...and the stuff I forget to add.

Last weekend I did some test-dyes with my new Procyon (read: for cellulose fiber) dyes and a pack of 'blank' bandannas. I held up a bandanna for the husbeast and said, "This look about the size of a cloth napkin to you?" and he said yes, so I thought, "Yay, I'll dye table linens for Thanksgiving."

So here they are.


They go perfectly with my garish table runner:


And my garish collection of Fiestaware, which I buy in random colors as the fit takes me. (My in-laws contribute place settings at Christmas most years; they've been known to call and ask which colors I don't have, so they can add to the collection properly.)

...I need to add some reds and pinks to the collection.

That last photo is taken inside my grandmother's china cupboard, which has quite a history. (I include this tale for the sentimental among us.) When I look in the china cupboard now, I'm never sure if she'd be amused or horrified to see what I've got it stocked with. She used it to store her collection of red glass (back in her day, glass was colored red with gold, and flaming expensive and a big deal. Nowadays, they have other colorants). When she died, it - the cupboard - went to my mother (who never got around to filling it with anything, because she died three months after my grandmother), and when my mother died, it came to me. I don't know what happened to Grandma's red glass collection, and I haven't asked my mother's brothers or sister because I know the odds are high the answer will piss me off (the answer to such questions is usually 'we threw it away'. Not the best thing for my blood pressure.) Anyway, when I got the china cupboard, I told the whole sorry tale to the husbeast, and added, "We should get a red glass something and put in there." He agreed. So in among the jumble of Fiestaware and martini shakers and swizzle sticks (Grandma was a teetotaler, pretty sure she'd be horrified at the idea of THREE martini shakers), we've got a little red glass dish tucked away. I get it out about twice a year and serve cookies off it.

It's the principle of the thing.

Oh, and the garish table linens are now residing in the drawer at the bottom of the china cupboard, along with my grandmother's real linens and lace. THAT, I think, would amuse her.



Oh. And one last thing.

1152 stitches.