A Week of Loafing

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And by that I mean a week of vintage loaf recipes!

Get out the bread knives!

Lambie Cake Winning

During Easter I entered the Mid Century Menu Lamb Cake Contest and I am proud to annouce I won "Best Detail" for my Crunch 'n Munch Lambie Cake!
As my prize I received an official Lamb cake tote bag!
I think it may be the perfect thing to store my lamb cake pan in because of it's wonky self and non-nesting pans.  Now I can put the pans in the tote and hang it up for safe keeping!



Go check out all of the other amazing winners here.
And all the entries here!

My favorite was the zombie lamb cake.  As a matter of fact, I was going to do a zombie lamb originally but getting all of the supplies was going to be difficult at the time.  The Fiddle Faddle/Crunch 'n Munch idea was my alternative idea.  I think it was the best one to go with though.  It tasted fantastic and two zombie cakes would have been embarrassing, like showing up to prom wearing the same dress as someone else...and especially if it looks better on them!

Big Bowl Ice Milk

Clown Approved!

I picked this little paper bowl up at an antique mall earlier in the year for 2 bucks.  It was full of modern crappy crayons, for some reason.  I'm too good for Rose-art.   I had the cashier throw them away!

WWF Coloring Book

Since we just had Macho Nacho Monday, I thought I would head-lock you all into checking out this vintage WWF Superstars coloring book that Mr. Husband got me a few years ago.
As you can see, it is autographed by none other than Jake the Snake Roberts!
He was at a comic con the same year as Mick Foley.  PB wanted Jake's autograph so badly that he even paid for it out of his own money.  Since I had the perfect material for the signature I let PB have my coloring book, which is now framed in his bedroom.

Before I handed off this amazing item, I scanned some of the pages for printing and coloring later.
Here are my favorites:

Jake the Snake

Hacksaw Jim Duggan

Andre' the Giant

Rowdy Roddy Piper

Hulk Hogan

Get out your crayolas and give these pages some color Brother!

Macho Nacho Monday

  Back when life existed a few months ago, I would make nachos once a week, and typically on Monday.  It was a nice start to the week and it's a dish that is easy to put together.  Since it became a thing, I figured it needed a name...similar to Taco Tuesday, but not so overdone.  It's Nachos on a Monday...I had to work some alliteration in there, because you may have noticed from past posts...I'm kinda kooky for it.  Hence Macho Nacho Monday came into being!

The Macho part is inspiration from The Macho Man Randy Savage of World Wrestling Federation fame!

As many may recall he was the spokesperson for "Snappin' into a Slim Jim" for several years.  And Slim Jim happens to make a nacho flavored snack stick!

It's a tag team of flavor!

The recipe for my Macho Nachos involves many layers of baked tortilla chips, taco seasoned ground turkey, black beans, rotel, spanish style brown rice, queso dip, green onions, black olives, corn, baked garbanzo beans, hot sauce and some chopped up slim jims. 
You could 'macho' it up even more with some no holds barred moves you smack down yourself!

The other feature that adds to the ambiance is for everyone to talk like The Macho Man during the meal!

"Ohhhhh....Yeeeeaaahhhhh! Pass the sour cream..because you know....I'm the cream of the crop!  No one tops the Macho Man Randy Savage!!"

A Tag Team of past posts power-slammed below!:

Lunch time, Ring side!
Have a Nice (Birth)day! Mick Foley style!

Monster Kid Birthday Party

For Mr. Husband's birthday theme this year I went with Monster Kid!
Monster Kid is a term used primarily for kids (boys) that grew up between the 1960's-1980's and were into monster flicks, magazines, comics, and all of the Halloweenish stuff that goes along with it.
He is a huge fan of all things creepy, spooky, icky, and ooky.



Comic ads, gags, and cheap dime store trinkets were a big part of this era.
I printed out several vintage comic ads poster sized to use as the focal wall decor.
The gumball machine is actually his birthday cake.



The top thin section and the bottom are made of cake.  The middle is a plastic mini critter tank turned on it's side.  I put a print of a vintage monster head gumball insert inside with some of those goodie globes, then covered the open front area with clear cellophane hot glued to the edges, red electric tape as edging. It's hard to make out but I made a turn knob and dispenser flap for the lower section out of thin cardboard covered in aluminum foil.   The 51¢ sign is a reference to Mr. Husband's age.

For decor I scoured our Halloween stuff for appropriate pieces.

Skulls, snakes, spiders, dismembered parts, rubber monsters....





On top of the china cabinet, I created a mini Joke shop featuring reprodution rubber creepy masks, groucho glasses, Igglee Wigglees, and ads.



On the front of of the cabinet I put prints of other items appearing to be still in packaging along with more ads and monster stickers.

The table centerpiece features reproduction Monster Name Stickers and other plastic creepy bits.

I used the book Mail Order Mysteries  written by Kirk Demarais as inspiration for this party.  We LOVE this book.  It features vintage comic book ads for stuff that sounded amazing but then Kirk has gotten his hands on what you were really sent and gives a review about the products.  It's super fun and funny. 

Kirk Demarais also made an awesome 2004 short film called Flip which features a Monster Kid in the 60's mulling over what comic book ad item he should buy with his birthday dollar.  The film did a wonderful job of portraying the period look properly and the story is sweet.  We watched the film as part of the birthday activities.  Mr. Husband has an original poster from the short film as seen in the above photo because Nightmare Theatre, his horror host show, played it during a film festival when it was first released.

  Got MC Bones on the turntable scratchin' out birthday beats!


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Scary, Life Size Monster Ghost!
Obeys Your Commands!



I decided to try my hand at making what I thought the "life sized" monster would look like as part of the party decor!  It's a black plastic table cloth, a plastic clothes hanger and a green balloon that I drew a face on similar to the one in the ad.  I hung it up with fishing line so it could then "obey my commands"!



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One of the gifts I got for Mr. Husband was a set of Monster Magic Action Trading Cards from the 60's or 70's.  As shown above with the vending machine insert, the cards were sold individually and you used a lenticular plastic "magic" lens to make the scene move!



They are beautifully illustrated and I am easily entertained by this kind of stuff.



Here is the Monster Kid about to hack into his cake with an oversized Pee Wee Herman knife and fork!  I also made ice cubes with plastic spiders in them for the beverages.


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This vintage ad is a work of art.  I could not figure out what the shape of the order form was suppose to be though.  All I could see, because of the current state of things, was a half medical mask but I knew that wasn't what it could be.  I asked Mr. Husband and he figured it out.  Can you?  I'll put the answer in the comments.

All of the images I used for this party are sourced on my Monster Kid Pinterest Board .

Nirvana Party

This year for PB's birthday I decided to go with the theme of the band Nirvana.
He has been really getting into music lately and I am pleased he prefers mine and Mr. Husband's kind of jams, 80's - 90's alternative stuff.

I went with the idea of what walls at punk houses and clubs, along with what my walls looked like as a teenager, but with the emphasis on just one band.
Here is the top of the sideboard in the dining room along with the focal wall.  I found scans of vintage Nirvana band posters (before they hit mainstream too hard.  Oh my gosh! 4 dollar shows!!!) on the nets.  I then printed them out on the large format printer at our library.

To have true punk/grunge decor there must be at least one "stolen" milk crate used as either a shelf, a drawer, a seat, or a table.  I bought this one at a thrift store so that's still ok with the punk rockers.  We used ours to hold vintage alterna records.

For christmas last year PB got a guitar similar to one Kurt Cobain played so I used it as part of the decor.

On top of the china cabinet is a small vignette featuring a t-shirt PB made when he was in first grade.  He has been a fan for a long time.  I also thought it was an appropriate thing to have as decor since Kurt Cobain was known for drawing and making his own white tees into fashion statements. Such as his infamous "Corporate Magazines Still Suck" tee he made to wear on the cover of Rolling Stone circa 1992:

I went with that idea for the birthday cake!



I tried very hard to make the cake it's self look bakery perfect but the lettering be grudge style. I just can't do "perfect".

Other bits of decor I included were christmas lights, ratted out flannel (I mean duh!  flannel= grudge!) fabric scraps, candles, and Mr. Husband's old combat boots.  I thought it really turned out looking right.  Part of this style is the idea of anti-style.  Another theme within it is anti-mainstream and being different but not wanting to be noticed as different.  It's complex, but since this bipolar mind set has been a part of my own life for so long I feel I did this theme justice but also anti-justice...If that makes sense?


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Anywho, here is PB wearing his full on Nirvana look:

In a grudge alterna- mom way I say:
happy birthday to my sweetest pea...or what ever dude.

Get Well Soon! Fishing card

This is the last and my most favorite from the set of  vintage Get Well cards I picked up at an estate sale last year.
Look what it comes with!

A mini fishing pole and two paper fish are in the little package tucked in the front saying "Fishing Toy".  It works by having a metal bar on the end of the string and the fish have the thinnest of metal bits on their mouths.  In the scan above, the bar is not seen because it came off the string right as I was placing it on the scanning bed, but it can be fixed.

I hope this series of Get Well cards finds you all well.
I send them out virtually to the world right now.

Get Well soon! Watch card

This card comes with a nonfunctional watch.  It only works twice a day at 4:38.  These are the times mother delivers the alcohol based spoonfuls of nighty-night and hallucinations.  Those kids riding the watch have already been dosed.

Get Well Soon! Bubble gum cats card

These cuddly kittens are delivering a piece of gum (long gone and corroded) from the little glass jar of "get well wishes"!  Huh.  I've never heard tale of this magical container.
The wording on this card puts me off a bit.  The saying on the left, rhymes well, but what if the kid isn't better today?  The kittens have been misinformed.  The wording on the right?  The sentiment is great but it doesn't follow the rhyming and it's almost cultish with "Everyone is glad!"
This card must be for a child member of a Kitten Cult that dapples in sugar based magic.

Get Well Soon! Clown card

And now for something creepy!  Get well or I'll send in the clowns!
Clippy here is telling you it's just loads of fun to blow up a balloon.  What if the kid has a lung condition, Clippy?!

This card featured a balloon for the nose, but had long past been lost and probably deteriorated when I discovered this set of cards last year at an estate sale.  

Get Well Soon! Paper doll card

This Get Well card has a fun paper doll.  It's accessories include a "sou' wester" which I am figuring is a rain cap along with a school bag.  Being sick is already horrible enough, but this little reminder of "oh, yeah, and you are going back to school, just as soon as we get this diarrhea under control.  Either that or you are wearing a diaper!"

I did a quick search on Sou'wester (yeah, it's a rain hat like the Gorton's Fisherman) and I came across this super cute Vintage Travel Trailer Camp in Washington called the Sou'Wester!  The interiors are done up vintage.  Check it out, eye candy.