Need a Good Laugh? Nailed It

Sometimes I just have to share something that makes me laugh.  I laughed so hard when this aired during the Olympics earlier tonight.  Hope you enjoy it as well!

American Maker

One of the YouTube users I follow uploaded the following video yesterday, titled "American Maker."  This video was produced in 1960 by Chevrolet, but it never once mentions their name in it.

The video focuses on the advancements of American ingenuity and manufacturing from colonial days until modern (mid-century) times.  The scenes in the video offer something for everyone; classic cars and great mid-century homes.  One of my favorite scenes came toward the end when they showed a "modern" bathroom.  The fixtures were avocado green, and the tile around the tub had navy blue along with the green (I love that color scheme).  Who knew they were making avocado green popular as far back as 1960?  Here I've been thinking that the scheme in my house was more late 1960s, but it started about 10 years before!

Enjoy the video, but be warned, it is lengthy (around 25 minutes).  I didn't think I would watch the whole thing, but it sure sucked me in.  Enough so that I added it as one of my favorites.  So, go pour yourself a beverage, pop some popcorn, and relax while watching this fun piece of American history.

Have a great Tuesday!

And the Winner Is...

Thank you to all those who entered my 150 follower giveaway.  There were a total of 12 entrants for the above collection of kitchen goodies.  They were numbered in the same order as they were posted (the first comment was entry number one, and so on).  As such, here are the entrants and their numbers:

1.  hourglass susie
2.  Eartha Kitsch
3.  paperwaterdrops
4.  59KUSTOM
5.  Mick
6.  Wiilykherr
7.  bearrkat
8.  SusieQT
9.  JKaye
10.  Jill
11.  Garnet Scarabin
12.  Periwinkle Dzyns

After determining that all the entrants were followers, as per the rules in the original post on the giveaway, I headed over to Random.org to use their random number generator to pick the winner.

So, the winner is......

Number 9!  Congratulations to JKaye!  Please email me at culdesacshack (at) gmail (dot) com with your shipping information, and I will get it in the mail to you!

Cathrineholm?

The deadline to enter my 150 follower giveaway is 10pm Central tonight.  If you haven't entered yet, click here to do so!

I picked up this enamelware platter which measures 12.25 inches across yesterday.  It is in beautiful condition, and I love the graphic.  There is no marking on the back, but I believe that it is Cathrineholm in the Lotus pattern.  Can anybody confirm this?  Also, can anybody tell me what this color is called?  It's a mix between mustard yellow and avocado green, at least to my eyes.  Finally, does anybody know an approximate value for this piece?  I can do pretty well with values of Pyrex, but this is out of my area.  Thanks for the help!  Oh, and my purchase price? 99 cents.

Have a great Friday!

Revived!

Have you entered my 150 follower giveaway?  If not, do so before Friday evening!  Click here.

The mailbox re-do that I shared on Tuesday was just the first project I tackled this week.  The second, on my long list, was my vintage General Electric refrigerator.  My neighbor's son found this in the basement of a house that he bought, and he was more than happy to give it to me to get it out of the way!  I brought it home, let it sit upright for 24 hours before plugging it in (I had to haul it on it's side), and discovered that it still works beautifully.  So, all it needed was cosmetic attention.  I can do that!

Here it is when I started on Tuesday morning.

I spent some time with a wire brush removing the rust, then sanded it and rubbed it down with some medium and then fine steel wool.  Then, using appliance epoxy spray paint that I picked up, I set to work.  For some reason, the paint took better on the kick panel than on the fridge body.  Ironic, since I painted that piece in like 2 minutes, and spent two days carefully working on the body.  The store is out of appliance epoxy, which means that I will have to wait to get a couple more cans so that I can try to bring a little more shine to it.  Still, I think the transformation has been amazing!

Now I just need to order a new door seal.  Once that's done, the fridge will take it's place in my kitchen, and my current fridge will find a new home in the garage (I have to have some freezer space!).  Next major project - having my Tappan Deluxe restored to working condition so that it can join the fridge.

Have a great Thursday!

Tuesday's Auction Finds!

First off, have you entered my 150 follower giveaway?  If not, click here and enter!

Now, on to that auction.  I am not sure why an estate auction was scheduled for a Tuesday evening, but I was free, so off I went!  I picked up a few good deals, and a couple of things that I wanted that weren't quite as good of a deal, but went along with sets that I am working on.

First up, my absolute favorite find at the auction.  This vintage stand mixer is the first one that I've picked up that isn't a Sunbeam Mixmaster (I love the Mixmasters that I have!).  This one was manufactured by General Mills, sometime in the early 1950s.  It is marked on the side "Sponsored by Betty Crocker."  The mixing bowls remind me of Hamilton Beach bowls, but these are marked Pyrex (awesome!) and then marked General Mills.  Complete with the original book, it even has a feature that I haven't seen before - a built in timer!  Need to mix something for 2 minutes?  Start the mixer and set the timer, when it dings, come back and turn the mixer off!  I think that it was a steal for $5!

Here's an advertisement that I found online for General Mills appliances.  I already have the waffle iron, but now that I have the mixer, I may have to collect the complete series.  Looks like my mixer with the built in timer was $42.95 when it was new.

I also picked up a couple of pieces of Pyrex - the Daisy 444 Cinderella mixing bowl, and the 1 quart Butterprint casserole.  The other two pieces were picked up over the past few days at flea markets and antique malls.  The dark glass piece is actually a piece of purple glass Pyrex (it's hard to tell in the picture).  It isn't very old, but I really like the color, and for $3, why not?

Lastly, at the auction I picked up this cool Kansas centennial souvenir plate from 1961 (aren't those graphics amazing?) and a vintage advertising ash tray.  The yellow Club Aluminum sauce pan was a thrift store find on Monday.  My kitchen is filled with Pyrex bakeware and Club Aluminum for the cooktop!  I now have Club Aluminum in yellow, green, red, turquoise, brown and some really old pieces in hammered aluminum look.  Hmmm.... Club may end up being my next kitchen collection, if I ever finish my Pyrex collection (I am getting closer!).

Have a great Wednesday!  I'm hoping to finish another big project today to share with you all tomorrow!

Don't forget to click on the link at the top of the page and enter the giveaway!

Getting Through Summer - One Project at a Time

Remember this?  Mick brought me this vintage mailbox when he visited back in May.  I've been looking for a vintage one with paper hooks, but it was a difficult search.

Well, after some time with a wire brush, some tape and a couple of cans of spray paint (two colors), it now looks like this!

It still needs a little touch-up on the eagle, and the lid needs to be lightly sanded and given a finish coat.  Still, I like the way it turned out!  Krylon makes a green spray paint that perfectly matches the shutters on my house, so the cohesiveness with the colors is going to be great!

Have you entered my 150 follower giveaway yet?  If not, there is still time!  Entry period ends Friday evening.  Click here to enter.  You could win this fun group of kitchen goods!

Have a great Tuesday!

The 150 Follower Giveaway!

I am so excited about reaching the 150 follower mark!  As a thank you to my loyal readers, I am giving away some fun and colorful goodies for your kitchen.

With my current obsession with collecting vintage Pyrex, how could I build this giveaway around anything else?

Here's what you will get - a pink #221 8 inch vintage Pyrex cake pan, two colorful kitchen towels (one green and one yellow), as well as some utensils to help you bake your first cake in this pan.  You will receive a nylon spoon, a stainless steel whisk, and a blue silicone head spatula.

What do I need to do to have a chance to win these awesome items?  Well, I am glad you asked!  It's simple.  You must be a follower of my blog, I will confirm each entry, and if you aren't a follower, your entry will be disqualified.  After that, all you need to do is comment on this post.  Each reader may have one and only one entry into this giveaway.  Each comment will be numbered as they come in (the first comment will be entry number 1 and so on).  When the contest closes at 10pm Central this Friday evening (July 27), a winner will be chosen using a random number generator.  The winner will be announced Monday morning, July 30.

In the past, I have allowed a second entry into my giveaways if you reblogged about my giveaway on your blog.  However, this giveaway is a reward to the faithful followers that I already have.  Therefore, only one entry is being given per follower.

Good luck and thank you for helping me make it to 150 followers!

150 Followers!

Wow!  I made it to 150 followers!  (This actually happened about a week and a half ago while I was on vacation).

This calls for a celebration!  I'm working on gathering some goodies together for a give-away.  Stay tuned to see what I come up with!  (Hopefully my idea works out!)

Have a great Friday!  (It's Friday, the 13th, by the way... hope this doesn't jinx my follower count!)

A (Not So) Quick Update

Wow - it's been almost a month since my last post.  Sorry for leaving everyone without any updates!  Summer has a way of keeping me distracted.

Here's what has happened with my student in the past month.  When I wrote the last blog post, he had been transferred from a local hospital to a children's hospital.  The first time that I saw him, he was still in a local hospital and mostly unresponsive.  When he arrived at the children's hospital they ran test after test to try to figure out what was wrong.  Tests kept coming back negative.  It's hard to treat something when you don't know what you are up against.  The local hospital had removed a piece of his skull to help with swelling pressure on the brain.  The children's hospital thought they knew what he had (something rare) but the tests repeatedly came back negative.  They went ahead and treated him for that anyway.  He started showing small improvements after these treatments began.

The next time that I visited him, he was able to recognize me, and when he did, he started crying.  He held my hand and gave it a small squeeze, which seemed like miraculous recovery compared to the first time I visited him.  I left the hospital that day with high hopes.

He continued to make improvements.  10 days after the last visit, I visited again, on my way to Colorado for a hiking vacation (I will share pictures soon!).  This time he was in physical therapy when I visited.  He had some stroke like symptoms at the onset of this illness, and the therapist was working on having him throw a beanbag with his right hand.  He would pick it up with his left and transfer it to his right and attempt to throw it.  He tried hard, but had a long way to go.  Still, in the 10 days since my last visit this seemed like a miracle!

While I was on vacation in Colorado at the end of June, I received word that they had finally diagnosed what he had.  A very rare disorder that only approximately 100 people worldwide have had since 2006.  Research of the disorder told me it was a form of the disease the hospital originally though he had, but the most terrifying part was the first line of the description of the illness stated that it usually results in death (approximately 70% of cases).  Not exactly news I wanted to get on vacation.

People had been bringing him bracelets to wear while in the hospital, so I picked up a braided leather one in Colorado and took it by to give him on that way home.  I went to Colorado on a Monday, and returned home on Friday.  Over the period of that week, his progress was such that he was sitting up in a wheelchair, playing with an iPod.  He was talking in short 3-4 word phrases, and he was very giving with his smiles.  He was starting to remind me of the student who had been sitting in my classroom only two days before he went to the hospital for the emergency surgery that removed a piece of his skull.  We gave him an "Easy" button from Staples that we picked up in Colorado so that every time he did something hard and succeeded at it, he could make it say "that was easy."  He had a great time pushing that button while we visited.

Just after I arrived home from vacation, I received word that the hospital had told the family that they thought it would be about 3 weeks before they could put the skull flap back, and that a week after that he would probably be able to leave the hospital.  Such amazing recovery for such a sick boy!

Since that time, he has received several day passes from the hospital so that he may go out with his family to do things in the city.  It is exciting to get to see pictures of him on Facebook out doing things with his family.

Last night I received word that if things keep going like they are (the doctors are absolutely amazed by his miraculous recovery) he will be able to check out of the hospital by the end of this week.  He will have to stay in the city for intense physical therapy for a while, and later this month return to the children's hospital to have the skull flap replaced.  I am so excited for him!

Thank God for answered prayers!