Sewing Pattern Inflation

My daughters recently decided they would like to make themselves new summer skirts. They don't have a lot of experience sewing so it was important that we find an easy pattern. My mother alerted me to the fact that McCall and Butterick patterns were currently $1.99 at Joann's fabric store, so we set out to gather our materials for the skirt-making project.

Easy pattern for $1.99. Check. Cute fabric at 50% off. Check. Elastic, ribbon, and thread. Check. That's all we needed to get started, because I already have a scissors, pins, tape measure, sewing machine, and an iron. But just this little bit came to over $28 even with the discounts! No wonder people don't sew much any more!
Then I happened to notice the retail price of the pattern! $15.95!!! Does anyone really pay that much for patterns? Surely everyone waits until they're on sale. I can't imagine paying that!
After we finished at Joann's we stopped at a thrift store. They had a bin of sewing patterns for a quarter a piece! Now that's more like it!

I haven't sewed much in years so I don't have many patterns, but I decided to glance through to see what they had. I had just been looking through the pattern book at Joann's for an easy tiered skirt pattern for the girls to try next and hadn't found what I wanted, so I was happy to find this one! I'm almost certain my sisters and I had this very pattern when I was in high school. The date on the package was 1981, so yep, that's the right time period! Remember when prairie skirts were so popular in the early '80s?
But notice the price! $2.50! I wonder what the sale price was in the 1980s. Because I'm sure we never paid full price for a pattern!

Then I found these beauties in the same bin. One of them was dated 1957. The other didn't have a date, but they were both originally 50 cents. And check out the apron pattern that's included in the Butterick pattern! I might just have to make that!
I called Mother to tell her about my fun finds, and rant about the outlandish price of patterns these days. She said when she and her sister were in 7th grade (mid-1950s) they got to take home-ec. They were so excited because they were going to learn to make an apron, but it was very upsetting because they were required to buy a pattern! Why, their mother could make them an apron pattern... but no, they had to buy one so they could learn to read a pattern as part of the class. And the worst part about it was, the apron pattern cost 35 cents!!!

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Geocaching at Lake Pend Oreille

Geocaching has been one of our favorite summer weekend activities for several years. It's fun to get out in the wilderness, it's great exercise, and we often find that the caches are placed in just the perfect spot to enjoy a great view!

That was case with the "Honey, I Think Saw the Paddler!" cache that we found a few days ago. Apparently, Lake Pend Oreille (pronounced pond-uh-ray) has it's very own "Loch Ness" legend. (Click on the link, if you're interested in reading about it.)
First, we had to park in a pull-out area beside the dirt road and hike down the road a ways before climbing up the hill into the woods to find the correct coordinates...

After following the very faint deer trail, and thrashing around in some underbrush, our GPS said we were getting close.

I see the cache!! Do you?
See the pile of bark? If you look very close you can just make out the edge of the Tupperware container tucked up under it.
And here's the view of Lake Pend Oreille that made the climb worth it!Climbing back down I stopped to take a picture of this funny tree. Notice where the bark is worn off? Lyle said that deer rubbing against it have caused that. I don't know why. And I don't know how he knows that!We slipped and slid back down the hill to the road...And enjoyed more beautiful views of the lake as we hiked back to the truck...
It was a fun day!

Mystery Flower

Does anybody know what kind of flower this is?

It was blooming along the snowy road the day we got stuck in the snow. I thought it was absolutely beautiful... but I have no idea what it is.

I was hopeful that maybe it was an edelweiss (you know, like from the Sound of Music?)... but I looked it up on Wikipedia, and no, it looks totally different... and I learned that the edelweiss is a European mountain flower, so it probably doesn't even grow on this continent!

A tumble-down log cabin...

On our drive in the mountains the other day, we passed this intriguing old building in a clearing by the side of the road. I just had to stop and take some pictures! Wanna explore it with me?
I thought you did! C'mon! Let's go a little closer!
I wonder if the tree growing in the middle of it helps support the front of it? Otherwise, it may have collapsed even further!
I wonder if this was originally a window or a door?
There are 3 windows along the back. They are so low to the ground we had to stoop to look through them. I think they were probably originally higher but have settled as the house slowly collapses.
Let's peek inside from a back window...
Isn't it interesting how tightly the corners still fit together?
Backing up a little to get the full view of the house from the back...
And here's the other side. See how the roof slanted toward the front?
I wonder who lived here? And when it was built?
This is silver mining country, so maybe it was related to that? Although, the building does seem to be larger and more elaborate (with all those windows) than I imagine miners took time to construct. Maybe it was a store?
Looking inside the house from the front...And admiring the moss growing on the logs...

Later in the day we came back past the old tumble-down cabin. The sun no longer shone in the clearing, but it was lovely lighting up the mountains in the background.

In a way, it seems a shame that the old house is going to ruins, with no historical marker or other information as to who worked so hard to build a home in this remote place. But then again, sometimes the "archaeologist" in me likes to speculate on ruins left to the elements to deteriorate!

It just offers so much "scope for the imagination", don't you think?

Visit Coloradolady for more Vintage Thingie Thursday posts. She even posted about "Forgotten Mountain Treasures" today!

It's a Dog Day...

Four years ago today on a farm in Missouri a litter of puppies was born to a beagle named Annie. Now, Annie was the "wife" of a border collie mix named Chief... and the whole happy family belonged to my aunt and uncle!I don't recall how many puppies were in the litter (if I ever knew), but two months later my aunt and uncle were looking for a home for the last little female puppy. You see, she was a timid little thing and the people in their community were looking more for hunting dogs. It was time for our family reunion and my aunt threatened to take the puppy to the reunion to see if someone wouldn't just fall in love with it.
As it happened, our dear ol' doggy of 15 years had passed away the previous Labor Day, so we were on the lookout for a new dog. But not just any dog. We wanted a medium-size, well-behaved family pet who could live in the house and travel with us. When we heard about the little beagle-border-collie puppy we thought that might just be the very one we were looking for! Before the reunion was over we had decided to "adopt" her sight-unseen. (My aunt didn't really take her to the reunion!)

Lyle and my cousin drove over to their home and got her on the last day of the reunion. She was the perfect little traveling companion on the way home. We named her Cookie because her face is black with a white stripe, like an Oreo cookie... and because it's a play on our last name.
We almost lost her as soon as we got home with her, because she contracted Parvo and had to be hospitalized for a week! I blogged about that ordeal back in 2005.

Turns out, she has been the absolute perfect dog for our family. She adores all of us (and she worships Lyle!)... and she loves to go wherever we go! She has silky-soft fur and she is the smartest dog I've ever been around. My aunt says she gets that from her daddy, Chief!
So today we celebrate Cookie's birthday.

No, girls! We aren't going birthday shopping. Nor are we having cake. She's a dog, after all!! A blog post is enough of a celebration!