LIFE: Girl Meets Pumpkin

Ten year old me to dress up as a witch or a bat for Halloween. Me and the girl that lived next door but one use to go trick or treating every year for a while, since then I don't particularly do anything to celebrate. Neither have I ever carved a pumpkin. Until Sunday when my afternoon was spent on the kitchen floor doing just that.

Seeing we finally have a house, and the all important front porch we finally have somewhere to stick a pumpkin and decorate. We picked up one of those super cheap (like $3.99 super cheap) carving kits you see in the stores everywhere from September on wards.. They come with these "tools" and a set of templates to get you carving away. Being the first time doing such a craft thing, and feeling a bit adventures I opted for the 2 pumpkin difficultly of the spooky ghost.

It actually was a tonne of fun, even the snooping out all the gooey matter part. Even though by the time i'd finished, it felt like I was covered in the stuff. Apparently I don't fancy the smell or how slimy the inside of a pumpkin is, either.



Mr ghostly pumpkin sat on our dinning table until it was dark enough to get him outside. The official lighting the tea light inside the pumpkin ceremony was on Sunday night and it's been sitting on our porch ever since. Our street gets pretty dark at night, so he shines rather well. We live down a street people don't seem to do much decorating for this holiday, there's no front gardens turned into graveyards and asylums or huge blow up ghosts and pumpkins at any right.



So here he is, trying to look all scary. *insert scary ghost noises here*.

And yeah, i'm kinda pleased with myself about it all even if this is about how festive I get for Halloween.

Have you been carving any pumpkins?

HOME SWEET HOME: Crafty Office Space

Everyone needs a sanctuary, some find it in an spa like bathroom, others a walk in closest. For me, it's having an office and craft room. Of having a space to be inspired, to create and wonder. Having longed for an office come craft room - in our previous apartment my office/stock had taken over half the living room and was eating away at any spare bedroom space, it's nice to have a whole room to myself. 

As the magnolia tree sways and blooms outside, now it's leaves slowly turning crisp with the autumnal air, vintage postcards hang across the windows. Vintage advertisements so carefully torn from 1950's McCall magazines are pinned to the wall. The top shelf of the metal bookcase, once dusty and dragged banging and knocking it's way up from the basement is home to a collection of randoms picked up form estate sales - from a Carebear radio, my second Snoopy dog and scary clown a Steelers ball (well that's actually Joe's), sewing boxes to old twine and bobbins.

While it stands more office space and craft space, that will come in time, once I battle with some shelving and add some color to the walls other than those vintage advertisements.

Either way, I work and craft as I live - surrounded by vintage.

HOME SWEET HOME: The Record Room

If you know anything about our collections, it's probably that we have a lot of records. Like going on 1000 of them. I guess it's fitting that they now have their own room in what once was a spare bedroom, well they share it with another of Joe's collections, his Transformers Toys but seeing they were once taking over our apartments living room it's a big improvement. As someone who loves seeing other people's record collections and especially how they are displayed and stored (if that's your thing too i'll be sharing links at the end as to where we found/brought everything), it's about time I got around to sharing ours in my first room tour (ever). 

The record room is probably one that'll change the most over the coming years as our collection continues to expand. It's also one of the rooms that old and new furniture merge the most. While we try and pick up pieces from estate sales sometimes Ikea does the job just as well - they have a great range of pieces that is ideal for record storage which is luckily both reasonably price and most importantly, sturdy enough to handle their weight.

Above our vintage record player, singles of bands we love line the decorative mini shelves (I have no idea what they are properly called admittedly). There you'll find the likes of The Police, Pat Batener, Bruce Springsteen to Queen, with posters - The Protomen, Detroit Jazz Festival and magazine fronts framed upon the wall. We have a collection of empty/double record sleeves, Bowie, The Platters, The Beatles that will eventually end up framed and displayed too. She says, they've been waiting to be framed for over a year, it'll get done some day.

While we're not neurotic about ordering, certain shelves and cabinets become home to various types - the favorites, jazz, classical, the pop and the rock, my motown collection ordered together. Sub-organizing so many records is another matter entirely, yeah still working on that part.

So there you have it, a short and sweet sneak peek into both a collection that means a lot to me, and one of my favorite rooms because of the things inside it. No doubt it'll be featuring again as we continue to work and add to it. And as ever, if you what to know why I prefer vinyl for my music fix, just check out my 10 reasons here!

Pieces mentioned;
Sony record player

Vintage record cabinet

Tjena storage boxes - Ikea

Billy bookcase - Ikea

Galant shelf unit - Ikea

PS. Please excuse that some of these photographs aren't the best, the room has no windows, hence no natural light and turned into a right pain to photograph.

VINTAGE: Revamping a 1950's Vintage Detecto Laundry Hamper

It's been over a year now that we picked up a vintage laundry hamper at an estate sale. I think we got it for like $5 if that - but it was in a bad condition and certainly hadn't been looked after too well. Joe remembered when I revamped a wicker laundry hamper from a charity shop and thought i'd enjoy doing another one.  How right he was.

Yet until moving I didn't have the space to clean, paint and air it, so the nasty top was covered in a piece of material and it was hidden away somewhat. Until now. The hamper dates from the 1950's and was manufactured by Detecto of New York - a company famous for manufacturing scales. These aluminum hampers were often advertised as being "the lifetime hamper" and by the late 1940's were retailing for around $9.95 with the small print of "slightly higher west of Miss". 

Many came designed with hand painted decorations - ones that were often floral but this one had a repeating circular design with gold trim. Sadly at some stage it had been (badly) repainted in a pastel green (actually it doesn't look as green as it really did in those photographs) with questionable staining inside. As for the lid well that had a mix of the green and cream paint - delightful! Originally it would have stood upon four little legs, sadly they were hacked off.

Now this revamp really didn't end up has planned. After striping off the green paint I'd intended to repaint it a bright, simple white (after finding some left over paint in the garage - perfect) but after getting 3/4 through the removal process, I noticed a somewhat pealing protective coating - which you can see coming off in the photograph below. Now, if you're a perfectionist when it comes to vintage, doing what I did - removing it was probably a no no, but then again, the perfection part of the hamper went when someone else painted it horribly.

Removing the layer left behind a lovely off white, clean surface one that makes the design really stand out and one I'm not going to touch. Cleaning up the gold trims - one of which was painted over (sigh) the rest was more of a repair job - gluing, repainting the inside of the top and the handles. Speaking of which the handles were a pain, being fastened on with fancy vintage hinges I couldn't remove them so spray painting them was never a option. Sigh. As much as I didn't want to, the answer came with painting them white then using some Martha Stewart gold glittery paint to add some extra gold into the piece. Jazzy!

It's fitting that the hamper now finds a use within a 1950's house, it's clean, it's beautiful and functional - something I always love my vintage pieces to be. While the revamp certainly didn't go as planned - it comes to show you have to expect the unexpected when it comes with working and revamping vintage pieces. Sometimes they still have something to reveal.

Revamped anything yourself lately?

HOME SWEET HOME: A 1950's House With Some 1950's Features

So I know ya'll dying to see inside the front door that is now our home - one that we actually first visited for an estate sale. So I thought I'd start off with some background and share some of the original features that are still to be found within. Built in the early 1950's, home was one of many built during the expansion of Detroit's southern suburbs just north of eight mile. Population growth came with the expansion by Ford of it's somewhat local, Highland Park plant alongside increasing racial tensions within the city and the post war boom.

Sixty years later and the house retains some of it's original features most obviously within the bathroom. While I love the gordy blue tiling, for many it would be a total no no. Considering the age of the tiling, it's in a really good condition - it would seem wrong to tear it down, plus it suits the house,  so we'll just be taking off the peeling wallpaper and repainting.

1950's bathrooms are recognized by their brightly coloured tiles on every wall, often in white, blue, green or pink and edged with a row of black tile trim. Bubble glass windows, black soap dishes and towel railings alongside somewhat matching floor tiling make up the final pieces of the bathroom decor.

Another typical feature of this era is the laundry chute into the basement (second photo down in this group) - although when they finished the basement ceiling it's now blocked but can probably be unblocked in the future. Throw in some original doors, hinges and door knobs, a couple of vintage tie racks for good measure and we're onto a winner. There's even an old workmen's table in the basement.

With owning a lot of vintage things - furniture, pictures, book and everything in between, having a vintage feel and backdrop in the house creates a great atmosphere. Everything feels like it belongs here a little more. While the old windows will eventually be replaced, I hope we end up being caring, loving caretakers to take all these original features into the future and maybe salvage and add some back in.