Author Archives: John Cutrone

Sep 28 2021
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Birthdays & Anniversaries

Momma’s Turning 95!

That’s my mom, Millie, and on Saturday, it’s her 95th birthday. A few months ago she picked up her embroidery hoop for the first time in years and made a few hand embroidered flour sack tea towels. She enjoyed it so much, she bought more towels. And more again. And early this summer, at 94, Mom began a new venture: Millie’s Tea Towels. We sell them for her on the Convivio Bookworks website and give her the full amount of each sale. It’s the biggest thrill for her when she sells one. For her 95th birthday, my goal is to give her a really big thrill… hence a special Convivio Bookworks sale this week (and one where you get the gift!):

Save $9.50 when you buy any four Millie’s Tea Towels (or one 7-day set), and get free domestic shipping, too! Use discount code HAPPYBIRTHDAY at the check out. Easy as pie! There are nearly a hundred different designs to choose from, and each big thirsty flour sack towel is embroidered by hand by Millie herself. It takes her about a day to embroider each one––a process she just loves. Click here to shop… you’ll find Millie’s Tea Towels in the new Linens & Textiles part of our online catalog (along with some other fine new items).

Happy Birthday, Mom!

 

Sep 22 2021
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Autumn, Equinox

September Equinox

I had a whole other chapter written for today’s Convivio Book of Days and this first day of autumn by the almanac, but then my niece, Isabella, and I were chatting (the same niece who had a flying lesson for her 15th birthday in the most recent Convivio Dispatch), about autumn and the equinox and she sent me a link to one of her favorite songs, one that reminds her of autumn. It’s Astor Piazzolla’s “Café 1930,” performed by Alexandra Whittingham and Esther Abrami. She and I wondered what is it, exactly, that can make a collection of sounds epitomize a season. We decided that we didn’t know what it was, but being unable to unlock that particular mystery makes it even better. I listened to her song myself, and she’s right: there is a hint of autumn about it. Then I decided all you need to know about today’s equinox is depicted in the photograph above, showing this old earth at its moment of equinox, which happens to be 3:40 PM here in Lake Worth. That’s Eastern Daylight Time. An equal share of day and night, of light and dark, across the planet: balance. That’s what the equinox is all about. Tomorrow things will begin to shift slightly as the Northern Hemisphere enters its darker half of the year and the Southern its lighter half.

With the academic stuff out of the way, we can listen instead to Isabella’s song of autumn, Astor Piazzolla’s “Café 1930:”

Do you have songs that remind you of autumn? I do, and I’m glad to know that my niece does, too. Feel free to share (please do, actually) your songs in the comments below.

NEW! BIG AUTUMN SALE
It’s looking good for us to return this autumn to the Dia de Los Muertos celebration in Lake Worth and maybe even Fort Lauderdale. But we’re still bringing back the big autumn Street Fair Sale this year!

Now through Day of the Dead (Dia de Los Muertos), use discount code STREETFAIR at checkout for $10 off your purchase of $75 on everything in the shop, and get free domestic shipping, too! What’s new? A big bevy of brand new advent calendars from Germany. Lots of great new hand embroidered tea towels by my mom (Millie’s Tea Towels––Mom’s been embroidering every day!) plus more tea towels hand printed by the folks at Kei & Molly Textiles in New Mexico (as well as eco-friendly reusable cloth bags and compostable sponges, all with fun Kei & Molly prints). And of course lots of great new artesanías méxicanas for Dia de Los Muertos: Day of the Dead. New Christmas goods from Sweden and Germany arriving soon, too. Shop here!

Image: Earth daylight distribution on the September Equinox (Northern Autumn; Southern Spring) as seen on w:SpaceEngine. Creative Commons, 2021, via Wikimedia Commons.

 

Sep 02 2021
Autumn, Book of Days Calendar

A Hatful of Apples, or Your September Book of Days

Short and sweet: Here is your printable Convivio Book of Days calendar for September. Autumn is coming, and so is, hopefully, an abundant apple crop. This is what we dream of here in Florida, where apples will not grow. Oranges, mangoes, carambola and papaya…. all grow readily here, but it is the humble apple I wish for most.

Cover star this month: a painting, most likely from the late 1890s, called “Harvest.” It’s by American artist Levi Wells Prentice, who was self-taught and associated with the Hudson River School––and there you have another thing I tend to look longingly toward as autumn color sweeps across the land: the Hudson River Valley and the legends and lore of writers like Washington Irving. Each autumn, I find myself pulling down one of his books from the bookcase. I find myself a cozy chair and read a tale or two about the Hudson Valley he loved so much. Washington Irving: he’s like Father Christmas to those of us who love autumn.

I already know I’ve got busy days ahead so I cannot guarantee you’ll hear from me before a couple of red letter days pass this month. Both come on Monday, when it will be Labor Day once again. We think of it as our unofficial close to summer in these United States of America, but more than this, it is the day we set aside to honor the workers upon whose labor this nation was built. Later that evening, with the setting sun, Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year celebration, will begin. It is a time for sweet things, as simple as a slice of apple, dipped in honey.

And there, short and sweet as promised, is your invitation to this month’s calendar. I think you’ll like it. It’s a PDF that you can print and pin to your wall, and it is a fine accompaniment to this blog. Over at the website, our Summer High Five Sale continues for just a few days more, but I’ll be writing again soon with news about our upcoming autumn sale, which features a bigger discount but also a higher minimum… so if you’re planning a purchase, well, plan accordingly. Currently, and for the next few days, take $5 off your order of $35 or more with discount code HIGH5.

Summer here persists a while longer, but knowing autumn is coming to the Hudson River Valley and other points north is all I need to know. I’m with you in spirit.

 

Image: “Harvest” by Levi Wells Prentice. Oil on canvas, circa 1890s [Public domain] via Wikimedia Commons.

 

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