Thursday, November 3, 2011

Betsy McCall



I've been following a wonderful new blog, Pass It On. Johanna Knox and her friend Emma Levy say, "We realised we were all bursting to talk about the culinary legacies left by loved ones - and it suddenly seemed like an exciting idea to make a blog where inherited recipes could be passed on and special people remembered through those recipes. It's a tribute page with a difference."
Today's recipe was from Johanna's grandmother, a Canadian, and mention was made of paper dolls - which sent me off on a Google journey into my own childhood.

My maternal grandfather's people came to New Zealand in a somewhat convoluted way: Scotland to Canada, where some stayed and some went back to Scotland, where again some stayed and some came to New Zealand. When I was little my mother corresponded with a Canadian cousin, who periodically sent Mum a pile of McCall's magazines. The big excitement for my sister and me was the paper dolls and clothes that came with each one. And look what I found! Isn't the internet wonderful?


If you go to the site you can even download high quality versions so you can use them - and the great thing about that is you can also download TWO copies so you don't have to fight with your sister ever again!

5 comments:

  1. Oooh, oooh, oooh!! What a find!!!

    You must be so excited.

    Now I feel inspired to scan in some of my old paper doll books and put them up. I wonder what the copyright issues are though ...

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  2. And wow, there are so many ... You could spend a long time at that website!!!

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  3. Yes - it's so much fun :) Who would have thought they'd be there? I don't even know why I looked for it other than I have become seriously addicted to googling :p And fun to discover that Betsy McCall started the year I was born - 1951.

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  4. ha! you ARE betsy!!! i first came across paper dolls when my darling auntie bought me a whole book when i was in hospital once - i think i was about eight. they were brilliant for just sitting in bed and recovering.. i wonder if that's where my addiction to Making Stuff started..? much love, have been so absent from blogland for so long x
    PS word verification = MACtiv. *grin

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  5. It's good to see you back in bloggerland :)

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