Hail, Hail, The Gang's All Here

(Someone is running a vacuum cleaner in the next room).

Caturday!

Sweet!

Patricia at Agence Eureka has four pages of Epinal paperdolls on her site.

Quote of the Day

Care to our coffin adds a nail, no doubt,
And every grin so merry draws one out. John Wolcot

(vintage poster art from Dover Publications).

Grrsday

see more crazy cat pics

The Loch Ness Catster

A ripple appears on the surface of the loch. What can it be?


A terrified world holds its breath as....


...slowly the monster emerges.


(bloody nose in 3...2...1...)

Patterns of the Past - Hotpads!

Readers of Modern Knitting magazine in 1950 could send away for these potholder patterns. It's a pity they're no longer available; I'd make one to match my cow-shaped teakettle.

Sewing - Bloomers and a Costume Slip from 1929

The Clarks O.N.T Thread Company published a number of sewing booklets in the teens and twenties of the last century. This one is from 1929.


These are half-page copies. Full instructions on drafting and making the bloomers and the slip above can be downloaded from my Flickr account.


I own an original copy, but I've seen reprints that are available on eBay.

Bracketed

I'm not sure if it's because she disapproves of the website I'm checking, or she hates Solitaire, but the Drama Queen keeps trying to park her furry butt on top of the mouse.

Xin Nian Keui Lo!

Happy Chinese New Year (and as someone else remarked, let’s party like it’s 4097!)


My favorite papercraft site, Canon/Japan, has let me down. No models of an ox to make (they have a new one up for an Orca that is a wow), but you can cut out and assemble this one for a cow. It’s as close as I could get!

(Chinese Peony print from Dover).

Weather Report

It began snowing again early this morning, but I shouldn't complain. At least it's not this cold. And it gives me an excuse to post a photo of Babyface with both ears up.

Using It Up

Cookbooks are not normally devoted entirely to the topic of leftovers, but occasionally you run across a little booklet (usually put out by a cooking school) dedicated to this noble end. In a thriftier time, homemakers gave much thought to the question of what to do with the remains of yesterday's dinner. Heating something up another day was the easy way out, but very often there wasn't enough left to make much of a second meal. The Culinary Arts Institute of Chicago, Illinois published this vintage charmer in 1940, just after the hard times of the Depression and just before the hard times of WWII. It offered suggestions for using up kitchen remnants like stale bread, leftover meat and vegetables, and soured milk.

Ruth Berolzheimer was the director, and here are her recommendations for leftover cake, something we never seem to have in this house, at any rate.

“Keep leftover pieces of cake or cookies an a covered metal box. Crumble into pieces or grind into crumbs; combine with cooked leftover fruits (with juice) for steamed fruit puddings. Serve with lemon sauce.”

Leftover breadcrumbs also had many uses.


I think any of these would be quite tasty except maybe the brewis. It doesn’t sound very appetizing even if it will use up two cups of breadcrumbs (left click to enlarge the recipe page).


I mentioned liver loaf a couple of weeks ago when I was discussing rationing. A liver loaf by any other name is just a pâté, and made with calves’ or chicken livers I’ll bet it wouldn’t be half bad.

Liver Loaf with Pan Gravy

1 ½ lbs beef liver
1 ½ cups boiling water
2 slices salt pork, ¼ inch thick
1 medium onion
¼ cup chopped parsley
2 cups soft breadcrumbs
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 t. salt
¼ t. pepper
2 T. flour
1 ½ cups cold water

“Rinse liver, cover with boiling water and let stand 10 minutes; drain. Grind with salt pork and onion; add parsley, crumbs, eggs, salt and pepper, and mix thoroughly. Press into baking pan (8x4x3 inches) and bake in moderate oven (350F) about 1 hour or until browned. Remove loaf to hot platter. Stir flour into drippings and brown; add water gradually and cook 5 minutes, until thickened; season and pour over loaf. If you like, omit gravy and garnish your liver loaf with crisp, brown bacon. Serves six.”

Heat Wave!

It got up to 5F/-15C here today. Woo hoo. Pass the sunblock.

Prairie Neighbors

Driving home this week, I thought I saw this guy:


It is far more likely, of course, that I saw this guy.


Peregrine falcons are not normally found perching on metal fenceposts in the middle of the upland corn prairie (which is why I started hyperventilating when I saw the black tail bars), but Broad-Winged Hawks are. Oh well...it's still something to add to my life list.

(Photos from www.fws.gov and www.virtualbirder.com. You didn't think I had my camera with me, did you?)

Caturday!

see more crazy cat pics

Eine Kleine Nachtmusik

(Steinlein poster reprint from Dover).

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

He
Me
Canus Magnus
Canus Parvus
Felis Malefica

Scene: the master bedroom of a small bungalow. Stage left is a window. Stage right is the door to the hall. A bed is placed against the wall center stage, and a bedside table (with an antique glass-globed lamp, telephone, books, etc) is fitted into the very narrow space between the bed and the window.

Canus Magnus lies asleep on the floor at the foot of the bed. Canus Parvus is curled up snugly under the window, paws twitching in pursuit of dream bunnies. Two blanket-swaddled forms occupy the bed. As a vagrant moonbeam teases its way under the drawn shade, a soft snore can be heard. It is well past midnight.

Enter Malefica from stage right. She tiptoes across the carpet until she is about two feet from the larger dog.

Malefica (whispers): Mrowr. (There is no reaction).

Malefica (a little more loudly): Mrowr! (Still nothing. She places herself directly in front of the big dog’s ear).

Malefica: MERWOUWWRRR!

She scoots under the bed a split second before Magnus leaps to his feet and lunges for her. As his one hundred and twenty pound frame slams into the bed-stead, the headboard bounces violently off the wall and knocks against the bedside table.

He (shooting bolt upright from deep REM sleep as the lamp—a present from His mother—topples over onto the telephone): What the HELL?!?

Magnus, his massive head wedged firmly under the end of the bed-stead, begins barking in rage and frustration. Parvus awakes and adds her piercing falsetto yelp to the din. Malefica strolls out from under the far side and hops up on top of the bed where she sits down next to Me and surveys her handiwork with quiet satisfaction.

Me (softly but with great depth of feeling): You cow.

Quote of the Day

If people destroy something replaceable made by mankind, they are called vandals; if they destroy something irreplaceable made by God, they are called developers. Joseph Wood Krutch.

Patterns of the Past - McCall's Slippers

From McCall's Needlework and Crafts, Winter 1943-44 (left click for a larger image). Many clothing items, including leather shoes, were rationed during the war. You could make your precious footwear last longer by slipping on a pair of slippers as soon as you got home. They would be made of un-rationed cork soles and scraps of fabric left over from other projects.

Tech Support

Some day, I'll have to admit to Hewlett-Packard what's really wrong with our printer.

Embroidery and Crochet - a Pillow Cover from 1949

From Modern Knitting & Needlework, Spring 1949, an embroidery pattern and a crocheted edging to trim a purchased baby carriage pillow. A larger image can be downloaded from my Flickr account.

(edited to add the Flickr link!)