Kitchen Tour

The final part of the tour is the kitchen area. Because let's face it, I'll never have my bedrooms or bathroom clean enough to be photographed. Just not happening.

And while we're at it, let's talk about cleanliness. I hope you realize that I super duper cleaned and organized my house before taking photos. Just for a typical dinner party, you'll find me cleaning the rubber seals in the dishwasher with a toothbrush and vacuuming behind the refrigerator (people look back there you know). So there was no way I was going to invite 10 billion people on the internet into my home and not clean it up. Just saying.

Wait, my husband just notified me that there's not 10 billion people on the planet? Oh well, the point is that whenever you see photos of people's houses on blogs, you can pretty much count on the fact that there's been some cleaning and fluffing going on.

So on to the tour. The kitchen and kitchen dining area are right off the living room. You can stand on the other side of this breakfast counter and look straight back into the living room.

Dining Room Tour

Second part of the house tour is the dining room. This should be a short post, because the room is pretty darn small.

There was some question when we bought the house what we would use this room for. My husband wanted to use it as a home office, I wanted to use it as a dining room. I won. Of course. Girls always win in these situations.

Living Room Tour

As promised, this is Part 1 of a mini home tour. I've been knee deep in holiday decor this week, so the next time you see the living room it will look a little different. But this is the normal everyday, non-holiday look.

I describe my decorating style as a combination of industrial, Pottery Barn-ish, thrift store and vintage. Or just plain eclectic, would probably suffice.

This is a shot from the entry hallway looking into the living room. You could call it a great room or a family room also, but I usually go old school and just call it a plain old living room.

The glowing light at the end of the tunnel is a door going to the backyard. It's practically impossible to get a good shot in this direction without something being over or under exposed. Go into the light!

Rudolph's Been Hitting The Sauce Again

I found this old Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer sheet music while out shopping at the antique mall the other day and picked it up for a song. I've got my own theories on why he always has a red nose, but I don't want to accuse him of drinking and driving until I have proof.

One of the dealers at the mall had a lot of vintage Christmas stuff for very, very cheap. Way cheaper than I would have priced it at, but since I was on the buying end of the transaction, I wasn't complaining.

I scanned it for you so you could use it for crafts, if you like. Or for playing on the piano if you are one of those talented type of people.

I also made a naked Rudolph png file for you (no background).

While I'm turning my home into a winter wonderland this week (a.k.a. the attack of the blow molds), my plan is to show you some posts of different rooms of my house prior to Christmas decorating. I've never done a "home tour" type of post, so I thought now might be a good time BEFORE I change it all up for the Christmas decor. Besides, I will have photographic evidence of what my house looked like before decorating, so that I can remember how to put it back together afterward. Now that's using my noggin, isn't it!

FYI - I tried the Paula Deen corn recipe for Thanksgiving and it was delicious. I may have found my new favorite corn casserole. I was afraid it was going to be too cornbready, because it had so much Jiffy corn mix in it, but it was actually quite yummy.



Linking with Mop It Up Monday, Thriftasaurus Thrift Haul and Nifty Thrifty Tuesday.

   

The Great Corn Debate

Baked corn. Corn casserole. Corn pudding. Scalloped corn.

Whatever you call it, I LOVE IT.

from The Graphics Fairy

A huge memory of my Mom's holiday dinners was her baked corn. The problem is that no one in the family ever thought to ask her how she made it. When I was little I would help her by throwing in the crushed up crackers (I'm good at crushing crackers) and I sort of remember her cracking eggs into it (I'm not good at cracking eggs, unless you like crunchy corn). But that's really the extent of my memory of the corn making experience.

So every year at holiday gatherings, the discussion always turns to whether or not our latest version of baked corn tastes like what we remember. And it never does. Not exactly. Not even close.

I turned to Pinterest to find some new corn recipes:

This one from Pioneer Woman used fresh corn right off the cob.

Paul Deen uses Jiffy Mix in her casserole.

Chocolate Covered Katie makes a light version of the corn.

At All Recipes I found a recipe that calls for crackers, but it's still not THE ONE.

And there's always Stouffer's frozen version, which would just be cheating, but I can't even crack an egg properly, so who am I to judge.

If I can be philosophical for a moment, I think the problem is that when you're trying to recreate a feeling from a recipe you are destined to fall short. The warmth, coziness and love in my Mother's kitchen can not be resurrected by a vegetable.

So corn or no corn, I hope you enjoy your Thanksgiving!


   

Thanksgiving Dinner Table

I threw together my Thanksgiving table a few days early, using mostly thrift store finds and a few Wally World items (bought on clearance of course).

I was so excited to take photos of it that I forgot the silverware and napkins! You'll have to eat with your fingers, I guess.

I was going for a casual table that was not too fussy and not too cluttered. Although the table is set for four people, it will just be me, my husband and my son this year. I just thought it looked pathetic to only have three place settings.

Dreaming Of A Plastic Christmas

I've been finding all sorts of vintage plastic Christmas stuff at the thrift stores lately.

I sort of enjoy the fake holly leaves and even faker berries.

Making Chalkboard Art on PicMonkey

I've had a lot of questions about my chalkboard inspired header.

The Cliff Notes version would be:

• I created it in Photoshop.
• Used a blackboard digital paper as the background.
• Used different fonts to create the wording and the leafy items.
• Added the typewriter by taking an existing photo that I had of my typewriter, used the magic extractor feature in Photoshop to remove the background, used the Pencil Sketch effect on the photo to make it look like a line drawing and then converted it to black and white while increasing the contrast so it popped a little.

Since not a lot of my followers have Photoshop, I have decided not to do a tutorial on making it in that program. And let's face it, if you do have Photoshop, then you probably already know how to do something similar.

I did decide to do a tutorial on how you can do something similar in PicMonkey though, since that seems to be a program that a lot of bloggers gravitated to after Picnik closed its doors.

PicMonkey Blackboard Art Tutorial

What you need to start off with is an image that looks like a blackboard. You can download a free blackboard background image at Foolish Fire or buy one at Two Peas In A Bucket. I bought mine from Two Peas, because for $4.00 you got two different chalkboard colors (black and green) plus six other papers that I may use for something else.

These come as jpeg files just like your normal photos do, so you are just basically writing text on top of your chalkboard image just like you can write text on top of a photo. Just remember where you save the jpeg.

Go to Picmonkey.com and click on Edit A Photo. A box will pop up with your computer files on it, so just pick the chalkboard image that you had saved previously.

Chalkboard Art

Chalkboard art. Where to start?

I love it. I have always loved it.

It may be new to some people and has been all the rage the last few years, but in reality, the art form has been around for quite some time.

I even designed my new header around the whole concept, that's how much I enjoy it.

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I think I get my love for it from my time spent working in restaurants, bars and hotels. A good chalkboard advertising your specials goes a long way in drawing people into your restaurant and I have had the pleasure of watching some very talented people create some beautiful pieces of art.

Only to erase it all and start anew the next day.

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I guess that's the downside of chalkboard art, it has a short shelf life and all too vulnerable to the soggy fingers of a curious toddler walking by.

One of the more famous chalkboard artists is Dana Tanamachi who has done chalkboard designs for West Elm and Ralph Lauren. Her work was featured on the cover of O Magazine in February. She's pretty much the guru of chalkboard art right now.

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Check out some time-lapse videos of her creating chalkboard art HERE. It is fascinating.

Tomorrow I will give you the Cliff Notes version on how I made my header, since that seems to be the question of the month in my emails. You ask, I answer!

All photos on this page are from Dana Tanamachi (if only I could create something that cool).



   

Leaf Glasses

What would be more perfect on the Thanksgiving table than a set of Libby Golden Foliage glassware?

This is my MIL's set and included a carrier, ice bucket and 7 out of 8 glasses.

Since she was married in the late 1950's, I think this may have been a wedding gift. It has a very mid-century Mad Men look to it.

One pine cone or two?
When I was out at the thrift store this week, I found a matching glass to round out the set. I was all excited until I brought it home and realized that it had a different level of frosting on it and it has a gold rim around the top where the other ones do not.

The glass from my MIL's set it on on the left and the impostor is on the right.

Close enough for me though. Once you've had a few highballs, no one will notice.

Can I tell you a secret?

Up until maybe six months ago, I thought this set was hideous. I hid it in the cabinet over the fridge that no one ever goes in to. You know, the cabinet that you have to climb on a chair to reach. The only reason I still own it is that it was my MIL's and one of the few things my husband wanted to bring here when we sold her house.

Something has come over me lately that makes me appreciate the mid-century look though. Not that I am decorating my house entirely in it, but a good chair

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or credenza would be interesting.

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Do you have a hankering for some mid-century?



Linking with Vintage Inspiration Friday

   

Gurley, Gurley

When I was at a craft show this weekend, I unexpectedly ran across a crafter that had a few vintage items sitting out. I wasn't expecting ANYONE to have vintage items. At all. I was just attending the craft show to support the local community and to get out of the house on a dreary Saturday morning.

Just the other day, Erica at The Adventures Of Two (Pyrex Crazy) Thrifting Sisters posted about finding vintage Gurley candles at an estate sale, so it was like a light shining down from heaven when I saw this guy sitting on the table.

Surrounded by his buddies.

Gurley was a candle manufacturer that made highly collectible figural holiday candles from the very late 1930's through the 1970's. You probably remember them from Grandma's house. If you'd like to learn more about the candles, you can check out this article from Marta Stewart (which happens to feature a photo of my snowman friend).

I picked up one of the candles and saw that it had a paper label on the bottom that said Tavern something or other on it. I was only mildly disappointed that it did not say Gurley, because I still loved the vintage looking little guy. Little did I know at that point that Gurley produced the Tavern brand candles. Hello, Tavern = Gurley!!!

In the most casual tone I could muster while my brain was doing cartwheels in my head, I asked him how much the candles were. I thought I only would buy the turkey, since it's close to Thanksgiving and I need another turkey like I need a hole in my head.

Mr. Crafter started shuffling around and him-hawing and I thought "Oh, crud, this isn't going to turn out well!" He finally said he'd really like to sell them all together, so if I would take all the ones on the table and the ones he had in the box over there I could have them for $8.00. Box, what box? OMG, there's a box!

Uh sure, that sounds reasonable to me. So I quickly handed him $8.00 and ran out of the craft show.

It was only after I got home, that I actually looked at all the candles. There are 7 that say Gurley (Mr. Turkey happens to be a Gurley), 6 that say Tavern and three that don't have any tags on them, but look very Gurley/Tavern-esque. BTW, the box is not the candle box, but an old peanut box, so I sort of got overly excited about nothing there.

But still, a much more fun day at the craft show than I expected.