Living like the past and especially living like 1944 gives a much different perspective of where we have been and where we are going.
As some of you know from my blog posts I lean towards the romantic home. I enjoy having the vintage things that have been around for a long time and I like to use those items for everyday use.
It has been a very busy week here at our home in our new year of 1944. We are allowing ourselves a couple of weeks to tweak where we need to be with food preservation since we now found out by reading the 1944 news that there were a lot of victory gardens and canning going on in 1943 so we realized we were behind in our food stores of canning.
So I got busy and started canning and will be canning all this week as well. I canned up some apples this past Friday.
I didn't want to put any sugar in our apples since we have been avoiding sugar on our special diet and since sugar is rationed in 1944 this will be good for us.
So I checked in the Ball canning book and canned the apples according to the directions from the book.
After the jars rest about 18 hours I remove the rings and give them a bath.
Then I mark the tops.
It is a special feeling to can our own food. We know what is in the food that we canned and if we follow good instructions we can have peace of mind that we have homemade food stored in our pantry or cupboard.
Our vintage icebox we named Windsor has a new important job.
Since there is no longer an ice delivery truck that brings block ice to your home (by about 45 years past) we have had a hard time keeping ice in Windsor so we re-purposed him. Charles is adding extra shelves to the ice section (upper left) so we can use this space for extra canning space. This way Windsor still holds our food.
The top of Windsor holds our mixer and a few other items.
When we ignore the past we miss out on so many things. The handmade items and the quality of manufactured goods was far superior to what is made today, in my opinion.
I want so badly for people to understand what it is like when we stop living a life of constant noise and electronics and spending foolishly and following along just because everyone else is doing it.
I am so thankful that we came to our senses and decided to do something different than what we were doing and changed our life, start uncluttering our home and getting out of debt. We were fortunate we remembered what it was like before life got so hectic in today's world. We remembered when pictures were in black and white because that was the only way they were. I remember when we got our first television and watching it sign off at night.
I remember when there were no computers and electronics and what it was like to live without any kind of telephone. We wrote letters and waited weeks for replies. I remember holding my babies with two arms and hands and rocking them with no distractions.
Now we live more like we did back then, our meals are simple and the smell of plastic goods is slowly dissipating from our home only because we decided to go on an adventure to live more like the past.
We don't have to live a certain era to have a wonderfully sensible home.
But if we live a hectic life and only use our house as a pit stop to bathe and sleep and just run back out to eat our meals in a restaurant or fast food place then one day we might find ourselves deeply in debt and our bodies not well from eating processed foods.
What is sad to me is what we miss by not embracing our home and making it a place that is warm and relaxing and stocking our kitchen so we can make delicious meals.
When we completely embrace our home we can make it magical. We can turn dreading housework into actually enjoying it. When we rid the clutter and keep what is functional we lift a burden.
We all can have a simple and sensible home if we want it. It is the little things that can be so very special such as sitting down with some tea and biscuits.
We don't go out and spend a lot of money on the pretty things you see in these pictures. Some of these lovely vintage items I find at thrift stores. If there is something we are wanting to purchase then we are patient and go often to see if we can find that item. This is how we have been putting our home back to what we remember or further back in time.
These items don't have to be perfect or even match such as these cups and saucers. The cups match but not the saucers but they coordinate.
The beautiful Warwick Porcelain antique pitcher and vase have grazing from age and would be very expensive if they were in mint condition but I find it beautiful with some discoloration and crackling and paid only $2.00 for the vase and $3.00 for the lovely pitcher. Now we can have tea and wonder about from where they once belonged and feel good they are once again being used.
I have had quite a few emails in the last few years from people saying that they are drawn to the way people lived in the past and some say they feel they were born in the wrong era. Many want to live a more old fashioned lifestyle and would love to have older items in their home but they have already bought modern furnishings. You can add touches of vintage to modern things to give it an old fashioned feeling.
Quite awhile ago much of our older furnishings were replaced with modern furnishings and then we returned to the older furnishings because the quality of the modern was poor. We did have some older things stored in our storage room but quite a bit was replaced by searching through salvage and thrift stores.
Several pieces we have now were actually picked up off the street where someone was throwing it out and put it out for trash pick up. Most of it needed repair but after repairing it we found it to be stronger than most anything made today such as this bed. The good part for me is I am old enough to recognize an antique. :)
If you are too young to have never known the quality of what things were like in the past then take a trip to an antique store but remember if you are wanting to change your home to a more old fashioned home to be patient and watch for those items to come into the thrift store or go to yard sales to find the real bargains. Keep in mind though, does this item have a purpose? If we don't think this way we will end up having clutter again.
A simple tablecloth on the table and home cooked food is a very vintage thing to do. If it doesn't fit the table then just add fabric. :)
I hope you find some inspiration in this post because I wish for you contentment in your life. Grandma Donna
