Mo'a Romig-Boyles

With Thanks

I have been thinking a lot about Thanksgiving remembering those who have been here with us in past years..

This will be our third year without my Dad, who has made the stuffing for the bird since our first Thanksgiving here in the States.  I was at my parents house in 2009 and took a lot of photos of Dad preparing the stuffing.  It was such a tender moment and one that I shall never forget. At the time I did not know that this would be the last time he would make the stuffing. 

I wrote about this event in one of my favorite blog posts...November 2010 and shared the photos that I took the year before. Perhaps you would like to take a look.

Over the years, as our son Brian was growing up, we spent Thanksgiving in various ways and in many different cities as while he was growing up we moved eight times with my husband's job.

Ken was a hotel manager for most of those years and often we would have our Thanksgiving dinner at the hotel that he was managing.  Other years we would invite young graduate students to our house to experience an American Thanksgiving.  When Brian was in college and later when he had a job in NYC he would bring friends to celebrate with us. 

 

For the past nine years Brian (our son) has lived in Denmark, where he is married and raising a family.  We think of how much he loves a Thanksgiving dinner so next time he is here with us we will make him a proper Thanksgiving meal...there is an extra turkey in the freezer.

For the past ten years that we have lived here in New Jersey, we have had the pleasure of celebrating with our friends of forty five years.  We have had the celebration at their house, my parents house, in a restaurant and our house...this year our house.  We will be seven weather permitting...two are coming from up state New York. We have shared many other holidays over the years...this year it will me Christmas at their house.

Have a very Happy Thanksgiving and thank you for coming here to visit me. 

 I would love to hear about your Thanksgiving and how you celebrate. 

 

 

Cloudy The Butterfly...and a Story for Julie

I want to thank all of you who come to visit my blog home and for the lovely comments that you leave here and on Facebook. 

 

Here is the story I wrote for Julie to go with the pillow that I sent her.

Dear Julie, Some of my stories are quiet true, however, this one was made up by me and my Muse just for you.

When Cloudy, was born she was ever so disappointed…you see the whole time she was a chrysalis, she fantasized about how beautiful she would be and how she would take everyone’s breath away when she fluttered past them.
In reality she came out of her chrysalis rather plain...by her estimation. She is small and her wings are pale...what Cloudy did not realize is that her wings are amazing... they reflect the clouds in the sky.
To top it all off she saw her cousins mucking about in mud puddles.

Cloudy looked towards the sky and said "Would it have hurt you to make me bright and beautiful?" As she was looking up she noticed beautiful clouds and thought to herself "I will make myself a hat that is as beautiful as the clouds in the sky".  One thing she resolved that she would never do, was to muck about in mud puddles...she would drink from streams and lakes.
When Cloudy donned her hat, she felt very much better and noticed that everyone looked at her with admiration.
She tried not to let it go to her head, she acquired a humble look by casting her eyes down when she noticed that someone was looking at her...the rest of the time she looked wide eyed with wonder at her beautiful world.
She came to admire her cousins..."They are not so plain" she thought "They are quite beautiful"......she was even seen joining them for a drink in a mud puddle.
However, in her humble opinion, she was the most beautiful of them all because of her "Cloud Hat"

I hope you will enjoy your little pillow and that when you rest your head on it you will have sweet dreams.  All my love, Amma

Here is a photo of Julie and Victor's pillows  just before they got packet up for their trip to Denmark.

Disclaimer: I made this butterfly piece in Jude Hill's workshop Patchwork Beasts.  The butterfly is  my interpretation of Jude's design, that we used in the workshop, with her blessing.

Just a friendly reminder: All the images and the story are created by me and are copyright 2013 Please do not use the images or the story without my permission.  Thank you :)

The Star's Mother...and a story for Victor

When I was in Denmark this summer, I did a little sewing now and then on my Star's Mother piece.  Actually what I mostly did was to sew thread beads...hundreds of them. 

One day Victor (my six year old grandson) saw me working on the piece.  I asked him if it looked like a planet...he loves everything outerspace and rockets.  He said "Yes" and asked "Is this for me?"

I told him that I would make a pillow for him from this piece.  He was over the moon :) at that suggestion.  After we returned to the states we were on Skype talking with the family and Victor asked "Where is my pillow"  This question spurred me on and I finished the pillow a week later and two weeks later he had it in his possession.  Reports are that he loves it and the story about The Star's Mother.

Would you like to hear the story?  I hope the answer is yes, because I am going to tell it to you.

Dear Victor, I cannot say whether the story I am about to tell you is absolutely true. It was told to me by my Muse. My muse tells me stories when I paint, sculpt, sew and do just about anything, or just sit quietly thinking of this and that. Some are true and others are the figment of my imagination…you see my Muse lives in my head.  It is said that every artist has their own Muse and some even give her names.

Here is the story:  At the edge of the Milky Way about 12,000,000 light years ago is where the Stars Mother lived. She is the mother of about 100billion stars and planets.

She was a good mother and took good care of her children and made sure that they were warm and cozy and that some of them would grow up to be planets…about 60 billion did.She would wrap the little ones in a red blanket of fire until they became bright enough to venture out on their own.

Some of her children did not want to leave and she would always tell them the same story. “Don’t be afraid you have a great adventure ahead and you will give great pleasure to the people on Earth” this is always how she started her story.  Then she would go on and say “There will be songs written about you. Artists will paint you. Astronomers will make big telescopes so that they can see you more clearly and the will take your picture”.  “There will be many people that will travel by your light they will name you the North Star and the Star of Bethlehem.  And yes, most of you will be given names, so many beautiful names in so many languages”  “You will also be given names, that describe your formations, such as Big Dipper and Orion’s belt and many, many, many more.”

“Some of you will put on a display in August called a Meteor Shower… people will look forward to that each year”.  “One of you will become the Sun…and you will brighten up the days so that the people of earth can see the bright blue heaven and the clouds whose shapes they will give names, and at night The Moon will reflect your light.”  Then to give a little sweet note to her story she would add “And Sirius they will name a chocolate after you in Iceland, it will be called "Nói Síríus”.

“Go my children and shine bright” was always the last thing they heard their mother say as they sailed into their position in the sky.

Victor, while I was sewing you pillow my Muse and I made up this little story to amuse you.  May you have lovely dreams when you rest your head on this little pillow, All my love, Amma

Next week I will tell you the story and show you the pillow that I made for Julie (my four year old granddaughter and Victor's sister)

Just a friendly reminder: All the images and the story are created by me and are copyright 2013 Please do not use the images or the story without my permission.  Thank you :)

Family Time in Denmark

Where has the summer gone...I know you are all saying the same thing...I thought I would add my voice to the chorus.  My summer has been lovely making it even better that I had a trip to Denmark to meet the newest member of my family our six months old grandson Christian.

 He is a very smart baby as he chose to be born into a lovely family.

Meet his big brother Victor six years old, his mother Mette, his father Brian (my son) and Julie his four year old sister.

Denmark had a lovely warm hot summer and everything was growing beautifully, we ate well from the garden.  The delicious red Gooseberries...oh! how sweet.

Then there were the Ribsber that were such a big part of my Icelandic childhood. Delicious.

We went to the Zoo the meet the baby giraffe who was named Julie...our granddaughter Julie is very proud and happy over the baby giraffe's name.

We went to the beach...where cars can drive and children can walk up the dunes.

There were many exploring  walks and on one we saw many cows. We found this one particularly amusing with her white eyelashes.

We went to a lot of playgrounds and also played a lot at home.

Everywhere we went we saw a lot of children...beautiful Danish children.

We celebrated my birthday in Denmark starting with breakfast.

And ending with a coctail party in the garden and a lovely dinner.

They even raised the flag for me a lovely Danish custom.

Later we went to just north of Copenhagen and spent some time with friends there.  More later.

 

 

 

A Visit from Denmark

Our son, his wife and our grandchildren came for a visit from Denmark.  We had a wonderful and busy time with them and I thought I would share some of the highlights.  There were over 2000 photos taken of the event, so it was not a small feat selecting just the right photos.

We visited Lang Amma's (great-grandmother's) house. As I was walking up to the house with three year old Julie, she said "This is the house that has the horse" she was only one and a half years old the last time she was here.  She remembers through photos and conversations with her parents and brother.

I showed photos on my blog the last time Victor and Julie sat on this horse...here.  It is fun to see how much they have changed in the last two years.

Since this is the football season, football was watched and played.

Julie held her own.  "You go girl".

The highlight of the visit was Johnson's Farm...a fun place for children and adults alike.  We went on a hay wagon to pick pumpkins. The rule was if you can lift it you can take it home.

They were very proud and happy with their pumpkins.

Once we got home their dad helped carve the pumpkins. Here they are in the drawing state...Julie waits patiently for her turn.

Then they dressed up in their Halloween costumes and went trick or treating. Yes, we know it was before Halloween...but as Victor said "We cannot come to the States on Halloween, because we have to go to school and work".  Everyone had fun and we ate a lot of candy.

Here are the pumpkins...now, as explained to the children, they have become Jack O'lanterns. 

The little one was made for Amma's (Amma is what they call me...it is Icelandic for grandmother) elves...more about that at a later post.

 Happy Halloween to you all.

A Window for Wednesday

Sometimes it is not how the window looks, but what you find when you look at what decorates the window.  The children standing in this window are my grandchildren, waiting for our plane to land.

It is a tradition in Denmark to wave the national flag as a greeting when a visitor arrives.

MAGNOLIA

My cousin Elinros is a fabulous painter and is giving me pointers in using oil paint.

Here is an example of the type of painting that she does.  This style  of painting is called Alla Prima.

White Cloth

I have a lot of cloth waiting to become curtains, pillows or a quilt. Ninety eight percent of all the cloth I own is white.

That is a good thing because I love white flowers and white cloth.  I came by this cloth through inheritance.  My husband's mother, grandmother and aunt were all sewers and loved to embroider cloth. They embroidered pillowcases, tablecloths and hand towels. After my mother-in-law passed away thirty yeas ago I packed up all these pieces and only a year ago they all came together when a friend of mine helped me redesign my studio.

There were hundreds of pieces...I was astounded when they all came together, I had no idea how much I had stored away in boxes.

One day my mother said to me..."I have a few of your grandmother Romig's white hand towels, you can have them to use in your project" I nearly fell of my chair, when she brought them down from the cedar chest in her bedroom.  There in her arms she had forty five white hand towels, many of them beautifully embroidered.

I am cutting up many of these pieces, resewing them into nine patch pieces, that will eventually become a queen sized quilt.  I am slowly working on it and enjoying every minute.  I know who did most of the pieces by the initials R, T, D, H and B. As I sew I think of the women that made and used these cloths. Now I am using them, albeit in a very different way...I feel it honors their memory.

White and a Touch of Pink

You may have noticed that I changed my banner again.  It has become a habit since I learned how to size a banner and to upload it to my blog.  Such fun to change with the seasons.

About a week ago Ken (my husband) went grocery shopping.  He took his camera with him and here are photos that he took of Star Magnolias and Magnolia Tulip Trees, that were in the parking lot of our local grocery store.

Happy Spring.

Denmark

Now that we have finally settled into our winter routine, I think about our Christmas in Denmark.

My mother joined us.  My father passed away in May of 2011 and since there is only three of us (my husband, mother and I) left here in the States, we wanted to celebrate Christmas with our family in Denmark

We started our adventure in Copenhagen.  The photo above is of my mother and me in one of my favorite restaurants in the world, The Royal Cafe  that is situated on the on the famous walking street in Copenhagen, the  Strøget.

In this photo mother and I tuck into lovely little Danish delights that The Royal Cafe calls Smushi. This was only the first of many delightful Danish Christmas meals.

There is something magical about the way they celebrate Christmas in Denmark. They don't go over the top the way we do here in the States, but have a way of delighting you at every turn with their lovely Christmas traditions, many of whom revolve around food and drink.

We celebrated with very special people. Our grandchildren,their three great grandmothers and two sets of grandparents. Our son and his wife, her sister, husband and one year old son, her brother and his girlfriend.  Here is a photo of Ken and me with our grandchildren Victor and Julie.

I have a new banner, the Dancing Fairy was created by Jette Frölich.  I love her designs and have been collecting some of her decorations.