Calvin Lives

A few days after the blizzard earlier this month, every house on the next block woke to find a snowman on the front lawn…so placed as to be staring accusingly through the living room window when the homeowners opened the drapes in the morning.

I suspect the teenagers who live on the corner and some of their friends. Darn kids.

(Wish I’d thought of it first).

A Noon-Day Breakfast for the Swagger Set

From Breakfasts and Teas; Novel Suggestions for Social Occasions.

"The following is an excellent bill of fare for a noonday breakfast:

Little Neck Clams
Cold Wine Soup
Angels on Horseback
Chicken Patties
Newberg Lobster
Green Peas with New Turnips
Grape Fruit Sherbet
Broiled Birds with Orange Salad
White Custards
Cannelons with Jelly
Strawberries in Cream
Black Coffee

For a simple repast for a few persons, two relishes may be omitted, only one entree being served; then the sherbet, the birds, and one desert, with coffee; this combination would make a most acceptable small breakfast."

A Man's Work Is Never Done

He (on hands and knees, scrubbing bathroom floor): HEY! That was real nice!

Me: What happened?

(The Drama Queen is perched on the side of the bathtub, looking maliciously innocent).

He: She just walked across where I cleaned the sink and left dirty footprints all over it!

Me: Welcome to my world.

Caturday!

Xin Nian Kuai Lo!

Happy Year of the (Sleepy) Tiger!

Quote of the Day

Where words fail, music speaks. ~ Hans Christian Andersen

The Online Bookshelf - If Your Baby Must Travel in Wartime

Published by the Children's Bureau of the Department of Labor in 1944, and wittily illustrated by Gluyas Williams. From Project Gutenberg.

Patterns of the Past - Butterick 6618

A classic. What was it about the Fifties and redheads, anyway?

Crochet - Some Vintage Edgings

While looking for something else, I can across a major stash of vintage thread company booklets. How on earth did I accumulate all of these? This one was issued by the Lily Mills Company of Shelby, North Carolina. I can't find a publication date and I think there may be some pages missing.


Two pages of these and other edgings can be downloaded from my Flickr account.

Vintage Advertising - Swift's Ham

From Woman's Home Companion, October 1921. Left-click to enlarge -- don't you love those Fauvist curtains?

The Stuff Of Life

(Four of these fat rascals are helping themselves to the bird feeders, after stripping the squirrel corn back to the cob. There is a fifth, just off-camera. Photograph taken at a rather awkward angle from the kitchen window this morning).

Mrs Fisher's recipe last Sunday for a cornbread made with cornmeal and boiled rice was an interesting variation. Cornbread used to be a staple on every American table, North and South. In the little grey bungalow, corn and pork are a vous et nul autre team; if I serve ham, I make sure there are corn muffins to go along with it, and pork chops are always….always…accompanied by a side dish of the corn that we “put up” the summer before.

I found this recipe on an age-speckled clipping tucked between the pages of a Depression-era baking book I brought back from Michigan this fall. The last step before baking -- pouring a cup of sweet milk over the batter in the skillet -- is interesting.

CORN BREAD. "1 1/2 cups corn meal, 1/3 cup flour, 1 cup sour milk, 1 teaspoon soda (scant), 2 eggs, well beaten; 2 cups sweet milk, 1/4 cups sugar, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 1/2 tablespoons butter. Mix and sift corn meal and flour. Add sour milk mixed with soda, eggs, 1 cup sweet milk, sugar and salt. Melt butter in iron frying pan and turn in mixture. Pour over remaining milk and bake 50 minutes in moderate oven (350° F.). Serves about six."

The eggs and sugar make it a Yankee recipe; I am told a true Southern cook never puts sugar in her cornbread and the purists frown on eggs and butter (my mother, a Texan, used bacon grease). For Southern-style cornbread, check out Christy's recipe at Southern Plate.

Does The SPCA Know About This?

(Overheard at the hair salon this morning)

Stylist #1: ….his grandmother gave him a hamster.
Customer #1: Has he been wanting a hamster?
Stylist #1: Hell, no. It could have been worse, she was going to get him a lizard.
Customer #2: I’d rather have a lizard.
Stylist #2: Yeah, they’re easier to kill than hamsters.

Caturday!

This is not Reserve Cat, BTW. Reserve Cat has prettier eyes and prefers the bathroom rug.

They’re Jes’ a Bunch of Red-Blooded American Boys

At our vaccination clinics, we equip each station with a small American flag fastened to a long stick. This flag is waved to signal to the line managers that a vaccine administrator is ready for her/his next client. This was suggested, incidentally, by a retired sergeant major who works for the local Emergency Management Agency, and we have found it to be an effective technique in large, noisy venues.

There we were at our local Big Corporation today, with the ranks of our nurses reinforced by half a dozen EMTs who volunteered from local fire departments. Strapping lads, all of them (we had to make an emergency run for size large surgical gloves).

They were lounging in the back, flicking their flags rather half-heartedly, when a quartet of attractive young ladies from the Big Corporation call center walked in for their shots. By golly, suddenly the back of the room looked like a George M. Cohan musical.

Quote of the Day

By and large, people who enjoy teaching animals to roll over will find themselves happier with a dog. ~ Barbara Holland

Sometimes, You Just Don't Ask

About an hour ago, the spousal unit announced “If I do this scientifically, it should work,” and walked out of the house carrying a pair of surgical gloves, the bathroom scale and the digital camera.

(Update: my brother in law left a sixty-five pound dead beaver in our garage. I am never...ever...going to step on that scale again).

The Online Bookshelf - The Pirate Woman

She certainly can accessorize. Book may be downloaded from Project Gutenberg.

Patterns of the Past - The Latest in Skirts and Shirtwaists

From Needlecraft magazine, May 1916. Left-click to enlarge or go to my Flickr account.

Sewing - A Thread Company Booklet

As promised several weeks ago, I have finished scanning the rest of Sewing Secrets, a little booklet published by the J.P. Coats/Clarks ONT/Spool Cotton Company sometime during the Jazz Age. The rest of the booklet can be found here.


The embroidery stitches start on page 42.

Life's Little Mysteries Dep't

Why is there dog hair in the coffeemaker?