Meanwhile Back At the Ranch

My friend Sarah sent me this fantastic link to a cute Etsy shop!  I just love these cards, how well do you know your mid century modern? There is a photo and name of designer on one side, an piece of furniture of their design and its name on the other. What a wonderful thing to buy with your Holiday gift money (I guess it’s too late for a gift idea). So, hop over and check these out! There might be a quiz later!

Have a Wonderful Holiday and a Happy New Year!

I love this cardholder, I picked it up at the thrift store for $2.50. It fits with our “look” but is it 50’s vintage or newer?

Go catch this little mid-century yumminess with Ward-O-Matic. His blog is mostly illustration, but he definately has a deep love of all things midcentury!

If you like this sort of thing, check out his blog regularly because he always knows the illustrators and gives an extra insight into those magazine covers we all love! This one is an especially fabulous look into mid century residential architecture!

We are on the hunt for new chairs. However, we have a problem. A marital design dillema, which Rex and I rarely have. We have a HUGE chair in our living room - soft comfy and OLD. He loves it. Adores it. So, I want to replace it - really, I wouldn’t have this kind of a chair in a dorm room. I’ve tried to put it out for the dumpster several times and he won’t have it.

This is the sort of thing I’d love to replace it with:

But he’s put his foot down…it’s not comfy, it’s not warm. How can he cuddle with the kids and watch TV. Sigh. So, help my mid-century friends…I need suggestions!

Awwww, how completely sweet! That’s right.  Frugally Retro has awarded me the “I Love Your Blog” award and is making me BLUSH!  So, I am passing it on to seven other bloggers.  If you are one of the recipients and you want to participate, here are the instructions:

1. A winner can put the logo on his/her blog.
2. Link to the person from whom you received the award.
3. Nominate up to 7 other blogs.
4. Put links to the nominated blogs on your blog.
5. Leave a message on the nominated blogs.

So, wow, only 7, eh? Ok, here are mine:

1. The Atomic Playhouse - wow! I want all of their stuff!

2. Atomic Addiction - again, eye candy until you die!

3. Frisk the Frigidaire - I want to shop with them!

4. House in Progress - the almighty crowned family of Housebloggers! Thanks guys!

5. Decorno - a funny look at decorating…very modern!

6. Ranch Revival - Green before “green” was cool!

7. Retro-renovation - Pam, what can you say, her blog is the best!

Ok, if you’re in Huntington, PA or nearby I want you to go check this out or the article is here too:

http://foodio54.com/blog/?p=157

Send me photos! There HAS to be a 1950’s mid century nut out there who will take it…someone?

It’s been over a month and nope (especially to “Red” - who didn’t leave me any contact info! ) we have NOT measured and replaced the window and put in the air conditioner. Many other things have stepped into the way of it happening. Not the least is our complete fear of measuring - ha, ha! I do appreciate Red’s input tho and hopefully we’ll do it soon. Although - if I don’t get picked for a jury tomorrow - we leave on vacation on Thursday! We’re heading to South Dakota , the Black Hills, to do the totally touristy thing! Can’t wait!

However, one project we did finish after the patio was our “crazy patio”. We had a ton of blocks and bricks left and wanted to use them. Rex had a great idea make a tiny patio in the back near our old incinerator. We bricked that up (the holes in it) and we purchased some gravel for the bottom

We started matching up the rocks to make a patio. We had taken the bricks from another project (we found a different material) - a lot of this was pieces of concrete, bits of flagstone or very old concrete blocks that had a red color - we found those when we dug up the area to put the garden in.

We just brushed some sand over the top and kaboom! We have a little patio. It’s kind of funky looking, but it sits at the base of our big peach tree. Off to the left is a lilac which I hope will flourish and bloom next year. I’m so proud we used up all of our materials…it also ties in the incinerator and our neighbor’s rustic flagstone wall.

So, we did all of this and were pooped (tired, exhausted…my kids still giggle at that expression). So, we didn’t get to the air conditioner. We’ll get it in soon tho! I want to just “flip a switch” for next year!

Well, here’s the update from our world. Last month we acquired a good window air conditioner that we can have installed for practically nothing.

However, we have side opening windows, so we need to replace them - and frankly they are metal, which on a brick house is deadly for heat efficiency. So, we’re switching to vinyl. Bad, I know, but frankly they look better than the metal ones…and we can put in the air conditioner (we’re just starting with the one window).

And in true Houseblogger way we are putting it in ourselves. Suggestions? First on measuring. Here are pictures (those are cheesy plastic storm windows on the inside by the way):

and here’s the outside:

I think we want to put it right in the center. The metal one is on the outside, but is thinner than your two section vinyl one would be. So…our question is this….where do we measure?

Has anyone done this?