Who knows what the New Year will bring? Since so much of my focus this year has been on hot rods, prints and other custom art, I may continue the focus for awhile as I work towards fulfilling a list of potential products. I know that there are a number of products that I want to finishing designing like peacock leggings and other clothing. Plus, I want to go back to caning and making beads. For now, I will work towards cleaning up my studio and putting all of the tools and supplies back where they belong. It was a wild Christmas season this year!
Harry is bigger and less inclined to sleep while I work, so I get 10 minutes of work and then 20 minutes of cleaning up whatever mess he made while I was not looking at him for those 10 minutes. Soon, he will be a dog and past this funny puppy stage. I will miss it as I forget about the times he ate my hairbrush, bank statement, rough manuscript draft and all of the other things that found their way into his mouth.
For now, he is enjoying being a puppy and going to puppy kindergarten. Harry’s first Christmas with his gift from his cat friend in Rhode Island, Gonze.
What’s New
Key rings: I am taking the key rings one step further and creating purse charms and rings. With lots of beads and things. Have them started, but nothing to show yet. Soon ...
Cuff Bracelets: I added peacock bracelets and matching earrings to the stock here and for the show. I am going to take the peacocks and create bookmarks as my newest project.
Magnets: WOW—lots and lots of them and all types of images.
Things to Look Forward To:
New Products:
Leggings: My supplier has added a great legging line, so I have been experimenting with design and element placement. I have one new set ready in my shop and more in design mode.
Posters: Many of my bible verse posters are available in my Etsy shop and soon to be in my webstore.
Bookmarks: I decided that some of my beads and images would translate nicely to bookmarks. Those are on the bench.
For many of us, 2018 has presented us with challenges that we have never had to face before, and for others, this year has brought peace, prosperity and a sense of accomplishment. No matter what you had to deal with this year, the one consistent thing in all of this is that we could count on each other to lift us up and help us propel ourselves forward.
Comforting words; gifts that delight; and virtual hugs have been a mainstay this year as our little group faces the passage of time. While not everyone was able to participate this year, they were always in our thoughts as we shared our wares.
Old times should never be forgotten, and old friends should always be held dear. We should drink a cup of kindness for the sake of old times.
This 1788 song may not be a Christmas carol, and quite frankly, we have exhausted the carols of old and new over the last few years, but it is a song that should have us all pause to link arms and sing from the heart.
Whether from the decks of the Titanic or the dance floor in When Sally Met Harry, this song will bring a tear to your eye while warming your heart with hope and good cheer.
It is a song of endings and beginnings, so we shall end our Countdown to Christmas 2018 and begin our preparation for the Countdown to Mother’s Day 2019 with this traditional song.
I hope you enjoy this rendition of this old Scottish tune.
Hurry and stuff the stockings! Here, we will help you get started!
Filet Crochet Art For Hanukah Celebrations with a Lit Menorah and White Bird
Don’t see what you are looking for? Maybe you will find it in some of the following showcases or ask one of our talented artists to design something special for you.
I begin this way because it is the proper, orthodox, respectable way to begin, and I have been brought up in a proper, orthodox, respectable way, and taught to always do the proper, orthodox, respectable thing; and the habit clings to me.
Of course, as a mere matter of information it is quite unnecessary to mention the date at all. The experienced reader knows it was Christmas Eve, without my telling him. It always is Christmas Eve, in a ghost story,
Christmas Eve is the ghosts' great gala night. On Christmas Eve they hold their annual fete. On Christmas Eve everybody in Ghostland who IS anybody—or rather, speaking of ghosts, one should say, I suppose, every nobody who IS any nobody—comes out to show himself or herself, to see and to be seen, to promenade about and display their winding-sheets and grave-clothes to each other, to criticise one another's style, and sneer at one another's complexion.
Finish reading the above book about ghost stories on Christmas Eve here. It is also available in Kindle format, and I have to go back and read the whole thing now that I am hooked. It is part of the Guttenberg project to make old manuscripts available to new readers.
However, this is the very rabbit hole that I fell down while doing my research on our next song, and soon, you will see why.
This 1963 creation was the result of a collaboration between Edward Pola and George Wyle. This is the only song written by either one of these folks that has made a mark in history; although, Mr. Wyle, along with Sherwood Schwartz, did write the theme song to Gilligan’s Island. We all know THAT song, and we all know THIS song.
Since it was written for him, it was only right that Andy Williams took it to the charts on his very first Christmas album, The Andy Williams Christmas Album. I bet all of us have this album, heard this album or our parents had the album. This song was never released as a promotional single, as Columbia Records decided to promote Andy’s version of White Christmas from the same album for the Christmas season.
This celebratory song is comprised of all of the activities associated with the Christmas season, and puts the focus on family gatherings and meals together. People got together on Christmas Eve and told “scary ghost stories and tales of the glories of long, long ago.” See where the rabbit hole opened up?
The closest to scary ghost stories we have today is the telling of A Christmas Carol.
Originally, the song was for The Andy Williams Show, and he sang it every year, and from there, it expanded to other artists and became a lovely standard that we enjoy every Christmas season. It was never a chart topper, but it has been included in the list of the top holiday songs over generations. It has a lot of fans, and we all know the words.
Covered by the likes of Garth Brooks, Amy Grant, Patti LaBelle and by Gonzo and Rizzo the Rat for The Muppets: A Green and Red Christmas, the original Andy Williams remains my favorite, and I hope that it is yours, too. Note the Moon River intro.
Sing along!
It's the most wonderful time of the year With the kids jingle belling And everyone telling you be of good cheer It's the most wonderful time of the year
It's the hap-happiest season of all With those holiday greetings and gay happy meetings When friends come to call It's the hap-happiest season of all
There'll be parties for hosting Marshmallows for toasting And caroling out in the snow There'll be scary ghost stories And tales of the glories of Christmases long, long ago
It's the most wonderful time of the year There'll be much mistltoeing And hearts will be glowing When love ones are near It's the most wonderful time of the year
There'll be parties for hosting Marshmallows for toasting And caroling out in the snow There'll be scary ghost stories And tales of the glories of Christmases long, long ago
It's the most wonderful time of the year There'll be much mistltoeing And hearts will be glowing When love ones are near It's the most wonderful time Yes the most wonderful time Oh the most wonderful time Of the year
On those notes, let’s load up our gift bags and start to finish up our shopping.
The year was 1983 and the reporting out of Ethiopia was not good. The extreme famine was the worst that had hit the country in 100 years, and the government at the time was held accountable for the blame of untold deaths. Particularly during the 1983 to 1985 stretch.
Because of reports of the disaster from Michael Buerk of the BBC, the news caught the attention of Bob Geldolf of The Boomtown Rats and his partner, Paula Yates, who was a television presenter. They were so disturbed by what they saw in an Oct. 23rd report that they could not get it out of their heads even as they went about their normal daily living.
As so happened, Paula was doing a presentation during a live music show a few days later and one of the guests was the group Ultravox. Their front man, Midge Ure was talking to Paula backstage when Bob called her. Bob and Midge were old friends, and Bob asked to speak to him.
Bob was haunted by Ethiopia and asked Midge to meet him for lunch where they could discuss ideas about how to help the situation.
They decided that the best course of action would be to make a charity record.
That is when they got on the phone and called Sting and Simon Le Bon, and both were more than happy to participate. They saw Gary Kemp of Spandau Ballet and he was in. Bob suddenly realized that he had headliners, and if they were willing, so would many others. As it turned out, other musicians said yes and people were all eager to participate.
The key was that the musicians would not be paid, and that they had to find a way to make, press and release the record without paying anyone a dime. UK music magazines offered free ad space, the artist’s sleeve was free, the distribution of it was free and the record company did not charge for their work.
The biggest challenge was coming up with a song, and since they did not want to pay royalties, Bob and Midge wrote it themselves.
It had to be a Christmas song, and it had to be done in one day in November in order to hit the streets, collect the money and get it to Ethiopia.
After some ribbing back and forth about tinny music on cheap keyboards, Midge wrote a melody and Bob borrowed from a song he was working on for The Boomtown Rats, and Do They Know It’s Christmas was born.
They jumped into Bob’s studio, got Midge to do the production and Bob’s engineer to lay the backing tracks, keyboards and drum machine samplings for free. Midge did the original vocal guide before Sting and Simon Le Bon dropped by to lend their vocals to the tracks.
While the studio was hard at work engineering the song, Bob was on the phone asking everyone he knew to participate. Only three people turned him down, and their names are sworn to secrecy. Those who wanted to but could not make the one day recording session like David Bowie and Paul McCartney did recorded messages that are on the B-side of this record.
Groups like the Thompson Twins, who were on tour at the time, wanted to participate, but couldn’t, so they donated part of the proceeds from their current single to the cause.
Bob had a booking with BBC Radio to discuss his latest album, but used his air time to promote the charity record. This helped secure more artists to the project.
The press showed up the day on November 25th to watch the parade of musicians head into the studio to record this record. The Daily Mirror had exclusive inside access to the studio where they took a team photo before the recording started.
As the backing track rolled, the artists all got into a group and sang “feed the world, let them know it’s Christmas time” over and over. As the group session ended, the individual artists headed to the studio to do their solo parts.
Phil Collins brought his drums with him and played live drums over the recorded track after all of the vocals were finished. Since he was a perfectionist, there were two takes of the drums; although, only one was needed.
While most of the stars of this record were UK artists, Kool & the Gang from the US was there since they shared a record label with Bob and happened to be in town at the time.
The song was released on December 3, 1984. It had a launch party on the 7th and hit the UK charts at number one the next week. It sold 200,000 copies in the first two days. MTV ran the video and it hit the US airwaves on the 10th. It sold 1.9 million copies in 11 days.
The video featured footage from the recording session, and this is what I have selected as our song. So many familiar faces.
They called themselves Band Aid and wanted to raise 70,000 pounds for the cause; they raised over 8 million pounds. This now famous Christmas song has been re-released a number of times with different participants as it has been used to raise money for other humanitarian causes.
It is good to give.
Speaking of giving, here are some wonderful gift ideas that you can give those on your shopping list.
