Vintage Junk Pile

So there is this house in our neighborhood that has been vacant for decades.  It was probably built in the 1920s, 2 story, craftsman's style.  It could have been a really cute house but the family that owned it couldn't bear to part with it yet left it to become derelict.  They came by once a year and mowed the jungle and had the roof replaced when it caved in.  

Back in the early part of 2019 (maybe even 2020?  Time is not grasp-able anymore.) the house was torn down and PB noticed that there was a big pile of stuff in the back of the property so we went on an adventure.

Who's up for some scrounging?!

The fridge had a clock in it!  And to the right a similar hair dryer to mine.  PB really loved that old TV to the far left but it weighed like 50 pounds...should have brought a heavy lifter along with us.

The back side of the pile.  Every.thing.was.old. Even the boxes.. look at that neat Doublemint Gum box to the right.  It was full of old records but they were unfortunately wet and moldy.   I think the newest item I saw was a electric hamburger press (a George Foreman precursor) that was probably from the 1980s (seen in the second photo bottom left).

 

So it seemed obvious to us that all of this stuff was just waiting to be tossed into a dumpster so we went digging for some treasures.

Here is what came home with us:

Old peanut butter jars.

Starburst coffee carafes.

 

This is interesting huh?  It is a cotton candy machine from the 1960s.  

I happened to find the instructions online of how this thing worked, wanting to know more about it being "Safe!  Battery Operated".  The spinny part is battery operated but the metal disk that spins on the top has to be sat on a hot stove burner and then transferred to the spindle using a wonky tong apparatus.  I guarantee kids got burned either between using the hot stove, transferring the searing metal disk, or having said disk go whizzing off the 20 mph spinner... all in the name of it being "safe" because batteries.

PB picked out a couple of things too.  One was this pogo stick, another toy with questionable safety. He also found an old tintype photo of a Civil War looking dude that he has in a frame in his room. 

The last item we scrounged was this Harmony House electric clock that we found face down covered in wet dirt...and it still worked!  

PB and I had sooo much fun rummaging around in all of this stuff.  It makes me wonder what other things may have been swept away with the demolished walls.  When we got to the site the entire house and driveway were gone, even the dumpster so no diving.  Nothing left but the front porch base, an empty storage shed, the mangled jungle, and this pile.

I still regret not getting that TV to the house....

Betty White's Easy Slice Banana Loaf

In celebration of Betty White's 100th birthday I made her "Easy Slice Banana Loaf".

I decorated it with little plastic critters due to her great love and dedication to animals.

It is a simple recipe and very good.

 Although Betty White may be known more for her giant dusty muffin, this loaf also has no yeastyness to ruin your whole day...or week as it may.

Here's hoping your loaf turns out velvety, not dry or crusty.  

And don't be concerned with how it looks, just let it all hang out.

Coconut of the Month Club

{image source}

Last year I was working my way through a little vintage monthly party ideas booklet featuring the Frito Kid.  I got up to August and then shit started hitting the fan of life and I didn't finish out the year.  I still have full intentions of doing the last 4 "parties" but I've got to work out when and what-not.  They all were very holiday specific and doing a Halloween party in March is going to be off key no matter how much I love Halloween.  So what better thing to do when you don't follow through with one year long project? Why start another that's what!

I came across this scanned booklet online that features a themed COCONUT cake for each month!

Yeah, I can make that happen.  Coconut is mine and Mr. Husband's favorite of favorite everything.  And the bonus about taking on this challenge is I already have a couple of the cakes made from years past!  I'll just be double dipping from my own posts!

Like this month....

Mr. Snowman Cake from 2014

Done!

{If you want to take a sneak peek of the future cakes check out the image source.}

And here are links to all the frito-rific Frito Parties I did get done:

January Frito Kid Circus Party

February Frito Kid Valentine Party

March Frito Kid St. Patrick's Party

April Frito Kid Easter Party

May Frito Kid Flowers and Fairies Party

June Frito Kid Cowboy Party

July Frito Kid Independence Day Party

August Frito Kid Backyard Party

Lucky Dragon Glasses

Here is a close-up image of our New Year's eve dragon glasses...stuffed with some fiberfill fake snow!  Still putting the Christmas away and it was handy!

I bought these glasses here and there at thrifts and estate sales.

{image source}

 And here is an image of the ad for these glasses circa 1980s.  I am thinking these may have come in an array of colors since the ad mentions customers accumulating a sizeable collection.  I came across a green one a few months back at a thrift store but ehhh.  I like the red, black could work also.  Check out the entire catalog thru the image link, amazing stuff!

and here is a link to a photographed massive collection of Orchids of Hawaii drinking vessels:

My Tiki Life

New Year's Eve Decor

Every year I decorate for New Year's but never take many photos and certainly don't post them.  It's decor that only stays up for a few hours and most of that is during bad lighting. This year I decided to snap a few pics along with cobbling together some from past years to make a complete presentation.  

Doing the New Years decorating is a push toward getting the house de-Santafied.  Our dining room is  themed to be an Asian restaurant during the non-holiday times.  We have Chinese for our New Year's eve meal every year (gotta get our "fortunes" for the upcoming year!).  So that means I have to get the Christmas out and the regular decor up in that room by Dec 31.  But then to make it more New Year festive I use the branches from the aluminum Christmas tree (they remind me of sparklers/fireworks!) along with silver garland and some other what-nots to decorate.  Remember when Asian restaurants used to have paper placemats with the years and horoscopes?  I have always loved these so I saved several and had them laminated over 20 years ago.  Oh yeah, and we have special plates and glasses for New Years....and silver ware.  The plates are authentic Chinese buffet plates that I bought from a restaurant in town.  The glasses are vintage originally from Asian-Tiki themed restaurants where you got to "keep the souvenir glass" from a mixed drink.  The silverware (not pictured) have bamboo handles and I bought them from Target over 20 years ago.

Enough blah-blah-blah.  Here's the photos:

 

Our New Year's eve top hats were from the dollar spot at Target from 2011..when it was actually a dollar.  They were each part of a set of other plastic bits to decorate a snowman...plastic carrot nose etc.  We live in Florida (God help us) and we don't get snow...could maybe do a sand-snowman but I hate the beach.  Anywho, I turned them into hats for us by adding an elastic string and some silver tinsel.

Here we are in 2011 with our hats.  

This is my most favorite family picture.  I have it in a frame and it's up all year.

Here's hoping for 2022 to better than 2021...or 2020...but I'm not placing any bets.

Christmas Wrap-up

I like to write a "wrap-up" post at the end of each holiday season (Halloween and Christmas) highlighting events and what-not.  This year was ... I don't even know.  It started off great but took a nose dive real quick.  The good stuff was that the Christmas decor was really uplifting for me along with that Mr. Husband and I decided to do something a bit different this year for our gifts.  Because we already have a house full of "treasures" we don't have room for more knick knacks unless they are ones we put on our Santa's Wish Gotta Have It List.  I thought it would be a good idea for us each to pick something big/expensive.  We never do this and it would really help out my mental stability, not to have something expensive but to have just a 'one and done' when it comes to gifts.  You guys...it's gifts that make me hate Christmas  (well, and some family).  I am just going to be bluntly honest.  I hate shopping.  I don't know what to get anyone.  And most importantly everyone we know has waaay too much shit.  I don't want to contribute to that and frankly I don't want them to do that to us either.  No lie, 90% of physical gifts (cash always accepted!) we get go right to the thrift store.   Usually every year I make baked goods for everyone because they only add to the waistline not the flat surfaces in their home.  So everything was going along well.   Gifts for everyone were handled for the most part.  The 3 days before Christmas are always a back breaking crunch time no matter how much I plan.  But then on Dec. 23 it went south.  It started with Mr. Husband bringing in a shit ton of gifts for PB and me.  That wasn't the agreement.  I had only gotten him one gift (which wound up not fitting properly) because remember?! we had agreed to the big gift idea. It made me feel shitty.  Then the same night as I was working on the baked goods for the family (burned an entire batch of one of the treats) the stove went out.  I just sat in a chair and cried.  Obviously no repairman was available.  Mr. Husband tried to help by texting everyone and saying their gifts weren't going to be done until after Christmas.  But I can't be giving people Santa's Chimney of Sweets after Christmas.  Santa clocks out after Dec 25 and it seemed weird to be giving a Christmas themed gift after it's all over.  I happened to have bought a little  bit of some extra ingredients for a few filler treats to go along with the baked goods (rice krispy treats with white chocolate and crushed peppermint and peanut butter fudge)  and that's all I had for the "sweets".  It was the best I could do.  On Christmas Day Mr. Husband and I decided that for once we wanted to spend the day at home and told family we would be by on the 26.  Now, the other main reason we didn't want to go over on Christmas Day was because of covid.  We are very careful and are pretty much the only ones we know that are still taking it seriously. We knew that if we went over on the 25 family would try to put us in situations we didn't want to be in.  They don't wear masks and ask us inside...no way.  We also don't want to ask them to spend their holiday sitting in a lawn chair in the yard as we want to do for all of our safety.  If we go on the 26 it makes it more relaxed and we don't feel we are asking too much for a yard visit.  We let everyone know...We'll see you on the 26.  My grandmother and stepdad were totally fine with that and visiting in the yard.  But my mother in law apparently wasn't listening because on Christmas Day she went flipping nuts.  She kept calling and forcing the issue along with her saying, and feel free to laugh about this... She said she may not be there on the 26 (meaning she may be dead)...and then she added in her annual announcement that it could be her last Christmas.  Every year...it's her last Christmas.  And then she hung up on Mr. Husband.  She hung up on her son on Christmas day because we wouldn't rush over to do what she wanted.  This is a reoccurring thing with her no matter what day of the year it is.  When we went over on the 26, surprise, she was still alive.  She made us wait for awhile to answer the door though and during the visit kept snapping at us over anything...but never brought up the previous day.

 She is a nasty character and just keeps pushing and pushing which usually means she wins.  It seems to be the easy answer in the moment to back down and let her have her way but never confronting the problem means it continues to happen.  An intervention is long over due.

So I'm glad to say that Christmas is in the rear view mirror.  

Oh, in case you were curious about our "big" gifts.

PB got a record player for Christmas, which we all were excited about since ours went out the past year.  Mr. Husband is getting a new fancy phone. And mine is still being pulled together and I hope will be a future post!

 

Santa's Chimney of Sweets

 

For friends this Christmas I made these "Santa's Chimney of Sweets" as gifts. 

 I got the idea from something I saw in the background of a video I happened to come across on youtube of vintage holiday decor:

I made mine from recycled cardboard boxes along with the top being a lid.  The brink pattern is something I printed from the internet.  I made the little Santa head toppers from styrofoam balls, pom poms, felt, and fiberfill.

For the sweets I had planned on making several baked goods but my oven broke on the 23 and I had to do a plan B.  I made some basic peanut butter fudge and rice crispy treats coated in white chocolate and topped with crushed peppermint.  

I just realized that I forgot something I was going to do to the chimneys which was add a "TV antennae" made from a pipe cleaner kinda like what is shown on the box...but hell...I was running on fumes as all you wives and mothers out there know what I'm talking about.

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians Food Pill Christmas Dinner

For our Christmas dinner I came up with us having a meal inspired from a holiday movie, Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.  In Mars though they eat "Food Pills" that they get from the "Food Pill Center".

  At one point in the film, Dropo (the laziest man on Mars), is telling Santa and the earth children what pills are for dinner:  

Soup, beef stew, and chocolate ice cream.

That could work, just in real Earth food form!

To me beef stew is soup so I just decanted some of the soup from there.  I mean who would have soup and beef stew in a single meal?  That would be like having fried chicken and chicken nuggets or a chef's salad with a side salad.  Kinda redundant.  

But with keeping with the theme I set it up as soup and stew for the sake of a photo.

And for dessert, the chocolate ice cream.  If you don't want yours Dropo will take it!  That weirdo just loves chocolate ice cream.

Back in 2016 we did a whole SCCTM theme:

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians Christmas Tree

Merry Christmas from Mars fam photo

 And also in 2016 we did another movie themed dinner:

A Christmas Story menu

Tinsel Town 2021

This year is the ultimate hall decking that I have ever done.  I indeed "went wild with allspice" or maybe I should say peppermint.  Like I do every year I study my past holiday decor photos and look at what was working and bump that area up.  I also try to avoid repeating layouts that looked lame.

Every year I always have a wall or two that don't quite do it for me.  This is usually the "leftovers" wall with the items that I couldn't get to work other places and they just get tossed up together.

This year there are no "leftovers walls"!  Every wall and decorated area is just about near perfection in my Griswoldian style.  

First up is the Dining room:

 

I did the wall and top of the sideboard similar last year but bumped it up this go.

The top of the china cabinet is always home to the Santa Singing Choir o' blow molds.  And since it is always the same I decided to use an old photo from 2016 because I could not get a good photo of this area this year.

So hard to get noncrappy photos in this area due to the bright ass back lighting.

I liked the silver tinsely flair I added to my Mom's Holt Howard Santa pitcher and mug set.

Now heading into the Living room.  This is the top of the record cabinet and it always seemed kinda wonkily decorated every season to me.  This year I finally perfected it!  I folded the tablecloth to where it showed just the print rather than showing a big plain middle section of bland white.  I also bought these little silver tinsel trees new this year (one buck each from Dirt Cheap) and added some little gold ball ornaments (vase filler from Dollar Quarter Tree) to use as a background for the reindeer but they also look pretty from the Dining room side too.

The Green Shelf and wall.  This is the centerpiece of my living room so it has got to look good and sister, it does!  I can't get the whole wall and shelf in a photo so this is the mostly wall shot.

And this is the all shelf photo.  I absolutely LOVE the flanking floor areas.  Those spots always give me an issue every year.  I think the wrapped "presents" are gonna be my regular Saturday night thing from here on out.

A shelfie close-up.

This area is a repeat for several years now.  The Santa Shrine.

In the display area right below the Santa Shrine I put up the village with the robots attacking...only I forgot to put in the flame lights so it's more like the robots are just taking a stroll.

This is a new display this year and I love it!  It's the wall above our computer and it tends to be one of those 'leftovers' walls but this year it's prime.

The couch corner table area is the same as the last few years.

So this wall was on it's way to being the 'leftovers'.  It only had the wreath, the large candy cane, the 2 stockings and the Seasons Greetings tray.  Not bad...but not enough oomph.  I then added the pixies and it was getting better.  On a whim I wedged the Santa cardboard die cut into the candy cane to fill the void...yep, that's it.  Then evened it out with a few smaller candy canes on the other side.  But it still needed something wide on the bottom to balance it all.  I also didn't have many items left in my Christmas what-not arsenal.  I thought about it for longer than I care to admit but it came to me.  I hung a tree skirt on a wooden dowel along with a mini plastic wreath to hid the middle opening.  I think it's fairly brilliant!  This set is going to also be a regular Saturday night thing each year.

Pixies in a candy cane punch bowl hot tub on the coffee table.

He knows when you are sleeping...

Wonky angle of the last wall.

Now for the big area of decor, the centerpiece of the holiday....

The tree...or I should say trees!  I decided this year since I didn't have a tree theme to go big in another way by using 3 trees.  I made an aluminum tree forest with "snow" for the precious deer to frolic in!

The blanket of snow is a couple of white sheets with white Christmas lights underneath.  I used some cotton batting (snow) under the deer to hide their yard stakes.  Lastly I tossed in a bunch of "snowballs" (ginormous white pom poms).

I know it's not becoming for one to toot their own trumpet but I am super proud of how this year's decor turned out.  It's been a really good morale boost for me.  I will sit up sometimes til 2 in the morning just enjoying it, listening/watching a "crackling fire" on the computer screen....just love it.

 I really try every year to improve my Holiday decor so it's kinda fun to see the progression.  Visit these posts of Christmas past to see for yourself:

Decked Out Christmas 2020

Xmas Decor 2019

 Kitschmas Decor 2018

Hall Decking 2017

Hall Decking 2016

Hall Decking 2015

Now the jingle bell hop has begun...2014

Hall Decking 2013

Hall Decking 2012

Christmas Decor 2011

Robots Attack Christmas 2010 (not too much decor though)

Tis the season for extension cords 2005