Hi! I feel terrible today. But you know what will cheer me up? Some words from my friend and yours, Mr. Jim Williamson. Take it away, Fancy. The end of the first full work week of the year is just hours away. You can all let out a collective, “Ah!” Like many of you, I was not quite ready to return to work after those lovely days off during the holidays. There is something kind of nice about not knowing or caring what time or even what day it is—as long as it is just from a holiday-induced coma and not from an actual or medically-induced coma.
One thing is for certain, the Oz sure loved those three-mile walks each morning of my holiday. You should have seen the super sad face he gave me this week when I had to tell him no walk. It was a good runner-up to the saddest face in the world: that of Lady Edith. That woman is so sad she can’t even properly burn down her own bedroom. Maybe her endless tears help halt the flames.
I will admit that it was a pretty stress-free holiday except for the morning of Christmas Eve, which also happened to be the day we were hosting 10 friends for a five-course dinner. Max somehow managed to slice the back of his leg open with a broken coffee mug. Yes, it does sounds strange. How does one do that? I still don’t quite understand how it all went down. It was well before 7 a.m. and BC (before coffee). Nothing should ever happen BC.
Anyway, I heard a lot of ouches and ohs and my name was bellowed twice. To get a true sense of the sound level, you should imagine Homer Simpson saying it through a megaphone. He said, “I cut my leg. I think it is bad.” So I jumped out of bed and ran down the stairs. Okay, maybe it was more of a quick walk down the stairs. First I looked for blood on the floor near where Max was standing and clutching his leg. Max is a bleeder. If he gets a paper cut, it looks like you invited Lizzie Borden over for lamb stew and it was not to her liking. I didn’t see any. Things were looking up.
“You are going to have to drop your pants if you want me to look at it.” I told him. Surprisingly, this is not the first time I have uttered this sentence. I followed that with a quick, “My X-ray vision is on the blink.” He lowered his pants very gingerly. I was expecting to see blood gushing out of the wound but there wasn’t much. Unfortunately, there was about an inch-long gash, and I could see the tendon inside his leg. Here is a helpful hint: If you can see the tendon, you need stitches.
It only took him one hour, three phone calls, and two text messages (one was from me, sending a picture of the wound to his friends) to convince him that what I said was true. I can’t blame him. No one ever wants to go to the emergency room, especially on Christmas Eve. Luckily, he survived, and the dinner party went off without a hitch. Too bad it didn’t go off without a stitch! But like they say, “It isn’t a party until something gets broken.” Or is that saying, “It must be Wednesday and the maid has been here”? I get the two confused. Also exciting, no one set the table on fire this year with candles or words. It truly was a holiday miracle.
Since we have been talking about stitches, and we are supposed to talk about design at some point, let’s have a look at some stitches that don’t cause any pain like this fabulous textile called Cayo Hueso or Key West. This is from my new favorite, Misia-Paris, which is part of Casamance. This collection takes inspiration from Madame M, our muse, as she travels from Miami to Key West to visit Hemingway, and perhaps begin a torrid affair.
Whatever the ultimate outcome of their meeting, at least we get this beautiful collection of fabrics. I think it looks both modern and ancient at the same time. Definitely something both Hemingway and you would like. And 2015 is all about texture, and this textile has texture on top of texture.
With that, I am out. HNY!
