Cabin fever is an old phrase for people who would be trapped in their cabins during the winter months. Have you ever noticed a mystery door on the second level of an old house and wondered what a door was doing up there with no stairs or any other way to exit from the door to the ground outside? Then you've seen the winter escape door which was built into older homes when winters were harsh, far more than they are now. Snow would build up with snowfall and blowing drifts until people couldn't get out of their homes from the regular ground floor door. They could use that second floor door then. Step out with their snowshoes and avoid being trapped inside their own home.

It was when they couldn't get out, when they had nothing to do but wait for winter to thaw, that cabin fever came along. The night came early and the day started late. That gave them a lot of hours of darkness. Light was expensive. Cabins didn't have a lot of windows in the days of early settlers. If they have fuel for lamps or candles they had to be conserved to last all winter. It was also frigidly cold so everyone kept close together to share heat, days and nights too. That meant close, cramped quarters and a lot of time on their hands.

Can you imagine living like that? How restless you would become? How depressed over the length of winter and the hours of darkness? If it weren't so cold you could go off by yourself but everyone would be huddled around the source of heat. Sometimes they would have all the farm animals in the cabin with them in order to keep them through the winter. No wonder they would feel desperate to escape. My Grandparents told me some people did go crazy. Some of them needed to be outside so badly they died from exposure to the elements.

Modern Cabin Fever

Cabin fever didn't end with the early settlers. People can get the feeling of cabin fever in the summer when they stay indoors with the air conditioning on. People can be camping and living in a small tent during a few days of rain and have cabin fever. People who become afraid to leave their home for all kinds of reasons can be house bound and have cabin fever at the same time.

What do to About Cabin Fever

If you can get out at all, do it! Even if it means sweltering in the heat, getting soaked in the rain, freezing in the snow or having to talk to your neighbour - get outdoors for at least a few minutes. It will make a difference. Look around while you are out there. Kick some snow, pick a couple of flowers, splash the rain and rescue a worm from the sidewalk. Do something with your moments of freedom so you can go back to indoors feeling you took some kind of action.

If you have fellow cabin fever sufferers don't all commiserate, play a game. Drag out the board games no one has looked at in awhile. If you have limited supplies use pen and paper to play hangman. Start a jigsaw puzzle. Get out a deck of cards. Play I Spy even, you don't need anything extra for that.

Create your own TV show. Even if you are alone you can interview the four walls and everything in between. Talking to yourself is better than listening to the silence and feeling trapped inside of it. Break the silence - at least you know you have a captive audience who can really appreciate your sense of humour.

Relax. Get into a good book. Try yoga or something else you like to do to unwind. Spend the time pampering yourself with a hot bath, bring a book and spend as long as you want in there. If it's hot, bring a fan to sit on the floor and blow the air around from the doorway. The radio can sit on the counter. Just keep electrical things safely away from the water.

Exercise. Jumping jacks, twiddling your fingers and toes, whatever sort of exercise you can enjoy inside the house will work.

Go through cookbooks and find a great dinner to make with whatever you have available. Or, go out and grab what you need. This isn't a great time to over eat unless you are able to be active inside the house.

Start a new hobby or take up one you used to enjoy. Teach yourself to crochet or knit for example.Finally read the instruction book that came along with that new camera. Repair things you haven't had time to get around to doing in the house.

Sleep. It's free and pretty easy to do when you just sit there awhile.

Don't isolate yourself. Pick up the phone and find someone else home and fighting cabin fever. Send out a few emails, check Facebook and Twitter and see who you can find. Invite friends over.

If you are stuck indoors with people and you need to get out from under everyone bury your nose in a book, write in a journal or listen to movies or music which everyone can enjoy without having to talk to each other.

If you have the winter blahs, SAD (seasonal affective disorder), turn on some extra lights. The extra hours of darkness in winter can make you feel like you're living in a cave. So brighten things up. Even open up a couple of windows to let in some fresh air for a few minutes.

Don't overdose on the news. You can be sure they will be talking about how bad the weather is, you really don't need to hear more of that from someone else.

Silver Polishing Made Easy

Polishing silver is easier than you might think. You don't need to buy silver polish or rub and rub and rub. Baking soda, boiling water and aluminum foil will get the job done.

Use a deep pan, deep enough for all the silver you want to polish to fit in the pan and be covered by water. Don't overload the pan. Too much silver to be cleaned at once will give you little result.

Cover the pan with silver foil (aluminum foil). You need the silver, shiny side facing out. In the bottom of the pan pour baking soda. I have even used older baking soda which had been open in the fridge for awhile. I used more of it but I was going to throw out the whole box so this was another way to recycle it and give it one more use.

You need at least two tablespoons of baking soda. More for a bigger pan or a larger load of silver. Don't worry about using too much baking soda - but make sure you spread it around over the whole bottom.

Boil water - you need enough to cover all the silver you want to clean. Load the silver into the pan. Let it make contact with the baking soda and the silver foil. If your pan looks cluttered, hold back and split it into two lots. It's worth only cleaning just a few at a time and having to do it over again rather than trying to get it all done at once.

The cleaning really happens in that first second when contact occurs as you pour in the bolling water. Always pour the boiling water in last and have enough to cover all the silver you are cleaning.

Have a cloth handy to dry the silver. Don't wait for the water to cool down. If you give it a wipe off you won't get spots from leaving the water to dry itself. The work is really done in the first minute. Rinse the silver in clean water to make sure all the baking soda is washed off.

If you did not get GREAT results try it again with just one piece of silver and a fresh package of baking soda or use more baking soda and make sure your water is still boiling when you pour it over. Or, I have had better results using a thicker silver foil paper versus the cheap, thin stuff you can buy in the dollar stores.

Always cover your pan with the aluminum foil This will save you from having to clean it afterwards. The tarnish will be on the foil which you can throw away.

Last note, there is a smell from this process. It will smell strongly of sulfur. Open a window or run a fan if you are sensitive to it. Tea Service Presented to John Leeming, 1851. Source: National Gallery of Canada

Shopping or Buying One is Limiting - Why Not Design and Make Your Own?

Did Your Grandmother Have Dolls in her Bathroom?

I remember these from my Grandmother's house, in the bathroom. She knitted her own from patterns that have disappeared along with most of her stuff after her death years ago. I don't know how to knit (I learned to crochet on my own) but it would have been nice to have some of her old knitting patterns. Sometimes I see interesting or unusual patterns in the thrift store but I don't buy them. I don't knit after all.

The History of the Toilet Roll Dolly

There isn't a lot of history to the dolls. In the 1960's they began appearing in North America and likely various Common Wealth and European locations too. I can only vouch for those I saw in Canada, mainly Ontario.

I expect the idea came along when there was extra yarn, some time for a new project, maybe a broken doll and the idea was born. Pretty up your bathroom. In the 1960's there were other home made fashions in the bathroom. I can think of toilet seat covers, something I haven't seen a big return on with all the vintage and retro ideas. You could co-ordinate your doll's dress with your pretty toilet seat cover, the bathroom floor rug and anything else already decorating the bathroom. Maybe that was how she really got started. Not only could you add more home made crafts, more colour and keep that broken doll around for a reason but you could ... make it all shades of pink matching.

There was likely some idea about modestly hiding that unsightly naked toilet roll too.

Specifications for Making Your Own Toilet Roll Doll Cosie

I have yet to see a vintage pattern for those old toilet roll cover dolls. That's how I started writing about them today. I'm seeing what I can turn up online.

I can find an endless supply of the little dolls at thrift stores. They are abandoned by children everywhere, so it would be a good way to recycle/ repurpose some of them. You can pick and choose from weird blue hair colour to a weird blue skin colour and the standard human shades of brown colours too.

The only thing that matters about the doll is her height and width. She can't stand too tall and tip over inside the toilet roll. She also needs to be the right width to fit through the centre of the cardboard roll from about the waist down. Mainly her legs need to be inside the roll as the skirt of her dress covers the toilet paper roll - that leaves her above the roll from the waist up.

What do you Call your Toilet Roll Doll?

I guess you could properly call them toilet roll cosies, or toilet roll toppers too. I never found out what my Grandmother actually called hers. I always enjoyed seeing them though. She never made one for me, that I can remember. Maybe she just thought they weren't really anything special. But, they were.

I haven't worn a shower cap since I was a little girl visiting my Grandmother. I wasn't even in the shower.  We were having a girl's night and I went to bed with my head full of curlers. The shower cap was pink and plastic, with frills. My Grandmother would wear it in the shower when she just wanted a quick wash or to cool down in the summer, without getting her hair wet.

There are alternate uses for shower caps. If you're traveling light you can wrap it around your toothbrush, toothpaste and shampoo to keep them sorted out in your luggage. Saves buying an extra little bag just to hold your bathing essentials. I bought my niece curlers last year. I hadn't even thought of myself with curlers and the shower cap so many years ago. As I took the curlers out of her hair the next morning I used the shower cap to store them in, thinking it would keep them together for the next time we curled her hair. She also had the shower cap on overnight, it does work to keep the curlers from coming loose over night. One little tradition passed on to the next generation.

These days I'm usually in the shower to wash my hair, scrub up and get out. I like to shower in the evening to give myself a little time to stand there and enjoy the hot water.  I don't use a shower cap. They are one of those nice, old fashioned kind of girly things that (in these days) seem to be more ceremonial than practical. When did you last think of a shower cap? When did you last use one?

How about a royal shower cap?

Fancy new shower caps for sale with Jennifer Lyn, Diva Sharon, Mimi a la Mode and Retro Revival.

The original link is 404 now, as are all sites from Geocities.

The Hearth

Folklore

For ancient cultures, the hearth was the center of the home.
It was the provider of warmth through the harsh winter months,
and also provided heat for cooking all meals. It was the
gathering place of the household.
Fire has a special attraction for all of us. Within its
smoke and flame lie the origin of many religions.
Fire, the element of transformation, causes change to occur. It can be
destructive, but through destruction comes creation.
The fire in the house was never allowed to die. It was considered
unfortunate if the household fire went out during the night.
If this occurred, hot coals would need to be borrowed from neighbors.
If the coals died while being transported home, it was an omen
that the family would have an unlucky future.

…more