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.

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 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

This is it!!!  And so begins the voting for the Worst Mid-Century Recipe Contest. To bring everyone up to speed, these are the recipes that were submitted by YOU, the readers, for the dubious honor of being crowned the Worst Mid-Century Recipe, and this stunning vintage prize pack:

*Note: Fabulous Conant-Ball Table not included!

There was a flood of responses.  Tom and I sat down with our laptop and a barf bag, and pared the entries down to a lean, disgusting four.

Finalist #1 – Summer Salad Pie From Kathrin (aka Miss Marwood)

Ummm…does this one even need an intro??

A cheese crust, tomato/lemon gelatin filling (of pure evil!), all topped off with tuna salad. Ack. 

This is what Miss Marwood had to say for herself:

*Gak* Thankfully, the little disgusting bits around the side were NOT included in the recipe.  Much to Adriane’s disappointment and my joy.

I hope you find it as disgusting as I do!

Cheers to a fun blog contest!

Best,

Adriane

www.atomiclilly.blogspot.com

Here is a photo of the finished “tower”:

And Tom’s reaction:

I think this was a disappointing one for everyone!

The Verdict: Surprisingly tasteless.  For all the scary trappings of this thing, it wasn’t bad at all.  I mean, it wasn’t great, but we have totally eaten worse. Disaster averted!

To see the whole, gut-churning post, click HERE.

Finalist #3 – Creamed Eggs In Corned Beef Crust from Sharon (aka Charm and Poise)

This one is exciting because it is the only non-gelatin-based dish chosen as a finalist.  And it beat out other gelatin dishes, so you know it has to be gag-tacular.

Here is what Sharon had to say for herself:

I’ve gone a bit out of the box on this one.  It has no aspic in it nor is it made in a mold — two of the best features of a mid-century recipe!  However, this recipe benefits mostly from the photo which is such a clear example of someone being asleep at the cookbook recipe photo wheel that it seems impossible it actually was published.  This sad state of affairs additionally benefits from the fact that it came from Happy Living!  A Guidebook For Brides (1965, 1966, 1970) signaling the fact that some harried, newly married woman might’ve thought it a good idea to serve this to her husband.  And finally, it is a nonsensical recipe that calls for relatively normal ingredients to be combined in an abnormal way to make up a dish that is — from the photo at least — impossible to serve in a nice, neat way. 

 

For your pleasure, then, is Creamed Eggs in a Corned Beef Crust.

 

Cheers!

Sharon (Charm and Poise from Flickr)

 

Here is a picture of the finished “pie”:

And Tom’s reaction:

The Verdict:  Not bad.  Tom ate it.  If you don’t like cream of mushroom soup, don’t try this.  The eggs were totally stupid, but not gag-inducing.  I feel sorry for the poor bride who tried to serve this to company. Yeck.

To see the whole, ridiculous post, click HERE.

Finalist #4 – Jellied Tongues from Kelly (aka EarthaKitsch)

So, this is the entry that has caused the most controversy, from hard-core readers, casual readers, and even my friends and family. It turns out some of you REEEEEEALY like tongue.

But I have to tell all of you, a boiled tongue, before it has been skinned, looks disgusting. 

Here is the finished dish:

Mmmm…meaty. 

Here is Tom’s reaction:

The Verdict:  Tom claimed it was good.  That the tongue just tasted like beef and it was fine with him.  I just couldn’t get it down enough to even taste it, really.  It was chewy.  And that is all I am going to say.

To read the whole, controversial post, click HERE.

So, those are your finalists!!!!  Please vote for the recipe that you think is the WORST Mid-Century Recipe! Voting will close on August 24th at midnight, and the winner will be announced in the August 25th Mid-Century Menu post. Good luck to all of our finalists!

By RetroRuth

Well, hello there readers!  Not expecting me today, were you??  Well, I BEGGED Sablemable to give me a shot at this week’s WYBMN because I stumbled on a honey of a gem of a fun find. 

A Lustron home for sale in in Hays, Kansas! This gorgeous pre-fab home is ultra-mid-century modern, if that is even a term, which I am pretty sure it is now.

This cute baby is for sale by Steve.  It has two bedrooms, one bathroom and he is asking $85,000.  The fun site he created for the home is here, and you should check it out.  Not only does he have more pics of the house, but information on the Lustron line and some sweet vintage pictures. And I couldn’t resist posting a few of the more adorable bits here on this site.

A little bit of background on this one.  The Lustron homes were created by Carl Strandlund, a Swedish-born designer living in the US.  His vision was to create a mass-produced house made entirely of steel.  The Lustron homes were produced in Ohio from 1948-1951, when the company went bankrupt.  Only 2,500 homes were produced by the company, which makes this fun home even more unique. 

The house was described in a 2008 exhibit of the history of pre-fabricated homes in the US  in MOMA:

[The home] consisted of a concrete foundation and steel skeleton frame topped by trusses. All internal divisions are pre-fabricated modular units that double as shelving, cabinetry, closets, dressers and vanities, and the exterior is clad in porcelain-enameled steel panels.  The entire house was designed to pack flat for arrival on a Lustron truck. Assembly took approximately eight days with half-dozen workers.

So, after that fun intro, here is Steve’s house.  And his ultra-awesome collection of mid-century furniture and accents. Great job, Steve!

Close-up of the exterior.

The living room.  Notice the metal walls!

The dining room.  That view kills me, and I adore the light.

You know I love a cute kitchen!

Master bedroom.

A vanity to die for.

Guest room.

Another view of the guest room, so we can appreciate the coolness of the linens and the hotness of that Thermos collection. Love it.

So, anyone decided to move to Hays yet??? Be sure to check out Steve’s site for more pictures and a ton more information on Lustron.  Thanks, Steve!!

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!