Three Treasures for Halfland

It may not be Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh, but over the holidays Halfland was showered with gifts from three wise and kind women:

The delightful D.J. Dyer found this vintage toy spinning wheel (it works!) in her super finding places and thought the scale might be right for 1/2L. She generously shipped it to me from British Columbia and wouldn't take anything for it! It's absolutely perfect! I never would have made a spinning wheel for Rana, contenting myself with her easier to make loom, but now that it's here, I think it's a fabulous addition to the cottage set.

On the left you see a photo of a VERY Rana-like woman at her spinning wheel (from wikipedia under spinning wheels) I'll be inspired by her mix of layers and stripes for Rana's costume, In the middle is D.J.'s wheel, as it arrived, in front of Rana's half chair/table. On the right is how it looks now that I've Halflandized it. I took it apart, studied spinning wheel function, carved the fly head down and shaped the clean edges on the base to look more rustic, painted it in the cottage's palette of ocher, red, and pink, solidly glued it together, rigged it with a band around the wheel to turn the spool, and actually hand-spun a length of colored wool to twist onto the bobbin.  D.J. also sneaked some sunflowers and a basket into the box. Thank you, D.J.! That was so fun to open and so incredibly useful to have for the project!

Halfland's OFFICIAL Naturalist, the marvelous Marcie Knowles sent me a charming package filled with fabulousness. I thought I needed more natural material in order to finish the chandelier for the cottage. So, rather than actually go outside, I wrote to Marcie and requested that she see if she ran across any tiny pinecones or acorns on her walks in the South. She jumped to the task like a soldier and off she and her husband went collecting incredible treasures! She not only sent the perfect cones and corns, but also clippings of Victorian era dancers and tree-lined streets, a set of over-sized insect wings, a glorious smelling block of natural beeswax, a tiny glass bottle filled with very very old dust from a very very old silver mine and wrapped lovingly in a rustic wooden box that screams to be made into a shadow box scene. Thank you, Marcie! That was so fun to open and so incredibly useful to have for the project!

As part of a surprise vintage gift pack from her forays into the finest Brocante (French Antique Fairs), the divine Corey Amaro included a goodly length of HANDMADE antique lace for me that looks for all the world as if made by talented spiders! It's beyond perfect for the edges of Rana's skirting and Corey knew it would be! Thank you, Corey! That was so fun to open and so incredibly useful to have for the project!