Mid-Century Mom Folds Some Clothes!!!

Sorry that I didn't get this post up this weekend. I was a bit busy with my other blogs, and since most of you read those, I knew you wouldn't be that desperate!!! ;)

This has to be sort of a quick post, I am rushing off to a party with some of my husband's office mates, so I can't go on and on like I like to!!!


Last week's task was for me to get very nicely dressed up and fold the laundry. Nothing terribly exciting, but definitely a need in our house...Mr. Dina gets very irritated if I use the laundry racks too long (we do very little dryer drying in this household, so in some weird way we were mid-century modern even before we started this little project of mine).

The image above is from Getty Images. It was sort of a pain to find this one...who would have thunk it???


You all saw me in this outfit already...I wore it here in this post over at My Superfluities. I had alluded to this post then, but am only now getting around to it. Bad me!

Don't I just look so happy folding these pants? My goal was to not look at this chore as a chore, but more as a way of keeping everything in my household just so and right. I am (normally, not just as mid-century mom) very particular about my clothing (shocker, right?), so this task is something I do on a regular basis and NO ONE is allowed to do it for me. But I wanted to elevate this chore to something else...a sort of gemutlichkeit (in German it means a coziness within the house) task. I wanted to do this job because this task enlivens me...and it almost worked.


Here I am folding a top. I am always folding my tops just like they do in the stores. J. Crew should hire me, if only to fold, fold, fold. I look at the sales assistants on the floor using that board thing and think, "amateurs." ;)

There's the smile (just like the lady in the photo from Getty Images).

Final Thoughts: I didn't quite reach zen-like highs doing the folding, but I was amazed at how quickly the job went once I sat down and just "folded." I had no distractions (outside of Mr. Dina and the camera for the first ten minutes). For twenty-five minutes, I folded clothing.

The only thing that made this task difficult was the couch I was sitting on...it is kind of cushy, and I felt like I was sinking into the cushions. Also, the dress and fishnet stockings combo was a little itchy, so I felt uncomfortable.

Ease of being a mid-century mom: 4 out of 5 (5 is the easiest to be a mid-century mom).

Okay, I am off to party (I should get that outfit up tonight over at My Superfluities). :)

Mid-Century Mom Makes Dinner!!!

I love my sweet 9 followers! Your great suggestions last week made my day, and I had a lot of fun this week scouring the internet for really cool vintage shots of housewives doing housework of all sorts. Expect to see (in the near future) me attempting packing, doing the dishes (in dishwater), ironing, raking leaves, etc. Next spring I will definitely attempt to do gardening, too.

My next question for you is this: What do you all think of when you think of mid-century mom and casual wear? I doubt that back when that women gardened wearing their Sunday best. What would you all suggest I wear when doing more of the menial and dirty work? I still want to be accurate in my depiction of a mid-century housewife, but I cannot imagine Susie Homemaker in 1959 would have worn a wool pencil skirt, heels, and a silk blouse to go weed. :)


I found this image at AllPosters.com. They have a plethora of images from this time period. Very cool. I chose this image because it most correctly shows what happened here at Mid-Century Mom's house last week when I wore a beautiful shirtdress, an apron, hosiery, and a pair of pointy-toed flats, plus a headband. My kids were even parading around me (although we have no shots of that happening). The only difference? Mr. Dina wasn't in a suit. :) He didn't sign up to me a mid-century man...maybe one day I can convince him to give it a shot...maybe when I serve him a (non-alcoholic) drink, HeidiG. ;)

Now, unlike most chores around the house, I LOVE to cook. So I knew straight away I would have no problem with this challenge. That said, I do normally cook in outfits that I have no need to worry about staining. I love to cook in frying pans and stew pots, and over the years I have received quite a few stains on my outfits from my cooking style (I am very free-form).

I cook well, just maybe not as organized and pretty as some might.


Well, would you look at that??? No stains, no messes, etc., and I am halfway through the meal-making process. WOW! At this point I am smelling the butternut squash soup I am making (from scratch, thank you, Miss Giada, AWESOME recipe). Look at the french bread rounds sitting to the left waiting to be oiled and placed in the oven...they are all lined up perfectly on the cutting board.


And look at my posture. Stick-straight. Lovely. If it weren't for the microwave and the stainless steel EVERYWHERE, Mr. Dina said I could actually fool people into believing I am in the 1950s. So sweet. BTW, the dress is from IDEOLOGY. It is from 2005, I believe. Sadly, Macy's doesn't carry this brand at all...and since I bought this dress at Hecht's (used to be THE department store of the Mid-Atlantic region), I probably will never be able to buy IDEOLOGY ever again. Sigh.


Here is a back view of the preparation process. Look at my very full skirt. So mid-century mom.

Final Thoughts: I found this challenge way too easy. I only took the dress off because it isn't really conducive to nursing a baby. I probably could have worn it all night...and the apron was GREAT at keeping stains away. Huh...I think my apron will get more use from now on. I plan on doing the whole dress up and cook thing more often. I don't know if it was the novelty or the dress, but I really liked cooking even more than usual. Plus the soup, YUMMY!

Ease of being a mid-century mom: 5 out of 5 (5 is the easiest to be a mid-century mom).

Next post will most likely be on me attempting to pack in full-on pencil skirt and pearls. That should be fun. (Maybe???)

(Oh, if you happen across an image of a housewife packing from the 50s or 60s, could you leave the link in the comments? I have a feeling that could be a difficult image to find.)