Deviled Ham Pigs (hedgehogs? mice?)

 

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Deviled Ham is a tasty treat and even more so when it's served up in the shape of a pig!

Well...pig-ish.  I think they could pass for hedgehogs or mice too.

I mixed my deviled ham with some mayo to stretch it out to accommodate three "pigs" so I didn't get to achieve that fluffy busted out back thing going on in the original ad. Those little tins don't hold much product and at nearly 5 bucks a can ya gotta get a bit crafty with it!!  I should have maybe added a couple of drops of red food coloring to play up the pig's technicolored spinal cord injury. 

Nutbrown Deluxe Icing Set

Mr. Husband and I picked up this vintage Icing Set at an antique mall for 5 bucks.

I doubt I will use it for icing but it would be cute to use for a birthday display!

 

Feemster's Super Salad Shredders

Mr. Husband and I came across this Feemster's set of 3 Super Salad Shredders at an antique mall last year for 5 bucks.

I bought it for display purposes because that lady's hand shredding lettuce is mesmerizing!

However I have used the shredders a couple of times now and it's "Life Time Use" promise is still holding strong!

 

Gildy's Blade

 

I have a real gem to share today!

"Gildy's Blade" from the Radio Program The Great Gildersleeve, 1950

Mr. Husband loves to listen to old radio programs from the mid 1900s.  One of his favorites is The Great Gildersleeve.  There is a particular episode were Gildy invents his own kitchen tool that has a duel knife edge with one side being serrated and the other not, along with the tool also serving as a handy dandy spatula...perfect for spreading Parkay with (who just so happened to be the show's sponsor!).

I spent a couple of years searching for this knife on ebay for Mr. Husband and finally found one but not listed as such.  I was perusing ebay kinda half heartedly looking for a vintage cake server.  Of course there was no way I was ever going to pay ebay prices for one but it's fun to look.  I came across a seller that pretty much only sold servers and knives so I just started looking through all of their listings.  Then I saw it....Listed as an "engraved knife" with no mention of the name that was on it!  And it was a pretty good price too!  I guess the seller thought the owner had engraved their own name on the knife. I was super excited and  still to this day haven't seen another for sale!

I printed out an ad with the order form and placed it in a shadow box I found at a thrift (took a bit for the right sized one to come along) and we have it displayed with some vintage cookbooks.

Oh, and I found a vintage cake server at a yard sale for 50¢!

Dolly Parton Cake

 Dolly Parton, one of our National Treasures turns 77 years old today!

A year or so ago I heard Dolly was teaming up with Duncan Hines to put out her own icings and cake mixes.  The catch at the time was you had to buy the whole kit online.  It included 2 mixes, 2 icings, a hand towel, a spatula, and recipe cards...for 40 bucks!   

Nope!  Next!  I forgot about it until the mixes and icings showed up at Big Lots and for less than 2 bucks each!

We picked up the banana cake mix.  On the back of the box it tells you how to Dolly-fy it up with milk, butter, and banana pudding mix...all of which I did.

I thought the cake was pretty mediocre to be honest.  It was no Dolly version of a cake, she is much more spectacular!

 

DIY: Sputnik Lamp Finial

Here's a fun and easy Decor DIY for you all!

Vintage inspired Sputnik Lamp finials!

I have seen these out in internet land but have never been able to find them (at a decent price) in the real world.  So I took matters into my own hands.

Below is an inspiration board showing originals which are metal:

For this project you will need:

~small stryofoam balls~

~long wood picks/skewers with a bead on the end ~

~gold acrylic paint and gold spray paint~

I came across a pack of these long toothpicks at Dollar Quarter Tree and I trimmed down the ends.  You could probably make your own by adding a small round wood bead to a bamboo skewer. 

To put these together start by spray painting the toothpicks and acrylic painting the styrofoam ball.

Let dry.  Remove the boring finial your lamp came with.  Use a ice pick or dremel tool and hollow out a tight fitting hole in the bottom of the styrofoam ball where it will attach to the top of your lamp.  Next jab your toothpicks in random but well spaced spots. Lastly attach your finial and you are done!  If your finial doesn't want to stay put add some of that tacky wall mount material to hold it in place.

I made another set of these for Halloween last year using long toothpicks with bats on them, which I also found at Dollar Quarter Tree.

1.25 Tree seems to have several different styles of these toothpicks.  Right now there are ones with little wooden hearts on them that could be made into Valentine themed finials.  

Or maybe you could "go wild with allspice" and make up your own!  There are plenty of things that can be glued or skewered on the ends of toothpicks....gumdrops for christmas, plastic fake roaches for April Fool's Day, hot dogs for Fourth of July!  

Snowy New Year!

 I think the most wonderful week is from the day after Christmas til New Year's Day.  The stress and horribleness of the holiday is done and it feels like a 10 ton boulder has been lifted off my back.  That week is the real moment I get to enjoy time with the fam without the additional stress of work/ school and "Stressmas".  It's also super fun to hit the after-christmas clearance sales.  I don't like shopping in retail stores typically but I do when everything is 75 % off!  I'm not looking for Christmas decor (I'm good on that!) but for things that can be used in other areas of the house all year.  This year I bought a couple of light sets to illuminate my china cabinet and the green display shelf.  I also picked up a new foot tap extension cord dealio.  They are great to use for those vintage light sources that don't have an On/off mechanism. Example being my vintage toy stove lamp I have in the kitchen that I use as a nightlight.  It doesn't have a switch to turn it on and off, it has to be unplugged, which ain't happening!  So I hooked it up with a the tap cord so I can on/off it with ease!

For the first week of the year I have been working on getting the house de-Stressmas-ed.  I had everything all packed up which involved pulling out all the Halloween-Thanksgiving-Christmas bins.  Got it all packed up nice and tidy....then I started thinking about winter and how much I love it...and snowmen!  Love them too!  And then I was off pulling out all the bins again and trying my hand at some winter themed decorating.  I know in a previous post I said the insanity has to stop somewhere...and there's no doubt it will after this last hoorah.  I will never do full fledged decorating for spring or summer because I hate them so.

I have a ton of craftiness and decor in the works which will be up within January or February.  Along with some other dishes and what-nots so stay tuned! 

Dear Santa Cake

Here is the dessert I made for us to have with our Christmas dinner.

It is the "Dear Santa" December cake from the 1956 Baker's Coconut Cut-Up Cakes booklet.

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All I could see when I looked at this cake is The Baron from Mr. Husband's TV show Nightmare Theatre, so I did some alterations:

See?!

👿   🎅  👿   🎅  👿   🎅

 

Cheese Nippies

 

Another edible gift I made for fam was a batch of these "Cheese Nippies" featured in Skelgas Tips and Treats for Christmas booklet.

I have a couple of family members that are diabetic so I try to find something not sugar laden to make for them. 

 

I made a half batch using 2.5 cups of krispies.  I had to triple all of the spices and seasoning though because this stuff was bland!  I used siracha salt and added garlic salt as well.

They still turned out ehhh.

A little added bonus to this post are those sweet little plastic canvas craft snow people seen in the back ground.  We found them at an estate sale this month but I forgot to photo them in their own post because they were out in my car as decor! 

Merry Mint Brownies

 

I made several edibles for fam and friends for gifts.  One of them was inspired by this vintage ad for Spry and a recipe for Merry Mint Brownies.  I can't really make out what the ingredients are and don't care.  I'm trying to make this sweet and simple.  I used a boxed brownie mix which I added broken up peppermint patties to the batter.  After they baked and cooled I then covered the brownies in an icing that was suppose to be like Lofthouse cookies.  I then drizzled melted dark chocolate over the top.

I took a picture and then had to throw it all in the garbage.  

This simple treat was a disaster from the start.  It began with my trying to avoid a possible problem.  I greased the baking pan and lined it in greased wax paper.  I did this to help prevent the peppermint patties from sinking to the bottom and causing the brownies to stick to the bottom of the pan.  Instead the waxed paper fused to the bottom of the brownies.  I also over baked them and it was like a slab of slate.  The recipe I followed for icing didn't set as it should and looked grainy or curdled (but tasted fine).  None of this was acceptable but I went ahead and photographed it as a serving suggestion. I suggest just not overbaking but I had 3 other things going on that I was trying to make and it is what it is...the stress of Christmas.  

 It wouldn't be Christmas if I don't have some kind of last minute disaster.

FallMas

Yes, Yes Ya'll!

It's Fall...Mas!

At the beginning of the Christmas season I was lamenting that I was not ready for my Fall decor to come down and I just wasn't in the Christmas mood.  Maybe I could do something I penned "Fallmas" but there would be no way I had enough stuff to pull that off...but I did!  And it turned out so cute!

It's kinda more woodland, Fall, Winter than really Christmas.

And I am okay with that!

Behold the beauty:

The antique Slyvania bulb rack (aka the green shelf) set up:

Close ups:

Corner tables in Livingroom:

Coffee table:

Top of Display case:

Inside Display case (not much here in this photo, Mr. Husband later put the Tauntaun in it):

Record Cabinet:

Dining room, top of the china cabinet:

Dining room table and side board:

The tree and the cutesy Deeries!:

The only things I bought for this theme were a bag of mini snowballs (vase filler from Hobby Lobby) for 2 bucks and the gold vintage satin ball ornaments (from a thrift) for 10 bucks.  Yikes on that price. I bought several bags and they were 3 or 4 bucks each bag.  But they were perfect and as soon as I bought them I knew I was going to pull this look off. 

I went with a color scheme of fall oranges, browns, and golds, winter whites, silver for shimmer and black and green to ground everything.

I removed purely Thanksgiving items such as turkeys and pilgrims and left woodland features such as squirrels and mushrooms.  I relocated some of the fall decor to mix it up a bit such as the garland in the dining room is the garland that was around the front door.  The Christmas items I added in were the deer, trees, and ball ornaments.  The gnomes are kinda elf-like but also woodland so they play up both themes (they usually live on my back deck). 

It's been interesting and a nice change this last season with transiting the decor.  I started with my regular tiki decor and added in voodoo witch doctor vibes for Halloween.  Then for fall I did  Falloween adding in more black to the autumn look.  Now for Christmas it's Fallmas.  I could see removing the fall and leaving the white and silver for a winter look but people it's got to stop somewhere!  I usually do a small winter display with snowmen but that's it.  Spring can kiss my ass and summer can go to hell.

🍁❄ 🍂❅ 🍁❆ 🍂

Happy Fall(mas) Ya'll!

🍁 ❄🍂 ❅🍁❆ 🍂

Merry Christmas...Pleasant Smoking!

 

"This Christmas, Give yourself (and your friends) satisfying flavor... so friendly to your taste!"

~Pall Mall Cigarettes

This Christmas I decided to give myself a slight break on all of my over the top food craft gift giving but hopefully still maintained " satisfying flavor" for friends and family.

In the past I have made and put together some pretty snazzy stuff such as: 

1951 Pillsbury Cookie gift Box

Log Loaves and Fireplaces

Chimney of Sweets

This year I went simple and with something I have made before for other occasions.

Pretzel rod candy coated cigarettes!

I covered a gift box in mini printed images of vintage Christmas cigarette ads.  I also perfected the lit tip although it's not visible here.  I typically just use red sugar sprinkles but this time I added in some black sugar sprinkles and some silver flake sugar sprinkles (looks like ash!)

To make these it's just rod pretzels dipped in white almond bark and then tipped in sugar.

Here are some of our past cigarette inspired themes, including our Cigarette Christmas tree and two other versions of the candy coated pretzel cigarettes:

Light up the Holidays!

Smokes for Father's Day

Coffin Nails