New addition

I have a lovely new addition to my sewing studio. It's a wonderful Singer treadle machine and cabinet that used to belong to my grandmother. The machine hasn't been used in many years, certainly since my grandmother died and I'm not sure when she last used it, but she always kept everything in great condition. I've sewing a little bit with the hand-wheel and it worked well. Someday soon I'd like to get a new belt for it so I can treadle.

We brought the machine and cabinet home from my sister's house last week. It was a lot of fun taking the cabinet apart and wrapping the parts in bubble wrap and fleece pullovers to protect them for the 9-hour trip home. The workmanship on the cabinet is incredible. No, nothing fancy, but look - it's still in one piece after all these years and several moves.

And this is how it looks in the studio - the machine is inside, the cabinet looks very decorative. It's definitely a fine piece of family history. Whenever I look at it, I remember grandma.

On the weather front, things have been cool. As in, freezing. We now have a very good idea of how the Siberian tundra must look. We have permafrost out there, I swear. No snow, but everything is white or whitish. There's no moisture in the air because it's all sitting on the ground (and trees and cars...) in the form of ice crystals. And they're not melting, those little suckers. We've had sun, so I'm not complaining too much, because I'd rather have sun and cold than cloudy and warm. That said, sunny and warm beats anything else.