Modern Retro Woman

A Home for Timeless Women - Inspiring you on your journey as a gracious, elegant, classy, self-sufficient, and well-rounded woman.

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You are here: Home / Modern Retro Woman 1950s Home Ec 101

Modern Retro Woman 1950s Home Ec 101

In the 20th century, home economics courses taught high school and college students how to be effective home managers. Although often mocked for the ubiquitous gelatin salads and English muffin pizzas, the focus was on nutrition and meal planning, human development and relationships, sewing, design, finance and being an informed consumer, home maintenance, and gardening.

Art of Homemaking

How to Make Housework a Meditation on Love

How to Make Housework a Meditation on Love

Would you leave your career to chance? Of course not! The same kind of planning you use for your career should be used for your home management. Are You Leaving Your Home Management to Chance ModernRetroWoman.com Blog Image

Are You Leaving Your Home Management to Chance?

Starch is Our Secret Weapon

Starch is Our Secret Weapon

Ode to Shelf Paper

Ode to Shelf Paper

Why I Gave Up Tide Detergent (And All of the Others, Too)

Why I Gave Up Tide Detergent (And All of the Others, Too)

Dual Career Homemakers

Dual Career Homemakers

Donna Reed As Patron Saint of Homemakers

Donna Reed As Patron Saint of Homemakers

Homekeeping Routines Are a Lifesaver on Low Physical Energy Days

Homekeeping Routines Are a Lifesaver on Low Physical Energy Days

How to Eliminate the Need for Spring Cleaning

How to Eliminate the Need for Spring Cleaning

A Place For Everything--Everything In It's Place

A Place For Everything–Everything In It’s Place

Click here to explore more Art of Homemaking posts

Create the Home You Want

What Is Your Christmas Tree Style?

What Is Your Christmas Tree Style?

Welcome to the Type of Home That's Right For You

Welcome to the Type of Home That’s Right For You

The "Morning Star" house plan.

What Type of Home for Me?

You Have Taste

You Have Taste

I Guess I'm Not A Traditional American Kind of Gal Anymore

I Guess I’m Not A Traditional American Kind of Gal Anymore

"Mrs. Leinsdorf's Domain," McCall's Magazine, March 1964.

Is Your Homemaking Work Space Inviting? Your Own?

A Home For My Vintage Cookbook Collection

A Home For My Vintage Cookbook Collection

The Contemporary Conventional Home in 1958

The Contemporary Conventional Home in 1958

You Have Taste-Develop Confidence In It

You Have Taste-Develop Confidence In It

Bear Rug, Optional

Bear Rug, Optional

Click here to explore more Create the Home You Want posts

Elegant Living on a Budget

Is Your Desk A Junk Heap? Glamorous Whole Life Makeover ModernRetroWoman.com

Is Your Desk A Junk Heap?

Theatrical Thursday: American Thrift {Vintage Film}

You Need an Old Fashioned Money Paper Trail

You Need an Old Fashioned Money Paper Trail

An Organized Life and Home

An Organized Life and Home

Wise Use of Credit

Wise Use of Credit

Click here to explore more Elegant Living on a Budget posts

Entertaining at Home

CHRISTMAS MUSIC

Vintage Christmas LPs for Your Holiday Party

Just Say No to Dinner in a Box

Just Say No to Dinner in a Box

Successful Entertaining: Cocktail Parties ~ The Solution to More Fun than Funds

Successful Entertaining: Cocktail Parties ~ The Solution to More Fun than Funds

Successful Entertaining: Smooth Entertainment Requires Planning, Planning, Planning

Successful Entertaining: Smooth Entertainment Requires Planning, Planning, Planning

Successful Entertaining: How to be a Terrible Hostess

Successful Entertaining: How to be a Terrible Hostess

Kikkoman TIKI party vintage advertisement

Successful Entertaining: Four Things to Remember

Successful Entertaining: Hostesses Are Born AND Made

Successful Entertaining: Hostesses Are Born AND Made

How to be a Safe and Sane Hostess

How to be a Safe and Sane Hostess

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Grandma’s Ice Cream Recipe

How To Have Guests--and Enjoy Them!

How To Have Guests–and Enjoy Them!

Click here to explore more Entertaining at Home posts

Home Cooking and Vintage Recipes

Are you looking for a vintage Christmas Jell-O salad recipe? Perhaps with a layer of yummy cream cheese? You'll love this easy to make family favorite!

Christmas Jell-O Salad with Cream Cheese {Vintage Family Recipe}

If you've only had bottled salad dressing (or the packets of dressing) from the store, you're going to love the three quick and easy vintage recipes for herb, ranch, and blue cheese dressings. The unpronounceable ingredients in bottle or packet dressings are there to extend the shelf life and make it a bit industrial tasting. These three classic salad dressings are so delicious, they don't need preservatives in them because they'll be used up long before they go bad. #HomemadeSaladDressing #EasySaladDressing ModernRetroWoman.com

Quick & Easy Vintage Salad Dressing Recipes: Herb • Ranch • Blue Cheese

Photo of chili over corn chips for Instant Pot Updated Vintage Recipe No Soak Chili con Wiener ModernRetroWoman.com blog post

Instant Pot No Soak Chili con Wiener

Shepherd's Pie {Planned Overs}

Shepherd’s Pie {Planned Overs}

Crazy Easy to Make Ham and Bean Soup ModernRetroWoman.com

Crazy Easy Ham and Bean Soup {Planned Overs}

World War II Vintage Rationing Recipe Peach Upside Down Cake Vintage Recipe ModernRetroWomancom Blog Image

Peach Upside Down Cake – Vintage Rationing Recipe

Sloppy Devils {Updated Vintage Recipe}

Sloppy Devils {Updated Vintage Recipe}

Creamy Wild Mushroom and Parsnip Soup

Creamy Wild Mushroom and Parsnip Soup

Chicken Lafayette Kennedy Era Recipe ModernRetroWoman.com

Chicken Lafayette {Vintage White House Recipe}

Ham Chicken Bake Vintage Recipe ModernRetroWoman.com

Luscious Ham-Chicken Bake {Vintage Recipe}

Click here to explore more Home Cooking and Vintage Recipes

Sewing – Grandma’s Sewing Cabinet

An Old-School Way to Protect Your Clothes ModernRetroWoman.com

McCall’s 6107: An Old-School Way to Protect Your Clothes

Caftan Fabulousness Butterick 4406 Pattern Review ModernRetroWoman.com

Caftan Fabulousness {Pattern Review}

Drafting Skirt Pattern Sew Along Lesson 5: Waistband and Facing

Drafting Skirt Pattern Sew Along Lesson 5: Waistband and Facing

Are Synthetic Fibers Petroleum Guzzlers?

Are Synthetic Fibers Petroleum Guzzlers?

Drafting Skirt Pattern Sew Along Lesson 4: Checking the Fit and Fixing Problems

Acetate: The Top Choice for Bridesmaids and Prom Dresses The World Over

Acetate: The Top Choice for Bridesmaids and Prom Dresses The World Over

Drafting Skirt Pattern Sew Along Lesson 3: Drafting the Pattern (w/video)

Drafting Skirt Pattern Sew-Along Lesson Two: Measuring (w/video)

Drafting Skirt Pattern Sew-Along Lesson One: Tools (w/ Video)

Drafting Skirt Pattern Sew-Along Lesson One: Tools (w/ Video)

Singer Dressmaking Course: Is The Fabric Right for the Design?

Singer Dressmaking Course: Is The Fabric Right for the Design?

Click here to explore more Sewing – Grandma’s Sewing Cabinet posts

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Hi There! I’m Dr. Julie-Ann

I’m so glad that you are here! Are you like me and long for the days when people lived by a set of values and ideals–like family, home, femininity, home cooked meals with real food, dressing well out of respect for self and others, fiscal responsibility, and connectedness–that seem to have been cast aside in today’s cynical and crass world?

By day, I help professors achieve their teaching goals at a mid-sized public university smack dab in the middle of the United States. The rest of the time, however, I’m using all of those same scholarship skills I use for my out-of-the-house job to study mid-century gracious living advice books on topics such as personal presence, clothing that makes you feel beautiful, and good cooking.  My readers love that I am able to translate that information for today’s modern world so that they can be the kind of women they’ve always wanted to be.

Learn more about me (along with my life with The Mister) and the blog by clicking on the “Start Here” button on the navigation bar at the top of the page.

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