Here is another fun vintage birthday card from my dad’s collection.
Another adorable 5th birthday card. This one is actually “mechanical” in that if you move a little paper handle on the side of the card, the boy, girl and elephant’s head go up and down. So cute!
Here are two vintage whiskey bottles from my grandfather that now have a place of honor on top of our fridge.
These are James Beam Distilling Company bottles made by Genuine Regal China. They made a ton of them from about 1960-1980 (drink that whiskey, America!), but because of the many different types of bottles, they are still highly collectible. And if you want to start your own collection, there is no better time than now. Since they overproduced a lot of these bottles, prices have actually gone DOWN over the years, and they are priced anywhere from about $10-20 a bottle. You can usually find them at the usual suspects, including Ebay.
The dog bottle is cute, but I love the swordfish. It matches my pink and blue kitchen exactly!
There is so much to learn about Mid-Century style. Every day I head over to Retro Renovation, read one of Pam’s posts and think, “I didn’t know that.” Then I go to the local thrift store and I see a cool glass or a piece of furniture and I think, “Wow, that’s new.”
And now, something else that blows my mind. Vintage melamine panels for the wall.
For those of you who, like me, are just discovering the joys of melamine and melamac, here is an ad for baked melamine tongue-and-groove panels for the walls. I didn’t know you could put melamine on the walls. I always thought veneers were either wood or a resin type plastic, but here I am learning something new. I wonder what colors the old Marlite used to come in? If they would have had pink, I would have been all over it.
If you are interested, Marlite planks are still avaliable today.
And for those of you who are old hands at this and are rolling your eyes, bear with me. I’m new.
Filed under 1950s, Ideas, Renovation, Vintage
I think I have mentioned before that my grandfather was a total packrat. He kept everything; receipts, letters, bills, multiple copies of photos from his business and tons and tons of greeting cards.
My father was so disgusted when we first started cleaning out my grandfather’s house that he pitched out a lot of cards before even packing up the truck to move my grandmother to Wisconsin. Then he lost steam, and the rest of the cards were packed away in a shed on my parent’s property for me to find years later. 
This cute little guy is from my Dad’s 5th birthday in 1955. I love the spotted blue collar around Leo. Cute! 
Ok – Last post on Tawas City, I promise! I just wanted to add the pictures of some of their vintage downtown, because I thought it was really cute.
This guy is obviously from Marion’s Ice Cream Parlor. One of many vintage ice cream places in town, Marion’s was unique because there was actually a map on the outside, explaining that there was only one way to enter and walk through and get served. 
Here is the local jewe
ler.
And, of course, the local bar. Check out my Flickr account for more photos!
The trip to Tawas City Hubs and I took last Friday was a great little road trip. We found great new places to shop and a cute little lakeside town to visit that was less than an hour away from our house. One of the great things about living in Michigan (and yes, there are many great things!) is the abundance of old-fashioned “lakeside resort” type towns, complete with cabin rentals, seasonal gift shops and the required three ice cream parlors.
But the greatest thing about Tawas City was the three resale shops we found outside of town. CC’s Closet Resale, Fabulous Finds of Tawas, and Mr. Thrifty were all very nice resale shops owned by the same couple. I know, because we met the wife in Fabulous Finds, and she was very nice. CC’s Closet and Fabulous Finds had great stock in them, I am assured it is ever-changing, and priced to move. While not dirt cheap, the prices were reasonable for good merchandise. They had some vintage Fiesta and Pyrex at well below the prices normally asked at antique stores and some well-priced furniture as well. But the greatest was Mr. Thrifty, which had an additional 25% off resale prices. Mr. Thrifty is basically an estate liquidation center, and it was H-E-A-V-E-N. Loved it! I got a Harlequin serving bowl for $3.00. Pretty sweet!
Here are some of the great things at these three thrift stores:
Great vintage lamp at Fabulous Finds. Not sure if I have ever seen anything like it before! I got really excited when I saw it, and then Hubs pointed out that it kind of looked like Beetlejuice. He is right, but I just thought the striped body was such a neat concept. It was $35, which I consider pretty reasonable. 
Here is another great find – a Youngstown Cabinet at CC’s Closet, complete with sink and faucet! I love the boomerang handles.
A very cool red ceramic topped table at Fabulous Finds with an interesting design on the top. Very good condition!
A vintage stove at Mr. Thrifty. Didn’t have a price on it yet, but I thought it was very cool.
And last, but not least, 
a vintage pink sink Mr. Thrifty had in the public restroom. Hubs came out of the restroom all excited and asked for the camera…I was a little scared of what the picture might be of, and was very relieved to see the vintage sink… 🙂
Here is the second round of thrifted items from my recent thrifting trip. I am really excited about these, but the upcoming posts are going to be great too! Hubs and I drove to Tawas City in MI yesterday and saw some great stuff. Of course, I took lots of pictures!
But back to the stuff at hand. Here is the second half of my thrift:
A pretty good hall, if I do say so myself. The wrinkled piece of gingham under my treasures is actually a treasure itself – a little half apron with white ric-rac trim. So cute! My mom is having an apron pattern giveaway on her blog, and I am seriously thinking about entering this. She hasn’t had many entries, so maybe I would win. 🙂 That is probably against the rules somewhere, but who cares?
The red bowl is a super cute melamine bowl, and it has black speckles in it. I originally bought it to resell, but I am totally keeping it. It has the most enchanting mark on the bottom, and it was made in Freedonia, WI. Since I am originally from Wisconsin, that pretty much sealed the deal for me.
Isn’t that the best? I wonder if it is a Christmas bowl, or if Holiday was just the name of the line. Well, time to do some research!
I also picked up these four adorable glass bowls. They seemed to have some gold leaves on them in addition to the persimmon and aqua flowers, but most of the gold is worn off. I still thought they were charming, so I bought them. Unfortunatly, I noticed three flea-bite chips in one of them when I took a better look at home. Drat! Ah well, such is thrifting.
The last item is this rectangular blue tablecloth with white flowers embroidered in it. I think it is great, but also the most expensive item I bought at $3.50. But it was so nice, and different from the other embroidered tableclothes I own, just for the fact it is blue and not white.
So, there is the total haul, and I spent less than $12 for all of it; today’s and yesterday’s. Pretty good! And come back tomorrow for more vintage 1950’s Michigan!
This is a great vintage Formica Ad that I found in the issue of Popular Science that has been giving the instructions for the Mid-Century Showplace Home. The smeared quality of the picture isn’t my fault, I swear! It is printed like that in the magazine, which is too bad. I think it is a great ad – the green bathroom and the reference to the helpless husband!
Filed under 1950s, Ideas, Renovation, Vintage, Vintage Houses
Welcome guests into your home the 1950’s way with this great entryway divider!
Another great idea from the Make Your Home a Show Place issue of Popular Science! Stay tuned for more great ideas, such the best garden shed EVER, telephone corners and even furniture!
My grandfather was a photographer for the Associated Press, and he was good at his job. Consequently, because he was good at it and he loved it, he was called upon to photograph tons of occasions other than newspaper news. Much of the time he would photograph weddings, birthdays and church functions. And he was a hoarder, so he kept everything! Because of this I have scads and scads of boxes filled with vintage photos.
The photos are an absolute joy to look through. Partly because of his skill and my pride at having an artistic grandpa, but also because I love vintage! The clothes, the hair, the food, the houses. All of it fascinates me. So I have picked out some great shots for you, starting with this angry looking baby. 
That baby looks pretty ticked off, even with all that stuff! But did you check out the curtains in the background?
Love them! I wish I could get my hands on some of that fabric right now….
Filed under 1950s, Ideas, Vintage Houses
No Pattern Required 