Cape Cod, Summer of 1969

Cape Cod, Summer of 1969, originally uploaded by confections.

I wasn't at Woodstock that summer, but I was on Cape Cod--first for a family visit with my aunt and uncle, and then to work a summer job between my freshman and sophomore years in college.

Here I am with two of my brothers, one of my sisters, and a cousin who is now gone, off to spend the day at Hardings Beach in Chatham. Halcyon days....

My Mom (on the right) and Her Childhood Friend Dorothy

My Mom (on the right) and Her Childhood Friend Dorothy, originally uploaded by confections.

Today is my Mom's 83rd birthday. I'm popping the cork by sharing these photos of her and her childhood friend Dorothy. The first photo found its way to us through a contact on ancestry.com. Amazing serendipity. Thank you, Libby!

Her friend Dorothy is still alive and kickin' and a few years ago shared a photo of the two of them as high-schoolers ice-skating on Bull Creek in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. My Mom, on the left in the photo below, made her green corduroy skating skirt. It had a gold satin lining.

My Mom exudes the Venusian energy which is a hallmark of her Libra sun sign. She is a social creature and loves beauty in her surroundings. She is witty, loves a good joke, and has an infectious laugh. She'll beat you at any card game, but especially at pinochle.

She is an excellent cook and baker (oh, I'd love a home-cooked meal and a slice of her apple pie right now!) and reveled in the joys of marriage and raising a family of seven children. I developed my appreciation for the charms of tea and conversation over the kitchen table with my Mom.

Happy Birthday, Mutti!

Vintage Effanbee Doll Collage (New Dress)

Vintage Effanbee Doll Collage (New Dress), originally uploaded by confections.

My vintage Effanbee doll (which I introduced in my April 19th blog entry) has been duly newly clad in a calico dress. She doesn't look nearly as forlorn as she did a few short weeks ago. Clothes make the doll!

I raided my stash of quilting calicoes to find the appropriate complement to my circa World War I era doll. I believe she is a prototype of the "Baby Dainty" Doll produced by Effanbee at that time. I found a reproduction Simplicity doll pattern for the bodice piece and gathered a rather long skirt to it, accented with a deep tuck. It's been donkey's years (oh, I miss Princess Diana!) since I have made any doll clothes.

My first major foray into sewing as a grade-schooler was cranking out Barbie doll clothes on my mother's vintage Singer treadle sewing machine. Barbie doll clothes are on such a tiny scale, they are quite tedious to sew, I think. Baby Dainty is about 14 inches tall and her chest is 10 inches in circumference, so sewing her dress was a breeze by comparison. She was all dressed up and I had promised to take her to a tea party, so off we went to meet up with my girlfriends and sister at Tea-Upon-Chatsworth for a delightful high tea and furrawn (per Anais Nin: soulful conversation that is deeply intimate).

My girlfriends each brought along a doll and a picture from their childhood. I shared one of me with my Ginny doll from the mid-1950's (shown below). Ah, sweet bird of youth!