No Pattern Required

Are you ready???  It is time to announce the winner of this super cute textbook!

And the winner is……

True Random Number Generator

Min:
Max:

Result: 6 (from Random.org)

Number 6!!! That would be Wendy!  Hooray Wendy! Send your mailing info to nopatternrequired@hotmail.com and I will get your awesome book to you.

The rest of you will be receiving one free kitten….

Just kidding, just kidding.  Kind of….

Anyway, thanks for leaving comments and being an all around supportive great group. Stay tuned for more giveaways next week, I have a few vintage patterns that might need to find a new home!

So, at the risk of turning this into a cat blog, here are pictures of the new family that Tom and I are fostering right now.  Well, Tom is doing it reluctantly.

Here is Sugar, a young mama, and her brood of 8 kittens. 8!! Crazy.  Sugar and her kittens were turned into the local animal control in one of the overnight dog “drop pens” where you can just ditch your dog at night and have animal control take care of it in the morning.

Somehow, Sugar got out and started moving kittens, so when animal control opened at 8:00 a.m., it looked like 7 motherless kittens had been abandoned in the dog pens.

Luckily, animal control called the Midland Humane Society, who put out a call for an experienced kitten raiser.  And…well…they got me.  I have never raised a kitten before, but I thought I would try rather than letting all these pretty babies get put down.

Meanwhile, another member of the Humane Society tracked down the mom and the last kitten, put them in a carrier and met me at the vet. (Thanks, Rhoda!) Mom and kittens were reunited, and I was totally relieved that I wouldn’t have to be going it alone.

So, now the whole family is being fostered at our house.  Sugar and her babies (Twix, Baby Ruth, Spree, Kit, Kat, York, Clarke and Tootsie) are all doing great.  They were all pretty sick and dehydrated, but everyone is making great strides towards being healthy again!

Happy Wednesday, All!  I have a short and simple post today, because I am a totally idiot and volunteered to feed kittens for the local rescue society.  You are going to have to forgive the shortness of this post because 8 kittens are in the other room waiting to be fed! Every 4 hours!  The little jerks…

Anyway, this week’s meal is from The Southern Cook Book, which is a bunch of recipes collected by Marion Brown and published in 1951.  And no, that isn’t Marion Brown on the cover.  That is just some guy from a Blue Bonnet Margarine ad.

This little gem cookbook is actually still around today, it was reprinted in 2001. Look it up, it might be a good buy if you are interested in Southern cooking. I found a lot of great recipes in this thing that I am looking forward to trying.

But first, as always, we had to go for the stuff that was a little different than what we were used to.

Interesting!  I made something similar when I was in home ec class in high school, we called it bird’s nests or something like that, except it was a pile of hash browns with an egg in the center.

And butter? Bah. Too common.  We decided to go the unhealthy way and do them in bacon fat.

Quite possibly the least ingredients for the Mid-Century Menu ever!

The bread can see you….oooooooooooo….

Frying in bacon fat.  So unhealthy. So delicious.

Cracking eggs into toast holes. 

Perfect fit!

Tom making 5 min grits to go with the Arkansas eggs.  It seemed appropriate.

This was actually really fun. And it even looks cute.

The eggs and bread flipped over.  I was pretty pleased that I didn’t break any yolks.

Tom’s first bite.  It was kind of nice, cause you didn’t even need a fork!

“So, how is it?”

“Really good!  I could see eating this for breakfast a lot.”

Success! I guess Arkansas does have good eggs.

The Verdict:

Good!  I was surprised, thinking that the bread would be soggy and gross, but it actually ended up tasting good. It probably helped that the bread was soaked in bacon drippings.  Everything is more delicious with bacon!

Well, they are not all light switch covers – some are outlet covers too. Anyway, I first want to apologize for the REALLY, REALLY horrible quality of these pictures. Please forgive me Gods of Photography. These pictures were all taken with the cell phone camera, as I did not have my normal camera with me. I would normally never post pictures that were this bad, but I just had to share these switch plates with all of you. Mike and I were at an Estate Sale a while back and I noticed these covers in one room of the house. I searched the whole house to see if there were any more, but they were only in this one room – which was kind of a game room type of room. I was dying to buy them, and they were for sale, but they were $11 each at the time I asked – and there was kind of a bidding war going on for them with the highest bidder winning. I am way too cheap to pay that much for plate covers I really cannot even use right now because I have the bigger ‘rocker’ type light switches in my house anyway. I suppose I could have used the outlet covers, but some of them were cracked – like the wood was splitting down the middle or something. I think these were Teak, but I am not totally sure. So, I figure one day if Mike and I ever find our dream 50′ s house maybe we can just make some of our own and stain them with blond stain! A girl can dream. So here are all the pics I took. I hope you can get some idea of how cool they were!

Sorry again about the picture quality. I hope y’all got a kick out of seeing these ‘Amoeba’ type covers. I know I sure did. If any of y’all ever make any of these I sure would love to see the finished product.

Happy Monday!  I just have two quick tips for all you housewives and anyone else who yearned to know how to set a proper 1930’s table. 

How is it done? Well, we asked and Mueller’s answered. 

When I was getting ready for the Macaroni Mid-Century Menu last week, I noticed these great pictures in the Mueller’s cookbook showing us how to properly set a table.

The bonus of this is that we get to lust after all the dishes. Love that stemware!

I would love to sit down at this table.  But not to eat!  It would be a crime to mess up those plates.  Maybe just a quick glass of lemonade out of those awesome glasses…

This is a really sweet house for sale in Mount Pleasant. It is $134,900 for about 1800 square feet with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. It looks like it needs some TLC, but has the potential to be a really great showplace.  The pictures are great, but check out the virtual tour here, it has a lot more rooms and veiws of rooms.

Love the door!

Slate tile on the hearth!

Built-ins!

Take down those curtains.  Please.

Awww…carpet in the kitchen. I hate that.

There is a studio above the garage. Nice.

Don’t forget to leave a comment on last Friday’s post and get entered to win a fun and funny vintage children’s textbook. Yeah!

Hi All!

I am currently running around like crazy with Tom and his sister, who was sweet enough to fly out to Michigan to visit us.  So a short post today!!  Here is a cute pattern for a little kitten plush softie.  If anyone makes this, please send me a pic!  I am planning on working on this, but I need some time to do it in!

Oh, and bunny and puppy patterns coming soon!

Hey everyone! I was out thrifting the other day when I picked up a copy of the cute vintage textbook, Macmillan Science Life 2.  Now, most of you have been laughing along with the lessons I have been featuring out of Health, Science, Life 1, so I thought this fun book would be a great giveaway!

And this serves two purposes.  One, I get to treat a lucky reader to a fun book.  Two, we get to have a belated celebration of my one year blogiversary! That’s right, I have been typing away for over a year now, and so far people are still hanging around reading it.  Thanks, guys.  I love all the friends I have made online and all the great support you guys give.

Ok, to make this giveaway easy on everyone, it will be real simple.  Leave a comment, and you will be entered in the giveaway.  If you want to be entered a second time, blog about the giveaway or put it on Facebook or Twitter. Then come back and leave another comment about it with a link or tell us where to find it, and you will be entered again!  The max number of entries per person is three. Next Thursday, March 11th at midnight I will use Random.org to pick a winner. Pretty simple, huh?

Oh, and here is a sneak peek of the book you are trying to win:

I love this book!  It is almost brand new, I go so excited when I found it.  It has excellent illustrations, too, and most of the people even have eyes.  What a bargain!

So, have fun guys, and the winner will be announced next Friday, March 12th!  Good Luck! 

“Oh my God, have you heard about the giveaway at No Pattern Required?”

“A giveaway, shut up! I love that blog!”

“No, you shut up!”

“You!”

“All you kids shut up! I’ve got to get online and enter!”

Only a few new things added to the pile this week in Mid-Century Mine, mostly because I am trying to keep up with my writing schedule! Anyone else out there a writer??  How on earth do you keep motivated?!?

Anyway, check out these goodies ASAP!  And when I was digging these out to photograph I realized there is TONS more great stuff to come!

A Pyrex “Go-Along” cream pitcher by Gemco in Spring Blossom Green. I love the chromed top on this.

Adorable linen wall hanging featuring a little blonde girl and her black bird. That bird is so freaking cute.

Clear glass Anchor Hocking hobnail pitcher.  I love this thing! 

And remember, use coupon code NPR15 for 15% off!

I couldn’t help myself when I was out the other day, I had to take a swing by the Habitat for Humanity Restore and see what goodies they had.  Our Restore has recently moved to a new location, so they don’t have everything out they used to, but what they had was still good enough for me!

I love this sewing machine cabinet!  It even has chrome edging!

Eh. Painted.  At least it is a cute color.

Does anyone else think this kind of looks like a Heywood Wakefield desk? Anyone?

I think this table is SWEET, but I can’t come up with a good place in the house for it.  If only I could it would be mine in a second!

Anyone else come across good stuff lately? We would love to hear about it!