Roman Shades

I've never made any Roman shades, but I love the way they look. Everyone says that they are very easy to make, but I've never tried, as I'm not very handy with a sewing machine if it involves anything other than a straight stitch.

I came across this blog~Little Green Notebook, that shows how to make them out of old, damaged mini blinds! Unfortunately, I threw all of mine away before I found this. Oh well, at least I have a plan for the next one that the cat ruins!

Pieces Of The Past

For those of you interested in your family history, you might want to check out the new Genealogy Wise site. It's a fairly new site, but more people are joining it everyday. It will give you a chance to 'meet up' with some kin folks that you may not even know exist and share family information. Those of you that do research know that it's always an exciting feeling when you fill in an empty space on a family page!

I've been doing genealogy off and on (mostly off) for the past ten years or so, and am just starting to get back into it. You may also want to check out my Aunt Deb's genealogy blog for some great tips on organizing your research data.

Happy hunting!

Saturday Smile

A mountain view from one of the backroads we traveled this week. These mountains always make me smile. Hope you had a wonderful week!

Wednesday Wives Tales

For years I've been collecting magazine articles, books, and listening to word of mouth stories about what is commonly known as 'old wives tales', or just wives tales. I'm descended from a lot of mountain people, so their ways of life and beliefs have always interested me. So many of them are just superstitions~but many have a lot of truth hidden within them. Yarb women and housewives were using a lot of the herbs that are being touted today as improved treatments for many ailments.

I've always heard that if your nose is itching, or you drop a dishtowel while you're drying dishes, you're going to have company soon. According to Vance Randolph's Ozark Superstitions, if the towel falls in a wad, the visitor will be a woman. If it falls 'open' it will be a man coming to visit. And if you drop the towel twice, the guest will be hungry.

Have you ever seen anyone throw salt over their shoulder to take back what they've just said? My grandmother and her sisters used to do that a lot. Or maybe they knock on wood after they've said something like--"that's never happened to me". I still see people do that quite often.

I think this one is interesting. It is bad luck to pick up a spoon you find lying in the road. In fact, some women who thought they were having a spell of bad luck, actually sometimes threw away a spoon to 'bring luck'. (I suppose they thought the ones in the road were thrown out by other women with 'bad' luck!)

These are just a few of the household superstitions that I've come across. Next week, I'd like to talk about more of them, especially some involving courtship and marriage. I'd be interested in hearing any oldtime wives tales that you'd like to share.