Alison May's Blog, page 12
May 30, 2016
The Politics of Housework
I think we would all like to say that a lot has changed in the forty years since the article on which the video below was based, was first printed, (Redstockings, 1970) but I’m not sure how true that would be.
Almost every woman I know still says she does the lion’s share of the housework. Or at least, she does the gruntwork. The repetitive, boring, dirty stuff.
In 2016.
The Summer House
Are you ready Housekeepers? It’s almost time to invite Summer in to our homes!
Yep, by popular demand I am today announcing the arrival of The Summer House, the third in my seasonal series of things to do around the house.
“With a life in the day of a Vintage Housekeeper in Summer, a list of seasonal puttery treats, some advice for preparing for hot weather at home, and adding a touch of cooling calm to your Summer house alongside the three housekeeping recipes you need to keep the house smelling fresh, a Summer reading list and a list of journaling prompts for meditating your way through this sunny, happy season…”
This then is the loveliest, putteriest way to enjoy a Summer at home: a collection of Brocante-esque advice designed to inspire you to enjoy the season right where you are instead of wishing yourself away to far-off shores…
The Summer House is available for PRE-ORDER right now at the discounted price of $8.00 and will be delivered to your in-box next Tuesday- the 7th of June – when the price will go up to the usual seasonal series price of $10.00… AND my Living Roomers will find a voucher for an extra 25% off the price on the group page today…
Finally If you are a member of the Salon you will find The Summer House in the Salon library next week absolutely free of charge (along with all the other downloads in my lovely store) – and at the risk of sounding like a stuck record, I just want to remind you that the option to pay for the salon MONTHLY is once again available…
Click Here to Become a Member of my Lovely Salon Today!
So to sum things up: there are three ways to buy The Summer House.
Pre-Order it today for the discounted price of $8.00 here .
Join the Living Room today for just $7.00 (price goes up to $15.00 TONIGHT!) and get a voucher to buy The Summer House for just $6.00 when you sign in to the Living Room Facebook Group …
Or join The Salon , get all the benefits of Living Room Membership, all existing downloads and everything I create for the life of your membership absolutely FREE, Salon Only posts and starting in June monthly podcasts and webinars, and one on one Pep-Talks with yours truly for just $20.00 a month OR the lowly price of just $169.00 for an entire year of BrocanteHome wonderfulness!
I know which deal I would grab…
Happy bank holiday Housekeepers.x
May 29, 2016
Scenes From My Phone
I am a dreadful photographer. A truly awful one. And the photos I snap on my phone in a willy-nilly fashion are nothing, if not proof of my hopelessness. But in among the 2500 photographs now living in my phone is the document of my days and as BrocanteHome is the curated document of those days I wanted to start a new series here on the blog… gathering each week, a few of the terrible photo’s I have snapped to give you a sneak peek in to my own lovely ordinary, without fiddling or filtering the images as I might for Instagram…
First up… Mum’s cherub. Now my most treasured possession. Because she treasured it for so long and I am now blessed with it’s safekeeping.
Next a yummy goats cheese salad I enjoyed in Cedar Farm with Ste and his lovely Mum, Marge.
A snap of a photograph of Helen and I as children, dressed for a reason I can’t remember in old-fashioned clothes. This picture hangs in the hallway here in the bungalow and because Mum hung it there I can’t quite bring myself to take it down and move it to a more suitable spot…
One of the range of Modere supplements I am now taking in my ongoing effort to wake up feeling alive instead of as if someone has been dragging me in and out of a bush all night long…
Some of the vintage collection we will be selling in Oxford very soon…
One of the many, many fairies doors that have popped up at the base of the old trees in the woods where we take Alfie for his daily walk…
And finally me, looking exhausted (and needing my roots doing!) because I haven’t slept for days…
Till next week Housekeepers.x
May 26, 2016
Brocante Bookmarks
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5 Ways to Clear Negative Energy from Your Home
I’m in my home a lot. I work from home; I like to practice yoga in my home; I love to stay in and cook a time-intensive meal. That’s why it’s so important that I love the spaces within…
yogiapprove…
Cinnamon French Toast Muffins – Shutterbean
Cinnamon French Toast Muffins are a hybrid (I almost typed hybread- which would have been appropriate!) of french toast, bread puddings and muffins. They’re an alternate way to get your…
shutterbean…
Do What You Love interview – Dr. Christiane Northrup – Do What…
Throughout May the Do What You Love team has enjoyed listening to the most fascinating talks by leading experts in health, wellness, spirituality, and relationships at The Hay House World…
dowhatyoulovefo…
How to Use Your Time Wisely: 24 Tips to Be More Productive &…
We are forever rushing around like headless chickens trying to achieve, achieve, do more, more, and then more again. We are busy; we want to be productive. We want to do it all but we fail…
[image error] lecoindemel.com
The 3 Rituals I Do When I Get My Period | Flo Living
Historically, a ritual is all about being present in the moment, giving gratitude to what is happening to you at this time, connecting with yourself and your feelings. A ritual can be a…
[image error] floliving.c…
Happy Mother’s Day: Kids’ Screen Time is a Feminist Issue |…
Our idealized versions of both childhood and motherhood have a new enemy: screen time. Parents are warned that screen time is making kids fat, damaging family relationships and may even…
daily.jstor.org
Why Erma Bombeck is still the patron saint of motherhood comedy
Growing up in the 1980s as a tediously well-behaved and highly conformist child, I loved Erma Bombeck’s books. I often used my allowance to increase my mother’s modest collection of her…
[image error] theguardian…
The Unhealthy Truth Behind ‘Wellness’ and ‘Clean Eating’ |…
Illustration by Marta Parszeniew. A few years ago, I found wellness. My body felt like a burden, and the food I ate didn’t seem to energise me or push me on: it dulled my edges, left me…
[image error] vice.com
Her secret history: I discovered my mother’s digital life after…
Not long after my mother died in 2014, less than eight months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, my dad and I performed a ritual familiar to anyone who has lost someone they…
[image error] theguardian…
10 Tips for Meditating at Home
We’ve all been there. You snag a sliver of free time, and two seconds later you’re sucked into your smartphone. Adele covers, throwback fashion shows, listicles: you name it and it’s…
[image error] designspong…
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The Melissa Bath Ritual
This my lovelies, is the bath to take when it seems as though the whole world is against you and you are oozing bruised and bad feelings out of every pore. You know, one of those days…
Melissa is a particularly spiritual oil, highly regarded as being blessed with the ability to soothe emotional pain, cleanse damaged aura’s and sedate jangly, troubled nerves. The idea with this bath is to restore a sense of order and well-being, while soothing your soul and reminding you just what is beautiful about this life…
* Begin by taking a quick shower to cleanse your body before the bath.
* Then wrap yourself up warm and run a hot bath.
* Turn off all electric light and light as many candles as you can find.
* Now carry something you consider beautiful to the bathroom: an object, vase of flowers or meaningful image and place it where it will be directly in your eye-line from the bath.
* Play something soft or spiritual. Choose music without words so your attention will not be diverted by the emotions certain phrases or songs can inspire.
* Now add 8 to 10 drops of Melissa oil to the bath and swirl it with your fingers.
* Undress and climb into the bath. Now scoop this blissfully scented water up with your hands and pour it over your head. This ritual is as old as the hills and is thought to cleanse the aura and refresh the soul, while allowing you to truly sense the spiritual powers of the oil.
* Lie back and focus on the pretty or meaningful object you brought into the bathroom. Allow your entire being to focus on it and let all other thoughts drift away.
* Step out of the bath as soon as it cools. Wrap up in warm night-clothes, sip a cup of night-time tea and get into bed, feeling nourished and pampered…
Enjoy Darling Housekeepers…x
May 25, 2016
Agatha Raisin on Sky One
People I am delirious. Absolutely delirious. You know how much I adore the frivolous stuff and nonsense that is M.C.Beatons’ Agatha Raisin cozy mystery series? Like adore it with all the passion people usually reserve for the kind of vices they wouldn’t want to take to the confession box? Well yes: that much. Agatha is in fact my very own dirty secret. The kind of literary vice I do not like to think about but indulge in as often as dear Ms Beaton cares to churn a new episode in Agatha Raisin’s life, out…
Having reached a point where I’m up to speed with all the books and thus have to wait almost a year between the next, I was to to be found squealing like a pig in a sty last night after Finley wandered in and casually mentioned that Agatha would be back in her very own eight part series at the beginning of June and I got so excited I almost licked his face which frankly doesn’t do at all because twelve year old boys and people in general really don’t take kindly to having their faces licked.
Snakes and bast**ds, as Agatha would say, where was I? Oh yes. Agatha is back on the tele! Christmas 2014 saw the first televisation of Agatha Raisin in her first cozy calamity, The Quiche of Death, and though at the time Mum and I were ABSOLUTELY APPALLED that Agatha did not have the shiny brown bob and “bear-like” eyes so frequently referred to by M.C.Beaton in the books (we favored Caroline Quentin), the whole program was so delightfully silly and scrumptiously filmed in Biddestone, Wiltshire (a Cotswold gem if ever there was one!), that we decided to forgive and forget and just enjoy a romp through a rather madcap murder mystery in a gorgeous English village…
For the books are silly. And I am silly. And sometimes silly is just what the doctor ordered don’t you know?
So pour a scotch and frazzle a microwave meal because Agatha arrives on Sky One in June.
Why I Am No Longer Selling Doterra Oils
Network marketing is a conundrum isn’t it? A cloak and dagger business renowned for selling overpriced nonsense to excitable housewives while not really being about said products at all, but ultimately about selling a lifestyle based on persuading others to sell a lifestyle to their own others. And on and on it goes…
There now. I have summed it up for all of us. And in that one paragraph lies the very reason why I stopped working with Doterra, despite the fact that I truly believe that they create some of the finest essential oils on the market.
For starters. I just couldn’t cope with the very first rule of marketing those oils: that here on the internets we do not talk about Doterra. We do not link to them in blog posts praising their rather incredible peppermint oil. Or say that their lavender oil is quite the purest we have ever experienced. We can’t say that.
We have to say pssssstttt…come here. I know this great lavender oil but you have got to give me your email address so that I can tell you what it is and why it is so great and you mustn’t tell anyone else unless you tell them in secret too or else the FDA will come out all guns blazing and close the entire company down and in fact only those who are already making megabucks with Doterra will be permitted to talk about it because the rest of us cannot be trusted not to make spurious claims. Email address please??
Oooh I feel better getting that off my chest. For yes though I must confess to being uncomfortable with a company the FDA are apparently “uncomfortable” about, I truly LOVE Doterra regardless. In fact I cannot imagine never using their On Guard products again simply because during an entire Winter usually hounded by coughs and colds, not one person in my family has had to endure anything more than the merest of sniffles, so enveloped are we in a kind of fierce aromatic bubble.
I love Doterra but I cannot be a part of marketing their products because I cannot authentically market them to you without looking like I am trying to deal drugs, or persuade you to give up your career in favor of joining my cult. I want to be able to say this lavender oil is the best on the market, here’s the link, please buy it if you think it will serve you and I am happy to tell you more about these products I truly believe in if you are interested.
I want to be able to accompany posts about Doterra with images of their products, but that is not permitted. Here on Brocantehome I could not post an image of anything Doterra related. Can’t even pop up a snap of a Doterra product in my own home. And it makes me uncomfortable.
You see that is ALL I wanted to do when I first joined Doterra. Have a range of products that supported the lifestyle I describe here at BrocanteHome. Products that would both provide a small income towards my efforts to keep the site online and ultimately products I could authentically recommend without feeling like a sleazy saleswoman trying to get you to part with all your worldy goods. While the promises made within the network marketing industry as a whole might be inviting, achieving high sales all to often requires the selling of your soul to persuade others to play by the same rules, and that is fine until you happen across rules you do not believe in and cannot authentically sell on.
I have never been about relentless sales here on BrocanteHome. I want you to understand that I only recommend those things that have truly made a difference in my life. The things I really love and use everyday. I want to show you those things, and not have to insist that you buy that information with an email address.
This then is ultimately about trust. When I say I LOVE something I want you to trust me enough to know that I really do LOVE it. I want my recommendations to feel like an ordinary part of the conversation here on the site and I want those recommendations to feel like those made by your best friend, so you can take them or leave them safe in the knowledge that I recommend them from the place of authority that is having personal experience of those products without trying to force them down your throat. Because a best friend wouldn’t do that and she definitely wouldn’t declare Frankincense oil to be a cure for breast cancer or a million other ills – which is above all else what Doterra fear most: their representatives making ludicrous claims about their products online.
But here in lies the rub. Those of us online may not be making such grandiose and frankly occasionally preposterous claims about the powers of essential oils, but offline in the course of emails and Skype conversations those very same claims Doterra so fear and the FDA are looking to eliminate exist and are frequently repeated among the chattering marketing classes. The tumor in the jar drawn out from the breast by the power of Frankincense alone may be the stuff that urban legends are made of but it is a claim I have heard more than once and one I want no part of.
Doterra understandably cannot legislate against conversation so they have brought down the heavy guns on small bloggers (though not upon those who are the Diamond Leaders in the industry with blogs of their own): making it possible to make whatever claims one wants once an email address has been acquired, or indeed to make similar claims on social networks because media like that is transient and apparently without influence, but not possible to market those same products on anything with the permanence of a blog post. For me that makes working with Doterra impossible because I do not want to have to manipulate my readers but would rather now say, by all means buy Doterra products because they truly are worth the investment, but I can no longer ask you to buy them here because marketing like this simply doesn’t sit well with me. Doterra wellness advocates are all over Pinterest and I know you will be able to find an alternative advocate.
Why am I telling you all this? Because I wanted you to understand why I have stopped marketing Doterra here on BrocanteHome and indeed why I am choosing instead to work with Modere to support BrocanteHome financially.
Like Doterra, Modere is a network marketing company. But it is one with a crucial difference: there is no obligation to become a “wholesale” member. I will never ask you to commit to spending upwards of £100.00 a month to be able to recommend those products to anyone else and you can spend as little or as much as you like and I will not pop up reminding you to place an order on a monthly basis!
I have chosen Modere because their Laundry powder is the best I have ever used and as we integrate more of the Modere range in to our daily lives and experience the benefits of #LiveClean in every aspect of our homemaking and well- being I become more certain that this is the company I am happy to hang my Brocante hat on because I know for sure that I am recommending products that really are beneficial to the Brocante way of life.
Finally I want to say thank-you to all those of you who were part of my Doterra journey and of course to those of you already enjoying the benefits of Living Clean with Modere. Without your loyalty and trust in me and the products I recommend here, Brocantehome would not be financially viable and I am so grateful to your ongoing trust in me personally. It is an uncomfortable truth that blogs are businesses and that as the years go by they are becoming harder and harder to monetise sufficiently. Thus offering Modere products to you my lovely readers is both part of committing to this lovely lifestyle I have created and ensuring the future of a blog I know we all adore.
Tomorrow I will explain in more detail about why I believe so very strongly in Modere and it’s business model and I hope you will join me again then.
Have a lovely day Housekeepers.x
May 24, 2016
Brocante Bedtime Reading
If you are a member of my lovely Living Room, there is a little surprise for you in the Library this evening.
You see it strikes me that blog posts are hard to read and it would be kind of lovely if once a month I collated the twelve best blog posts from the previous month and gathered them in to one lovely download you could upload to your Kindle or tablet to read at your leisure, without adverts, images, sidebars or any of the other lovely fluff I decorate my pages with…
So just the words. The stories and the inspiration. Without the fuss.
A monthly treat just for my Living Roomers.
(P.S: Not a member of my Living Room yet? It’s just $7.00 at the moment for a whole year of community and inspiration. Click here to read more about joining today…)
Take A (Vintage) Tip…
Pamphlets containing a random selection of household hints are some of my favorite things to find on my regular vintage treasure hunting trips and last week, while out and about with Helen in search of lovely little somethings for our new Vintage business, I found myself utterly charmed by by an ageing yellow pamphlet called “Take A Tip!”: a collection of tips from the good readers of the Manchester Evening News back when such inspiration could be bought for a shilling…
And so, here, without further ado, I present to you my favorite tips from my latest find. The vintage equivalent to my very own Puttery Treat!
Rusty Cake-Tins.
To remove rust from the corners of cake tins which have not been in use for a long time, dip a raw potato in scouring powder and rub.
Mrs. M.M. Jones, Withington.
Cushion Apron
Do not throw away that faded old cushion cover. Sew tapes on the corners, by each side of the openings, and tie it around your waist.
On wash days pop the pegs in it. On bedroom days, pop all the dusters, polishes, and brushes you need, and when re-decorating use it for the “turpy” rag, scraper and so on.
Mrs. A. Barton, Rochdale.
Dress Stiffener
Here is a tip when packing. Cut several pieces of cardboard slightly smaller than the case. Then fold each dress carefully, wrap in tissue paper and tie on the cardboard. The dresses can be lifted out easily and are almost always straight.
Mrs. M. Lally, Moston.
A Pinch of Salt works Wonders!
Take ink out of white cottons. Make a paste out of some lemon juice and salt and leave it on the stain for some time before washing.
Miss. Ann Barker, Stockport.
Scuffed Toes
When the toes of leather shoes become scuffed, rub over with wax crayon of the same colour as the shoes and then polish in the usual way. The scuff marks cannot be noticed.
Mrs. R.Cutler, Hr. Crumpsall.
In the Bag
When bringing in the weekly wash, save a lot of trouble and possibility of small items being dropped by leaving the pillowcases on the line and filling them with the smalls.
They will then also stay tidy until you are ready to iron them.
Mrs. B.Stirzaker, Bury.
Keeping It Soft
Chamois leathers quickly become stiff and brittle after use. Re-wetting them in this condition speeds up deterioration and cracks rapidly develop in to holes.
After using your wash leather, rinse it out and put it in to an a screw-top jar. This keeps it perfectly moist and pliable.
Mr. L.P.Miles. Prestwich.
Fly Fighter
Leave two small dishes or bottles of disinfectant on your kitchen table and the flies will disappear.
Mrs. R. Solomon, Manchester 8.
Fluffy Pillows
Have you got any of “grandma’s” old feather cushions or pillows in the house? And do you feel like throwing them out when you try to “fluff” them up?
Undo a small piece in the seam of the cover, just enough to insert the tube of a bicycle pump. Use the pump gently in the ordinary way and the air will “fluff” up the feathers.
Mrs.E. Allman. Sale.
For Sleepy-Heads
If, as is usually the case, a pillow-case wears thin in the centre, stitch a pretty full-sized handkerchief corner-wise over the thin part and the case will have a second life.
Mrs. R. Arthur, Blackpool.
Happy Vintage Housekeeping Darlings!
May 23, 2016
Living Room + Salon Round-Up
I cannot tell you how absolutely delighted I have been by the response to the Living Room! It is I think the very essence of what I long hoped BrocanteHome would be, but never quite managed to organise during the trials and tribulations of the last five years and I know from the emails and messages I have received from all my members that you too are delighted that Brocante finally seems to be taking the kind of shape I hope will make all the difference in our lives…
That said, being a one-lady band in the process of birthing something with the breadth of the new BrocanteHome was always going to be something of a challenge and the last two weeks I have been besieged by the kind of technical problems that have had me swinging from sobbing to screaming, wanting to punch the wall and occasionally wanting to punch some terribly unhelpful techies lights out! But with a will of absolute steel and a lot of gin duly provided by Ste who had surely never seen the likes of me in the midst of a technical crisis, by hook or by crook I do believe I have got there…
And so m’dear’s here starts the first in my weekly roundup of all that is going on in both the Living Room and my soon to be released Salon…
In the Living Room
First up… in the Living Room Facebook group the conversation has been both enlightening, fascinating and already an essential part of all our days as new friendships are formed and routines and rituals shared. It is a tight-knit, supportive group and I have been thrilled by how very easily the conversation has flowed about everything from setting domestic intentions and what we do on Sundays to prepare for the rest of the week, to the best steam mops and how we manage the chaos that is mornings!
Not all of you who are members of the Living Room, The Salon or the former Circle have yet requested access to this rather exclusive little Facebook group of ours, so please do pop over and request it and I will get you signed up ASAP. Please note that you do need to be a member of one of the above to receive access, but if you are and you have requested access and have not yet had it granted it is probably because I do not recognize your Facebook name or email address so do just drop me a quick line and I will sort it out for you.
The Facebook group really is the best place to get all the latest information you need about the Living Room Book Club, latest “Homework” news, quick-fixes to membership issues and the latest discount codes for all the products in the download store so if you haven’t signed in yet I really would urge you to join the party. I am there morning and night and you will always have instant access to me and daily insight into my own routines and rituals.
Next I wanted to confirm that all the book-club suggestions for the rest of 2016 are now available to view in the Living Room Library and you will find the workbook for June’s “book of the month” available in the “Homework” section tomorrow.
The downloads for the first two “Homework” assignments are also now available in the “Homework” section alongside a downloadable cover for your May 2016 folio…
The first of the downloads available FREE to my Living Roomers, The Heart and Home Planner is now available for collection in the Download Section of the Living Room Library and with a value of $15.00 all by itself, it make’s the current Living Room annual entry fee of $7.00 an absolute steal! (But sign up quick because next week the opening Living Room offer will be gone!)
And finally the Calendar is in full swing and the Directory will be open and welcoming you all to a world full of gorgeous, online inspiration in the next seven days!
All that for $7.00 annually for ever more? I have clearly gone mad, which is why I can only offer Living Room Membership for half-price for one more week. Next Monday the price will double to $15.00 a year, so if you want to grab a bargain today is the day to do it!
Click Here To sign Up To the Living Room Now!
Next up I wanted to talk about The Salon. When you become a member of the Salon you are not only automatically granted access to all the benefits of Living Room Membership and each and every download in the store, but you will also be privvy to Salon only Downloads, Podcasts, Webinars and a private one on one PEP-TALK with me so we can really get to the heart of how you want to create a life less ordinary.
The opening of the Salon has been delayed while I have been ironing out the technical issues the site has recently experienced, and in the meantime I wanted to address a few of the question I know some of you have had about membership of the Salon.
First up if you an existing PAYING member of the Circle you will automatically be granted FREE access of the Salon until the end of your current subscription (monthly or annually), and thereafter your subscription will be renewed at the same price you were paying previously.
Next up as so many of you have expressed dismay at my decision to not offer a monthly subscription to the Salon, I wanted to let you know that I have made it possible to pay for Salon Subscription at a cost of $20.00 per month OR you can pay in full today and get your ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION for the reduced sum of $169.00 (and lock that price in forever if you are quick!).
The Salon will go live at the end of next week and it will launch with FREE access to the upcoming SUMMER HOUSE download, alongside free access to absolutely everything else available at BrocanteHome. So now is the time to grab your Salon key and guarantee exclusive entry to the most valuable way to create a life less ordinary at Brocantehome…
Click Here To Pay Monthly for the Salon Today!
It is such a pleasure to be able to invite you to a Living Room and Salon I am truly proud of. Have a lovely week Housekeepers.
