Essential Winter Wear

Hoodies!

Warning!

Do not - I repeat, do not EVER teach a Sunday School class on anger.

Why? Because the very next day you will be put to the test to see if you practice what you preach.

Next week I will be teaching on having the right attitude when you find $1,000,000 buried in your back yard.

Thinking

Thinking.

I have been thinking lately. The kind of thinking that makes Brian's head hurt and his wallet feel vulnerable.

No - it's not the new matching wedding bands that I have been thinking about. Although, since the string trick worked and Brian's old wedding band has been freed from his finger, I have been thinking that new matching wedding bands would be nice.

But this is bigger. This involves hiring an electrician and maybe even a plumber.

This intensive thinking has monopolized my weekend. I have measured and stepped off and re-measured and re-stepped.

I think it will work. I really think it will work . . .

. . . and I think I am ready to propose my idea to Brian.

At least if he says no to my idea, the new matching wedding bands will now be an easy sell.

Fifty Cents!

TS&T LuRay Pastels U.S.A. 6 48
(the 6 48 is the date of manufacturing June, 1948)

I broke my favorite coffee cup the other day. What a bummer, I knew exactly how much sweetener and how much cream to add to make the perfect cup of coffee.

Any other cup and my proportions were off a little.

So today when I was at Trader Baker's, I found the perfect cup. Little did I know what the find it ended up being.

This little pink cutie is a LuRay Pastel. I paid 54 cents for it - turns out it is worth $15.00!

A few more years, and I can take it on the Antiques Roadshow!

The cup I bought is pink - Sharon Pink to be exact. After doing research on the internet, I found that LuRay Pastels were sold in four colors pink, blue, green and a beautiful yellow called Persian Cream.

I will be going back to Trader Baker's tomorrow and search that particular booth over for more LuRay Pastels. Maybe I will find a Persian Cream piece!

LuRay Pastel History:

Taylor Smith & Taylor Co. (TS&T Co.) began producing a brightly colored dinnerware line called Vistosia in January of 1938 in response to lines like Fiesta Ware from Homer Laughlin and similar lines from other companies. By the fall of 1938, TS&TCo. decided to make their own bold move by introducing a pastel-hued line that was coined "LuRay" after the leading salesman had visited the Lu-Ray Caverns in LuRay, VA. The line continued through 1962. Original marketing materials suggested the paler colors were perfect for the new brides of the day and offered an alternative, more soothing pallette than the brighter colors of the competing lines, including their own Vistosia brand.

The four original LuRay colors were: Windsor Blue, Surf Green, Persian Cream, and Sharon Pink. Persian Cream, a soft yellow color, was the best selling color. For a time in the late 1940's, pieces were most readily available in this color which explains why many pieces still around today are Persian Cream. The only change to the available colors came in 1947 with the addition of Chatham Gray, but poor sales led to its being discontinued in 1952. During its short life span, Chatham Gray pieces were available in a variation with a platinum ring and also with applied flowers. The other colors also have some variations with rings and flowers.

From Mother with love - updated with more pictures!

(click on pictures to enlarge)

This year for Christmas my mom made me, my sister, and my sister-in-law each our own quilt wall hanging. In addition to the quilt, we each got a shelf on which to hang our new quilt.

She did such a good job matching not only our personalities but also our houses when she picked our individual designs. She even included the history behind each of our quilts.

(Be sure to click on these to see the hand quilting)

My quilt is a sampler quilt which she hand quilted. I opted to hang it in the kitchen, and I use the shelf to hold some of my favorite things.

The other two quilts are just as beautiful as mine.

(Definitely click on this picture to see the detail of the embroidery)

My sister's quilt has embroidered flowers on white squares with a light green fabric in between. The flowers were patterns printed weekly in the newspaper back in the 1920's. I could be wrong about the date - I didn't get to read her history. But what is really neat is that my great grandmother saved these patterns and had made some of them but was missing a few. My mom did some research, found the missing patterns, and embroidered them all. How cool is that!



My sister-in-law's quilt is more similar to mine but with one design. Hers is the bear's paw pattern. One story is that it was part of the Underground Railroad. The bear paw quilt signaled escaping slaves that they needed to follow the track, perhaps to find water or shelter. Mother made this quilt in deep, rich, dark colors which will go perfectly with Bree's house. Her quilt was Megan's favorite because she loved the colors.

My mom is amazing and talented. I am convinced she can do anything - seriously, I mean anything.

A few Christmas's ago my mom made my sister and I lap quilts from material she had saved through the years. This wasn't just any material though, this was material from clothes she had made us growing up.

I love to sit and look at the fabrics in this quilt. I can remember wearing practically every fabric! Seriously, I wore my clothes and then my sister's hand-me-downs!

This corduroy is from
my FAVORITE pair of overalls Mother made me!

The top right fabric and the bottom middle fabric
were from flannel nightgowns Mother
made my sister and me.

My mom was pretty frugal with patterns too. When she got a new pattern she would usually make me two or three versions and my sister two or three versions. Which meant I ultimately wore six versions of the same pattern.

That was fine if you like the style - but that wasn't always the case. What was there to like about the "dog ear" collar phase from the early 70's. I have a school picture in which the collar on my dress is so long it extends past the bottom of the picture!

We were very well-dressed girls in the 70's though, thanks to Mother's sewing. We always had ponchos, handkerchief sleeve shirts, dresses with empire waists, stretch-in-sew short sets, and matching Sunday dresses!

But I digress, I was talking about quilts.

My mom also made me the quilt on our bed, and she made the quilt on Megan's bed. She is working her way through the granddaughters - making them each a quilt. She is on number three out of seven.

Considering my brother and his wife just added two girls in less than three years, she should have opted to make the boys quilts.

There are only three of them!

Throwback

You gotta try it!
Instant flashback to the 70's.
One sip and I was a little girl again with a Dorothy Hamill haircut.
Time travel in a bottle.
Definitely worth the $1.49.

Mr. Varsity

For Christmas this year we got Joel his letter jacket.

Isn't he handsome?

Joel earned his varsity letter last year in basketball and this year in soccer. He will varsity again this year in basketball, so he will get a chevron at the end of the season. His graduation numerals (12) have been ordered and hopefully will be in soon.

His favorite part of his letter jacket though is the round conference patch on the back! TCM had a great soccer team this year, and they proved it by winning their conference.

Joel made honor roll this first semester and has proven to be a valued leader at school. He is on student council, in ensemble, choir and band in addition to being on the soccer team and varsity basketball team.

His most proud achievement though . . .

he made pro bowler status on the Wii!

Santa's Helper

Did your packages arrive on time for Christmas?
Have you hugged a FedEx employee lately?
I have!

New Year - New Blog!

Happy 2010!

Instead of turning over a new leaf, I started a new blog! Farmer's Daughter Cooks



Stop by and sit a spell.