Toddlers & Tiaras - Ramblings

Today I watched a TV series called "Toddlers & Tiaras" on TLC. It was kind of like watching a train wreck. Horrifying, but at the same time, fascinating. The show is about children (mostly ages 12 and under) that compete in children's beauty pageants. I would love to say we don't have these things in Canada, but I'm fairly certain we probably do (the show is based in the U.S..)

Most of the kids seemed to be enjoying themselves, some, not so much, and others, well... not at all. For me, it's just strange - and slightly uncomprehensible - to see kids wearing more make up than most badly/overly made up women I know; being spray tanned (or in one case having it rolled on with something akin to a paint roller); wearing fake nails, fake eyelashes, fake hair, and then parading around in elaborate, garish outfits that cost more than a lot of things I wish I owned - as my one friend said when she heard what one mother commented about outfits costing "That's a lot of rent..." (We're talking this mother has invested between 65-70 THOUSAND dollars in going to pageants. Oh, and her daughter was about 5 years old.) I can understand the make up and the hairspray - my neices go through those for skating. I've done the "You've got so much hairspray/product in your hair, stay away from open flames" myself for a couple formal events (remember, the trick is that if your hair still feels like hair, you don't have enough hairspray.)

The younger kids really didn't seem to understand what was going on, they just did it, and probably had fun (though there were a lot of sad faces when they didn't get prizes.) The older kids did get it, and some were INSANE about it. The one 10 year old even had (what appeared to be a rather bitchy) alter ego named Tootie. I kid you not - they called the child by her real name, and she snapped back "I'm not *name*!! I'M TOOTIE!!!" And her bad mood lasted until she stepped on stage, and then came back as soon as she was off stage. A few of these kids seem to have "I'm better than you" attitudes. Already. Like little Miss Tootie. She constantly had this look like someone around her was smelly - the disgust, the sneer, all of it. She also didn't seem to give a damn about anything. What she won was not good enough.

A lot of the mothers were also pageant contestants when they were younger. They were more excited than the kids when they won *grimace* Seriously, your child is standing on stage with this "I have no idea what's going on, but I'll stand here and smile" look on their face, and you're standing in the audience squealing, jumping up and down for joy, waving your arms, hollering, yelling, and hugging your friends/family... meanwhile your child's expression has now become "My mother is acting insane, and I'm not sure why, or what I should be doing, but okay..."

One family had all 5 of their daughters competing. I WILL SAY THIS NOW - I'm not going to say this woman is a bad mother, or anything like that. I do not know these people, I am aware this whole thing has been edited by other people than her (or at least I would assume it has been), and all that. What I am about to say is my own observations and opinions formed by what I saw.

Anyways, continuing, this family has 5 daughters competing, two of whom are twins. Now in the beginning, it seems as though the mother is showing favouritism (and it does kind of seem that way, but at the same time, she could be just being very truthful/realistic, as one twin won more pageants than the other twin.) I will call the twin that wins more Twin #1 and the other twin Twin #2. I will say how things originally came across, and then my later thoughts on them. So, first off, Twin #2 doesn't really seem to enjoy pageants. Twin #2 also looks emotionally injured when talking about pageants. She knows her sister wins more than she does etc. She said so herself, and when speaking about pageants, looked unhappy, looked down from everyone else, or away from everyone else. Originally I was rather shocked at how the mother came across when the dress Twin #2 chose had a rip in it. It appeared a ruffle had come off a layer of the skirt, and would actually be a fairly easy fix. The mother however goes "It's RIPPED. You ripped it at the last pageant!! Do you remember how you ripped it?! You lose points for things like this!!" The child started to cry, asking if it could be fixed, or if they could get a new one. The mother replied she'd fix it if she had time, and that while there was a new dress coming, it would probably only fit Twin #1. Now this originally came off as rather cold - however, thinking on it more, 5 girls to get ready for the pageant would be a lot of work, and if the twins differed in size from when the dress was ordered, it would make sense that it would only really fit one of them. Other than this, for the most part, the mother seemed to be a very good parent. The father eventually had to make the desicion to remove Twin #1 from the pageant because of her horrible behaviour, and the mother respected this and did not fight him on it at all. The thing that stunned me most was Twin #1's behaviour at/after the pageant. Twin #1 ended up being removed before the final portion before crowning - due to her behaviour (we're talking kicking, screaming, crying, ignoring parental directions, insulting her sisters etc.) Twin #2 ended up being crowned 3rd Alternate, and Director's Choice. Twin #1 - while not participating in the talent portion, and being removed - was awarded 2nd Alternate. Both twins were then being interviewed by the camera crew, and when Twin #2 was asked what she won, Twin #1 butted in with "YOU didn't win. I did! I got 2nd Alternate!Twin #2 replied with "How would you know?! You weren't there! You were asleep!" Twin #1 continued with "I won. Ask mommy!" Twin #2 then simply sat there, staring down and away from everyone, looking at the floor, no expression on her face. Twin #1 then put her arm around her sister in a comforting/patronizing gesture, only to be shoved off by Twin #2. WAY TO GO #2!! One child has an ego issue, and the other has emotional damage issues. I hope Twin #1 smartens the fuck up, and Twin #2 grows up to be strong, and not hating and distrusting people.

Before and After photos can be seen here, (Tootie is #4) along with other stuff on the site (like lists of what they take to pageants, etc etc.) Some of them still look like children when they're all made up. Others look like Barbie dolls.

Oh, and the cost of the one girl's dresses from above? Least expensive was either $1200 or $2100. Most expensive was $3600. I think I need to be making poufy, frou frou pageant dresses that look like glitter vomit.

Now then, not sure why I'm rambling on this much... probably because this whole thing kind of disturbs me (in about the same sense as purity balls...)

A Foodie Post For The Most Part

So today there's a few things to talk about! Some sewing, a movie and some food. The last two are related in a way - Although I was going to be making these things anyways without watching the movie. So I'll leave the food until the end, so it's all tied together.

We checked out the new Fabricland location, it's pretty nice. There's more room than the others, although it feels too new lol. I picked out some cotton to make myself a tiered peasant skirt - it's a dark red with little dark yellow/gold stars on it. Mom helped me pin on the pattern pieces to make it go faster etc, and we got it cut out, so I can start sewing that soon. And hopefully get it done before I take anymore beach trips (which may or may not be until next year, we shall see.) So that's about that for now. Still plugging away at the quilts, but it was really hot and then really cold and wet (yay hurricanes!) so not much has been done recently.

Now then, ONTO THE FOOD! Today my mom and I went to the movie theatre and saw Julie & Julia. This is kind of a dual movie because part of it is the story of Julia Child, the cook, and Julie Powell, a woman who decides to blog as she cooks her way through Julia Child's cookbook. The movie is based on two TRUE stories, as there actually is a woman named Julie Powell who cooked her way through the cookbook and blogged about it, she also wrote a memoir about it and that is essentially what the movie is based off, as well as Julia Child's memoirs. I recommend this movie to everyone. It's well written, amusing, shows LOTS of yummy food. Just avoid bookstores on the way home in case you want to try cooking through the book as well hahaha. My favourite line from the movie that really sticks out was when Julia Child is taking a hot cannoli out of a pot of boiling water with her bare hands and she says, "These damn things are hotter than a stiff cock!" I think we all almost died from laughter when that one came out. This is Julie Powell's blog where she did the challenge HERE.

In other news, my friend Ezri is hosting an afternoon tea tomorrow and it's pot luck. I was originally going to take turkey and Swiss cheese sandwiches, but then the date got moved and now I'm rather lazy feeling and I ended up making something "simpler" that takes more effort lol. I'm making Cherry and Pecan Cream Cheese Spread and Herbed Cheese Balls (or something similar) that I found on this website HERE.

The Cherry and Pecan Cream Cheese spread looks kinda gross... but it's yummy. It starts off looking like an herb cream cheese dip/spread before the cherries are added, and ends up looking.... a bit daunting... (read: when hacking away at the revived/stewed cherries it looked A LOT like liver... ick. And then before a REALLY good mixing, it kind of resembled stomach contents. MMMMMM STOMACH CONTENTS.) Taste-wise - YUM-De-FUCKING-MY. A bit tart, as it uses sour cherries, but very refreshing as well. I think you could use fresh cherries/non-sour instead of dried, it'd still look the same, etc (or be sweeter.)

I probably won't make the herbed cheese balls until tomorrow so they're fresher etc. I chopped up the herbs tonight though. Going to mix some of them into the cream cheese before making them into the balls, and then roll them in the remainder of the chopped herbs. Should be yummy.

Now, for the photos (I'm just going to link the sentence for most of these)
Reviving the cherries (I used dried sour cherries)

This is my hack job of mincing the cherries up instead of mixing them in as HUGE whole cherries
Ewwwww LIVER!!! + "I swear I didn't kill anyone and I'm not butchering a body!!"

And the final project...
It looks more appetizing in this photo than in real life lol. In real life it looks a bit more like peanut butter with raisins mixed in. Looks icky, tastes pretty good.

Tomorrow I shall post some pics from the tea party, and perhaps a lesson on which fabrics REALLY need to be washed BY THEMSELVES before going anywhere near others.

This About Sums It Up...

You may have to click on it to see the whole thing, I know on my computer I usually only see part of images and not all of them on here. It might just be my monitor, I'm not sure *shrugs*


Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

Bloggers Beware

Today I was reading the news and came across this. A model had a lawsuit against a blogger, then dropped it, and now the blogger wants to sue Google for revealing her name. Woooo. Everyone look out! Here's the article

Trash-talking bloggers warned of perils
Wed, August 26, 2009
A court battle to ID a name caller is cited as a wake-ublogp call

MONTREAL -- Anonymous bloggers who like to trash talk online should brush up on the latest cyber etiquette, say legal experts.

The recent case of a Canadian model who won a court battle to reveal the identity of a nasty name-calling blogger should be a wake-up call about the legal implications of sharing derogatory opinions online, said lawyer David Fewer of the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic.

"It should be an eye opener for most people," Fewer said yesterday. "They are not nearly as anonymous on the Internet as they think they are."

Liskula Cohen, a former model for Vogue and Flare magazines, won a court order in New York that forced Google to unmask the identity of a blogger, who had called her a "skank" and made other off-colour comments about her online.

Cohen has since dropped a multimillion lawsuit against the blogger, saying it wouldn't add anything to her life. Meanwhile, the blogger, Rosemary Port, is suing Google for violating her privacy by revealing her name.

Fewer said Canadian courts, as well as courts in many other jurisdictions, will likely give people the opportunity to launch similar court battles to reveal the secret identity of an online persona or the person behind an online publication.

"If you've got a non-frivolous legal claim you are entitled to your day in court," said Fewer, acting director of the clinic, based at the University of Ottawa.

Cohen's lawyer, Steve Wagner, said the case has struck a chord with people and he expects to see more of them end up in court. "It goes well beyond just trash talking.

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/CanadaWorld/2009/08/26/10613866-sun.html

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So... on one hand I guess we have stuff like harassment, defamation of character... and on the other a violation of privacy, and free speech and all that jazz.

Now, I don't really trash talk people on my blog. I don't like the majority of celebrities. It could just be I'm not a fan of whatever movie they've been in or whatever, but I normally can't be bothered enough to go through the effort of really trash talking. And thinking now, I don't even think I can trash talk most of them. Aside from calling some of them idiots, most of the stuff I would say would be that I don't like them, their movies/singing sucks, etc. A lot of stuff about them though is media hype (for the most part) which also makes me not get overly excited. I have sooo many better things to do. And so do most of my blogging friends. But well, just in case, I posted this.

I'm also highly amused to see the celebrity fight back. I'm also semi interested to see if the blogger wins against Google... though I have my doubts.

2 For 1 Posting 'Cause I Missed A Day

I know, I'm bad. Broke my goal, but oh well. Today I shall post two things. First one I'll talk a little about the 100 Mile Challenge and then I'll post a couple recipes (probably not with much to do with the 100 Mile Challenge ahaha)

Anyways, I was browsing the TV one day and came across a show called The 100 Mile Challenge. Curious, I watched it. Now, I caught the last episode, but they're very good about recapping the whole thing. The challenge is only foods grown, produced and sold within 100 miles of your home (this includes coffee, tea, pop, juice, wine/alcohol, possibly even spices etc.) Now, from what I grasped of the show, the hosts pick a town, go there, pitch the challenge and then families can sign up for 50 days, 80 days, or 100 days (although personal challenges by at home viewers can be anywhere from a week to a year etc.) The show then follows the families as they change their eating habits, shares what recipes they create as they go along etc etc.

The families are encouraged to roadtrip etc to find farms, farmers markets etc to find food, as well as to grow and make their own. Now, I know the website will be useless for most of you outside of Canada to use the food finder, but really, get a map, get a compass, use the scale on the map to get 100 miles (approx. 160km) and then put one end on your town, then draw a circle. That's your radius. Look at the town names in that radius, get on Google Maps and type in "farm" and "Farmer's Market." Now the 100 Mile Challenge site also lists retailers, stores etc that sell local produce, but those aren't hard to find. Especially if you ask around about stuff. Also, I don't know about the rest of you, but in my area, that's everything within about a 1.5 to 2 hour drive. I can get almost to Toronto going one way, and into the United States going another with this distance. Luckily for me, I live in a rural area and there's a small farm with a shop just down the road, as well as many others within a 30 minute drive.

The families I saw had good results. It takes a bit of time to get adjusted to the eating habits etc, but in the end a lot of them were enjoying the new eating habits, finding new recipes, growing and making the foods, going on the shopping trips, finding what they could substitute for things not produced in the area (ex. using honey instead of sugar) etc. Most of all I think they were enjoying finding that they were saving money, and also losing weight. I'm personally very tempted to talk to my parents and see if they want to do the challenge. Of course in this part of Canada, our growing season is May-October depending on the weather, so it gets a bit harder to find certain things once the growing season is done. I noticed too that once the challenge was over a lot of people's habits that they picked up again weren't HUGE changes back to their complete old ways, it was more like adding in things like coffee, orange juice, wine/alcohol not made in the area, and pop. Out of the 3 groups I recall that did it, only ONE really had a problem with the changes.

Anyways, even if you're not in Canada, check out the website - they share recipes, meal plans etc, and you can watch episodes of the show online. You can also sign up and share your own stuff if you take the challenge etc.

And now, Part 2 of the post - I shall share a couple recipes with you. One is BBQ and the other is baked in the oven. Now, they may seem like they take forever, but I kid you not they come from a book of quick/easy meals. The longest time involved with these is marinating, and/or cooking. Which is technically free time to do other things as well. So here we go! Notes in ( ) are from me about what we found when doing them.

Tangy Chicken Potato Bake
Feeds 4

1/2 Cup Italian Dressing (we used Zesty Italian, it's yummy)
1/4 Cup Honey Dijon Mustard
2 Tbsp Fresh Copped Basil (or 1 1/2 tsp dried)
4 Boneless Skinless chicken breasts
4 Medium Unpeeled Potatoes cut into small cubes
Sprinkle of Salt
Sprinkle of Pepper

Combine first three ingredients in small bowl. Reserve half the dressing mixture in small cup.

Put chicken into large resealable freezer bag. Add remaining dressing mixture, seal bag. Turn chicken in bag until coated. Let sit in refridgerator for 2 hours. Drain (Letting it marinate is important! Mom skipped this step and the chicken didn't have much flavour in it. We also didn't drain the excess away, we just left it in the pan to flavour the potatoes.)

Put potatoes into a bowl and add reserved dressing, salt and pepper. Toss until coated. Arrange chicken in the middle of a 9x13 greased pan and arrange the potatoes around the chicken. Cover with foil and cook at 375*F for about 45 minutes, until chicken is no longer pink inside and potatoes are tender. (This recipe is tangy, but definitely not a HOT tangy, but it might have been different if we'd let it marinate longer, but I can't see it being much hotter. It's also a one dish dinner for the most part.)

And recipe #2....
Grilled Pork and Mango Salad
Serves 4

1lb Pork Tenderloin, trimmed of fat
1 tsp Chili Powder
1/4 Cup Hickory BBQ Sauce
8 cups Romaine lettuce, cut or torn
14oz Can of sliced mango in syrup, drained and chop (or use fresh. We bought the Europe's Best frozen stuff, but you can also use fresh mango)
1 cup thinly sliced red pepper

Sweet and Spicy Dressing
1/2 Cup Italian (or ranch) dressing
2 tbsp Lime (or orange) juice
2tbsp Liquid honey
1/2 tsp Chili Powder

Sprinkle all sides of tenderloin with chili powder. Preheat gas BBQ to medium. Place tenderloin on 1 side of greased grill. Turn off the burner under the tenderloin, leaving the opposite burner on medium. Close lid, cook for 25 minutes, turning occassionally. (It takes longer than this, so keep an eye on it and keep cooking until it's done. I think we find it takes about an hour, or so. Nowhere near what the cookbook says.)

Brush tenderloin with BBQ sauce. Cook for another 4 to 5 minutes until meat thermometer inserted into thickest part of tenderloin reads 155*F. Remove to cutting board, cover with foil. Let stand for 10 minutes then cut into 12 slices.

Layer next three ingredients on plates and put pork on top.

For the dressing, combine all ingredients in a small bowl and drizzle over top. Makes about 3/4 of a cup of dressing. (We make the pork tenderloin without the specific salad all the time. Or have a different salad on the side. Mainly because we always forget the peppers and mango hahaha. It's still very yummy. It's also not a HOT spicey.)

Tornadoes Are Serious Business. I Don't Care How "Baby" They Are

I was going to post earlier today, but most of my day was spent checking the Weather Network for satellite and radar maps, and watching out the windows for signs of nasty weather that would involve me needing to take cover in the basement. I was going to post about the 100 Mile Challenge, but that can wait until the next post. I shall post, obviously about the weather. I wasn't going to, but well, it's on my mind right now, so I shall. Ontario is on the northern tip of Tornado Alley. A lot of people will disagree because, well, obviously, Canada, as the Great White North is not far enough south to be in Tornado Alley! Either that or obviously since we have snow all year round! *sarcasm* that we can't possibly have them. On the contrary, what a lot of people neglect to notice is that Ontario dips down into the state of Michigan, which makes some Canadian cities farther south than some U.S. cities. Of course after reading Wikipedia I find Tornado Alley laughable since pretty much everywhere can have tornadoes, it's just a case of how rare they are, and apparently how severe they are. So first off, we'll look at what a tornado is. Via this Wikipedia link for the most part. The Glossary of Meteorology defines a tornado as "a violently rotating column of air, in contact with the ground, either pendant from cumuliform cloud or underneath a cumuliform cloud, and often (but not always) visible as a funnel cloud..." So, there you go. It's a funnel of air. They cause destruction, and death. Death is the main reason I am making this post. Hmmm am I sensing a theme in this blog? Wow, maybe I discovered another of my issues! That was actually discovered long ago...! Moving on! Ontario has been experiencing more tornadoes in the past few years. I can't recall anything beyond warnings before a couple years ago. I had one, and only one tornado drill in elementary school, and even that was near the end of that, so probably 7 or 8 years ago? And even then it was like "Yeah, when you hear this siren, crawl under the benches in the hall, hold on, and cover your heads." Anyways, last year I think we had a couple tornadoes, both within 15, 20 minutes of my house. Upon showing these to a friend who grew up in Ohio, there was scoffing and "They're just babies! F1s or F2s at best, try looking at an F5." I will admit behind his back there was a lot of "Fuck you, man, fuck you!" directed at him from me. I don't like tornadoes. I don't like them a lot. I also don't like having my fears scoffed at. Mainly because if I'm going to be afraid, there's a DAMN good reason. We never really had confirmed tornadoes - sure there was ALMOST enough damage, but never quite enough. Until recently. I think it started coming more with digital cameras and people being able to record them. Sure we only get little ones, but they still kill people.

Today's weather spanned across a large portion of the province (and we're a rather large one) and spawned about 4 tornadoes I believe. One person was killed. Oh hell, I'll say it now. That person was a child. Now, at my house, they were predicting all kinds of nasty shit, but we got a one minute downpour, then nothing, then downpour that tapered off into rain showers. A bit of thunder, the whole thing only lasted maybe 45 minutes at most, and nothing horribly nasty. The rest of the day was a bright grey day that melted into sunshine by the late afternoon. This season Ontario has had about 6 or 7 tornadoes I believe, 2 of which have been deadly. The first fatal one, ironically, claimed 3 lives, all men from the U.S., and all from a state that is more prone to nasty tornadoes. I admit, I did laugh at that one... but it was a sad, ironic laugh. I wondered though, if we would be getting weather like this today, as there was a similar number of twisters in states just across the lake, and the damage there was something to see on the news... Seriously, a fence - probably about 6 or 7 feet high, made of 10" wide planks - was knocked over, followed by a transport truck's trailer that was being used for storage was also blown over. The on scene news reporter then picked up a piece of the debris that had been flying through the air earlier. It was a broken plank from the fence - about 3-4 feet in length and it was snapped so cleanly to a point at one end it looked like someone had cut it into a shape resembling my best impression of it on the keyboard... /| A state trooper also reported being on the Interstate and seeing two people on motorcycles get sucked off their bikes (no funnel cloud visible that I remember hearing him talk about) and getting thrown off the road.

So yeah... I don't like tornadoes. Hopefully this is it for the year *bangs on wood* And I shall stop quoting the storm speech from Shakespeare's King Lear, even though I*DID* amend it to say no tornadoes... I do wonder how much of this is also being caused by the hurricane moving along the coast. And yes, that DOES affect us over here in the "inland" portion. The U.S. isn't big enough to stop it lol. Remember everyone, Canada is bigger than the U.S. and we're on top. If this was prison the U.S. would be our bitch. And moving on... the weather forecast for the next while looks nice... a few thunderstorms on Saturday, but oh well... less than 50% chance of precipitation, so I think we're good. One thing I'd also like to clear up is the humidity and pressure changes. My bum ankle is swollen painfully :-( I'd say it almost feels worse than when it's actually sprained or twisted. Except I can actually walk on this... where as the others... not so much. Hahahaha. Anyways, tomorrow's post will either be on the 100 Mile Challenge, or some knitting! YAY! Knitting! That's what I've been doing recently when it's not horribly hot and muggy. But that's another post hehe. And now I shall leave you with a photo taken by one of my friends' family (I'm not sure which member of Diane's family took it) of one of the tornadoes in our area last summer. This one damaged some land and did minimal damage to some barns, but no one was injured.

UPDATE: It took a day, but here is a link to where you can see videos and some pictures of the tornadoes from yesterday. They were confirmed as F2 category tornadoes. The one in the photo above is probably an F0 or F1 at most. The name of the 11 year old boy killed has not been released due to the family's request, but I hope he rests in peace and that the family makes it through this tough time.

"Threads of Freedom" Quilt Exhibit in Lucan, ON

So this week (or rather the rest of this week and part of next week) I am going to try and update daily with SOMETHING. I've had quite a few urges to write stuff, but the poetic stuff slips away quickly, and paper is not condusive to my writing. I get about half a sentence and then I lose whatever was in my head. Apparently lines are just really distracting perhaps?

SO, today's post is about the little excursion my mom and I took up to Lucan to visit The Lucan Area Heritage and Donnelly Museum. It's been there for a few years, and it's rather tiny (as are most of the small town museums around here. Ontario is filled largely of small towns, most of which are touristy and they're either open only in the summer, or only in the winter depending on what they do. Very few have much open all year round.) They expanded last year(?) I think, and now own another building which they use to house exhibits and they have the replica Donnelly cabin and barn. The reason we went was not to see the Donnelly cabin and barn though. We went to see the quilt exhibit - “Threads of Freedom: Quilts and the Underground Railroad – Fact or Fiction?”

First off, I want to say the exhibit was very interesting, and I do reccomend people interested in quilts go. Admission is by donation only, so it really doesn't need to break the bank. Of course now that I say that I remember most of the people that read this don't live in the same country... hahaha oops. Well, if you ever visit, the quilts that were involved with slaves will still be in the province at another museum... Now you're probably wondering what I was getting at so here we go. The exhibit is titled "Threads fo Freedom: Quilts and the Underground Railroad - Fact or Fiction?" and the description on the website is "This exhibit explores quilts as art forms, functional art, as history and their significance to the Underground Railroad." These would probably go together better if I'd read all the little fact file question things on the walls, but I was rather distracted by the amazing quilts and taking pictures of them. A lot of the info prominently displayed without having to lift the little file thing was mainly about how fabric was made back in the 1700 and 1800s. I did find it odd however that they only verbally told you which quilts would have been used to give messages to slaves, and had nothing obviously visible beside quilts (that wasn't a lifty file fact thing.) The reason I was surprised was because then I think you end up with what we saw while we were looking - two women and a young boy come in, put their donation in the bin, hear the little blurb about the 5 quilts associated with slaves, do a quick turn around, then headed out the back door to look at the cabin. And they weren't in the cabin when we left, so I hope they didn't consider it a waste of their time.

Second thing I want to say, and this will be shorter, is a small blurb about the Donnellys. Mainly I'll give you a link and you can explore them on your own, this post isn't about them. The Donnellys were a family from Ireland that were murdered on Feb 4th, 1880. 5 of 7 were killed. It was vicious and nasty and no one was ever convicted of the crime even though pretty much everyone knew who did it. Links are HERE and Wiki link HERE.

When I first heard about this exhibit I wondered what Lucan had to do with the Underground Railroad (for those who don't know what the Underground Railroad is, look HERE) because looking at the demographics of the local area it was all very much Irish, Scottish, English, and some Dutch. There were almost no other ethnicities. This is changing though (which I think is good as the high school I went to was NOT very tolerant of anything considered different.) I knew the Chatham area was involved in it - but then they openly advertise Uncle Tom's Cabin and they're closer to the border with the U.S.. After some looking, I learned that Lucan was originally called Wilberforce and had been originally settled by freed slaves from the United States in 1830. Mainly of the freeds slaves left though.) The exhibit shows a couple quilts given to Rev. William King by former slaves, 3 quilts whose patterns would have been used to signal, and a large number of quilts from the mid 1800s to present day. Now, since showing all the photos would be horribly long, I shall link part of the descriptsions to photos I took.

The first couple blankets were woven in the area back in the 1800s and were for sale. I almost had a heartattack learning they were only asking $175 for them. So, I will mostly focus on the quilts connected to slaves, even though the others were gorgeous. The two quilts made by slaves were exquisite. A lot of the female slaves learned how to quilt so they could avoid being out picking cotton. One thing I really liked about the first quilt made by a former slave was the designs quilted into them. Pineapples, lemon designs and flowers...or something. The quilt was handmade circa 1850. It was given to Rev. William King (1812-1895), founder of the Elgin Settlement for Black refugees near Chatham, ON. The quilt is on loan to the Lucan museum from the Buxton National Historic Site & Museum. I'm not sure what the block pattern is. The second quilt was a stunning log cabin quilt was made of silks and velvets - something I really haven't seen before. It was also given to Rev. William King and was made by former slaves, circa 1865-95, and is also on loan from the Buxton National Historic Site & Museum.

The next three quilts I will talk about are the code quilts. Now, there is speculation about the validity of the claims of the fact quilts were used as code - mainly because there are no written records. Of course, when you think about it, why would you keep written records of it? That would have been like people hiding Jews keeping records and having the Nazis find them. Some of you may be shocked that I make that association, or laugh at it, but it's rather true considering even in free states you could be punished for helping slaves etc. They also argue this isn't overly likely because part of these patterns did not exist in those times. Anyways, the first of these quilts that I will talk about is the bowtie pattern. The bowtie quilt was used to tell escaped slaves that they were welcome at this house and that they should/would be able to clean themselves up.


The next quilt is the Flying Geese pattern. This quilt was hung out to show slaves which way to go.The last quilt dealing with slaves was the Drunken Sailor, and this quilt was used to tell slaves they would have a hard journey ahead of them.The next special purpose quilts I'll talk about are the signature quilts. These are usually used for fundraising - you pay a fee and then they quilt your signature onto the quilt. The quilts I think were either then kept by the organization that made them to raise money, or they were possibly raffled off (though I can't see this being done in modern days with all the fraud and what not lol.) The Lucan museum had 4 signature quilts dating from a Red Cross quilt in 1918, most likely to raise money for the war, to newer quilts.HERE is the red cross quilt and one of the others. My mom had fun looking at all the embroidery on this bottom quilt and going "The points don't line up." (We're perfectionists. My mother once ripped out quilt blocks over and over and over until she was VERY angry just to get the points to match up.) The points, by the way, line up from a distance, but they're noticably off when you get closer. The other special quilt I was going to talk about was a Canadian Centennial quilt. This one is special because the coat of arms for each province is not pieced together like a quilt block. This prompted my mother to ask questions. Can you order them like that? Are they iron ons? Did they cut the coat of arms off of flags? Are they painted on like the other quilt on the other side of the room? The answer from both museum ladies was a polite "I don't really know..." So, closer inspection was needed. Getting under the area the quilt was hanging over I looked at it and I noticed little shade lines. The entire thing has been drawn/traced BY HAND and coloured with some sort of marker.

So, if anyone local reads this and wants to go - I suggest you do. Admission, once again, is by donation only and the donation gets you the quilt exhibit and the replica cabin and barn. The museum is located at 171 Main Street Lucan, and it has big letters on it that say what it is, and it's the last building in a stretch before a little grassy area and a parking lot. There are lots of nice quilts, they covered the balcony railings with quilts to make the area more appealing and the designs range from fans to stars to tumbling blocks to 9 patches, and many others.