A Drastic Dish Change Situation!

As you will recall,

Yesterday I found a pair of little pink and blue flower shaped candle holders. They go to a set of dishes that, until today have always been referred to as "Your grandmothers ugly dishes in the garage."  Today after a long shouting match with my dad, I decided I was going to pull the "ugly dishes" down and see what they were. So I go the the garage....

 

Now this place is much like the 1957 trailer full of storage/ cast offs. So I straddle my dads 1940 Ford tractor and climb up into the eves...   

 

The first thing I trip over, is this MINT in box Borg scale in yellow. I knew this was a good sign, I dont know how many times iv said it but  My grand parents lived through through depression and when times got good again THEY KEPT EVERYTHING! Even the boxes all the stuff was packed in were cool! So I kept digging in search of these dishes...and BOY did I find them!

Bottom step: 1 12 inch serving platter, 6 matching silver leaf tumblers.

Middle Step : 8 salad plates, 6 cereal bowls, 14 dinner plates, and 2 roll dishes.

Top Step:  Butter dish with cover, salt and pepper shakers, Creamer and Sugar, and the 2 candle sticks I got.

This it the "ugly" design on the plates (I think its nice, VERY 50's)  I also would like to ad, these Were my grand parents wedding plates in 1955! I can just see my grandma with her mother in the "Piggly-wiggly"  picking these out days before the at home wedding.

  The Salt shaker is cracked, but im hoping since these dishes were mass produced it wont be hard to get another set. (I also wanna see if I can find  8 more of the tumblers)

Im SOOOOO happy with this set, and im pretty sure im going to swap these out with the 40-some odd mixed dishes I have at the C.H.&R. (the fact this set has bowls is a GOD SEND!) Haha. I also think my prized Frankoma is going to be contained to one glass cabinet, and this new stuff will dominate the other three.

As I kept emptying boxes to find more pieces of the flower pattern I stumbled across these VERY 40'S dishes.  With an Ivy pattern, But alas there was only 2 cracked dinner plates, 8 tea cups, and 8 matching saucers for said tea cups.

I would LOVE to have a set of 8 in this pattern... but provably never will due to whats on the back...

Oh well, I can have you over to tea... but you cant stay for dinner lest we change patterns! 

In yet another box, I found these 2 light blue plates that I like and may throw in as "side dish plates"

Then in the very last box I lifted form the dust, I discovered these two wonderful things, (Micheal, I know your reading this, So if your standing up you better sit) look at the cafree!

Then in the very bottom of the box these appeared to say "Mick, we've been in there since 1956 save us"

Not one but two of these panels  with red pink and green in them BOTH 12 feet long  and 16 wide! I wonder if I can use these at the C.H.&R maybe in the Turquoise room?  Who knows!

-Mick-

"My Day"- By Mickey Jordan... (Move over Eleanor Roosevelt!)

Oh my dear readers, what a day it was!

 My friend Pam and I started at an estate sale auction, we soon found out we prefer estate SALES v.s. auctions... from what I gathered the house was built in 1919 by a man who was rich in the Oil & Gas industry. A lot of the houses original features were still there (I didn't get many great pictures because every time I raised my camera they thought I was bidding) I tried to bid on a few pieces of McCoy pottery but it got to rich for my blood. After Pam's Item of interest was sold (and not to her) We explored the rest of the house and admired all of its detail and features.

Every room had push button switches with mother of pearl on them.

 

This Craftsman door might look familiar, Manily because its the Craftsman window at the Casablanca!

 

Leaving the auction empty handed  we headed down town to our favorite thrift shops and antique stores!  Now you must understand, When Pam and I are together we have a bad habit of emptying our wallets so fast it would make your head spin. Were both bargain shoppers who will pick up any and everything. So We asked our Frugal Friend Luzmila to come along on our thrifting Adventure.

 

(Pam's on the left, Luz is on the right)

 

Much like this panther our trio stalked the shelf's leaving no item untouched or turned over, I was looking for nick-nack's/ giveaway items, Pam was in search of vintage cameras, and Luz was making sure we didnt spend every dime we had! Haha. I saw manythings I liked but just wasn't convinced I needed like this oh-so-cool set of 'rabbit ears' $19 (I will provably have these before 2011 lol) 

 

I also found this cool Flamingo Spoon Rest but for $12 that was a little steep.

 

I couldn't help myself I had to take one of these pictures!  That mirrior was $37 super old and super cool... but not for me.

 

(Pam in action, hunting her cameras!)

 

We went to a few more thrift stores and then to my FAVORITE Antique store in Wichita Falls "The Antique Wood"  run by Mrs. Glinda Tate, the quality of her merchandise is excellent and her prices reflect that.  I love going in her shop to see whats new, as well as chat about all things vintage!  I found these Fire King mugs and thought of Retro Keith, they are $3 apiece... (I think you should come and get them!) If you dont I will, I love the colors!

 

After we hit the major thrifting spots down town we enjoyed Chinese food for lunch and then called it a day! Now I will reveal what I did end up buying!

 

The 1950's Stocking I snagged at the Antique Wood for $10, the white Frankoma  Ash tray I got at a placed simply called "The Thrift Store"  for $3 (I collect Frankoma, its white and will look great on the boomerang table in the den). At my favorite thrift store "Value Village" I found the two pink and blue flowers are candle holders that match a set of 1950's wedding dishes my grand ma gave me $0.66 for each.  I also got this awesome napkin holder from Las Vegas! 

(Front)

 

(Back)

 

One of the BEST finds of the day was this record. its An Andrew Sisters 78 with Rhumboogie on the "B" side. (This is fantastic because Ruhmboogie was ont of the Sisters' first songs before 'Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy' shot them to icon status in the 40's)

 

I snagged it for $2.50! 

Then as If this day couldn't get any better, I got to make the first trip in a month to the Casablanca it was so nice and sunny today. The napkin holder found a place in the kitchen window...

 

I also got to put the green canisters out! 

 

Sorry Catherine, but green beats pink!

After that, I cleaned a little around the Casablanca and started to get excited about the fact as of monday there will be 15 days until the C.H.&R. opens for the 2010 Social Season!

In short 'my day, was a glorious day'. : )

-Mick-

Baby its Cold Outside...

I mean SERIOUSLY.... Texas is paying for its freakishly warm Novermber/Dec.

 Midcentury Madam has a post out right now called "Light My Fire" about free standing and modern yet retro looking fireplaces, Please dont be mad dear readers, but iv been holding out on you...


                                                    

About a month ago my friend Ellen gave me her old fire place when she re-did the den in her house. I think its a 1959, but it could be early 60's.  Before you leave comments of outrage, I'v been meaning to get this posted but something always comes up! She gave me the fireplace as shown and the smoke stack because she "wanted it to go to a good home, and knew it would be loved at the Casablanca!"  Its pristine she has  taken excllent care of it over the years.  Its SUPER atomic for my taste, (Almost like something the Jetsons would ahve had) however im CrAzY about it! Like I explained to Jamie it would look FANTASTIC in the turquoise room,  unfortunatly to do this id have to get rid of the 1953 RCA Tv set....(and lets face it i'd rather freeze to death watching I Love Lucy, than be warm staring a a blank wall)  So right now this beauty sits in storage waiting for me to find a place for it!

-Mick-

NEWS FLASH! LONG LOST MISSING PIECE FOUND!

Oh my dear readers...


A few posts ago I shared with you my grandmother's gift of her 1946 Hamilton Beach mixer. (That I covet) Well there's a funny little metal ring on top of the mixer that my Grandma said "Was for a juicer part, It was made of glass and matched the bowls. Your great grandmother used it but when she 'went' it disappeared." So since then I have been searching ebay with out much luck to find a replacement. Seems like everyone has the mixer or the beaters but no bowls or juicers.

* * *

Flash forward to today, I'm working on spanish and wondering what i'm going to post about. Well my family has this trailer house from 1957 that i'm sure was beautiful back in the day, but over the years its just fallen apart to the point its not live able or savable.

Well I go in and start snapping pictures of all the things that are still there along with my dads castoffs.
I will confess I havent helped this place out any... I have pillaged light fixtures and cabinet pulls....

I found a Montgomery Ward waffle maker that the cloth cord was still good and could be cleaned up, along with a purple tinted glass door knob.

There's this closet in one of the bedrooms that has a bunch of broken dishes in it that are my Grandma's but she just never had the heart to throw away. (This is where I found my very first chartreuse green pyrex bowl) I stand on a chair and start pulling broken things out of the top shelf of the closet, its when I fall off the chair and catch myself on the closet door I notice a small cardboard box with what looks to be a white glass bowl in it...

I pull it over to me and as I lift it out of the box and I see its funny shape it hits me like a TON of bricks "OH MY GOD THAT'S THE JUICER!~" also in the box? THE ACTUAL JUICER ATTACHMENT and FUNNEL!

I left the waffle maker there for another day! Rushed back over to the house all but SKIPPING!  If I was a patient person I would ahve waited until this weekend to actually put the piece on, and take a picture of the whole ensemble... but then again, who likes waiting?!

-Mick-

Hello, Retro Gods? Lamp Department Please...

Today was just to amazing!


Wednesday is the day I take my grandma to the beauty shop. Seriously If she wasn't in the chair by 1:00 sharp the world as we know it would come to a grinding halt....

Well after we visit with our FAVORITE hair dresser Deanna. we go out to wal-mart to get granny some groceries. Theres a Goodwill store next to the wal-mart and I asked grandma if I could stop in there "What are you looking for?" she asks "A Tv lamp" I say "either a black panther one or the drama faces, but they provably wont have anything." My grandma replies "You never know...."

*  *  *

So I walk into Goodwill and the Retro Gods give me a sing i'm going to find something worth my trip, how Do i know this you ask? "Oh Mickey your So fine" is BLARING over the stores loud speaker...lets do this... I hunt up and down the isles thinking maybe they will gift me with a pyrex bowl, or perhaps some dishes or matching glasses, but nay it was not so. Just as I am about to leave empty handed I spot the top socket of a lamp that I thought was made form a wicker basket. but as I stepped closer, I saw pink black and gold and literally had to slam my mouth shut from emitting a squeal like that of a school girl!

B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L!!!!!!

I was just about to become sad because this lamp requires a clip on bulb when I remember this 2 sided picture one that I have. My grandmother bought it for me on a whim, and its a $56 lamp shade *GASP* I know... but it goes excellently with this lamp base! I'm going to have to get a light kit from Hobby Lobby and I will be going back to Goodwill to see if theres a mate by chance (I looked and looked but I don't think there is).

So thank you Thrift and Retro Gods! You saw my plight over the chalk ware lamp and brought a new 'light' into my life. (ok you can roll your eyes Now and snicker 'this is why you don have a girlfriend Mick') Haha.
Either way i'm happy!


-Mick-

Just a Little fixin' .... and THE GIVEAWAY WINNERS!

'Is all it needs'.....worlds have been turned on such words.

Sunday I received another call form the church, this time they had a side table they wanted to get rid of and I was happy to take it. It will most likely join the "filler" collection, (because i'm secretly hoping I can get my dad to make me a bedside table with hairpin legs.) I also stopped by the Goodwill today and got some neat stuff. A tin sifter with the "Foley" brand stamped on it $0.99 I'm pretty sure I have a "foley" tin pie plate at the Casablanca. The picture frame was $1.99 and I'm pretty sure i'm going to use it to put the "family" picture in at the Casablanca. Last I found this great little book, i'm not sure what it is exactly, but its got of nature prints that I think I can scan from the book by a "Gwen Frostie" (anyone know anything about her?) and turn them into invitations and such, it was my freebee for the day!

This Is my "Goodwill Buddy" Kristen H., together we keep the Goodwill Corp in bussiness!

This one is for Michael! I was tempted to buy it and send it to you, But then I thought "Thats dumb...that would be like someone from Texas going to Paris and sending back a cowboy hat" so I just took a picture. So Michael the Truman Library huh, pretty sanzzy!

Hmmmm seems like Im forgetting something.. OH YES I do beleive we have a giveaway to take care of!

AND THE WINNER OF THE CANDY DISH IS... " RETRO KEITH" !

Our two runners up will recive a postcard from the World Famous Casasablanca Hotel & Resort

Runner Up #1 ... Nick at Decades a go-go!

Runner up #2... Von lipi~!

If you kind people will email me you snail mail adresses I will get your pizes on there way!

Thanks to all who participated!

-Mick-

SON OF A ....

Today, I should have just stayed in bed

So this first week Of rehearsals has been messing with my sleep, and I think today I just got the hang of it all! Lets us begin at the begging for Julie Andrews tells us "that's a very good place to start."


7:45 My dad comes into my room with a tiny piece of paper and says "call this guy he's got chairs". Now as you may or may not know, I collect metal lawn chairs for the Casablanca. So I call they guy and he says "there's 4 of them and i'll take $10 apiece" and I ask "has anyone else made you an offer?" he says "One lady wants to look at them but no.." I say over the phone" I will buy them, I'll be there in 20 minuets cash in hand, please hold them for me" he says "Ok". My dad and I jump in the truck and away we go to a 'risky' part of town we finally find the guys house and there they are. 4 white "candy bouncer" model lawn chairs on this trailer, I jump out of the truck and this older man walks up to me and says "are you here for the chairs?" and I said "Yes" he says "Sorry I just sold them to that lady" .... I wanted to say...

"WHAT IN THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?! WHAT PART OF " I WILL BUY THEM, CASH IN HAND" DID YOU MISS?!"

Needless to say I was LIVID. Ya know, normal i'm a real nice person... BUT I just let this guy have it! I told him "How shitty that was to say "ok i'll hold them" and then sell them to someone else" he says "well maybe if you look in my store you can find something.." And I say "NO, AND AS FAR AS YOUR STORE GOES I'M GOING TO TELL ALL MY FRIENDS AT THE HERITAGE SOCIETY NOT TO COME HERE."

And that was strike one....

Strike two came later in the day, I have been trying to sell some of my unwanted filler pieces, (nothing that was in the pictures) among these things is a desk and an "Iron cross lamp". Well a couple comes to look at the desk, and the misses wants to see this cross lamp, and as she reaches to get it off a table she in turn nocks my 2nd favorite chalkware lamp off the table smashing it into pieces "she looks down, looks at the cross lamp and says "I don't want it, sorry" leaves.... UGH ...


But then I went to Jesus Christ Superstar practice, sang danced and got into a better mood! :) I go back to my storage place to see if I cant glue the chalkware lamp back together, and then I notice a fiberglass 50's lamp shade that iv had for a while, that was far to big for any table lamp until now.

Carmen/Betty/Lola got a new shade and I think its rather fitting, unile that stained victorian not period shade it came with!

Before:

After:

I really like the fiberglass shade!

I also had time today to think about what projects i'd like to do at the C.H.&R.! As weird as it is I really havent paid all the much care to the front of the 'World Famous'  Casablanca Hotel.  Since growing things in the front yard is futile  I think my plan will be some little details (click on it picture to see better)

Any other ideas?  I think im going to hold a 'sign making contest' on here... last summer a feirce rain storm ripped the original "Casablanca Hotel" sign off the roof (where the red square is) and I havent had time to think abotu making another. So myabe you cleaver crafty people could think up a simple font or something we could use?! Give it a shot!

Dont forget the 'giveaway' ends tommrow! So be sure to comment on "The Hunter Sleeps Tonight"  and If you want an extra shot post somthing abotu the giveaway on your blog!


-Mick-

"You know he's up to something..."

When you see this furniture in pictures.

Today however i'm just showing you what is referred to as the "filler furniture" of the Casablanca. These are great pieces aren't they? the 2 orange chairs my grandmother gave me, and she recovered them in the 50's. The sink I got for free from a sale about a month ago. its dates August 23, 1950, mint green and will hopefully get used in the new bathroom. That black trunk I hauled out of a dumpster, purely because iv always wanted one : ) It was in bad shape but after some glue and a fresh coat of black paint good as new! (it has been a bedside table, a coffee table, and a dresser) the smaller of the two little tables has a twin that is 'filling in' at the C.H.&R. until I find one I like better they are stamped 1956 on the bottom and I got the pair for $5. Last but not least is the little blonde "fountain table" the only markings on it, are the sellers chalk and when it was new it retailed for $18.95 ! I inherited it when I was 10. (one of the VERY first pieces my parents let me keep, because it matched a bedroom set I have.)

Whats sad about these peices is they are "filler" because they dont really fit anywhere. Sure they're great but they just dont work out. So you usually see this stuff when im "hopin' and dreaming" of other stuff (example the 2 orange chairs filled in until I could purchase my black couch. Do you have misfit pieces like this?

Also dont forget about the giveaway! Im gonna let it run until Sunday night at 10:00 P.M. then we'll see who wins, so dont forget to comment on "The Hunter Sings Tonight" post !

-Mick-

The Hunter Sings Tonight

Last night, I had a dream.


A dream that I was hauling one of my friends into Goodwill by her wrist and dragging her to the 3rd row shelf's for some reason. ~END~

Well I get up this morning, and before the alarm goes off im already singing "Simon Zealotes" in my head (if only I could sound as good as I do in my mind, haha!) get dressed go to school, sit through Spanish, test in Psychology, then I see my friend I saw in the dream... we walk to Goodwill and I drag her to the 3rd row and there sitting fine and pretty is the "hunters bounty".

First I find this set of 4 counter containers, in green with the little gold stems on them. I think they may be to 60's for my 1940's green kitchen, but well see.

I was TOTALLY satisfied and thanked the 'Retro Gods', but then it was "green sticker day" so I could pick another item... I search and search and my friend is hunting too. (I was hoping there would be a Jesus Christ Superstar Album in the records...but no) after search a good 15 min, the wooden leaf bowl becomes my second green "free-be" and as i'm leaning down to get it, I am met eye to eye with this small Pyrex carafe. I snatch it, flip it over $0.99 MINE!

So tonight the lion sleeps, and the hunter sings at rehearsal!

In other news, 75, 76 followers! I think you know what this means...



TIME FOR A GIVEAWAY!

All you have to do is leave a comment on this post and your enetered to win a 2 teired Candy dish made from records! If your not a follower you should provably click "follow" and start your journey to being a better and happier person :) Good Luck!
 
-Mick-

Two Days Later He's Got the Strength To Blog Again!

He also has the time!


So my dearest readers...exciting news!

Sunday I was asked to join a production of "Jesus Christ Superstar" at our local Backdoor Theater. So sunday night I get to the theater to try out for the chorus (i'm not the greatest singer) and upon arriving I realize one minor detail that I overlooked... I have NO IDEA HOW TO READ MUSIC!!! However it wasn't a problem, one of my friends who I was in theater with in high school is playing the role of 'Judas' and he helped me get the hang of it. Here I am, the only people I know being my friend, and the lady who asked me to come and we begin (they had been in production a week before sunday). Well I was hoping to hide out in the chorus; BUT the director in need of Apostles says "Oh Mickey, ...your so fine... your so fine you blow my mind, hey Mickey. Would you want to sing the part of Simon?" I gave a big smile and reply "Maybe?!" to which the director says "The correct answer is yes, so you need to look over his part and be prepared to sing it". (fun fact: as of now 2 of the apostles are red heads!)
Heres the song, "Simon Zealotes" I come in "Christ what more do you need to convince you"


I have no idea why, but I was so nervous, and was really shy. This is gonna have to change! Haha I cant be quiet and sit at home forever! I'm really glad I get to be apart of this, Its so much fun and I hope i'm not over stepping my boundaries blogging about it. I also think its kind of fitting, of all the musicals/record albums/cd's I have never added Jesus Christ Superstar to the list and yet its the one I try out for! Haha.

Well i'm off to practice the songs and do some spanish!



-Mick-