Lost and Found - Part 1

Here I am! I’m back! Did you miss me? I missed all of you – I didn’t even have a chance to keep up with everyone’s blogs.

After the craft room upheaval last month, I thought I would put things away and get back to sewing. Ha! I got completely distracted by all the wonderful treasures I discovered. Some of them I had completely forgotten about, while I’d been looking for others for years and had just about given up on them.

I have just about finished scanning and photographing all these goodies and I want to share them with you.

The first treasure is something I found in a giant stack of random papers in a local antique shop. I think it’s pretty cool because of its age, and because the German is printed almost entirely in the old script.

[click to see larger images]

The Housewife
Bulletin of the Women's World in America
1904        January           1925
Happy New Year!

 

My grandmother came to the U.S. from Germany in the 1920s as a young woman, all by herself. She probably had culture shock and bouts of homesickness. I imagine she learned to speak English very quickly, but it would have been a great comfort to read a magazine like this.

There are photos of winter fun in Switzerland.

  

Short stories, serialized novels and poems (along with gorgeous nouveau style art).

 

Because no German lady would waste a moment in idleness, a page of “Modern Handicrafts for Spare Time” – subtitle “to pass the time on long winter evenings”.

Under “Everything for Home and Hearth”, ladies asked for their favorite books and records in German, shared recipes and stories, and one asked if other readers could send letters or cards with stamps for her son (who probably now has a priceless stamp collection!).

Here is my best effort at a translation of the almond cake recipe. It’s interesting to see how different it is from the detailed directions we are given in modern recipes.

Almond Cake

A half pound of chopped, raw (unabgezogene?) almonds are added to a mixture of 6 eggs, ½ pound of sugar, and the grated peel of a lemon, that has been beaten until foamy. Next add 2 ounces of flour, as well as the "snow" (I assume this means beaten whites) of 6 egg whites. Line a cake pan with butter, then spread finely crushed zwiebacks or toasted breadcrumbs, fill the pan with the cake batter, and bake at moderate heat for about ¾ hour.               From Mrs. Laura M., Iowa

 

The advertisements are mostly straightforward and understated, which surprised me. There are none of the cure-all claims one usually sees in publications even today. There is a full page dedicated to a hemorrhoid pill, but other than that, they are mostly one-column ads like the ones above.

Of course no women’s magazine would be complete without fashion, and here we have the pattern section. 

The reader could order these patterns from the magazine itself. (I wonder if anyone still has these mail order patterns stashed away somewhere.)

And that’s Die Hausfrau – January 1925!

Katrina

Having Cake and Eating It

I went here for a few days:


Chicago - Brrr

It was chilly, but it was certainly pleasant to (briefly) experience actual winter scenes with snow rather than our Arizona quasi-winter with slightly less warm temperatures (although we did have that rare snowfall in February!)

We celebrated my brother’s birthday with some good meals and a delicious chocolate-raspberry cake. I got to spend time with my niece, who gave me a tour of the neighborhood, made special meringue cookies, and kept me entertained for the weekend.

 

Back in Phoenix, the Piemaker was not to be outdone by birthday cake, and he welcomed me home with this masterpiece.



Strawberries & Cream Cake

Wow! It’s really strawberry! And really good! The layers of filling start out separate, but over several days they soak into the cake layers until the inside of the cake is more red than white.

The recipe is from the April issue of Southern Living. I recommend it!

Cake, cookies, more cake. I know there are Easter eggs around here too. Did someone mention exercise?

Katrina

 

Simple Greetings

After last year’s creative card frenzy of paper, glue, and glitter, I decided to simplify this year.

I did a single stamped design, colored with watercolor pencils, swiped with a wet brush, and glued the whole thing to a card. Done!

 

Now to address the envelopes, get the stamps, and sign all those cards!?!?! Why does a cranky old curmudgeon like myself have SO MANY people on the holiday card list!

 

Katrina

Preparations

Happy Thanksgiving to my US friends, and a happy weekend to you all.

Today the Piemaker will be in the kitchen all day, banging pans around and splashing and stirring and slicing. I will stay out of the way!

 

Yesterday I got a head start on the preparations by making the only thing that I personally am in charge of: the cranberry sauce. We have let go of whatever emotional ties we may have had to the traditional canned cranberries and jelly and are ready to branch out a bit. I love the cranberry-orange relish that my aunt used to make, but I decided to put a spicy twist on it with this recipe.

Cranberry Salsa

Ingredients

·        1 – 12-ounce package fresh cranberries
·        ½ cup sugar
·        1 large orange
·        2 jalapeño peppers, seeded and coarsely chopped
·        3 tablespoons coarsely chopped crystallized ginger
·        ½ cup chopped fresh cilantro

1.     Pulse cranberries in a food processor until coarsely chopped. Transfer to a bowl. Stir in sugar.

2.      Zest the orange and stir zest into cranberry mixture.
3.      Remove the remaining peel and pith and chop the orange into chunks.
4.      Pulse the orange, jalapenos, ginger, and cilantro in food processor 3 to 5 times or until orange, ginger, and pepper are finely chopped. Stir into cranberries; cover and chill 2 to 24 hours.

 

This is adapted from a Southern Living recipe that you can find here.

 

Yes, it is spicy, and delicious!

I hope you all enjoy a delightful meal wherever you are.

Katrina

 

Eating Snails

We have not resorted to eating gastropods from the garden, but we do have some delicious snails on the table.

Can you believe I actually baked something? These are schnecken from an old family recipe. The most basic of all cinnamon rolls, they are made with a simple pastry dough similar to pie crust, with cinnamon, brown sugar, and raisins rolled inside. Sliced into spirals, the little snails bake in a sugar-and-butter-lined pan to get the brown crunchy topping.

Our German schnecke is nothing like the enormous, yeasty, gooey cinnamon roll you find in America’s malls!

Cinnabon source

Ours are a little bit hard, a little bit dry, and just sweet enough. Perfect with coffee or tea, schnecken are supposed to be a breakfast food, but I eat them all day. Um, I mean, I could eat them at any time of the day.

I have resisted the Piemaker’s suggestions for “improvements” to this and all other family recipes (no chocolate chips, pecans, peanut butter, maple syrup, etc), because my grandmother lives in these schnecken. She also lives in marmorkuchen and streuselkuchen, German Christmas cookies, and many other precious recipes.

Hooray for grandmothers and old family recipes!

Katrina

I Feel So Guilty

People who live in the desert (or anywhere, actually) have to learn to live in harmony with a number of animals that are considered dangerous. Of course, the term “dangerous animal” is like the term “weed” – the definition changes according to one's outlook or circumstances. Animals are usually not dangerous unless you provoke them by threatening their lives, food, or offspring. Humans are often dangerous for reasons that are less comprehensible.

spiders: I see "cute", others see "scary". source

Hawks and owls are an integral part of our ecosystem and a common sight here, yet some people have the urge to shoot them on sight.

Red-tailed Hawk Buteo jamaicensis. source

Great Horned Owl Bubo virginianus. source

 

Coyotes have adapted to living in towns and cities all over the US. We have a small pack living nearby, and occasionally one of them visits us for an afternoon.

Coyote Canis latrans, relaxing under a tree

Many people find this worrisome, but in spite of a few highly publicized incidents it is rare for a coyote to attack a human. They will eat your dog or cat if it is convenient, so just use common sense and don’t allow your small pets to roam freely if you are fortunate enough to share your property with wildlife.

 

We have a seemingly infinite array of critters that slither and crawl. I generally don’t care for bitey things, while I strongly support those that help pollinate plants, and those that gobble up the other crawlies that can hurt me.

I love the pretty snakes



Love the cute bees



Centipedes are kind of yucky, but they would be okay if they would just stay outside!

Which is why I had extreme mixed feelings about this lovely creature:

She is, of course, a Black Widow spider. We have lots of them here, mostly living in the tall brick wall that surrounds the back of the property. They hide in little crevices during the day and come out on their long, sticky webs at night, looking for the flies and mosquitoes and beetles that got stuck. I am happy to have them since they stay out of the way and do a lot of pest control work for me.

Unfortunately, they recently started a new colony on the patio furniture. I saw this lady one night, with her huge web stretched across the legs of one of the chairs. I worried about what to do, since the Piemaker sits out there with his coffee and paper each morning before work, one of his few pleasures on a workday. I had just about worked up enough courage to try to catch her and move her to another location, when I noticed there were webs like hers on the other chairs, the table, and a bench, as well as one on the grill.

At that point I felt the whole situation had gone way beyond my capacity, and with a very heavy heart, I called the pest company. Yesterday morning they came out to the house, and killed my Black Widow spiders.

I keep telling myself that if it was between the Piemaker and the spiders, I made the right decision, but that is just oversimplifying. There was probably another answer and I just didn’t work hard enough to find it.

I feel very, very guilty.

 

Do find yourself in conflict with wildlife? How do you resolve it?

Katrina

Greetings

My inventory of handmade greeting cards was running low in the category of “masculine,” at least in the opinion of the male half of our household. I decided to make a new supply of cards, focusing on masculine themes and colors, rather than my usual florals and glitter and pinks and purples.

This is my kind of card: girls, flowers, butterflies, pink, lavender, and yellow.

I actually had to force myself to pick up the unused colors in my paint box: tangerine, rust, brown, olive, black. Once I’d covered a few sheets of paper with splashes of these unfamiliar hues, I added a few random dollops of “my” colors.

I got out some rubber stamps and stamped over the paint. Astronomy, zebras, antique hardware, old cars; those all seem okay for men’s greeting cards.

After some matting and collaging and more stamping I had a good two dozen manly cards in the orange, green, and brown colors.

I decided some pink therapy was in order, so I tried out some of my pearl acrylics in lovely colors like Cameo, Wisteria, and Cranberry.

Next came the pretty stamps: birds and flowers and ladies and happy children. It was interesting to see how different the stamped images appeared, depending on the colors of my paint on the background paper.

After cutting out the stamped images and layering them, I put together almost 30 more cards.

All together, I ended up with an even more lopsided card inventory (now totaling approximately 300 cards for women and 24 cards for men), and I haven’t yet gotten confirmation from the Piemaker on whether he considers my new “masculine” collection acceptable for him to send or for his friends to receive.

Anyway it was fun to mess around with paints again, and a good exercise to use a few new colors.

Katrina

Very Generous Friends

I meant to report this fabulous bonanza some time ago, but it somehow did not make it on to my busy blog schedule. The Piemaker grew up in Northern Arizona and is very fortunate to still have many of his lifelong friends there. Some of them now have a small but exceedingly productive farm on the river in Cottonwood.

This Google Earth image of Cottonwood (red dot in center) has a lot of green, the indicator of a concentration of water in the desert.

A mixture of rich soil, clean water, aptitude, and good fortune have given these guys year after year of incredible bumper crops. So far this year, they have donated more than 1500 pounds of their produce to local food banks, in addition to provisioning their families and friends for months to come.

After a recent visit, the Piemaker came home with loads of tomatoes, peppers, squash, cukes, corn (maize) and other goodies after a weekend harvest party. They even had an assembly line going at the vacuum-packing machine since there was such an abundance of corn.


I was so excited by the sheer abundance that I couldn't hold the camera still. All of my photos are blurry.

But what do we do with blurry photos? We make them even more blurry!

"Still Life with Tomatoes" courtesy of Photoshop's watercolor filter.

Salads and soups and stir-frys, oh my! 

Katrina

Tomorrow is a Very Big Day for Someone

Happy Birthday to a Very Special Person

She’s so smart

She’s so pretty
She likes the dogs
And loves the kitties.

She can write
She can act
She’ll protect you
If scorpions attack.

She’s an artist
A storyteller
A gardener
An excellent speller.

She’s my niece

I must confess
I don’t see her much
But I think she’s the best.

Happy Tenth Birthday tomorrow, Miss K! Hope you have a very good day!

(images source)

 Katrina

A Very Special Birthday

Today is my dad’s 80^th birthday! Hooray!

Dad is a doctor, astronomer, photographer, naturalist, inventor, teacher, traveler, writer, baker, and gardener, as well as being an excellent all-around family guy.

The Piemaker and I made a quick trip out to California for a family celebration of the big birthday. It was great to see some aunts, uncles, and cousins (including some brand-new baby cousins!), in addition to Bro, SIL, the Niece, and of course, my parents. We had a lovely visit, breathed in the cool air, and now we’re back in Arizona. Hope to get back to the coast soon.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Katrina

A Gift Only A Mother Could Love

Once again, I have a story of irreconcilable differences between my craft planning and execution.

For my mother’s birthday, I wanted to give her something useful. At the same time, I was thinking about small embroidery patterns since I’d just received a lovely book of art nouveau transfers.

My mom wears dark glasses most of the time, but the cases they come in are utilitarian black vinyl. I thought an embroidered glasses case would be nice. The planning began.

The standard case measures 7” by 3 ½”, but I made a pattern just in case. I made it slightly larger, ending up with a 7 ¾” square.

For the embroidery I used this iron-on transfer, which is about 6” by 6”.

The finished embroidery, plus a sheet of felt for the lining:

I cut the embroidery and the lining using the pattern. The felt was self-adhesive, so all I had to do was peel off the backing and stick it to the back of the embroidery canvas.

I did not have any bias tape in a color that I liked, so I took one of my old Spoonflower swatches and created my own ½” binding. This project only requires about 20” of binding.

inset photo: the back (lining)

I bound the top edge first, wrapping around the corners and bringing the binding down approximately 2” down each side. I used a #16 needle and small stitch length to sew the binding to the thick canvas and sticky felt.

The entire piece was then folded in half and the sides and bottom bound together. The ends of the binding are folded under, and the upper end overlaps the first length of binding by about ½”. It looks pretty good:

Here’s the original and the new:

 Here’s where I realized I did something wrong:

The glasses don’t fit. Argh!

Even with the added width of the pattern, the inner pocket is somehow too narrow to fit the glasses all the way in. The main difference is that I used ½” binding instead of the ¼” used on the original. Possibly the added thickness of the felt reduced the size of the opening. And, while the black vinyl is flexible and slightly stretchy, the canvas is thick and rigid, with no give at all.

The lovely new case will fit any kind of glasses that are smaller than about 2 ½”, or that fold completely flat, so I will hope that my mom has some like that among her many pairs. Or she can put pencils in it! Or a very long, skinny cell phone!  Mini flashlight? Candy bar? I don’t know.

I’ve put my little craft project in the mail to my mom, long after her birthday, but she should at least get it in time for Mother’s Day!

Here are the things I would do differently next time:

1. Make the pouch wider!
2. Add more embroidery. There is too much bare canvas on this one.
3. Use regular felt for the lining. It’s kind of yucky to pin and sew through adhesive.


On to the next challenge!

Katrina