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1.  A couple more fun finished objects for the holidays.  The woven piece is a camera strap and two more octopi hats.

2.  The high temperature here today was -20 degrees.  It was beautifully bright and sunny, but with the windchill it felt something like 45 degrees below zero.  That is just crazy.  If you throw a cup of coffee in to the air it instantly freezes and patters down on to the ground as snow.  (I am not kidding)

3.  Just to prove that it is indeed a small world sometimes, I wanted to share an email that I got over the holidays.

I just happened upon your lovely blog while researching for my familys upcoming 150th anniversary and I immediately recognised an image of our family ribbons on your post, Exquisite Trims: Passamaneria Valmar.  The two ribbons he showed you are in fact created in my familys factory, Julien Faure of St. Etienne and not in Italy, these are two of the more well known designs. Our company is 5th generation artisans and is one of the only remaining silk ribbon companies still in operation as many have been forced to close after the World Wards due to changing fashions and economic constraints.  I’ve been creating jewellery from antique salesmans samples so I’ve gotten to know the archives pretty well….each ribbon is a miniature work of art!
How cool is that?  Ruth and I have emailed a little back and forth and I am super impressed that she found me and my ribbons and recognized them.  What a neat connection to have!  You should go and visit Rubanesque, her etsy shop, where she does beautiful things with samples and scraps of the ribbons.