Lion's pride (outfit #56)

I've had one of those rare, perfect weekends.  My husband took the day off on Friday and we took some of the kids up to the Butterfly Pavilion in Westminster, CO.  We spent the early afternoon looking at bugs, petting starfish, and running through a huge rain forest habitat with zillions of butterflies fluttering about and sometimes landing in our hair.  We tempted fate at lunchtime, by avoiding a restaurant with kid's menus.  Instead, we stopped by one of our favorite Nepalese restaurants, Yak and Yeti, to hit the buffet.  Even our finickiest kids gobbled up their food, and a woman nearby remarked that my children "were awesome and so well behaved!"  I was pretty sure she had jinxed us, so we paid the bill and headed off to History Colorado to explore their kid's exhibit about a small Colorado settlement from 1929.  The kiddos milked animatronic cows, gathered wooden eggs to sell to the shopkeeper, and drove a model- T.  Afterwards we grabbed some icy drinks and headed down to Broadway to explore some great vintage shops.  It was really fun to see what Denver has to offer, but it made me really appreciate my little town with all its super affordable little antique and vintage shops.  I am way too cheap....err frugal... to get on board spending that kind of money on what I consider really average pieces.  On Saturday, I grabbed some Middle Eastern food with some friends and then had a really loud, boisterous, and spectacularly fun game night at my house.  Sunday was spent grabbing coffee, snapping these photos, driving to my mom's house for a little bit of nature, and then meeting up with a friend to go antiquing in Florence, CO. 
How was your weekend?
Outfit details: 1950's lion novelty print cropped top and 50s blue linen "sailor" style skirt, both from ebay
My sheer hair scarf was thrifted, and my lucite and rhinestone bangle was from a local antique store.

Happy Sunday! XOX, Hannah

Angel kisses (outfit #55)

This is a dress that I bought on Etsy, with a birthday gift card from my very generous brother and sister-in-law.  It's a Teena Paige dress and it has the sweetest little novelty print of angel faces with blue halos.  I'm wearing it with a bow belt to match the two velvet bows on the bodice.  My Bakelite bird earrings and perfectly matched hat are from an estate sale.  I thought it fitting that my own little angel appear in one of the pictures, since she has taken a recent interest in modeling my dresses with me. 
  The "modern-style" building behind me is the former Maytag Aircraft building, built in 1957.
It is located near downtown Colorado Springs, and you can view more photos of this building here. 

XOX, Hannah

Tavian's room re-do

Last year I made a list of my goals for the year, and included was the redesign of my eldest son's bedroom.  I had redecorated his room about two years ago over one weekend as a surprise, but it ended up being sort of a disaster.  First of all, I intended to tear up the carpet and paint the tile underneath.   I did all sorts of research on how to paint vinyl tiles, but when we pulled up the carpet we realized that the tiles were damaged and cracked (perhaps why the room was carpeted in the first place!)  We had to rush up to Colorado Springs and buy a bunch of wood laminate flooring to install.  It wasn't in the budget, and we hadn't allotted time for the project.  Secondly, I chose two colors for accent walls, a bright citron yellow and a swimming pool blue.  I thought it would be cheerful, like sipping lemonade next to a pool in summertime.  The yellow ended up being the most garish color possible, and I hated it from the start.  We had already blown our money on flooring, so buying different paint was not in the cards.  There were a couple of things that did turn out well however.  I drew up plans for a headboard with a frosted Plexiglas top and lights inside that my father put together with extra materials from his own remodeling endeavors.  
   The best things about this new room are the furniture.  I came across a rare Kent Coffey dresser at a Mennonite thrift store, and then my father in law built a desk based on photos to mirror the styling.   I also found an industrial looking 1950s Dazor saucer lamp at an estate sale for $4!  The vintage light up globe was thrifted and the starburst alarm clock was from a local antique store.  The ceiling lamp is an atomic pinhole light fixture that I rescued from the Habitat store, which I repainted and rewired.  The gold Eames chair knock off was a DIY I made last year, which you can see here.
  My son's favorite things:
The colors grey, gold, and green.  
Steampunk
History, especially WWI (he loves  planes, tanks, Zeppelins, etc)
Minecraft
                              This is what I came up with....

Duvet originally from Target, but I bought it on ebay.

The canvases were up-cycled amateur thriftstore art, that were primed and painted with chalkboard paint. The nightstand was handmade by my father in law.  The framed paint chip art matches the duvet and was FREE!  Steampunk hat, created by my son, leather Indian headdress was handmade by me.  Retro styled clock was a gift from my mom.

The military jacket belonged to my father in law.  WWI planes built by my son.  The stuffy is a Minecraft Creeper.

Framed artwork is based off of a real WWI stamp from a German camera company, available here.  On display are my son's vintage camera collection, original Lego designs, tanks, handmade wooden aircraft carriers and planes, and his Playmobil western village.  My son is all about "displays." :)

Framed German zeppelin poster available here.  Wooden bow was handmade by my late grandfather and "Zorro" mask was from Party City.  The Zeppelin model was a Christmas present, source unknown.

Isn't the desk incredible?   The hounds tooth rug and world map are from ebay.

Phrenology of a Gentleman screenprint available here

Retro Sci-fi travel posters (Jupiter and Neptune) available here

Stay Gold screenprint available here

Vintage hats poster available here

The room is painted Behr's French Silver and all the painted furniture is done in Behr's Mermaid Harbour.

Now I just have to convince him to come back from grandma's house to see his new room.

I love the way it turned out, what do you think?

XOX, Hannah

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Don't leave me hangin' on the telephone (outfit #54)

Tomorrow wraps up our "kid free" time, as we head into the mountains to spend the 4th of July with my father- in law and pick up our sons.  We headed out to grab some Indian food and stopped to snap these outfit shots.  Winnie had been watching me swirl around for the camera, so she ran over, put her hand on her hip, and said, "smile!"  I love that lil' honey bunny. :)
  I'm wearing a 1950's telephone booth novelty skirt from Etsy, a 50's sleeveless blouse with bow from ebay, and my new Bass spectators that I bought to fulfill my wish list.  I've never owned a pair of Bass shoes, but they are extremely well made and comfy.  I highly recommend them!  I found mine at a site called after6pm on clearance with free shipping.  Happy dance!  Vintage Bakelite spacer bracelets and seamed stocking; are both from Ebay. My vintage basket purse has adorable little rotary phones and cute sayings on it.  I also had an enamel telephone brooch, which fell off somewhere on the way from the car.  Here's hoping it turns up, because I really liked it.

Happy 4th of July!

XOX, Hannah

Cockadoodledoo (outfit #53)

  My husband just got back from a trip to Chicago where he was doing training for the Illinois Historic Preservation commission.  My three sons are spending some time with their grandparents for a few days, so we used the opportunity to get out and do some "kid free" activities. (Yes, we still have the baby with us, but she doesn't run around like a crazed howler monkey!) It's amazing going from four kids to one, and how quiet things get.  We had an afternoon coffee date and then perused some of the little antique stores downtown.  I've already checked off a couple of items on my vintage wishlist, and it was absolutely amazing to find the exact items in such a quick amount of time.  Sometimes when you put your energy out into the universe, magical things happen! 
 I wore my new favorite shirt, a 1950s novelty rooster themed halter top from Etsy and my 50s black pedal pushers from the Robot Exchange.

I found the EXACT kitty letter organizer that I blogged about, and a new table lamp for the living room.  The woman who rang me up was just as excited as I was about the cat.  It happened to be from her booth and she has a lot of other items from the same designer that she's pricing to bring into the shop.  I left her my phone number, so I might end up with a collection of these little critters.  It turns out they are from a designer called Holt Howard.  They were made in the 1950s under a line called Pixieware.  If you get a chance you should google the line, because I have become totally smitten!

XOX, Hannah

Don't get lost in the move!

Have you heard? Google Reader is shutting down on Monday, July 1st.  If you haven't already, you'll need to start following all your favorite blogs with another reader.  I've made the switch to Bloglovin' and you should too!  

 You can also follow me on Facebook & Pinterest.  Click the sparkly icons on the right sidebar to get started.  I love to follow my readers.  If you have a blog and I'm not already following you, leave a link in the comments.

XOX, Hannah

Top 10 vintage wishlist for my home

As promised, a list of all the items that I'm on the look out for my home.  I love the look of an eclectic, created over time, vintage inspired home.  I don't like matching set or entire rooms bought out of catalogs.   My home is filled with pieces I've thrifted, handed- down, upcycled, bought handmade or created myself.  I'm not sure there will be a day when I finally announce that "I'm finished," much to my husband's dismay.  My tastes are constantly evolving and I like to change things up frequently.  That said, there are some basic elements that I'd like to change or upgrade from their current status.
1. A vintage electric oven.  A year or so ago, I was offered a glorious 1940s pink gas stove from my friend and mid-wife who was moving to Denver. I jumped for joy and quickly started reaching out to anyone I could think of to help me move the behemoth in an impending snow storm.  The first problem was the cost of a gas conversion since our current hook-ups are for an electric range.  The second problem was the size of the unit.  At nearly 42'', I was going to have to replace some cupboards, buy some counters, and think about moving the upper cupboards to match.  I started adding up the costs of the revisions in the kitchen, and the fact that the oven was going to have to sit in my garage for most of the winter (which meant parking outside!)  Suddenly "free" was getting really expensive, so I passed up the stove with a heavy heart.  I'm still optimistic I'll find the perfect stove.  Ideally, I'd like a stove in white, sea foam or turquoise to match my peacock blue cabinets.

2. A mid-century love seat or easy chair to match our '61, dusty rose, Kroehler sectional. We need a bit more seating to form a conversation friendly living room.  Actually, if I found a sofa and love seat set, then I would move our sectional to the basement.  Again, blues and greens are ideal, but if I found something with great lines I would make it work.

3. More lighting! Our living room is devoid of an overhead light.  I'd love to find a tall tension pole lamp or hanging swag light to fill the empty corner behind the sectional.  A few more gorgeous table lamps wouldn't hurt either.

4.  I'm always looking out for adorable 50s plastic-ware, such as dishes, canisters, and tools.  

5. Random mid-century accessories that I can't live without...even though they are not practical.

boomerang ashtray lot, found here

6. Gorgeous Mid-century textile such as tablecloths, napkins, and fabric for curtains and pillows.

7. Retro style metal patio furniture

here

here

8. Holiday decor

Now that we have our 1950's aluminum Christmas tree, the next logical step is light it up authentically.

My kids really like setting up little holiday displays.  I love the kitschy Japanese holiday figurines, such as this darling deer.  I'll be on the look out for anything Santa themed.

1950s diorama ornaments.  I would love to build a collection of these unique, usually handmade little orbs.  We had a couple on our tree when I was a kid, and they were my favorite.

9. Desk organizational paraphernalia

I've see these Japanese letter organizers in all sorts of adorable shapes; cats, poodles, wiener dogs...I totally want one!

10. A pink typewriter

Pink Smith- Corona typewriter, found here

XOX, Hannah