HISTORY: Preserved

Back in February, a friend of mine and her kids along with my kids and me went down to the National Building Museum in D.C. for a homeschool field trip. I had never heard of this museum, but they had some cool-sounding homeschool workshops which is why we went. Boy, what a treat! The museum is housed in this old, incredibly spacious building that is the perfect fit for what this museum is about - a museum about building in America.

The building itself is worth going to see, but some of the exhibits were definitely highlights too - like "Designing for Disaster" and "The Architectural Image, 1920 - 1950". They were both very interesting! The kids had fun in their different workshops and I thought I'd share some of the things that stood out to me in one of their exhibits - "Designing for Disaster".

As you might already know, I'm always on the look-out for interesting ways of executing museum exhibits and the use of technology in museums. This exhibi…

So, yeah. Sewing! March was not a kind month to me in terms of available time and emotional resilience. I'm also very close to finishing the first draft of my WWII book and have been working diligently on getting to the end. This lack of sewing, though, is not good at all! My goal event, the 18th Century Market Day Fair at Ft. Frederick, MD is coming up at the end of April. Aack! This is not enough time unless I sew diligently from now until then. I had even just decided to only sew the kids their costumes, because I'm still waiting for my corset pattern to be drafted. But somehow, I don't even see that happening.

I know, I know. This attitude is useless. I set myself this sewing goal because starting sewing projects is challenging for me, but once I get going then I'm usually fine! So, please forgive me (and I'll have to forgive myself), for not making the deadline this month. I did start my daughter's dress. I really should just finish it! There might be a mi…

I've been reading my new cookbook Cooking on a Ration - Food is Still Fun by Marjorie Mills, and I am really excited! There are some fabulous looking recipes in there, many of which are really special and that I haven't seen before in other resources.

I'll be putting this check symbol (√) when I make the recipe. Just ignore it's true math meaning.... If it's got a check mark, go to my WWII Ration Recipe Directory tab to find it!
These are the recipes that caught my eye:
Wartime Chop Suey
Society Hash
Asparagus Shortcake
Baked Sweet Potatoes and Apples (sounds pretty straightforward, but the preparation and execution are quite interesting!)
Vegetable Kraut
Scalloped Carrots and Apples
Elm Tree Inn Red Cabbage (with bacon, spices, apples, vinegar, and red currant jelly!)
Beets with Orange Sauce
Country Chicken Loaf (in a ring mold of course!)
Sweet Potato Ham Puffs
√ Red Flannel Hash
√ Beef Biscuit Roll (think cinnamon rolls, but with ground beef & green peppers …

I am so excited! I have had my eye on this 1943 book every since the beginning of last year when I started my WWII ration recipe project. It's called Cooking on a Ration - or Food is Still Fun. haha! I love the title! And the author, Marjorie Mills is so witty and interesting to read. You can just tell that she loves food and thrills at writing about it. Here's a little quote:

"We have taken a sudden nose-dive from happy-go-lucky splashing about with plenty of whipping cream, pounds of butter, sirloin steaks and rib roasts."

haha! I love 'splashing about with whipping cream'! Here's another quote:

"In the troubled universe it's more than ever important to make mealtime loom up as a little island of serenity and contentment. As we've been trying to demonstrate in these chapters, it can be done -- but it takes wit and wisdom. We're urged to grow and eat many more vegetables, but if the same limp and dejected vegetables trail across the din…

I thought I'd just check in with you about my March sewing project. I've gotten an early start this time and am trying to work on it in little spurts.

I'm going ahead with my 5 year old daughter's wardrobe and am making her an 18th century girl's gown to go with the shift I just made last month.

So far I've got the bodice pieces (outer fabric, lining, and interfacing) sewn together and the skirt piece cut out. I need to order some boning for the back though.

I did run into a problem with the instructions at step 2 (why is it always step 2 for me??), but I called up Burnley & Trowbridge where the pattern comes from and the lady there was able to clarify the step for me. That was a huge help! :-)

I'm pleased I'm making such good progress. Hopefully I'll have a completed dress to show you soon!


I'm really excited to finally be using my fine green linen. I think it might be a linen/cotton blend, and it has the most lovely feel to it. I really li…