Monday, April 6, 2009

Happy Tartan Day and San Jacinto Day!






Confederate




Bluebonnet

Cecelia I




Cecelia II


Happy Tartan Day!
Happy San Jacinto Day!

If you have a tartan, I hope you are wearing it today. If you don't have one, you can have some fun and design one of your own using the Tartan Designer in my sidebar.

The site has changed since I used it previously a year or so ago, but you can still use the free demo to make up your own tartan.
There are other sites where you can look up your surnames and see if there are tartans. I have links to some of those, also in my sidebar.
I didn't find one for my Scottish surnames. However, there was an Arnot clan, at one time. It is no more because the last heir didn't have anyone to carry on as chief. So, without a chief, there is no clan. The family became a sept of something else, but I'm not sure what, since it depends on which area my ancestors came from. I've only found back as far as one ancestor whose parents or grandparents are the ones who came from Scotland. Can't go back across the pond, so far.
So, I thought it would be fun to design a taran. I like purple, so that's what I came out with. The bottom two designs are my creations, using the Tartan Designer online. I did 3 more, just for fun. They all look pretty dark, until they are enlarged.
You can use that site to actually design a pattern that can be made up, and made into kilts, scarves, etc. You can even register your own tartan design.
I always feel like I should make these things myself, although I don't have the patience.
The top tartan design is one that you can actually buy. This is called the Confederate pattern. The other pattern is something that a lot of Texans, especially, like. This is called a Bluebonnet design. There are many others that include designs for organizations, states, cities, etc.

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Today is also San Jacinto Day. There are activities at the San Jacinto Monument that you might like to participate in, if you are in that area.
Last night, I did get to see part of one of the Alamo movies, "13 Days To Glory", I believe it was. It was in the wee hours of the morning.

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I didnt' make it to the Brazos Valley Art League meeting today. The flu seems to be going around at our house. Ashton was sick all weekend and had to come home from school this morning. TAKS tests for Math are tomorrow, so he needs to be well by then! And I woke up, with a tummy ache and sneezing, which is how his flu, or whatever it is, started. I guess we are going to pass this around. Just so I am well by Saturday for Sketch Crawl!

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Brandy in Tennessee sent me a photo of the eaves of her house, showing a vent cover, similar to the one that I asked about on the house in Calvert yesterday. She said that her's is iron painted white, and is a decorative covering.

I think that the ones in Calvert are white wood. They look like they might have even had hands on them. We thought that they might be covering a vent, or a hole where there was a stove pipe at one time. But we also thought that the theme of clocks around the house must have some significance.
Possibly, it might help to look up records to see when that house was built and who built it. I feel sure that the Pierce family lived there in the 1930s and probably earlier. That is an older house, but I don't know the dates on it. Or original owners. If it was built there or moved from somewhere else.
Wouldn't it be neat, if those do actually have clock works behind them, to restore them so that they are working clocks! That certainly would be different.

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You can enjoy the old houses in Calvert, and the atmosphere, along with activities there, Saturday April 25 when they have the homes tour, Showcase Calvert 2009. Looks like they are planning a lot of activities. Should be a nice day. And there is a two day quilt show along with the tour. See yesterday's post and my sidebar for links.
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Looks like we are having a day of soup, crackers, Jello, and hot tea while the temperature drops outside.
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Cecelia III
Design for a Tartan


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