Caturday!

 

Quote Of The Day

 

What makes the success of many books consists in the affinity that exists between the mediocrity of the author's ideas and those of the public. ~ Nicolas Chamfort

Grrrsday

 

Vintage Children's Crafts - A Puppet Theater From Cartons

 

From Popular Mechanic's Do-It-Yourself Encyclopedia, Vol. 11, something to keep the kids occupied while they're stuck in the house over the holidays.  It's no longer down-loadable, but the book can be borrowed on a free one-hour loan from the Internet Archive.

Vintage Advertising - Union Pacific Railroad

From Woman's Day, May 1957.

(If Pete Buttigeig can get rail travel back to this, I'll definitely vote for him). 

For We...Are Come To Worship Him

 

Sorely Tempted

 

image from WCIA-3 TV, Champaign 

The Red Cross wants to know if I can go to Ft Myers for the first two weeks in January.

Caturday

 

A Pretty Face With Naught Behind It, As My Mother Used to Say

 

I let him out in the backyard yesterday morning, looked out ten minutes later and he had managed to -

• Unlatch the gate to let himself into the vegetable garden (streng Verboten and he knows it)
• Latch the gate behind him 

but then...but then!

• Couldn't figure out how to open it again to let himself back out.

Requiring me to walk across forty feet of frozen path in my robe and slippers to release him, the sodding idjit.

And - as his contribution to the Nicor Gas executive retirement fund - I find that every time I go into the kitchen he has removed the draft stopper from across the bottom of our imperfectly-fitting 105-year old back door.

(I just checked the local tv station's weather app, and it has risen to -2F.  Practically tropical).

Quote Of the Day

 

And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. ~ Luke 2:7

The Online Bookshelf - Christmas Stories, by Georgene Falkner

 

With half a dozen seasonal illustrations.  Free download from the Internet Archive.

Vintage Knitting - A "Kitten" Hat from 1949

 

For a last-minute gift, a woollen hat with kitten ears, to fit a 3 month old.  From Workbasket magazine, June 1949 - left-click to enlarge.

Vintage Holidays - Edwardian Santas

 

Copyright-free images from Dover.

Let's See UCLA Do A Pyramid Wearing Puffer Jackets

 

Southern California cheerleaders near the end of the football season.

 

Central Illinois cheerleaders near the end of the football season.

Caturday!

 

Quote Of The Day

 

copyright-free image from the Graphics Fairy

I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December

A magical thing

And sweet to remember.

"We are nearer to Spring

Than we were in September,"

I heard a bird sing

In the dark of December. ~ Oliver Herford

Grrrsday

 

Vintage Wood Crafts - A Collapsible Table from 1945

 

From Popular Mechanic's The Boy Mechanic, published in 1945 and a collection of projects considered suitable for the young.  I don't have any goggles that need repairing and the ornamental pump cover leaves me cold...but I rather like that table.  The book is a free download from the Internet Archive, and this particular project is on page 95.

Vintage Holidays - Christmas

 

copyright-free image from the Graphics Fairy.

Caturday!

 

RIP

 

So Reserve Cat (aka the Ol' Gunfighter, aka the Big Yella Fella) made his last trip to the vet this morning - Brian took him.  He had been very sick for the past ten days with kidney/colon issues and was on a complicated schedule involving five different medications, special food, and an IV every other day. 

This morning he was crying, his eyes could not focus, and when he came into the bedroom looking for me he ran/staggered into the  wall.  It was time.

Vintage Magazines - The Red Cross Magazine, February 1920

 

Caturday!

 

Quote Of The Day

 

photo from Newsweek

When you win, say nothing.  When you lose, say less. ~ Paul Brown.

Grrrsday

 

Sewing - A Braided Hot Mat from 1941

 

From Let's Make a Gift, by Ruth Wyeth Spears, and I can see this as a use for old t-shirts.  The book can be read at Hathi Trust but if it can be downloaded I have yet to figure out how.

Vintage Advertising - Borden's Buttermilk

 

From Look magazine, July 1955.

Caturday!

 

Quote of the Day

 

photo from the US Naval Institute

The merciful man is merciful unto his beast. Proverbs, 12:10.

Thanksgiving

 

copyright-free image from the Graphics Fairy

And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased ~ Hebrews 13:16.

Vintage Holiday Crafting - The First Thanksgiving (1918)

 

"Let us play that we are really celebrating America's first Thanksgiving!

You can see one of our long, rude puncheon tables spread out in the mild, sweet air of Indian summer, laden with delectable dishes of clam chowder, oysters, fish, turkey, duck, goose, venison pasties, turnips, dumplings of barley flour, corn bread, wheat cakes, pumpkin pies, grapes, plums, great flagons of cider and 'all manner of tasty eats.'

William Bradford, our good governor, with his old flintlock in hand, is just returning from a successful hunt for additional wild turkey.  We shall need these, as ninety friendly Indians are to be our guests for three days and nights.  Later they, too, will hunt and bring us wild deer.

Elder Brewster, in his festive doublet and hose, has stopped a moment to speak to Master Bradford.  Sitting at table, you can see Captain Miles Standish with arms outstretched in glad welcome as he calls more Indians to join the feast, while Massasoit, the mighty chief, stands at the table signaling with his arrow for the braves to approach.

Already Quadquina and Hobomok are at the festive board, seated between Captain Miles Standish and John Alden.  Squanto, who tells the boys how to trap game and teaches settlers how to plant corn, is resting on the ground with his feather-bedecked shield in one hand, and the calumet, or pipe of peace, in the other."

Instructions on how to re-create this mythic scene are found in the Beard Sisters' book Mother Nature's Toy Shop, a free download from Project Gutenberg.

Vintage Holidays - A Thanksgiving Card

 

vintage image from the Graphics Fairy.

Caturday!

 

Quote Of The Day

 

image from historyextra.com

Honestly human history makes a lot more sense when you remember how many of the major decisions were made by 19-year-olds who drank wine for breakfast. ~ Janel Comeau

Grrrsday

 

Tatting - A Christmas Wreath from 1985

 

Faint but still legible - left-click to enlarge.  From Workbasket, Nov-Dec 1985 and available as a 1 hour loan from archive.org.

Illinois Weather

 

We had our first dusting of snow this weekend.

Caturday!

 

Quote Of The Day

 

A society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools. ~ Thucydides.

Grrrsday

 

Happy birthday, Marines!

(My medicine was switched, I started feeling better, and then I managed to come down with such a bad sinus infection that the lead election judge actually sent me home from the precinct on Tuesday because I looked and sounded so bad.  I'm still a walking bag of snot).

Grrrsday

 

 

Just a note - I have been put on a new medication that is making me miserable.  It is possible that I will not be posting for a few days because honestly, I feel rotten.

Other Crafts - A Dollhouse from 1978

 

What the authors call a "Travelling Dollhouse," from The Woman's Day Book of Weekend Crafts. It's "travelling" because it can be collapsed and stored in a cardboard box along with all of the furniture. Very much of it's era, with bean bag chairs, a rya rug, and macrame plant hangers.

 It's adorable, made mostly from household items, and available from Open Library on a one hour loan.

Vintage Holidays - Hallowe'en

 

copyright-free image from the Graphics Fairy

Caturday!

 

Quote Of The Day

 

image from Forbes magazine

A fool at forty is a fool indeed ~ Ethiopian saying

Grrrsday