8GB iPod Touch Giveway at Curbly.com - this week only!

The folks at Curbly.com are giving away an iPod Touch with a pre-loaded Caesarstone app to inspire your remodel or redesign! All you have to do is comment by October 16, 2011 on this post: http://www.curbly.com/bruno/posts/11315-giveaway-win-an-8gb-apple-ipod-touch-pre-loaded-with-the-caesarstone-app-199-value#comment_28496

My Free Credenza

Last week, I passed this beautiful credenza at the side of the road! I quickly drove around the block and asked my friend, John Spindler, if he'd be able to get it to my house (I didn't think I could get it into my small car, especially by myself - it's heavy!), and he did.

This is it's temporary place - eventually, it'll have my tv sitting on top of it. But for now, it's just fine right here. Great storage! Besides the three drawers, each side has double doors that open onto shelves. It still has a plate in the top drawer that reads:
Richardson Bros. Co.
Contemporary Furniture
Richardson/Nemschoff
In the little research I've been able to do, Richardson Bros. Furniture teamed up with Nemschoff in 1959. I would say this piece was produced within the next decade, most likely during the early 1960s.

Just recently, I've picked up a couple of cool midcentury pieces. Don't know what company made them, but I love both of them!

This bureau (the cat was already here - that's Shelby) has two large drawers at the bottom. The top part opens like a bi-fold door and inside there is another drawer and a shelf on top of that with two removable upright dividers on it. Great storage!

This is an unusual bookshelf - one flat shelf at the bottom, then two angled shelves above that. Just had to put a few midcentury books in there to see what it should look like!

David John Rader

Today happens to be five whole years since my husband, best friend, companion, partner, soul mate, confidante, and chum passed away. I still think he's around sometimes, making sure things are going to be okay. But I can't believe so much time has gone by! He loved history and cemeteries, genealogy, our kids, grandkids, brother and sisters, aunts, moms and dads, and pets, and we all miss him! His favorite thing was to be helpful to someone. I just don't want him to ever be forgotten.



Our wedding day, July 5, 1988 at the Howard County Courthouse in Kokomo, Indiana.



At the shore of Lake Erie.




A drill for Christmas.




Triumph! At the top of Seneca Rock, West Virginia with my brother, Jeff, circa 1989.




With his Aunt Grace and cousin Ralph - it was Aunt Grace's birthday.



At left, with his sister Sue, brother Bob and sister Pati.



Placing a veteran's marker and flag at Thomas Coady's gravestone in Mater Dolorosa Cemetery in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

Ivy

Well, a dog is back in my life again. Her "fostered" name was Cagney, which is a nice name, but I just think she's an "Ivy." Besides, it's a little easier to say. She's made herself at home, and the cats finally have come back out. I don't think they're "in love" with her, but they tolerate her. She's a little bigger and a little younger than I was looking for, but here she is. The next one will be a little senior!

Almost Finished!

Last week, I stopped at my local Habitat for Humanity ReStore, just to browse. As I passed the tile area, a small box of pretty vintage yellow tile caught my eye, but it wasn't nearly enough for the bathroom. But a couple of steps later, I hit the mother-lode! 400 full-size tiles piled on the shelf, along with a box of bull-nose and pieces! A few short minutes later, they were mine! Even after my calculations (which showed I needed 450 tiles and 40 bull-nose tiles), I wasn't sure I'd have enough for the bath area. So I came up with a design that worked in slightly smaller new white tiles (since the fixtures are all white). Here it is mostly finished before grouting: And here it is after grouting. The only thing remaining to be done is putting the shower head, spout and escutcheons back on. I think it looks really awesome. But after it was finished, I realized that I really do have enough of the tile to have done the whole thing in yellow. You see, they were made a little bit bigger back then (just like ice cream cartons!), and I had also rounded up to the next full tile in my calculations. Oh well, there will be enough to save, until I find more and can do the walls, too!

The Bathroom Renovation Begins!

For a LONG time, I've wanted to get rid of the really disgusting tub surround that's been in the bathroom since who knows when. It's impossible to clean, it's never been what I really wanted in there, and it's just ugly! These are the before pictures: Yesterday, my handyman pulled it out and removed the wet layer of dry-wall that was behind it. This is what was under that - plaster and lathe on the top half and real wainscoting on the lower portion!

Here's the bucket of parts - I hope I can get the calcium deposits off the faucet pieces because they're perfect for my bathroom of the future!

Someday in the future, I want a sink vanity something like this one:

The style is perfect, but I'd rather it had either two doors opening traditionally or sliding doors. It would be great to have a laminate top with a hudee-ringed sink, too, but the laminate companies are rapidly discontinuing any laminate pattern that might work. They all seem to just love anything that looks like granite or marble, but nothing with the sparkle and charm of 1960!

Although the wainscoting is mostly in good condition, that's for the person who owns my house fifty years from now and wants to renovate the bathroom. My plans are 4" tiles with bull-nose tiles around the edge. Don't know the color yet (although, since it's "forever," it will probably be predominately white so it goes with anything), but it's going to be something very 1950's-1960's. I don't care that my house was built in 1870 (the original portion), 1915 (the front room and attic over it, along with this bathroom), 1941 (the kitchen) and 1965 (walling in the back porch), the rooms are (eventually) going to reflect a mid-twentieth-century impression. I'll keep you posted!

Dressing Up the Bed!

Really, really complete primer on making bedspreads! I especially like the photo on the last image, probably because it's orange and rather unique. I'd probably end up making something much simpler than that one, though! Have fun!

On to Slipcovers!

Today, I thought I'd put up the instructions for slipcovers fromt he 1970 Better Homes & Gardens Sewing Book. Slipcovers can cover stains and rips, protect upholstery, fit into a decorating scheme and unify.

Making Curtains and Drapes via the 1970 Better Homes & Gardens Sewing Book

One of these days, I'm making my own pinch-pleat draperies. I've wanted them for a while, but everything in the stores is really expensive (if you can even find nice looking drapes), or they are really nothing but glorified curtains. And I have perfect instructions right in my BH & G Sewing Book binder, printed in 1970. This is the divider for the "Sewing for the Home" section:


For anyone else who wants to learn more about it, who might want to try it, here are some images from the book, showing the process:








Keep watching for "Slipcovers" and "Bedspreads!"

My Newest Branchell Melmac Dishes!

Quite unplanned, I was in an antiques mall yesterday, browsing, not planning to buy anything. All of a sudden, I spotted a great find - at least in my area! Forty-three pieces of Branchell Melmac, mostly Color-Flyte, for $22.00! Thank you, Auntie's Antique Mall in Parkman, Ohio http://www.auntiesantiquemall.com/! Although I had several of the pieces already (of course, I can certainly always use more dinner plates), there are seven lug bowls (with the little fan-shaped handle on one side) and a pastel yellow dinner plate - not Color-Flyte, but definitely Branchell - that I did not have!


These are just a few of my other Branchell pieces (I have some cups in the pastel colors that are still wrapped from when I bought them - since I don't use the cups very often, there's no point having them out until I have a good place for them. I also have miscellaneous other pieces, like another butter dish, at least one other set of Color-Flyte-style sugar bowl and creamer - the two bright green pieces in the photo above that look like tea cups, but have a different handle, a turquoise Royale-style sugar bowl and creamer, and some others). I started "collecting" (never meaning to really be collecting!) Branchell because that is what my grandmother used in her home when I was little (well, really all the way up to the time she sold her house). She only had Color-Flyte, but I've found I love it all! For those uninitiated, Color-Flyte colors consisted of Mist Grey, Glade Green, Glow Copper, and Spray Lime. The colors of the Royale line were Gardenia White, Charcoal Grey and Flame Pink during the first run, and Turquoise Blue was added later. There were also several different patterns - my favorite is Flyte, Buttonflower, and an unknown pattern that sort of looks like it has an atomic symbol rolling around on the plates. In addition, and probably among the last ones designed by Branchell's designer Kaye LaMoyne, were some beautiful spring-like pastels in yellow, pink, blue, peach, lavender, aqua, and green. A really definitive site (not complete, but very good) on Branchell Melmac can be found at http://notagaingraphics.com/Branchell/index.html, for anyone who finds these dishes as fun and interesting as I do (and they don't break!)

Dinner plates

Platters, serving bowls, salt and pepper shakers, and (hiding, sort of) serving spoons

Bread and butter plates, salad plates


Royale-style sugar bowl and lid, gravy boats

Here We Go Again!

Well, this is what I woke up to this morning! And it was in the 50s a couple of days ago!


Ice is on some of the plants (hard to see in this photo of my Rose of Sharon bushes, but all of the seed pods are covered in a layer of ice, topped with snow.


Looking west down my street...


And looking west. Spring starts on March 20 at 7:21p.m.!