Heather Honey Muffins

I used to bake all the time when my boys were children. I’d make cookies and muffins for their school lunches every week. Even at a young age, they seemed to appreciate my efforts. And, yes, I did enjoy some of the ‘fruits of my labour’ too.

I recently found my favourite muffin recipe in a pile of old papers. It is something that I used to make all the time. I originally found this recipe many, many years ago in a magazine, not even sure which one at this point. It may have been Canadian Living. The last bit of the instructions are long gone but I'm sure most of you can figure it out.

What I particularly liked about this one was the fact that I could finely grate carrots to put in the mixture and the boys never knew. You had to get vegetables in them anyway you could. As a side note, I shredded carrots to put in my homemade spaghetti sauce too and they never realized it. I eliminated the raisins in the recipe because I dislike raisins in anything: cookies, muffins, rice pudding, etc. I do like eating raisins on their own though. Weird, I know.

I don’t bake anymore for a number of reasons. The boys have grown up and moved out, the lack of time or energy while working full-time, and the fact that I came to realize in my late 30’s that I have an intolerance to wheat. That is the biggest single reason I stopped baking. I don’t even have all-purpose flour in the house now.

If I eat wheat, I have an asthma attack. If I don’t eat wheat, I don’t have an asthma attack. I decided that I like breathing more than I like wheat. Not a difficult choice but a difficult transition. At the time, there were not many alternatives, like there are these days.

I hope some of you give this recipe a try. Let me know how it goes. Do you like them as much as I used to?

Here Comes Bruce!

My grandmother (my mom’s mother) loved birds. She had multiple bird feeders in her yard that she diligently kept full at all times. She loved watching them and identifying them. There wasn’t a local bird that she did not know.

She would have really laughed at the cardinal (we named him Bruce) that lives in the cedar hedge by my front window. Every day (and I mean EVERY day) he flies into the window about 30+ times. He doesn’t hit it very hard, not enough to hurt himself at any rate. Then he struts along the window ledge like he is the greatest thing since sliced bread. I suppose he is trying to impress his mate with his ability to defend her from that ‘other’ bird he sees in the window. This bird is nuts! I know where the expression 'bird brain' comes from now though.

The cats initially were highly entertained by the spectacle, often trying to ‘get’ him through the glass. They never could, of course. Sometimes I even felt that Bruce was deliberately taunting them. These days, by the expression on their faces, they are thinking, ‘Is that dumb bird at it again?’ For the most part they ignore him now. You can only watch reruns so many times before you get bored of them.

Honestly, if some guy tried to 'impress' me by basically bashing himself into his own reflection multiple times every day, I would get away from him as fast as possible, wouldn't you?

Winter Survival

Have you ever wondered how our pioneer ancestors survived the cold, harsh winters without central heating? We live in our comfortable homes in the modern era with heat and air, and if we get cold, all we have to do is crank up the temperature.

Most of our pioneer ancestors built log homes and used moss or clay between the logs as insulation. The main source of heat was a fireplace or stove and this often only kept the main living area warm. If they had them, families may hang fur or textiles against the walls as an added layer of protection against the cold and wind. Children would sleep 2-3 to a bed piled high with quilts and wool blankets to preserve heat. In bitter conditions, some people stayed in bed as much as possible in order simply to stay warm.

Layering clothing, made of wool or cotton, was crucial. During the winter months, fires were rarely allowed to die. This means lots of back-breaking hours cutting and storing firewood before winter. Our ancestors were certainly tough, no doubt about it, but we would be wise to pay attention and learn a few of their survival skills. You never know when that knowledge will come in handy.

For example, let’s talk about this week at work. One of the coldest weeks so far this winter and the heating system in our main office area went down. The landlord finally showed up, checked out the system and advised us that if it was not totally shut down, carbon monoxide fumes will be coming inside. Not a good situation at all.

To add insult to injury, the needed part to fix the system is on backorder. It might be 4-5 weeks before they can get it. I was wearing layer upon layer of clothing, had a heating pad on my chair under my butt, a scarf around my neck and a fleece blanket over my legs. And I was often still cold. Cold and arthritis are not good friends. My pain levels were escalating.

We got a couple of heavy duty space heaters and they helped a lot but next week is supposed to be even colder than this one. I sure hope they were wrong about how long it would take to get the needed part to fix it.

The Next Best Thing

Since my childhood Barbie is long gone, I went looking to see if I could find a reproduction American Girl Barbie to ‘replace’ mine. I found one on eBay from a seller named vintageatstonecottage.

I ordered the doll in early January, and surprisingly she arrived just 10 days later from the U.S. before the original estimated time of arrival. I am absolutely thrilled and delighted with her! The doll is very close to the one I had all those years ago.

She was packaged in what appears to be a custom Kraft box and carefully wrapped in bubble wrap. The box was taped very securely too. Included was a hand written note from the seller.

Of course, this doll will never replace my vintage doll in value or sentiment but she certainly passes as the ‘next best thing’.

It's Taco Time!

My granddaughter and I love tacos. She prefers soft tacos but I prefer the hard shells. We have tacos at least once a month. I generally cook up enough meat for us to get a couple of meals out of it, and maybe a snack or two.

About four years ago, there was a promotion advertised on the packages. Send in X number of UPC codes from specially marked boxes and you could get a free taco scarf. I showed it to my granddaughter.

‘You’re not going to get it, are you?’ she asked. I raised my eyebrows and smiled. I did not hear a question, I heard a challenge. So naturally, I ordered one. When it arrived, I proudly showed it to her.

‘You’re not going to actually wear it, are you?’ she queried. Once again, I did not hear a question, I heard a challenge. I smiled sweetly and all she could do was roll her eyes. She knew that I was going to wear it. And I do wear it every day when the weather is cold, to this very day.

Christmas Decorations

It’s time to put the holiday décor away for another year. Not that I had a lot out to speak of. We have not put up a regular Christmas tree for more years than I can remember. My mother was the one who went all out for the holidays, even going as far as dressing all her ‘play dolls’ in seasonal outfits. It must have taken her a whole day to get them all dressed up around the house. They provided her with a lot of pleasure, you could tell.

For the last couple of years I have been putting out a small ceramic tree that lights up. My mother gave me this one before she passed away. I remember when these were quite the fad in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Back then, the trees were often handmade in ceramics shops (ceramic crafts were very popular at the time), and painted in a variety of colors, styles, and textures. People could learn how to paint their own ceramics at local shops. Once fired in the kiln, the colourful plastic ‘lights’ were added to the trees and the electrical connection for the light bulb inside put in place. As time went on the ceramics industry and the hobby of painting ceramics declined like trends often do.

It seems, however, that ceramic Christmas trees have recently made a comeback as people look to recreate the Christmases of their childhoods. You can find them at Canadian Tire, Walmart and Amazon to name a few. These are all commercially made now though and lack the charm of a handmade tree.

The other special item to be tucked away until next Christmas is a lovely holiday outfit my mother made for Barbie. The top of the dress and the hat were crocheted by her while the skirt is a lovely holiday fabric. The ensemble was embellished with ribbon, lace and artificial flowers. I only recently found this outfit while looking for something else. It was proudly displayed on a shelf this past Christmas and will be every year from now on.

My mother had doll outfits for practically every season or holiday you could think of…Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, Halloween/Thanksgiving, spring, summer, autumn and winter. How I sometimes wish that I had all her dolls and outfits now. Unfortunately, after she passed away her husband (not my father) denied me any of her things. It’s a long, ugly story that I won’t get into. I’ve had to learn to accept that I will never see them again.

Let’s Talk About Gift Baskets

Over the holidays, I received two chocolate gift baskets. The first one I won in a draw at our company holiday gathering. The second one was gifted to us by our next door neighbour.

While I admire how beautiful they look and the time it took to put them together, they are absolute torture to deconstruct. Multiple layers of tape and rubber cement make it quite challenging. I’m sure it must be easier to get into Fort Knox than it is to deconstruct these things!

In total it took me about an hour to get the two of them apart. And the funny thing is I’m not a real fan of chocolate. I kept one item out of the first basket and the rest I gave away. I will likely take most of the second one to work to ‘share’ with my co-workers. I'm sure that they will be more than happy to indulge in them. *smile*

Doll Collecting Journey

My doll collecting journey began in the mid 1980’s. It took many twists and turns over the years, from Ashton-Drake porcelain dolls to Ginny, Madame Alexander, Barbie and Leeann dolls. With two boys and two cats, the porcelain dolls did not seem like a good option after a couple of years so I moved on to the others.

I remember prior to one Christmas I saw a doll that I REALLY wanted in a local gift shop. Every time I walked past that store with my boys, I pointed it out and mentioned how much I would love to have it. When the boys were in school one day, I went in and purchased it. I gave it to my mother for the boys to give me as a present. On Christmas morning, they proudly regaled the story of how they had made their grandma go to that store and buy it for me. I smiled, knowing full well that I had picked it up myself. It was so cute how they invented that whole story though. It still makes me smile today.

In the late 1980’s Mattel started to bring out ‘collectible’ Barbie dolls starting with the Christmas series. That is when my focus went back to Barbie, mostly because purchasing dolls from the U.S. with the exchange rate and shipping cost became too much to sustain. Ironically, my mother who was so against such a voluptuous and curvaceous doll in the beginning started collecting Barbie too and ended up having more of them than me. Dolls of the World, special anniversary editions, and ultimately vintage reproduction Barbie dolls all graced the shelves in her ‘doll room’. Yes, she had a doll room.

Sadly, none of those dolls were given to me by her husband (not my father) after she passed away in 2018. They were all in pristine condition, never removed from the boxes. He foolishly believed he had a gold mine and could sell them all and become rich. Little did he know that most of them were not true collectible dolls and were worth only a fraction of their original purchase price. A true collectible has a limited production run and is numbered. These dolls were made in the hundreds of thousands and sold all over the world. I guess the last laugh is on him.

I was delighted when I discovered Leeann dolls. The designer and maker of the dolls is Canadian, Denis Bastien. I sold a number of my ‘collectible’ Barbie dolls to make room for Leeann and friends. This is how I discovered how little I could get on the secondary market for them. I did not liquidate them all though. They are packed in boxes in the storage room for now. As I am clearing out a lot of accumulated stuff around here, I will be bringing them back out.

Making Doll Clothes

In the early 1960’s, there was a thriving cottage industry employing homemakers with time on their hands while the children were in school to cut out, sew and package doll clothes for local department stores like Woolworth’s and Kresge’s to sell. It was a great way for stay-at-home mothers to supplement the family income. My mother was one of those women.

The pre-cut fabric pieces were picked up by my mother from a home not far from our house in Richmond Hill, along with thread, trims, dome fasteners and instructions, which she sewed into finished pieces for various size dolls including Barbie and Tammy. The women received payment by the completed piece and they went to that home every Thursday to drop them off and a new stack ready to be sewn was picked up. Next the completed doll clothes went to the packagers who put them in cellophane bags and printed cardboard toppers were stapled on the top making them ready to deliver to stores.

Even as a child, I thought that some of the fabric selections were ‘interesting’, if not downright odd. But any child with a bit of change in their pocket could go to the store and pick out a new, unique outfit for their doll. They were much less expensive than the factory made clothes manufactured by the doll companies, and the preferred option for many parents on a tight budget. And the children were happy.

As the doll companies found ways to lower the production cost of their factory made clothes, the local cottage industry went by the wayside as it was no longer profitable for them.

Of course, virtually all of my doll clothes were homemade which I kind of resented at the time as some of my friends had factory made clothes for their dolls. Now, I am much more appreciative of the time and love that went into making them for me. I sure wish I still had that box of items my mother made but they were tossed out or given away long ago.

My First Barbie™ Doll

The path to getting my first Barbie™ doll was a long and winding road. My mother did not think the voluptuous and curvaceous doll was appropriate as a child’s toy. So, even though all my friends were getting a Barbie™, she tried to satisfy me with a number of alternatives.

The Ideal Toy Company’s answer to Barbie was the Tammy doll which it introduced in 1962. Tammy was 12 inches tall, and like Barbie, had a variety of ensembles and accessories which were sold separately. Ideal also offered companions and siblings for Tammy to play with, just as Barbie had Midge, Skipper, Ken, and others. Tammy’s body was much more realistically proportioned and more to my mother’s liking. To a six year old me, it was not the same though and I envied those who had a ‘real’ Barbie doll.

My mother tried again the following year to assuage my desire for Barbie by getting me her little sister, Skipper. She was 9.25 inches in height (compared to Barbie's 11.5 inches). Skipper was created, along with Midge, to counteract criticism that claimed Barbie was a sex symbol. Mine had red hair and blue eyes, and while I really loved the doll, she was not Barbie.

The year after that, she tried again with Tutti, the youngest sister of Barbie. She was 6 1/4 inches tall (mine had brunette hair) and was made of soft bendable rubber over a wire armature so that she could be easily posed. Because of this wire Tutti was quite a fragile doll, sometimes the wires would break and she would lose her poseability and sometimes it would pierce the rubber and stick out of her. That doll would never pass toy safety standards today.

Finally, in 1965, I got my Barbie doll! American Girl Barbie, named for her hair style, represented the peak of Barbie’s glamour and elegance. These dolls were issued from 1965 to 1966 only. Mine had brunette hair and she came with the new life-like bendable legs. I was delighted and the envy of all my friends who had straight leg Barbie dolls. Today these dolls are one of the more valuable ones even in used or played with condition. The vintage American Girl Barbie typically sells for around $1,000 these days. If you can find one still in the original box, the price is even higher.

I mention the value of the American Girl Barbie because I no longer have mine. As I grew older and stopped playing with dolls, she was packed in a box and stored in one of the closets. I got married and moved away, leaving her behind. When the doll collecting bug got me several years later and I went looking for her, she was nowhere to be found.

My youngest brother had to admit to doing unspeakable things to the doll, involving straight pins and markers, and throwing her out before my mother could see what he’d done. I was totally devastated but at that point, the deed was done and could not be undone. She was gone forever.

Story to be continued…

Happy New Year, 2025!

It sure has been a long time since I last posted on my blog. My intention is to change that in 2025, starting now.

The other day, while looking for my ‘toast buttering knife’, I remembered my father’s ‘sucky plate’. Firstly, yes, I do have a special knife that I always use to butter my toast. Is there any logical reason why I always use this particular knife? The answer is no, there is not.

I no longer have a full matching set of cutlery, just a hodge podge of various ones acquired over the years (much like the photo here). Some from when I was married, some from my parents and some from the local thrift stores. Any one of the knives would be perfectly adequate for buttering toast but I have one ‘special’ knife I always use.

That brings me back to my father’s ‘sucky plate’. It was a turquoise/blue melamine bread and butter size plate that I have no idea when or how it came into the house in the first place, but I was very young. My father always had to have his toast on this plate. For whatever reason, I do not know. There’s likely as much logic to it as me and my toast buttering knife.

It’s not like we did not have ‘proper’ dishes, we did. The first set I remember are the Pyrex dishes with red around the edges (see below) that my parents received as a wedding gift. Then there was the upgrade to Corelle dishes with the gold design around the rims when the family grew, and we no longer had a full set of the Pyrex ones due to breakage. So, we did have regular dishes to use.

I cannot explain my desire to use one special knife for buttering toast or my father’s need to use that melamine plate for his toast. I guess we all have funny quirks like that. What’s yours? Let me know in the comment section. We can have a chuckle together.