My Week As A 1950's Housewife - Monday

   Here we go Monday! The first day in my 50's housewife journey had a rather slow start, due mostly to a terrible night of sleep (or should I say, NO sleep). Oh well. On today's schedule: doing the shopping for the week! A housewife in the 1950's would probably have walked to her local butcher, grocer, and so on from her house - and maybe with a child in tow as well! How lucky I am to have a car to share with my husband (and of course it helps that we work at the same place!). But before I could go anywhere for the day, I had to make sure I looked the part!

I decided to wear a pretty navy dress covered in polka dots, along with some red accents. Red lipstick has always been a favorite of mine, but I only wear it for special occasions - going to the grocery store counts, right? Well today it would! 

My hair has a good deal of curl to it, when it can be told to do so, and that's how I spent a good chunk of my time in front of the mirror Monday morning (that and trying to get the silly hat to be where I wanted it to be!). I seldom use a curling iron, I only need to wet my hair a little with hot water and curl it around my fingers, securing the ringlet with clips. I wait for my hair to dry (maybe 20 minutes usually) and then use hairspray. This method works for me, but it is all due to my hair being curly already - though weighted down by the current length. 

Underneath the navy skirt I wore a bright red crinoline, one of my favorites! I also wore navy heels, white gloves, a red fascinator, pearls, and a shiny strawberry brooch. 

 What can I say about navy and red? They are such a retro combo, wouldn't you agree?! This dress always makes me think of the 4th of July, it just seems like the perfect thing to wear on a sunny July day! I think the brooch goes especially well with this dress, it just stands out so nicely.

 Quinn and I usually do our weekly shopping together after church on Sunday afternoons. Because of this I am often dressed quite nicely, and often in a vintage dress as well. Though I may stick out a little I've never really noticed anyone stare at me or anything. Monday however, was completely different!

I thought perhaps since it was a Monday morning hardly anyone would be out shopping, wrong! Well, it didn't matter too much. Into the store we went, myself with a nice long list and Quinn with a camera. My goodness! It seemed everyone in the store had to stare at me! It didn't bother me of course, but I was stunned at how many looks I drew! Perhaps it was the red lipstick...ha! At least Quinn didn't mind either, and we sure had a good laugh about it as we walked away with all our bags!

Upon arriving home I put all the groceries away and planned out my afternoon around making dinner.  I hadn't been able to go through the scheduled cleaning routine that morning, so I took a little time to straighten upstairs, tidy the bathroom, and start a load of laundry. Of course I needed to put on a cute apron as well (it makes cleaning a little more fun I think), and I tied my curls back with a bit of red ribbon.

Today my main chore would be washing the Barn walls and some much needed dusting! For this I filled a big bowl with warm water, some vinegar, and a few drops of some pine essential oil. This would be a test, cleaning not only in heels, but also in a crinoline!

It turned out that most of the mud and dirt on the walls was from none other than Greta! She felt rather sorry when I confronted her about it, and offered to help me but...well she was't much help (and I know she'll be bringing in more mud tomorrow!). 

After all that shopping from earlier my feet sure were starting to hurt from the heels! It was nice to sit on the stairs for a while and scrub, but soon I had to go back into the kitchen and dust the pictures (something that hadn't been done in quite a while, oh dear!). 

Because of the cooking that needed to get done I didn't finish scrubbing all the walls, that will have to be added to my list for tomorrow. It seems I'm already behind and it's only the end of day one!

Monday's dinner menu was fresh baked rolls along with a chicken pot pie! The chicken pot pie recipe was one from my grandma Mona, and uses canned ingredients and even cream of chicken soup (something ladies from the 50's enjoyed putting into lots of dishes). I thought it would be a perfect fit for dinner, along with some rolls straight out of a 50's cookbook (you can find the recipe for poppyseed rolls here). The dough for the rolls would need to rise for an hour and a half total, so I started them first.



And now for a very silly story: I had determined to make some home-made rolls for Christmas Eve dinner at the family gathering. Quinn and I spent what seemed like our whole day making these rolls (a double batch!) but when it came time for the second rising I knew something was off. I relayed my fears to Quinn but of course he said to press on and to hope for the best. Dear Reader, those rolls did not make it onto the table Christmas Eve. What made the whole thing even more comical is that we baked the rolls in Quinn's family's oven next door (since our oven has some trouble staying at a consistent heat), making everyone excited at the prospect of fresh baked bread. With that memory fresh in my mind I prayed over the dough as I kneaded it, "Oh Jesus please let these rolls turn out better than last time, Amen!"

As the dough rose next to the warm heater in the kitchen I went about cleaning more of the walls and getting the dusting finished. I must have checked the dough every five minutes, I was so worried about it not turning out! Ha ha! When it finally came time to punch it down and to start shaping the rolls I was so relieved to see it was looking alright.

I made long braids of dough, cutting with a knife to break them up and laying them out carefully on a greased cookie sheet. Perhaps these rolls would turn out better than the ones I had tried to make Christmas Eve!

While the rolls rose for the second time I put together the chicken pot pie. I had boiled a big piece of frozen chicken which Quinn helped by cutting up for the pie. Corn, carrots, and potato all went into the pie, just looking at it made us hungry!

Once the pie was all put together it was time to butter the rolls and sprinkle some poppy seeds on top. In Quinn's own words "They looked great before, but now they look super great!" Yep, we were both getting hungry!

While the pie and rolls baked we set up the table upstairs for dinner. Quinn isn't working outside of the home as husbands did back in the 50's, so I can't kiss him on the cheek once we walks through the door and have dinner all laid out for him, but I think he still enjoyed dinner together (with no media distractions!).

Oh yes, I should mention. The heels? I made it until about five o'clock and finally decided my poor feet couldn't take it a moment longer! I'm still pretty proud of myself though, it turns out cleaning can be done in a lovely pair of heels! What do you think? Could you clean your home in a pair of heels all day?

Dinner turned out beautifully. Quinn and I hardly ever eat at our table (it's usually pushed all the way up against the wall out of the way of our small second story), so it was so nice to sit at it. It made the whole dinner seem extra special! The chicken pot pie was excellent and the rolls - I am happy to say - turned out fantastic. Candle light helped set the mood...

While I cleaned I had been listening to a set of CD's of popular 50's music played on my old fashioned radio records player, it made everything more fun, including dinner!


For dessert I had something special planned. To start off our week of living in the 50's we made banana splits! Quinn is a master at crafting a banana split, and I was captivated by how perfect his looked!As we ate our banana splits we listened to an old mystery radio program, it certainly kept us on the edge of our seats!

There were very few dishes to be done and it was so nice to curl up on the couch and listen to the "radio" for the rest of the evening. I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings! I hope you'll join me again  for another day in the 1950's!

To read the next day in my 50's Housewife Challenge, click here!

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My Week As A 1950's Housewife

   Dear Reader, I have been captured by vintage and retro fashion since I was a little girl. If I had to point to one particular moment in my life as the "It started here..." moment, it would probably be the Sunday morning when the Pastor's wife at our church in Texas gave Bethany and I some "dress up clothes". In reality they were two lovely black hats covered in lace and feathers and a huge black skirt that swirled most beautifully. But then of course it also could have been my first purchase of a vintage dress (found at a garage sale), or maybe still it was the first time my dad showed me the movie "Somewhere In Time" (I cried for hours afterwards). Whatever the moment, I was hooked for life on dresses, hats, and accessories from the past. My "closet" (for it is mostly stored in tubs) is full of dresses, vintage and new, given to me by others - chiefly my momma, who has always said that I was "...easy to buy for." The 50's style has come back into fashion (who doesn't love full skirts and pearls?) and since this style of clothing is readily available I have quite a few dresses from and designed after this period.

I have always been captivated by the "good 'ol days" of the 1950's. Who can resist ladies with perfect hair, husbands who work hard to take care of their families, and the teens who spent their Friday nights at sock hops? Of course this 'ideal' isn't really true, but after researching I have become more and more inspired by the simpleness of that life. So inspired in fact that I found myself wondering what it would be like to live in the 50's for a while, if for nothing more than to get a better understanding of this era that I love so much.

Throughout this week I will be dressing, cleaning, cooking and going about my day as if I were a housewife in the 1950's, and documenting this for you to enjoy - and maybe to inspire you as well! I can't wait to get a glimpse into life back then, and I'm interested to see what I learn through this experience!

And now for some particulars:
   -Cleaning: I found a very good article here detailing the everyday chores and duties of a housewife in the 50's. I don't have any children, so this takes out a big chunk of my day! To get the Barn spick and span though, I will be deep-cleaning one part of the house each day (excluding Saturday and Sunday).

Source

   -Cooking: My my! Women in the 50's sure did like to eat a lot of...interesting things. Meatloaf, casseroles, and random things suspended in jello seem to be at the top of the list, and everything with lots of mayonnaise in it. I spent a lot of time researching and planning a meal plan for the week that not only will be historically accurate but will also hopefully taste good (after all, I want to make sure my husband likes my cooking!). Some jello may find it's way onto the menu, though!
   I will not be using my microwave for cooking, or any other new-fangled gadgets that ladies didn't have back then. This should make things more fun!

   -Beauty: I will be wearing 50's style dresses, pearls, heels, makeup, the whole nine yards! I have to say, this is probably what I'm most excited for, but something tells me vacuuming in heels will lose it's luster rather quickly...we'll see!

   -Technology: Of course I'll be writing these blog posts for you to enjoy, but I am planning to limit my phone/computer time to almost nothing. We don't own a TV (a luxury for people in the 50's), but we do watch shows and movies on our laptops so that's out for this week! Instead we'll be listening to old radio shows off of YouTube or we'll be reading in the evenings.

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I do hope you're as excited as I am, I can't wait to see what I learn! Tune back in every morning this week to read up on my adventures from the day before. I'm crossing my fingers that I can live up to the high standards of the 1950's era!

P.S. - There's a new video on the About Me page! Hope you enjoy this fresh look at Blueberry Barn!

Do you know anything interesting about the 1950's? What about a great recipe? A story about your first vintage dress? Let me know down in the comments! I would love to get to know you better!

Click here if you'd like to skip right to Monday's post!

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Upon A Frozen Lake

The white Christmas I had been hoping for came, but not in the way I was expecting. No light, fluffy snow blanketed the yard, instead it was white with a thick layer of frost. Leading up to New Years was not different. Frost covered everything, and the temperatures outside were so low it was best to sit inside with a cup of tea and a nice book. Quinn and I, however, had other ideas...



Fish Creek is a spot we frequently take Greta for a walk, and is beautiful in all seasons. One of the large lakes was frozen over, and Quinn was excited to go ice skating. I wasn't as excited, for last winter I had taken a hard fall while skating and had cracked my tailbone. I hadn't been able to run or bend over for what seemed like weeks, and I wasn't excited for a repeat performance. Quinn kindly offered to pad me all over with pillows, but I decided to just be as careful as possible.

It was a beautiful day, with a clear blue sky. The thermometer back at the Barn read 8 degrees, so Quinn and I were wearing plenty of layers (with me borrowing a pair of Quinn's snow pants for extra warmth!). With chilled fingers we laced up our skates - mine bought at a garage sale years prior - as I tried to talk myself out of being too scared.

I gracefully fell over as soon as Quinn tried to help me up onto the ice. My goodness it was slick! He held my hands as we carefully started forward, following all my pleas to "Slow down! SLOW DOWN!" Haha! I promise I did eventually get more comfortable skating - soon I was off by myself, skating around with Greta and Lupin, who had come along as well.

Quinn of course was a lot braver than I, and Greta and Lupin ran back and forth across the lake - barking loudly, with the sound echoing off the trees - as they followed Quinn this way and that.

The ice was thick, with all manner of interesting patterns within it. Whole portions of the lake ice were clear, and you felt as if you could see right down to the bottom if you had a light. Other parts were clouded with frozen bubbles, making lovely designs.

We decided to explore the fringes of the lake, stopping to allow Quinn and the puppies to have a race around some dead trees.

Quinn won of course, with Greta second, but he wouldn't have if they were on land!

A bit later we found a frosted over beaver dam, we knocked, but there didn't seem to be any beavers home.

Around and around we skated, Greta and Lupin following all the while. Although I did get more comfortable skating, I think you can see in the pictures that I never went too fast!

I think the puppies liked skating with me though, for they could keep up (unlike with Quinn!).

Well, they tried to at least!

 

My toes were getting cold, but we were having so much fun, it was hard to quit. We promised ourselves to come back the next day. Before taking off our skates we tried to get a picture of all of us, but Lupin didn't know where the camera was...

Oh well! Quinn tried again as I took my skates off, and this time, she even smiled! 

Good girl Lupin!

We bundled back into the car and blasted the heat all the way home. Once back in our toasty warm kitchen, I put the kettle on and Quinn made his favorite after-skating snack: a peanut butter and honey sandwich along with a cup of hot coco. I had a cup of tea, along with some of our Christmas candy (served on a new Brambly Hedge plate I got for Christmas to add to my collection!).

Being out in the cold winter air is always a treat, but coming home to a warm Barn kitchen for tea or coco is extra special, wouldn't you agree? Until next time dear reader, stay warm!

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