47 + 2 = 49

I've bid farewell to 2 more lbs. this week --- and good riddance to them. What's more, weighing in at 145 means that I've met my latest mini goal! My new mini goal is going to be 139. I'd like to weigh in at 139 by Sunday, December 13. Wish me luck. The weight is definitely coming off a bit more slowly now than it was over the summer, but I'm still headed in the right direction. By the time I get to 139, I should be solidly in a size 10.

I spent Halloween night with my nieces at a neighborhood carnival. Kitten was dressed up as her heroine of the moment - "Cingewedda" - and Poppet painted the town red as a fuzzy little chicken with orange and green striped legs. There were ghouls and goblins out in force last night with capes, tiaras, and face paint galore.

I've been experimenting with a little face paint myself recently. In addition to the loose powder I apply twice I day, I began trying a liquid foundation right down the center of my face - just trying to hit the places where I have more freckles and reddishness than I do anywhere else. Unfortunately, this is also the oiliest skin on my face. No sooner did I start using the liquid foundation than my skin began breaking out right in the very same area! One of the virtues of having been a frump for so long is that I'm starting with a great baseline. It's very easy to tell when something new is not a good idea. I went from having about one blemish per month to having two or three per week. Clearly, liquid foundation isn't a good idea for me, but I still wanted to try something to even out my skin tone in that area.

1940s beauty experts were adamant that no grown woman should consider herself fully dressed without a good foundation make-up. The right foundation was credited with giving the face everything from "a velvety finish" or "that pearly finish" to "smoothness which can’t be commanded in any other way." It was widely touted that foundation - or "base" - could even improve the facial skin:

Makeup bases are certainly a great addition to the cosmetic family and can protect the skin as well as make it look lovely. They can stay the damage of cold and wind and dust and sun. The powder clings to them and keeps your makeup fresh for a longer time. They cover up minor blemishes, and if you select the right kind for your skin, they will even act as a gentle lubricant for the extremely dry skin. (Spokane Daily Chronicle, March 27, 1944)

The Evening Independent's Alicia Hart suggested in an April 1940 article on the latest spring fashions that no look was complete without a well made-up face:

The face that is a connecting link between a new navy suit and a beautiful hat must be fresh and clean, expertly made up. Clean your face carefully at least three times a day - morning, noon and night. Don't put layers of fresh make-up on over stale. Don't expect to achieve that coveted luminous look unless you use a foundation film, cream or lotion. It's a mistake for any woman to assume she doesn't need to use a foundation preparation.

Clean your neck every time you clean your face and make it up just as carefully. The new vogue for white collars on everything - coats and suits as well as dresses - puts the spotlight once again on throats.

There were two major types of foundation on the market during this era. A cream variety - I'd guess this was similar to the liquid foundation available these days - and a "pancake" variety, "which comes in a wafer-cake form, and is applied with a moist sponge. It is this latter kind which now is generally used by the film stars" (St. Petersburg Times, May 29, 1940). Josephine Lowman advised her readers in March 1944 to select a foundation with a oily base if they had dry skin: "I have long thought the use of wet cake makeup may be extremely detrimental to dry skins, leading to coarseness and extreme dryness."

Application was everything. In The New American Etiquette (1941), Lily Haxworth Wallace recommends that after washing the face and applying face cream, "apply a lovely, smooth foundation. Use only five dots on your face, and blend it in very smoothly. The success of one's appearance depends, to a large extent, on the correct application of the foundation cream." One trick suggested by a beauty expert of the era was to dip your fingers in cold water to ensure more even coverage. At all costs, one must be absolutely sure when applying foundation that she doesn't forget her neck! "Don’t let makeup end at the chinline. Carry your foundation and face powder downward on throat. Your throat should match your face. Unless you apply makeup skillfully, it won’t" (The Evening Independent, March 10, 1941).

The truly adventurous woman might even attempt to use two shades of foundation in re-sculpting her face:

You can change your facial contour by a clever combination of light and dark foundation creams… Light lengthens and reveals. Dark shortens and conceals. Thus if you have a triangular face, use a light foundation cream on chin and lower cheeks… dark or medium on rest of face. This adds fullness. If round… apply dark foundation to lower cheeks tapering toward the chin, for a desired oval shape. If oblong… spread entire chin and jaws with dark foundation. Result is a foreshortening of the lower features. If your forehead is too deep, use a darker base than you do on the rest of the face. (St. Petersburg Times, September 2, 1945)

So what's a gal with a face that rejects a liquid foundation to do? I want that velvety finish of yesteryear, too! What I've decided to try is one of the new mineral powder foundations - just at the center of my face. I settled on a jar of Maybelline Mineral Power Natural Perfecting Powder Foundation in Classic Ivory the other day. I'm no cosmetics expert, but I'm pleased with the results so far. I'll have to give this some time in order to see how my skin reacts. Now if I can just remember not to try applying loose powder on top of the powder foundation...

Week Forty-seven: The Mission

My sister is headed home to New England tomorrow with Kitten and Poppet. They're off to spend two weeks visiting family and friends - and enjoying some of that crisp autumn weather I'd love a taste of myself! (My babies will be so far away!!!) I've resolved to keep myself busy while they're gone with a whole new mission. It's time to take it back to basics and finally add that living room to my weekly housekeeping routine. The only real housework I've been doing in my living room since starting The Experiment has been to give that room a little daily tidying. It was ten months ago that I began giving the following treatment to my living room every evening before bed:

Put living room in order.

• Open windows top and bottom for free circulation of air.
  
• Pick up and replace small articles belonging in the room, such as books, magazines, music, games, victrola records, cards, etc.
  
• Gather up on tray to be taken out: used ash trays, articles belonging in other rooms, plants or flowers to be tended. Collect trash in waste basket.
  
• Carry out tray.

Remember those chores? They're super easy when you live in a small apartment and you're only home two days a week! It only takes me about five minutes each night and makes the living room a much nicer place to wake up to in the morning... Well, it's time to expand that routine a bit. Once each weekend - probably on Sunday afternoons - I'm going to give the living room some weekly attention.

Now, the authors of America's Housekeeping Book (1945) suggest that the housewife give each room in the house a daily cleaning shortly after breakfast. Once a week, she should return to each room and clean it more thoroughly. (The day of the week doesn't matter very much, but they do recommend once in passing that living rooms be cleaned on Fridays.) Since I work outside the home full time, I can't clean each room every day. Instead, I aim to give each room a weekly cleaning (with the chores recommended to the '40s housewife on a daily basis) and then - once a month - do the chores recommended to the '40s housewife on a weekly basis, rotating between the four rooms in my apartment so that each room gets the white glove treatment once a month. Without further ado, here's my new barebones once-a-week housekeeping routine for the living room:

1. Bring in cleaning equipment: hearthbroom (if not kept at fireplace), carpet sweeper or vacuum cleaner (according to need), dust mop, cleaning basket.

2. In season, clean out fireplace, lay fire, sweep hearth.

3. Dust high objects if necessary: mantels, high shelves, window frames and sills, tops of bookcases, secretary, highboys, etc.

4. Dust radiator covers if necessary.

5. Brush upholstery if necessary. Straighten covers. Plump up pillows.

6. Dust furniture and low objects if necessary. Treat stains or blemishes as they occur.

7. Dust exposed wood flooring with dust mop if necessary. Use carpet sweeper or vacuum cleaner on rugs or carpets.

8. Final touches: Straighten draperies, shades, curtains, etc. Take out cleaning equipment and waste basket. Return clean ash trays, accessories, flowers and waste basket. Close windows if desired.

Sweet Dreams

One of the projects I'd like to get started on when I get back from Maine is to begin laying away some Christmas gifts for my nieces. My dream is to give them some lovely old-fashioned flannel or muslin nightgowns - matching, of course! I can picture just the thing in my mind... The problem: I'm no seamstress. And practically the only girls' nightgowns you see out there these days are those dreadful polyester gowns screenprinted with one character or another. I can crochet a mean trim, though, and have some vintage pattern books with trims that would look just darling around the cuffs or neckline of a little girl's nightgown. So I'd like to find some basic flannel gowns that could use a little embellishment. Lands' End offers a red flannel gown that might work and Vermont Country Store has a floral gown in stock with an eyelet trim. Have any of you eagle-eyed shoppers seen gorgeous girls' nightgowns out there lately? Kitten will be just a few days shy of three this Christmas and Poppet will be 19 months old. (Gotta catch 'em while they're young with these matching outfits!)

As for us grown up girls, here are some of the 1940s nightgowns I've been coveting for myself lately. Can you tell I'm longing for cold winter nights?



Marjorie: You won't believe how wonderfully my prune whip turned out last night.
Helen: It can't possibly be better than mine, dear. Bill can't get enough!





Even the pajamas are pretty! I adore the floor-length rayon nighties with the lacy trim and plunging necklines. And the cable-knit bed jacket looks so soft...



Mustn't let the milkman catch us in our night things! A robe (or two or three) should do the trick. Check out the military influence in the red piece below. It was offered by Ward's for Christmas 1944:





No vintage night ensemble is complete without a pair of slippers. Sears offered slippers in every shape imaginable. It looks like blues and plums, crimson and dusty rose were the colors of the season in 1947.

Again! Again!

My youngest niece (and goddaughter) is one today. Little Poppet was the life of the party in her ivory floral dress - with matching bloomers, of course! We celebrated at one of the quieter parks here in the city. A picnic breakfast and a lovely lemon cake. Her big sister "helped" quite a bit when it came time for opening gifts, but Poppet was blissfully content just to hold her cards and gaze at the pictures. Kitten wore a bright pink plaid sundress and wore Auntie out with her new favorite game, Ring Around the Rosy. "Again!" "Again!" Actually, I think I did spend too much time in the heat and sun. I fell asleep when I got home and didn't wake up until almost 5:00!

The highlight of my morning was the first thing my sister's mother-in-law said to me: "You've lost weight!" Could it be? Is all this work and deprivation paying off --- even though I can't see it in my own mirror??? I scoffed it off and muttered something about "three pounds," but inside I was jumping for joy.

So, I've slept off the party and am working on my water for the day. On to the kitchen...

Week Nineteen: The Mission

It's become a habit during the last couple of years to spend time with my nieces at their home - not mine. Partly because it's so convenient. Their toys are there, their clothing, their special foods, their diapers --- all the gear you need to babysit a two year old and a ten month old. To be perfectly honest, though, part of the reason is that when your home is as chaotic and messy as mine used to be, you stop extending invitations. Because having somebody over means having to clean like a maniac before they arrive.

Last weekend, my sister brought my nieces over on Sunday. They're having some work done at their house and the washing machine and dryer have been disconnected, so she brought some laundry over to my place. It was a wonderful afternoon. Kitten fluttered about, investigating all of Auntie's knick knacks and jumping on the bed, while the baby - I'll call her Poppet - played patiently with a deck of cards. Picking them up, passing them one at a time to whomever was near, messing the pile about. The nicest thing about their visit was just how relaxed and un-tired I felt. I had a few things to do before they arrived to put my living room and bathroom to rights, but the housekeeping routine I've been carving out for myself has made such a difference! I guess I hadn't realized how far I've come until I was suddenly seeing the place through new eyes. My kitchen was clean, the bedroom was clean, my living room was tidy. And all this before I made any special preparations for their arrival...

What a change in just four months. My morning and evening chores have become practically natural. My weekly chores on Mondays through Thursdays still make me groan on occasion, but they don't seem nearly as tough as they used to. And the feeling of going to sleep at night having accomplished all of my missions for the day is so good. Just like a great day at work, where I'm busy, busy, busy - but knowing come 5:00 that so many of my "to dos" are done. My weekly cleaning-of-the-kitchen is far from a habit, but that, too, will come in time... One of my fondest hopes is that my nieces will have lovely memories one day of Auntie's house. That it was a cozy, clean, happy place with good meals and pretty things. It's amazing how children (even when they're one step removed) make your future a fixed target. Suddenly, that future is right in front of you and it's time for me to create that home I want them to enjoy visiting. Even Aunties feather their nests!

While I'm adjusting to the kitchen work and the dinners, it seems kind of convenient that my next mission is not a labor intensive one.

Do the bulk of the weekly food marketing on Saturday afternoons.

As I mentioned some time ago, the manual recommends that the housewife do the bulk of her marketing "on a day when local stores offer special prices. Often Friday and Saturday are bargain days." The authors of The Good Housekeeping Housekeeping Book (1947) also advise their readers to do some marketing twice a week, but suggest that Mondays and Fridays would be the most efficient days to do so. My plan is to do the bulk of my grocery shopping at the supermarket on Saturdays - probably Saturday afternoons - and to supplement it with a quick stop on Wednesday evenings at one of the stores where I buy organic milk, free range eggs, etc. The Wednesday trip alone hasn't added much in the way of efficiency to my household, but I'm hoping that the two in tandem will make a real difference.

Sun and Air

My sister is home at last, so my niece is in good hands again - and I'm sick. I think I caught whatever virus Kitten was coping with, so I'm glad it held off until I could be sick on my own time. My routine took a hit on Thursday evening (I didn't get home until 1 a.m.) and again on Friday morning (just barely made it to work), but I'm taking it very easy this weekend. Trying to get lots of rest, but moving slowly through my accustomed chores. Did a little bit of Wednesday's marketing last night and this morning have just begun Thursday's weekly cleaning-of-the-bedroom.

Cleaning the bedroom isn't exactly a fast-paced chore. After stripping the beds and hanging the covers out to air, you tote your bric-a-brac out to wherever you're going to dust or polish it and bring your cleaning equipment and fresh linens into the bedroom. Then it's just a matter of waiting for fresh air to do its part of the job. You see, the mattress and pillows need to be aired, too. Now, if you were cleaning several bedrooms, you could probably work the timing out so that you were getting things started in each of your other rooms while you were waiting for the first room to be properly aired. Here are some guidelines from the manual for putting that fresh air to work:

Mattresses

Innerspring:

Sun and air once a week (strip off the bedding and open the windows wide for at least an hour).

Pillows

Air pillows at least once a month by placing them on chairs near an open window.

Bedding

Bedding should be aired at least once a week. Spread it over two chairs near an open window and leave it there for at least an hour. An occasional airing out of doors over a line is good for it. Choose a day when the weather is fair to warm.

My bedroom window is open and the blinds have been pulled so the mattress and pillows are getting as much fresh air as possible. I've hung my quilt and blanket over the railing outside on my landing, and I'll give them a good shake before bringing them inside. Get all the dust out. Apartment Land is not an ideal place for doing these kinds of chores - what I wouldn't give for an outdoor clothesline!!! - and I live in a city with a lot of crime, so I'm always a little worried my bed covers will disappear while they're airing!

Unless my appetite takes a nosedive, I'm going to try the first of my 1945 dinner menus this evening:

Steamed Rice

Buttered Carrots

Celery Cabbage Salad

Steamed Molasses Pudding

This is a weekday (Monday-Saturday) dinner with a few alterations. I'm omitting the meat course. 1940s home economists believed that each dinner should contain both a starchy vegetable or grain (potatoes, rice, etc.) and a bread. That's way too many carbs for me, so I'm going to have one or the other. Since my dessert is a bready-type dish, I'm going to opt for the Steamed Rice over the Enriched Bread this 'time round. The recommended beverages are Milk and Coffee. Do you drink a full glass of milk with your meals? It's been years since I did so, and though I'm not sure this is a good thing (am I really getting enough calcium?), the thought kind of icks me out after all this time. Coffee at breakfast is more than enough for me, so I think I'll just go with a glass of ice water at dinner. This time, anyway.

My hour is up and it's time to get to work making up the bed. Hey, if I'm going to be feeling under the weather all weekend, there's no place for recuperating like a fresh, clean bed!

Sunday Dinner

Kitten is f.i.n.a.l.l.y asleep after a long tug-of-war with bedtime. I picked her up at her grandmother's after work and she was in the middle of what would become several meltdowns. From what I hear, she didn't have a nap today so I'm not surprised the evening was such a trial. The good news is that her tummy hasn't been upset in four days now. Her throat is still sore, her nose is still runny, and she misses her mother and baby sister terribly. I tried to clean things up a bit after she feel asleep. Housekeeping in the dark - with just a very dim light in the kitchen - is not a treat. Just 24 more hours...

I was showing a friend my 1945 cookbook yesterday and she noticed right away that the menus in the back are different on Sundays than they are on every other day of the week. Sunday is the one day where the menus shift from a Breakfast-Lunch-Dinner pattern to Breakfast-Dinner-Supper. A telling glimpse into the rhythms of yesterday. When Sundays for most Americans meant a morning church service, a dinner at mid-day that was more elaborate than any other meal of the week, and a light supper in the evening. These were the Sundays I knew as a child in the 1970s and '80s. When we got home from church, my mother would hurry off to the kitchen and bustle about as we played indoors. We were still in our church clothes - my mom looking fancier than she had all week - and we'd sit down to the table at 1 or 2:00.

There's something to be said for sharing these kinds of feasts as a family on a regular basis. Not just once or twice during the holidays, but pausing once a week to express your gratitude for the good things on your table and the people 'round it. A chance to teach little ones about table manners and fine dining. A chance for mom (or whomever the cook in the family might be) to show off some new recipes. A chance for the family to regularly use their finest dishes and glassware. Society as a whole pausing for a day of rest is something we've lost in 2009 and not for the better, I think. I don't have a husband or children to treat to an elaborate dinner, but I'd love to bring back some of that ritual to my Sundays...

For now, I'm sticking to the Monday-Saturday dinner menus. And I'll probably do 'em up on Saturday evenings. That gives me plenty of time to prepare them and clean up afterwards. I'm going to need to get my sea legs before I try doing any of these on a weeknight!

Housework and Childcare

The last few days have been frazzled ones. My niece (I'll call her Kitten) has been sick with a virus since the day her mother left. Poor thing! My brother-in-law and I took her to the emergency room last night as we were getting really worried about dehydration, but the doctor told us she was in good shape and the virus would just have to run its course. We just have to keep finding creative ways to get her to drink, drink, drink. And with a toddler - even with a low energy level - the last thing they want to do is be in the dreaded bed, so she's still up and about. I've been trying to find lots of quiet things we can do indoors. Just this morning, I'm starting to feel a little peaked, so I'm afraid I've caught the virus myself and won't be of much help in a day or two.

The first evening I was there, Kitten was still feeling pretty good. As I tried to wash up the dinner dishes while she was playing in the living room, I couldn't help thinking about housework as it relates to childcare. Mothers of small children really have to be quite creative and flexible in order to get anything done. It seems to be all about corraling them where you can watch them long enough to do a few dishes here, a load of laundry there. Naptime or bedtime seems like it would be a great time to get things done, but Kitten's nursery is on the same floor as the kitchen and living room, so I don't want to make too much noise until she's sound asleep. (It'll sound too much like there's some party she's missing!) Besides, I found myself taking a nap at naptime yesterday.

The manual mentions children frequently. The authors recognized how important it was in designing or redesigning work spaces that mothers be able to keep an eye on their children at all times. "One end of the kitchen, away from dangerous areas near the range, can sometimes be reserved for play space." Here, a "low cupboard" could be set aside for toys or "cooking equipment" with which children might safely play. They encouraged mothers to find housekeeping tasks that children could help with even when it made the job a bit longer:

Small children are always intrigued by the work that is done in the kitchen. Almost invariably they want to "help," and if this urge is understood and valued, the children will find tremendous satisfaction in cooperative work, besides feeling "wanted," which is important to happy family relationships. Then, too, the educational value of guided cooperative work is an important factor in child training.

The laundry room is also a space where mothers had to spend a significant amount of time before the process was better automated. An "enclosed play space" was recommended for this room so that babies and toddlers could amuse themselves under Mother's watchful eye. Older children could play outdoors, but a window should look out on the yard so that Mother could keep an eye on them, too.

A whole chapter is dedicated to furnishing rooms for children - from nurseries for infants to rooms for adolescents. The authors of the manual advise their readers, though, that children should spend most of their time with the family. By the 1940s, the age of nannies and governesses was long gone in the U. S., and mothers were expected to be the primary caregivers for their youngest children. Living rooms should also contain "child centers":

"A table, chairs, and shelves for toys and games can be assembled inexpensively..."

Here, on my own child-less home front, I've been getting along pretty smoothly. I moved Thursday's cleaning-of-the-bedroom to Friday evening. It occurred to me while dusting that it's no coincidence the manual instructs the housewife to dust everything before vacuuming. All that dust that's been building up on surfaces high and low should be lightly settled on the carpet before it's vacuumed. I also realized that my dust rag didn't get near as dirty this week as it did last week. If you're dusting your bedrooms every week, your cleaning materials will be easier to wash themselves.

I didn't plan my morning very wisely yesterday and ran out of time before making my bed. When I got home from the hospital, I was feeling so blue I skipped the evening routine entirely, but I wasn't too blue to notice how much it crapped to be climbing into an unmade bed. It's amazing how quickly I've become accustomed to that little luxury!

Case of Mrs. F. . . .

I started off the day with a breakfast menu straight from the pages of the February 1947 issue of Better Homes and Gardens. It's one of three menus in an article called "Why Don't You Eat a Good Breakfast?" The author presents profiles of three fictional Americans - the reasons they don't eat breakfast and some purportedly practical and tasty solutions. Here's an excerpt from the first profile:

Case of Mrs. F. . . .

Mrs. F. is overweight, yet has many colds. Her usual breakfast of coffee, frosted sweet rolls (350 calories each) is short of proteins, vitamins, minerals...

While hanging wash, Mrs. F. feels chilled, starts sneezing. Her resistance is low (studies show possible relation between resistance to tuberculosis and foods rich in protein, Vitamins A and C). [Way to scare the skirts off your readers!] A breakfast of fruit, enriched cereal, and egg would have given her food essentials for morning tasks.

Interested in a dieting fad, she decides to skip breakfast entirely, has to draw on her reserves of fat for heat and energy every morning. In a short time she suffers from a fat shortage, marked by constant hunger, lack of pep, vague discomfort...

Woman weighing 130 pounds, keeping house, has a daily energy requirement of about 2,300 calories. Milk is a must.

Suggested breakfast
1 slice canned pineapple with sirup
2/3 cup oatmeal
1 cup whole milk for cereal
1/4 cup coffee cream
2 teaspoons sugar
1 tablespoon butter
2 slices toast (enriched white bread)
Coffee

I did make a couple adaptations. Used 1% instead of whole milk with my oatmeal and coffee. Skipped the buttered toast entirely. But then I'm not yet doing the kinds of hard physical labor Mrs. F. was doing in 1947. After my morning chores, I was free today 'til this evening. Stay tuned for Mr. F.'s breakfast issues in an upcoming post...

My routine is going to see a few adaptations of its own during the next two weeks. My sister is taking her youngest home on Wednesday to spend several days with our parents, so I'm going to be playing substitute mom for my older niece. On weeknights, I'll be picking her up at her grandmother's when I get out of work and staying at her house until my brother-in-law gets home from work around 10:30. And because of the way his work schedule falls, I'll have her both days next weekend from 9:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. It's going to be lovely to spend so much one-on-one time with her, but I am going to be one tired chickadee by the time I crawl into bed each night. (She's only two years old and a ball of energy!) As for housework --- my goal is just to keep things running at the level they have been while all this extra work is afoot. No more new missions until my sister is home and I've had a day or two to recover. If I can keep everything running "as is" for the next two weeks, I'll be very proud.

I may have to shift some of my daily chores around a bit, though. Which is something I need to be able to do with any routine. I want to be sure that I still have some empty-ish time slots left over in every week so that I can make some adjustments when something social comes up or when family calls. As comforting as it is to have an appointed day and time for every chore - and as critical as that is while I'm trying to make habits of these chores - I need to build some flexibility into my schedule so that unexpected things don't trip me up. I think that's going to be key to getting through the next two weeks and getting through life, period. A 1940s housewife would have needed some flexibility herself for that monthly club meeting or when her spouse or child was sick at home and needed extra tending. The daily stuff needs to get done no matter what, but the weekly stuff needs to be more portable. What do you think?