F-A-T-E!

Well readers,
Look at what I found Thursday afternoon!

IT'S A T.V. LAMP!  We had about 25 min before rehearsals for happy days began, so I decided to run down the block to my favorite thrift store  Value Village. Finding this lamp was just fate, because rather than going my usual pattern of strolling around the 1st floor of the store I went straight up stairs to where they keep the clocks and lamps, walked right to the middle of the isle and *BAM* right there in front of me was this little guy that has been nicknamed Bambi by Patricia and the other Casablanca girls.

As soon as I paid the great big sum of $4.45 for it, I ran back down to the theater and plugged it in! Sure enough it works!!!  This will be going to the Casablanca ASAP, I need to find away to have both the antenna and the T.V. lamp on top of the television set.

I AM WILLING TO TRADE THIS LAMP~!

For one of the T.V. lamps that looks like the drama faces of Comedy and tragedy! SO if anyone out there has one, or stumbles on one hehe I'll trade ya! one that looks like this...

But for now Bambi had a place in the Turquoise room of the Casablanca, that black white and grey is going to look GREAT in there!

Here's hoping you weekend is filled with lots of  vintage thrifty nifty finds!

-Mick-

The Casablanca Hash-brown Casserole

Since so many of you said you'd like to gobble up the hash brown casserole why not give it a try, here's our recipe!

What you will need:

1 family sized can of Cream of Chicken soup.

1 32oz bag of chunked hash browns. (found in the freezer section)

1/2 cup of chopped onions.

1 cup Sour cream.

1 pack of bacon bits. (optional)

1 bag of shredded cheese, and cheese will do. (I use American and Swiss)

 First, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
In a bowl, mix together the can of Cream of Chicken soup with the hash brown chunks adding a cup of sour cream, and half cup of  chopped onions.

Then, evenly spread the mix in a 13"x8" pan,  next layer the top with half the bag of cheese, sprinkle on the bacon bits, then add another layer of cheese using whats left in the bag.

Finally, Place in the oven and set time to 50-60 minuets, checking occasionally to make sure the top layer of cheese isn't burning (if it is reduce the heat).

Super easy to make, one of my favorite dishes because you can mix it, put it in the oven, and walk away! If you make this dish be sure to take pictures and blog about it!  I may end up sharing a few more Casablanca favorites before the season is over!

-Mick-

Michelle Comes To Visit!

Well Dear Readers,
This weekend the Casablanca was graced by friend Michelle!  She played the female lead in Pirates of Penzance this summer, (and not so long ago appeared as an extra on the show "Friday Night Lights" ) we have  become great friends. She's been away at school in Arkansas since summer ended and this weekend she managed to get back to us and come hang out!

(Patricia, Me, Caitlin, Michelle, Jenny)

Since she was back in town, we decided to celebrate her birthday early with a homemade birthday cake,

 (And with some Casablanca stove Magic...)

(Ta-Da!)

And for dinner one of my favorite crowd pleasers, a cheese, bacon, hash brown casserole!

(Mixin' and fixin')

(Before)

(After Baking!)

 

(And the end result, Michelle and her Cake!)

But of course, we couldn't have just let a birthday go quietly by at Mick's...

After dinner in the lounge, we settled into the Turquoise room for a movie 

 

Friend Jenny quickly fell in love with my thrifted blow mold ghost light, (Casper I like to call him)  Im so happy we've reached this weekend in October... because now you will slowly start to see Halloween decorations being put out.

Most of the guests left around 10 P.M., however Patricia and I encountered some car trouble and ended up spending the night. Sunday morning I got up and fixed the problem, but it was such a wonderful morning we decided to start putting up a few of  Halloween decorations!

(The Bottle Trees)

( One of many )

The bottle tree is based on the belief that the shiny, 

colored glass can attract and then trap evil spirits bottles can trap bad spirits at night, 

which are then destroyed in the next day's sunlight...

 They also lend a hand in creating a creepy atmosphere!  Trees like these are very common in the deep South,  I'v seen many examples of trees such as these from Louisiana, all a part of our "Victorian Halloween".

All in all just another fun filled weekend at the Casablanca-

-Mick-

Halloween At The Casablanca!

Every year we have at Halloween, the Casablanca hosts a costume party! This year is no different, but to tide you over here are a few candid photos from Halloween parties past...

(2007)

 (Halloween Party Guest 2008)

(Kitty Dexter looks thrilled doesn't he?! 2008)

(Party Guests 2009)

(I went as "Bob Hope-In "Road to Rio", hence the fruit filled lampshade hat!)

Some of the only pictures 2009 decorations I ALWAYS forget to take pictures before people start showing up and then after the party I just clean up and as soon as I'm done I think DARN IT!  So last year we made a Halloween video ....

 Each year we also try to have an overall theme for the party,
In 2006- the theme  was "Attack of the B-Grade movies"

we gather up as many black and white classics (Dracula, Phantom of the Opera 1925, The Mummy, The Wolfman...) to show on the drive-in we even had accompaniment to some of the silent pictures!

In 2007- our theme was "Zombie night" showing movies on the Drive-In such as...

 "Night of the Living Dead", "The Last Man on Earth" (the one with Vincent Price"), "28 days later"... We also decorated the house with items we might use during a zombie apocalypse haha! We actually boarded up some of the windows for this one!

2008- Theme - "The House on Haunted Hill"

(This was one of my favorite parties) Just like in the movie 8 guests were asked to the house on haunted hill (ok so I know the Casablanca sits on more of a slope, but work with me! ) With the promise of a bag of candy  reward if each guest could make it without sleeping dying in the night... Sooooo much fun!

2009- "Creature of the Black Lagoon" -In true 3D, Red & Blue glasses and all!  Here are a few of the party invitations...

"Like its said "You wont believe your eyes!" This cinematic event at the drive-in was a huge sucess and we've show several other 3D movies since.
2010- "A Very Victorian Halloween"

The Idea for this years Halloween theme came to me when I was recovering  from my surgery. Among the slew of movies I watched while I was confined to bed, resting, was Walt Disney's "Haunted Mansion".  The back story was set in 1885 during a Halloween Costume Ball, so this years decorations are loosely  based on Victorian  lore (I'll go more in depth about that in a future post).  But here's some rough sketches on what to look for!

("The Bottle Tree's")

("The Witches Den")

But the rest of the decorations stay a secret until Friday the 22 of Oct! Then you can read all about the Costume party that following Monday...

Hope all your haunts are happy ones!

-Mick-

"What are they going to do with a 57" width bed?"

Post title comes from the movie Pleasntville when a full sized bed causes quite a stir in this pleasant little town.

 If you remember dear readers, I set out to make 2 twin beds with no foot boards with two $4 cabinet doors I found at Habitat for Humanity and was going to hunt for the bed frames to hold the beds up...

 Well that was 7 months ago... and the box springs and mattresses are STILL resting on the floor. My good friend Mrs. Tate (who owns the antique store) put up for sale a pair of  twin beds with matching head boards and no foot board, (that date 1966) about the same time I nailed the cabinet drawers into the wall  to make matching head boards.  I would have jumped all over them BUT she was asking $175 and I just couldn't do that. They were exactly what I was looking for, they even have a latch on the back of the head boards where you can keep them as two twin beds, or push them together to make a king sized bed!

(The twin beds in the store)

Well this last weekend  I plopped down onto the bed and the cabinet drawer turned headboard came out of the wall and I COULDN'T GET IT TO STAY SCREWED IN THE WALL. So I call up Mrs. Tate and ask if she still has the beds, she does, I ask how much she is asking and then she informs me of a 75% off everything sale (because shes going out of business) and that the new retail price with tax is around... oh....

$40.00

Sold!  I picked them up Thursday and took them to the lake Friday night. Patricia and I went to Wal-mart and picked out some bed sets that match the rug I purchased earlier this year, so now we have GOOD beds, and sheets.... next weeks pay check? Pillows and SILVERWARE haha, I think the beds fit right fit right in! I also realized now with the purchase of these bed the Casablanca now has all real furniture in every room!!!  

(The new beds & linens together)

Hehehe who knows maybe someday when a "Mrs Jordan" comes along, we can push our twin beds together...like Ricky and Lucy.

-Mick-

Lookit What I Did!

 Well Dear Readers,

I started a new job delivering flowers,  this explains why I haven't been commenting much. Between 9-5 at the shop then 6-10 at the theater I get home, sit down check my email and I'm OUT, Haha!
I've really enjoyed getting to deliver (you get to go all kinds of cool and some times historic places!)
Last Monday things were slow so the boss lady said I could fix the window display! And you people know how I love to fix things! I'm sorry I couldn't get a picture for head on, but the sun glare from the Brookshire's across the street turns the front window into a mirror...

(left)

(right)

(inside)

The hardest part of putting this together was that BOTH sides have to look appealing! But Im very pleased with the way it turned out, Boss Lady likes it too! My favorite part is this shelf  I loaded up with glass vases, when the blazing sun hits the window from the brookshire's it looks fantastic.

Im really liking this job, and im already planning the "winter" display hehehe I see a console radio and a lot of snow flakes in this windows future...

-Mick-

"Oh Just A Normal Weekend At The Casablanca..."

Well dear readers,
Thursday night after much begging, (and threatening to go downtown and buy an all pink set FOR $67) Mom finally let me have one of  THREE sets of her Pyrex bowls!

We could only find the Yellow and Green ones, but she promises the rest are in storage and we'll dig them out soon. Even with out the other two bowls I feel this a victory! She kept Saying over and over "I just don't want them to get broke" and I came right back with "Mom have I not been hauling Grandma's 1946 mixer for almost nine months now... I have my own Pyrex too!"  To my friends and myself these bowls have the same rules as my prized turquoise bangle glasses. 'If you break it don't say sorry, start running for CANADA' Because If I get a hold of you it wont be pretty...Haha.

 (They match and didn't even plan it!)

Saturday afternoon friends Emily and Patricia dropped in and stayed for dinner, we had hamburger steak with homemade mashed potato's and green beans. While we were cooking dinner I just so happened to check Facebook and my friend/ reader Brian is a DJ/ talk host  for a radio station, he posts that hes on air. So we go to Talk1300.com and Listen to the Saturday night quiz show. We spent a good 45 minuets screaming answers at the lap top and playing along! I write that on Brian's wall and he messages back  "Im going to say Hi at the top of the hour"  So we all pull out kitchen chairs around the lap top and listen to 15 minuets of Albany NY news, then finally we hear the "Call" Letters and the jingle for the show and-

WE LOSE THE INTERNET CONNECTION!!!!

 (Emily screams NOOOOOO! while Patricia yells "WHY GOD?! WHY?!)

WERE SO UPSET WE TORE THE LOUNGE APART!!!! While I frantically tried to get the connection back we all were screaming, yelling, and hoping we hadn't missed it... but alas we had. (we eventually made peace with it and put the living room back together.) If I understood correctly "Darwin" is Brian's radio name so we wanted to give him a proper Casablanca thank you! He also gave us a new post card quote calling the Casablanca a "Mid-century paradise" !

After we'd settled down a little and the game show had gone off the air, we sat down to dinner! As always it was Mmmmm Mmmm Good!

After the dishes were washed, we all settled into the turquoise room for a game of Monopoly and some quality "I Love Lucy" TV time. 

 Earlier I had mentioned to Patricia that there was an entire suitcase full of board games but we hadn't played any of them in a year or so, but couldn't remember why...  After an intense game of Monopoly I now vividly recall  why we put the games up haha!

 ("I'LL BUY IT!)

(Patricia spent the majority of the evening 'Going directly to jail and not passing go'.)

 (While both Emily and Myself received 'Get out of Jail Free' cards)

 After Patricia had mortgaged everything she , I put all my money into a house and a hotel, so Emily won the game with the most holdings, tensions were high so we put together a puzzle and watched  "Chicago" until we were calm enough to speak to one another again haha!

All in all just another normal weekend at the Casablanca.

-Mick-