| Arts, Crafts Show Saturday
Shoppers searching for that perfect gift may find just what they are looking for on Saturday at the annual St. Joseph's Halle Craft Show.
Artists and craftsmen from the Fredericksburg and surrounding area will be displaying their handiwork on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in St. Joseph's Halle, located in the 200 block of West San Antonio.The public is invited to attend and there is no admission charge.Offered will be homemade cakes, cookies and breads; handmade baskets; hand-painted punched tin signs; hand-knitted sweaters and scarves; new crop pecans and pecan cooking oil; folk art dolls and decorative items, and handmade jewelry.
Also, mesquite cutting boards and crosses; gourd birdhouses and decorative hand-painted sayings; mosaic stained glass; soy candles and soaps; decorative wreaths and garlands; hand-painted scriptures and inspirational signs, and homemade jams and jellies.
Japanese bakery's origami figures welcome season
Paper cranes, reindeers and frogs are among the hundreds of ways a local Japanese bakery is counting its blessings. Origami figures of all shapes and sizes - at least 1,000 in all - cover a Christmas tree at JTAN Bakery in Lexington. The folks at the bakery, which opened in spring 2006, wanted to show their gratitude for the people in the community who have welcomed them and become fans of their cultural sweets. "I want to show the Japanese culture and show appreciation for the customers," baker Hiroyuki Noura said through a translator. Co-owner Tatsuya "Tattoo" Kimura said the Japanese tradition of origami, the art of paper folding, is a cultural expression to show feelings. Folding 1,000 paper cranes has been a long-standing tradition that has been used to express well-wishing or wishing for one to recover from an illness, Kimura said.
The day the City of Allegheny disappeared
As a postscript in one installment, an unsigned essay reads, in part, "It is almost impossible to make a separate chapter out of Allegheny when writing a history of Pittsburg. Many of the men who have made Pittsburg famous as an industrial center have their homes in Allegheny and no one who lives on the north side is independent of the thriving, bustling city across the river. " To the fiercely independent smaller city, those might have been fighting words. Today, many North Siders who embrace Pittsburgh still don't feel the North Side fits comfortably in its weave of neighborhoods. "We're just different over here," said Mike Coleman, president of the Allegheny City Society and a long-time resident of Allegheny West. "When we moved here, we were amazed at how much like a village it is, apart from the rest of the city." "I think a lot of folks felt like we were a step-child," said former city councilwoman Barbara Burns, a native of East Allegheny.
Investing in state's arts scene is smart move
Oregonians don't need deep pockets and highbrow tastes to be supporters of the arts and culture. They give to high school kids' music programs each fall when students knock at their door. They write checks to the local libraries that help them through dark winter months. They buy memberships to art museums, science museums and community theaters. Since 2002, the state has made it possible to give extra support to these and many other programs through the Oregon Cultural Trust. So far, the folks taking advantage of this state tax break tend to be big donors to the arts. But regular folks can be part of the action, too -- and they should. All they need to do is add up those $5 and $10 and $20 checks to nonprofit arts and cultural organizations for 2007; write a matching check for the total to the Oregon Cultural Trust by year's end; and take a tax credit -- better than a deduction -- off their 2007 Oregon taxes.
Mirah and Spectratone International Share This Place: Stories and Observations
Share This Place is the album from K Records standout Mirah, but it also a multimedia project commissioned by the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art and the Seattle International Children's Festival, comprised of the songs contained herein and accompanying stop-motion video by Britta Johnson. Inspired in part by the writings of French entomologist Jean Henri Fabré and the Capek brothers' anthropomorphic drama The Insect Play, with a dash of the insectile existentialism of Kafka's "The Metamorphosis", Share This Place is a palimpsest where the separate fiefdoms of humans and insects are reconciled in one teeming kingdom. The album is more like To All We Stretch the Open Arm, the collection of traditional folk Mirah recorded with Seattle's Black Cat Orchestra, than her beloved C'mon Miracle.
Community Events Calendar
Otter Creek Choral Society will present "A Winter Wonderland" concert of Christmas music Saturday, at 7:30 PM and Sunday at 4 PM at the Vergennes Congregational Church. The Lutheran Church of the Holy Trinity in Saranac Lake, NY will host their Christmas Bazaar, luncheon and Bake Sale on Saturday from 10 - 3 PM. Clementwood Spiritual Life Center of Rutland will host a Christmas Tea Party on Saturday from 1 - 2:30 PM. Burlington's VFW Post 782 will host a Post Dance with the "Phill 'N the Blanks" Band on Saturday at 7 PM. The Elm Hill PTO is holding their 2nd annual "Breakfast with Santa" on Saturday from 8 to 11 AM at the Riverside Middle School cafeteria in Springfield. The Essex Junction Fire Department will be having their annual Open House on Saturday from 10 to 2PM.
Marshmallows with staying power
For years, Martha Stewart intimidated me out of making marshmallows as holiday gifts. Every time I'd drool over her recipe for those plump, rough-cut pillowy squares, dusted in powdered sugar, I thought what wonderful gifts they would make. .
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