Vintage China - Collecting -- Serving

I love vintage china. Even more, I love mixing and matching vintage china. Just pick a color pallate, maybe all blues and greens. Or white china with florals. Or china with roses. No matter how you do it you can mix and match vintage china for a dinner party and what fun. Give a buffet party and let everyone use a different china plate. You just can't go wrong with vintage china. Oh, and one of the best things, you can pick it up for a song at some of the Goodwills. Or you can check my Etsy on the right and see if I have what you might want.

Sheffield pattern Salt Shaker.
Dresdania Pattern Bowl.

Crestwood Pattern #1071 Bowl. -- My personal favorite. Like the Eames styling of the bowl.

Easy Fountain Bubbler for Front Porch

One metal pail.

Some Rocks

One very cheap fountain pump.

Sink in ground, plug in and enjoy.

This is right by my walkway to my front door. It produces the most wonderful bubbling sound and does drowned out a bit of the traffic noise. Easy to make, fun to enjoy.

Easy Gardening -- Alyssum

I always forget to water my plants in pots. So this season I got smart and planted nothing but Alyssum. It trails over the pots and looks great. However, I think next year I need to replace this faded green pot. Oh - well. What is your easy gardening secret?

Great White Interiors - Diane Keaton's House

I am preparing to repaint our 1947 adobe style home here in the beautiful Southwest. I really want to go with a stark white. It has cove ceilings and heavily textured walls, that really soak up the paint. I did a test in the small living room up front and loved it. That made me think of other stark white interiors and I remembered Diane Keaton's house that was featured in Architectural Digest. I believe it is currently on the market. I am sure it is out of my price range. Yep, I read it is listed for $11.9 million, (maybe correct -- maybe not) but, definitely out of my price range.

Halloween Decorations

Just got an email from Grandin Road - http://www.grandinroad.com. They were advertising their Halloween Decorations in July. They had some great prices. So it got me thinking about Halloween, yes, Halloween in July. If I wanted to make or add to my decorations now could be a great time. Especially if I am making them, I might actually get them done in time. Now......what do I want to make?

All photos from Grandin Road.

Frozen Swirl Margaritas

Both great margarita pics found on Flickr.

Having lived in Austin, Texas many years ago the hubs and I were reminiscing over Chuy's fun and tasty Swirl Margaritas.

Great with or without alcohol. Two ways to make them.

1 - Make a batch each of traditional and strawberry margaritas frozen in a blender, pour half of each in a glass and enjoy. This takes a little practice to keep them from blending when you pour.

2 - Make a standard non frozen batch each of traditional and strawberry margaritas then put in a plastic shallow pan about 3" deep. Put in freezer, alcohol will not allow for a total freeze. Then when ready scoop out with an ice cream scoop and put one scoop of each in glass and enjoy.

As always please drink responsibly. Never drink and drive.

Seven Layer Dip and Margaritas

Friday Retro Fun. We normally have Margaritas and Nachos on our back patio on Fridays. However, this friday after watching a rerun of Swingtown and hearing about seven layer dip, I decided that would be more fun the nachos.

So for my Margaritas, I use Baja Bob's low carb mix, or Jose Cuervo's mix, and good old Patron, with a squeeze of orange.

Seven layer dip:

I am going with smashed and refried black beans, hamburger meat, mixed cheeses, sour cream, guacamole, scallions, and pico.

YUM!!!

What are you doing this Friday?

Scrambled Eggs - New Joe's Special

This dish is from my husband's father. It is a fun retro dish. He called it the New Joe's Special. It is made with scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, or chopped potatoes, hamburger meat, spinach and a dash of vinegar.

This is my own version that I call the Vegetarian New Joe's Special and it has, scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, spinach, and green chile.

This is great for any time of the day you can add sausage, chicken, leftover roast, use your imagination.

Luminarias as Summer Decorations

Simple to make luminarias.

Luminarias at Christmas in Albuquerque, NM, Old Town.

Luminarias, not just for Christmas. Those cute little brown bags with candles can be used as a summer decoration for a porch or patio. Put them out to guide your guests, and as a great source of ambient lighting. Maybe as a table scape decoration. They are easy to make and fun to use.

Bags -- lunch kind or called the good old fashioned #4. Brown or white. Brown is traditional.

Sand for bottom of bag and candle drip.

Luminaria candles, which are cathedral candles. If you can't find them, tea lights work great and can easily be thrown away bag and all.

Now traditional luminarias here in the southwest are double folded. Some people choose to use a decorative shear and cut the tops. Totally up to you. The double folding gives them some top stability.

So, light up your summer with some luminarias.

New Look for Old Chairs

Great look for two old chairs. A little black paint and some decoupage and they are ready to go again. You could also go with just a solid color paint. Chair finds from Fliker.

Fried Jalapenos -- Fried Pickles

Fried Jalapenos

Fried Jalapenos.

Fried Pickle Spears.

Fried Pickle Chips.

Fried Pickle Chips.

Awhile back I fried Jalapenos and Pickles and they were marvelous. Since my jalapeno plants are producing an abundance of jalapenos, I may have to fry again.

Take fresh jalapenos, and slice and pat dry.

Take 1 jar of sliced or speared pickles and pat dry.

1 Cup Flour

1 Cup Beer -- anykind will do

2 eggs

Emeril's seasoning 1 tablespoon -- or season salt, pepper, paprika

Oil

After jalapenos and pickles are patted dry, heat oil then dredge pickles and jalapenos and fry until golden brown. Serve with ranch dressing and your favorite beverage and lots of friends. Enjoy.

I fried mine outside on my side burner on my grill with a deep good old fashioned dutch oven.

Red -- Rocking Chairs - Vintage to Now

After picking the 2nd ripe tomato from my garden it got me to thinking about Red. I love red. I have red leather chairs in my family room, mixed with a brown leather sofa. Red can be new. Red can be vintage. I am getting ready to re-do a spindle rocking chair that we bought when our daughter, who is now in college was born. It was originally white, and I was thinking black, but now after posting the pictures below, I am thinking Red.....will post pics when done.

Red spindle rocking chair. I may do mine red....

Red Eames Molded Plastic Rocking Chair. I truly covet Eames furniture.

Red Adirondack rocking chair. I didn't know you could get Adirondack rocking chairs.

A Traditional Red Double rocking chair. Great for a porch, portal, lani, depends on where you live.

Red Rocking Chairs.

1960's Mad Men - Interiors - Colors

In keeping with the Gimlet, Mad Men!! Season 3 set to start in August. What a great show.


Venitian Blinds, the desk the furniture, the beige with blue/green carpet. All that is back.

Love the blue/green sofa. Using that color in my bedroom. That color is everywhere.

What a great strong statement. The mid level walls with the high gloss white/cream trim. Very current even for today. So what goes around really does come back around.

Love the beige, the brown and navy of his clothing, very popular in interiors today.

Can't finish without mentioning the IBM Selectric.....need I say more?

Retro Summer Cocktail - The Gimlet - 1960's

I love retro cocktails, and let's face it we are seeing the 60's and 70's everywhere lately, so the Gimlet keeps popping up. Watching an episode of Mad Men, the women were drinking Gimlets. They were also drinking Gimlets on the now cancelled Swingtown. Then when I started reading Julie & Julia, Julie drinks a Gimlet. So I decided to look up the drink for this Wacky Wednesday. I like Gin and it is made with either Gin or Vodka.

Gimlet

1 1/2 oz Gin or Vodka

1/2 oz Rose's Lime Juice

Garnish with Lime

Put into a shaker with ice and strain into a Martini Glass, or serve over ice in a Highball. Add a splash of Sprite or Soda for a Fizzy Gimlet.

Now do I try it original with Gin or with Vodka?

Please Drink Responsibly. Do Not Drink And Drive!!

Growing Grape Vines

Here in the southwest grape vines are popular. This year we added to ours and are growing just plain table grapes. We do have a few wine grapes. They are great grown up a fence as we have done. Next time you are at the garden store, check out some grapes.