English Pyrex

My first piece of English Pyrex was a lid. I mentioned to my mom I needed a certain size lid and she, of course, said she had one. The next visit she brought it for me. Obviously this story is heading towards the fact the lid did not fit any of my Pyrex because it was an English lid. I asked her where she found it and, just as I had suspected, she found it in Canada while thrifting with her sister.
This weekend I found lids along with the bottoms at a thrift store here!

The pattern might look a little 80's/90's but I think it's pretty and so different from any of my U.S. Pyrex.

The handles also have a unique shape.

Camera Lurkers #1 - Vintage Chair Reupholstered

I'm horrible with follow through of my projects here on the blog plus last year was hit and miss with my postings anyways. Last summer I posted a story about a chair which I bought to reupholster. Did I ever reupholster said chair?? Yes! Yes, I did actually and the photos have been floating around waiting to land on a post for how many months now?

This was the chair last summer which I wrote about here

and here it is finished!

I had been wanting to try my hand at some reupholstering but the only project I had was my grandparent's couch and I didn't want to start with that! 

The first step was to kick off the cat.

 (don't worry Cammie. You can have the gross fabric when I'm done)

 

Since I had never done this before I started out by carefully photographing the various seams and folds as I took off the old fabric.

 After the old fabric was off, I used it as a pattern for the new fabric.

 (after taking this picture I realized the 2 top side pieces should be sideways. The fabric needs to run the same direction on all of the pieces!)

I started with the piping first since that looked easy. And it was. Joann's had the blank white cord and I just used the quilting foot (which is super skinny) to sew my matching fabric as close to that cord as possible. 

I was nervous about the seat and back but with some pinning and basting it was easier than I expected. Of course with the piping and 2 pieces of upholstery fabric it was too thick to do on my machine so I had to sew it all by hand. Meh, I was 8 months pregnant. What else was I going to be doing? 

When this was all done it formed a kind of slip cover over the chair. 

To make sure the side pieces were extra tight I stitched them after a few of the staples were in place. 

The staples were fun as I could really start to see the finished product and it was actually looking nice!

Oh Cammie. You're doing it wrong. Silly Kitty. 

The buttons were next. How was I going to manage those? I measured and guessed and measured some more and amazingly it worked!

I just covered over the old buttons with some new fabric. They have metal tabs on the back which fold out so I popped them into my marked locations and opened the tab back up. 

Hmm, it appears I did not take any open photos of the back of the chair so here is one with the old upholstery.

 

(You can see were the metal tabs are for the buttons too)

Once I was to this point I had to figure out how to get the final piece of fabric attached. 

They were a little bent but fortunately I saved the original nail strips for the sides and fortunately the fabric easily attached. I pulled it tight and nailed it in place. The top I stitched in place and the bottom stapled to the underside. 

I'm sure I didn't do it the easiest way and probably not the official correct way. (If there is a correct way to reupholster a piece of vintage furniture?) I did surprise myself and it came out looking almost professional. 

Now if I could get my curtains made! Yeah, I know but the tension went out on my sewing machine. This has happened before and it usually somehow fixes itself if I don't use it for a few months (don't ask why or how!) so it is about time I try to use it again. At least there are shades but the curtains explain my chosen green and orange color scheme. 

and a side note - my 1930's Mickey Mouse tea set and table will be leaving the room as soon as someone becomes mobile! A safe place will be found which sadly might be my closet again for a while.

Dreamy Knotty Pine Estate Sale

I would say 99% of estate sale houses we go to are uninteresting. We may run into a fantastic vintage kitchen or an aqua and pink bathroom but rarely do they make me wish I earned 200K more so I could rationalize spending so much money on taxes, maintenance, utilities etc.

Walking up to the house, it was rather unassuming. The neighborhood is nice, in my opinion the nicest in Lincoln, (people who like new houses will beg to differ) full of pricey houses ranging from the 1920's to the 70's and the exterior on this one had a generic colonial revival vibe happening. Inside however, whoa! We walked in and true to its exterior it was a colonial revival with a wide foyer and fancy staircase with banister running up the side, a fancy archway led into the living room with dental work trim around the ceiling, small built in shelves and a fireplace. The kicker was all of this fancy woodwork and even the front door were knotty pine! Really? This 3,700+ sq ft house was not a cheapy when it was built WHY on earth did they use knotty pine for all of this fancy woodwork!? The rest of the house was hard wood - it was just the formal foyer, entry and living room. As I got to the kitchen I realized something was off. The cupboards had a 1920's vibe and then we spotted the bathrooms which were art deco with beautiful tiles and original fixtures. Hmm, this is strange as we assumed immediately with the knotty pine that this house was built 1950's and then we heard 1931. 1931!? Well, that explains the bathrooms and kitchen but the knotty pine? Did they rip out the original hard woods and replace it with pine!? the banister? the paneling around the fireplace? fancy archway into the living room? The front door? These seemed complicated and pointless to replace, especially since the knotty pine still was detailed with the same colonial features the rest of the house had so it wasn't like they were trying to modernize the place! It was finally bothering us soo much my mom had to ask some of the close to original family who were helping with the sale. The woodwork was original to 1931! They said it was the latest modern style and top of the line in 1931 and it was very expensive to have done at the time. They know of a few of the other big houses in the area also having it. Crazy! I have never seen ornate knotty pine woodwork.

They are putting the house up for sale soon so hopefully it will make it to the real estate listings and I can share the link. It is at times like this I wish I had a phone with a fancy camera! So now I am wondering if it was just one of the cool people in Lincoln who decided to start this trend and a few others copied so they could be just as cool or if it was actually a real trend which didn't catch on with the mainstream population until after the depression and war were over?

Whew, that was a long rant. Did I find any treasures here? Why of course! I got a stack of 1950's/60's decorating books and magazines which I may find time to look through someday!

I'm not a big George Briard fan - usually too much black and gold (i.e. the cocktail napkins) but the fantastic pink stand on the casserole caught my eye along with the pink lid (the photo doesn't do its pink-ness justice).  I also like the teal butterfly so I grabbed the matching dish and those napkins were only .50 for the set so I figured I better not leave those behind.

Conveniently this game came with 2 game boards because I wanted to hang the board in little one's room.

So now I can display one and we can still try our hand at selling tobacco for Virginia? Yeah...this would not be the topic of a child's game anymore. But look how happy the little man is about his tobacco.

and this guy I was debating about for so long she came down to $5. It's just so big I still don't know what to do with it! He is stamped Masketeers 1961 on the back. I believe the same company which does the trio of wood ducks. I think this is an eagle? with a scroll? They seemed to like their bi-centennial decor. In fact one room was red, white and blue with bright 1776 wallpaper. Again, I need one of those cameras I can inconspicuously take photos with! 

Grandpa's Salvaged Magazine Shelf

This hutch has been in my dining room since we moved here:

One problem was it didn't match my decor. Wait, what does match my decor? I'm really not picky but I felt this was too cutesy Early American. The main problem: it was technically my brothers but (as you can see) I had it filled with my stuff. Inside and out. I tried not to fill it up knowing it would probably one day leave here but it just happened.
I wasn't trying to find a replacement for it so the bookcase kind of landed in its spot by accident. I wanted the bookcase to go upstairs but alas it was too long to even make it past the first landing much less around the sharp corner and through the awkward stairway door. I left it sitting in the middle of the entry area pondering what to do with it and was delighted when I measured and discovered it fit PERFECTLY between the bathroom and front door. So perfectly, that at first glance it appears to be an original built in. I have about 5,000 things I am finding which will look cute in here so I'm still working on the final arrangement since not all 5,000 things fit.

 (I swear I have the Christmas decorations off of it now)

This was in my grandparent's basement and my grandpa made it for his National Geographic collection. I did take some of his magazines so they are now back home on the shelves. Back in the 40's/50's he "salvaged" (took from the trash) the doors from one of the neighbors who was remodeling their bungalow which works for me because it fits right into my bungalow-ish home. I will try stripping it first to see if I can refinish it to match my woodwork but I suspect it is several different kinds wood which he picked up here and there. I almost feel bad changing the color because it has always been this color. That will be my excuse to not get to this proposed project for a while!

Basketball Baby?

Little one and I were changing out her wardrobe today since she is starting to fit into some of her bigger clothing and outgrow others. First I will say 99% of her clothing is from garage sales. Actually, a lot came from those church sack sales. You know the ones, fill up a bag for $1. You can fit A LOT of baby clothes into one of those bags. Anywho, while sifting through I found this oddity:

Both are 6-9 months. The one on the right is for perspective. If a baby fits the one on the left something has to be terribly wrong as it appears it will be just as wide as it is long. The tag reads McBaby in a familiar font I think we all recognize. Yes, this disproportionately fat onsie is somehow McDonalds related. Hmmm...
Apart from that outfit which I'm pretty sure will never fit properly, I am excited about all of the cute clothes I found in my hoarded boxes.

Extra fuzzy squirrel PJs which I am jealous about. 

Vintage Care Bear PJs. Vintage baby clothing is hard to find! (I can't imagine why!)

 and what wardrobe would be complete without monkey footie PJs?? aww.

Christmas Present Time

Last summer while carpet shopping for the baby's room I was sidetracked by the bright colors of the area rug department. I spotted this one right away, attracted to the purple-ness of it since purple is my favorite color and there are not many purple area rugs out there. I should say not many purple area rugs which I would want to place in an adult room - there are some bright purple rugs which I'm sure will fit well with the little one's taste in about 5 years. Anyways, while brainstorming Christmas gift ideas for myself this rug popped into my head. I thought I would see if they still had it and sure enough it/one like it was still there and $100 cheaper!

 The sales person pulled it out and asked me twice if I still liked it in the light. She then went on to say it takes a special decor to pull off this color and I had 48 hours to return it. OK, well, I have nothing else in my current office/troll room textile or paint color wise so it's not going to clash with anything. My husband is indifferent to my choice because he didn't even come with me.

It meets Cammie's stamp of approval and everyone knows her opinion is the only one which really matters.

When do normal people take down decorations?

I thought I would be normal this year and start taking down my decorations right after New Years. I'm not sure when most of the population takes them down. I have been known to leave them up until February. In fact, I think my mom let me leave them up until Valentine's Day one year. It was my job to put them up and take them down and I guess she didn't mind looking at them. It was probably my dad finallysaying it was time for them to go back to the attic. My husband knows this side of me so he started preparing me early (pre-Christmas Day) and saying it was almost time for the decorations to go back away. Fine, fine, I get the hint!
I thought I better document my 2012 decorating in case the little one is too hyperactive for me to decorate next year. I might have to live vicariously through this post. Though I would say 97% of my ornaments are already cat proof plastic so we may be good to go.

 

My precious aluminum tree managed to remain standing this season. The first time since we got the cat! I was in the basement one time when the she knocked it down and I can confirm aluminum trees do not make a sound when they fall. 

This is my solution to a breakage free Christmas. My ever growing collection of the tacky Jewel Brite Ornaments. It's amazing how many of these exist out there and how, umm, nice? they look on an aluminum tree. 

 I'm positive this is NOT a Jewel Brite but it makes me laugh every year.

 I added some festive Pyrex to my buffet. 

What Christmas would be complete without my crazy reindeer line up!?

This was my new silly Christmas album of the year. Star Wars. I haven't listened to it yet but if its anything like the Christmas Special it has to be...interesting?

Just a random kitschy shot

and proof that collections get out of hand quickly around here. Just a couple of years ago it looked like this and now, many free boxes and estate sales later, this is how it looks today. 

I love the vintage Christmas bulb wreaths but I hate the idea of hot gluing and permanently ruining vintage ornaments. This is my solution as these guys just nestle into the branches and can be rearranged or removed whenever. 

Proof that I do also have a normal tree. I thought I had just a plain tree picture but the struggling cat is amusing.

Oh Christmas decor, you will be missed until I can put you up again without fear of you being eaten!