19th Century Crafts and a day in the 19th century

 

Every year my mom and I go to the Genesee Country Village and Museum's Christmas craft day.  It is something we do just the two of us.  I look forward to this each year.  So grab a cup of tea and settle in for a trip back in time.

 

Christmas cards with a fancy boarder.  We could choose paper or actual lace.  The lace was a bit large, so paper it was.  I love the way they look.

 

We trimmed the card up and then glued the paper lace onto the card.

 

Pomander ball made from a lemon.  Take a toothpick and poke holes into the lemon.  Place whole cloves into the hole.  Decorate with a ribbon.

 

I love the way these smell.  There is something about the smell of citrus and cloves that screams 19th century to me.

 

A ribbon broach.  This was the easiest thing to make.  I plan on blogging the instructions soon.  The center is a fancy button. 

 

Stringed popcorn, cranberries and bay leaves.

 

This picture is from a couple of years ago.  But it's a sweet bag.  It's a piece of fabric filled with pine needles, rosemary, cinnamon, orange peel and a few drops of essential oil.  Smells SO good!  I place it on the heat register and it makes the whole house smell like Christmas.

 

After making our crafts off we went into the village.  It was pretty cold today with snow flurries in the air.  Perfect weather for today!  The smell of wood burning stoves in the air throughout the village.

 

Our first stop was the Livingston-Backus house where they were showing how chocolate was made.  There was even sampling of the chocolate...thanks I'll pass.  Remember I'm not a fan of chocolate.  My mom said it was really good!

 

Just because I love cookbooks.

 

Ever wonder why dressing like this ever became a thing of the past?  I love this museum so much because it is so realistic.  This is the cook at the Livingston-Backus house. 

 

Our next stop was at the Jones Farm house.  Here they were in the process of rendering lard.  It smelled So good in there.  Think bacon!

 

Chopping up the fat to be cooked down.  I could have stayed there all day listening to and watching them.

 

The Jones farm cook was making squash soup.  YUM!  It smelled so good in there.

 

*Sigh* I just love the look of these.  Such simple items bring me so much pleasure.  Anyone else feel this way??

 

Next stop on our visit into the village was the spinner.  Here she was explaining to us the process of spinning wool into yarn.  I also found out they offer classes on how to do this! WOOHOO!  I just might have to take this class.  She was snuggled in by the fire spinning the wool.  Behind her (just over her shoulder) you see the yarn they have for sale.  SO tempting!  This was hand dyed.

 

Spinning Wheel

 

Isn't that beautiful!?

Next stop is lunch at the Hosmer Inn.

 

Here we were greeted by our hostess, Gail.

 

We sat at a nice table right next to the window. 

 

Our menu.  We decided on a baked potato with chili, cheese and sour cream.  We had tea cakes for dessert.  A tea cake is what we know as the cookie.  Mom had a maple sugar tea cake, I had a rose water currant tea cake.  Rose water is something they used a lot of in place of vanilla.

 

OOOO it's so good!  Nice and warm for a cold day.

 

Our next stop on the tour was candle making.  It was pretty neat to see how they would have made candles. 

 

The fat used to make the candles.  This is before it was melted down.

 

Here Allison is dipping the candles into the melted tallow. 

 

She kept dipping the wick into the hot tallow.  Over time you get a large candle ready to use.

 

The last stop was winter wear for women.  She was telling us about the house cap (white one on her head).  Going outside with this on your head was like us going out in our under ware.  My how times have changed.  If she was just going out for a moment she would have place the shawl over her head to cover the house cap.  Modesty has certainly gone away in our society.

 

I really hope you enjoyed the tour.  I know I did.  In a few weeks hubby and I will be going on a Yuletide tour here.  Can't wait!

Have a great weekend!