A Little Trip

We spent the weekend on a very cold trip to the interior of Oregon where Stan had scheduled to be a substitute for one of the preachers. He drove 35 mph the whole time on packed snow, but with traction tires he enjoyed the driving and the snow very much!  His sermon was good and they said he was "medium-winded." That is better than long-winded but not as good as Edward Ferrars preaching "very short sermons" a-la Sense and Sensibility. 

We stopped at a favorite shop and right away the people who owned it pointed out the red truck ornaments. One of them said, "We love our trucks in America, and especially red ones!"

My husband was quite taken by this little canvas painting of a truck, with a ribbon hanger, the size of a post card, with battery operated lights, so he bought some in lieu of greeting cards. As we left the store, someone else told us "This is truck country. We revere our trucks: old ones, new ones, and the ones that are falling apart." He proceeded to describe the garden his wife had grown in the back of his Grandpa's old truck. 

This is a wrought iron carriage that is very popular in summer, when you have to pay a fee to sit in it for a photo.

This is what the inside looked like. People were not lining up for a chance to sit in this snowy seat.

I hope that cushion  is water proof.

The sage green color of this carriage is marvellous. There is a gathered type curtain inside the dome. It is always interesting to see the many ways fabric is used.

The sewing machine was packed and the weekend was spent inside the warm motel room sewing and making cards with some of the family.

This zany zebra flannel fabric had been in the fabric stash for several years and finally turned into warm sleepwear for my girls. Sewing went a lot faster when sequestered in a warm room with no household distractions.  

View from the saloon window. The saloon is an old hotel that is now a restaurant. The upper level rooms are all dining areas and conference rooms. The food there is great. 

Above picture: Looking outside the motel room. The motel had a huge breakfast buffet, where we met some construction workers from Croatia who told us the winter weather was not at all daunting to them. "It is like summer to us!" they laughed.

Some of you will remember helping buy the rose shaped buttons for this coat that I made a few years ago. The local stores had a limited supply of these unique buttons, so blog friends were finding them in their fabric stores and sending them to me.  Ten buttons were needed and the cost was about $2.00 each, as they were very large buttons, which ended up costing as much as the fabric,  so your help was certainly appreciated! 

This picture, above, does not show acurately what looked like a delicious slice of vanilla cream confection, made by the snow plow as it neatly scraped the snow to the right of the road.  It looks like a wonderful sheet cake.

Now here are the cards that were made:

I even took a tea set and a red runner:

Below: more of that chiffon cake.  

Fabric like this would be interesting.

Stopping at a year-round Christmas store on the way back:

a slice of thick whipped cream cake:

Taking tea in the saloon:

Someone was coming for Afternoon Tea later on in the week and I was glad to get home and get ready for that. I saw so much of the color red, including red walls in the motel room, it inspired me to add a few red things to the house just to make it brighter. There were several red pieces of fabric in my sewing room and a couple of red cushions:

The February Issue of Victoria is where  we got the idea for the cards. The cookies on the cover are so lovely and the cards are pastel backgrounds with cameos in the centers.

The coat pattern is a 2009 edition of Butterick #5425.  I added the faux fur cuffs, hem and hooded scarf. Note with polar fleece, the garment is very heavy and warm, and keeps out the wind. A lining is not needed, although the pattern requires it. I had to alter the pattern to accommodate no lining.  This pattern also might make up into a very nice winter dress. Fleece is a non-woven synthetic fabric and it is not one of the recommended fabrics listed on the pattern package. The pattern is made for wool, velvet, poplin and tweed.

Snow Scenes

Learning to Relax at Home

Hello Dear Ladies,

Included on this page today are the wonderful paintings of Susan Rios. It would be such a cheerful addition to the home to have paintings like this would it not?  For many people, the price for such great art is quite out of reach, but the pictures are posted here so that you might get some ideas to make your home cheerful and bright. 

There is always so much to keep you busy at home, and that is a good reason to have a master list and a daily list of reminders. 

Of course you know that it is not possible to always have that perfect look in the house, especially if you are busy and active and your family spends most of the time actually living in the house. To keep encouraged, it might be enjoyable to get something "picture-perfect" long enough for a memorable picture.

Having a bright, neat spot somewhere in the house is restful to the emotions and helps your family appreciate order and beauty.

Having no particular issue to address today, I am just saying hello and broadcasting what I call "Housewife Radio" just to express the principle of learning to relax at home.

One of the follies of feminism is how it programs women from a very young age, even down to kindergarten, to be concerned about things not related to the home. Young girls become burdened down with pressures of school and grades and being smart, and that becomes more pressure to get jobs and make money and live on their own, where the pressure increases.  Here at Home Living, you will find the Biblical alternative of letting young ladies be home, learn the routines of cooking, sewing, cleaning, reading to little children, the art of visiting and conversation, letter writing, and all the things that seem to be lost in the culture around us. 

The home is the center for family conversation. Children learn to exchange ideas and speak back and forth with different age groups, rather than just their peers.  Home is a center for evangelism and hospitality, both which can work together. Home is for developing talents and creative skills. 

There is so much that can be learned in the home, from appliance and house repair, food production, serving others, and even nursing normal illnesses.Many ladies at home can attest to the comfort of being brought a cup of hot soup to nourish them while in bed with a headache or cold. These things that happen in the home are far too devalued today.

Not everything has to happen "somewhere else."  Folks start their days getting ready to go "somwhere else. " People get their social life "somewhere else." They do their creative work "somewhere else." They eat "somewhere else."  They go on vacation "somewhere else."  Children are taught to grow up and go "somewhere else." 

At Home Living, this author has learned that one reason people want to go "somewhere else" is because the home is not as cheerful and uplifting as it could be.  Those of you who are older can remember tablecloths on the tables, Grandmother's china brought out for special days,  bright quilts on the beds, shiny floors and bathtubs. There may even have been fresh flowers from the garden set in jelly jars or tin cans, just for a bright spot here and there. Conversations stimulated the intellect and satisfied the soul. Knowledge and wisdom was passed from father to son, in the home.

Most importantly, good values cannot be eroded as easily when the family is home for the most productive and teachable hours of the day. Here, they reinforce the Biblical standards and help one another stay faithful to the Word.  Yes, everyone errs and sins, but the home is a place that stabilizes and recovers the soul. It is here the sympathy, forgiveness and restoration is complete.

The world and its corruptness is literally knocking at the door of the home, with its news, magazines, music and whatever else.  That is one reason the New Testament teaches in Titus 2 for the Christian women to guide and guard the home. The home is a word that means "house and those who live in it."  So a Christian lady will guard from the false teachings of the world, and then guide the minds of the family to what is good and acceptable in the sight of God.  It is in the home that she is in charge. It is her realm.

Make the home a place you want to be so that the best words you can hear are "Let's stay home."

Dress Ingedients:

Pattern - McCalls  with sleeves from a vintage pattern. See previous dress sewing post.

Fabric -woven cotton , made in USA Hobby Lobby $5.00 a yard $20.00 ( This is more than I usually pay)

Thread, zipper $2.50

Cotton eyelet lace -Hobby Lobby $3 

Time to make: about 5 hours spread over several days, not including travel and shopping.

The fabric has  a sparkle sheen to it and it washes well, without diminishing the shine.

Cotton dresses are so comfortable.

The cotton fabric looks like this on the inside....

...and this is the shiny side.

Tea in Arizona

A friend who had tea recently in Arizona was impressed with How authenthically British it really was.  It would be, wouldn't it?  It is run by a lady from England. It is the English Rose Tea Room in Carefree, Arizona.

It is also a shop full of tea things.

Her favorite on the menu was Ploughman's  lunch, above.

You know Americans adore everything British:

People who like tea time want to be British.

You might not be able to realize your dream of going to England, but maybe you can go to Arizona.

Some of the Other Things in Proverbs 31 (Video 26)

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Dear Ladies,

Those of us who remember the way the worthy wife in Proverbs 31 used to be taught have noticed the trend to present it as a working woman who sells land and makes money in the market--full time or part time on a regular basis.

But in this video I suggest you have another look at the other things in Proverbs 31.  Today the big emphasis is on the worth of a woman being the money she brings in to the home, where as in days gone by--yes, even in the day Proverbs 31 was written, she had value just for being someone's wife. That alone was a treasure, more valuable than rubies.

The Proverbs 31 model has become a reason to send women to work for a living, and to labor at things other than her own home.  There is not one preacher who will not say, "Oh but even the Proverbs 31 woman went to work!" and yet there are only a few verses that mention money, merchants, profit and selling.

Let us have a look at what it really says, and what the other things Proverbs 31 teaches.

I briefly covered verse 26: "The teaching of kindness is on her tongue," which I will address in this text.

What if, instead of instantly parroting the belief that has been so programmed into us in this era: "The Proverbs 31 woman was a working woman!"  the teachers and preachers promoted verse 26?

The teaching of kindness is on her tongue.  Yes, let us promote that verse and see the effect: Women and girls who are kind and not so harsh with their brothers and sisters, their children, their fathers and mothers and grandparents, and even with their very own selves. Would that not result in a better home, a better church, a better world and a calmer, more contented woman, self-controlled and free of the memory of rash moments of unkind words?

When people promote only the selling part of Proverbs 31 they are only putting value on money-making.  This money will "make itself wings and fly away" in almost no time but the teaching of kindness will make a woman beautiful inside and out, and go on into the next generation. Older women need to teach younger women how to be kind.

I hope you enjoy this little talk and will send all your great comments.

Also, the dress I am wearing (for the home) is made from a lovely soft cotton that feels so dreamy, called Waverly Inspirations from Walmart.  It is a perfect autumn pink and I already have the multi-generational dresses (for church and home) in the works! The print looks like pink honeycomb!  I enjoy the feel of the fabric on my fingers  when I sew it.

I used this pattern for my dress, with sleeves from another pattern.

I guarantee this is the most comfortable fabric I have ever worn.

I like the pink piping that sets off the print so nicely, and piping on dresses has almost become  my personal  trademark. It's on the sleeves, also.

I got this pretty scarf at Goodwill; it was brand new from their selection of new things, which I think they call "salvage", often still in the original packages from stores.

I want to introduce you to this new coach, made from a domed garden trellis and wire wreaths for wheels.  I am scouting around all the thrift shops for a horse!

There is one of the pink porcelain doll pumpkins from the garden, 

...and here is the coach from the side. It does not really go anywhere or move. It is purely decorative.

This is how the coach looked as it progressed, before the wheels were covered and the vines were draped. This horse was the only thing I could find for the coach (one of my children's old toys). It is not very convincing but it may make you smile.

I made a new friend in Russia via Skype and today she told me she thought it was a good horse becaise it would not go very far away. I do worry about horse thieves out here in the country so I bring the horse in to the house at night :-)

Below: a table top Cinderella carriage plant holder

Here is the one I really wanted, from Pinterest.

I found these lanterns at Goodwill and placed them on the side of the coach, along with a real lightweight plastic hanging light from the center.  The whole structure is very thin and lightweight ....a bit wobbly, so I have to be careful not to put anything too heavy on or around it.

A solar plastic bead chandelier hanging from the top:

Already, a few people have stopped by after seeing it from the road and asked if it is a wedding coach and if there was going to be a wedding. Hmmmm. Guess I will have to make a Victorian wedding dress to "go with".

Proverbs 31: Career Woman? (And Lydia, Seller of Purple)

(I thought you would enjoy the picture of this flowering tree that I took from a window)

Hello Ladies,

There has been a trend in the last two decades to turn the Proverbs 31 woman into a real estate seller, a shop keeper, a business woman, a career woman: and always with the emphasis on money.

What other things besides buying and selling and making a profit, did the King's mother teach him about a worthy wife? 

The first thing that comes to mind is the part that says the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. After that, there is the part that says she makes garments out of cloth. Then, she works with willing hands. Also, she stretches her hand to the needy.  There are many more qualities in Proverbs 31 besides these.

In the last 20 years that I have been writing about the women being home, I have received many letters telling me the Proverbs 31 woman must have been a career woman because she earned money selling things.  There is nothing wrong with making something at home and selling it, but there is no example here to leave your husband, children and house in the care of others, and pursue a career. See the article in "Adventures in Keeping House" which explains this in more detail.

In all these years I have never received a letter asking how a woman can learn to have "the teaching of kindness on her tongue", which is also on the list of requirements for a wife, that King Lemuel's mother taught him.  What is the teaching of kindness? Where is the desire to develop the teaching of kindness? Instead, most of the letters are about the Proverbs 31 woman and her marketing ability and her money-making skills. 

Next, she makes clothing, and her family is clothed in the most high quality fabrics--clothing she made for them. Obviously she did not sell those garments.

Where are the letters asking how to make your family's clothing out of scarlet, a rich, high-end fabric?  What about the tapestries made by the Proverbs 31 woman--where are the women desiring to know how to do that for their homes? Instead, most of the things listed in Proverbs 31 are ignored, while eyes are drawn like magnets to the words: buy, sell, makes a profit.  It just shows where people's minds are these days.  But, give it another twenty years and a new trend will emerge telling us the Proverbs 31 woman worked in a cotton or woolen factory, making cloth all day. (Because she used spindle at home).

Also, as she "looks well to the ways of her household," why are there so few women wanting to know how to do that? Instead, when it comes to the Proberbs 31 woman, all they see is the way she markets a product.

Ladies, let us teach the younger woman to see the many other things in the Proverbs 31 list, besides buying and selling.  There is something very lopsided about the modern view of the Proverbs 31.  I hear a lot about how she was a career woman, but never does anyone demand that women at home be responsible for sewing clothing for her family (and servants) as listed in the Proberbs 31.  Neither do I hear these women ask how to "seek food from afar" --one of the things on the list. 

"Look at Lydia, in the New Testament," they say. "She was a seller of purple cloth!"  How excited it makes them, when they read the word "seller." (Not excited about the wonderful, high-quality cloth, usually fit for a queen, but the selling!). They are not as impressed with her faith, her obedience and subsequent salvation, as they are about her selling!

 Of course there is nothing wrong with selling something if you are a homemaker, but there is an obvious overlooking of the many other things about Lydia.  The more important spiritual points of the account of Lydia in the book of Acts were:

-She was a worshipper of God who gathered at the river with other believers.

-When she heard the message of the Apostle Paul, the Lord opened her heart.

-She compelled Paul to come to her house, where he taught everyone that lived there.

-as a result of the gospel message, she and all her household who believed were baptised that very day.

Her selling of purple was not addressed at all except to identify her. After that, the story reveals her reliable worship attendance, her teachable heart, her hospitality, her influence over her household, and her obedience to the gospel message.  Yet, I never hear about these qualities when the feminists write to me. They always say, "After all, even Lydia in the New Testament was a seller of purple!"  

I wonder if they want to be just like Lydia or like the Proverbs 31 woman, why they do not desire to sew or work with fabric, but rarely, if ever, use these verses to propel them to make clothes.  And if they so admire Lydia in Acts, why they do not have a strong desire to show hospitality to a preacher and listen to his message, or, why they do not teach everyone in their homes about the great commission. 

If we go into scripture wanting to find something to justify what we are wanting to do, rather than trying to find where we are wanting (lacking) we will miss the whole story with the real wealth scripture offers.

Finally, as I said in the previous Proverbs  31 posts, Titus 2 is the pattern for Christians today, and it is much simpler than Proverbs 31. It does not mention money, buying, selling, profit, or any enterprise. Titus 2 focuses on LOVE: the Christian woman's love of her husband, her children, and her home.

The Bible contains the pattern for us to follow. Some people want to change the pattern to fit themselves, rather than change themselves to fit the pattern. 

Added December 2017:

Lydia, the seller of purple, Deborah the judge, Esther the Queen: obviously women throughout history have held prominent places in life (long before the demands of "women's liberation movement" which shows that they were not "held back."  This is another subject entirely. I don't believe any of these women are intended to be examples of women getting away from being wives, mothers and keepers of the home. I don't think we should look at Deborah and consider her an example for women to be judges, although they will have to employ that skill in due time when they are in charge of their own homes and families.

There is probably a lot we do not know about Lydia, who sold cloth, such as if she was married, had children, took her children with her to sell cloth, or of people came to her house to buy cloth.  Instead of being identified by a surname, like most of us, she was identified by the fact she sold cloth. The cloth selling was not the point of the written report about Lydia. Her interest in the gospel was the point. 

Morning Tea and Conversation

(More to come..)