Wednesday Wives Tales~Buttons

Counting Buttons:

1. Husband-- Rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief, doctor, lawyer, Indian Chief.

2. Home--Big house, little house, pigsty, barn

3,What type of wedding dress will you wear--silk, satin, velvet, cotton, wool.

4. Grabbing hold of buttons on your clothing when a hearse or death carriage passes, will allow to you to cling to the living, rather than death.

5. It is unlucky to button your garment from the bottom up~start at the top!

6. If you miss a few buttons when you're buttoning up your shirt, it means a surprise is coming.

7. Buttons must be removed from the clothes of the dead and the clothing sewn (use no knots) or pinned to keep the spirit from coming back.

Good Housekeeping

Have you seen the October issue of Good Housekeeping? I really loved the interview they did with Jamie Lee Curtis~that girl is organized! So, thanks to her, my house is a mess, LOL! I have pulled all sorts of things out of my closet and also my pantry.

I now know that I have a lifetime supply of crushed pineapple:-0. Actually, most of it expires in 2012, so it's just a couple of years worth. Anyway, that is how I'm spending my Monday. Hope you're having a great day!

You can read the interview here.

Special Package

Last month, I won Tipper's Spread the Love prize! It arrived in the mail on Tuesday. It is perfect for my country home and I'm very happy to have it! This pretty piece was made by Mamabug. If you don't already visit their blogs, click on over there and take a look around~you'll love both of them!

Thank you, Tipper!

Wednesday Wives Tales

First day of fall!! My calendar says it's tomorrow, but, officially, I think it's today, so.... Some of our trees are just starting to turn and the ground around the oak trees are littered with acorns. Sadly, a few of our trees, like our dogwoods, have only brown, crispy leaves. The summer drought and heat were just too much for them.

1. Carrying an acorn in your pocket will bring you good luck.

2. An acorn kept on a windowsill will repel lightning.

3. Violets blooming in the autumn means a coming epidemic.

4. Catch a falling leaf on the first day of autumn and you won't catch a cold all winter.

5. When goldenrod blooms, expect a frost in a month.

6. If the oak trees refuse to shed their topmost leaves, it is a sign of a hard winter to come.

7. A purple sunset means frost that night.

Easy Brownies

Some of you may already use this yummy recipe. For years, I just substituted applesauce for the amount of oil and mixed the recipe just as instructed. I've found that this recipe makes a 'fudgier' brownie.

Brownie Mix (type that makes 9x13 pan of brownies)

1/2 cup of applesauce

1/2 cup of cold or warm left-over coffee

1 egg

Nuts~optional

Mix all and put in greased pan, bake as usual. Watch and don't let it dry out too much.

Enjoy!!

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to the Constitution of the United States of America! Take the time today and read this special document and thank God for our liberty!

More 1900

I am still thinking about this subject. Staci mentioned Frontier House, that PBS produced a few years ago. I loved that show! It certainly brought out the best and a lot of the worst in people, LOL!

As a people, we are so used to everything being right at our fingertips. I remember that as a child, I thought it was bothersome to have to 'look-up' a subject in an encyclopedia. Now, all we do is type in the subject and resources appear before our eyes. I'll confess to loving the ease of the Internet.

When we experienced an ice storm in 2000/2001 (it started Christmas Eve, 2000), we had a little taste of the 1900 experiment. We were without electricity for twelve days. We heat with wood, so we cooked on top of the stove. I have plenty of kerosene lamps and we had kerosene, so we had light. Our well has a sand filter, so we drew water out of the filter--but basically, we were unprepared for a long term black-out. I remember making a list of what would have made our lives better for those couple of weeks, but of course I can't find it!

One history lesson that we all came to understand is why the old-timers went to bed with the chickens~sitting in the dark (because those lamps don't put out much light) makes for a long evening, LOL! We did take turns reading aloud The Long Winter, by Laura Ingalls Wilder. That story made us count our blessings!

Thank you all for your comments on the See You in a Hundred Years post!