I am becoming fond of fabric and clothing with small prints. At least now I know what it is that I like for the new dress and smock I want to sew.
This is a small print tablecloth that we have that suggests spring.
It is actually pieced where there was not enough fabric to make that section solid but it does not make a difference that it is pieced together. I have old aprons that have been pieced together and it sees the pieced ones are the ones I wear often.
Little by little as we live more like 1942. My husband and I are finding what is important and the things that matter. These two letter openers belonged to my mother and my husbands father.
We are focused now and so grateful of the things we have. We finally jumped off the runaway train. Saving money by not wasting is something we have not been very good at until now. Throwing our money away on new gadgets will not happen again. That life of spending without giving much thought has turned into journaling and facing reality of where every penny of our money goes.
We have decided we want to remain living more like the past, we have no desire to be modern and this helps to settle our mind and focus on the items we want to remain in our home.
We are even planting by the moon this year as some of our generations before us have done and we hope that will give us a better harvest.
This past year my daughter brought up a conversation she had with her mother-in-law. They are in their 80's and are from North Carolina. They always garden by the signs of the body. I did not know what she was talking about so I looked it up and it all ties in with the moon. So since they have always been successful gardeners we will give this a try.
This has become the most used bowl in the house. These are the indoor clothespins. The rainy day clothes pins, the pins that hold the clothing that does not need to go out in the sun that will fade with too much sun.
We have the clothesline for the majority of the laundry to dry, the back porch line for dress shirts that could fade in too bright of sun and the inside lines for when the weather will not give us a break.
Then there is the clothes dryer when all else fails and there is sickness or some kind of set in weather. The clothes dryer does not belong in the past but we have one and we live in a very humid climate so it will remain.
We understand the importance of handkerchiefs as we are trying to be less disposable. And it is romantic.
I have been trying to get around to mending but there has been a change in our evenings.
The house is quiet at night since there is no television now and it is a good time to sit down and mend but what has happened is we both love reading, which we never did do because of television. Now in the evenings we are going to bed earlier to read and since we were already going to bed early since we get up so early we are now going to bed "very" early.
These are strawberries that have been sitting in sugar overnight. My mother would always sugar the fruit as it makes a syrup that tastes so good over desserts.
Just sprinkle sugar over fruits that are a bit tart. Give it a stir and set it in the refrigerator with a lid overnight. The amount of sugar is up to you and how sweet you like it. The sugar will soften the fruit and make a lovely syrup in the bottom of the bowl.
Today I will bake a hot milk cake and whip some cream and this will be strawberry shortcake.
I was trying to get a picture of brushing my husbands suit jacket. We are both paying more attention to detail now. In the past clothing was brushed after wearing it. If you have ever made compost you know that anything that you throw into the compost pile (within reason) will break down and turn into dirt.
If we don't clean our home it will start decaying. The same thing will happen to dust that settles on clothing. It will start breaking down the fibers, attract critters and a whole cycle starts. In the past people knew how to preserve things much better than we do now. Since we are living like the past these things have become more important.
It was not that long ago when our parents and grandparents did these things but somehow good common sense has been replaced with a disposable society and a garbage truck that comes and whisks our mistakes away.
I still cannot settle on which soap I like the best. It is because we cannot buy the soap from the past and there are several real soaps that I do like. So for right now as I am writing this, it is more a cost factor so I am back to fine grating one bar kirks castile bar soap, adding one cup of washing soda and 1/2 cup borax to make up a batch. It only takes a tablespoon or so for the laundry depending the size of the load. I still grate goat soap just to change up things off and on.
For cleaning the floors I am still using grandma's lye soap.
We are both enjoying this life we are living, there are so many projects to do and seems so little time. We will never be bored with this life.
Living like long ago is not that far away now, we are getting there day by day.
My next post will be about this book pictured above....
Grandma Donna
