First, attune your ear, please, to Halloween: Horror Music

Second of all, Happy Halloween 2010 to everybody!

Let us make something with our hands, to the right is a photo of my things being prepared for Halloween 2010, those creatures are very easy to be done especially now before Halloween time when the whole Halloween industry is open starting with the party costumes and finishing with many helpful hints “how to”. Enjoy!

That is my new story:

“A little boy came over to Mom and asked: “What is Halloween, Mom?”.

She answered: “It’s a Holiday of all Saints to come from the heaven once a year to protect us”.

“To protect?!”, exclaimed her son.”From whom?”

“From evil spirits. You know, son, there is a lot of good and bad things in the world. And they are always in an eternal battle with each other. Who wins? That is a question to decide for yourself, son, when you grow up”.

“Mom, if I don’t know who is good and who is bad, then what happens?”, asked the inquisitive boy.

“Your heart and your wisdom will guide you. Don’t worry, you definitely will know the difference”, explained Mom patiently.

“Trick or treat, Mom. Can I have a candy, please?”.

“Sure. Here it is, my darling. Happy Halloween!”

Listen to the Halloween music again:Creepy Music

Our neighbors decorated their front yard as a graveyard, enjoy a photo expose:”Hi, Halloween 2010!” :

“Hi

Aljoz  picked up the wonderful mushrooms growing near the house. Look at them, are they not beautiful?

Peter brought them home. Gennadiy and Janko helped me to make a nice mushroom cream soup. See the recipe #144 on page 61 of the book “A Firebird Cornucopia of Russian Delights (Russian Cookbook)”  by Valentina Filina-Pattison.

All of a sudden everything was impregnated with vapors of wild forest. Windows were wide open on a hot summer day, so passers-by stopped adoring the heavenly tantalizing odors. The soup was absorbed by all of us at one sitting.

Good for us! Another word of praise to the family cooks: Jana, Katharina, Larisa. This is Katharina’s photo herself and to the left -  a creation of her hands: a cake for her daughter Deniska’s Birthday when she was 6.                                      

This year Denisa is 10, and her grandmother is 55. we celebrate their B-days together, here they are on the photos with the tarts.

As a matter of fact, I need to mention here that we keep on with Deniska an old tradition to make costumes for the dolls, it was last year when Deniska and me created something good in crafts, it is now also, we did it together and as for her, she is really enjoying  it. Look at the slide show: “Deniska is enjoying the dolls”.

So, as you see to yourselves, if one wants to create something good, there is always a place, a time, a mood for this. We are all born as creators, just hurry up! As life is too short, Realize your own  potentialities. This summer the families together created something good which is called “friendship”.

One can see on the photo expose below that you do not need to possess superpower or be extremely healthy. Sometimes, opposite we do not have much health and with the years strength is going but all of us have good hearts and good intentions to help each other, that is what it actually counts. I wish good luck and good health to all the creators of the Holla families, the Cervenka families, the Kostin family, the Filin family. Keep on living in full and enjoy life as we all do!

We would love to express our big gratitude for everything you have done this time and last year hosting us at your home, for hospitality of all the members of the families as well as the others:  Teresia, Aljoz’s sister, and her two daughters Jana with husband William and their two sons, Marianna with her husband Dushan and their children, relatives from Tekla’s side: Jan, Jana, Simon, Tamara, Lubomir and little Sophia, from Maria Guthova’s side: Katharina Plankova’s family and her uncle Anton Guth and his wife Martha.

To all of you “THANK YOU VERY MUCH!”

Watch a photo expose “Three Creators” :

My workshop lately is full of young blood reps: competition in better painting of figurines and tanks, making different costumes for dolls.

The night we had visited the ballet performance “The Snow White’, which was mentioned in our “Social Club” category before. The idea to design new costumes came up all of a sudden during the show and set inside my mind until the certain moment. That moment arrived. Together we made 8 Dwarfs, one was given as a gift to Margaret for her Birthday, and seven little people in a company with Snow White took a vivid place on our display. Liza made a special doll costume to her own taste, all combined is proposed on our slide show. Here is demonstrated a good example of a saying “Patience and Labor Make you a Favor”. 

“Hit me as if a sky blue shawl, my messy youth,                                                                                                                

We’ve shawled enough with, to say the truth,

Time to part! Oh, my shocking, dancing,

Sweet, golden, amber youth, Your Eminence!”

Marina Tsvetaeva, 1921 (Translation by Valentina Pattison)

Extremely unusual images of a Great Russian poetess Marina Tsvetaeva were putting me in a poetic, lyrical mood. Listen more from her fine poetry:Film Based on M. Tsvetaeva’s Poems

“My messy youth as if a sky blue shawl” image row led me specifically to the recollections of my sister Emma who would have been 75 on the 5th of March of this year. She was a Jack of all trades, really, hand making crafts, knit shawls and did crochet the table cloths, pillow cases, runners, creating the most intricate clothes designs you can imagine. So the fashion gala show of knit and crochet models was named by me in her honor “Emma’s Garret”. Watch on the slide show:

To pay a tribute to the beauty and talent of her hands I gathered the whole collection of her patterns and put it on the slide show as well. Watch the slide show “Emma’s Patterns”: 

To the left a photo of her favorite model, and to the right Emma’s photo when she was young.

On the top of that, inspired by Marina Tsvetaeva whom Emma adored very much and even gave the poetess’s  “marine” name for her only daughter Marina, I myself composed a verse “Shawl”:

“Wrapped up in a kerchief as if by web of a spider,

Hard working from dawn “til late in dusk,

In sweat, without a single second,

Distracting from the main task.

The web looks now like a water drop,

Glistening and sparkling with many colors,

In sun beams, dancing through and on the top,

Of the open windows and traverse.

Kerchief designed in a form of spider web,

Spread along the shoulders and aft,

Look at it! A wonder crochet net,

Sitting proudly smiling, such a craft!

Go to one side or to the other,

Run around or stop at glance,

What a masterpiece, farther,

You retreat, better see at once.

Two designs competing: 1) done by hand,

And 2) by mother-nature,

The difference is impossible to comprehend,

Even if in the whole night lecture.

Airy, super light, azure shawl,

Recently flown as a gift for me,

So pity to leave you for a stroll,

Changing clothes for sporty.

Unwrapped out of the shawl,

Throwing it carelessly on the chair,

So lonely, incapable to crawl,

Chasing me in vain and despair.”

Completing those memorial lines, I put one more slide show “Emma’s Shawls”, dedicated to the golden hands of my sister. 

Listen to the song “How Young We were” :“How Young We Were”, sung by Dmitriy Khvorostovsky

Japanese ikebana is a disciplined art form in which nature and humanity are brought together. Contrary to the idea of floral arrangement, ikebana often emphasizes other areas of the plant, such as its stems and leaves, and draws attention toward shape,, line, form. Though ikebana is a creative expression, it has certain rules governing its form. The main rule is that all the elements used in design must be organic, whether they be branches, leaves, grasses or flowers. The artist’s intention behind each arrangement is shown through a piece’s color combinations, natural shapes, graceful lines, and the usually implied meaning of the arrangement.                                                                

Another aspect present in ikebana is its employment of minimalism. That is, an arrangement may consist of only a minimal number of blooms interspersed among stalks and leaves. The structure of a Japanese flower arrangement is based on a scalene triangle delineated by three main points, usually twigs, considered in some schools to symbolize heaven, earth, and man and in others, sun, moon, love, and earth. The container is a key element of the composition, and various styles of pottery may be used in their construction.

Russian ikebana is very similar to Japanese one. The spiritual aspect of ikebanas, Russian and Japanese, is considered very important to their practitioners. Silence is a must during practices of ikebana. It is a time to appreciate things in nature which people often overlook because of their busy lives. One becomes more patient and tolerant of differences, not only in nature, but also in common life. Ikebana can inspire a person to identify oneself with beauty in all art forms. This is also the time when one feels closeness to nature which provides relaxation for the mind, body, and soul.

I am inviting all my readers to practice ikebana and watch my small slide show “Russian Ikebana”:

Listen to the beautiful Japanese relaxation music: Meditation Japanese music

To fit Christmas and Happy New Year tunes, please, listen to the song.  Pinocchio Sulla Neve Bellissimo

1. First of all for inspiration we have baked a pile of potato pancakes (deruny) and have eaten them with fried bacon and sour cream, and Janko poured a little syrup on them we don’t know why.

2. Secondly, for beauty we lit the candles everywhere around us, made Christmas wreaths to hang them on entrance door or somewhere on a vivid place just before Christmas irregardless  Catholic or Orthodox it is.

3. Thirdly, Grandma Lida and me started to paint wooden toys to look as if they are unusual and wonderful, nowhere in Canada one can buy those because the wooden blanks were transported from Europe. Many children were born in North America and they do not know where their Grandparents are from. They do not have a clue what everything is about. So this is the right moment with a gift to talk about their roots.                                                                                                                                             

Next we even made unusual dresses for dolls, transformed them into the Russian beauties in sarafans and kokoshniks. They could compete only by beauty with Snowgirl, Santa’s Granddaughter. All this can be added up to a Gift Basket on the eve of the New 2010 Year to come.

What can be better to surprise our loved ones than our hard and long work on toys and a pleasant talk with our Grandchildren ?

To better attune to Christmas and Happy New Year mood, see  the show “How to make latky (deruny)”.

how to make latky (deruny)

From time immemorial I knew that a doll plays an important role in a girl’s development as well as a machine toy for a boy’s .

Playing with the doll the girl tried to make clothes for her, dress-undress, put her to bed,  even dance with her, it’s her first close friend besides Mom. The girl talks to her and later when joins Day Care,  her doll can be personified as a pupil of her class, her class mate. She sleeps with her and shares her dreams. Looking after her doll she learns the first steps of motherhood which is her major  natural destiny. With those sincere movements a future woman learns how to care for people, many how dos, which can be very suitable for her in days to come.

My hobby is to paint wooden funny Russian Matryoshkas and make clothes for regular dolls in a creative way. Sewing mainly I am doing by hand and glue to my own design. At Christmas craft sales my dolls usually attract people’s attention because the national costumes they are dressed in are usually made of colorful fabrics, decorated with beads and head sets or kerchiefs as it fits an occasion.

Maybe you saw them in my slide show before.

Now I am organizing a little workshop for little dolls, try to challenge you in a nice family circle to create something beautiful with your own hands.

To entertain you just look at the “Canadian Living Show Crafts”.

Handy craft is an art, and a handy-man or –woman is an artist. One has to make a plot first, design, prepare a material and then start to make one’s idea come alive.

In time of my teenage years the prices for ready made clothing were high but the cost of fabric was always lower. So as a result of this we, girls, learnt how to sew from our mothers at an early age. The clothes’ making handy craft was very popular among the young generation of the sixties. We used to make patterns, picking up models from different magazines, including a German one “Burda”. We could read pattern symbols, put a design onto the blueprint and then transfer it on the material. And here we go, sew the favorite model. So simple and easy!

Once it happened to be that I was stuck without knowing what to do further. I chose one design from the back cover of the Russian magazine “Ogonyok”: it was depicted a wonderful black-and-white dress but the top was decorated with the embroidery which had to be done with a black cord on the white.

The picture was small and needed to be enlarged up to the size of my dress.

It can be done by computer nowadays, but at that time… What to do?

Daddy came to my help, he was a draftsman by profession and made it possible to embroider the top. At friendly family circle everybody helps each other and then the life flies in more joyful and enjoyable way.

Enjoy the video “Heartbeat Fashion show”.                           HeartbeatFashionShow

Once I was visiting an old lady’s house here, in Calgary. It was a house as a regular house like everybody else has. Nothing special until I ran into one wall ornament. It was a quilt, home-made, neatly sewn in a big joyful frame made in a quilt style too. I started to look more closely and coming back and forth, from the different angles trying to grasp what was everything about. At long last I asked the lady: “I’ve never seen such a quilt before although my Mom was making a lot of them, and I remember her beautiful designs for them, my Dad helped her in this. Did you make it yourself?”.

“Yes, indeed. Nobody gave me a hand. I have designed myself and sewed  too. It was my whole life hobby. Creating the quilts I am relaxing and cheer my eyes with the variety of colors.” she answered.

“What is this? It looks like pictures of people on the fabric instead of normal material patches. This seems as if it is a photo gallery on the wall. Who are those people on the quilt?” I asked in a surprised way, pointing at the images on the quilt.

“ All of them are my family members at all times and events.” she responded. “I put about 1000 pictures on fabric patches and made this quilt approximately for one year, including material frame design”.

“It is a real beauty!” I complimented her.

Let’s do something like this by our hands and for the inspiration I propose to look at my photo gallery: “Quilts –  a Joy for the Eyes”.                                                                                            

When Halloween days are over the people start to think about Christmas. All American and Canadian newspapers are full of articles of how much the customers, i.e. we, are spending for Christmas gifts. How big is the customers’ shopping basket? It is understandable for the consumers’ society where we live.                                                             

But my workshop is aimed at the opposite direction. How much can one save if not buying retailing products but do it yourself as it was in old times.

My mother’s hands as far as I remember her were constantly moving. They kneaded dough, sewed buttons, clicked knitting needles and counted stitches. To just sit was an option. Her fingers itched to move and create, and art flew from them, in a seemingly unending stream.

Multicolored quilts adorned the walls and covered every bed. Home-cooked meals were served every night. My mother baked her first pie at the tender age of 3, picked up knitting needles at 8, and started sewing at 11.

Let us fill the house with wonderful smells, color and art.

To start with, cake “Napoleon” (the recipe #298 in my book “A Firebird Cornucopia of Russian Delights” ) is easy to bake yourselves and nowhere one can buy it except the Russian stores. To ease up the task we can buy there the layers and make just cream for it. Cream is different than here. That is why follow the instructions thoroughly. Then spread this cream between the layers and don’t forget put some crashed layers on the top.

Next time we will talk about sewing.

Now enjoy the photo show “Christmas Crafts”