Goodies

 Finally something old enough that could have been in a 1941 kitchen; classic art deco font and colours.  This cookbook is excellent.  Dated 1938.

I found MORE Holt Howard.  These cutting board and owl mugs are from the 70's.

Devonware chalkware dancer.

Adorable ceramic Asian couple.

Let's Live It Up!

Housewife's Week

A typical week for the average housewife in the 40's and 50's went a little something like this:

Monday-Washday

Tuesday-Ironing

Wednesday-Sewing

Thursday-Market

Friday-Cleaning

Saturday-Baking

Sunday-Day of rest

You can find all sorts of cute things like embroidered dish towels and cutting boards that recite the weekly chore list.  There are some variations to the schedule but it would seem a lot of time was devoted to laundry. I've always wanted to write out a detailed weekly chores list but have never gotten around to it. The idea pops into my head while I'm busy doing something else and 5 seconds later I've forgotten. I'm going to adapt the weekly to-do list to suit myself which will include a gardening day and a dog grooming day.

What a coincidence that today (Tuesday-ironing day) I found an ironing board. I kinda, sorta wrecked our walnut dining room table ironing on it one day. Even if you don't iron I think an old metal ironing board would look great re-purposed as a place to mix drinks on the patio. You can find them for so cheap and when you need the space they can be put away. You could even glue some fringe or raffia along the edge.

   

And yes, I'm still working on the floor. Actually I've taken a 3 day break from sniffing old glue. I've spent 15 hours scraping the old linoleum backing off the wood floor. This requires pouring boiling water over the spots to soften the glue and if that doesn't work I put my iron on steam and steam the sections 10-20 seconds before the glue softens right up and I can scrape it off. It has been a very tedious task. I have another 3 hours left of that and then it's sanding, filling in any gouges and sealing the wood floor before the linoleum tiles are laid. The subfloor must be smooth before the tiles are laid because any imperfections like bumps and crevasses will show through the new tile work.

Here's a few other vintage finds I've hunted down the past 3 weeks:

Tupperware measuring spoons sitting on a vinyl place mat-

Holt Howard string holder. String holders were pretty common back in the day. The back is hollow to hold a ball of string and you pull the string out through the hole. The cat's bow allows you to keep a small pair of scissors handy for cutting the string. *BRAG ALERT* I got this for $1!! Holt Howard is very expensive. Their designs are amazing-I just love their condiment jars.  I still can't believe I got this for a buck.

Chalkware-

  

Bagel and lox serving plate (you stack the bagels on the dowels)-