Tuesday Talks: Treasury of Vintage Homemaking Skills

Hi everybody! Sorry we've been MIA lately, we've been very busy and struggling with internet issues. Today I'm reviewing a wonderful book, "Treasury of Vintage Homemaking Skills."
It's not really a book you would sit and read straight through, it's a resource. Have you ever heard of a "Homemaking Journal" or "Homekeeping Notebook?" My mother researched it once and was going to build one to keep track of everything that she needed to get done in the home, but she never found the time to do so. It's understandable, especially since she's running a home with six children, four dogs, a garden and a cat!

Well, voila! The Treasury of Vintage Homemaking Skills comes to the rescue! This is laid out very similarly to a homemaking journal - only better! The Treasury of Homemaking skills has so many more housewifely things listed and organized in it that I would never have thought of!

For example, here's the table of contents:

Homekeeping

Cleaning

Scrubbing

Bedding and Linens

Laundry

Ironing

Hospitality

The Hostess

Preparing Hearth and Home

The Fare

Our Merry Guests

Home Duties

Reflections

Daily Duties

Duty Ever at Hand

Children's Duty to Parents

Snippets and Clippings

First Aid in the Home

Medicinal Cupboard

Emergency Care

Burns and Wounds

Home Remedies

Family Medical History

Resources

Gardening

Garden Basics

Vegetable Gardens

Herbs

Planting Records

Garden Sketches

Old-Fashioned Flowers

Harvest Bounty

Resources

Cooking and Baking

Meal Times

The Pantry

Kitchen Tools

In the Kitchen

Well-Planned Menus

Measuring

Butcher, Baker, and Homemaker

Family Recipes

Reserves for the Family

Preparing for Emergency

Home Canning

Dehydration

Freezing

Recipes for Preserving

Reserve Records and Recipes

Handiwork

Sewing Basket

Basic Skills

Embroidery

Tatting

Stitching Projects

Quilting

Crocheting

Knitting

Patterns

Business of the Home

Simple Home Repairs

Documents and Necessary Papers

Home Inventory

Frugality

Family Records

Sacred Union

Genealogies

Births

Marriages

Deaths

Family Crest

Family Creed

Mementos

There are blank pages, blank schedules, and blank lines for you to fill in to help organize your homekeeping. And, all the pages are decorated with lovely little vintage illustrations. It's just adorable!

Here's the description on the back of the book:

Reminiscent of the old-timey home journals kept by homekeepers of the past, this treasury is to be passed from mother to daughter. This will be a treasured album of homekeeping skills, something fast becoming a lost art in our day. Filled with inspiration for the homekeeper, with plenty of room to paste snippets and clippings and to journal in your own handwriting, keeping the way "Mother always did it" from becoming forgotten in this ever-changing world.

I have a copy of this book in my hope chest, and my mother has a copy as well. It's very helpful and I highly recommend it. You can purchase it from our Amazon Astore (in the sidebar).

Do you have a review you'd like to share? Leave your link below!

Tuesday Talks: Raising Maidens of Virtue

I hope you are having a great Tuesday! Today I'm reviewing "Raising Maidens of Virtue" by Stacy McDonald.

Here is the description from the book's website:

More than a fill-in-the-blank Bible study, Raising Maidens of Virtue is an engaging tool for mothers to use in training daughters who are approaching womanhood to think biblically. Through stories, conversational teachings, illustrations, and memory-making projects, Raising Maidens of Virtue covers topics such as guarding the tongue, idleness, sibling relationships, honoring parents, contentment, modesty, purity, cleanliness, and feminine biblical beauty.

This is an excellent resource and very encouraging! It's excellent for mothers and daughters to work through, or older daughters and younger sisters, or just for a daughter or mother to read on their own. I've used it when giving a devotion to a group of young girls - each chapter can stand on it's own, but the whole book is designed to work together to encourage feminine loveliness. I recommend it highly, it's one of my favorite books!

You can purchase it from Vision Forum, or our Astore in the sidebar.

Do you have a review to share? Post your link below!

Tuesday Talks: Bible Commentary

Good Morning! Today I'm reviewing my favorite Bible study tool, Matthew Henry's commentary of the whole Bible.

Matthew Henry wrote his commentary in the 1700's, yet it is very easy to understand and really brings whatever I'm reading in God's Word to a whole new light. I've discovered so many things that I never saw before - even in the passages of scripture I've read countless times.

I recieved my Matthew Henry Commentary (in six volumes) for a graduation gift from my church. My pastor highly recommends them as well as many members of our church.

You can purchase this commentary anywhere, and you can even read the whole thing online!

It's perfect for furthering your Bible study!

I'd love to hear about your Bible study/quiet time tools and routines, please leave a comment!

Do you have a review you'd like to share? Leave your link below!

Rules and information on Tuesday Talks can be found in the sidebar.

Tuesday Talks: The Peasall Sisters- Family Harmony

Hi Everyone! I hope that this Tuesday finds you well!



I am reviewing: The Peasall Sisters- Family Harmony, by Franklin Springs.




This wonderful documentary tells about the Peasall Sisters and their family working together in perfect harmony.

You can watch the trailer here.

The three girls, Sarah, Hannah, and Leah Peasall, sing and play instruments together. Sarah plays guitar, Hannah plays mandolin, and Leah plays the fiddle. They have put out two albums, "First Offerings" and their newest, "Home To You".

The DVD includes the documentary and a full concert, plus, there is a unreleased studio track too.

My family loved this DVD! I know your family will love it too.

Please leave your link below!

Rules and information on Tuesday Talks can be found in the sidebar.

~*~Courtney~*~

Tuesday Talks: Recipe Books

Sorry to be late with this! Today I wanted to review one of my family's favorite recipe books. It's called "Hallelujah Simple Weekly Meal Plans."

We've tried almost every recipe in this book, and all of them rank in our favorites! The best part is that the book gives meal plans for an entire month, which is very helpful! And, everything is very healthy. Perfect for those trying to eat healthier, but need some meal ideas.

Here's the website's description of the book:

Simple Weekly Meal Plans By Marilyn Polk, is a handy month-long meal planner that will help everyone on the Hallelujah Diet & LifestyleSM – from newcomers to seasoned followers! Offering four weeks worth of menus, shopping lists, and recipes, this book is an excellent resource to help you transition to The Hallelujah Diet®, or add new recipes to your repertoire. And with the menus and recipes for holidays and special occasions, you can make every day a Hallelujah day!

We have lots of recipe books, but this one is our very favorite!! You can purchase it from the Hallelujah Acres website.

Do you have a review you'd like to share? Leave your link below!

Rules and information on Tuesday Talks can be found in the sidebar.

Tuesday Talks: Piano For Dummies

Good morning!

Today I am reviewing "Piano for Dummies" here at Stay-At-Home Daughters.

I am about to begin teaching piano to several of my younger siblings, and I wasn't sure where to start.

While at the library a few weeks back, I noticed this book:



and I decided to check it out.

I was surprised at how good it was! It is divided out into 8 sections:

Part I:Warming up to the keyboard
Part II: Getting Sound Down on Paper
Part III: One Hand at a Time
Part IV: Living in Perfect Harmony
Part V: Technique Counts for Everything
Part VI: So Many Toys, So Little Time
Part VII:The Part of Tens .

It covers everything from picking out your piano to finger positions and dynamics, and different mnemonics to help you remember the notes on the staff. There is also lots of sheet music sprinkled throughout the book.

I can see that someone could easily teach themselves a lot about piano. A definite thumbs-up for me!

Note: I do not think my siblings are dummies. :) Just clarifying!

Do you have a review you would enjoy sharing? Please leave your link below!

Rules and information on Tuesday Talks can be found in the sidebar.

Tuesday Talks: Dear, Dear Livy

Wow! Is it really Tuesday again?

Today I'm reviewing a wonderful book, "Dear, Dear Livy." This is the biography of Mark Twain's wife, Olivia Langdon. She was an amazing and noble lady, devoted to her husband and family and always thinking of others.

The book is wonderfully written, detailing her romance and life with Samuel Clemens - who's pen name was Mark Twain. Livy was her husband's only trusted critic and she accompanied him on tours with their children in later years.

The accounts of Livy's life, her trials, her heartbreaks, are extremely touching. The ending made me a bit misty-eyed.

I'd highly recommend it! I don't know if it's still in print or not, but if you can get your hands on a copy, do!

It's not a hard read, I finished it in just a couple of sittings, but it's well worth it.

Do you have something to review for Tuesday Talks?
Leave your link below!

Information on Tuesday Talks can be found in the sidebar.

It's a Giveaway!

Last time we did a giveaway, one lucky individual won a beautiful apron from Stay-At-Home Daughters!

This time we are giving away something even better!

Yes, that's right! This time around you can win a beautiful book on Ribboncraft! This is just the sort of thing we love here at Stay-At-Home Daughters, so it's perfect for our giveaway.

This book includes 22 projects with wonderful instructional color pictures that follow each project step by step. It educates on all the different types of ribbons and has three sections: Home Accents, Gifts and Keepsakes, Wedding and Baby.

To enter, simply leave a comment with your email address or a similar way to contact you. We'll draw our winner on Friday, April 25 at noon CST.

Good luck!

For more great giveaways, visit Bloggy Giveaways!

Tuesday Talks: The Elsie Dinsmore Collection

I can't believe we've never reviewed these before today! The Elsie Dinsmore books are some of my very favorites!

Set in the 19th century, this series follows Elsie Dinsmore from her young childhood to her days as a grandmother. She is a wonderful example for little girls and adults alike. Elsie becomes a child of God very early on, but she is persecuted and mocked by her relatives and father. She handles it with grace and wisdom that is far advanced for her age and throughout the series most of her family members gradually become believers because of her influence.

She and her children, and her grandchildren have many adventures and life milestones that are charming and wonderful to read about! These books are wonderful to share with younger siblings, especially sisters! I have enjoyed this whole series time and time again, and it's easy to become so involved that you can't put them down. They are written beautifully and very intelligently, but still easy for younger children to understand.

The Elsie Dinsmore Collection is very high on my list of recommendations for Christian girls and stay at home daughters, as well as sisters, wives and mothers! This is a series that I think everyone should have in their book collection. I can't wait to read them to my children someday.



You can purchase them very easily through Vision Forum.

Speaking of Vision Forum, I love their description of this series:

In the nineteenth century, millions of readers learned the meaning of godly womanhood from a little girl named Elsie. Her commitment to principle in the midst of adversity and her passionate love for Jesus Christ were the theme of twenty-eight volumes spanning her life. These are the original twelve volumes presented just as a young lady would have found them one hundred years ago. Over the last several years, I have heard hundreds of reports from home schoolers and Christian families about the blessings these books have been in their lives. Elsie raises the standard of godly womanhood to new heights. Feminists will not be happy with Elsie. She is a God-honoring young woman who strives to solve problems while working through biblical authority structures. By Martha Finley...>

I hope you and your family are blessed by this recommendation!

God Bless,
Flibby

Do you have a review you'd like to share? Leave your link below!

Rules and information on "Tuesday Talks" can be found in the sidebar.

Tuesday Talks: Knifty Knitting

It is Tuesday Talks once more here at Stay-At-Home Daughters!



As always, we would love for you to participate by leaving your link in the Mr. Linky below!

I am reviewing the Knifty Knitters by Provo Craft.



These are the neatest little looms! I have made several little hats with the round looms and I am currently working on a pretty blue scarf on the long purple loom.

The incredible, lightweight looms are perfect for any age! My little sister Jessica (who is 10), is in the middle of a project right now as well. I have found that I can knit a project much quicker than traditional knitting (with needles), and that the projects are things that you can actually use!

There are several books and looms that you can purchase for very little.

I was impressed greatly by this particular book:


It has lots of patterns in it- I am going to try the hooded chick blanket in there next!

I know that you will love using this! If you would like to know more about it, Provo Craft has a site filled with info and patterns.

Help us make "Tuesday Talks" a success! Leave your link below!



~*~Courtney~*~

Tuesday Talks: Princess Ka'Iulani

Today I'm reviewing "Princess Ka'iulani: Hope of a Nation, Heart of a People. I love biographies and this is an exceptional one!! Princess Ka'iulani is such a wonderful example of a true princess.

Toward the beginning of the book, the author explains a little about the hawaiian language and it really helped me to understand how to pronounce the names in the book. It's written so well that it's easy for one to never realize that they aren't reading a non-fiction book at all!!

I highly recommend this book. It's an excellent resource about a wonderful Christian princess.

You can purchase it from our Astore, Vision Forum Ministries, or a bookshop near you.

Do you have a review? Help make Tuesday Talks a success!! Leave your link below.

Information and rules on Tuesday Talks can be found in the sidebar.

Tuesday Talks! The Reverse Edition

Today is a very special Tuesday Talks! You get to ask about a book, movie, or music that you would like to know more about, and others can come by your blog and give their opinion!

For me today, I would like to know if anyone can recommend a movie version of "Emma" by Jane Austen.

Last weekend, my family enjoyed watching the A and E movie version of "Pride and Prejudice" together. We really liked it, and we also like the "Pride and Prejudice" movie with Kiera Knightley.

We were not as impressed with the "Sense and Sensibility" by Emma Thompson however, so if you have a good recommendation for another version, I would love to hear that too! :)

Now, it's your turn! Help us make "Tuesday Talks" a success!! Leave your link below!

~*~Courtney~*~

Tuesday Talks: "Home Comforts" by Cheryl Mendelson

Today I'm going to review a wonderful book that is quite a valuable resource for keepers at home and stay at home daughters. It's called, "Home Comforts" by Cheryl Mendelson.

This book is more of a reference book and isn't exactly meant to be read from cover to cover. It's filled with 884 pages of practical tips on the keeping of the home.

Here is the book's description:

The classic bestselling resource for every American home. Choosing fabrics, cleaning china, keeping the piano in tune, making a good fire, folding a fitted sheet, setting the dining room table, keeping surfaces free of food pathogens, watering plants, removing stains -- Home Comforts addresses the meanings as well as the methods of hands -- on housekeeping to help you manage everyday chores, find creative solutions to modern domestic dilemmas, and enhance the experience of life at home.

Further topics include: Making up a bed with hospital corners, Expert recommendations for safe food storage, Reading care labels (and sometimes carefully disregarding them), Keeping your home free of dust mites and other allergens, Home safety and security, A summary of laws applicable to the home, including privacy, accident liability, contracts, and domestic employees and more in this practical, good-humored, historic, philosophical, even romantic, guidebook to the art of household management.

The general chapters are:

-Food
-Cloth (includes ways to get tough stains out of various fabrics)
-Cleanliness
-Daily Life (with chapters like "fireplaces","images and recordings", and "pets")
-Sleep (with ways to make beds and care for different types of bedding)
-Safe Shelter (ways to make your home safe and hazard-free)
-Formalities

I refer to this book quite often and re-read chapters from time to time. I believe it's a must have for any young woman! It's also a great book for a hope chest! I highly recommend it.

You can buy it from our Astore or your local bookstore.

--Flibby

Help us make Tuesday Talks a success! Write a review on your blog and leave the link below. Information and Rules can be found in the sidebar. Thanks for participating!

Tuesday Talks!

Tuesday Talks is here once more!



I am reviewing "Coming In on A Wing and A Prayer".

When I first saw this book, I thought it was a boy book about airplanes and war- things which are somewhat boring to me.

Little did I know that I was quite wrong. This is a wonderful book, written from the perspective of a Grandmother writing to her grandchildren about her Grandfather's legacy, therefore passing the legacy down through many generations. She writes of his time in Iwo Jima and about the hardships and duties there.

There are several photgraphs and little notes sprinkled throughout as well. You do not want to miss this book!

The Amazon review reads as followed:

"He was only five years old when a local barnstormer offered to take young Bill Brown for a flight in a biplane in exchange for one of his mother’s home-cooked meals. That day birthed a life-long fascination with aviation. As a young man, he grew up near the home of the man who would become the most famous pilot of the Second World War — Jimmy Doolittle of the “Doolittle Raiders.” By twenty-one, Brown had earned his own wings and found himself as a flying P-51 Mustang fighter pilot performing daring raids from battlefields like Iwo Jima. Ultimately he was shot down during a combat mission over Japan, but would live to become a dynamic servant of the Cross. Featured in the film, The League of Grateful Sons, Bill Brown is now the subject of a thrilling story of combat, faith, and fatherhood told through the eyes of granddaughter Kelly Brown. In Coming In on a Wing and a Prayer, a beautiful, pictorially rich book, Kelly recounts the life of her flyboy grandfather as a letter to generations yet to be born. One of the most encouraging books you will read this year. Hardback. 55 pgs."

This very sweet and wonderful story is written by Kelly Brown (now Bradrick), and is available through our Astore or Vision Forum.

Would you like to post a review? Leave your link below!





Have a great Tuesday!
~*~Courtney~*~

Tuesday Talks: How To Be A Lady by Harvey Newcomb

It's Tuesday again!! Today I'm going to review a wonderful and insightful book, How To Be a Lady by Harvey Newcomb. This is such a great resource for young girls of all ages! Here are a few of the chapter titles:

• On Childhood and Youth
• Piety, as the Spring of Action and Regulator of the Soul
• Treatment of Brothers and Sisters and others in the Family
• Behavior at Table
• Behavior at Family Worship
• Private Prayer
• Keeping the Sabbath
• Habits
• Education of the Heart
• Education of the Mind
• Reading
• Writing
• On finishing what is begun
• On amusements
• On the art of agreeable and profitable Conversation
• On the Importance of being able to say No
• On being Useful
• On being Contented
• Union of serious Piety with habitual Cheerfulness

As you can see, this book covers some very practical issues as well as matters of the heart and mind. I absolutely love this book! It was originally written in 1850, and has been reprinted. You can purchase it from our astore, or Vision Forum Ministries.


I love what is printed on the back of the book:

What you are while you are a girl, you will be when you become a woman. Your character is constantly forming. It is your buisness to keep out of the way of bad influences, and submit yourself to the moulding of the good. Keep in mind the great truth that you are forming a character for eternity. Some years ago, there were found on the banks of the Mississippi River the tracks of a human being, deeply imprinted in the solid rock. These tracks were made in the soft clay, which in time became hardened, and formed into stone. Now, the impression is immovable. You now resemble this soft clay. Every thing with which you come in contact makes an impression. But, as you grow older, your character acquires solidity, and is less and less affected by these influences, till at length is will be like the hard stone, and the impressions made upon you at this season will become confirmed habits.

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Rules and information for 'Tuesday Talks' can be found in the sidebar.

My Turn!

I am off to start reading "Passionate Housewives: Desperate For God". I am so excited! Flibby wrote an excellent book review here if you would like to read it.

Have a wonderful afternoon!

~@~Courtney~@~

Passionate Housewives, Desperate for God - Book Review

Girls, I have just finished the most fabulous book. Truly fabulous. It's inspiring, encouraging, exciting, amazing and convicting all in one.

Though it is written for wives, much is still applicable to the daughters of this generation. For example, one of the main themes throughout the entire book is selflessness. Learning to die-to-self is something that every Christian needs to learn, especially daughters who are hoping to become wives one day. It also touches on the concept of being thankful to God for everything, in every season of life, which is another important quality to cultivate in one's character.

There are chapters on embracing your calling, freedom from perfectionism, and whitewashed feminism. The book challenges (with the Word of God) those still seeking after self-gratification from a career or college education. The importance of bringing up and influencing the next generation for the Lord's glory is stressed, and myths like the "perfect 50's homemaker" and the "Stepford wives" are eradicated.

Mrs. McDonald and Mrs. Chancey model the Proverbs 31 woman with humble grace. They are truly an inspiration!

I won't give away any more, you need to read this book for yourself! Both Mrs. McDonald and Mrs. Chancey did a wonderful job staying true to the Word of God and I hope it will reach many women for His glory!