blog #480 >> From my internet travels

Okay, here's a nice little blog post w/o any meat!
This is a swell little collection of cool links I've found online recently.

p.s. I should mention, I'm becoming increasingly addicted to pintrest. I think I even like it better than my google reader feed, and that's really saying something!

Here is a super cute kitchen found at Apartment Therapy.

Here is a dorky accordion kid, found at pintrest.
(Also, I find this advertisement slightly misleading. )

Amazing bedspread from Sewing Daisies. See how she made it!

I love Nutella too! From Chibird.

Adorable book couple. I tired to track down the original link, but it turned up blank on etsy. See it at pintrest here.

Tea is indeed refreshing! Found at pintrest here and at this beautiful tumbler page named the oxford circus.

The perfect "welcome" mat for less then welcome guests. Like those crazy poll takers.
Found here at ffffound.
I love how they filled in the cracks, chinks and crevasses of their home with books as if they were spackle!
See it here at Pamela Love and Jordan Sullivan's home.


These two fancy fellows are from My Daguerreotype Boyfriend. I love this site!


And these strange floating people are from:

Edison's Anti-Gravity Underwear Kite Babies, 1879

JF Ptak Science Books Post 1562 [Part of a series on the History of the Future]

There was a time in the late 19th century when it was seen that Thomas Edison could do just about anything--so much so that the Brits in The London Punch gave him tongue-in-cheek credit for inventing (flying, so to speak), anti-gravity underwear.

Read more about it here at Ptak Science Books.


And although I usually try to avoid the kitty internet craze, I just can't help it! These ones are just so funny! From Cats That Talk. Discovered here.

And as a bonus link, here's a fascinating story about The Vidocq Society.

Nineteen years ago three men had the idea of a regular lunch club for crime experts that would try to solve some of the United States' most baffling homicides. The Vidocq Society has now been instrumental in solving hundreds of crimes. Adam Higginbotham meets the founding members.

I suppose I find this so interesting because I've recently been reading lots of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple novels lately.

Find the complete story here at The Telegraph. Well worth a read.

Okay, time to go be productive now...
T

blog #449 >> Sister Day

When my sisters and I found out that my brother was going to go pick up his new baby pigs, we dropped everything for the day and we all decided to go visit the baby pigs. But first we had some other stops to make.

My oldest sister Carrie needed a place to stay in town Friday night, so she stayed over at my place and slept on the couch. We ended up staying up until midnight watching Coal House at War. It's my latest favorite historical reality show produced by BBC Wales. It's about 3 modern families who go and live in a Welsh coal mining community in 1944. The families of today need to cook on a wood stove, raise rabbits, pigs and tend a "victory garden" for food, take in evacuee children from the London bombing, and deal with black outs and air raids. The wives work sewing ammunition bags in a factory on treadle sewing machines. The kids go to a 1944 one room school house where they need to take cod liver oil and malt syrup everyday. And the men need to walk 4 miles to and from their work at the coal mine each day... well sometimes they take the original 1940's bus, but it's broken down a lot. It's really made me realize how lazy I am. It's a great show.
In the morning I made us a mostly English breakfast of tea, cooled toast, soft boiled eggs, cheese, and the last of my homemade sauerkraut that I've been telling her about for weeks. ...and yes, we watched more Coal House too.

After breakfast my other sister Amy and her daughter Maggie stopped by, and we all went to "The Wall of Herbs," Edelweiss German market, Cool Cottons on Hawthorne, (which had some amazing fabrics, I'd definitely go back.) The Monticello Antique Mall, and then we had some lunch. After that we picked up the rest of the kids and stopped by Mike's in Estacada before we went to see the pigs. Everybody loves Mike's! I also noticed he had some new cautionary signs, and apparently if you get caught switching the lids on the pots, he'll now prosecute you for shoplifting... and we all know what happens to shoplifters at Mike's... so don't mess with his pots and pans!


And here are the new baby pigs. We named ours Chester, (he's the one with the spotted bum.) and the other is named Bacon. I know you're not suppose to name them, but since we see them so seldom, I doubt we'll get too attached. The kids really liked them, but they're not too tame yet, and were more than a little bit timid. They'll be more fun in a few months after they've learned that people bring food. This year's pigs are really cute, but overall I think last year's were cuter.

blog #445 >> About Toast

...and toasters... and other things too.

But first, I just want to say that, I LOVE TOAST! mmmmm... buttery, crispy, cozy toast! I enjoy a nice slice of toast or two with tea and milk everyday for breakfast. And the great thing about toast is, there's so many things that taste great on it. It's delicious with jam, or peanut butter, or nutella, or cheese, or soft boiled eggs, or bacon, or cinnamon and sugar... it's just so versatile! So when my toaster broke down last week, it was actually a bit traumatic. My entire breakfast infrastructure was thrown out of balance. I am willing to eat cold cereal and fruit for breakfast once in awhile, but it's just not the same as a warm slice of toast with a hot cup of tea. However as you can imagine, someone who loves toast as much as I do, will have a back-up just in case.


I started buying things for my apartment when I was thirteen, so by the time I moved there wasn't much left that I needed to buy. And since I got everything so long ago, I had duplicates of a few things. Somehow I ended up with five ash trays, and I don't even smoke! I also ended up with two toasters, not such a bad thing at that. I knew my favorite chrome toaster would not last very long. My parents got it for a wedding gift and they gave it to me when I moved out. Surprisingly, it has lasted these past five years without any problem, that is, until last week. I just could not get it to work. Therefore the little yellow toaster my sister gave me came out of the basement. Cute? Yes! But to my dismay I realized that it makes TERRIBLE toast! Do all modern toasters work so horribly? Technically, it should be the best toaster ever! It has great features. It pops up when it's done, and it is extra wide for bagels. But I don't eat many bagels... I eat toast! It will burn one side of the bread and barely toast the other. It also doesn't toast the bread all the way through. So sad. Yet there is HOPE! My dad is very clever at fixing things, and at last my beloved toaster is repaired and back to its normal feisty self. (It hasn't popped up on its own since I was about five years old. But since it's never worked, I have developed an "inner toaster sense" and know exactly when it is done without even looking.) I'm so happy to have my good old toaster back! I think I'm going to go try it out right now! And the little yellow toaster is going to find a happy new home full of bagel lovers!

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And as for other things.... af;lajdsf;awoifjsdknlxhjkl... sorry, I was brushing the toast crumbs off my keyboard. These are the swell sewing things I got today at Knittin' Kitten and Scrap. The shoe stretchers I got at Mike's for $1! Altogether everything cost $10! Pretty good bargain day for me!


And this is my crazy Christmas cactus which doesn't know what time of year it is, but at least it finally decided to bloom.

T

blog #421 >> More Catchng Up!

Sorry, sometimes I just get too busy doing things to catalog them in my blog. Poor thing! It's been so lonely lately!
So I'm going to attempt to get mostly caught up tonight...
let's see if I can do it.

We have... in no particular order...

EGGPLANTS!!! At last I have eggplants! And they are amazingly delicious! I've been roasting them in honey butter. They might be one of my new favorite foods.

I wish the tomatoes were doing as well as the eggplants. I have yet to get a single red tomato this year. Only the yellow ones are ripening.

But the green peppers are doing pretty good.

And the sunflowers.

And the fairytale eggplant of course.

And I've got zucchini coming out of my ears! These are the monsters that grew while I was away house sitting. I've eaten zucchini nearly everyday. And if you consider soup a beverage, I have made zucchini into a breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert and a drink!



I also had a bumper crop of beets. So I tried making some pickled beets this year. I can't wait to try them!

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And this is the bathrobe I made from the chenille bedspread I pulled out of "The Bins." I LOVE how it turned out! And I promise to post more of my newly finished sewing projects soon... well eventually.




And here is a sneak peak at my newly finished blue dress. I started this when I was 13 and finally finished it! It was the ultimate in procrastination. But now I actually have the skills to fix it and finish it. (I had made it too big.) Although, I have to admit, I was pretty impressed with the straight seems and details on it. I was a pretty good little seamstress at 13.


Even though I know it's a bit early to be thinking about Halloween. I want this to be my next sewing project. It would make an adorable little party dress. I would have bought it, but it was already sold by the time I discovered it. I found it here on Wearing History's Etsy shop.


And this is the dress I did buy! Such a sweet little tea party dress!
I got it from Elegant Musings shop.


Oh, and I loved the clothes in this old Kodak 1922 Kodachrome Film Test too.



Let's see what's left in my "to post on the blog" folder...

ooooh here! These are some drip catchers I crocheted for my tea pot.


And this is an old parking lot photo I saw on Vintage Portland. I wonder if they ever lost a car?


hmmm... oh yes! And I recently rediscovered "Hark! A Vagrant" comics. I had forgotten how much I love her work! It always makes me laugh, plus it appeals to my inner history buff.

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And here is a new cookie cookbook I pulled out of "The Bins."

(Don't light the oven by yourself.)

(Official taste testers below.)


These are some cookie recipes I can't wait to try from Simply Recipes.
This one is for Butterscotch Cookies.

And this one is for Chocolate Nutella Cookies.
Photos by Simply Recipes.

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I also bought these How and Why, Wonder Books "The Science Library" at "The Bins." Because I'm a sucker for books, and I always loved these books when I was a little girl and this is the whole collection! I love the pictures in them and the early optimism of the 1960's, when we believed we'd be living on the moon in less than 50 years!

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And for a nerdy story and photo to leave off with. I recently found Bad Astronomy online and I can't believe I haven't been following it before. It's fantastic!
This is one of my favorite pictures from it. "The laser shoots up into the sky and excites atoms in the upper atmosphere, causing them to glow. That makes an artificial and very bright star in the sky! The telescope can then use that star to track the distortions in the atmosphere and compensate for them, allowing the images it makes to be incredibly clear and sharp." Read more about it here.

Alrighty, I've got to get to bed now.
Good night!
T