A Brief Hiatus

I entered this week with the best of intentions for keeping up with posts, but our regional training institute starts Monday and I'm on the planning staff and I'm an instructor for three of the classes.

We are also planning a quick trip to visit family out west, so...blogging will resume sometime in mid-June.

It Is Foolish And Wrong

collage from firstcommand.com 

To mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived. ~ George S. Patton.

Oh, Sugar

image from kitchenklatterrecipes.com

From 1942 - sugar rationing had been announced and would take effect in May of that year, so home cooks were starting to swap recipes that substituted honey or molasses, or recipes that used little sugar.  I'd like to try those 'kolachy.'

The Kitchen Klatter website is a fun read, especially if you want to see the sorts of dishes real people - as opposed to advertising copywriters and cookbook publishers - were making.

Let's just ignore that salmon casserole though, shall we?

Caturday!

Mixed Blessings

copyright-free image from Dover.

Brian's last official day of teaching is today.  I'm looking forward to it, because this past year has been an awful one for him, professionally speaking.

On the other hand, my birthday is tomorrow, and as someone pointed out to me, for a present I am getting my husband 24/7.

Grrrsday

Aunt Martha's Workbasket, December 1936

A festive-looking offering, but with disappointing contents.  A few crochet and embroidery projects, and instructions for making the poinsettia on the cover, but the bulk of the magazine is given over to mail-order patterns.  Free pdf available for download at the Antique Patterns Library.

Happy Birthday To Us

From the History Channel, This Day in History:  "Clara Barton and Adolphus Solomons found the American Red Cross, an organization established to provide humanitarian aid to victims of wars and national disasters in congruence with the International Red Cross.

Barton, born in Massachusetts in 1821, worked with the sick and wounded during the American Civil War and became known as the "Angel of the Battlefield" for her tireless dedication.  In 1865, President Abraham Lincoln commissioned her to search for lost prisoners of war and with the extensive records she had compiled during the war she succeeded in identifying thousands of the Union dead at the Andersonville prisoner-of-war camp.

She was in Europe in 1870 when the Franco-Prussian War broke out, and she went behind the German lines to work for the International Red Cross.  The American Red Cross received its first U.S. federal charter in 1900.  Barton headed the organization into her 80's and died in 1912."

War Is All Hell

Suggested menu from Kitchen Klatter, March, 1942.

Caturday!

Quote Of The Day

If you cannot walk more than a block in your shoes, they are not shoes; they are pretty sculptures that you happen to have attached to your feet.  ~ Linda Przybysewski

The Online Bookshelf - Notes Of A Golddigger and Golddigger's Guide

This unfortunately turned out to be a manual on mining in Australia in 1852.  I had such hopes.

Division of the Spoils

image from amazon.com

I brought in a fistful of catnip about three hours ago and gave it to the New Kids.  I'm not saying someone got more than her fair share, but Sheba is currently sprawled on one of the bathroom towels, completely and blissfully zonked.

Aunt Martha's Workbasket Magazine - November, 1936

The most recent Workbasket offering from the Antique Pattern Library.  If my calculations are correct, this one is from November, 1936.  Offered are projects in crochet, embroidery, tatting, and, well...cornhusks.  A pdf is available for free download.

On the Road (Again)

Headed for the West Coast (of Illinois) for a couple of days.  Blogging will resume on Monday!

Crochet - "Veranda Handicraft" from 1915

From Woman's Home Companion, July 1915, a "fascinating" crochet project for summer days.  Click to copy, save and enlarge - it will be legible.

Vintage Advertising - Colgate's Talcum Powder

From Woman's Home Companion, January 1915. Wish it still came in these containers.

Quote Of The Day

image from The Chicago Door People

She was one of those persons who will squeeze into the same partition of a revolving door with you, on the pretext of causing less trouble. ~ Shirley Hazzard

The Online Bookshelf - Peter Poodle

A free download from Project Gutenberg.  Enjoy the Edwardian toy illustrations!

Tatting - Two Edgings From 1911

From the January, 1911 issue of McCall's magazine, two tatted edgings (the second one looks particularly nice).  Mandatory legibility comment*:  click to enlarge the image and print it out.  The instructions will be readable, I promise.

*For those of us with vintage eyesight.