I live on a farm …

The Advent of Santa: Day Six

When we were children, my sister had a santa that looked much like today’s Santa. I have no idea how she came to have him, but I distinctly recall he belonged to her for some reason.

I am holding a brand new give-away … details further on in this blog.

As the years went by her Santa hung on the family Christmas tree each year and when she became an adult and moved out, her Santa stayed with the family collection at my parents’ house. I always liked him because he had such a wonderful, old-fashioned look.

When my husband and I were on an autumn vacation up in Clayton, New York–in the Thousand Islands area–a couple of years ago I found this Santa in a shop and had to buy him because he looked so similar to the one I recalled from my childhood; I think he is charming.

Yet Another Gift Idea for a Guy

As I mentioned a few posts back, my son came out recently for a couple of nice, long visits. I have missed him so much since I moved to New York, and though he has come out here a few times the visits were usually too brief. This fall he stayed for a couple of weeks at a time, twice. It was wonderful.

We love to cook together, and to sit quietly working on our laptops — me working on my business, him working on his. While he was here we often sat at the dining room table doing. He is a partner in Bumpy Pitch, a boutique t-shirt company dedicated to the lifestyle and culture of soccer.

Among other things, he is a graphic designer and has just opened his own Etsy store for a new venture, Flying Junction, selling awesome posters he has designed that pay homage to New York subway car roll signs. For his posters he carefully reconstructs the original lettering by hand and does not rely on fonts at all. This is remarkable, and results in authentic, vintage looking reproductions of the actual, original roll signs.

As for the name, “Flying Junction”, according to Wikipedia a flying junction is “a railway junction at which one or more diverging or converging tracks in a multiple-track route cross other tracks on the route by bridge to avoid conflict with other train movement”.

We have the one pictured here hanging in our dining room in a simple black frame and it is a striking yet simple piece with strong eye appeal. Of course, I love looking at it and knowing it is one my son’s creations.

Each of his posters is individually designed and professionally printed with UV protected ink on premium, archival recycled matte finish stock. He is offering free shipping on all orders placed before December 15th, so rock yourself on over there and see if he has something just right for a guy you still need to buy something for

And in knitting news … I have patterns stacking up that need to be published. I will get them finished as soon as I can, but just cannot possibly do one this week, I don’t think. However, I do have this photo to offer of a miniature stocking I knit last week to match the long, long, long Christmas Stocking I knit for my daughter this year (see previous post for a photo of that). This one is about 8″ or 9″ long and will hang on the Christmas Tree.

As for the give away I mentioned above … here are the details. As a business woman and publisher of knitting patterns and artistic products (prints, note cards, etc.) it is good business practice for me to expand my email marketing list. Toward that end, I gather email addresses from readers and customers so that I can send out emails about my products or things I am interested in. I normally only send out about 1 or 2 emails per month, although around holidays I sometimes send out 2 to 4 per month … because it is good business practice to do so.

I am saying all of this because I want to do a give away, but I also want to gather email addresses as a part of it. If you would be willing to be on my mailing list and to receive 1 or 2 emails per month, a little bit more around holidays, then please do sign up and I will enter your name in a drawing to win one of these cool prizes:

Grand Prize: A signed, limited edition print of my painting “Elegance of Being” from my 2010 Art Show, “Moments”.
First Prize: Any five of my knitting patterns, winner’s choice, as computer downloads.
Second Prize: One set of eight notecards (with envelopes) featuring various oil paintings from my 2010 Art Show, “Moments”.
Third Prize: Any one of my knitting patterns, winner’s choice, as a computer download.

Rules:
A. Sign up on my mailing list using this sign up form. Note: You must confirm your subscription to the list to be eligible for the drawing.
B. Do not use a yahoo email address.
C. If you are already on my mailing list please don’t sign up a second time, just leave a comment on this post and I will manually add you to the drawing.
D. One entry per person.
E. Enter by midnight on December 31, 2010 to be eligible.
F. Drawing will be held on or before Friday January 7, 2011
G. Winners will be notified via email and will have 72 hours to respond, otherwise prize will be forfeited and awarded to a secondary drawing winner.

Good luck to you, I hope you win!

Well, it is snowing hard today and the wind is blowing. I have to put some soup on for dinner, so must be off now.

Warm wishes,
~firefly

Copyright © 2010 J. L. Fleckenstein ALL RIGHTS RESERVED