Under a Blue Moon

Vintage kitchens

Flickr Favorites (click on link to see originals)

I haven't done a Flickr Favorites in a while. I've been in a vintage mood lately. Not only kitchens but fashion and makeup too. I don't see myself actually embracing a 30's, 40's or 50's look (I'm more an Ethel Mertz than the more glamourous Lucy Ricardo) but I do love the styles.

When you start searching on vintage anything you can get totally lost in an entire community of people that have embraced a particular era as a lifestyle. Really fascinating.

I can understand the appeal – everything just seem simpler and was valued more. Like my comment on Sunday about how disposible appliances are now. Back in the 40's or 50's if you broke your toaster, you fixed it. You didn't log onto Amazon and order another one and charge it to one of your many credit cards. If you wanted a car you saved your money until you could buy one. None of this no money down, 0% financing nonsense that goes on these days.

I didn't mean to go off on a tangent. I'm coveting that aqua bread box in the upper left-hand corner. And the Smeg refrigerator.

Monday’s Musings

Sunday rituals

Isn't the Fall time change the most delicious thing? I love having that extra hour in the morning, especially on a Sunday when the mornings can be kind of hectic.

I usually spend it doing laundry and getting ready to head down to my Dad's. If I want to miss the Tahoe traffic (weekend travelers heading back home) then I need to hit the road by Noon.

Lately we have added a calmer, more relaxed ritual to our Sunday mornings; Sunday breakfast. Initially we were thinking we would find a neighborhood restaurant, something casual, clean, friendly and that served great, inexpensive breakfasts. That's not too much to ask, is it?

Well we tried a few places and it just didn't quite measure up to the fantasy so we decided we would just make breakfast ourselves on Sundays. Put in a little more effort than our standard toast or bowl of cereal.

That waffle iron has been in Rick's life for more than 40 years – maybe close to 50. He grew up with it and when we moved in together his mother gave it to him. I can't tell you how many waffles he has made over the years.

Isn't it sad that most appliances are disposible these days? Forty years ago if your toaster or your waffle iron broke you would take it in to get repaired. Now you just toss it and buy a new one.

This morning's breaksfast was waffles with peach syrup and assorted breakfast meats.

I have to point out we didn't eat all that breakfast meat up there. I'm not sure what I was thinking when I started cooking it up.

This little ritual has turned out to be a nice way to end the weekend and start the new week.

Alas, poor Yorick!

Do you know that is one of the most misquoted lines from Shakespeare? It isn't "Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him well…" it is actually "Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him Horatio,….."

I love replanting my deck pots with this Fall combination of ornamental cabbages, Mums and whatever that dusty, sagey looking plant is.

We had our annual Halloween Party last week - if you haven't seen Nicki's pictures yet – go take a look. It was quite fun, as it is every year. One of us may have had a wee bit too much wine but I'm not going to point any fingers…

The party is always my big Halloween celebration since we never get any trick or treaters that want to come all the way down our country lane and brave our long, dark driveway. So I feel like Halloween is over. I have that feeling I get the day after Christmas when I cannot bear the sight of another holiday decoration. I'm over all the orange and the pumpkins and Halloween related stuff.

I do like my sparkly skull though. Yorick can hang out for another day or two. And we never get tired of the spooky black cat.

Old quilt – part II

How is that for dirty? Yuck.

Thank you for all the feedback and suggestions for the quilt. I have decided to repair rather than re-purpose.

In looking at the damage more closely I can see the biggest hole isn't actually missing any pieces like I originally thought. It has just come apart.

You can see the hole went through all three layers. The back of the quilt had a number of splits in the fabric and just wasn't salvageable. The batting was beyond disgusting. I carefully snipped all the ties (all eight billion of them) and then separated the top from the other layers.

The quilt didn't have a binding – the top and bottom pieces were just folded in and then straight stitched so it was a breeze to take it apart.

See – the hole isn't so bad after all. The edges of the quilt are another story. The fabric is splitting where it was folded under. I think I can just remove the outer most pieces and bind the edges when I get a new back and batting on. I might have to replace a few pieces, but not too many.

Meanwhile I'm still in the cleaning process. After I separated the top from the other layers I filled the tub up with warm water, Biz and Ivory Snow. The brown water is after 30 minutes of soaking. I didn't agitate it all – just let it sit there. I drained the tub and filled it with just plain water and let it soak for an hour. Then drained, filled it again with warm water and Biz and let it sit overnight. This morning I drained it and it's now soaking in just plain water (which has remained clear so far, thank goodness).

I think it will always be too delicate for use but it will be pretty folded at the bottom of a bed.

Edited to add: Any suggestions for quilting it? Or would hand-tying it be the way to go? I've never really cared for the look of tied quilts but that's just me.

Monday’s Musing

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