Doll Clothes~Sweet Potatoes~Butterscotch Syrup

Historical Doll Clothes:

We have an 18 inch doll in our schoolroom named Historia.  We *try* to dress her in time period clothing.  A few years ago I thought it would be cool for us to make clothes for her based on our history studies.  Ha... We've only made one outfit: Native American.  I ordered the pilgrim outfit from Vision Forum and it has held up very well.  Last night I was looking for some Civil War era doll clothes and found this site.  They look fantastic.
http://www.yoreclothes.com/index.html

This is the first page of Vision Forum's doll dress section.  I may get the Southern Lady Doll Dress for $19 - maybe for Christmas for the dc.

http://www.visionforum.com/search/productlist.aspx?search=doll&page=2

I also found this, this, this, this, and this (among others) at Amazon.

What's Gardenin'?

The sweet potatoes are growing and such fun to see spread out over the raised beds.  They and the cantaloupe are taking over the middle bed.  I have 4 cantaloupes on the trellis!  Yeah!  As I saw these beautiful sweet potato leaves spreading out I wondered how on Earth I'll know when to harvest them.  I ran across this video, which led to the next video, which led to the next video!  The first is harvesting sweet potatoes and the next 2 are about herbs.  Perfect timing for me.  I just harvested my basil a few weeks ago before we went on a trip (I knew they wouldn't survive 4 days without water!).  I'm also about to harvest the thyme and oregano (just a few meager plants); but the thyme has flowered and the honey bees like them so I may just let them go.

http://www.vegetablegardener.com/item/4199/video-how-to-harvest-sweet-potatoes

This has some good info:
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/extension/vegetable/cropguides/sweetpotato.html


What's Cookin'?

Dd's birthday is tomorrow.  We *still* don't have an oven so I can't bake her a cake (sigh).  Her solution:  an ice cream cake!  I thought that was good problem solving :).  She wants vanilla ice cream with a few layers of chocolate chips inside and butterscotch syrup drizzled over the top after we pop it out of the mold (AND honey... together... on top at the same time... ick... I've talked her into having the bottle of honey on the side for her to drizzle some on her own piece).

I used this recipe to make our own butterscotch syrup.  It's called butterscotch sauce but same difference.  I don't use corn syrup and didn't want dairy in it so that it will keep longer (although it has butter).  This should last quite a while in the refrigerator.

http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1815,154189-237192,00.html

We ended up doubling the butter and flour and sugar or we would still be standing there boiling it to thickness.  Next time:  1/2 the amount called for of water and vinegar OR double the butter, sugar, and flour from the beginning.

Freaky:


GPS tracking devices attached to schoolchildren's backpacks... How about a bus monitor with a list and a clipboard??? Was my age group the last to read 1984?
http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local-beat/GPS-palos-heights-school-district-128-zpass.html

Food rationing cards in Venezuela:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/09/04/1807508/venezuela-introduces-cuba-like.html
Something else to ponder: It's legal to buy lethal cigarettes in all US states, but it is illegal to buy traditional milk in several states (even though there is a higher allowance for bacteria counts in post-pasteurized milk and raw milk has been used for 1000s of years). Make sure you get your milk from someone you trust and/or is certified/licensed:
http://www.realmilk.com/whichchoose.html

What's Schoolin'?

I couldn't believe it.  I found loose leaf paper for binders at the dollar store with lined paper on the front side and quadrille (graph) paper on the back side of each sheet.  We'll be using that for their Chemistry Lab notebooks in their binders instead of the $7 lab notebooks I was looking at online.