New Fall Decor 2022: Bates Turkey box

 It's always fun for me to showcase newly acquired items for each season or holiday.

This year I have a few that I have gotten over the past couple of years that I am using for my Fall/Thanksgiving decor.

Can I just tell you!!!? 

A vintage turkey box has been on my gotta-get list for the past couple of years.  

 Well, gotta-get for a cheap price, that is.

 A friend of mine and I decided to take a drive out to an estate sale over a hour away and in the closet was this box filled with fabric scraps.

The top of the box has been scribbled on by a kid but that doesn't bother me since I am going to display it high up. 

I am really excited that not only is it a Turkey box but its' a BATES Turkey box!

The Bates House of Turkey is something that we all get a chuckle out of.  We always passed it on the way to my mom's house and made the joke that it was the Norman Bates House of Turkey.

Well, it made us laugh.

And the best part is it only cost me a buck!

New Fall Decor 2022: Cranberry Set

  It's always fun for me to showcase newly acquired items for each season or holiday.

This year I have a few that I have gotten over the past couple of years that I am using for my Fall/Thanksgiving decor.

This is a really cool Thanksgiving decor piece and it's useful too for slicing and serving canned jelled cranberry sauce.  I really just like the box!  We picked it up at a thrift store for 3 bucks.

New Fall Decor 2022: Gurley Turkey candle

 It's always fun for me to showcase newly acquired items for each season or holiday.

This year I have a few that I have gotten over the past couple of years that I am using for my Fall/Thanksgiving decor.

 Just as I was declaring that the thrifts have entered into 'deplete of vintage' era, I came across this Gurley Turkey candle for 25 ¢ !

New Fall Decor 2022: Plastic Indians

  It's always fun for me to showcase newly acquired items for each season or holiday.

This year I have a few that I have gotten over the past couple of years that I am using for my Fall/Thanksgiving decor.

This set of small vintage plastic Indians were picked up last year from my favorite antique mall as part of their final days before closing retirement sale.  I think they were about 5 bucks.  They remind me of plastic models so maybe they were originally part of a DIY set of some sort.

New Fall Decor 2022: PBN Autumn set

 It's always fun for me to showcase newly acquired items for each season or holiday.

This year I have a few that I have gotten over the past couple of years that I am using for my Fall/Thanksgiving decor.

This Paint-by-Number set was done by my grandmother.  I have had them for several years packed away.  During the summer I spent some time going through stuff and came across them.  In general they aren't my style but they are most definitely Fall style decor so now they are getting out and about!

National Clean Out Your Fridge Day

It's that time of year again to pull out the crisper bins and play "What is (was) that?" regarding the sludge in the area under them.

Let's take a look at what needs to go...

Start by chunking anything past it's expiration date, toss out the vast quantity of condiment bottles that only have 1 tablespoon left in them, get rid of anything mushy that should be crunchy and vice versa, discard all of those food gifts from last Christmas that have been shoved to the back, anything in a packet goes.  Toss out all of those good intentions as well, you know you aren't going to start eating kale.  And while you are at it don't forget the freezer compartment.  Just because it's frozen doesn't mean it's still good.  So all of those "deals" you got on 'reduced for quick sale' meats that are now coated in freezer burn from being put in there in the original packaging are garbage.  Sure it sounds wasteful but it's time for you to own up to your mistakes and learn to not make them again.

Tough love is what is going to work cleaning out that fridge.

Now that the putrid has been expelled let's clean up. 

Your fridge needs a spa day.  Give the exterior a manicure, brow tweezing, and botox.

As for the interior...

Now that all the garbage is gone give it a good sanitary wipe down.

All nice and decluttered just in time to jam it full of pies, gravy, and Jack Daniels in a couple of weeks.

The owner manual featured today is for a 1950s General Electric Refrigerator Food Freezer }  Combination and has 76 new-different-recipes!

I'll be trying out a few in the next post!

For more fridge clean-age check out these past years:

2016

2018

2019

 

Fridge Day Snacks

In celebration of National Clean Out Your Fridge Day!

After all that hard work to get the fridge nice and cleared out we deserve a snack!

Of the 76 new-different-recipes I found us something fun to try out:

Cream Cheese-Olive Nut Sandwich Spread

Peanut Butter-Marmalade Sandwich Spread

Orange Fizz Ice Cream Float

(Cream Cheese-Olive Nut in foreground, Peanut Butter-Marmalade in middle)

These two are just different enough to be good.  The Cream Cheese-Olive Nut spread is very tasty and I liked the addition of the crunchy nuts.  I did find it a bit salty so I would not recommend the added onion salt.

The Peanut Butter-Marmalade is the real odd ball here because they fail to mention in the recipe name that it has shredded cheese in it... Peanut butter, jelly, and shredded cheese!?  Surprisingly enough it was my favorite.  I couldn't taste the cheese but it must have done something because it was more than just PB&J.

The Orange Fizz was okay.  PB thought it tasted like an Emergen-C in shake form.

A toast!

Here is to your sanitized fridge,

 may you see it brim with bacon and Velveeta,  

Claussen kosher pickles and tapioca pudding

all within expiration range!

May you never allow another ketchup packet

or out of date pack of wieners to disgrace it again! 

And remember...

A wise man knows that garbage day is Tuesday 

therefore every Monday is for clearing out the funk.

As a side note, I was pretty impressed with using the Frigidaire Double Quickube Tray as a serving tray.  I just placed an 8x10 piece of glass from a picture frame over the top.  I also sprinkled some epsom salt into the tray to look like ice crystals.

 

Hot Fudge Pudding

Betty Crocker's Cook Book for Boys and Girls 1957

Here is a dessert that isn't going to win any beauty contests except at the local county fair.

 I typically like to make recipes that include an image as that's a huge part of the fun for me to recreate how the original looks (or improve it!).  However as I was perusing the book I didn't see any illustrated recipes that either I haven't already made or that didn't looked like a snore.  I decided instead to pick something that had a bit of an interesting way it's made...and that would be Hot Fudge Pudding!

It's just basics like flour, brown sugar, cocoa powder, and nuts but it's construction is quite interesting.  It has a bottom layer of batter, then a layer of sprinkled powdered ingredients, and then you dump hot water on top and bake it.  Really weird to me, but I have never made a baked Pudding before, maybe this is as normal as knowing to not feed your dog a can of pork and beans.

Then there is the other surprise when you take it out of the oven.  Somehow the liquidly top flips to the bottom of the dessert and becomes pudding and the top is a rich dense chocolate cake.

It's very intriguing and tastes delicious even if it's not so much to look at!  Maybe that's why it didn't make it into an illustration.  I loaded mine up with whipped topping and nuts to put lipstick on the pig.

 

And if you don't want to take my word for how good this pudding is then listen to Lucy!

 

"Can you see anything?"

 "Yes, wonderful things."

~Howard Carter

100 years ago today explorer Howard Carter made the discovery of the ages when he finally came upon the first step leading to the sealed tomb of the boy king, Tutankhamun after searching for many years in the Valley of the Kings.  It is still to this day the only tomb to be discovered nearly fully still intact.

 

I have just two subjects that I love to read about and that's Housewifery and Ancient Egypt.  I have been waiting for a decade for this 100 year anniversary.  I knew, just knew, that 2022 was going to see a resurgence in Egyptian inspired everything...fashion, knick knacks, travel, books, movies, lunchboxes...all of it.  Kinda like how 1976 blew up with bicentennial stuff.  And then, here we are.  Barely a peep.  The damn google image is "celebrating" a rice dish.

Well, I am still going to do my part.

Here are some images and info tidbits:

It wasn't actually until November 26, 1922 that Howard Carter could peer into the chamber to see those wonderful things. This is what he first saw:

The layout of the tomb:

Howard Carter and his team spent a decade cataloging and preserving all the artifacts.  During the early days of excavation it was very Indiana Jones like.  There weren't a lot of rules or process to preserve.  The treasure finder paid a fee to the Antiquities department for the right to excavate a chosen area for a set amount of time, what ever the explorer found they got to keep half!  Once Howard Carter discovered the tomb of King Tut the department did a huge turn around and had to settle with Carter.  At one point the tensions and pressure were so high that the coffin holding the mummy hung suspended for a year before Carter would/could come back to finish the excavation.  I have seen many modern "news" reports trying to claim Howard Carter as an artifact thief when the case is that the rules were changed on him abruptly.  For decades explorers got to keep their finds and then the officials got greedy.  I mean, sure, I agree that the artifacts should be in museums but in the 1920s (and the 1800s) things weren't that way.

Look up mummy unwrapping parties during the Victorian time if you really want to read about something to be upset about.

The burial chamber as it is in present day.

But back to parties, I planned a little celebration to honor today with a mummy themed dinner and desert!  Kinda Halloween spooky, silly but that's how I roll.

Crescent Roll Wrapped Meatloaf Mummy

(Make your favorite meatloaf and wrap cut strips of crescent roll mummy style, black olives for eyes, bake at meatloaf instructions)

Garlic Mummy French Bread

(French rolls brushed with butter, garlic, wrapped with strips of string cheese, black olives for eyes, then toasted)

Mummy Cupcakes

(just make cupcakes...)

For the past 100 years the artifacts from King Tut's tomb have been touring the world going to different museums in various groups of items.  This is probably a good thing because from the looks of it the current museum in Egypt is unfit to house such treasures.  However a new huge proper complex is under construction (The Grand Egyptian Museum) has been under construction for the past 10+ years.  It was originally going to open in 2013 and then there were financial set backs, in 2018 a fire of unknown origin happened, then it was set to open in 2020 but Covid, then the plan was to open in 2022 for the anniversary with all of the tomb's treasures together for the first time in 100 years, but again something fell through...or maybe it is the mummy's curse?

Happy Housewife's Day!

Today is our day ladies! 

 All of our hard work is not going to go unappreciated!  

We'll be honored like queens!  

We'll have the admiration of our family!  

They will tell us to just put our feet up and they will tend to the floors!

Uh? Oh, sorry...The floor wax fumes were addling my clear thinking.

But speaking of floor care products, isn't the Perma-broom spectacular!?

I am in the market for a new broom and would love to have that green bristled beauty.

For our treat to celebrate us wonderful beings of anti-filth, I made these broom cookies complete with sugar sprinkle "dust and debris" on the bristles!

Here is the recipe: Cookie Brooms

I just switched it up a bit by putting the butterscotch melt on the cookie broom business end and daubed it in some sprinkles.

The cookies are quite good and much taster that a real broom any day.

You would think since Housewifery is my thing I would celebrate this day every year but with it being so close to my beloved Halloween it just doesn't happen but every 7 years:

Housewife Day 2015

Hallo Witch Cake

For our Halloween deadsert I made us this Hallow Witch cake!

It was based after the 1956 Bakers Coconut Cut Up Cake booklet offering for October.  Everyone knows that real witches have green skin!  I made the regrettable choice to give her orange tinted coconut hair which looks like shredded carrots.  I tried to give her some extra pizzazz with gumdrop warts, teeth, and a headband but ehhh... I think the original did it better even if on the drab side.

{image source}

P. B. MacReady

Last year PB came to me asking for a last minute Halloween costume where we started out with a ho-hum pirate but then elevated to P.B. Plissken (Snake Plissken from 'Escape from New York').  I was quite taken aback with how much I thought PB really looked like Kurt Russell.  Earlier in the month of October he jokingly brought it up that he should be another Kurt Russell character this year.  Since 'The Thing' is one of my favorite movies I decided that I was going to take on that challenge!

The main signature item you need is an oversized goofy hat with really long straps...

and a bottle of J&B...

Dynamite...

and then test your blood to prove you are not The Thing!

If you are lucky enough to have a flamethrower that would really do it up right but I'm fresh out at this moment.  But for those looking to make one I bet a couple of empty soda bottles could be the gas tanks and one of those long arm trash grabber deals (also known as a Kryptonite Deactivator) would work well for the long handled trigger.

That was at least my plan.

  I did however last minute come up with these 3 other props that worked out perfect:

The J&B bottle is a label printed from the nets hot glued onto an empty plastic green bottle that originally contained some nasty Dollar Tree nonalcoholic sangria.

The dynamite is an old wood broom stick Mr. Husband sawed into pieces and I painted, added waxed thread as the wick and bound together with black electrical tape.

The MacReady blood test petri dish is my favorite creative prop in this bunch.  It's the lid from a tub of icing!  You know the ones that have the bonus sprinkles? The blood is Halloween vampire blood.

The oversized hat was kind of a wonky build.  It's base is a foam cowboy hat from Dollar Tree with a large sheet of craft foam to extend the rim, I then covered it all with some brown felt which was originally a flower pot costume that we picked up from a thrift store for a buck.  I also had to glue some pipe cleaners to the back of the bent back brim to get it to hold shape.  It's a hot wonky mess and was only made for the photos.   

The photo location is the machine shop on the grounds where Mr. Husband works.  I thought it looked alot like the Outpost's interior from the movie.

I think it's really fun to make costumes and props from cheap crap and discards rather than being all pristine, precise, and overpriced about it.  

We all had a good time working on the pieces and doing the photos.  I'm glad PB still enjoys costuming even with him being older.  We'll have to see if Kurt Russell makes an appearance next year.  The 'Big Trouble in Little China' look is off the table since no respectable male over the age of 4 should be wearing a tank top. 

 

Kitsch-o-ween 2022

This year for Halloween I did things a bit different.  Instead of having both the living room and dining room be the entire cohesive vintage collection I did the living room in a more dark manor of voodoo mortuary and the dining room in the cutesy kitschy stuff.

Today I share with you the Kitsch-o-Ween Dining decor!

For the most part it's kind of the same set up.

However I did a bunch of extra flourishes!  I added in the new bottle brush trees and made some lifts for them out of canned fruit with the labels removed.  I also added a bunch of garland festooning to the blow molds and here and there.

The china cabinet in the corner is always a crappy photo due to the vast sun that blasts in but I'm still including it for a 'you get the idea' image.

This vintage plant stand is a new thing in the dining room. I filled it with more blow molds and garlands.  I had plans of making some inserts for the JOLs that looked like vintage style candies and what nots were popping out but I ran out of momentum, time, and sourcing supplies.  Just picture it in your mind.

I am pretty pleased with how all the decor turned out this year.  I am kinda planning for next time I am going to go back to my classic do up though.  I have a bunch of stuff that hasn't gotten to come out and play for several years such as all of The Simpsons stuff and all of my little vintage Halloween papery what-nots and we have been missing seeing them.