Living Like the Past

Today is the First Day of Fall and I am ready for cooler weather. It has been a long hot summer. There is one problem, we are still in the 90's. I am determined to wear my favorite vest very soon so yesterday I freshened it up and it is ready to wear as I am anticipating cool weather will be here soon.I like first day's of things. The first of year, the first day of the month, the first day of Spring and so on. I like the first part of the day or the first part of the evening when it is finally time to sit down for knitting.The first time to learn to embroidery or crochet. When we are born we are an open slate ready to learn. Some have a rocky start i ......

When I was doing the posts windows around the world, Ali from Essex England sent this photo and some outdoor photos. Her kitchen window is charming.I look out her window and wonder what her climate is like. I know my Australia blog visitors are going into spring when we are going into fall. They are wondering if it is ever going to get warm and I am wondering if it will ever cool down.Ali's frog seems to be happy what ever the weather is this day.I do like yard art and this is a vintage art with a sign that was very familiar during ww2 on the home front. People were encouraged to grow all the food they could no matter how little space they had and victory gardens started po ......

I do like to get change back and I am sure you do too. But I like to change things as well.My husband recently made a wider shelf above the sink for the small items that I keep up there for convenience. The small creamer to the left holds garlic bulbs. The creamer to the right is use for pouring water into the vintage steamer for one of the irons.Another change is going back to hand washing our laundry. I can physically make it more clean. There is no artificial fragrance, just the clean smell of hand washed and sun dried laundry.I just grate 1/2 cup real soap, add 1/2 cup washing soda, 1/2 cup borax and put it into a bowl and put a small scoop that holds a tabl ......

Recently we did a study about hand washing clothes verses machine washing and I posted the results in the post called, machine wash verses hand washing.Since we did the washing study I have tried to hand wash more of the clothes because it saves water and electricity. My husband and I discussed how much money we actually can save by reducing our water and electricity by washing clothes by hand. Not figuring in the electricity, just the water and sewer alone. At a per year figure, dividing, subtracting and figuring based on our utility bills and our water study that we did we found that we could save enough to pay for 4 and 1/2 months of internet or 5 months of our hous ......

We have another post for Windows around the world. Part 4These photos were sent in by Mirjam from Bloemendaal , The Netherlands.This is a part of the living room. Like Ina already mentioned (part two): normally during daytime we have the curtains open in Holland. But in the summer we have the afternoon sun and then we close the curtains (a bit). And also in the evenings.These two windows (above and below) are from the rooms on the first floor from my son and daughter. They have roller blinds to keep the sun and the warmth out in the afternoons during summer times. In winter and nighttime we close the curtains and don't use the roller blinds.This is the window in my kitchen. It's facing north ......

Last post I posted a email from Kelly in Guam. She has sent in pictures of the windows that she described in the last post. See windows around the world part two for more information how to cover glass blocks with fabric or paper. Kelly says, the above is the aforementioned glass block window with spray-starched sheet squares.Photo above is our living room bay window. It's difficult to achieve good lighting for photos because the sun is so bright in this window. These blinds came from Home Depot and I lined them with sheets.The same is true of our dining room bay window, above. I made the decorator curtains that stay out from sheets also.Here's another image.Thank you ......

We are back with page two of windows around the world. These photos were sent in by Ina from Holland. Ina says that the Dutch like open windows. I can see why looking out this window :) She describes this the sleeping room with lace and purple curtains with roll up shade. Beautiful views from her windows.The kitchen window with self made curtains and a roll up blind. Ah someone else that hangs laundry and gardens. I would never want to pull my shades down. Thank you Ina for sending photos.These photos are sent from Sue and she has a family of 9 :)This is her living room window and it faces east. She made these drapes. Sue says that the material is heavy and when close ......

Do you have a window without plastic blinds? A vintage window? An interesting window? A homey window? I have started a series about windows around the world. We want to see your windows :)There are magazine ready photos of decorated homes everywhere but we rarely get to see what real or the average home looks like.We are just getting started and only three people have sent photos and they, like me would like to see how others cover their windows especially if you do not have plastic blinds but still send in photos because looking at how others live is quite interesting.I hope others will join us, just send me an email with attached photos. If you have not contacted me befor ......

Recently my daughter had to get very serious with thinking about toxins and allergens in her house. My Grandson has severe food allergies and environmental allergies and her allergies have been very bad lately. Fergie laying on the pillow is the least of their worries.Every window in their house had blinds and very expensive blinds. They were extremely difficult to clean and when the sun hit them they made a smell which to me means they are putting out something into the air. My daughter became conscious that something was wrong. All of us that have blinds know what a dust problem they can be and what about that smell, that plastic smell?So she went through the ......

Just thought I would do an around the house update. We have been busy doing projects. We added a water pipe to our bath house since I last posted about the new bath house. We set the bucket under the faucet here for our bucket bath. We found we needed a sink to put the wash cloth in to rinse it out. So this is the new sink. To see the full outdoor bath house see article under living like the past, Outdoor Bath.In the sewing room we made a room divider for the office cubicle.My husband built the frames. He added a wheel on the bottom of the middle frame so the door will open and close.I cut off the length needed for the screens and put in a hem...I ran elastic thr ......

My husband and I did a water study so we will know how much water it takes to machine wash clothes as well as hand wash clothes. We have an HE top loading washer and have had it for about a year and half. Our old one, could not be repaired. So we purchased a new washing machine. We have never sent an appliance back until we picked out our first HE (High Efficiency) washer, our first one we sent back the next day. It was terrible would hardly swish and very little water. So then the man from the washing machine department explained how these new machines work. But the first one would barely swish so I would not take it back to the house.I want to save ......

Soap has changed through the years and back when this photo was taken in 1949 my mother would use a bar of soap to do most anything that needed cleaning from bathing my brother in this picture, washing my hair, mopping the floors, washing the dishes and most anything that needed cleaning.For some reason people feel the need for liquid soap and assorted cleaning products. If we want to simplify or reduce chemicals in our home then this post may be something of interest.I have posted about cleaning our house with bar soap before. I use soap like this to wash our windows, clean our mirrors, mop the floors, bathe, wash our hair, clean the toilet (just grate a little of the soap into the to ......

During our lifetime we go through many changes. I wonder if we had just stayed the same with what we had where we would be? I think this thought since we have been trying to live more like we did in the past.I cannot say I have no regrets because we have made mistakes along the way but I think change is perfectly normal.I change things around in our house as often as the wind blows but that is only because I am trying to find the perfect spot before the decision is made that there is just not room for it. Of course I am certainly not talking about the treadle and the irons are in working order and used often.This rocker is well used, it certainly has a purpose. ......

Getting started can be hard to do if we have not yet figured out where we are going. Recently an email from one of my blog friends said this after reading my post Sarah awoke and put on her socks. My blog friend Judi said, that was the time before others interfered and started people doubting what they did routinely was valid and useful. Once we knew our place in the order of things and just went about our business. Judi is so right and I have noticed how their is doubting and some people even feel as if they have to explain themselves for wanting to live more domesticated. This never has to be explained because it is something right to do. We are losing ......

(She donned her apron in the early morning hours just before dawn....)Sounds like the beginning of a book? How about a living book? What if we simply decided to live life with purpose, intention and happiness. To make a change in our household, to bring a fresh change, something simple, peaceful and interesting. We do have that control since it is our domain.(It was time to fill the vessels with water before she started her morning routine...)It is our home that we live, we can set the mood for the entire household.( Sarah loves her little cottage on the hill, there is much to do today, gather eggs from the hen house, stew will be for dinner, harvest herbs for tea, clean the floors.)The ......

This is part three and the last of our visit to the Naval Museum WW2 1940s town. We are strolling down our small town. The Barber shop.It is interesting to look at items from the 1940s.Oh Glenn Miller and his Orchestra :) at the movies.Couldn't stop in this place but I can remember sitting at the counter in a place like this and getting a Milk Shake.This is the Doctors office...The Pensacola Naval Museum is very large and a lot of walking. Inside these buildings are full size airplanes and they are everywhere! It is so big I could not get a good picture to give you an idea how large this place is. This is only one section.These are real size retired planes.My favorite ......

We are leaving our 1940s house and going for a stroll into town.......Here we are at the grocery store... We are in the 1940s and we are at war. It is WW2.A look inside the grocery/general store. Notice the mail area in back left. The cold box. We are not going to find a large choice, remember there is food rationing and we need our stamps. It does not matter that we have the money to purchase the food, without the stamps we will not be allowed to purchase the food.We would have been issued stamps to use and the stamps changed many times over the years of rationing.More types of stamps...Every family member received stamps and they had to abide by the law and present the required ......

I have a surprise for you. My husband and I took a trip to a special place that I have been intending to go to for quite sometime. I had been there several years ago but I wanted to go again to take pictures and share with all of you. I think this will make many of you happy :)We went to the Pensacola Naval Museum to their 1940s museum ww2 house.The Living room...More living room....Other side of living room...Ok now, calm down, catch your breath. I had too :)Soak it in..... :)I want that sink! I had one just like that a long time ago....Isn't it wonderful?...:)...Globe Top Refrigerator.....Some pictures are a little blurry but I didn't want to leave anything ou ......

Many of us spend a ridiculous amount of money on household utilities.Where we live it is mandatory to live with electricity and running water but we do have control on what we use. We can pay the minimum charge and go on about our business if that is what we want to do.So comes the choice. Use minimal grid and flow? We can use non electric items to slow the electric flow and we can do many things to slow the water flow.When I was first married we had two wind up clocks and a wrist watch. We did not have any electric clocks. The electric clocks came later. The clock in the photo above is a wind up alarm clock.I did not have an electric mixer, this is what I had, a ......

I recently moved my Granny's 1800s trunk to a place where I could stack our quilts instead of folding them tightly in a closet. They seem to feel better now :)I have mentioned in other posts that we have slowly replaced some modern items with older items and recently I was asked in an email could I show you some of the items.As we have been traveling our journey to a more simple life we have been getting rid of some of our modern things and replacing the items with functional vintage items. We had some of the old items packed away but many things we got rid and donated years ago. Just like many of us did, we replaced things to stay current. We were encouraged with adv ......