7.31.2010

The Easiest Chocolate-Banana Ice Cream + Weekend Links

My husband loves ice cream (and really loves bananas). I'm going to make "The Easiest Chocolate Ice Cream Recipe Ever" for Mr. Cheese's birthday in a couple of weeks. It looks divine.

Smile-inducing links:

Seattle by Sailboat. Beautiful.

Ooh, pretty bikes.

Dreamland.

Even as an adult, I can't say this phrase without giggling.

Dogs as typefaces.

Have a great weekend everyone!

7.29.2010

Edward Cullen Comes to Town

I'll admit, I haven't seen any of the Twilight movies yet. I'm an odd girl and sometimes I hold off on caving to pop culture for as long as I can. Perhaps this would be a good weekend to get my Edward on. Tweens, teens, and 20-somethings within several hours of my city are freaking out right now over news that Robert Pattinson (and Reese Witherspoon) will be in my area for the next few days filming the movie "Water for Elephants".
Star fever is catching. I'm tempted to hang around downtown this weekend to watch the rabid fans trying to catch a glimpse of 'Edward' coming and going from his hotel. Web rumors are already flying: "My friend saw him by the Sting Ray tank at the Aquarium, and he blew her a kiss." (so not true)
Filming locations include the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum (where scenes from other big movies have also been filmed in the past), and this house outside of Chickamauga, GA - about an hour from downtown Chattanooga. The film crew really wanted an authentically aged house. The house had been vacant for 12 years, and was without any electricity or water.
P.S. This post is dedicated to KS at While We're Waiting. Girlie, if I had known in advance that your man was going to be right down the road from me, I would have invited you down south for a Pattinson party :)

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7.28.2010

I must find an industrial age pulleys and levers poster like this one. The hunt begins...
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A Bed with a Petticoat

My taste typically skews more modern, but how sweet is this loft?
The bed has it's own petticoat!
The tiny all-white Victorian cottage in the Catskills used to be a hunting cabin.

Read more here. Source: Moodboard.

7.26.2010

Pretty Girl. Cool Chair.

See more mid-century round wicker chairs here. Source

More Mad Men...

Mad Men Illustrations from Stanley Chow.

Regarding the Mad Men season 4 sets, holy cow! Eames chair madness indeed (with many fabulous Knoll and Saarinen pieces thrown in, plus I spied a Jere sculpture in the hallway). Mr. Cheese pointed out how clever it was of the set designers to include the Eames Time Life Chairs on the set, which were originally designed specifically for the Time Life building where the new ad agency's offices are located. I need to re-watch the premiere just to catch more details of the sets!

7.23.2010

Montclair Made

I just discovered the shop Montclair Made, which offers lots of great travel-themed (and other cute) handmade items.


I have no real plans for the weekend other than catching up on blog reading, working in the garden, and (hopefully) working on the Etsy shop - all of which I'm looking forward to after being on the go pretty much the whole summer. What are your weekend plans?

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes...

This WAS me.
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This IS me.
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We are going through some bittersweet changes right now. As much as we love renovating houses, we decided that it was time to return to the safe path and end our 5-year term of self-employment. We both accepted jobs at a pretty cool eCommerce company, temp to permanent type positions. It's great that we still get to work together, although my husband is considering a position with another company that would be long and odd hours (but worth it for the pay and benefits). I really miss working on the Etsy shop these past few days too, but we will continue to sell vintage goodies part time. We have a vintage obsession, after all...

7.22.2010

Sad to see it go...


Every once in a while I sell something in the shop that I instantly feel regret about not keeping. This fabulous black globe sold two hours after I listed it. It looked so good in my office :(
My inner Preppy is trying to maintain her cool, yet is all the while giddy over this kelly green Grosgrain Peaks dress...

7.21.2010

Madmen!

My sister-in-law MadMen'ed us. Me:
Mr. Cheese (plaid jacket):
I can't wait for the season premiere of Mad Men on Sunday!

P.S. So sorry for the lack of posts this week. I'm reorganizing as my schedule has changed, and this week is a little crazy. I should be all settled in by next week. I'll catch up with everyone soon, I promise!

7.16.2010

Summer Fun - 70's Style

As I've mentioned before, my city is hilly and most yards do not have large flat grassy areas suitable for lawn games. But I have fond memories of childhood vacations to Maryland and Connecticut to visit my Aunts, Uncles, and cousins, where we spent our days on the beach...
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by the pool....
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running through the sprinklers...
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picnicking in the backyard...
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flying kites...
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playing croquet...
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badminton...
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tetherball...
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and Jarts (lawn darts)
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We are headed out of town again this weekend to visit my grandparents and spend some time with my sister's family at my Aunt & Uncle's house in North Carolina. I fully expect my 7 year old nephew to again beat us at croquet. He's a natural.
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It looks like some big life changes are ahead for Mr. Cheese and I starting next week. Perhaps it's fitting, since Sunday is our 1-year anniversary :) And no, I'm not pregnant. I promise details soon...

Disclaimer: DO NOT allow your three-year-old to play with lawn darts! Did parents have no sense in the 70's?

7.15.2010

Modern Pixie

I love the uncluttered, earthy style of Modern Pixie.



Not my size :(

Why, oh why aren't these fabulous espadrilles from Dear Golden Vintage my size?
Many thanks to you guys for your comments on my last post. My day did indeed get much better and we had a good time hosting dinner at our house tonight for some of my family and Mr. Cheese's family, who hadn't seen each other since our wedding last summer. I'm already looking forward to the weekend, which will likely include lots of laughs with my family, my 7-yr old nephew beating us at croquet (he's a natural), good North Carolina BBQ, and a family tradition called Samauri watermelon.

7.14.2010

Feeling Blue

Ever have one of those days that you were looking forward to, but it starts out just horribly, and it ruins your whole day (or possibly week)? Well, that's my morning. Ugh.
Hopefully hugs from my adorable little nephews will make it all better. Photo Source

7.13.2010

Baby Finches!

This year's baby finches! Please forgive the poor quality of my pics. The ponytail plant where the nest rests is quite sheltered, and I didn't want to risk Mama bird believing that I'd somehow tampered with her babies. The babies left the nest a couple of days ago, which quite surprised me.
They were all piled atop one another crammed in the nest, then they all moved out in the flower pot, but didn't look nearly strong enough to fly. And then poof they were gone a few hours later.


Mama finch always watched from nearby when I peeked into the nest, and was quite vocal.
I miss those little guys already...

The Baby Ghost

I first sighted the lovely little piece that I call "the baby ghost chair" a couple of months ago, and I was instantly smitten. The real name of Kartell's child-sized chair, designed by Phillipe Starck, is the "Lou Lou Ghost", and it's available in lots of colors.
As with the full-sized Louis Ghost, the "Crystal" is still my favorite.


Using clear lucite in a room is a brilliant way to visually create a larger space. I like the way that the computer and fax/phone appear to be floating in the room. More on this topic in a later post.
I went to an amazing estate sale over the weekend that included a huge art collection, including an original Dali painting (which was gone by the time we got there). There were several very reasonably priced pieces we considered buying as an investment - small Howard and Roy Finster pieces - but we decided it wasn't the right time to spend the money. What we would have bought - had it not already sold - was a thick lucite side table.

Photo Sources: Hive, Real Simple

P.S. I have been having mega trouble with blogger commenting. My attempts to publish comments were thwarted for about 12 hours yesterday, and I know that some of your comments weren't accepted due to some internal error. I also had trouble commenting on numerous other blogs yesterday. My most sincere apologies AGAIN, as this is the second time in a week that blogger has been misbehaving.