ENTERTAINING FOR DINNER IN 1871

I had to come back and post this adorable excerpt
from the 1871 revised printing of
The Young Housekeeper's Friend by Mrs. Cornelius.
With lots of you expecting company for dinner
tomorrow, you might find this humorous compared
to the way we approach housekeeping in this century:

Enjoy your day tomorrow!

graphic from vintageholidayimages.com

TO OUR DEAR FRIENDS AND FAMILY NEAR AND FAR...

Hi, Primmies, we want to wish you and yours a very
Happy Thanksgiving.
Those of you who have been regular followers are
probably sure of what we are thankful for this year.
Yep, the simple fact that we are here and talking to
all of you just like nothing ever happened! 
Mr. Glen Oaks is hammering away right now; he's
installing a door to block the staircase from the 
living room to the upstairs since there is quite a lot of
demo going on up there. Biggy, our youngest cat
managed to jump on top of the bedroom door (quite
a balancing act) and vaulted up into the hole in the
ceiling, into the attic and right through the tarp and
onto the roof. He looked around, screamed his head
off, and came back down the way he went up! So the
door isn't just to block the cold air from coming down
here when the roof gets taken off, both cats seem
determined to check out what happened to "their room".
I came across a really cute idea for a simple snowman;
you could actually make a gang of them. Get this, use a
fuzzy paint roller cover. Cut them if you want to make
'kids'. Use cute wool socks for the hats and the scarves.
Use cloves for the eyes and "coal" mouth and buttons.
Use a little bit of sculpey clay for the nose, or paint a
bamboo skewer orange, cut little roughly sharpened bits
for noses. And of course, twigs from your yard for their 
little arms. Plop a little craft snow that comes in jars on 
their arms or joint compound mixed with mica or clean white sand. Use vintage mica if you have any (spray on a
little bit of spray adhesive where you want it to stick)        and if you want him/her to be a little grungy use your favorite mix of grungy spray here and there on the bodies and clothing. Sandy from Olde Country Cupboard adds a little brown craft paint to her coffee or tea water, cinnamon and vanilla mix for a really good grunge. That's it, that's all I've got in my head right now. I'm still a little shell-shocked
from our house/car disaster and the upstairs has been
moved to the downstairs and there isn't any room to do
anything even if I was feeling ambitious enough. Do you
believe I still have the bronchitis and cold/virus whatever
thingy I caught from Halloween week? Geesh, now my
Ashley is sick, her MIL has a pre-school daycare in her 
home and she's sick all the time. They went to the movies
last Friday and somewhere Monday so Ashley is pretty
certain she's got what Timmy's mom has. She's doing O.K.
though, she doesn't mention the baby much but I know
that they have been given the go-ahead from the doctor to
try again. Sooo, keep your fingers and legs crossed for them!!

Have a beautiful day tomorrow and a wonderful vacation
week/weekend!!
Warmest Thoughts To You Always,
Susan


GRAPHICS BY THE GRAPHICS FAIRY AND VINTAGE HOLIDAY CRAFTS.COM

Coming To You From A Cute Wireless Cafe

Hi, Primmies, I'm just dashing off a quickie post to let you know I'm still alive!
I was super excited to learn that I had won Margie's giveaway. In case you don't remember, it was the hooked rug giveaway from Hungry Hook Primitives.
The rug is GORGEOUS! It's very prim, of course, the pumpkins are adorable and they're on a swirly background of beautiful wool colors. When we get our camera and computer hardware replaced I will post pictures of the beauty. I'm just so happy that I won something made by Margie!
Because I'm not home and I have trouble sitting here for too long, I haven't edited my blog, removing/
adding giveaways or adding new crafts' posts.
Yeah, the tree hit the room with the main computer
and camera, etc. It's the baby cat's room where he chills out and likes to sleep by the windows, which are about six inches from the part of the ceiling where the tree broke through. This is why we aren't as upset about this whole thing because we could have lost our baby and we would really have some-
thing to mourn and be upset about. He was with us downstairs because for some reason we had closed the door to the room that night. It's just the way
that God works, he was looking out for all of us that night.
I'm going to close now. I'm coughing too much and I don't want people to think I'm inconsiderate. I have antibiotics for the bronchitis (yeah, I got sick from the 47 degree temps in the house) but I'm not any better so I'm back to the doctor's tomorrow.
I'll try to post again soon. You've all been so very kind and sweet with your comments for our well-
being and regrets over our accident. We really are
very thankful for all of our new friends that we have
made. You're the best!!


Warmest Regards,
Susan

Hi, Everybody

Hi, Primmies, I'm home and we have power. Thank you to everyone who wrote and checked on me and left comments. 
You're the best, my blog friends!!                                           Our cable, telephone and internet were restored last night. We discovered that our side-by-side fridge and freezer
are not fridging and freezing. We lost our food and the
perishables during last week, and it looks like I won't be
buying any for a while. We aren't sure what could have
happened, it is a fairly new appliance so it might have been 
the surges that occurred before the power went out for
good on October 29th. So while shopping for cars we are
fridge shopping I guess. We have the rental until the 14th   so we have to find a car soon. 
I have pictures to post of the storm and the house but I
don't feel much like seeing the pictures again yet. The
upstairs is sealed off for now, the tarps are on the roof
and are secured down for the wind and rain proofing. The
tree was removed from the house on Thursday along with
the electrician re-attaching the conduit and electric meter
to the house. Two trees came down at the same time and
fell in opposite directions; one across the street taking down
power lines, poles and my neighbor's beautiful Hawthorne
and 150 year old apple trees. The tree that hit my house was
2,000 lbs. and hit the house and roof, broke in half and
half of that half went through the roof, attic and bedroom
all the way through to the other side of the bedroom and
attic. The other half crushed the car and took down our
wires, the pole across that street and all the wires and also
pulled the conduits/meters away from 3 houses. Those
trees are heavy buggers. The neighborhood was without power 4 days longer than others because of my trees. The
adjuster came right out for the car and gave us a check on
the spot. Love Geico. The homeowner's adjuster was here
on Friday and said they will get back to us in one week. It
looks like the whole roof needs to be torn down and then
replaced, the chimney and the upstairs rooms. We have some leaking and broken windows in the breezeway which aren't that bad but along with the crushed backyard fence have been added in to the damages. We had the old copper ice dams on the roof that they are reimbursing me for. 
I forgot all about those. They are a nice verdigris color now,
they would be original to the house so about 80 yrs. old.
We are slowly getting back into our routines and the shock
has worn off so I'm feeling a lot better today. We went out
to the Berkshires (looking at trucks for Mr. Glen Oaks) and
it was a really pretty drive and got me out of the house for
a change. Everyone in the neighborhood has been wonder-
ful as have been the town officials, especially the Fire Chief and the Volunteer Fire Department, who put the tarps on
the roof for us. My MIL was THE BEST, she made phone calls for the first three days and coordinated everything with
the insurance people. And Ashley and Tim gave us a warm
bed and hot food. We both got bronchitis after being in the
house in 47 degree temps. My sweetheart wouldn't leave the
trenches or the cats, Ashley has three dogs and three cats & they told us to bring them with us, but I don't see how it
would have worked. So if hubba didn't go, I didn't want
to leave him alone. I caved after 3 days and stayed overnight
and most of the next day at Ashley's. Then I went back home, that's when we really started to get sick. 
All in all we are blessed that we didn't get crushed to death or lose the kitties. That's all that matters. This is just wood and stone here at the homestead. It can be replaced. 
So I will close for now. It seems funny to be on here and to
have lights on. The candlelight was nice and it was quite quiet without the t.v. Would I like to live simply like that as  a real prim couple would have? Ask me again in a few months...

I Have To Make This Quick

Hi, Primmies, we are at my daughter and son-in-law's house. We had a foot of snow and it brought down two oak trees over 100 years old. One fell across the street and pull down the power lines
and poles. The second one fell on our house, crushed our roof in, broke windows and the car
got smashed by the top that cracked in half over the house. We have a tree in our upstairs bedroom.
They say no power for two weeks, Athol is one of the worst areas in MA. Most towns don't have
power. Even if it comes on, our chiminey is sheard off and the flues are broken. So, the house is
47 degrees and I'm taking a break over here. The Boston Globe was out today taking pictures and
interviewing us. Tricia at Hillcrest Home Primitives can get a copy! Oh, it's so bad. I was sleeping
at 4:00 a.m. and the sound was horrendous. I put my hands over my head and screamed!
Gotta go, generator has to be turned off for the night. I don't know when I'll get a chance to be on
again. I have to go home and there's no power the cable and phone lines got taken down with our
tree accident.
Stay Safe, Primmies
Susan