 

So instead I buy slips.