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Genealogy

Many Happy Returns of the Day – 1911

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This is another in the series of “Maher Postcards” that are explained in this post.  The front of this card shows purple irises surrounding a birthday message, transcribed below.

Many Happy Returns of the Day
May your days from now be brighter
May your load grow ever lighter
May this birthday be the first of days
When ill luck flies away, and good luck stays.

The card is addressed to Mrs. Bernard Maher, the former Miss Hattie Braniff, born 28 May 1886 in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania.  The sender is Catherine Maher, her mother-in-law, who wrote out the address putting little hearts at the front of each letter in her name and in “Buffalo” and “NY” which is just too charming.  The postmark date is 26 May 1911, so it likely arrived on Hattie’s 25th birthday which is fantastic timing and close to this post date, albeit over a hundred years earlier.  The one cent Benjamin Franklin stamp is still affixed.  The message reads, “Hello Hattie, how are and all the rest.  We are all well here at present, tell Bernard Aunt Annie Garrity is getting married to a Bernard Duigon of Hastings.  Wishing you a happy birthday.”

The Annie Garrity mentioned in the message is Annie McCann (1865-1936) who married Catherine’s brother, William.  William passed away in 1904, so the news being passed on is that Annie, Catherine’s sister-in-law, is marrying a second time.  It’s great that she was able to slip in a little bit of family news along with the birthday greetings as it helps to cement exactly who we’re talking about here!

Genealogy

Sunoco Nu-Blue Advertisement

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Yet another random odd bit of history tucked into a box of grandma’s correspondence.  Not exactly sure why she saved this, but it’s advertising Sunoco’s gasoline product, “Nu-Blue” as “Quick Starting” and “A Hero Even Below Zero.”  The “Fill Up Today At …” line is blank – there should be a stamp showing the gas station’s name in that spot.  In the image, Donald Duck is dressed up in a hat, ear muffs, scarf, and mittens, holding a medal that says, “Quick Starting,” in front of a smiling, sunny gas pump.  Via some search results, Nu-Blue started to be manufactured in about 1937, and there are bunches of advertisements from the 1940s all the way through about 1963.  I find it pretty interesting to see a Disney character on an advertisement for gasoline though which is why I’m posting this here!

Art

Open Print Exchange – Take 2

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I had SO much fun with the original Open Press Project Print Exchange that when they opened it up for round 2, I immediately jumped on board.  The idea is you send in ten prints made with an Open Press Project mini printing press – one stays with the project and gets sent out on exhibitions, and you receive nine random prints in return.

Inspired by this past year’s holiday card, I did another drypoint etching on a plastic plate.  Go with what you know, right?  The deadline to be received in Germany was February 1, so I had them out mid January which was a bit of a list minute rush after a busy holiday season, and partly why I went a little easier on myself with this one instead of trying something new.  Still, I’m REALLY happy with how it came out and can’t wait to see the nine prints I receive in return!  To see all the prints from both exchanges, check out their openprintexchange.com website.

Print Details:
Backer #536
Drypoint Etching on plastic plate
Speedball Akua Ink in Mars Black
Printed on Legion Stonehenge paper in Steel Grey

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Recycled Sheets Doily Rug

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Doily Rug
Started: 14 March 2022
Finished: 15 March 2022
Pattern: Rag Doily Rug by Coco Knits
Yarn: Recycled sheets
Needle: US 19 / 15 mm
Notes:  I have a few sets of old sheets lying around that  I keep meaning to upcycle into something usable.  Well, it was finally time!  This set of sheets, I actually ripped a hole in the middle when I got into bed, that’s how thin they had gotten.  So, first step was to cut them into size.  These were for a California King bed, so I folded them over a few times to make it a shorter pass and went to town with my rotary cutter, cutting 1.5″ strips.  To join strips together, I want to say I used the looped hole technique shown here, but it’s also been over a year and I can’t quite remember? I don’t think I bothered sewing the ends together, but my strips were pretty long.  The needles were something I grabbed from online since I definitely didn’t have a size that large on hand, and I’m not going to lie, I’m used to knitting socks, so knitting something this big on needles that large was a full arm workout and definitely tiring on the hands.  Thankfully, it was a pretty small project and went rather quickly!  The fabric, IIRC, was some kind of microfiber fabric, so the weave is SUPER messy – it split and frayed all over the place while I was knitting and there was just no way to control it – it was nothing like ripping/cutting a plain old cotton sheet.  In the end, things came together well and the resulting rug does look a little fuzzy, but it hasn’t shed anymore.  I did wash and lay this out to shape it before placing it at our back door, and I think that helped a bunch.  SUPER fun to do this and I’m happy with the final result!  I still have a bunch of this ‘yarn’ leftover too, so I should be able to make another one too.