Merry Christmas!

Basement Update - calling it done for Christmas!

After more time on my knees in this basement than I like to think about, I've gotten pretty close to finishing the main area with the bar, fireplace, and record player.  The aluminum tree is up and spinning, I've got a fire going, and I'm listening to vintage Christmas albums!  We had some good friends over for lunch and I just barely got things cleaned and straightened to make things presentable.  Still on my checklist: finishing with the floor trim, waxing the floor, adding curtains, adding a mirrored shadowbox for behind the bar, making some kind of panel backing for the R above the fireplace, restoring my Plycraft chair, and working on getting the other furniture fabrics to match up better (I'm thinking about having new covers made for the Z chairs). But for now, I'm pretty happy with the progress.   Have a look --

I'll probably blog again next weekend, if time allows.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Vintage 1961 Chevrolet Car Dealership Christmas Poster

Here's another of the items I picked up at Hershey back in October. It was in among a big bunch of old Chevrolet dealership advertising posters that someone had preserved for 50 years. It's big - but luckily I found a poster frame that would fit it. So while the finishing work in the basement is sucking up a lot of my free time, this is the one Christmas decoration we have up in the house.

I love the starburst ornaments, and the whole illustration just looks great. And isn't that headline cool? "So acceptable" is a phrase you would never see in an ad today, when absolutely everything is incredible, stupendous, amazing, or awesome.

Who do you think this ad was aimed at? In the early sixties, car dealerships almost exclusively targeted men as buyers. Do you think many men gave their sweethearts ice scrapers or mudflaps as gifts? Really?

I've always wanted an office fireplace...

I think you know how this story goes. There I was, minding my own business, just innocently enjoying some retro renovation goodies on Flickr. That's when I saw it. It's all Flickr member Averyl's fault. Really.

"Vintage 60s Toymaster Electric Fireplace With Chimney Card Holder" the Flickr title said. WHOAAAAA, that is cool! Maybe I'll just glance at eBay and see if there are any of these vintage cardboard fireplaces for sale. Hmmmmmm. MMMMMMMMM. There's one, mint in box. Well maybe I'll just toss out a bid. MMMMMMMMMMMM! Yep. That's how it always starts...

Just some innocent photo browsing, then next thing you know, there's an awesome fireplace addition in my office cubicle.

Now I've got the ginchiest Christmas cubicle on my block.

 It's a good thing there aren't any cardboard retro pink bathrooms out there or I'd really be in trouble. Hmmm. Maybe I'll just go do an eBay search - what harm could it do??

Merry Christmas! Whajaget?

I got a space rifle,

and an Aurora Thunderjet slot car set, and Mom and Dad got a new Polaroid camera....

Well, that was a few years ago, but it was still a great Christmas!

If I could reclaim one thing from this photo from 1967, it would be, the hair on the top of my head!  But that slot car set comes in a close second.

This year was good, I got some wood chisels, they'll be good for detail work on the tiki stump carving project, and the family got a Mac Mini, which I'm using right now for this post.

I hope everyone is having a good last week of 2010.  I see this blog has surpassed the 100 follower mark, and for that I'm also thankful!  I'm plotting another giveaway, watch for that announcement in the coming days.

Merry Christmas!

Vintage color wheel lamp just right for the aluminum tree!

I mentioned in my post setting up our aluminum Christmas tree that I had a crappy plastic reproduction of the 4-color light wheel that shines on the tree.  Well, bloggers are the best!  Midcenturymadam contacted me and offered me a vintage wheel still in the box!!!  The day it arrived I had it out of the box and plugged in, in front of the tree where it belongs.

The vintage lamp - notice the star in the center, great detail!

The quality of the old versus the new is surprising.  The new is all plastic, the old, steel.  The new lacks any mid century detail.  And it broke, so I had to fix it last year before I could even  use it for the first time.

The old has the speckled paint on the base of the lamp, and there's even a 4-point atomic star that fits under the wing nut to hold the 4 piece color wheel to the lamp.

 Even the box is cool!

A big thanks to Jamie for setting me up.  Now if only someone had an extra vintage aluminum tree they could offer to her.  Anyone? Anyone?

Who knew? Fruit cocktail eggnog pie?

When I bought our aluminum Christmas tree a few years ago, in the box I found this small 3"x5" Pensupreme Dairy Products giveaway.  It's a tri-fold card, and the front has a very mid century graphical appearance, don't you think?  I love to find old graphics like this.  It's the kind of thing that typically got trashed, except, since there's a recipe involved, maybe some of you have seen this in someone's old recipe box.

Pensupreme was, and still is, a dairy in Lancaster, Pa.

Inside, there's a recipe for Fruit Cocktail Eggnog Pie, a tradition on everybody's holiday menu, I'm sure!

Now I don't intend to try this, I've never cared for eggnog to begin with, but I think this is something for fellow blogger RetroRuth over at No Pattern Required.  She's always experimenting on her husband - so here's a shout out, have you tried this one yet, RetroRuth?

The tree is up!

I love our aluminum tree!  It's just our second year with it, and it's a lot easier to set up than dragging a live tree into the house.  Is there such a thing as an aluminum tree traditionalist?  If so, count the Uncle in that category.  I do have a color wheel, not in the picture, but it's one of those plastic reproduction all over ebay this time of year.  I bought it and it broke almost immediately.  I had to tear the insides out and replace a spring that looks kinda like the spring in a ballpoint pen.  It works OK, but I'm watching for a better-quality aluminum color wheel.  Maybe I'll find one cheap after the holidays.

I found some sputnik ornaments I overlooked last year, and now I have enough to populate a small 2-foot tree I'll be setting up in my work cubicle this week.