From my children's book cabinet - Krabat

My sister got "Krabat" for Christmas when I was 6. I couldn't tell you anymore when I first read it and unfortunately I also can't recall my first reaction to it. It can't have put me off because I have re-read it a lot since then.
Why it should me put off, you ask?
Let's talk about "Krabat".

The German book "Krabat" was written by Otfried Preußler and first published in 1971. 
It got several awards and has been translated into 39 languages. English translations had different titles such as "The Satanic Mill", "The Curse of the Darkling Mill", "Krabat: Legend of the Satanic Mill", and "Krabat and the Sorcerer's Mill". I have no idea, though, how popular it actually is and how many of you know it.
Note: You may have heard about the 2008 movie, maybe even seen it, but I'm not going to cover that at all because I didn't like it.
I am going to list some sources for further reading at the end of the post, though, if you are interested in more details on the book, but also the author's biography which is interesting in that context. As I want to talk about several things connected with the book, the post would get too long if I delved into them too deeply.

The book is set during the Great Northern War in the early 18th century.
Krabat and two other Wendish beggar boys go from village to village together to sing as The Three Kings for food when Krabat is being called to the mill in Schwarzkollm in three dreams.
He follows the call to the mill by the Black Water in the Kosel fen where the mysterious one-eyed Master offers him to makes him his apprentice and to teach him how to grind grain, but "the rest as well". Krabat accepts without knowing that the mill is also a "Black School" and "the rest" is magic. There's hard work, yes, but there's also enough food which is tempting enough for an orphan in these hard times.

Krabat and his eleven classmates work in the mill, but once a week they turn into ravens and the Master teaches them black magic.
While magic makes their life easier in some ways, however, it also presents the danger of being the one who dies on New Year's Eve for being a threat to the Master. The Master himself only has to answer to the Goodman who visits the mill in every new moon night bringing in sacks with gruesome content to be ground.
So after losing two of his friends, Krabat has to decide in his third year at the mill what he wants from life, especially after falling in love with a girl from the village close by. She's the one who can help him escape the mill and put an end to the Master's reign, even if it means that the journeymen will lose their magic powers. If she fails, though, it will mean death for both Krabat and her.

Now you may understand why I wondered about when I first read this and about not being put off by it.
"Krabat" is not a fun book about sorcerers and magic. Parts of it are very dark and scary, it's about power and abusing it or being manipulated by it into staying silent or betraying others hoping you won't be the one falling victim to it. It's about being clever and about friendship, trust, hope, and love.
While written for young readers, it's not boring for grown-ups who will find a lot more in it than just an adventure story.

Originally, Krabat is the hero of a Sorbian folk tale in which he was portrayed as a sorcerer using his power mostly for good.
Sorbs are a West Slavic ethnic group living in Lusatia in Eastern Germany and are recognized as a national minority.
There is also a real Krabat, though - the Croat Johann Schadowitz who fought for John George II, Elector of Saxony and was rewarded with an estate in Särchen where he did a lot for the poor and therefore uneducated Sorbian population which gained him a reputation as a sorcerer.

Preußler wasn't the only one to be inspired by the legends around Krabat.
In 1954, Měrćin Nowak-Njechorński based his Sorbian novel "Mišter Krabat" on them (one of the inspirations for Preußler, but set after the Thirty Years' War) and mixed them with legends about another Sorbian figure, Martin Pumphut (which appears in two chapters of Preußler's book as Pumphutt), who used his magic powers to help fellow mill workers. The book was translated into German by Jurij Brězan who wrote three novels about Krabat himself between 1968 and 1993.
Are you confused yet?
How about we have a look at some movies then?

Brězan's first book "Die schwarze Mühle" (The Black Mill) is his version of the original Krabat legend and it inspired a movie with the same title made in 1975 by the Eastern German DEFA whose fairy tale movies are still shown on TV here.
This version is different from Preußler's in some regards, the most important being that the Master turns people into animals if they don't do his bidding and that it's not the love of a girl, but of a mother that finally destroys the Master's reign.

There's also an animated movie based on Preußler's book, though.
In 1977, Czech film director and animator Karel Zeman made "Čarodějův učeň" (The Sorcerer's Apprentice) which a family member of mine says is still super creepy to him. It sure has a great atmosphere.

I can really recommend the movies, but doubt there's a big chance for you to find them anywhere (they are on YouTube, but not in English).
Preußler's book, however, is easier to find in English - I even found it on OverDrive myself - and is absolutely worth a read. Or two. Or three.


Further reading:

1. Emma Garman: Otfried Preussler's "Krabat and the Sorcerer's Mill". On: Words Without Borders, November 1, 2014
2. Erin Horáková: Krabat by Otfried Preussler. On: Strange Horizons, May 21, 2012
3. Caroline Roeder: Mediales Mühlengeklapper - die Otfried-Preußler-Debatte 2023 f. On: Pädagogische Hochschule Ludwigsburg (in German)
4. Website "Auf den Spuren des Krabat" (in German)
5. Die Sagenfigur Krabat. On: Schwarzkollm.de (in German)
6. Krabat on English Wikipedia

My January books

2026 began the same way as 2025 ended - with more books!
This is an overview of the books I have finished in a month (not necessarily started in the same month) and those I have read to the cats (marked with 😸).
I will be adding a short explanation why I chose a book or how I found it and possibly if it's a re-read candidate, but I'm usually not going to add real reviews or ratings (the cats also refuse to give ratings 😉). Should you want a little more information on a book you're interested in, though, just let me know.
You may notice that I don't number the list anymore. There's a reason for that which I will go into in a future post.


"Buster Keaton Remembered" by Eleanor Keaton and Jeffrey Vance, first published in 2001

Written by Keaton's wife of 26 years, Eleanor, and film historian Jeffrey Vance, the book chronicles Buster Keaton's life and career film by film, supported by a lot of pictures.

This is of course part of my personal silent film project.

"Grey Mask" by Patricia Wentworth, first published in 1928
(Miss Silver 1)

When Charles Moray returns to London four years after his fiancée has broken off their engagement not long before the wedding, he gets drawn into a plot concerning a drowned millionaire, his heiress - and his ex-fiancée.

More ear ringing for Liz on whose blog I came across Wentworth whose Miss Silver series fit right in with my vintage crime reading.

"Murder at the Bookstore" by Sue Minix, first published in 2023
(The Bookstore Mystery series 1)

Crime writer Jen Dawson is working on her second book when her friend Aletha from the bookstore is getting killed.
Jen turns amateur sleuth.

I found the newest available volume of the series on OverDrive, but started with the first one.
Does my plot description sound annoyed? The reason is I was. I didn't want to DNF another one right away and pushed through, but then promptly deleted the following books from my wishlist.

"The Three Investigators in The Mystery of the Talking Skull" by Robert Arthur (the books were published attributed to Alfred Hitchcock), first published in 1969 😸
(The Three Investigators 11)

At an auction for abandoned luggage, Jupiter buys the old trunk of a magician. There are more people interested in that trunk, though. What is the mystery behind that and behind "Socrates", the talking skull, they found inside it?

I read this series a long time ago and am going through it again bit by bit after writing a blog post about it. This book is the eleventh in the series.

"How to Read a Book" by Monica Wood, first published in 2024

Violet is in prison for driving drunk and causing a fatal car crash.
Harriet is a widowed and retired teacher volunteering at the prison book club.
Frank is a retired machinist whose wife was killed in the crash.
After Violet gets out of prison and the three have an encounter at a bookstore, their lives start to become intertwined.

Another random OverDrive find. It started alright, but I thought the last third went a little overboard.

"The Picture House Murders" by Fiona Veitch Smith, first published in 2023
(A Miss Clara Vale Mystery 1)

The year is 1929. Oxford trained scientist turned librarian Clara Vale is notified that her uncle Bob has died and left everything to her, his money, his house with laboratory - and his dectective agency!
Trying to find out what to do with her inheritance, Clara takes up one of Bob's open cases, a fire in a local picture house.

I found this one as a new entry on OverDrive, it's a pity that it's the only one of the series there so far as I really enjoyed it.

"Tod im Äther" = "The Collected Short Fiction of Ngaio Marsh" by Ngaio Marsh, first published in 1989

This is a collection of short stories by Marsh some of which feature Roderick Alleyn. There's also a telescript for an episode of "Crown Court" (which you can find here if you want to see Joan Hickson as the defendant). It closes with two introductions to the creation of Alleyn and his wife Troy.

This is still part of my vintage crime project for which I keep getting books by Marsh and Allingham.
I would say short stories were not Marsh's strong suit, but there aren't many of them, anyway.

"Making Time: Lillian Moller Gilbreth - A Life Beyond "Cheaper by the Dozen" by Jane Lancaster, first published in 2004

Lillian Moller Gilbreth (1878 - 1972) was a US-American psychologist, industrial engineer, consultant, and educator.
She received a Ph.D. as one of the first female engineers and worked in her field through almost all of her life, until his death in 1924 closely together with her husband Frank Bunker Gilbreth.
You may have heard about her if you read "Cheaper by the Dozen" and "Belles on Their Toes", written by two of her thirteen children, Frank Jr. and Ernestine. They are humorous descriptions of life in the large family of two engineers whose work in scientific management also found application in the organization of their home.

A while ago, YouTube recommended the two movies made after the books to me. I have read the books more than once, especially as a kid, I also knew the movies, but the recommendation made me look for more actual information about Lillian Gilbreth and I happened to find this exhaustive biography - and by exhaustive I mean almost 400 pages packed full of information about an amazing woman. Sometimes a bit too much information as I can't be expected to remember every organization Gilbreth was a member of or all those many, many lectures she held, but hey, it obviously was interesting enough to keep me going until the end although the second part in particular wasn't always an easy read.

"Secret Lives" by E. F. Benson, first published in 1932 😸

A new addition to the residents of Durham Square leads to a battle for social supremacy between Mrs Mantrip whose father had turned the Square into a respectable neighborhood and Miss Leg, the newcomer. Little do they know that they both have a secret that connects them.

I looked up a book which mentioned a book which led to a recommendation of Benson's "Mapp and Lucia" novels (I had watched the series before) which guided me to this book. The ways of books are strange sometimes.
A most amusing book!

"Tied Up in Tinsel" by Ngaio Marsh, first published in 1972
(Roderick Alleyn 27)

While Alleyn is in Australia, his wife Troy has been invited for Christmas by Hilary Bill-Tasman to paint his portrait.
The eccentric Hilary is restoring his ancestral home and all of his staff have served sentences for murder.
Other guests are his uncle and aunt, his mentor, and his fiancée.
When his uncle's manservant disappears after the Christmas celebrations, it's lucky that Alleyn has just returned from Australia.

This is still part of my vintage crime project for which I keep getting books by Marsh and Allingham.

"The Vampyre : a tale" by John William Polidori, first published in 1819 😸

Rich, young, orphaned Aubrey comes to London where he meets Lord Ruthven by whom he's both fascinated and repelled. They travel to the European continent together where Aubrey learns about vampyres, a folk tale he dismisses until a gruesome incident resulting in a young girl's death.
After Lord Ruthven gets shot by robbers, his body disappears mysteriously.
When returning to London, however, Aubrey meets Lord Ruthven again - and he shows interest in Aubrey's sister.

Polidori's "The Vampyre" is often regarded as the first story featuring a "modern" vampire.
It was inspired by a novel fragment of Lord Byron (whose physician he was and to whom it was attributed at first before Byron and Polidori set it right) and is a result of the famous ghost story telling contest which also led to Mary Shelley's writing of "Frankenstein".
As a short story, this is a quick read if you are interested in the beginnings of the genre. Definitely quicker than "Varney the Vampire or The Feast of Blood" (published in 1845 - 1847 as penny dreadfuls) which introduced many of the tropes like the fang-like teeth or the hypnotic powers. Varney has almost 900 pages! Dracula only turned up in 1897, by the way.
The copy I read, which was acquired in 1819 according to a note on the front page, had a few notes in the text. I couldn't read all of them completely, but two of them said "Perfectly horrid!!" which I found really interesting.

"Krabat" by Otfried Preußer, first published in 1971

Set in the times of the Great Northern War (1700 - 1721), the book tells the story of Krabat, a young orphan, who starts as an apprentice at a mysterious mill in Lusatia.

A re-read for a blog post. I can't even say how often I have read this book since my childhood. Absolutely a favorite.

"Maisie Dobbs" by Jacqueline Winspear, first published in 2003
(Maisie Dobbs 1)

The year is 1929 (yes, again, but Maisie Dobbs and Clara Vale are quite different). Maisie Dobbs, psychologist and investigator, has to find out if a woman is cheating on her husband, but discovers a greater secret that takes her mind back to her own past.

Another random OverDrive find. I'm torn. It was a smooth read, but a few things were a little too smooth and perfect, like Maisie's backstory.
My library only has two other of the series of 18 books, #16 and #18, and I don't think it makes much sense to read those without knowing Maisie's development between 1929 and 1945.

"Carmilla" by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, first published (in serialized form) in 1871 😸

Young Laura leads a solitary life with her father in an Austrian castle.
When a carriage accident happens near the castle, they get an unexpected guest, the beautiful and enchanting Carmilla. A strange friendship evolves, but then Laura gets haunted by dreams and gets weaker every day.

Le Fanu's Carmilla is one of literature's earliest female vampires. The novella is 26 years older than Stoker's "Dracula" and has more layers than just being a vampire story (I'll just say women).
I had read it ages ago and didn't remember anything, so it was time for a re-read. Definitely a recommendation from me.
Gundel didn't like Polidori's Lord Ruthven much, but after hearing that Carmilla could turn into a black panther-like cat, she said maybe she'd make a good vampire herself after all.

"Tension" by E. M. Delafield, first published in 1920

When Lady Rossiter, the wife of private college director Sir Julian, learns that the new Lady Superintendent, Pauline Marchrose, is the woman who had broken off the engagement with her cousin, she does everything to have her removed.
A budding romance between Marchrose and Sir Julian's agent Mark Easter, whose wife is in an institution, is the perfect basis for a campaign against her, and tension rises.

Liz from Adventures in Reading, Running, and Working from Home has introduced me to the "British Library Women Writers" series (I found she has already reviewed this book here). I had a look which of the novels I could find rather easily, this was one of them.


DNF:

"A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping" by Sangu Mandanna, first published in 2025

A young, talented, and powerful witch resurrects her great-aunt from the dead and loses almost all of her power, so she runs her aunt's enchanted inn after being banished from the guild.
Then she finds out about a spell that may be able to restore her power.

I'm starting to think that most "cozy literature" isn't really for me. I read about 15% of the book and then found I didn't feel much like wanting to pick it up again. I did anyway, but was still bored after a few more pages. As there was a waitlist of four or five people, I thought the nice thing to do would be to give up there and then.

Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot - Week 141

Welcome to the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot!
My posts for the link up will go live on Thursdays at 9:30 p.m. EDT or, if you live in the future like I do, on Fridays at 3:30 a.m. CE(S)T.

Last week I re-read one of my children's books for an upcoming blog post.
One day, the hero goes to a kermesse and one of his friends asks him to bring back "Streuselkuchen" (crumb cake) and "Kolatschen" (kolaches).
My brain jumped on that right away and let me know that it would not be averse to having either. Too bad that the bakery near me has neither, but at least I quickly ran down memory lane. The first time I consciously had "Streuselkuchen" (although I'm sure I had already had it at home) was in elementary school. In the "big break" a baker came to the school to sell rolls, pretzels, etc., but also what we call "sweet pieces" (sweet pastries), and once I had enough money to buy a "Streusel" as we called it for short. Such a special treat at the time.
The other memory was from when I was a library trainee and had a month of internship at the local government's archives. On the way there was a baker's hut in the pedestrian zone and they had "Kolatschen" with prune jam. They were so good! Every morning I hurried to get myself one for the day. I haven't seen kolaches in ages, such a pity!
Do you have a memory regarding a special cake or "sweet piece"?

By Chmee2 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0

So, are you ready for the weekend? How about baking some kolaches and sending me a few? 😉

As part of the reboot, we will be featuring a different blog every week.
How about stopping by and saying hello? Let them know we sent you.

This week our spotlight is on HoneyBears & SydneyBeans.

Kristin from HoneyBears & SydneyBeans says "I'm Kristin! I am a Mom to a 15 year old, HoneyBear & a 11 year old, SydneyBean. I am married to a supportive & amazing man who love me despite my crazy gene! ... I am learning to live without my Mom, who passed in 2013 and the ups and downs of being pretty newly diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. I love cooking, reading, crafts, and things beautiful. I am an ally to the LGBTQ+ community and I go by she/her pronouns. I enjoy politics, music, pop culture and sports. As a family we love to explore, adventure and learn about what we can do to love and care for our community!"

Marsha from Marsha in the Middle started blogging in 2021 as an exercise in increasing her neuroplasticity. Oh, who are we kidding? Marsha started blogging because she loves clothes, and she loves to talk or, in this case, write!

Melynda from Scratch Made Food! & DIY Homemade Household - The name says it all, we homestead in East Texas, with three generations sharing this land. I cook and bake from scratch, between gardening and running after the chickens, and knitting!

Lisa from Boondock Ramblings shares about the fiction she writes and reads, her faith, homeschooling, photography and more.

Cat from Cat's Wire has what she calls a jumping spider brain. She has many interests and will blog about whatever catches her attention - crafts, books, old movies, collectibles or random things.

Rena from Fine Whatever Blog writes about style, midlife, and the "fine whatever" moments that make life both meaningful and fun. Since 2015, she's been celebrating creativity, confidence, and finding joy in the everyday.


Here are some of my picks from last week's link up.

I could really eat one or two of Donna's Valentine's Day cookies now, they look yummy.

Lisa is celebrating the "Thin Man" classic movie series kicking it off with this post about the first movie with William Powell, Myrna Loy, and of course "Asta" the dog.

Barbara's ostkaka looks very tempting, I'll have to keep that one in mind.

Erin tells us about wintering and kittens! KITTENS!


Let's link up!

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Silent movies - The Rat's Knuckles

After last week I really needed something short and of course it made sense to choose a film with Martha Sleeper in it after my post about her.
It's "The Rat's Knuckles" from 1925 with Charley Chase.

The plot (spoiler alert).

Jimmy Jump has invented the perfect humane mouse trap.
When he visits his girlfriend "Flirty" McFickle - who doesn't have that nickname for nothing -

"Do you mean to say I flirt with customers?"

at the soda fountain to paint a picture of the millions they'll have and how famous they'll be thanks to his invention, a mouse runs across the floor. Jimmy fetches his trap, but by the time he's back, the mouse is already gone.

Professor James Jump of "Ratus Trapus" fame.

Gotta show whom they owe all that new money to!

"There's the Prince -"
"-- Morning, Ed -- "
To Flirty "-- He's a great man, too."

So he visits an invention financier instead who's so annoyed that he almost shoots at Jimmy, but then chooses to leave him sitting there while he goes off to lunch. When Jimmy picks Flirty up from work and has to tell her he hasn't sold his invention, she goes off with a customer she has flirted with before.
Jimmy goes to the docks to put an end to it all, but gets held back by a big financier who happens to come by and asks him to tell him about his trap.

It turns out that the trap is a jack-in-the-box jumping up when the mouse touches the cheese which "doesn't kill the little mouse, but it makes him so ashamed he never comes back".

Ingenious! 🤪

Too bad. The financier lifts his cane and off into the water Jimmy goes!

"The Rat's Knuckles" is one of eight shorts from the Jimmy Jump series.
Jimmy Jump is the little man who can't get a break.
I watched the film here on YouTube. The channel owner calls himself a "completist freak" meaning he put this together from three different sources! The scenes he added again are how Jimmy "helps" two workmen unloading a piano - right into a open chute - and the car scene when they greet the Prince of Wales.

My favorite scene was of course the fantasy of a grand life revolving completely around the rat, with big sculptures, a rat as a pommel for Jimmy's cane, and of course Flirty's beauty spot.
I also liked the trap, though. Shame on you, mouse or rat, shame! Does that work on humans, too? Asking for a friend.

Not earth-shattering, but a funny little short and the perfect palate cleanser after last week 😉
Also, Martha Sleeper is just so cute! 

Sometimes you have to make a cut

The labradorite stones that I had or have are usually blue, grey and green, but labradorite can have so many more colors with the rarest being purple.
Months ago, I went through my cab drawer and noticed that one of my carved cabs which looked grey and green actually had a beautiful pinkish shimmer in a certain angle of light. That I haven't been able to catch well (yet?) in my pictures, but it's there, really.
And I knew just the beads to use with that.

For the bezel I chose my beloved "magic apple" coated seed beads. It will be a very sad day when they are all gone, I even love just looking at them in the tube. For the connection with the pinkish hue I chose a transparent dark red - another favorite of mine - and some pinkish 15s.

The bezel is the easy part. It's not so easy to decide what should come next, and this time I made the wrong decision.
I was looking forward to doing another freeform focal. I love freeform (and sometimes wonder how much Gary Larson's amoebas - google them if you don't know them - are to blame for that because I always think of them when I do it). I wanted to make it a mix of reds and pinks in different bead sizes, maybe with a touch of gold here and there.
When I do freeform, I like to cut the felt around the cab into shape first and then follow that with the beads. Usually I'm quite happy with that although I may have to trim the edges a bit here and there. In this case, though ... oh my, I hated it after the first three rows, I think, but kept going anyhow.
It's hard to explain my feelings when I continue working on something like that. It's like a drop of hope swimming in a sea of doubt,- there's still a tiny chance I'll manage thanks to a creative miracle - or more often a molecule of hope in a sea of anger (at myself), loss of motivation, and the voice of my muse yelling at me to give it up already.

That's the hard part. Sometimes you need to push on, sometimes you need to make smaller or bigger changes if possible - and sometimes you just have to cut.
The way I had cut the felt meant I wouldn't be able to use it for a regular design, but I liked the bezel and didn't want to do it over. Why should I, though? I just cut along the edges of the bezel and glued it all to a second piece of felt. Duh. Not that difficult, is it? So the cab sat higher than usual now because I like using thicker felt, but that was fine with me.

To hide the extra edge, I used beautiful large dark red/purple beads, then a row of gold for contrast and two rows of edging in a raspberry and the magic apple.

After that I was stuck. I have always had that problem with the drop shape, from the very first labradorite drop I ever used (remember I asked your opinion the other day - well, no answer, so I had to deal with it myself).
Do I want the tip up or do I follow my muse who always wants the tip down? As you can see, Mabel has won.
I added a large beaded peyote tube in the back for the twisted Herringbone rope I had woven in magic apple and dark red/purple. It makes the pendant sit at a slight angle instead of flat.

And if that wasn't enough, I had to give in to my asymmetric side. It had taken so long to develop, but it's here to stay now.
My first plan had been little brown glass flowers which I had used before and love a lot, but alas, I couldn't find them quickly.

I did find these leftover pearls, though, and liked the contrast they add to the pendant. Bold, maybe, but I felt the necklace could use some boldness to make it a bit less classic (and boring).

I cheated a little, by the way. At the moment that I'm writing this, the necklace doesn't have a clasp yet. I don't have a golden lobster clasp that is big enough, but I didn't want to wait taking pictures because I'm so happy this WIP that has been waiting in the workbox for a few months now is almost finished!

Martha Sleeper - From actress to designer

I presented two silent movies with the actress Martha Sleeper here before, "Mum's the Word" and "Sure-Mike!". I liked both of them and I really liked Sleeper (with whom I share the birthday, by the way), so there are more of her films on my list.
In the second post I mentioned her interesting career...s.
I don't know about you, but I'm curious sometimes about what an actress or actor has done after leaving film, and Sleeper's story really surprised me, also as a jewelry artisan.

Sleeper in 1935,
public domain via Wikimedia

Martha Sleeper was born in 1910 (some sources say 1907, but I choose to believe the Lake Bluff History Museum because she was born in Lake Bluff.
Sleeper, who came from a family connected with arts in different ways, started acting in silent movies when she was 13 and was in film until 1936, with one last appearance in "The Bells of St. Mary's" in 1945 as a favor to her former director Leo McCarey.
Unhappy with getting supporting roles as the woman losing her man to the leading lady of the film, she left Hollywood with her husband to go to New York and become a stage actress for many years.
That's also when she turned her hobby of creating jewelry from bakelite, wood, and metal for herself into a lucrative side business.

Ad from "The Birmingham
News", March 26, 1939,
page 43

Martha Sleeper said in an interview with the "Washington Post" in 1941: "In the last war women went wild for exotic hats to add gaiety, but with the present hatless vogue women are now turning to jewelry to give them a lift."

Picture from the article in "Collier's Week"

Her designs were colorful, unusual, and whimsical - matchsticks, bugs and other animals, flowers, masks, fruit, and whatnot - and according to a story published in "Collier's Weekly" in 1938 (which you can find here) 200,000 pieces sold in the first year. A name for them back then was "lapel gadgets" which earned Sleeper the title "Gadget Girl".
Her items are sought after collectibles today and much more expensive than they used to be.

Bracelet and brooch (sold at Doyle Auctions)

If you think the story stops here now, you are wrong.
In 1949, Sleeper and her second husband went on vacation. As part of the cruise, they visited Puerto Rico, fell in love with the island, sold their house over the phone and stayed.
By now, she had enough of designing jewelry, though. So she started her third career as a fashion designer.
She opened a boutique in San Juan - "Martha Sleeper Creates" - where she sold her designs which had been locally produced, dresses, muumuus, blouses, skirts, but also accessories.
Later her designs, which are also collectibles now, were also exported to neighboring islands and the US mainland.

Picture by Jumblelaya Vintage
Clothing Shop

When she retired in 1969, she and her third husband moved to his small plantation outside of Charleston, SC, where she died in 1983.

What a talented and beautiful lady!
I would read her biography in a heartbeat if there was one.
Instead I will have to watch more of her movies (maybe even a talkie 😮) and look round the web for her designs.


Main sources:

1. Deanna Dahlsad: Merry Martha Sleeper Jewelry & Fashions. On: Inherited Values, December 24, 2010
2. Maggie Wilds: Martha Sleeper: Vintage Fashion with Wit & Color. On: Vintage Fashion Guild
3. Jessica Wahl: Miss Martha Sleeper. On: Silence is Platinum, January 5, 2014

Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot - Week 140

Welcome to the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot!
My posts for the link up will go live on Thursdays at 9:30 p.m. EDT or, if you live in the future like I do, on Fridays at 3:30 a.m. CE(S)T.

A while ago, I got a "British parcel". Not from Britain, but with British items I love. Shortbread, jam, tea, and more. It was a surprise gift and really made my day.
Part of it was a pretty tea box with six different flavors (some of my beads can't wait to find a home in it), among them green tea with pomegranate which I tried the other day and liked more than I had expected, so much in fact that I used it up already. I'm going to order some more if I can't find it here in town.
It reminded me of the first time my best friend and I went to our local tea house which had just opened up. We were about 12 or so and the vast selection overwhelmed us completely!
Nowadays I mostly have spearmint tea or Earl Grey, but back then we were determined to try every flavor on that huge card! Of course that never happened.

Picture via pxhere

How about you? Are you ready for the weekend?

As part of the reboot, we will be featuring a different blog every week.
How about stopping by and saying hello? Let them know we sent you.

This week our spotlight is on Jennifer Lambert - A Sacred Balance.

Jennifer from Jennifer Lambert - A Sacred Balance says "I've been blogging since about 2005, when there were free little scrapbooky online journals. Those posts are long gone now. This site began on Blogger and I migrated to WordPress in 2012. ... I'm more balanced now. I blog a few times a week about parenting, homeschooling, recipes, our travels, and sometimes military life. ... Welcome to my online home."

Marsha from Marsha in the Middle started blogging in 2021 as an exercise in increasing her neuroplasticity. Oh, who are we kidding? Marsha started blogging because she loves clothes, and she loves to talk or, in this case, write!

Melynda from Scratch Made Food! & DIY Homemade Household - The name says it all, we homestead in East Texas, with three generations sharing this land. I cook and bake from scratch, between gardening and running after the chickens, and knitting!

Lisa from Boondock Ramblings shares about the fiction she writes and reads, her faith, homeschooling, photography and more.

Cat from Cat's Wire has what she calls a jumping spider brain. She has many interests and will blog about whatever catches her attention - crafts, books, old movies, collectibles or random things.

Rena from Fine Whatever Blog writes about style, midlife, and the "fine whatever" moments that make life both meaningful and fun. Since 2015, she's been celebrating creativity, confidence, and finding joy in the everyday.


Here are some of my picks from last week's link up.


Olivia is a big fan of the Murderbot series by Martha Wells. This is just the review of the latest book she listened to, but there are links to the others in the post. Maybe it's something you'd like, too?

Do you still have snow? Laura and Laurie share some great ideas for snowplay with children.

Need some more book tips? Check out Joanne's list of her 2025 favorites by categories (with links to her full reading lists of the year).

Pam tells us about the best way to milk a cow (but there's more to the post).

Lisa talks about the danger of replacing humans with technology in your life.


Let's link up!

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