Two Masterpieces in One Weekend

Well...at least one is a masterpiece for Thaddeus and I, and the other will hopefully turn out to be a masterpiece once blocked.

Local Auction
For fans of The Antiques Roadshow, there are a few neighbors of mine that do the valuations of antiques for the show. David Rago and Suzanne Perrault are often seen on the show, usually evaluating pottery...they are both experts.

Anyway, Rago owns a local auction house across the river from me in Lambertville, NJ and their latest "discovery auction" included a painting that Thaddeus saw and loved, and when we went for the preview, I had to agree that it was beautiful.



The painting is an untitled, undated portrait by Elof Wedin. The frame is handcarved, and quite beautiful, and we're thinking it might be done by his brother who did that kind of work.

There was nothing else in the auction that we wanted, so we scheduled to arrive around 7:00 on Saturday evening to bid on it. Fortunately, we arrived about 30 minutes early, because the one piece we wanted was minutes away from going on the block. We were paralyzed for a moment when the auctioneer made the first bid for $100 less than we were willing to bid, thinking that she would go quite a bit higher than we wanted to pay, but we recovered quickly upped her bid.

No more bids were placed, and the lovely painting now hangs in our bedroom. We couldn't be more pleased.

Current Knitting
I was honestly concerned I wasn't going to be able to finish the Ichida lace piece again this weekend, but I spent hours and hours (about 14 in total) this weekend, and the lace if finally off the needles.



I haven't blocked it yet...the crocheted-off edging took way longer than I expected, and so I didn't have enough time to pin it out and make it lovely. I'll try to get that done this weekend.

Now...what do I work on next?

Readers' Comments/Questions
Friend Carol asks, "If God hasn't friended me, does that mean I'm going to burn in hell?"

Yes dear...sorry.

Anonymous wrote, "I know you probably hate people correcting grammar. (most people do.) But this will bug me... It's actually Newfoundland, not New Foundland.. We Canadians get touchy about our place names.

I don't hate being corrected at all...in fact, I quite appreciate it. I left my mistake on the blog because I didn't want your comment to seem bizarre, but the correct spelling has been duly noted. I can't believe I didn't know how to spell that, and I would have corrected you too if you had typed Newyork on your blog.

Cynthia writes, "Wooo Whoooo on being a Rutgers Alum--I just became one on May 20!"

Congratulations!...I loved my time at Rutgers, and it's always great to see someone make it through there.