Christmas cheer


ocasiocasa sends warm wishes during the most beautiful and glorious season of the year


On Christmas Eve, my daughter gave me a dozen lovely roses. The day before, she and I had been reminiscing about one of my favorite stories I used to read to her and her brothers every December. It was called The Legend of the Christmas Rose by Selma Lagerlöf---a Swedish novelist, who in 1909 became the first woman writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. You can read the story here if you would like - http://www.archive.org/stream/legendofchristma00lage

One year, we made silk marionettes of all the characters in the story and retold it as a puppet play at our Christmas family gathering. I remember it being very cute and charming. I still have the puppets, but what I really hope is that we filmed it on video, and have that somewhere also.

So, later on Christmas day, Jeff and I were relaxing outside, on our deck. The sun was very low, the kids had gone off to see a movie, and there, through the trees, we spotted several bright yellow grapefruits. What’s so surprising about this is that we didn’t even know we had a grapefruit tree! I know that sounds odd, but we live under an oak hammock (where many oak trees create a ceiling of branches) and although we have quite a few wild citrus trees that just popped up on their own, it was always too shady for fruit to grow. At least none ever had in the dozen years we have lived here. So Jeff grabbed a ladder, and without falling into the creek below him, managed to pick all of them---twelve big, beautiful grapefruits. What a gift!

We brought them inside and started juicing; it tasted incredible. Added a bit of Swedish vodka (because we deserved it) and toasted to a perfectly splendid day which we were extremely grateful for.
I hope yours was equally as special.
~dale




jeff’s mojo is just fine…


Every now and then, Jeff will stay awake much later than myself and work on a completely new project. When I wake, I never know what I might find in my living room that wasn’t there the night before. One Sunday morning, it wasn’t ‘what’ but rather ‘who’. Perfectly displayed on my computer and posed to greet me were a charming, little family (dog and all) entirely made from paper tape. I love that he gave the mom a superhero cape.:)

I call them my little mojo family---that same day, an Etsy treasury that our canisters were in, was featured on Etsy’s front page and the canisters were purchased. …I believe that sometimes, slices of life slide right into perfectness, ever so simply and subtly. I never wonder why; I just expect it to.

Maybe Mr. Waters tried a little too hard winning over his love interest, but he had a perfect win with such an excellent song…



We are currently having our very first giveaway and it is being hosted at a wonderful blog called Audrey’s Blog Give Away. I’ve enjoyed reading her features so much; she does an excellent job reviewing talented and unique artist and the crafts they create.

We are offering our Celtic Glen Casa Bottle Oil Lamp for the giveaway. It is an upcycled beer bottle fitted with hardware and wick to create an indoor tabletop oil lamp. All that is needed is regular lamp oil. They create a soft, glowing candle-size flame. We’ve been using them at home now in place of candles.
These Casa Bottles were popular at a recent art show we participated in. It is always so gratifying to see people’s reaction to your art.







turkey dressing…the ruffled skirt


MADE---a beautiful blog filled with wonderful projects, recently caught my eye with this stunning photo. The creator is an extremely talented crafter who likes to sew. Dana has two simple goals for her blog: to share ideas and to help the sewer of any skill-level realize that they can sew without a store-bought pattern. I love that!
This particular project has won a tutorial challenge on the excellent blog – So You Think You’re Crafty.
If you sew, and would like to see how to make this gorgeous ruffled skirt, or just want to gawk at more beautiful photos of it, click on the link below to go to Dana’s blog post where she directs you to the tutorial.
http://www.dana-made-it.com/2009/11/being-turkey-isnt-always-easy.html
(The link to the tutorial will only be active till Sunday night, Dec. 6th. After that, the pattern will be for sale in Dana’s Etsy shop.)
As for myself---I’m thinking seriously about enlarging the dimensions and making one in my size. I love skirts!



Greetings…from our hometown to yours


One afternoon, Jeff and I invited my mom on a trip downtown. We had one of our art bottles in a shop window display that we wanted to see and knew that she would enjoy seeing the recently renovated buildings and beautiful brick paved streets. While there we went to the top of the Indigo Hotel to get more of a bird’s eye view of the area and soak in the glorious, sun shiny day. Jeff snapped this photo on his iphone and I knew it would be postcard material.

The river is Florida’s Caloosahatchee that flows from Lake Okeechobee, west, to the Gulf of Mexico. It’s named after the Calusa---a Native American people that inhabited the coast and waterways of southwest Florida many centuries ago. We are fortunate enough to be able to cross over these bridges just about everyday and witness the light reflecting off of the water’s surface and the unobstructed view of the ever changing colors of the sky.