January 1st Today is the first day of a gorgeous New Year and in celebration might I suggest you banish the very idea of making resolutions and instead make a promise to yourself to become who you want to be in 2010... Write your PERSONAL PROMISE on the back of a vintage Christmas card, sign and date it, and when it comes to tissue wrapping your tree decorations, tuck away your promise amongst them, ready to be discovered and re-assessed next December...
January 2nd You know even Housekeepers need goals and challenges to see them through another scrumptious year. Today choose ONE word that defines your domestic goal for the year: whether it be getting more organised, embracing a routine or injecting a little twinkle into each and everyday. Choose your action word and mark it somewhere you will see it everyday: cross-stitch it on to a tea-towel, write it on a card and use it as a bookmark, scrawl it on to the first page of your planner or add it to a collage you leave sitting on your bedside table... Need Inspiration? Sparkle* Clean* Create* Re-Purpose* Save* Plan* Tidy* Ritual* Shine* Peace* Snuggle* Frugal* Commit* Re-Invent* Balance* Define* Organize* Routine* Discipline* Cook* Family* Twinkle* Cosy* Calm*
January 3rd It is National Book Blitz Month: the month an entire nation is urged to bury it's head in a book or twenty nine, discover something new or get to know it's favorite authors all over again... And so in honour of the occasion, might I suggest you set upon creating a list of must-read books for 2010? Choose a book for every month of the year: books you have always planned to read but have never found the time, books from one particular author or books that will teach you everything you need to know about a subject that makes your heart a little giddy... Note the books down in your book journal (You do have one don't you?), create an Amazon Wish-list to remind you of your book choices or put all twelve books on order at your local library.
While other books will no doubt tickle your fancy throughout the year, make a commitment to read your chosen books along the way and end the year a little more knowledgeable, familiar with an author who will feel like a life long friend or indeed thoroughly inspired by the kind of classic writing that will be written on your heart thereafter... A puttery treat with the power to change your life methinks
January 4th After the excesses of Christmas it is only natural to long for purity and space. Today begin the task of packing away Christmas and reclaiming your home. Take all but the tree down and leave the star or Christmas fairy sitting on the top until the twelfth night. Noting the provenance of each new decoration acquired, made or bought this year in a tiny journal to be packed away with the decorations is a scrumptiously puttery thing to do as it will eventually form part of your families’ history and be treasured in years to come by those who love you now. Always remember that we, the Mistresses of the house, are the guardians of our family history...
January 5th Today is National Bird Day and in the kind of freezing weather January is sure to bring I do not envy our little feathered friends one bit... One of the kindest things we can do for our birds is to provide water for them, so today go outside and fill bird baths or provide little saucers of warm water for them sitting atop garden tables. Afterwards it would be lovely to make sure they have got something scrumptious to eat by whipping up one of the recipes below... Pine Cone Feeders Take a few of the pine cones left over from Christmas and smear with a mixture of peanut butter and lard/shortening. Make sure you poke the mixture between each cone layer then sprinkle the whole thing in bird seed and dangle from the branches of a tree with strong string. Bird Seed Butties Butter two slices of stale (but not mouldy!) bread with peanut butter and sandwich together, then using a star shaped cookie cutter cut out little stars and coat in a mixture of peanut butter and honey on both sides before sprinkling generously with bird seed. Thread each sandwich with a loop of string, hang from the trees and settle back to watch your local little tweetie pies feast themselves under a tree full of stars.
January 6th Today is the day those of us who could tolerate it for this long, will take our tree down and reveal a house that looks oddly bare! While packing up your decorations, tuck away this years Christmas themed books and magazines (wrapped in cinnamon scented brown paper) with them and next December when you come to decorate your tree it will feel as as though you have discovered buried literary treasure amongst the baubles and the tinsel. A festive treat if ever there was one...
January 7th I kid you not: tomorrow is National Bubble Bath day! While across the nation those dedicated to the cause might be climbing into hot baths, here at least, freezing temperatures are making the cosiest of bathrooms seem unbearable... And so I hereby present my puttery plan for making the thought of pampery absolutions seem inviting on the days when the mere removal of your thermals gives you goose-bumps! 1. Begin by mixing up a blend of aromatherapy oils. 2 Drops of Nutmeg 4 Drops of Ginger 2 Drops of Lime 3 Drops of Vanilla. This is a blend of oils designed to signal warmth in your mind, so shake together, and take up to the bathroom. 2. Now hike up the heating, go into the bathroom, close the bathroom door behind you, drop bathroom blinds or curtains, and lay bath mats or towels over the floor. 3. Set the shower on the steamiest, hottest, most powerful temperature it can reach and sprinkle the oil blend over the base of the bath while the shower is running, but don't get in yet. 4. Leave the bathroom, closing the door tight behind you and take the towels you will be using for a five minute spin in the tumble dryer so they are fluffy and warm. 5. You should return to a steamy, fragrant bathroom and to make it even more inviting, light as many candles as you safely can. (We are accustomed to candlelight in the bath but a candlelit shower is a sensory experience all by itself...). 6. Now fill the sink with hot water and stand your favorite body lotion in it (tis somewhat unbearable when it is icy cold!). 7. At this point you have two options, either lower the temperature and get in to the lovely steamy shower. Or, more pertinently on National Bubble Bath day, switch off the shower and run the bath, filling it with bubbles, (preferably of the good old fashioned pine variety- search it out in traditional chemists) laying warm towels over the radiator and relaxing in a bathroom warmed on all sensory levels... 8. Afterwards lather on your now cosy warm body lotion, climb into a long nightie, cosy dressing gown and oh so glamorous, but scrumptiously warm knee high socks and open the door of the bathroom and see how the steamy aromatherapy blend is carried all around the house...
January 8th In the world of BrocanteHome, Friday is traditionally magazine night. The night we get to settle down with a pile of magazines we have been stock-piling all week, never for a minute even considering diluting this pleasure by flicking through them ad-hoc in a careless moment beforehand. While there is no greater lover of such glossy papery loveliness than I, I do seem to spend far too much time rooting around the house for the latest copy of Martha or last Sundays "You" magazine and so after much brain digging I have finally come up with a puttery solution I am thoroughly delighted with.
The Magazine Concertina! Take one plain concertina/accordion file and add a pretty label marking it as "Current Magazines" or something such like. Now hold a round up of all the magazines you read on a weekly, monthly and quarterly basis and collect all the latest issues together. Open the file and label each section with the name of the magazine or journal concerned and pop the latest issue in as you go. Et voila! A place for all current issues to live, and a place where you can keep all tear-sheets collected until you have the time to archive them. As each new issue of a magazine arrives in to your home, recycle, give away or store the last and thoroughly enjoy what it is to be organised. Efficiency becomes us Housekeepers!
January 9th The Snowdrop Is Our Flower of the Month... * Though it is hard to believe, there are more five hundred varieties of snowdrop and it is almost time to plant them. They are best planted in the green at the beginning of February so make yourself a china cupful of white tea and browse the catalogues for the prettiest... * In the meantime buy yourself one teeny tiny snowdrop and plant it in a teacup on your bedside so you can admire its delicate, transient beauty for a day or two. * Or for the sake of celebrating this pretty little flower annually, scour Ebay for a Royal Albert "January" cup and saucer and take afternoon tea from it daily in Januaries hereafter...
January 10th One of the mainstays of organizing the household the BrocanteHome way is reserving Sunday evenings for getting to grips with what is coming up in the week ahead, tackling paperwork, organizing school bags and briefcases, checking bank accounts and paying bills.
Tonight seek out a pretty folder, label it "Sunday Tickler" and use it to gather all the pieces of paperwork you acquire during the next seven days, that will need to be tackled before the week is out. Simple but efficient...
January 11th It is Laundry Monday, and today is the first Monday of the year we can really dedicate to catching up, now that the rigmarole of the return to school and work is done with.
Today de-stain, launder, brighten and press your festive table linen ready to put away for another year. When you are done, layer your precious vintage linen between torn strips of cotton sheeting and wrap around cardboard tubing to store without folding. Home-Made Laundry Brightener... 1 cup hydrogen peroxide 1 1/4 cup lemon juice 12 cups water 4 drops of aromatherapy oil to scent Mix together and store in a one-gallon container. Add one cupful to each bowl of soaking linens.
January 12th It is National Letter Writing Week. Seven days much called for when the pleasure that was once the thud of a thick envelope stuffed with news has almost gone by the by. Letters don't have to be novels. They can be dashed off while you wait for the kettle to boil and the shortest of sentences still have the power to make someone's day so this evening might I suggest you create a tiny space dedicated to writing little bits of love? We don't have to make a song and dance out of this scrumptious little treat. We merely want to make the notion of letter writing that little bit more accessible. So unless you have the space to spare do not worry about creating a dedicated writing desk, I rather think a pretty vintage tin containing all you need to write a variety of different letters could be offered a permanent home on the kitchen table making morning notes to teachers a breeze, and spontaneous love letters to your partner a possibility with your morning elevenses. Today find a pretty tin, line it with scented paper and collect A5 buff coloured linen paper, tissue lined envelopes, a little book of stamps and a pen that makes a deliciously pleasing scratchy sound as it dashes across the paper. And there you have it: everything you need to make National Letter Writing Week a treat by dashing off one heartfelt greeting or thank-you every day for the next seven... P.S: Should you be cultured enough to be able to use a fountain pen with panache, you can scent your ink by mixing one teaspoon of vodka to 2 teaspoons of aromatherapy oil and adding this solution to your ink before shaking well..
January 13th There isn't anything worse in the world than posting yourself between icy cold sheets and shivering your way to sleep which is why at the first sign of Winter I abandon crisp cotton and snuggle up to cosy flannelette... But in January even flannelette isn't enough to prevent goose-bumps so tonight might I suggest you strip back your bed and lay a large fleecy blanket between your mattress topper and sheet so that you can curl up on top of the snuggliest bed in the neighbourhood, drag a patchwork quilt over your head and drift off to dreamland?
January 14th Housework can be so horribly grimy can't it? So I rather think setting aside a little time to dedicate to more floaty like endeavours is an absolute must in the world of Vintage Housekeeping! Today root through your collection of vintage silk handkerchiefs and choose one you can bring yourself to re-purpose for lowlier pursuits than soaking up your tears. Add it to your Housekeepers Box and when you find yourself cleaning your mirrors, use your pretty silk hankie to bring the most elegant of shine to them as a final flourish...
January 15th Pure, un-refined grey salt when combined with a little laundry detergent into a paste, does the most wonderful job of shifting stains on old linens... As today is Shopping Friday, it seems quite the most perfect day to suggest treating your laundry room to a little something: so seek out some grey salt in the spice aisle, decant it into something pretty, and pop it into your Laundry Crisis Tin alongside some lemon juice, glycerine, cream of tartar, white vinegar and a small box of washing soda.
January 16th Finding something to write with is the bain of my life. Though I seem to buy pens and pencils by the dozen I can never, ever find one when I need one. Today let's solve this little problem by going on a writing instrument hunt, gathering as many as we can find, sharpening pencils to a fine point, chucking out chewed ball pens and stubby pencils and popping what's left into a ribbon tied jam-jar, or a pretty mug, or even a flower-sprinkled milk-jug... Never again will we have to resort to scrawling down a telephone number with an eyeliner pencil.
January 17th To me there is nothing more luxurious than a scented candle with a fragrance I associate with sumptuous relaxation. No greater pleasure than to wander into a room flickering with warm scent. But we can double the scented worth of such candles by storing them in our wardrobes where in a tight little space, even un-lit, they will convey some of their fragrance to the interior and indeed your clothes and make getting dressed the tiniest of puttery indulgences... Just one more little habit we can adopt on the road to puttery bliss.
January 18th On Laundry Day I often find myself sorting though my little boys clothes and setting aside those he has outgrown or outworn for the charity shop or textile recycling bag with slight regret, mourning the baby he used to be in the face of clear evidence that every week he grows a little more towards the man, that whether I like it or not, he will one day be... Our children’s clothes are little bits of all their yesterdays: flannel lined scraps of their personal history, and markers of your path through Motherhood...
Today allocate or perhaps sew a laundry sized drawstring bag in which to store these tiny little garments so rich in family history. Make it a monthly ritual to choose one garment from each bundle destined for recycling to treasure for always: either in it's entirety or as a piece of cloth cut from the whole, eventually to be stitched into a patchwork of memories. Remember to note down in your children’s memory books why you chose to keep each item, where they wore it and how they looked in it, and if at all possible provide a picture of the child in each garment so that their clothes can one day be a much treasured time-line of their childhood. As always we are the guardians of our children’s memories...
January 19th Bed-time should be the most blissful time of the day. We should fall into bed feeling pretty and drift off to sleep on a little bubble of gratitude... Today seek out the prettiest padded hanger you own, and tie a lavender scented pomander around it's neck, then hang it from your wardrobe door and get into the habit of hanging your floaty nighties or polka dotted jim jams from it every morning so never again will you need to root around the drawers for something crumpled to wear to bed when you are too exhausted to speak... It’s the little things that make all the difference you Housekeepers…
January 20th Should you feel the urge to do away with any of the rituals guaranteed to offer you a sense of well-being, then the bedtime bath is not the one to choose, because it not only purifies and softens the skin, it also helps you on your way to the gentlest of sleeps. Lavender has long been associated with deep sleep and adding it to your bath is another way of layering its soothing properties upon your bedtime ritual...
Lavender and Milk Bath Ingredients 2 Cups of Milk Powder
1 Cup of Corn Starch/Corn Flour 1/2 Cup of Flaked Oats 1/2 Cup of dried Lavender Buds (Optional) 6-8 Drops of Lavender Oil Put all the ingredients in the blender and mix until powdery. Decant into a lidded bonbon dish or small Kilner jar and use one scoop at a time in your evening bath.
January 21st The final part of my puttery recipe for a gorgeous night's sleep is the bedtime drink. The first thing to do is to choose the prettiest cup and saucer that you own and declare it your Night-Night Cup. Use it every evening for the drink you sip slowly as you read yourself to sleep, whether that drink be warm milk, Ovaltine, cocoa or my extra special Brocante Bedtime Brew of lavender, chamomile and vanilla... Brocante Bedtime Brew. For the pure luxury of it use 1/2 of a teaspoon of dried chamomile and 1/4 of a teaspoon of culinary lavender in a tea-ball, then scrape a little of the inside of a vanilla pod into your cup and stir. Or... Failing that (and trust me, this is just as satisfying!) use one chamomile tea-bag, one lavender tea-bag and a splash of vanilla essence to flavour and soothe yourself to sleep...
January 22nd Darlings it is official. A certain Dr. Jeffrey Morrison has declared that each and every one of us should be eating one ounce of dark chocolate everyday. Now not being the kind of woman given to breaking rules I do believe therefore that it is our duty to toast our good health with a square or two of the finest chocolate we can find... Today seek out something utterly scrumptious. Look for 80%+ cocoa solids perhaps with raspberry, lavender, chilli or something equally as delicious and mark out five minutes to really be in the moment, satisfying your chocolate cravings, boosting your health and adding a little naughty indulgence to each and every day...
January 23rd Batteries and bulbs really are the most outrageous bother aren't they? Always running out and popping when you least expect them to... So how about a little project for tomorrow? Grab your Housekeepers Planner and walk around the house noting down every light, lamp, remote control, toy or battery charged device and the bulb or battery type that charges it, et voila! There you have it: a portable list to quickly refer to whenever a battery runs out or a bulb pops as you switch it on. Get into the habit of adding new devices and details every time you buy them and this list will quickly become invaluable...
January 24th Why Sweetheart aren't you looking divine tonight? Yes indeed it is National Compliment Day and if I can't take this opportunity to throw a compliment or two your way then what else am I good for?? Tonight write a little love note and pop it in your child's lunch-box tomorrow morning. Send your Mum a letter telling her much you appreciate her, or stick post-it "I-Love-You Because" Notes anywhere your partner is likely to happen upon them... Go make someone’s day‌
January 25th Life in the laundry room is infinitely easier if you keep underwear destined for soapy suds, in a dedicated laundry bag or two, so you never have to go rooting through mountains of clothes and household linen to separate the teeniest of items. This also gives you the opportunity to turn scraps of vintage fabric into gorgeous drawstring laundry bags and makes keeping your own smalls separate from the rest of the household laundry a breeze so you can indulge yourself with half hour of the deliciously domestic pleasure that is hand-washing your most precious items...
January 26th Shower curtains can be quite the peskiest magnets for the kind of mouldy black muck liable to give the most dedicated of Housekeepers nightmares. Today grab a plastic spray bottle and fill it up to the on third mark with fabric conditioner, then top it all the way up with warm water and give it a good old shake... When you are cleaning the bathroom a quick blast of this scrumptiously fresh smelling solution up and down the curtain before blasting it with the shower hose will keep it clean and thankfully free of mould!
January 27th It is Thomas Crapper day: the day a nation celebrates the man who invented the humble toilet. While I do believe all of us are grateful for his endeavours, even I would be hard pushed to come up with a puttery treat for the loo! However I do believe a box of matches is a terribly useful addition to the smallest room in the house both for quickly eradicating offensive odours and lighting candles, so today take a box of household matches and glue a tiny scrap of pretty vintage fabric or wallpaper over the three sides of the outer box, leaving the match strip still available for striking...
Choose a print or pattern that matches your bathroom and when the matches are all used up, simply remove the inner box and replace it with a new one, et voila, you have a convenient, co-ordinating box of instant air freshener that won't look terribly out of place sitting in a basket with the spare loo rolls!
January 28th At the risk of sounding like a one woman advocate for the benefits of cinnamon in the Vintage Housekeepers life, I hereby present you with one more reason why you should be buying vats of the lovely stuff. You see Scandinavian researchers have discovered that sprinkling a teaspoon of cinnamon on your breakfast cereal everyday maintains levels of insulin, the hormone that controls blood sugar. No more fainting before elevenses! No more needing a lie down or a huge big doughnut at three in the afternoon! All we need is cinnamon! It wouldn't harm and it is ludicrously tasty... When we are trying to make new habits stick: particularly habits that are important to our long term health, it helps to ritualise them in a manner we can barely resist for all their loveliness... Today seek out a vintage jam pot and spoon and fill it with ground cinnamon, so it can be carried to the table with the rest of the breakfast condiments. Choose a jam pot, an elegant pewter salt cellar, or a powdered sugar shaker or get your cinnamon fix by soaking a cinnamon stick in your cup of tea while you eat breakfast, a recipe for good health confirmed by the U.S Department of Agriculture's Human Nutrition Centre as equally beneficial...
January 29th I don't know about you, but there are certain programmes on television that I consider myself addicted to and I hate myself for it. Television eats more of our free time than anything else, time that if we are honest could be more usefully served... So let's switch the TV off tonight. While I understand that getting the whole family to co-operate might be a little bit difficult, this does not mean that you cannot spend just one evening away from the box... So tonight, make a pact with yourself to do something which will for just a few hours effort, make life a little lovelier: 1. Finally get round to creating your comfort drawer. 2. Strip your bed and re-make it the Brocante Way, layering fragrance, sheets and quilts for a heavenly bedtime experience. 3. Open one of your closets and give it a proper going over. Chuck out anything past its sell by date, line drawers with scented paper and hang a few fragrant pomanders amongst your clothes. 4. Take a long candlelit bath with a glass of wine and savour the pleasure of silence. 5. Create a reading basket and get into bed with a hot chocolate. 6. Sit down to write to someone you love. 7. Switch off the lights and lie down in the darkness and just take
time to be. 7. Get cosy in your favorite armchair and get crafty with something you've been meaning to finish‌ 8. Or go into the kitchen and make a quiche for tomorrow’s dinner. Whatever you do, do it without background noise. Forget about the television and use tonight to plan a life you are going to love!
January 30th Shhhhhhhhh! Don't tell anyone but I am a Re-Gifter. I pop gifts I don't have room in my life for into my Present Drawer and when the opportunity arises I re-gift them to homes where they will be gratefully received... But the present drawer isn't just for my collection of rejected gifts, I also use it to stash little presents I see and buy throughout the year: little bits of this and that I know will make someone, somewhere happy... Today create a Present drawer all of your own. Line it with pretty paper, add your birthday book, a roll of plain wrapping paper, and some sellotape and then spend a happy hour or two shopping around your home for little wot-nots that would be happier in someone else's life...
January 31st Vintage tins are utterly fabulous for storing almost everything from make-up and jewellery to laundry pegs and aromatherapy oil, but they often have rather rusty bottoms that can stain the surfaces of your precious little house. Today gather all the vintage tins you own and using elastic bands to hold the contents in securely, turn them upside down, and dip the flat raw half of a potato dipped in a solution of table salt and lemon juice. Apply the potato to the rust in small circles, leave the solution on for ten minutes without wiping, then use a damp soapy cloth to clean the tin and reveal a smooth, rust free surface. And there you have it, rust free tins you can fill to your vintage hearts content‌