Just pickin' at things here and there. The old vinyl linoleum doesn't want to let go. It's hanging on for dear life as we're stabbing it and peeling it up with paint scrapers. I imagine I'll be picking at it all week. *sigh*
The thought of all the cool stuff I got these past few weeks cheers me up though.
I got this Danesi chalkware sculpture for $2.
Circa 1958 Tupperware salad tongs. I SO needed these!
Pink Glasbake mug and Fire King ashtray.
This Fire King splash proof mixing bowl and lotus plate belonged to a 99 year old woman who recently went to a nursing home. I got this and some gardening tools all for $5. The folks looking after her estate were hilarious and talked my ears off. They told me that the lady has outlived her children and grandchildren and still has plenty of life left in her. Amazing.
Picked up two creamers but I can't decide which I like best.
Some of you haven't seen the patio chair I refinished. I found it in an alley so I brought it home, sanded it, painted it and made a seat-all from materials I already had lying around. I even used Cody's circular saw to cut the wood. Those things freak me out.
(l-r, top-bottom) plastic clip-on light bulb shades, marmoleum ties, 40's wallpaper, kitchen utensil holder, 60's owl spoon rest, recipe box, assorted cookbooks (most with 1940/50 copyrights), Freezing Foods at Home, sample page from book, the next 3 images are from the casserole cookbook, Home Decorating book with 1943, 1946 and 1954 copyrights (the most amazing book I've ever seen), colour scheme ideas, 2 pages from the kitchen section (the last one shows the same Youngstown kitchen cupboards we will be putting in), cook book from the late 50's and credited with being one of the few, earliest books to list the Nanaimo Bar recipe, unused spice rack with labels.
The house of tomorrow is the work-in-progress of today.
Our house was built in 1941. If you know your history you'd know that it was one of the most depressing decades of the 20th century. People weren't completely recovered from the Great Depression when the world was at war in '41.
I borrowed a book from the library titled Grandma's Wartime Kitchen.It's mostly recipes from the era of food rationing and Rosie the Riveter but there's a little bit of history in there too. Care packages of homemade food were sent overseas to soldiers, as well as to Britain during food shortages. There were inventive recipes to make rationed foods like butter, eggs, sugar, milk and prime meat cuts, stretch as far as they could or clever substitutes in place of costly ingredients.
The book is filled with stories of women who were mothers or children at the time; in particular, a little girl, now a grandma herself, remembered having to knead yellow food colouring into the margarine to make it look like butter. It is silly to think of doing something as trivial as that nowadays but from the research I've done, I get the idea that people had a strong sense of pride. Of course, this was the IDEAL. I doubt anyone ever lived up to it. Women were recruited into the workforce for the first time and expected to keep the household running as smoothly as it was before the war, all the while looking flawless with a smile on her face. You've seen those old images before, of women vacuuming in high heels with her hair in an up-do and lipstick on. The magazines of the past were just as apt to make women into raving perfectionists as the ones you see at the supermarket check-out today. The difference is the old ones were filled with knitting and sewing patterns.
Victory gardens were also popular during the forties. It was a way to ease the stress on food supplies and to save money during tough times. They cleverly named them "victory" gardens as a moral booster.
One great thing came out of 1941 though. My favourite Disney movie Dumbo. Considered the "Golden Age of Animation," the 30's and 40's cannot be beat! I remember watching the classics at Great Grandma's house when we went for a visit. I love Tex Avery in particular. The kids of today are really missing out. Click the video to see it in full.
And so, we took our first step towards our "house of tomorrow." We removed all the cupboards except the sink base. I think I found a little fragment of original wallpaper near where the baseboards would have been, in one of the dirty corners. It's burgundy with a darker burgundy and grey. It's a tiny sample, about the size of my fingernail but it made me giddy.....and a bit angry that someone destroyed my kitchen and turned it into a repulsive tan and beige outhouse. Actually, I've seen Porta-Potties that looked nicer than my kitchen.
I'm going to start taking out the tile back splash tonight. So here's what things look like now.
Stay tuned for part two. I've written enough for the day and dinner is waiting!
