Category: Old-Fashioned Good Stuff

This Week’s Old-Fashioned Pleasures 3-17-18 – 3-23-18

These little things made me happy this week.

    1. Early spring flowers

      Snowdrops!
    2. Shamrock scarf

      Thrift store find! Ireland tourist scarf, probably from the 1970s.
    3. My continued obsession with Kalocsa embroidery
      I have fallen down a Hungarian needlework rabbit hole, and show no signs of coming out. I’ve been scouting vintage Hungarian embroidery to decorate for my upcoming wedding, and it’s so beautiful. If you, too, would like to become obsessed, here is a 10 minute documentary to get you started.

This little beauty came from Hungary last week.

The workmanship is exquisite–the back is almost identical.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. Colcannon
St. Patrick’s Day is a hot mess in Chicago, so we stayed inside and ate colcannon instead of dodging drunk people.
I improvise my recipe, but this one from Carol at The 1940s Experiment is pretty close to what I do. I’ve started using a combination of cabbage and kale, and it is delicious. I served it with seitan bacon, and homemade soda bread.

Obviously, this is what I look like while making colcannon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What little things made your week?

This Week’s Old-Fashioned Pleasures, Week of 1-8-17

Leaving your house is overrated.

This week, I have seriously dug into hibernation, despite a weird almost-sixty-degree day yesterday. You can’t fool me, winter.

Currently, it’s blustering, and blowing, and barely over twenty degrees, and I am not regretting the fact that I haven’t left the apartment since…Tuesday? Did I go somewhere Tuesday?

No. I did not go anywhere Tuesday.

Here are my top old-timey nice things. Continue reading “This Week’s Old-Fashioned Pleasures, Week of 1-8-17” →

This Week’s Old-Fashioned Pleasures 12-11-17

These old-timey things brought me some joy this week:

  1. Wearing Sweaters
    It’s cold in the Midwest. For me, that means sweaters.I have, perhaps, a slight sweater problem.  They are the coziest of garments, lend themselves to layering, pair equally well with jeans and skirts, and, in short, I probably have too many of them.  My sweater wardrobe is overwhelmingly thrifted, since that’s how I can afford cashmere. (This is the part where I brag about never paying more than $6 for a cashmere sweater. I take my sense of accomplishment where I can get it.)But speaking of sweaters…

    I knit this one! I finished it! It only took me two years! It fits on my body and everything!It’s the most basic of basic cardigan patterns. The buttons are vintage from my grandma’s button box, and no, they are not all identical. Sweater-knitting is super addictive, and I am hopeful that my next one won’t take two years.
  2. Looking at Lights
    One of my favorite holiday things to do is the Lincoln Park Zoo’s light display. Zoolights is a truly impressive installation of Christmas lights. It’s free, it’s festive, and sometimes you get to see animals.SIDE NOTE: This year, I discovered that looking into zoo exhibits at night is scary. Some deep, evolutionary warning pings deep in your stomach when you’re looking for polar bears and can’t quite see everything. I pointed this out to my companions, and I was not alone in my freaked-outedness. When a snow leopard’s eyes glint at you in the dark, your brain is not too convinced that fences make that much of a difference.But we were not eaten by leopards. We just saw a lot of pretty lights.

    Hallo!
  3. Eating Marmalade on Toast
    I think of marmalade as a winter food. I suppose that’s because that’s when citrus is season. Of course, marmalade is preserved, so it could be eaten year-round, but I only crave it in the winter. My preparation never varies. Toast, thin layer of butter, thick layer of marmalade. It makes me feel like a British lady detective.

    Bonne Maman is good, but I like the Trader Joe’s house brand even better.
  4. Drinking Hot Chocolate in the Evening
    My grandma was a hot chocolate (with a dose of instant coffee in it) for breakfast person. I am a hot chocolate (with the occasional dose of brandy in it) in the evening person. On the advice of one of my favorite cookbooks, Make the Bread, Buy the Butter, I switched up my recipe this year, and started using brown sugar instead of white. This is a game changer. It is really delicious, and perfect for sipping while watching Netflix and knitting.

    This is not my hot chocolate, but you get the idea. Photo by Rab Fyfe on Unsplash
  5. Going to the Movies
    My neighborhood movie theatre has been in operation (almost constantly) since 1912. These days, it’s a four-screen, affordable treasure. Their ticket prices are already inexpensive, but on Tuesdays they run an all-day $5 special. So lately, on Tuesday nights, we’ve been going to see a picture. This is a good incentive to see things on the big screen that I would otherwise wait to stream. For $5, I’ll take the risk that I won’t like something.There is something special about movies in the theatre. Being part of an audience is different than watching something at home, and feels a little more connected.

    How about you? What old-fashioned pleasures have you enjoyed this week?

This Week’s Old-Fashioned Pleasures

Folks, it’s been a rough one. There has been a whole lot of sad and frustrating this week.

Yesterday, in particular, I felt like I got sledgehammered by the news. Does gingerbread make it better? It most definitely does not. However, it keeps me going to fight another day, and in a dark and stormy world, I’ll take my tiny hope where I can find it.

Here’s this week’s list:

Continue reading “This Week’s Old-Fashioned Pleasures” →