4 April 1956 “Happy Easter”

Before PAAS Easter egg color one used food color and before that, you used vegetable dye. I remember my older sister was always rather ‘earthy’ (how she was referred in the family) and when I was young and visited at her home during Easter, enjoyed coloring eggs with beetroot, carrots, onions. The kitchen smelled of lovely scents, like soup and cooking, though the cabbage didn’t always send off the loveliest of odors.

This little boy hunting eggs in the mid 1950’s obviously took advantage of McCormick to get those brilliantly colored eggs.

It seemed Easter cards were given in the 1950’s. I do recall receiving Easter cards from grandparents. What I remember most about those and any cards from relatives was to see what number appeared on the corners of those crisp new green bills that would fall out. Well, even a child was excited to have their own spending money. I wonder, now with ATM/DEBIT and digitalized money, do children still receive cash in cards or do they probably receive ‘gift cards’ which teach them to spend spend spend. We do seem to keep training children to be consumers. I mean, you cannot have the same joy dropping a Target gift card into a piggy bank as hearing the coins drop or eyeing, with joy, the little cut glass candy jar on your bedroom shelf with those lovely curled green bills. They represented more than their potential conversion to STUFF, there was an element of pride and even ‘kid power’ in knowing that money was there, just in case. Or you could happily count it up until reaching the goal of that toy or item. I even recall a little green savings book, that the bank teller would right your amount in, when you took some of that ‘green stuff’ to save away. Do parents teach children to save anymore? Do parents save anymore? I don’t know, I am not a parent. If I were, you can bet they’d have their own little version of saving and part of their weekly allowance would go into savings. I’d take them by their little chubby hand to the bank and teach them how each week a percentage needs to be squirreled away. That certainly must be a better habit to teach young children then to help them to go buy things with plastic cards that are like ‘magic’ that you trade in for what you want. But, what do I know,I am not a parent.

I bet there was a fight this Easter morning and the little boy won. You can see the determined look in his eye as he is proudly sporting with his Easter Sunday best, his sneakers! Obviously, sister preferred the appropriate footwear to her darling ruffled dress. These darling Easter shoes were obviously not to his liking. Though, I have to say, how adorable are these shoes compared to the hideous puffy often unlaced white monstrosity tennis shoes kids wear today. I also always laugh a bit when I see young children who cannot walk wearing expensive sneakers or little ‘fashion work boots’. It’s not as if they are going to be climbing a mountain. I don’t understand why ugly is the new fashion.

These darling little chick from the 1950’s stirred my heart when I found this picture. As I have stated before, I have rather old parents and though I was born in the early 70’s, they were already in their 40s. Their marriage happened in 1950 and they had my sisters and brothers during the 50’s. So, when I came along, I always had a more varied collection of Holiday traditions and decorations. I recall these little darlings and their being fastened to my Easter baskets come Easter Sunday morning.

I remember when it was time to get the Easter decorations down from the attics. I was always excited, as these little gems were one of my favorite things to play with. As, at Christmas, I was always anxious to set up the little sparkly cardboard miniature village with the ‘snow’ of cotton batten and fine layer of old (actually from the 1950’s my mother kept and stored everything) with the bits of inlaid square glitter woven inside. An etched mirror would become a skating pond for the little people of the village.

But, these little chicks and an old book that had been my father’s when he was a boy in the 1930s. The book was a wonderful tale of how the children were going to visit their grandparents on the farm. I loved that book, for it seemed magical, the children in their Sunday best cruising out of the city in their big rounded black 1930’s car. I had no parents who lived on a farm, not a real farm. Both sets of my grand parents lived in the country, per se, and their were gardens, but never any animals other than little dogs rushing about. In the story the children received little chicks as Easter gifts, it was always my dream, come Easter morning.

Being the youngest child of an older family can often be lonely. It is an odd mix of being an only child (for I was really raised alone) but preceded me was the vast lifetime of stories of what THEY did (my siblings). Holidays had been spent, decades of Easters and Christmases, many recorded on odd old movies with no sound that had to be played on a strange machine in a darkened room upon a silver screen that was pulled out and put away into closets recesses. There was a mythology of sorts in my head of these phantom siblings of mine. I knew them now, as adults with children, but could view them, as if through the mists to Avalon, younger versions of them, better dressed, smiling and waving, soundlessly happy. The sheer number of them mingled with cousins, now also grown beyond my age.

I think it was the longing and strange childish sentimentality towards these times that convinced my mother when Easter to filly my Easter basket with two down chicks. I was around 8 or so. My heart leapt! To see and hear and feel those darling little puff balls was  a dream come true. The pages of my Easter book had come to life, here they were all mine. We did not live in the country, but we managed to convert a little outbuilding shed to their home. I relished getting up early to care for them and to watch them grow. They both, unfortunately, turned out to be roosters (no eggs for me) but they were the tamest birds ever. They would follow me about the yard and even chase my little dog. They were protective of me and one of them chased and bit my niece (who is only a few years younger than me) and to this day she hates chickens. But, I loved them. They represented a whole world to me. Something that was completely mine and my siblings, those phantom young versions of them, silently waving at the camera, never had chickens. But, I did. And, to this day, I always try, depending on where I am living, to keep them. This spring, when I get a new batch, my heart will still leap with joy, like the 8 year old me, longing to hold their downy little bodies and smiling at them in the morning, as they wait patiently for me to feed and care for them.

What an odd mixture a life is. The various points of sad and happy moments as children leave such an imprint upon our little brains that we often, quite unconsciously, find ourselves looking to recreate those moments. Or, perhaps they set a pattern to our life that we simply follow as naturally as breathing. Maybe even my choice at this late stage of still being childless is part of that. I recall never really being around children much when I was a child. Most of my time was spent amusing myself, so the rhythm of that solitary march seems so normal that I never thought to alleviate it. Who can say? For those of you who do have children and are celebrating this Easter, remember well how you represent it, for they surely will.

So, have a lovely Easter and now enjoy the silent beauty of this 1950’s Easter Sunday, when ladies dressed and received Easter corsages!

1 April 1956 “Dress Form, Recipes, Fitted Sheets, Flowers, and Eggbert”

I come to you on bended knee to forgive me, I have NOT finished my March dress. It is very vexing, as I have (since my 1955 year) been getting much better at time management and ticking off my lists. I could give a slew of reasons why, but I have come to realize that excuses are just that, so why bother. I did, however, manage (as I had promised myself) get my dress form made as part of this month’s challenge. Here it is with my pattern pinned to it: It was easy to make, but definitely required help. It is three layers of duct tape (the last layer was white duct tape, as I thought it gave it a more ‘dress form’  look).
So, my dress is still in this state. Isn’t the fabric fabulous, though? I am not sure if I have shown this fabric, but it is in the same color family as my other material so my spring/summer palette will be the blues and greens. It is going to have a little folded raised neckline as well.
Having my dress form has been MORE incentive to me to continue to lose weight. Everytime I pass by it I think, ‘Jeesh, is that what I look like from the side?” So, when I saw this, I had to laugh:Especially since that is pretty much me at the market now! Although I would just go home and bake a batch of éclairs and want to eat them all!
Speaking of baked goods, here is the spread I made for hubby the other day to take to work. There are my homemade oreos, macaroons plain and half dipped in dark chocolate and white cupcakes with white frosting. This is my latest white cupcake and frosting recipe and I LOVE it. They are so moist and dense. My friend had one and said, “Okay, you are making my wedding cake”. I am not sure if I have shared this recipe before, so here it is:
50’s Gal Wedding Cake Cupcakes
Ingredients
-4 egg whites
- 1/2 cup milk
-1/2 cup cream

- 2 tablespoons vanilla

- 3 cups sifted cake flour ( I make my own cake flour, but it is worth using it in these cupcakes. To make your own you just take one cup regular flour and remove 2 TBS of the flour and replace it with 2 TBS cornstarch. S0 in this case, I put in three cups regular flour, took out 6 TBS of the flour and then measured in 6 TBS cornstarch)
- 1 1/2 cups sugar

- 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon baking powder

- 1/2 teaspoon salt

- 12 tablespoons softened butter
Preheat oven to 350F
Mix egg whites, vanilla and 1/4 cup milk.
In a large mixing bowl, combine cake flour, sugar, baking powder and salt and mix together to blend. Add the butter and remaining 3/4 cup milk mixing on low speed until dry ingredients are moistened. Increase to medium speed for a couple of minutes,  then add the egg, vanilla and milk mixture in two equal parts, mixing until blended.
Pour the batter into prepared cupcake trays.Bake for about  15-20 minutes, remove when almost golden yellow and a toothpick stuck in the center comes out clean. ( I let mine stay a little white on top, as things continue to cook after you remove them from the oven and I find they stay more moist that way) Let cool and Ice them
Frosting Recipe
- two sticks butter (room temperature)
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoon vanilla
- 2 tablespoon cream
Frosting Directions
Mix all the ingredients until spreadable consistency. Too runny? add more sugar. Too stiff? add more cream TBS at a time. I like to use a pastry bag to ice the cupcakes and then I sprinkle sugar on top for a little sweet surprise crunch! Here is a close up of the lovely buttery frosting.
Having egg yolks left from these desserts and also leftover ham, I decided to make a crust-less quiche.
  I didn’t feel like making a crust and so devised this crust less version of  a quiche. I had found one recipe for one but it called for Bisquick (which I never have as I make pancakes, biscuits etc from scratch). So, I got to thinking, “what is in Bisquick? It must just be the dry ingredients of flour, baking powder and salt.”
So, here is how I made the above. It was so moist and delicious and easy and could easily be vegetarian. I had cooked a ham earlier in the week and we had been eating off of it all week. So, before the bone went into the stock pot, I cut off most of the remaining meat and cubed it for this recipe.
50’s Gal Leftover Crust-less Quiche
4 eggs (plus I added the two leftover egg yolks so about 5 total)
3/4 cup flour
1 1/2 TBS Baking Powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 cup grated aged cheddar
1/4 softened butter
various veg ( I used tomatoes  and leftover asparagus and green beans)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Mix all together except veg and meat, batter will be a little lumpy, like pancake batter. Then toss in veg and meat (really this anything you want). Grease a 10” pie plate and pour in. Bake for 50 minutes or until golden brown. This is a lovely melt in your mouth dinner. It is a cross between a frittata and a quiche and it couldn’t be easier!

In a large bowl, beat together milk, eggs, baking mix, butter and parmesan cheese. Batter will be lumpy. Stir in broccoli, ham and Cheddar cheese. Pour into prepared quiche dish.

Bake in preheated oven for 50 minutes, until eggs are set and top is golden brown.

Someone asked me the other day on a post about my sheets. They wanted to know if I used only fitted sheets, it being 1956 and all. Well, I actually have both fitted and flat sheets. Many may not know it, but  fitted sheets have been around since the early 50’s. I have ads in my magazines from the mid 1950’s showing such sheets. This is from a 1955 magazine. Here is a close up of the text: This is from a 1951 So, I am not sure how expensive they were or how common, but I definitely felt if they were in magazines in 1951,then by 56 they’d be pretty common.
And just because they were pretty, I thought I’d share some more pictures of our Crocus before they are all gone. These are in my front yard.



And, as Easter is coming, here is a fun song sung by Rosemary Clooney.

30 march “The Story Of Stuff”

I thought, as we seemed to enjoy the water bottle film, I would share the original film that the same person made. It is about 20 minutes long and it is very good and eye opening. It, again, has really just gone along with a lot of what I have been discovering. It really is worth a watch so if you can spare the time in your busy day, PLEASE watch it. It really puts it ALL into perspective. I am finishing up my dress today and this way I can check in for ‘breaks’ to see what some of you think about it.

I like how they mention that over 50 years ago (1950’s everyone) this level of consumerism and production wasn’t happening. Very interesting and also, it isn’t about Rep or Dem or Socialism or anything, it is about common sense reality of how we are living, making, and spending. I hope you are at least intrigued by the video. I also like how she mentions upon reading Industrial Design journals of the 1950’s that they were very open about the fact that they were building things to look good and to eventually break down to increase consumerism. It was only theory at that point, but boy oh boy is it in practice today!

Don’t worry my next blog will be my dress, dress form, recipes etc, the usual.

30 March “Bottled Water”

Today I need to finish my March Dress challenge, so no big post today, but I thought it would be fun to watch this video and discuss.

I know this is not specifically 1956, but hubby showed me this video. We had to laugh, because it really does point out the things we have been coming to realize since our journey to living in the 1950s.

Before 1955, bottled water was just a normal part of my life. I didn’t think about it, just did it (Like most modern people). After 1955, I gave it up as it did not ‘exist’ for me. I remember after it was gone and I would see ‘modern’ people with it, my inner dialogue was always, “How funny, to buy something that you can get for free from the tap” I also noticed bubblers (drinking fountains) were beginning to disappear from public places as well, much like the public pay phone.

So, enjoy and let me know what you think:

28 March 1956 “Technology and the Modern Time Machine”

 

There is something to the limited capacity of the technology of ‘old’. I have often come to consider, since 1955, what if our continued research and gains in technology were put only to science and the environment. If all the money available and brain power went into keeping us healthy, curing disease, lengthening our lives and helping to solve our dependence on oil and other negative affects on the environment, would it be so bad if we didn’t have new cell phones every 6 months?
I jokingly said to a friend a week ago, that sometime in the future all our data will probably be made to just be in our sight somehow. I said, maybe a pair of glasses or contacts. Then last night hubby showed me an article in a science magazine that showed just that: developing contacts one would wear that would put all your data and internet etc in you field of view. Then you could walk about and have advertising specifically geared towards your spending habits playing in front of you all the time. Scary thought, indeed, but it is coming.

When I see old movies like this one: no sound, a bit grainy, everyone a little jerky, it touches me. There is no confusing it with real life. HDTV wants us to see every nook and cranny of the human face, while the magazines air brush the heck out of everyone so they are thinner and smoother than could be possible in real life?

There is an almost artful quality to the old films. In their soundless movements, the discoloration leaves open an element of our own imagination to add to the movements;put a story or our own hopes into them. With sound and high tech, the more it becomes easy to record everything, does it make what is recorded less valuable, or less precious? Does the fact that we can text, talk or connect with people literally all the time anywhere make what we say less worth hearing? Once, an awaited letter contained a week or months worth of news, often put in ways much like we enjoy reading a novel or story. Today, we simply say, “uh, huh…yep…AWESOME…nope, nothing new” of course what could have happened since the 10 minutes prior you talked to one another. Does ease and constancy breed intellectual decline? Would those kids who met at summer camp and write and send photos to each other as friends be more inclined to learn the written language and improve their social skills then simply texting “i h8 u ;)” ?

On some level it is nice, I suppose, that we can communicate easier and distance have become smaller by technology and even easier travel with highways and jets. Yet, is there something loss to is as well? What if we had quick travel for emergency to save lives, but for personal travel we had to use old 1910 cars that you crank and only go about 30 mph? Would our approach to work be different? Would our visiting and shopping be changed in a way that would make us look around and become involved in our community more, because we have to stay there or it is easier to walk? Would our Need to depend on one another more increase our human bond and realtionships? Maybe even affecting our language skills and what we think of as ‘entertainment’? Could a solution  to our incessant need for oil be reduced by such measures? Possibly, but I know it would never happen. But, ponder that your car only travels 35mph top speed. You have to crank it. There are no heaters in them. Now, how does that affect where you choose to work, shop, be?

It is true the ease and speed of the modern world makes it possible for us to get places faster to find jobs that make more money outside of our area, but because of the roads and the need to ‘upgrade’ the community controlled parts of our life, we all pay more taxes into that. There is not simply living easily on a farm and having a 10 mile radius be your life, without having to pay for the pleasure of highways to ship items to stores that you have to drive further to shop and their need to ship things from China and India and your need to go further and more often to make the money to buy those things and then to pay for the roads that allow you to…Well, you get the idea.

Again, I am not bemoaning the modern world and crying out, “Oh, the good ole’ days…” but, I am wondering, do we ever question or wonder, do we need it? We seem, as a people, to blindly accept every new gadget and take it into our lives at breakneck speed. Hubby just showed me (in the same article) that they have also developed a 3-D TV that you wear special glasses that receives the TV signal at  a particular  refresh rate to each eye, so the programs (which have to be filmed that way) come out of the TV. So, we are just trying to create a more real world? We can have that world for free, walk outside or look around you are already living in a 3-d world! Yet, these things will just come along and there will be ads for them and then the box stores will have them on sale and we will all NEED them, setting aside what we just NEEDED last year, now worth nothing after spending thousands on it and it can go to the piles of other old electronics in the landfills.

Does it stop? Will it stop?

When I was marketing yesterday, I had to go to our local chain grocery to get the few things I cannot get at my local market. The place, since my change to shopping more ‘locally’ has become as alien and as abhorrent as the Mall to me. As I was wondering the endless aisles filled to the brim with product, I saw a girl, maybe 11-12, following her mother about. She held her little flip phone with full keyboard and was texting away. She was so practiced at it that I saw she could walk along, missing other shoppers, without taking her eyes off the screen. Though she was in a busy store full of people, she was living on that little grey screen filled with simple little characters. I felt so sad. I almost wished for an ill behaved child that was knocking things about, as at least they would be THERE  in the moment. Yet, the little girl, face as blank as a mask, eyes in a strange stare, and fingers moving at an almost unrealistic speed, maneuvering her way through the aisles. Is this our future? Is it bad good indifferent?

Sometimes I wonder if I would have been better leaving Pandora’s box closed and never traveling back in time. I always have felt ‘out of time’ but not until my year in 1955 have I felt so concerned for our future. Yet, I know all that I have come to be and to know is thanks to just being aware. By going back I would look forward with the ‘seer stone’ and see what was to become of the world in the past 50 years. Now, I am afraid of the next 10!

I wonder, too, is this phenomena of ‘longing for days of old’ a modern concept? I know many generations of artist at various times have looked to the past with a romantic view, but in 1950’s were there groups of people in their 20’s longing or romanticizing 1900? I just don’t think so. Yet, since my blog and now my site and forum, there are many people, even in their 20’s, who have a very real yearn and attraction to the ‘old ways’. Even if this is a romanticized view, it is an interesting development. Is it a subconscious backlash to increasing technology? Does the ease and rapid change of the modern world frighten us or repel us on some base level? Is it an almost animalistic warning? Who can know?

It is tough to strike the balance between reviving the good things from the past while remaining in the present. But, it is a challenge I think worth doing. It allows one to not be ‘lulled’ by the modern world. One doesn’t have the ‘wool pulled over one’s eyes’ so to speak. You are more aware of what is happening and changing and what is meant to just be ‘normal’ in the modern world when you can look at it from the past from time to time. It puts you more in control over your life and let’s you say, “You know, I don’t NEED that technology. I am happy with what I have or maybe I will even reduce what I do have and find myself happier with less and my need for less”.

I have been planning my kitchen redo on paper for sometime. Every time I add more here and there, changing thinking I need this and that. Yet, the more I live in our little home the more I wonder if I am not still being lured by the money need to have more. I did a little experiment last week. I took all but two pans from my kitchen. I had a sauce pan and a small fry pan. I also have a girdle built into my old stove as well. I even removed some of my extra utensils. So wooden spoons instead of rubber spatulas etc. What did I find? That after a day, I did not even miss them. I even didn’t use my old 50’s mixer and instead used my hand crank mixer and was fine. I began to look at my tiny 10’ by 10’ kitchen differently. Do I need to add on? Do I need more space a bigger pantry? I wasn’t sure. And as I began to think no, I also began to feel less stress. As if not NEEDING to enlarge the space was a relief, like someone said, ‘No, you don’t have to do that hard job for me’.

So, as my project is getting under way into its SECOND year, I am finding the opposite of the beginning of 1955. Then, in my still very modern mindset, I was on a vigilant search to buy and source as many authentic 1950’s things as possible on eBay and etc. Now, I realize that I still do want to mostly use and have old items/appliances, as they are 1)cheaper 2)built to last 3)rather stylish. But, that my need to have MORE of things is beginning to lessen. Traveling to the very root the very core of our modern consumer world, the 1950’s, maybe has made me look back another 50 years and wonder “Well, what did they have? What did they use? What did they need?”

Of course you can say, rightly so, aren’t we glad we have more freedom, better medicine, less racial hatred and more rights for women and minorities? Yes, we are glad of that, but just because we live in a time that has more ,does not mean that we have to HAVE More? We should be happy to have and take advantage of modern medicine and better freedoms, but that does not mean we have to buy into the need to have all the latest gadgets and technology that serve only to ‘entertain’ us. An entertainment that might actually be lulling us into a sort of comatose state. We don’t have to have our children mindlessly wandering the halls of malls, eyes glued to little screens, endlessly texting. We can take the good of today AND the good of the past and make our own unique wonderful future. We can enjoy the rights and medicines of today, but dress in Victorian costume and cook over a wood stove if we like! We can take TV and computers out of our life even, if we so choose. Or we can use the computer as a tool or as a ‘special’ time entertainment or as a way to have a community, as we do here, but still realize that we can do many things the ‘old way’. It is our life and we do NOT have to do what the TV and adverts tell us to do.

Often, when I begin a morning with a melancholy feeling towards the past, or a ‘Gee, I wish I could go back”, after some real thought;some real dissection of my feelings, I often end up feeling better. Because I realize we CAN relive the good of the past, even make our lives as much like the decade we might covet. We can even use this technology to realize we are not alone in these thoughts for ‘longing for the past’. Those of us who long for the old or simply have an inner desire we cannot really explain away can find one another and say, “Ah, yes…I am not alone.”

Sometimes I wonder where our passions and joy of the ‘past times’ might lead us. Maybe there will be a day when some of us will come together and ‘make a neighborhood’ stuck in 1955. Or a group of us will live in an area recapturing the pasts aspects of community from the past. Who knows? I do know that I am glad for the technology of the computer for allowing me to share what I have so far and to find and meet so many other wonderful people who also feel a little ‘out of time’. We can make the life we want. We can live in a world of our own making. We just have to get up from the tv and say, “This is what I want, This is what I would like to try” and get to it! We can make our own modern time machine and rather than travel to the past bring it forward around us. We can use the ‘technology’ of hard work, imagination, and determination. I know, though I am always tinkering with the settings on my time machine, I am glad I have ‘built’ it. And, I am glad that many of you have come along for the ride.

Who needs Wii Fit when you have your own imagination?

24 March 1956 “Academy Award Film, Keeping Plants, Ironing, and Cupcake Bread Pudding”

  The 1956 28th Academy Awards were held on 21 March of this year. An uncharacteristic Hollywood film, Marty, won the highest honor this year.The film received international success, winning the 1955 Academy Award for Best Picture and becoming the second American film to win the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Marty and The Lost Weekend (1945) are the only two films to win both organizations' grand prizes.

This is a great film. You can buy it HERE (around $11). I really enjoyed it and found it’s portrayal of ‘normal’ people a very modern approach to the usual 1950’s films.

My Fair Lady opens on Broadway this month in 1956 with a young Julie Andrews. This is an interesting ‘interview’ from that same year of the production. I like the bit where the American is teaching English Julie Andrews about a Cockney accent. And of course Julie Sings. There are some wonderful actual recorded numbers from the Broadway show, so give a watch.  This would have been so wonderful to see live on Broadway!

I have a vintage album of the songs from this musical on 33 with the original Broadway cast. It is fun sewing music! You can buy a modern copy HERE.

We were having a discussion of things the other day about what we like to do to give our homes a nice feel or that extra touch. It made me think about the importance of keeping Houseplants. I really feel Houseplants are that final layer of decorating. It is the icing on the cake of a home’s interior. Their is a permanence to it. A feeling that one has been around and will be around to care for and watch them grow.

From a design point of view, I just love how the texture and variation of the foliage in similar shades makes such a statement. Here is a grouping I keep on the piano. By keeping the majority of the containers white it ties to the white of the Bust and is offset by the deep tones of the piano. The lush green of the plants give that feeling of warmth. Not all the containers in the grouping need to have a plant, as you can see here, yet it gives you that ‘opening’ for when you find the next one you must have. I am actually on the lookout for a nice Boston Fern for the empty urn in the background. you can see, as well, that the picture (one of two) is also of a botanical image and it’s frame is in white tones. If you pictured this same grouping without the lush greenery, it might not have the same feel.

This grouping in the same room, fills out a corner space that might otherwise be overlooked. The Peace lily sits on a Victorian twig-built Adirondack table. All of the plants I have pictured are happy with medium light and actually prefer to not be in direct sunlight too long, as in their natural environment are on forest floors shaded by larger trees. Again, this same vignette of antique table, lamp, corner would seem rather bare without the shot of green. I collect old stoneware containers, as well, and you can see how the old green bottle on the floor ties into the color tone of the plants.

A closer view of that same corner shows how the accent of the Baby’s tears in the front and the Grape-leaf ivy in the back add a softness to the table elements, including an antique brass kerosene lamp converted to electric and a picture of my Hubby as a boy with his mother on their boat. Somehow the plants, to me, add another personal element that always looks correct with family photos.

Now, for the novice to plant keeping, you don’t have to worry. Keeping plants alive is not as complicated as some think. I imagaine what often happens is someone new to plant keeping will see the pretty flowers on miniature roses or some other flowering plant that is a little tempermental and needs alot of light. But, there are many plants that are happy to be not watered for a week and don’t need direct sunlight, including the plants I have shown you today in my home.

Here is a quick list of some easy to care for house plants:

Peace lily– The plant handles lower light levels common to apartments and when the Spathiphyllum is thirsty it tells you with wilting leaves. It usually holds its pretty white flowers for some time and can be encouraged to rebloom with cutting the dying blooms. My Peace lily is not currently in bloom, but I don’t really care. I think for anyone just starting out with plants, focus on the foliage. Use the color, texture etc as your guide and if you get blooms, wonderful, but the texture and variety of the foliage is such a good tool to ‘brighten’ a room, I think they are often overlooked. These prefer indirect light and as stated, if they begin to droop you have waited too long to water, but fear not. Give them a drink and in a few minutes they will perk back up.You can find these very easily locally or you can buy them HERE from the Corner Store.

Soft succulents– These toughies require some indirect light, do well in small pots, store water like a cactus and come in a variety of sizes and colors.Technically, a succulent is any plant with thick, fleshy (succulent) water storage organs. Succulents store water in their leaves, their stems or their roots. So, these little darlings are perfect for those who ‘forget to water’. You must still water, but they are used to being dried out so more forgiving. They do like light, but often do well with some indirect light. The Jade plant is a good example of a hardy version of this. I also like succulents in the garden and though New England is hardly a desert environment, the popular hens and chicks do rather well here and are so adorable peeking out between rock walls and pathways and winter over very well.

As a group, succulents include some of the most well-known plants, such as the aloe and agave, and many almost unknown plants. Cacti are a unique subset of the succulent group. Succulents make excellent display plants in dish gardens.Succulents should be watered generously in the summer. The potting mix should be allowed to dry between watering, but do not underwater. During the winter, when the plants go dormant, cut watering back to once every other month. Overwatering and ensuing plant rot is the single most common cause of plant failure.

Philodendron – Most of the varieties grown for indoor use grow downward like an ivy. Lots of colors, although with lower light the colors will not be as vibrant, few pest problems and require limited quantities of water. They come in many variety of leaf color and configuration. But also grow large and shrub like in the case of the lacy tree philadendren as I have in my house.

Aspidistra - Also know as the cast-iron plant. This tough as nails houseplant was a favorite in Victorian times along with the Kentia palm. Back then houses were anything but bright and airy – much like apartments! In the Southern United States you can find Aspidistra growing completely carefree as a groundcover in dense, dark shade. They come in a variety of leaf colors from solid to speckled with yellow or stiped with white or yellow. These plants were favored by the Victorians and as a Victorian house was often very low light, it attested to the plants hardiness. I love this old photo of this man with the Aspidistra next to him. This is also an easy plant to find, even at your grocery store. I also have it HERE in the Corner Store.

Baby’s Tears-I am not sure what it is about this plant, but I just love it. It does not like direct light, and does prefer to be moist.  Here is a close up of the top of my Baby’s Tears plant. Doesn’t it look like a lush jungle? It is the perfect plant to make terrariums which is a great way to enjoy a plant.

My seedlings are doing nicely as well. I have an entire tray of Basil I started last week (about 72 or so little plants) that I plan on planting around my veg garden squares to both define the space and look pretty as well as provide for alot of Pesto to store this fall.

The second leaves on my Cucumbers and Tomatoes have started. The second set of leaves are always telling as they have the distinct shape of the adult plant. here is a tomato Have any of you started seedlings yet for your garden?

We were also talking about ironing sheets on the Forum and I thought this video was a good demonstration on how to iron a fitted sheet.

How to clean an iron:

If the substance stuck on the bottom of the iron is waxy, you should turn the iron onto its highest setting and run it across newspaper until the residue disappears.

If the substance is oily, then just wet a rag with ammonia. Next, just rinse the iron off with some water and the gunk should be gone.

Vinegar works as a cleaning agent for many irons. Pour some on a clean cloth, and wipe the surface of an iron throughly. If that doesn't work, combine vinegar with baking soda. With a soft cloth, scrub the surface of the iron.

You can get rid of any build-up in the vents of the iron by taking a cotton swab or a pipe cleaner and gently sweeping the residue out of the area. If you attempt to use something of a harsher nature, like a tool or a knife, you could scratch the base of the iron, causing future problems.

To clean the reservoir of your iron, pour a solution that is one part vinegar to one part water in. Turn the iron on. Allow it to steam for about four minutes. Drain the iron for an hour, and be sure to repeat the process with clean water before you iron any clothing items.

The other day I had made some lovely white cupcakes. As I was out of cupcake papers, I merely greased the muffin tins to make them. Unfortunately, some of them came out ‘headless’ or not in cupcake form. So, rather than be upset, I realized I could use them later for a ‘cupcake bread pudding’.

Last night, I needed a quick dessert and rememberd I had stored the cupcake mistakes in the ice box. Though they had hardened some, I did not care as it works perfectly for bread pudding.

Now, I did not use a recipe but just sort of made up my own. I know that bread pudding has milk/cream and butter and eggs and usually sugar (though in this case I did not use any as the cupcakes were sweet enough). So, here is my recipe for

Cupcake Mistake Bread Pudding

So, I broke up the cupcake mistakes into a buttered baking dish. This was about 5-6 cupcakes.

So, for the amount I had, I used two eggs about 1 cup of milk with some cream mixed in and 3 TBS butter. As I learn more about cooking/baking, I often find myself just ‘making it up’ as I begin to understand how various ingredients are meant to work together. As long as your mix of butter, milk and cream fills up the dish as you see here, you are right on the money. This gives it a very ‘custard’ sort of mixture.

Now, you can add any thing at this point that sounds good, cinnamon (which I did) and of course, I love syrup, so I poured some of that in for good measure.

Then you bake at 350 F for 45-50 minutes. You want to bake an egg/cream mixture like this longer and lower temp, so that it can rise properly.

It turned out beautiful and it tasted wonderful! Here you can see all the lovely browned bits. I served it with warm cream to pour on top in little bowls. The rest went with hubby today for his dessert in his lunch.

Desserts such as these and meals such as meat/veg pies and casseroles can be a homemakers best friend. They allow you to take all the leftovers and make them into a wonderful dish. There is no waste and you can get inventive.

I have been lucky enough to get a few people to do guest blogs for the website. I will be trying to feature this more often (hopefully weekly) as time goes on. Today we have guest blogger Rue from Rue’s Peanut Butter and Jelly life, so go to the SITE and scroll down to read her ‘Guest Blog’.

I am also putting up the very basic bones of the new INTERIORS page. It is very rough at this point, but you can see the layout and what is to come. Now I just need to ‘flush it out’ everyday.

Until later, then, or I shall see you on the Forums page. Happy Homemaking!