The Bee's Knees - Vintage Camper Gal Wisconsin Vlogger

I hope everyone is having a great start to their weekend. We were expecting a snow storm here in the north east but it looks like it will actually miss us. Yay! I wanted to mention a lovely vintage vlogger I have been following, she's in the cold state of Wisconsin. Her channel is Vintage Camper Gal Wisconsin. I love her style, her accent as well as her vintage hair dryers she uses to set her hair. There's a lot to love here.  I am really adoring her channel. She offers a great range of videos such as morning coffee in curlers, vintage glamping, vintage hair styling, vintage shopping & thrifting, homemaking tips and cruelty free make-up reviews.  She also includes us in her travels to car shows, vacations and most recently VLV 18. Woohoo! This lady makes me want to start my own youtube channel, but for now I will just love on her channel. She's the Bee Knees! Give her a watch and follow.

Thanks For Reading!

Happy Housewifing!

I'm a stay-at-home mom. Go ahead ask me what I do all day. I dare you.

photo credit: naughtymommys.wordpress.com

I sit here contemplating life this morning and I am feeling a little perturbed. I was asked AGAIN last night by a nice, but well meaning new acquaintance that dreaded question "What do you do all day"? Really? Ugh! I went on to explain. It seem's like I need an explanation to not work outside the home these days.

Is it that strange to be home with my children and keep a home? Maybe? The fact is that if we live within our means there should not be an issue with being a homemaker. Wive's can be spend thrifts. My husband experienced being almost in financial ruin in his past marriage. Many husbands struggle with wive's over spending. One of the top things couple fight about is money.

Like I said I am a "modern vintage homemaker" which means I have experienced divorces, step family issues, financial strains from child support payments paid out and lack of child support payments coming in and much more. I believe it takes the right plan and mind set to be a stay at home wife. I give mom's who do work outside the home props for juggling that lifestyle too.

I'm not perfect by any means and it is a work in progress. My home is never perfectly spotless and I do feel a little guilt over that. Our family is happy and comfortable. That's what counts. We have healthcare through my husbands job and for that I am grateful. My husband has a good income but we are not rich by any means. I believe to be a homemaker in today's world there are things you will give up, but also gain different things in exchange. It's what you make of it.

My Top 5 Pet Peeves People Say To Homemakers:

1. What do you do all day?

2. Do you have to ask for money?

3. I wish I could watch T.V. all day.

4. You're so lucky to have all that free time.

5. I wish my husband was rich, so I wouldn't have to work either.

Ok, I feel better now. I'm heading back to my happy place. 

Thanks for Reading!

Happy Housewifing!

How to Decorate with Vintage Plates and Serving Trays

photo credit: thevelvetfantastic

photo credit: foundinithica

Throughout my vintage collecting years I have come across literally thousands of beautiful vintage plates. Most of those plates are missing their little tea cups and are sadly alone on those thrift store shelves. I have passed up so many beautiful pieces just for the fact that I had no where to display them. I also had trouble displaying my vintage trays. I also used this simple tutorial to hang those as well. Even though hanging plates on walls is not a new idea, I made my vintage plate wall a while back and wanted to share this easy DIY tutorial of how I did it.

Vintage plates  and trays can be found at almost all thrift stores, antique shops, yard sales and even Grandmother's house. This is a very affordable and easy way to decorate with vintage. It is sometimes called cottage decorating.

You may choose a theme such as blue willow plates.  Any shapes or sizes of plates can be used as long as they are not to thick; which equals heavy.  Vintage trays actually don't weigh very much and hang well with this a paper clip wall hook.

You may grow your plate wall from floor to ceiling if you like and I might end up filling my wall as well. I display my vintage serving trays in my kitchen and my vintage plates in my dining room.

If you own a simple glue gun, paper clips and have some plates or trays just waiting to be shown off then why not try this simple vintage plate/tray wall tutorial.


Things You Will Need For This Project:

• Paper Clips
• Glue Gun
• Glue Sticks
• Vintage Plates or Vintage Trays
• Small Nails or Hanging Hooks.

Step One:

Open Your Paper Clips Like This

Step Two:

Heat the Glue Gun Up and Glue "Open" V Part of Paper Clip to back of Plate or tray.

Step Three:

Voila! Hang your vintage plates and trays! 

Thanks for Reading!

Happy Housewifing!

A Busy Monday for this Homemaker and Blog Updates

photo credit:homeschooledmom.blogspot.com

Hello all! I hope everyone is having a great start to their week. It's a Monday. Monday's are always busy for me. I tend to have to recover from the kids and my husband being home for the weekend. This is a three day weekend for the kids due to the Martin Luther King holiday. The kids are home lounging around in their PJ's and I've got to get going on my housework list. I have laundry, decluttering , bathroom/shower, vacuuming, mopping the kitchen, and baking some treats for the family

Monday's are also blogging days. I have been playing around with my blog and trying to clean it up for a neater appearance. I believe less is more when it comes to blogging now. Long gone are the day's where blinking and scrolling text is acceptable.  I am not a professional designer by any means. My header is a little fuzzy as I just whipped it up in my basic paint program. I will be browsing etsy for some buttons for this blog and there are some really talented sellers with beautiful designs.

I have also been working on monetizing my blog. I know a lot of you have blogs of your own. It's no secret that I have ad's on my blog. We write about what we love so why not get paid to do it as well. I recently joined Share-A-Sale. See how I did that? I placed an affiliate link there.

Share-A-Sale..see I did it again. Ok, now back to what I was explaining. Share-A-Sale is just one of many affiliate marketing websites. People like us bloggers can join for free and select products that we like or that match what we blog about. We earn a portion of the merchants sale for the visit. There are other way's to make money with affiliate marketing. There is pay-per-click, pay-per-sale etc.

For instance if you blog about vintage style dresses and fashion, you would put that search term in the search box. I searched for "vintage dress". A couple of merchants that came up in my search were: Sammy Dress and Vintage Trend's.

Sammy Dress sell's great vintage themed dresses as well as jewelry, maternity, plus size clothing and gifts. Vintage Trends sell's true vintage clothing as well as vintage military clothing.

Some programs take a day or two for approval when you apply. Vintage Trends has 100% approval rate so you could apply today, get accepted and place your chosen text, banner or coupon on your blog.

I have also joined the Ebay Partner Network and this happens to be my FAVORITE as I can choose from millions of items to promote.  I love browsing Ebay for vintage everything and that's what I choose to promote.

While being part of the Ebay Partner Network I have access to the Half.com affiliate program as well. Amazon does not offer an affiliate program to my state due to tax reasons. I have chosen Half.com as a source of finding great cookbooks and books to review.

I have found a book on on half.com about affiliate marketing

Quick Start Guide to Affiliate Marketing : Answers to the Questions You Should Be Asking by Evgenii Prussakov (2014, Paperback)

If you don't know much about affiliate marketing there are many more books about it on half.com. I personally like a "printed" book to read while I sit and have tea.


Whew...there is quite a lot to blogging. I hope I haven't overwhelmed or bored you. I will say that I have been playing it safe with my blog posts and I will be writing "meatier" postsin the future. I am pretty candid and now feel that I can be more open in my posts. Subjects like remarriage, being a stay at home wife, mother, self esteem, anxiety, and basically most topics I have stayed away from. I'm also excited to announce that I will be having monthly or weekly giveaways. I haven't decided just yet. Stay tuned!

I must get going on my housework as I am way behind already.

Thanks for Reading!

Happy Housewifing!

Vintage Kitsch Weekend Favorites

I wish I could buy everything vintage bobble I see. I love finding vintage deals online and while I'm out thrifting. Today we are having a snowstorm and I've taken some time to sit and have a cup of tea and browse online. Ebay is my favorite site for finding vintage kitsch.

I'm in love with a seller I found while searching for vintage potholders on ebay. This seller happens to live in my state and is called Mainely Vintage Linens. Here are just a few items they have in their store. If your kitchen is looking a little bare these would do a wonderful job of brightening up a vintage themed kitchen.

Super Cute Kitsch Chrocheted Pot Holders

1950's Vintage Lot of PotHolders

Below are also some great vintage decorations I found this morning while browsing. I love spaghetti poodles. I have seen these same poodles selling for up $100 in my area. The poodles on ebay are very affordable and too adorable! My collection...begins..

Vintage Spaghetti Poodle from 

Ebay Seller: SweetRepeats4All

Sweet Spaghetti Poodle with Pink Bow- 

Ebay Seller :BakesVinyl

Housekeeping Tip - How to Clean Burned, Scorched Pans, Instead of Throwing Them Away. Gasp!

My muffin pan is due for some TLC. I use it for individual meatloafs, cupcakes, and muffins. It is a pain trying to clean inside each individual cup. There is so much baked on grease I embarrassed to post the photo. Ugh!

Pans like these are still good and I am guilty in my younger years as a housewife of "throwing" pans away deemed to dirty to wash. Now, I am more frugal and would not throw them away. I have several 1950's vintage pans that need some attention as well.

This morning I spent some time researching a natural "old fashioned" way to make my pans shine.

Yes, they are awful! I'm totally embarrassed to post this but I know I'm not alone with this predicament. It sneaks up on a unsuspecting housewife. It's a "I'll get to it later" kind of thing, and later is here.

Below is a 24 Cup Muffin Pan. Other pan's will require more or less of the recipe. This is what I used for cleaning this particular pan.

Mom's Homemade Apple Pie with only 2 Ingredients. Sort of from scratch...

Most of us remember the sweet smell of homemade pies baking in the oven. Many of us have never made a pie from scratch. I'm one of them. (Raises Hand). Sadly I have only ventured into cookies, boxed cakes, brownies, and breads. I have however warmed a pre-made pie up in the oven. Ok, I know that doesn't count. So much for the vintage housewife gig, right? This past week I decided to make a pie. Sort of from scratch.

I bought a small box of Jiffy Pie Mix at my last grocery store visit. The box said made since 1935. So I was curious and it was $.75 and at that price I thought why not? I was sure I could make use of it. I didn't read the rest package and assumed I would need to add eggs, milk or some other ingredients to the mix.

I had also purchased can's pie filling in Apple, Cherry and Key Lime and usually have these on hand. I found these to be extremely cheap at just $1 at our local Dollar Store. I stocked up on those cans, as I like to make dump cakes for my family.

Review - Back in Time for Dinner TV Show - A week in the 1950's

Photo Credit: theguardian.com

Hello everyone. I wanted to share with my loyal blog readers a neat television show I came across on my endless search for people living life like the 1950's. This series takes a modern family and document's their experience living in different decades of life and what their meals would have been like as a family in the 1950's though 1990's.

"Back In Time For Dinner" is the title and the show was pretty eye opening and funny. It was quite interesting to watch as the family all tried to figure out how to use the can opener. I honestly don't know if I would fare any better than they did.

In the 1950's England food rationing was still happening even though war ended in 1945. It wasn't until 1954 that things got much better for the family at meal time. Rationing ended in 1954. This show is made in Britain by the BBC and the experiences of the English housewife may be somewhat different from what American housewives were experiencing.

I adored the color scheme as well as the kitchen curtains and the yellow cabinets featured in these episodes. As my kitchen is already teal/green it has prompted me to change my pink cupboards to creamy yellow and research rationing. My next project is to find some 1940's - 1950's recipe booklets using rations. It should be very interesting trying those recipes out on my own family. I mentioned my plan to my husband and the amounts that were rationed to each family member. Let's say he was less than enthused at giving up his "larger" portions.

This show is worth the watch. I was mostly interested in the decade of the 1950's. The series can be found on youtube or begin watching the first episode the below.

Thanks for Reading!

Happy Housewifing!

Outfit of the Day! Plus a New to Me Lovely Vintage, Wool, Winter Coat.

Hello and thanks for stopping by my blog. I'm posting my OOTD. Recently I have been leaning toward the fashions of the late 1940's, early 1950's. I will be posting some recent vintage frocks I have come across this past weekend. One of the lovely finds is a beautiful camel colored lined coat I found and it only cost $8.99. I also thrifted an adorable brown, striped hand knit scarf that matched quite well. I was hoping to find this very style of coat. I have plaid, wool coats in my wardrobe but I needed a basic piece like this. The camel color matches everything and is timeless. It is in mint condition and a wonderful find. You may understand that feeling you get when you come across that special vintage piece and fall in love.

Blouse - Thrifted

Vintage Puff Sleeve Embroidered Sweater - Thrifted

Wool Button Front Skirt - Thrifted

Shoes - Thrifted
Brooch - Thrifted

A Mom, Housewife and Figure Skater? Oh, My!

A few months ago I decided to pick up some figure skates and start figure skating again. Honestly the first day I put those skates on it was HARD. I still felt like that young 14 year old girl with those skates on and thought I would have no problem and would just take off skating. Wrong! My legs were wobbly, weak and I could not believe how challenging it had become.

Skating was one of my passions as a youth. I had a dream to become a famous figure skater, but as a child I didn't have the opportunity to follow that dream. My life as a figure skater ended on the public outdoor rink one Winter. Life went on and I didn't put on a pair of figure skates until November, 2015, over 30 years later.

I purchased a $4.99 pair from a thrift store and tried my skill at the local indoor ice arena. It wasn't long until I figured out that this was going to take some..ok..a lot of work. I researched some "better" skates and purchased those. I have been regularly skating at the rink and I am up to one foot spins as of two days ago. It's a lot of fun. Figure skating is a life long sport. A have met a few ladies at our local rink and are aged 54 to 71. They are out there jumping and spinning. Age is just a number.

1950's - Easy Sunday Dinner for the Family - American Chop Suey

I wanted to share a family favorite of ours. American Chop Suey is an easy, quick and cheap meal idea for a larger family like ours. This is one recipe that our three children don't turn their nose up at.
It can be made in many different ways but I will share with you how I make it.

-----------------
2 Boxes of Elbow Macaroni
1 Jar Spagetti Sauce - Any Kind
1 Can of Diced Tomatoes (I use the kind seasoned with basil, garlic and oregano)
1 Onion - Chopped (optional)
1 Cup of chopped green peppers (I used the frozen kind this time) (optional)
1/2 pound to 1 pound - Hamburg
-------------------

Fry Hamburg, Onion, and Green Peppers together (Drain)
Add Can of Tomatoes
Simmer - 5 minutes

Meanwhile - Boil water and Cook Macaroni until tender
Drain

Add Hamburg mixture
Add Jar of Spagetti Sauce

Mix Well

Voila!!! Dinner is Served and there are plenty of left overs to send in your hubby's lunch bucket for work Monday morning.

Thanks for Reading! Happy Housewifing!