Happy 17th Birthday dear Anna.
I remember the day you were born here in Pittsburgh, just before dawn.
The first grandchild. I went to school that morning and was so excited. Everyone at school was happy for our family.
Love, FF Ruthie
(Left photo with Murphy taken at Sears photographer unknown.
Right photo 9/26/2020 Pittsburgh weekend )
About 18 years ago Erika, my daughter-in -Law, was pitching this little ceramic pumpkin she had created in elementary school. They were cleaning out the basement. I said No, no no and took it out of the trash. “You have to save it and give it to your children, show your kids someday.” Well her eldest is 17 at the end of this week.
I found this in the back of my China closet. I can’t wait to give her daughter the little ceramic pumpkin her mom made circa 1984. Hoping it doesn’t end up in the trash again
And
Happy Sunday Birthday to Erika.❤️
It’s my sister’s birthday today.
The Happy Day Cake Recipe post is from a birthday post I made for her ten years ago. For many family birthdays it was the 1-2-3-4 Cake recipe or the Happy Day Cake recipe on the back of the Swan’s Down Cake Flour box, frosted with Penuche icing. My mother would put the saucepan filled with boiling brown sugar and butter, into a sink of cold water and then beat it by hand once it cooled.She’d add Confectioner’s sugar to it. I can hear the ring of the metal loop at the end of the pan’s handle. She added a dash of vanilla extract. My dad would pour milk over a stale slice of cake and eat it with a spoon. Cake and frosting recipes below photo.
Happy Day Cake
2½ cups sifted cake flour
1½ cups sugar
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup shortening, at room temperature
1 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 eggs
Sift flour with sugar, baking powder and salt. Stir shortening to soften. Add flour mixture, ¾ cup of the milk and vanilla. Mix until all flour is dampened, then beat two minutes at medium speed. Add eggs and remaining ¼ cup milk. Beat one minute longer. Pour into two 9-inch layer pans that have been lined with parchment paper. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until cake tester inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pans; remove from pans and cool thoroughly on racks.
This cake also may be baked in three 8-inch layer pans for 25 to 35 minutes, or in a 13- by 9-inch pan for 30 to 35 minutes. Batter may be spooned into 36 medium paper baking cups in muffin pans, filling half full. Bake at 375 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes.
In a saucepan, melt 1/2 cup butter. Add the brown sugar. Bring to a boil and lower heat to medium low and continue to boil for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the milk and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Cool to lukewarm. Gradually add sifted confectioners’ sugar. Beat until thick enough to spread. If too thick, add a little hot water. Frosts top and sides of a 2-layer cake or a 13×9-inch cake.
Happy Birthday Mary.
I didn’t count the cake posts I’ve created in the last 12 years but if you have time on your hands and like cake you can look at some photos from theblog tagged CAKE here
I heard from a friend a couple of weeks ago that her daughter’s doll was having some wild hair and could I possibly knit a doll hat? Of course. They came to the front porch, masked, the other morning and brought the dolls so I got to take a before and after photo. We even had an impromptu knitting lesson with some worsted and those kid needles, where one needle is red and one blue. I am sure a followup lesson in is our future.
Our favorite hairstylist Lauren suggested a good Dawn Liquid shampoo and a drop of conditioner MIGHT help revive the doll hair.
Born in Durand, Illinois on September 3rd, 1912. It’s the anniversary of my mother’s birth. One hundred eight years ago. Next week marks twenty years since she passed. The early years, from my grandmother’s album.
Alfred Mainzer was the postcard publisher not the artist, according to this informative article in the Mousebreath Magazine The artist was Eugen Hartung from Switzerland. I have some unused postcards and I see that they sell on Etsy for up to $15 for a single card. I also have some written on by my father who was a definite fan of these cat cards. I know he used to buy them in the ’50s from a card shop in Montclair New Jersey run by Mr. Bert DeCamp.
The artist signed his initials in the corner in a heart which I never noticed before but I read that on Mousebreath
The Hartung postcards were first published in Switzerland by Max Kunzli of Zurich and then(from the 1940’s onwards) by the Alfred Mainzer Company of Long Island New York. Each card is signed with the artist’s monogram, a little heart in the lower right corner. (Because of cropping, sometimes the heart gets chopped off.)
Some are printed in Turkey and some printed in Spain.
LOOK WHO IS KNITTING A SOCK (using double point needles)
A cat is afraid of a runaway mouse?
Fabric background by Firecracker Fabrics.
My Uncle Robert on a Tricycle in Durand Illinous
Photographed in NYC, by my sister
Some grim tales. A card game from my Childhood.
Each family is made up of 4 cards.
Have you ever played Happy Families?
Happy Families is a traditional British card game usually with a specially made set of picture cards, featuring illustrations of fictional families of four, most often based on occupation types. The object of the game is to collect complete families, and the game is similar to Go Fish- Wikipedia
From the smocking period of my life.
