Altered Boxes

It seems that "altered" is all the rage, and has been for several years. I've altered things before it was an artform. If I wanted to keep a magazine or a book but disliked a picture or a some kind of word, I would glue something over it, like a sticker. If I liked a card, but it had the wrong message on it, I would alter it by putting a picture on it and changing the word "aunt" to "grandmother," or something like that.







For years, I have thought there was a camera in my house, and that someone was stealing my ideas and putting them on the web. Just about the time I do something creative, I discover it being sold in a store.



I thought about what I would like to alter, that has not been done before. I know there are collage cards, altered cards, altered books, and altered just about everything.

I looked around to see what needed to be altered in my house and found my crayon box. For my birthday, my daughter bought me the biggest most deluxe box of crayons she could find. I always liked crayons, especially the kind where the colors were arranged in order and gradually faded into the next color. Now they are mixing up all the crayons, so I had my little helper put them all in order. I also loved the smell of new crayons.

I think that adults should use crayons. Little children don't appreciate them as much. I've always wanted a nice container for the crayons that would look nice in my house also, and not commercial. Here are the before and after pictures of the altered crayon box.

The materials were: scrapbook paper, scribbles paint in silver glitter, (could use glitter glue also), stickers, and a stretchy ribbon from another box.















Now, if someone else comes up with this idea, I'll know for sure there is a camera hidden in my house. See also http://homeliving.blogspot.com/2008/02/another-altered-gift-bag.html and

http://homeliving.blogspot.com/2008/02/another-altered-gift-bag.html

The Effect of Architecture on Home Living

"Americans wonder why their houses lack charm...charm is dependent on connectedness, on continuities, on the relation of one thing to another.."

"Houses have become utterly charmless, lacking in the capacity to inspire..."

"The finest Gothic dwellings were sheer enchantments, passports to another place and time." (The above quotes are also included in the next to last chapter of Linda Lichter's book on Victorian life, "Simple Social Graces" or "The Benevolence of Manners." Both titles are the same text)

This British writer has something to say about the effect of modern architecture on our cities.

House Design by Alexander Jackson Davis, architect(1815-52)




American Homestead
Framed Art Print
Landry, Paul
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I will begin by saying that I never felt as isolated, restless, trapped or jailed in the log home built by my father and mother in the wilderness (you can see photographs of it in my book, "Just Breathing the Air.") My parents, with no architectural training, knew what they wanted in a house that would be a home and they managed to put it there using their instincts. I never felt so lonely, and I never felt overwhelmed with housework and storage space (even in a family of 9) in that simple two storey house, as I did thereafter when I began living in the modern neighborhoods. After my son in law began to uncover the schemes behind modern architecture, both my daughter and I began to understand why these houses had such a debilitating effect on our lives. Here, I will attempt to explain.

Two Story Cottage
Art Print
Jaye, Merryl
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The homestead, as isolated and primitive as it was, was humming with activity and life. It was a real home, with windows overlooking the scenery. We slept upstairs where the heat collected from the wood stove, and where we felt safe from intrusion. You can see diagrams of the floor plan in my book. It had no matching appliances but there was always a feeling in it that I could never produce in the modern tract home. There was always someone coming down the home road to see us, whether it was the mail delivery with a package, or a neighbor. Even a bill collector got invited in for a cup of coffee. There seemed to be never a dull moment and even the quiet times were fulfilling.

Lakefront Home
Art Print
Chiu, T. C.
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In comparison, my experience in modern housing was quite the opposite. At first I was excited, after so far away for so long. I thought I would be around people and that there would be more interaction, but I did not see people. Instead, I saw the back of their cars as they left their houses. If I did have company, I had to be careful that visitors did not park in neighbor areas and that we did not disturb the neighborhood in any way. Neighbors were not neighborly and everything was impersonal. I woke up to bleakness I'd never known before, and many other homemakers said the same thing. Part of this was due to the modern architectural planning of houses and neighborhoods. The homemakers eventually went to work, as the isolation of these neighborhoods was just too much for them. The neighborhoods and houses seemed to be designed to make people want to leave home.

Autumn Breeze
Art Print
Humphries,...
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Together Tonight
Art Print
Lewan, Dennis...
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I want to congratulate the 20th and 21st century homemakers who really made homes and conducted good family lives inside these limited houses. They overcame the worst odds and embellished them, sometimes adding gates, dormers, porches, columns, window boxes, shutters, gardens and windows, and other architectural salvage, in order to transform them with life and beauty. They created doorways and arches and all kinds of things to make the house memorable, and even inspire artists. All over the web I see these make-overs and I have to say to the modern architect who embraced these (what I call "prison designs") styles, that these women overcame the limitations and did a greater job than the Victorian women even had to, in order to make the homes livable. The women who make these "shabby shacks," which had no architectural advantages, into livable homes are to be congratulated. In this respect, they had more fortitude and determination than any Victorian woman ever had to have.

Spring Patio I
Stretched Canvas Print
Kim, Sung
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The 20th century "progressives" (often referred to as modernists) sought to throw off authority and restraint and basic principles in just about everything. They rebelled against the manners and the sensibilities of their Victorian parents and grandparents, and attempted to make it fashionable to strip everything of its outer facade. They ended up with buildings minus entry ways and embellishments, clothing without structure, art without beauty, music and poetry without rhythm, meter or even sense, literature laced with despair, and religion without good foundations.

One such person happened to be the granddaughter of Catherine Beecher. Catherine herself, of whom I have previously written of in this blog, was a Victorian, who thought homes should be light and airy and friendly to the home maker. Her granddaughter, a twentieth century modernist, wrote in her rebellion, " We are, after all, just animals. All we need is stalls to live in."
She advocated plain houses with no view and no furniture and no embellishments or color. Her rebellious writings made me wonder if she was just trying to get out of keeping house.

Lazy Afternoon
Art Print
Sakhavarz, Alan
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I have discussed at length in previous articles at the Lady Lydia Speaks column at LAF, the effect of the rejection of responsible moral principles on art, showing an example of art from the 19th century which was easily recognizable, and comparing it to a piece from the 20th century with only black scribbles on it. Today I would like to compare the 20th century architecture that we had to live in, with the homes of our Victorian parents and grandparents.

Grandmother's Doorway
Art Print
Graves, Abbott...
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Have a look at the old Victorian neighborhoods. You can take a drive around the streets of almost any town and see the years go by: Victorian, 1920's bungalows, 1930's and 40's wartime homes, 1950's homes, and then the 60's and 70's....you can identify them by their style. Usually there are several streets that begin in the 1800's and then after a few blocks you can see the next century. One thing that stands out supreme in the Victorian neighborhoods, even in the crowded row houses of some towns, is that each "Victorian" is different in style and color, making it very interesting. As I said, Victorian wasn't really a style of its own. It borrowed from many different styles, has many different roofs, porches, gables, pillars and columns, verandas and porches, steps. Each house is different. This explains somewhat why letters could just be addressed to the family, with no number on the street. You could find the house because you knew the Jones or the Smiths lived in the blue Queen Anne next to the yellow Georgian. Compare this to the modern tract homes (the homes built by contractors, squeezed onto a plot of land), are so similar in color and style that it is not easy to identify your friend's house. I have old post cards that have only the name of the person and the town they live in. I realize the population has grown, which entails a new address system with numbers on the houses, but I do think the tract homes lack that identifying charm that says "this is our HOME. I think it really shows spunk in the 21st century men and women to paint these houses they are stuck with, an identifying color, and add trim and porches to them.

Home Sweet Home
Giclee Print
Currier & Ives
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The Victorians architects were people like Alexander Jackson Davis, and Andrew Jackson Downing. You can tell their mothers admired one of the presidents of the time, Andrew Jackson. I will mention other architects of the time, later on, but these are two that I want to focus on, who had in their minds, cozy homes for families of the 19th century.

You can read about Alexander Jackson Davis and see some of his designs here
http://www.fredericklawolmsted.com/ajdowning.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Jackson_Davis


http://www.amazon.com/Apostle-Taste-1815-1852-Creating-Landscape/dp/0801862574
A few months ago I found a free online printable book by Davis and Downing, full of lovely family homes, in which he describes how they can be lived in, adding remarks like, "Just plant an apple tree on the side...etc." I cannot find that book at this time, but it is there, somewhere.

A.J. Downing, with whom Davis collaborated on a book of houses for common people, said, "There must be nooks and crannies about it, where one would love to linger...cozy rooms where all domestic fireside joys are invited to dwell." I felt this on the homestead in various corners of the "big house" as we called it. I did not feel it in the modern tract houses.

The Victorians built up, instead of out. The modernist created the ranch or the "rambler," which was aptly named, for in it, the homemaker finds herself walking what seems like the length of a ranch, and literally "rambling" all day from one end of the house to the other. What she needs is usually at the end of the house where she is not, and once she gets there she has to walk all the way back, to use it. These houses, though they have ample expanse, have never had the kind of storage spaces women needed in order to keep their homes uncluttered.



Fairy Tale Time
Art Print
Jaye, Merryl
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Building out also meant that bedrooms were on the ground level. In my opinion this invited prowlers, and then fear of prowlers caused us to install extra precautions, such as bars on the windows and hedges to block out all scenery. On the ground level, people in bedrooms hear every single noise, from the door rattling in the wind, to a creak in a window at night. In order to escape this uneasy feeling at night, children in those kinds of homes will often forgoe the "privilege" of having a room of their own apiece, and choose their parents' room to sleep in at night.



Reminiscing
Art Print
Saunders, Bill
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The Victorian (which consisted of several popular styles, including Greek Revival, Gothic, Italiante, Farmhouse, Cottage, and more) custom of building UP, did a lot for the property. We complain about there being only breathing space between houses in modern neighborhoods, and that they are little more than glorified apartments when they are so close to the next house. The Victorian homes being built UP meant more out-lying property surrounding the house. In other words, they were not "rambling" all over the place. This meant they were able to use their imagination to create wonderful gardens, like extra "rooms" to sit in, walk in, muse in, pray in, and look on with appreciation.



Together Tonight
Art Print
Lewan, Dennis...
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Victorian homes were built by husbands and fathers or hired to be built by them, for their beloved wives and daughters and family members. These homes were so loved and valued that they were often handed down throught the generations until they literally wore out. It takes a lot of living and a lot of abuse and a century to ruin the Victorian houses, but the modern tract home takes only a few months to destroy with careless living. That is something to think about.

The modern home was built for quick access. The gardens were not emphasized because the property was created to accomodate what I call in this fast-food era, "fast families," which will enable them to drive up quickly in their car, alight into the kitchen from the garage, eat, take a shower, and then get ready to go "somewhere else," paying little attention to the layout and the gardens or anything else in the home. They wouldn't need to spend much time in it so they wouldn't notice that there were no architectural interest. After all, it was just for resale value, not a home to be passed to the next generation.

Lacking porches or balconies, families have no special places to go, so they just want to get out and go somewhere else. It keeps society moving around daily, nightly and yearly, looking for some place they can feel comfortable. Many modern houses are poorly lit, and inadequately heated or cooled. Sometimes they feel more like institutional buildings than homes.


Tea at Glenbrook
Art Print
Colclough, Susan...
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The architecture of the homes of the 19th century inspires tours of these great houses that have been saved and restored. I wonder how much touring the next generation will do of the modern tract home. I can just hear the guide, saying, "Notice the easy access to this house. They didn't have to walk down a walkway, and there were no gardens to bother with. The 20th century citizen had all these embellishments removed, including porches and gazebos, so he could concentrate on intellectual things, making money, climbing the career ladder... the doors were hollow, in order to save expense, the roofs were not pitched, because that was an unnecessary affectation. Of course, there was some leakage from the ceiling, but modern water-proofing took care of that. You could just spray it on and eliminate the holes." Again, I say, with the obviously quick access to the entry of these new houses, I wonder that the architect even bothered with a door. Perhaps it would have been more "efficient" to have the passenger suctioned from the car down a tube straight into a chair in the kitchen, where food would be automatically served.

Sunny Monday
Art Print
Blish, Carolyn
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Windows of the modern homes I've lived in were, more often than not, too high to look out of. Many children grew up without window seats or the pleasure of sitting near a window and just looking outside. The huge plate-glass windows often used in the living rooms, were sometimes a magnate for hot sun, making it impossible to sit in that room in the summer. Breaks in plate glass entails expensive replacements. They paned windows of the Victorian designs were easy to replace, and should one pane be cracked, you could at least tape it up or put a piece of paper in that one pane until it could be replaced. Modern homes do not have enough over-hang of the roofs to create the shade that is needed to shield the home from intense heat and light.

Shades of Spring
Art Print
Masters, Sherry
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I once lived in an older home and noticed how thoughtful the design seemed to be. It was as though the architect said, "I know the lady of the house will be writing letters in the morning, and reading her mail, therefore, her desk will go with this window to capture the morning light," or "if there is an artist in the house, this northern room will be perfect for a little studio." In the kitchen, a woman could easily step out a door into a little garden to get fresh herbs and vegetables for a soup. In a modern tract home, we often have to walk around to an awkward area and don't even get there in time to chase away the neighbor's cat.


Yarmouth
Art Print
Brown, Betsy
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Kitchens in modern homes seem to be merely alley-ways between two points in the house. Someone is always walking through with laundry to put in the laundry room, or coming in from the side door on their way to some other room. This kind of traffic creates more housekeeping, and also more traffic jams. The so-called "efficiency kitchen," which was designed to reach over and open the fridge, use the stove, and turn on the faucet, in one or two steps, are not efficient when it comes to serving a meal, or working together as a family. The farmhouse kitchens were also the eating areas and provided much more room and made much more sense. Homemakers will understand, I am sure!

Fruhling
Art Print
Weber, Max
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There is much more I can say about the modern home and I will briefly cover some of the other problems. For one, the children's bedrooms are on the outer areas of the house, which I do not believe is safe. Sometimes they even face the street, and have a street light pouring into the room at night. The Victorian bedrooms were usually upstairs. In upper rooms, it would be more difficult for passers-by to be seen in the window, or for anyone to peek in unless they took a great deal of trouble to get a ladder and risk their neck doing so. Upstairs will collect more heat in winter, as heat rises, and keep the children's room warmer. Upstairs, you hear fewer noises than when you sleep downstairs, and can rest better. Bathrooms are often put in even stranger areas with no windows for fresh air. Pity the poor person in the tub when the electric current goes off, in one of those modern bathrooms.


Morning Glory
Art Print
Strubel, Klaus
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Now let me move on to the neighborhoods that these poor homes were relegated to. It is interesting to see the diabolical design behind "suburbia." I don't know if anyone ever has felt, especially if you were born in the 40's or 50's, that they don't feel like they belong to their town, or that their town or neighborhood is no longer like home, or that they just don't feel it is even their country anymore...well, you are not going crazy. It has something to do with the way houses and neighborhods of the 20th century were designed.

Little Piece of Heaven
Art Print
Strubel, Klaus
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First of all, houses had no porches, verandas, steps, walkways, court yards entry ways, parlors,
or over-hang from the roofs. You arrived at the house and you were suddenly "in." You have no breathing space, no time for thought, no time for recollection. You are transported rapidly from the train or the car to the inside of the house. Without an entry way to even cause a pause in your breath, there you are, right in the living room, with nowhere to put your hat or coat or bag. I wonder that the architects even took the trouble to put a front door on these houses, since no one uses it. They usually come in through the side door from within the garage. Is it any wonder that people suffer from claustrophobia, panic attacks, depression, and general disturbance of the heart?


Working on Chores
Art Print
Coleman
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Some of the older homes of the 19th century may look a little bleak at first, but you can imagine that they were once busy places where children had something to do, with spaces that meant something to them. The modern tract home seems to lack this feeling of belonging. At least, many of the homes of the previous generations were actually owned by the occupants. Today, many women express this common sentiment: I would rather have a run down old house and own it outright than have all these modern things and have to pay so much interest and never get out of debt.


Spennymoor Manor
Art Print
Mock, Barbara
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I learned that these neighborhoods were deliberately designed to shut out your neighbors. Without front porches, we no longer sat on the them and observed the comings and goings and the behavior our our own and the neighbor's children. We were unable to see when a crime was committed. We could not observe anything that was going on. With the windows facing our neighbor's house, we could not look out without our neighbor thinking we were peering into his house, so we shut the drapes and retreated to the privacy of the back yard.


If one attempts to go for a walk in their neighborhood, they must pass within very close proximity of their neighbor's front windows, and feel self-conscious that they are intruding on private property. Even the barrier of a side walk does not remove that feeling. The whole design makes us all more suspicious of our neighbor rather than loving of our neighbor.

Cape Cod Cottage
Art Print
Landry, Paul
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There is much more behind the scenes scheming in the devlopment of modern architecture. Whereas most architects of the past felt responsible to lift up mankind to acknowledge the presence of God, and to ennoble his soul through beauty and design that glorified God, the moderns of the 20th century stripped archecture of any embellishment or beauty, reasoning that it was "primitive, " or " conceited," and lacking in "meaning." They substituted it with their own "interpretation," which involved the belief that man had evolved and was more closely related to animals. He only needed a stall to live in and a place to eat. He could live without ornaments of beauty or gardens or flowers or windows to look out of.

Many women in modern homes with all the ammenities and conveniences and appliances they could wish for, have expressed the most fantastic sentiments, that would make the designers of these neighborhoods cringe. For example,

"I would rather live in a tent and own it outright, and have a great deal more nature to look at."

"I could actually do more with an older, broken down home, to make it livable and beautiful, than in this new house."

"I'd rather live in the house I grew up in...it seemed so much more like a real home."

"I have trouble adjusting to this house. Why should we "adjust" to a house? Shouldn't houses be things we are drawn to and enjoy, without having to agonize over all the problems they have?"

"Drapery is too expensive in these modern homes. That is why I use a blanket over the window."

I can relate to all these problems. The older homes did not seem to have so many things to adjust to. Alexander Jackson Davis, said, "A house should have nooks and crannies about, where one would love to linger..." In a modern home I was always wanting to take out walls and make more space, but in older homes, I loved the little spaces that existed. They seemed to be designed with a purpose and the contentment we felt in those kinds of houses was much more than in a modern structure.


Sunset on Lamplight Lane
Limited Edition
Kinkade, Thomas
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One French architect that my s.i.l. had to study, claimed that all we needed was houses designed as cars. Another architect of dubious character and a questionable home life, claimed all you had to do was ask a brick what it wanted to be. "I said to the brick, 'brick, what do you want to be? It answered me, 'I want to be an arch.' " Today this man's structures sit in modern decay, begging for money to resurrect them. One of these architects created a structure with airplain wings for the roof. The professor proudly told my son-in-law that this designer wanted to make the world a better place, and this piece was an expression of that. My son in law, older now, and more wise to the ways of modernists, said, "Just a minute. Please explain to us how that structure makes the world a better place." The teacher fell over his own words trying to get out of explaining it because the challenge startled him and he was not prepared to explain it.
To emphasize how a home can either be conducive to family life and family love, or be errosive, I found this quote by famed 20th century architect, Frank Lloyd Wright:

"A doctor can bury his mistakes but an architect can only advise his clients to plant vines. "

He also knew that architecture had a strong effect on the human mind, for he said that he could design a house that could cause a divorce in a matter of weeks.

Road to Lighthouse
Art Print
Chiu, T. C.
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I believe we should hold designers and architects responsible for what they do. In a free market system, every architect and designer should have to go back to the houses they created and ask the dwellers how they are getting along. It would be interesting to see if there are more family quarrels, more stress, less efficiency, less relaxation, or more family cohesiveness in the homes they live in. If the family expressed dissatisfaction, the designers would get a bad grade. Architecture schools would thrive only based on the reputation of the students they produced with their curriculums--whether or not that person's work was good and lasting, and whether o not the homes were desireable. Surveys would have to be produced that included how much crime was committed in those neighborhoods, divorce, family quarrels, and general discontent. That is not to say that human problems are the the entire fault of architecture, but just to show how bad architecture does contribute to some problems.



Enchanted Garden
Art Print
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I was unable to find paintings of modern homes to include here, as artists do not seem to be inclined to paint sentimental pictures of them, for some reason. Thomas Kinkade's paintings are now being adapted into actual building blueprints for homes.



For more about Andrew Jackson Downing, check here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Jackson_Downing

http://www.fredericklawolmsted.com/ajdowning.htm










(A design by A.J. Downing in the 1800's)

"Every house musthave something in its aspect which the heart an fasten upon and become attached to..." A.J. Downing

Online book of Alexander Jackson Davis house plans http://books.google.com/books?id=KuWL9UnyEWQC&dq=alexander+jackson+davis&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=iYnm5gk9wO&sig=JocedDS0ePT6QV6oeCABoZignFU

Addition (Oct. 1, 2007): My son in law has asked me to ask readers to post their observations of the effect of architecture on their moods and their daily life for some research he is doing while in architecture school. Things like traffic flow, interference, inconvenience, lack of beauty, isolation, uneasiness, etc....please post your thoughts and I'll send it all to him. Its okay to post anonymously but it also is okay to send pictures to describe the problems.

Also, I want to emphasise a point that one woman brought up in the comments. I commented on it but want to add it here: With any radical change that "they" (those who foist it upon us) want to present, comes the knowledge of just how much we will tolerate. Like bad legislation, they will often tack on an advantage that we just can't live without or that adds to our comfort, whether it be refrigeration or nice formica in the kitchen, to distract us from the other problems that we would object to. Then we end up living in houses that have terrible architecture--architecture that somehow makes us feel nervous or discontent, but we think, "I should be grateful, because I at least have running water and I'm not living in a tent." Well with some of these designs, I could have been happier in a tent or a motor home.The house made you want to scream. I've talked to other women about this and they said the same thing, "I thought it was just me. I thought I was being ungrateful." It isn't just you. There were efforts after major wars to change housing so that people would feel like animals. Modernists were educated to believe in evolution, and evolution plays a part in modern architecture. Christians, especially, will be so polite and so tolerant because they don't want to seem ungrateful, that these elitist designers will change our cities, add things to our water, and create all kinds of problems for us, knowing it will take years for anyone to notice to the point of objecting. Architecture is the same way. They create terrible looking buildings even in the country: barns that look like ammunition storage sheds, etc. taking away the beauty and sentimentality of the farms and creating horrid scenery for us to look at across the field. It is revolting. It took a hundred years to made the old Victorian houses break down and turn into haunted houses, but it only takes a few days to make you feel like screeching in shock at some of the newer places you have to live in, due to the bad architecture.

One major differences in the houses of the 19th century and the Victorian era is this: the houses were almost always built for someone, and rarely were two exactly alike, whereas the homes of the last couple of decades were built for sale. That makes a big difference in their comfort and design. It makes a big difference in their dignity. It makes a big difference in the family relationship.

Private Symbols in the Home

Evening Whisper
Art Print
McNaughton, Jon
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Rosen
Art Print
Kruger, E.
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Rosen in Silberner Schale
Art Print
Kruger, E.
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There has always been a spiritual aspect in the duties of homemaking. Without it, jobs become only tolerable and mundane. Many women new to full time homemaking have difficulty grasping the purpose of homemaking. They see it as housekeeping only. They quickly use up their enthusiasm for the role, when they only experience the material things like cooking, cleaning, laundry, ironing, and general home care. They do not realize that there are ways of doing these important tasks that improve the mood, and make it home-sweet-home; the kind of place that memories are made of. When little symbols and touches are added to the hard work, a home develops a spiritual atmosphere

Cleanliness and orderliness at home is not enough, if you want to have a feeling in your home. This feeling is achieved by adding private symbols that have meaning beyond their mere existence. Someone collected a list of these ennobling things for me to put on this blog.

Our little-miss-critic, who comes on this blog regularly, reminds us that these are "drudgery jobs" and she hires someone else to do them. She only wants to do things she enjoys. She is missing the spirit of the home. She does not understand the ennobling effect of adding the private symbols while putting the house in order, cleaning things, arranging, or rearranging.

To add your own private symbols and create more warmth or excitement in the house, consider doing the following:

1. Collect a stack of letters from your mother or grandmother or a friend, tie them in a bundle with a wired ribbon and add a piece of rosemary or a rose from the garden. Place it on a shelf or table, to remind you of the person and their contribution to your life.

2. Bring in flowers from your garden, or buy just one exquisite rose from the grocery store, and place it in a bud vase or a narrow bottle from your kitchen.

3. Cut out pictures from catalogs and magazines, or print your own from the web, and put them in frames.

4. Display your favorite books embraced by pretty book-ends. You can embellish plain book-ends with all kinds of things, even potted plants, to give them a more interesting look.

5. Get out all the linens and doilies that you never use and put them under lamps, over picture frames, on tables, draped over curtains, and on little shelves. It softens the look of the home, and it somehow seems quieter when these linens are covering the hard surfaces of tables and windows.

6. Add sea shells, beautiful rocks, or colored bottles to your window sills.

7. A candle in a candle holder is a nice touch, and it reminds us that even in the age of electricity, we can still use the same kind of light that our forefathers used from the beginning of time. If you use scented ones, particularly those that remind you of homey things, like cinnamon, the home feels more homey.

8. Put a bowl of fresh fruit in the kitchen.

9. Fold towels with the folds facing out, and stack them in the bathroom on a shelf or bench.

10. Display tea cups in the dining room.

11. Handmade crochet rugs really make a sitting room look homey.

12. Have one of your children play the piano or sing, during the day, or play soothing c.d.s and tapes while you clean house.

13. Hang beautiful artwork, even if it is a print, in your home. It has a refining and nobling effect on the occupants.

continued.

Taking Time To Reflect

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Before you read this article with intent to mock, go here http://homeliving.blogspot.com/2007/11/mature-audiences-only.html and read this. The list of 30 things was given to me as a teenager and I saved it. It was intended to help young women who claimed there was "nothing to do," or that they were "bored" at home. It was never intended to impose on any homemaker a must-do list. Most women never accomplish anything on this list because of the daily work that is necessary. It was not a list of things that would make you a perfect homemaker. It was intended to point out that homemaking is a full time job.

Young women need to also type in the words "Girls and Their Influence" and get an idea of why they cannot find a man to marry who will be a good provider and protector.

The 21st century progressives interpretation of Proverbs 31: 1-31 is increasingly biased towards the career woman who leaves her home daily to bring in a salary. I've not known the controversy over these verses until only recently, because prior to 1965, most women saw it as an ideal and left it at that. Today, they must analyze it and pick it apart until it means that she is a full time real estate sales person, and that she pulls in a salary. Preachers are liberalizing it so that they can justify the women putting careers first, skipping their duties at home, and bring in extra money for the family. Most preachers have their wives working these days and do not want to give up that extra money.

Instead of true study, many men are changing the meaning of scripture to suit the culture, rather than trying to change the culture to conform to the scriptures.

That chapter in Proverbs just gives you an idea of the worth of a homemaker, because of all that she does for her family. It was not intended to force women to work as realtors or as business women, and still expect them to manage the home perfectly. See what Miss Anna has to say about it on her blog here http://ccostello.blogspot.com/.
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Summer's Day in the Flower Garden
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I have a list of things that someone gave me when I was first married. It said, "If you can say 'yes' to these things 30 times, (for one month) you probably have time to take on a money earning job at home or go to work." This list also emphasised that women do not necessarily need to do every single thing. It was presented in case a woman said she was bored at home and wanted to go to work outside the home.

I believe that women should not take on extra work until she has the following things under control. Most new homemakers who have not had mothers and grandmothers as role models, will find it more difficult just to do the basics, so I would strongly urge you to do things in your relaxing time that really make you happy and relax you, rather than trying to prove you can bring in a second income.

The most intelligent, strong decision a woman can make is the decision to be a full time homemaker. It is not necessarily more "strong" or smart to choose a career or get a job...it is actually the easy way out of doing her duty. Strong, intelligent women at home have always been able to be artists, writers, inventors, midwives--even scientists. I've mentioned some of them in past articles. Progressives of the 20th century have always spread the stereotype that women at home are not "allowed" to do anything but house work, in an effort to persuade women to choose careers. They were told by the media and at school that homemaking is limiting their "choices," but you will find you have more choices and interests at home. At work, you are limited to the dictates of the company you work for, unless you have your own business. Many women have businesses at home that bring in extra money and give them great creative pleasure. There is nothing wrong with that, but to say a woman MUST earn money to make her of any value, or to say that she cannot do anything because she is "at home" is to mis represent women from the beginning of time.

Another thing that needs to be clarified is that although the Old Testament was written "for our learning, " as the New Testament states, it is the words of Christ that are my final authority, so, rather than anguish over Proverbs 31 and whether or not the woman was a full time real estate agent, I go to I Timothy 5:14 and Titus 2, and many other New Testament Scriptures that state clearly what is expected of a woman. The younger women were told to marry, bear children and keep house. That speaks volumes, and much more could be written about it by older women who have already experienced it. The older women were to teach the younger women how to love their husbands, love their children, and manage the home. There have been many good books that elaborate on how this is done in any given country or any given era. You can get a nice book called "Treasury of Vintage Homemaking Skills" by Mrs. Martha Greene, that elaborates on everything from laundry to cooking and more. I will add this book to the side bar.

Here is the list:

1. Do you have a morning routine in the house?
2. Are your dishes washed and put away?
3. Is your cabinet top clear?
4. Is your table clear, when not dining, and do you have a centepiece?
5. Have you cleaned your cupboards and storage areas and fridge in the last 3 months?
6. Is your porch clean and the entry way cheerful for visitors or people who see it from the road?
7. Are your carpets clean?
8. Is your floor clean?
9. Is your living room ready for company?
10. Is your laundry washed, folded, ironed and put away? (Keep in mind, I am not saying you have to do this. I am only listing it in case you think you have time to bring in another income!)
11. Is your mending and button replacement caught up?
12. Do you bake bread? (Once again, no one HAS to do it, but if a woman is bored, maybe she should bake her bread. It takes more time. It smells wonderful. It has far greater effects than can be listed here, both emotionally and physically or even involving childhood memory)
13. Is your bathroom shining clean and does it smell nice?
14. Does your house smell nice?
15. Have you re-decorated or re-arranged in the last 3 years? (You need not do it, but if you think you need to go to work or take on extra work earning money at home, why not put the time into re-beautifying your house?)
16. Are your beds made? Are your sheets and bedding fresh?
17. Do you hang your clothes on the line? (You needn't, but it takes more time, and is good for your health and it actually increases the life of your sheets and clothes, as opposed to the dryer)
18. Do you grow a garden, or even a tomato in a pot?
19. Are your drawers and storage areas organized?
20. Are your photos organized?
21. Are your computer files organized?
22. Is your correspondence caught up?
23. Do you make any of your own clothes?
24. Does your husband ever have to ask for an ironed shirt?
25. ARe your books organized?
26. Do you go through your things regularly for garage sales?
27. Are your windows clean?
28. Do you cook regular meals from basic ingredients?
29. Have you had anyone over for tea in the last month?
30. Do you read at least one good book or learn something new within the year, or learned any new skill?

Perhaps there are interests such as writing, crafts, hobbies, or other things that you can pursue. Some of these things also can be sold and can double your enjoyment of them. However there is always a danger of pressure and burn-out if it is done at the expense of keeping your home beautiful. I think it is fun to make something to sell once in awhile but I don't think women should be pressured to do it all the time.

NO one should feel they must do all of this, but the point is that there is always something you are needed for in the realm of the home and family. You are not NEEDED 'out there' in the same way. You can be REPLACED in a hired job, but at home you are not replaceable. There is a distinct role for you that NO ONE ELSE can fill. No one else can be the wife, or the daughter or the mother or the guide of the home. No one else can be in charge of the home but the homemaker. Even if you can say "yes" to these thirty things, there will be 30 more things waiting for you to do. If you are really bored, you can start a business at home. If you are tired of all the work at home, you can do something that relaxes you. Our foremothers used to read a great deal, write letters to their sisters and mothers, make hooked rugs, make jewelry, make all kinds of things! They loved going for walks and telling stories and I can't list all the other things. We have a generation of women who do not remember these things or have not had the privilege of experiencing them. Sometimes they do not know how to act at home.

I will remind you that these things are not all necessary, but it is important to know what all there is to do before attempting to take on more work. Now if a woman has a hobby and it gives her joy, and someone wants to pay her for making something for them, well and good. But I don't think home makers should feel any pressure to make money. They make money just by the work they do, because otherwise they would have to pay someone else to do it, pay for convenience food, pay for housekeepers, or pay for expensive clothes.

I have read several sites that recommend that women buy things instead of growing them, or making them, but in my opinion if you like to bake bread or knit, you should do it. My parents had what I call in my book, "Just Breathing the Air," a "Great Potato Enterprise." They cleared a spot in the back area and showed us how to plant potatoes. We went behind them as they dug up the rows and we plopped the sprouted potatoes in the holes. Then a brother or sister walked behind us and covered up the holes, and then another one watered it. We did a similar assemby line routine when it was time to harvest them. Since there were 7 children, our parents thought we ought to be busy and they let us sell some of the harvest. I mentioned in my book how much I enjoyed taking my share to market and what I bought with the money. Some people might argue that it would have been cheaper to buy potatoes elsewhere, but my parents liked the taste of new potatoes grown themselves, and they also wanted to help us learn to feed ourselves and learn to sell our products.

I do not mean to refute anything anyone else is writing about this, or to hurt anyone's feelings. but I just want to say that each family can do what suits them, as long as it doesn't endanger the wife's rest and health. I think in general, it puts too much pressure on a woman at home to expect her also to earn money.

Here is a sting to this list: Most people will never ever get it all done to the point they "have nothing to do." Some times the so-called empty-nesters can do a better job in their yard work, or get all the walls painted at the same time, or catch up on the photo albums. Even they are sometimes overwhelmed with the work of the home. That is why it takes a full time homemaker to do it effectively.

Also, a home maker should allow herself time to reflect. Our grandmothers and great grandmothers of the Victorian era (isn't it interesting that all of our generation had Victorian relatives--especially since so many young women seem to hate that era!!) took time to stroll in the garden, smell the roses, look at the water or watch a sunset. They enjoyed a glass of lemonade on their porches. They had time to make calls on other people and take baskets to other people. During the day, they didn't have to have people watch over and dictate to them how to live at home and what to do next. They seemed to have a natural instinct for it. The new generation has somehow had, through education, that instinct for the home removed from them, so that they are always looking for answers about how to conduct their days as homemakers. The best way to discover your routine and responsibilities is through observing daily what you seem to be doing. That is usually how homemakers operate. They do what needs to be done the most urgently, first, and then if they are able, do other things. Eventually a routine will develop.

Songs of Childhood
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Curran, Charles...
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Hammock
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Johnson, Edward...
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Summer's Day in the Flower Garden
Stretched Canvas Print
Reid, Robert...
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Something Nice

Enjoy the Old Painted Cottage of the Month here http://www.theoldpaintedcottage.com/cottagemonth.html

Check out Kristy Howards "Homemakers Cottage" and see her publication which features meals for a month! http://www.homemakerscottage.com/