Vintage Advice, Modern Applications

Our Giveaway, (just the book, not the embroidered dresser scarf!) Te-He!

In the time of Mary Brooks Picken much advice was shared with women of the day via newspapers, magazines and booklets. In our feature book Vintage Notions one of my favorite January segments is The Department of Cookery. "Soup-Making Secrets"  by Laura MacFarlane. iI 1923, she shared her tips for making the best soup. A delightful story about the place of soup on a cold winter day warms the heart as well and the stomach and soul. I make one soup per week. I usually make enough for two meals and freeze one for later use. Most recently on  Kitchen Chronicles, I shared my recipe for one of my favorite chicken soup recipes. Simple, basic, pantry friendly chicken soup. I think that chicken soup has so many wonderful variations I don't think that I will ever get to them all!

Then we come to The Department of Good Looks. As I read this section I hear my Grandmother's advice for hair care, care of my fair and freckled skin, and make-up use.  A little list of seven items outlines the thinking of the day. From combing the hair away from the face to give attention to lovely features, to putting your clothes on carefully and making sure the seams in your stockings are straight, such good advice.

While I do not do product endorsement here, I have found a great skin care regime that I will share. Please know I receive no compensation for the endorsement but since I have had such positive results I wanted to pass along what I have discovered.

I do not normally do product endorsements. Particularly beauty products like these. However, in the middle of a cold winter with a dry heated house and sensitive skin I went on a search for a better face cream. I have tried everything from the drug store economy brands to mail order speciality and high end department store brands. I have essentially used one particular French brand for more than 30 years. But my aging skin was no long responding to what worked rather well for years. Enter Clinique. This new product line Moisture Surge Intense is everything the representative said it would be. I have used the Clarifying lotion after washing then applied the cream faithfully, day and night for three weeks. All the dry patches on my forehead, cheeks and upper lip are gone. I don't mean just better, I mean gone. 

I suspect the ladies who wrote for The Women's Institute for Domestic Arts and Sciences  of 1920 would approve.