Friday, February 9, 2018

About making masks and Carnaval memories.

The conception of a leather mask.


Next Tuesday, the 13th it is carnival, not that I am a party nose but I made, noblesse oblige, a leather mask! For week and weeks, a silver colored paper mask was laying around, telling me: make  a leather copy of me, but I didn't get it; last week I really saw the mask, copied it to black leather, cut it out and then I was stuck: how to attach the elastic in an elegant way? you can't use a leather mask with ends of elastic visible, sticking out of the front!

I thought about a button and went to the store and there I saw buttons with 1 big hole on the back: perfect! I got 2 black buttons and some tubular elastic. I went home, laced the elastic through the hole I made in the mask,  from the back to the front, through the buttonhole and then back to the back of the mask where I made a knot to keep the elastic in place; the same thing on the other side. I tried it on, thinking this will be neat but my lashes kept touching the leather and it was impossible to wear it! I examined the paper mask, thought about the mask I had seen in the store and then it dawned: the materiel should be rigid, stiff. I cut out a second one from leather a bit more stiff, undid the buttons from the first mask, tied them to the stiffer one and it's o.k.!!! I can go ahead and make some more, maybe in different colors if I have the right leather. It is almost cat eyed!


LoveLea's Carnival mask
LoveLea's Carnival mask.

Carnival memories.


When I was a child, I shared a room with my sister Lieve. Our room was on the street side. When it was Mardi Gras, lots of people went out dressed up, wearing a mask, shaking a rattle. They changed their voices when talking to the girls so that nobody could recognize them. This was THE EVENING when people could live their life to the full, almost everything was permitted. We lived on a main street and the rattles, the talking, the joking, the laughing made a lot of noise. We couldn't resist to open the window and showing as less as possible of ourselves, observe the partying people. Sometimes we were seen and became the object of their jokes, gags and nonsense, the whole street looked at us and that was the end of the fun for us. We longed to be part of the fun and at the same time were scared to be there.

Lemons.


Two days before we left the summerhouse, we picked all the lemons that grow this year. We used to have 2 lemon trees, but 4 or 5 years ago, winter was very harsh, it went below zero and one tree didn't survive. The other tree, which we had planted in a good protected spot was badly damaged but survived because we trimmed the tree from all its branches until only the main structure was left. We didn't get any fruit for 4 years  but 2017 gave us about 30 kilo's of lemon. One year we even had 150 kilo's!

green lemons
Still green lemons, will be used at the latest. 

When picked we sort them according to maturity, pack them one by one in tissue paper and store them in crates. We took 2 crates with us and use them in salads, soups, tea or çay, the zest in desserts. In the spring  I gather the flowers falling down and use them in cakes; I am not a good dessert cook and besides an occasional apple pie, I mostly bake a cake but you could use the flowers in plenty of other preparations. I store them in the deep freezer and they hold well.

This is a short post: I have been very busy, had unexpected visitors 2 times and feel like the flu is coming at me. I Hope to have a surprise for you all, either next week or the following week.

Do YOU have any carnival memories? Share them in the comments section, we would love to read them.

See you next week!

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