Love's Sweet Offering

The altered vanilla box idea came from these vintage Victorian graphics, which are copyright free. Large boxes, such as those that held donuts or cakes, could be used to make something beautiful like this, but the tiny box here took just a fraction of time and a small scrap of paper.

The box was sealed at both ends with glue, then cut to open a different way, and covered in a piece of leftover scrap of paper. A piece of grograin ribbon was glued on. I used inexpensive white school glue for this project. Clothes pins help secure the papers in corners and other areas while they dry.

The inside of the box was lined with construction paper.

I added a small round doily and filled the box with metallic confetti, but it could be filled with just about anything, including a bar of hand made soap, hand made votive size candles, a collection of gift tags, or something nice to eat.

Without love, the Bible says, we are just noisy and empty - Ist Corinthians 13:1-3. I think there is a great lesson in those three verses, particularly in regard to women who feel that they are giving up their intellectual side, or somehow denying their drive to achieve, by becoming full time wives, or mothers or homemakers.

The one thing that all the intellectualism, through books, studying, lectures, and so forth, leaves out, is love. When love is the motivation in the home, knowledge is put to good use:- being thankful for a dwelling place here on this earth, we use our knowledge to keep it useful and clean enough. Cleaning house become an important way to show courtesy to others, but we also have to know when to attend to urgent needs of people in the family.

Knowledge is important, but without love, it does not have as much value. The woman at home has on-the-job-training, which actually increases her knowledge in areas that are aquired in any institution but the home. Love, knowledge, wisdom and understanding, must work together in the home. That takes good judgement and diligence, qualities that are not often developed outside the home. Home living provides so much more than the world can give. We can be satisfied physically by having a place to live and food to eat, but the homemaker adds love to it all.

Other Uses for Things

When You Are Sick

The advantages to being a full time homemaker when you are sick are manifold. There is no pay loss and no hurry to get well. There will be no anxiety about whether or not you can keep your job if your recovery is slow.

When you are ill, I think the best thing to do is go to bed. Taking too many remedies often covers up the illness, whether it be a cold or aches, and then you feel better so you keep working. In actuality, you may still be sick, even though you are walking around. Colds and other illnesses can keep you from sleep, but you can doze off at your leisure if you will get comfortable in bed. Flanked by a stack of soothing magazines and some favorite projects, you can set up camp in your own room.

My husband has always been very helpful when I have been ill. He calls me and asks me to tell him what to bring home. What would help me feel better? Just name it.

I was thinking about the husbands that we know, who are so much like this, mainly from the church we attend. One man has a wife that is in the advanced stages of the debilitating disease of memory loss. He holds her hand at church, and at home, he tries to see that she is warm enough, helps her eat, and is ever so tender hearted with her.

It is interesting that although she cannot speak to us anymore, she sings every word from the selected song in the songbook. Today he brought her to the ladies Bible class that I teach, helped her be seated, and brought her a cup of coffee. I led the song, "Shall We Gather at the River" and I heard her sing every word of it.

Another husband here is himself handicapped. He walks with a limp, because of a vehicle accident some years ago. He is still young, though, and he has such a concern for the comfort of his wife. He is always, always fixing things in the house: changing wallpaper, re-painting, adding shelves, removing things, replacing carpet with flooring, installing heat or air conditioning, adding safer windows, and so forth. It is all for the comfort of his wife and little girl. He just loves them so much. He also cares for his widowed mother and built a ramp on the side of his house for wheelchair or easier walking for the elderly.

One woman at church found out she had a terminal illness. Her husband immediately built her a sewing room and painted it pink. It is all equipped with sky lights and heat, a warm floor and everything she needs to spend many happy hours in her love of sewing and quilting.

There are a lot more husbands like this that I know, that show such careful attention to their wives during illness. It would take a lot of posts to describe them.

My friend who takes me to tea sometimes, says that her husband is always watching over her and asking what he can do for her. He is young but he appreciates her so much and appreciates having a home and family.

There are some men, I suppose, who are not so understanding or mature, that will not tolerate illness in their wives. These husbands that I described, seem to be even more attentive when their wives do not feel well. Perhaps they know it will hasten their recovery and they can be back to being companions to them. Their good care of their wives reminds me of the scripture from Proverbs: "Two are better than one, for when one falls, the other will lift him up."

picture from Victorian Trading Co.

For kitchen updates, go to Lillibeth's blog at http://www.thepleasanttimes.blogspot.com/ Honestly, I just can't look at it. I'm back here in my room pretending to be in a hotel.

The Gentle Approach to Homemaking

I have great sympathy for people that have to begin their day suddenly by jumping straight into a difficult and unpleasant job. The homemaker has the ability to arrange things a little differently by preparing the workplace so that she can ease into any hard task.

In my opinion there is just not much that is worse than getting up in the morning and heading straight into house chaos, so I am reminded of several techniques of our mothers and grandmothers, and some of our own, that help us ease into a difficult job at home.

Here is a list of things that will help in approaching the job without a big fuss or a panic:

*A set of clean clothes whose colors and style make you feel happy, but are sturdy enough to work in.

*A pretty tea top with a cup, and some of your favorite snacks.

*Bath products that you like: soap, scented spray, etc.

*Your grooming products and makeup, if you wear it.

*A soft scented home candle.

*A nice apron with pockets and a towel attached for quick drying of hands.

*Liquid dish detergent for sink washing

*An attractive and inspiring notepad with a special pen

*Music (free online music of your choice, from classical jazz to baroque can be found by registering at http://www.pandora.com/ and it is free. You can put as many different kinds of stations on it to listen to while working, if you are within hearing distance of the computer). My favorite station there is "Romantic Piano," on which is featured the piece played by Molly on "Wives and Daughters" called "Nocturne in B" . You can read more about it here http://thepleasanttimes.blogspot.com/2008/07/play-that-little-piece-of-kalkbrenners.html

Also add to your equipment

*A comfortable pair of rubber gloves that are also pretty, if you can get them.

*A broom you really like.

*Dish towels and dish cloths that are pretty.

This is what you do with all these things:

Bathe, dress, look in the mirror and smile, fix your hair. Make tea of your choice (I posted how to make berry tea or apple juice tea in a previous article if you do not use black tea or herbal teas). Put on your apron, sit down to sip your tea and eat your favorite snack. Take the fancy pen and write your list in your best writing on the notepad. Turn on the music, light the candle, and start working at the most urgent jobs first. Dishes are essential because of bacteria quickly forming, and so is laundry. If these things are done, at least, you will have the most important things finished before you run out of energy.

Easing into the job means to get prepared to go to work and to gather your equipment up and prepare your space. A man who digs a ditch will have to first get his tools and then clear away the area he is to dig. He will have to have a place to put something and a place to discard things. He will need a container for his tools. A homemaker needs to learn to prepare her area so that she can do her job with ease. Otherwise, she will find her feet hitting the floor and running from this to that all day long without a thought. At the end of the day she will crash into bed exhausted with her mind still whirling, not knowing what in the world she is doing. Planning goes a long way toward reasonable accomplishments.

There are probably other people born in the late 1940's-early 1950's who remember mothers hands in the flour kneading bread. Upon looking out the window and discovering the husband coming home, she reaches up and pats her hair in place. When she goes to the mirror she discovers white flour on her hair. I saw a painting once that showed such a sweet smile on the face of a woman who did thus, and such innocense in it all, that reminded me of this.

Like many women, I spent my life thinking about having a little house where I could sweep and cook and look out the window at the kitchen garden. This would be a cozy place of safety where my husband could have a little luxury and comfort from the rushed and competitive world away from home. My children would love it as the best place on earth. There was no station in life and no accomplishment that could hold a candle to the home.

Many women have wanted just that, and have found that there are institutions and people who want to discourage them from having a happy home as their goal. Instead, they find people urging them to spend a lot of money on college and then get into a career. Their dream of having a family and a little place to live gets further and further away.

Some naysayers think that one of the reasons to avoid full time home life is the very one I have talked about here: the seemingly insurmountable amount of work that a homemaker must tackle on her own. They think it is unfair and unworthy and that she can do much better in career. We find on a national level that home life and houses are deteriorating.

If life was supposed to be so much better when women entered careers and put their children in the care of others, by this reasoning, the families should be stronger, and the houses more orderly and clean. However, you can't go against what is good an natural and expect to have good results.

Any time the women are persuaded to leave home for the workforce, the army, ministry, or any other lower institution, the home and the family will suffer. I say "lower" institution, because the home is the basis of all society. Without the home, we cannot have good business, good government, good education or good churches. As goes the home, so goes the nation. The woman must be returned to the home and she must give it the status that it deserves. The above ideas for handling a home in disarray will contribute to this dignity.

One More Altered Box

Simple card made from the art on a side piece of the Yorkshire Gold Tea box. With more thought and time, embellishments could be added to make the card elaborate.

Two tags made from parts of that box.

This is a side by side picture of the original box front and the altered front. I decided to put it on this same post for now.

Altering this box that contained tea bags was a lot easier than any other kind of altering, because all it took was a few scraps and pictures glued strategically on the advertising. I liked the paintings on the sides, and wanted them to show. It is Yorkshire Gold tea from Taylors of Harrogate, so I think the painting is the scenery in the Yorkshire Dales.

Since it is to be filled with handmade letter paper and a pen and envelopes, the word "write" is placed on one of the scrap pieces and glued on top of a circular piece of glitter paper. Someone who owns a large hole-puncher made these circles for me.

Top of the box, although not very focused.

This is sturdy corrugated box for mandarin oranges, and it seemed much too useful to throw out. I was using it as-is, to carry things around the house to put away, or serve glasses of cold drinks to save steps back and forth. I got the idea to decorate it and put a towel in it to transport some fragrant herbal tea with the daily mail. I like this as a tray because the sides are higher than normal and nothing will slide off.

This is the original box. I have no craft room or table, so I carry what I need in this box. That way, any clippings or glitter falls into this area and not all over the place. I go get what I need from a storage area--scissors, glue, papers, and put it in the box . I first traced around it on black construction paper.

This is part of the kitchen so far. It extends a few more feet, all looking the same. It is good that the cabinets and sink delivery was delayed due to the holidays, for we found another leak in the wall and one that appears to be coming up from the floor and forming a stream to another room. At this point, we do not know what we will do.

This is an altered box idea I have been wanting to try. I have always liked the cardboard suitcase storage boxes you can buy, and have looked them over carefully to see how they work.

Someone left a frozen pie box at a potluck and I took it home. First, I rounded off the front corners with scissors, and bent the loose cardboard around, taping it with masking tape. It takes more patience to fiddle with this, so if you tend to get frustrated, keep the box square and work with it that way instead.

I pasted a higher strip of cardboard inside the lower edge, all around, so that it was about half an inch higher than the edges. This was to rest the top part of the lid on, just like the designer boxes are constructed. Masking tape is great for creating the curves and edges that you need, and it builds up over any mistakes.

Wrapping paper adhered better than any other kind of paper, and the cheaper paper worked better than the high quality paper. I folded it around to the inside and glued it all down with white glue.

Here is the inside, lined, with two holes punched on each side, into which wired ribbon was inserted for handles. It does not matter if this project ends up a little wrinkled from the glue. It is just a free box that would have been thrown away anyway.

Here is the primitive first layer of this suitcase box. I made the curves by tracing the original square box on a piece of old paper, and then folding the paper in half and cutting one curve on the outer edge. Then I placed it on the box and drew around the paper for cutting lines.

The trim is made by tracing around the curved edges of the box and cutting with decorative edge scissors. A sticker from the dollar store is placed on a square of the same paper.

I still have no kitchen, but my son in law wired the electric for the dishwasher. It was fun to do this box today when not much else could be done here.

New Year Blessings

I want to wish everyone a hopeful and prosperous year. I am not quite finished with last year's projects, so I will be doing one more altered box and a few paper ideas. After that I will move on with some simple demonstrations with fabric. My kitchen is still being "altered" and the kind of daily life that it causes reminds me of the slow life many decades ago when so much was done at home by hand. We heat water in a pan and then pour it into a dish pan to wash the dishes. Another pan of steaming hot water provides a clear rinse so that soap does not remain on the dishes, giving food a bad taste. The whole operation is spread out on the dining table, which is covered in a heavy clear plastic. It makes me think a lot more carefully about the dishes and pans that I use, because I know they will be in the pile to wash. The cooking has the same kind of plan: the less containers I use, the less I will have to wash. One-pan meals are common around here right now. Our kitchen does not exist except for a stove. It was all taken apart with a sledge hammer and thrown out, due to the rotten condition. It will be nice to get something fresh and sanitary in here, but it happened on the wrong weekend for any kind of delivery. The warehouse where the cabinets and sink are shipped from, is closed until Monday.

The slow life reminds me that I actually lived before the ball-point pen was common. We dipped our pen in a little bottle of ink, which sometimes spilled and made a terrible mess. The school desks had a hole to put the bottle in, making it a little less of a problem. At home, dipping the pen and writing a few words gave us more time to think about what we were writing. There was rarely a hastily scribbled note or anything written in anger, because it was such a laborious task. It was hard work to write even a nice note and even in diaries, one would have to make the words be worthwhile. When we ran out of ink we used anything else that would make a mark: chocolate powder in water, paint mixed with water, any possible food product we had on hand. There was even an invisible ink that could be made with flour and water. When heated over a stove top, the letters would become visible.

The slow life is one reason that I enjoy making something with my hands. I can feel my breathing and heartbeat become more steady and my mind becomes more clear. I feel sorry for the young people who are raised on instant things, because they barely have time to think about what they are doing. I see some young girls who have so much instant communication that they do not reserve any thoughts or words for themselves or even know how to talk to God. If they constantly text their friends every little thought, what is left for quiet moments and heartfelt talks with the Lord? Friends eventually forsake them, and they suffer terrible withdrawal from the communication addiction. Socialization is far over rated in this country, and it does not help people think, invent, innovate, create, or prosper. It is better to return to the old paths, where things are thought out and pondered before a hasty decision is made. If a friend is worthwhile, these young people need to take the time to write letters that require carefully chosen or carefully created letter papers and envelopes and well formed expressions with a special pen.

Phone calls required some thought, too, in the slower days. You had to make sure no one else was on the party line, and when you did call, you were always aware that someone could be lifting up their phone to make a call. I am certainly glad it is a lot more private today but think it should be for adults and that it shouldn't replace the social life of young people, who need to have real conversations with their parents and brothers and sisters.

The slow life mean that almost everything was done with several more steps and motions than it is today, and I hope this new year will be slower for those who feel too much pressure and faster for those who need plumbing and electric repairs.

Kitchen Replacement

We are getting at least half of new kitchen cabinets and a sink. Today it is being torn up.

This is what I hope it will look like when it is put back together. I will not have the handles and knobs, though, as these things tend to catch on my clothing and rip out my pockets when I'm working. The new doors and drawers have grooves that make it possible to pull them open without handles.

The deterioration of this kitchen must have begun a number of years ago when a small leak behind the wall of the lower cabinets began. In recent years I smelled stale water and suspected the wood was becoming damp, but there was no visible leak. My son in law opened the wall behind it all and discovered that there had been a small drip due to some kind of loose bolt in the plumbing. It had dripped for years and soaked up the wood in the cabinets, until one day years later, puddles of water began appearing on the floor. I would get up in the morning and remove the old towels I had laid out the night before. It always dripped in the night, and never in the daytime. This has gone on for quite awhile and finally the cabinets were totally rotted and smelled terrible, so it is being dismantled today.
This is what it looked like recently, with trash bags taped over the open areas where there were no doors. The top is some kind of linoleum from the 1960's which I kept painting year after year and covering with with a clear waterproof sealer. The upper cabinets will not be replaced yet, but I have seen that it is some kind of "trend" to make the upper and lower cabinets unmatched. Somehow, that makes me feel better.

Sinus Solutions

This is just a short post with a couple of sinus infection solutions. Over the years I have tried just about everything. I cannot keep medications down, but can drink herbal teas which are somewhat effective. Hot steam baths, keeping feet warm and going back to bed with head elevated, seem to help. There are other dramatic and sometimes more stressful and invasive treatments that work for awhile .However, when a sinus headache has gone too far, most things do not help. Sinuses infections respond for awhile to one thing, and then tend to outgrow it and then you are off trying something else. I believe that the plugged up passages to ear,nose, throat, eyes, etc. seem to get smaller as you get older, and it gets harder to get rid of the headache, but I have just found two natural things that have worked for the longest time, so far.

One is black pepper. Just shake some into a little plate and try to breathe it in. Then go somewhere to sneeze. Keep a plate of it beside your bed and sneeze away. The more you sneeze, the more the sinus seems to clear up. Don't ever stifle a sneeze. If black pepper (regular table pepper from the shaker) does not make you sneeze, just try anything that will make you weep or sneeze: cutting strong onions, hot salsa, even flowers, if you are allergic to them. Sneezing and runny eyes and nose are much better than a plugged up sinus.

The other is posture. Keep standing and sitting straight and keep the neck in alignment with the spine. It seems to help a lot.

Sometimes when a sinus headache comes on, it will not dissipate until it has run its full course, but these two solutions have been able to nip out a sinus infection quite quickly.

I hope to put a longer post on a more significant issue, later today, but this little hint had helped me so much, I wanted to share it.

Handmade Book Made Easily

This will show how to make a very easy book using ordinary materials and tools. I save the best papers for the covers and use construction paper for the pages. It rolls back easily when the pages are turned, and it accepts paste much better. I like the way it tears easily, and it seems that even a lot of pages make only a very lightweight book. When the book is put together and tied, bend the stiff cover paper back and make a crease, which forms a little binding area.

This is a close up of the sticker placed on two pieces of glittered paper from the glitter pack I got at WalMart. The cover is easy: just cut it the same size as the pages.

To make the holes evenly apart, fold the paper in half and punch one hole.

Then lay it on your stack of pages and use it as a guide to punch the holes. Do the same with the covers.

Inside, I have placed on plain white paper, some stickers that I've been saving for quite awhile, because they were so pretty. To make words, phrases, or poetry, write on the construction paper with a pen and tear around the word, or cut it to look like a banner or ribbon. I've torn around all the words in this book.

On these pages I have pieces of old scrap book paper that I liked and could not throw out, and a picture from a catalog. You can cover up mistakes with strips of paper cut with decorative edged scissors or just cut plainly. Here, I put the holes in the wrong end of the picture, so I covered them up with the strip of glitter paper.

Another catalog clipping, and an antique postcard reproduction from a gift bag, bordered by glitter paper. To cover up the initials in catalog pictures, place stickers or words or pieces of decorative paper over it.