No Pattern Required

By RetroRuth

Finally!!  I know I have been promising to post pictures of the new basement floor for a while, and I have finally had time to sit down, edit photos and pick out some good ones. 

Everyone will be happy to know that ALL of the nasty, gross carpeting is GONE from the basement. Huzzah! And it has been replaced with Armstrong VCT tile in red and black.

Let’s take a look, shall we???

Down the stairs aaaaaaaand….

Ta-Da!!!  What do you think? Too crazy?  We messed around with a lot of patterns and color combinations before coming up with this.  First, we decided on the pattern, which was inspired by Tom’s grandparent’s basement.

Here is Tom’s little sister playing shuffleboard in his grandparent’s house. 

I know, I know, we really should have gotten the shuffleboard. 

We then threw color ideas around, wanting to go with something that wouldn’t impact resale too much, and at the same time be the retro basement we longed for.

In the end, we just decided to bite the bullet, forget about resale and go with the red and black we really wanted.  And I think it ended up looking pretty good!  Next up, paint on the walls, and new Formica for the countertops.

The carpet was also pulled out of my sewing room, thank goodness!  I went with a nice neutral gray in this room.  It looks like of institutional now, but my accent color is going to be turquoise, and the walls will all be painted gray in the near future.  More pictures of this coming soon!

And here is Midnight enjoying the new floor!!! At first, the cats didn’t care for the new floor, one of them even refused to walk on the red squares and hopped from black to black across the floor.  But they have all settled in now, and love the coolness of the floor compared to the hot, sticky summer upstairs.

Did anyone else just finish a big summer project??? Let us know!

By RetroRuth

I love this pillow.  The pattern is from a vintage Workbasket magazine, which I found a ton of recently.

Love the colors!

By RetroRuth

Good Lord!!!!  I found the World’s Scariest Clown Doll in the whole world!  Don’t believe me, huh??  Well check this out!

Reeeee! Reeeeeeee!! Reeeeeee!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Check out the extra-long neck, perfect for wrapping around your poor child’s neck to choke them while they are sleeping.  And if that isn’t scary enough, the darn thing actually has eyelashes. Orange eyelashes!!! What. Were. They. Thinking.  “Wow, this would be the perfect clown, if only he had some orange eyelashes.  Just one more…there. Completely terrifying!” 

*Eye roll* Good grief.

The menacing shadow in the photograph is great as well. Is that really necessary. Is it???

Any volunteers to make this sucker???? I would love to see it in all it’s awful glory.

By Sara In AZ

______________________________________________________

OK, are y’all ready for Part 2 in the block series? Here goes!

Here are 2 different variations on a ‘Diamond’ type block pattern.

Here is a fancy “H” type design. These are actually at my In-Laws house!

When I first saw this one I thought “Diamond” pattern, then I thought no, “Circles”.  No “Diamond”. No “Circles”. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

It’s whatever you want it to be!

Don’t y’all just love this fancy “Circle/Diamond” type pattern!

These “Flower” type blocks are actually on a Church right by my house.

These geometric type blocks are the cats meow! *Meow Meow*

Here are some lovely “Starburst’ blocks! Soooo awesome!

I have to say that these next decorative blocks are my favorite pattern yet!  So kitschy, yet so MCM. I have never seen them on another house around here besides this one, so I wonder if they were custom? Me really loves!

And, lastly, I had to show you this city building in Mesa that is COVERED in decorative block! And when I say covered, I really do mean covered. The block is all over the front and back of the building! So totally cool! You can kind of see some windows behind the block.

Here is a close up of the block.

I know there are a zillion more block patterns out there. When Mike and I go on another block recon mission I will be sure to snap more pics!

Please remember to vote for Eartha Kitsch in the Kozy Shack Contest! Please spread the word if you can, we need to get Eartha’s votes up! Click HERE for the link. Thanks y’all!

JELLIED TONGUES!!

Congrats on great win, Kelly!  It was a tough road picking the winner.  Even tougher than the slices of jellied tongue.

Uhhh…that picture still makes me a little queasy.

Now, once again for your viewing pleasure, here is Tom tasting the winning dish!

Contemplating.

Bravely trying.

Chewing.

Approving? Crazy!

You know, it’s kind of strange that the dish Tom actually gave a thumbs-up to turned out to be the most visually unappetizing.  But I couldn’t choke it down, so there you go.

Oh, if you are curious, the Worst Recipe in Tom’s opinion was the Creamed Eggs in a Corned Beef Crust from Sharon. 

For me it was the Tongue.  All the way.

In case you didn’t see it, the Jellied Tongues was mentioned in the Phoenix NewTimes Eater’s Digest Blog.  It was apparently the most digusting recipe they have seen in a while. Score.

Congrats again, Kelly, and thanks to everyone who entered our fun contest!  Over the next few weeks we will be featuring other contest entries that were hilariously weird but weren’t in the Top 4.  So Andrea, Gabrielle, Cassie and Melanie, you had better stay tuned!

By Sara In AZ

_____________________________________________________________

OK, let’s get the bad part out of the way first. I hate to tell y’all about misfortune in the MCM world, and I know there might be a few tears shed by what I am about to tell ya – esp. by Annie B. who has a special fondness for concrete screen block. But just know that I feel as badly as y’all do about this. There is a house in my neighborhood with this AWESOME full wall of decorative concrete screen block surrounding the front door and porch area in the front. Mike and I would always pass by and admire the block because it really added something special to the house, it made it stand out from the others. Recently we saw the house go up for sale and unfortunately a flipper bought it. We fretted that they may knock down the wall because, well because it is different. I watched the house and when the flippers put the house back up for sale the block was still there. Whew…… And then I passed by about 2 weeks later and half the wall had been taken down. I about threw myself on the ground and almost had a tantrum right there! I quick looked in the alley hoping they had dumped them there and then I could haul them all back to my house, but nothing was there. Bummer. They must have taken them all down and brought them to the dump immediately. Double bummer. In my own little dream world I hope the screen block that was taken away is in a much happier place now!

Decorative Screen Block Heaven perhaps???

Here is a before picture of the house.

And here is the dreaded after.

Here is the block from the inside of the half wall. You can see the cool plus sign type design.

Are y’all throwing a tantrum like I did? I know, I know. Sara is here for y’all – now, now it is gonna be OK. Poor little screen block.

OK, glad that is out of the way!  I thought it would be fun to go around Phoenix and try to find as many different types of decorative concrete screen block as we could. We have concrete screen block out the wazoo here, especially in the older areas built in the 1950s, 1960s and into the 1970s! We do LOVE our concrete fencing around here!

Check out this kind of ‘Reverse Plus Sign’ type of block.

And who does not love the wagon wheel? I do!

And here is the double wagon wheel, so it actually looks like a wagon wheel. Weeeeeeeeee!

I like to think of this one as a type of hourglass design with a diamond in the middle.

Here is a cool fancy X type design.

I totally love the circle block!

And do y’all remember this house that was for sale a while back here in AZ? It has the same awesome circle block, as pictured above, fencing in the whole courtyard! Be still my heart!

Here are some more circle blocks  just on a smaller scale. Me loves!

And lastly, this ultra cool block in sort of a  lightning bolt pattern. I love how the design of all the blocks together makes either an X or O pattern depending on how you look at it. Really awesome block!

Stay tuned y’all! More Decorative Concrete Screen Block on Thursday!

Please remember to vote for Eartha Kitsch in the Kozy Shack Contest! Please spread the word if you can, we need to get Eartha’s votes up! Click HERE for the link. Thanks y’all!

By RetroRuth

Happy Monday!  I thought I would cheer everyone up on this most-dreaded day with a cheerful picture of a fun door escutcheon that I lust after to an insane degree.

Tom and I saw this home the other weekend while we were trying to find a garage sale.  From the street, it just looks like a regular, awesome mid-century house with a peachy-pink door.  But upon closer inspection…

Oh yes.  A starburst escutcheon.  I started pointed and squealing when I saw it.  This picture was taken after Tom had me bundled back into the car so no one who he works with could see us.  This neighborhood also had another great house with a boomarang escutcheon which I tried to take pictures of.  For some reason, Tom was driving really fast and they didn’t turn out. Dang!  Oh well, you guys will see it when I sneak into that neighborhood tomorrow night and steal it for our house.

Kidding, kidding!  I would never steal. Stealing is bad. Remember that, Kids At Home, stealing=bad.

Now, if you will excuse me, I need dig my black shirt and vintage black headscarf out of the closet.

By RetroRuth

I was completely charmed by this cute pattern for knitted bed slippers from an vintage Workbasket that I picked up the other day at the Salvation Army. 

I think it was the blissfully sleeping woman.  And maybe that sweet chair as well.

Cute!!

By Sara In AZ

_________________________________________________________

So I am sure y’all have just been on the edge of your seats wondering, “Which fabric did Sara choose?”

Was it the wool boucle? No.

Was it the ice blue one? No.

Was it this Chartreuse one? No.

It WAS this chartreuse fabric that I picked for the one armed couch and the little bandido! The last one on the list. I know a lot of y’all liked the above chartreuse better, but the scanned picture below does not really convey the texture of my fabric very well.  So read on and see why I picked this fabric – and you can also see better pictures of the texture below too!

I really could not find anything in a teal color that had the texture I was looking for. So, I went for the chartreuse green color. I really liked the wool boucle fabric, but the color was all wrong for me. I guess I wanted a color that was a bit more out there – if you know what I mean. I was going back and forth between the 2 chartreuse fabrics, but I finally settled on the last one because it actually had a bit more texture and it was a much heavier weight upholstery fabric, so I thought it would hold up a lot better over time.

I tried in vain to find my fabric listed somewhere on the web so I could give y’all a link, but no such luck. It is made by a company called Marcovaldo. The pattern is ‘Madrid’ and the color is ‘Fig’. The fabric is a Viscose/Poly/Cotton blend. The fabric was $16.50 a yard from Mesa Sales, so I was happy with that price. It was A LOT better than $60 a yard anyway.

I was kind of worried that I would not like my fabric after I ordered it. I mean, I only saw a little  square of it in the sample book. I was worried the big bolt of fabric would look different somehow, or the color would be off. But not to worry, when the fabric arrived I liked even more! Whew!!!

So I rang up Austen, the wonder upholsterer, and he said “Bring them on over!” A few weeks later here is what I had.

Wait a minute! Do y’all know I have not had one victim, err, client for my lovely turquoise hair dryer yet!

Y’all aren’t scared, are you? Look at the lovely couch you could be sitting on while getting your hair done!

How will Sara’s Hair*A*Rama ever stay in business?

Here is the little Bandido!

Here are some pictures with the flash off so you can get a better idea of the detail. Though the true color is more like the pictures above with the flash on – more chartreuse, not light green at all.

I told Austen I wanted these couches done EXACTLY the same way as they were before – all the cording, all the buttons, all the channels of the back – everything. I think he did a really great job! He even added some cording on the back, that was not there before, just to make it look a bit more polished! Thanks Austen!

Here are some close up pictures of the texture.

These were also with the flash off.

One other thing I did was sand down all the little legs to the natural color and spray them with a wood lacquer. For some weird reason all of the legs were different colors. Some were natural maple, some were reddish stained, and some were brown stained. Hmmmmm???  I thought leaving them the natural color was the easiest thing.

So, that is it! What do y’all think?

Oh no, George has already found the couches! At least she doesn’t have claws – whew!

She is winking at y’all. *Wink*Wink*

Please remember to vote for Eartha Kitsch in the Kozy Shack Contest! Please spread the word if you can, we need to get Eartha’s votes up! Click HERE for the link. Thanks y’all!

By RetroRuth

Another cute and easy craft this week.  I think I could even handle this one!  You can even decide on your own pattern, which gives you a crazy number of possiblities.  What fun!