…is open for business at 1618 1/2 Chicago Ave, just west of Ashland. The boy and I went into Chicago this Saturday for the opening of the Hoosier Mama Pie Company, which is owned and operated by Paula Haney, one of my family of friends. Obviously the city is aching for a good piece of artisan pie because when we got there at 1:30ish the line was out the door. Earlier it was down the street. They ran out of pie at about 11am and the people just kept coming. They were baking like mad trying to fill orders but a pie takes time.
We brought a hand crafted open sign but were unable to stay and deliver the gift as we had an illegally parked car (and after putting several hundred dollars into it in the last 2 weeks I couldn’t afford to have it towed) and another engagement. The next trip into the city we will be heading to Hoosier Mama again and hopefully we will be able to get the good stuff too.
After Hoosier Mama we headed north to a meeting of the Rogers Park Stamp Tramps. We gathered to honor, Vicki, one of our deceased members by going through her craft supplies and dividing them up. The newest member of the group was awed by the size of the collection of stamps, markers, ribbons and other card making paraphernalia. The rest of us knew what she would need to get started making cards and we all made sure she took home the paper trimmer, some cardstock, basic black ink, sentiment stamps and some bling. The more seasoned card makers added to our own collections. We each placed the items we wanted and knew we would use in our own boxes as we talked about the past, the projects and the future. Our bride-to-be will be using the Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head stamp for her thank you cards, looking forward to helping with that project.
This evening I inked some of those stamps. I made no cards. Just a few impressions on bits of scraps to see if I needed to trim the rubber back a bit and to see how well the older rubber worked. Vicki collected a lot of Asian themed stamps and I took a couple of them. One, a beautiful Japanese crane stamp, looked as thought it has never seen an inkpad. As I was looking at the stamped image on the paper I began wondering what the crane symbolized in Japanese culture.
According to the Japanese American National Museum website:
For the Japanese, the crane—or tsuru—is considered a national treasure, appearing in art, literature, and folklore. The Japanese regard the crane as a symbol of good fortune and longevity because of its fabled life span of a thousand years. It also represents fidelity, as Japanese cranes are known to mate for life.Every time I ink the stamps I received this weekend I will think of Vicki and the good fortune I had in knowing her.
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