Lost!

Erin had the answer. Mislay. George said I should have known that. I am really good at it. I guess I mislayed the answer.

Sister Winnie Jo is on meds and thinks that Grandma and Aunt Una were sisters-in-law. It is amazing what you come up with when you are all drugged up. And, isn't it great to be a real sister. Only a real sister would make fun of you when you are in pain, recovering from major surgery.

Yes, Aunt Una and Grandma married brothers. That makes them sisters-in-law. But Aunt Una, before she married Jesse was Una Coxsey. Grandma's mother was Sarah Coxsey before she married Bee Maples and became Grandma's mother. And, John Powell, Grandpa's brother, married Aunt Una's sister Beulah Coxsey. I really am not sure of the exact relationship, but all the Coxsey's at Carrollton were related. So, they were cousins of some sort.

Helen said she did not need to know what kind of dress she needed to make, she needed to know how to make it. I am confused. If that is what she needed, why did she ask me? I have never once even made a Halloween costume for a child. It all seems to be a lot of trouble for very little reward. I would probably send Kenzie to school in my old wedding gown or maybe in a silky night gown. If you bought a big red dress for a big fat woman, tied a string around the waist and pulled it up under the arms, it would would make a big fluffy dress. Wouldn't it? Or, put a long, white ruffled flannel nightgown and a white night bonnet on her and say this is how I dress for bed? Or, maybe a bedspread draped around her shoulders and tied at the waist with a matching sheet in a big bow in the back?

Anyone need help with anything else?

Puzzle

I answered Betty's question. I answered Helen's question. Now I have a question. I think this is for Betty or Erin.

I am trying to work the Jumbel in today's paper. I have all the words except one and I have the answer. Now I need a wrod from YILSAM. It goes __ __ O O O __. The o's are the letters ALS, and the three dashes are YIM. What is the word?

I do the cryptoquote in the paper often, and usually get it right off. I don't usually do the jumble because I am not good at it because I am not a good speller. I can often get the answer to the puzzle but still not know all the words.

So, what word is YILSAM?

Martha Washington

To find out what someone well known looked like, go to Google, click on Images at the top of the page, to go to their image search, type in the name of the person you are looking for. For Martha Washington, we get a few of her as a young woman with dark hair pulled back, no head covering, and an expensive looking long, full dress that looks like it it made of silk or another silky looking material. As an older woman, she is most often pictures with a hat or head covering of some sort, but not a large hat. Her dress is usually dark with a wide white color or scarf around her neck.

Then I went to google.com and typed in What did Martha Washington wear. I found this site,
http://www.history.org/history/clothing/women/wglossary.cfm
A Colonial Lady's Clothing: A Glossary of Terms

It should be helpful with fixing a costume.

So, if Kenzie wants to be a young Martha Washington, she should pull her hair back, put it up, and wear a long, full, fancy looking dress with long sleeves. However, if she what to be an older Martha, she can powder her hair with baby powder to make it white, put on a white (or maybe off white eyelet) ruffled bonnet that just covers the top of her head, a dark long full dress with a plain white collar or a plain white scarf around the top of the dress. I vote for a mature Kenzie Martha.

A white ruffled bonnet with elastic to poof out over the top of her head should be easy. And, powdering the hair should make it look white or at least not red, red. The dress has to be long and full with sleeves at least elbow length if it is to be correct for the times. The sleeves can be lengthened with ruffles.

Here:
http://www.history.org/history/clothing/designcenter/timeline/
is a Williamsburg VA site that tells about how the costumes at Williamsburg park have evolved over the years. It gives good descriptions of what was actually worn in Colonial times.

You go Gone with the Wind and make a fancy dress from a silky curtain.

Then if you type Martha Washington Costume in googe you get this.

Dead People

Betty wants to know what relationship Our Grandma Powell was to Aunt Una. If Betty had a genealogy program that was worth what she paid for it, the program would tell her. My genealogy program tells me Grandma and Anut Una were second cousins once removed. But that may not be exactly true.

Our Grandmother in a letter date 1967 states that brothers Ben (her grandfather), Andrew (Andy) and Taylor (Pat) Coxsey came to Carroll Co. AR in 1869 and that Ben was the oldest. I am almost sure that that is not correct. I found Ben Coxey on the 1850 census as a son of Absalom Coxsey. On the same census, Polk Co., Tennessee, John B. Coxsey is listed with sons James A., John T., and Joshua L. The James A. is James Anderson, Aunt Una's grandfather. Joshua L, is I think, actually Joshua Taylor and is the Pat Coxsey.

What I think is that Ben Coxsey was a brother to Andy and Pat's father, John B. Coxsey. But I am not sure. I am pretty sure that Ben, Andy and Pat were not brothers. However, Ben was closer to the age of Andy and Pat than he was to their father John B. Coxsey.

I think it is safe to say that Grandma and Aunt Una were cousins.

More...

George sanded the table today. It looks much better and is really smooth. He did a great job. I bought stain and varnish. I think I will wait till the week end to finish it. It is going to look grand new.

Projects

I am working on my coffee table. This is a table Sammy gave to Mama. He made it in shop at school It is a nice, solid, simple table, but the top was scratched so I painted it. That was stupid. I should have refinished it.




So, today, I put paint remover on it and took off the paint.





This is what it looks like now. I have to let it dry overnight then I will sand and stain it and put some kind of sealer on it. Maybe just clear varnish.





This shelf (the bottom one) was George's last project of the to do list I gave him last month. I was going to leave it plain, but I think I may stain and varnish it also. If not, I guess I need to paint it. It needs some kind of sealer so it will not stain.

AND the biggest project of all is scheduled for a week from Thursday or Friday. We are getting a new roof. I am excited.

Today

Is George's birthday. I am going to fix him fish for his birthday supper. For my birthday, I wanted to go have fish at the fish house and we did not go. We had steaks. He likes stakes. He is getting fish.

We say 4 dear yesterday. George says this one is Rudolf, because his ear is shinning. Today, George took a bale of hay and scattered it where we have been seeing the dear. I am sure they will be thankful when they find it.

Fog, 18 degrees

At 8 am. Now at 9:35 am it is 23 degrees, but still foggy. I cannot even see Clayton's house. It is supposed to get around 37 degrees today. Yepeee!!! Thawing.