How's the weather in your neck of the woods?

This sums up the weather conditions in my area.

Photo Sourc: Alles ausm Kopt

Things are not always as they should be.

How excited I was to see the case tucked neatly on the top shelf, stepping onto the stool I grabbed the case and headed upstairs. *This is why it's taking me so long to clean, sort, and purge items from my basement.*

My sister passed this over to me after she finished college.

I opened the case and found ....

twenty seven dolls, extra clothes, and ET.

This is what was supposed to be inside the case.
Photo Source: Advanced Vehicle Technology

Perhaps the typewriters inside the Barbie case!

More important why did my two girls 

have twenty seven barbie dolls?

Kodak Disc Camera~A Blast from the Past

What a blast from the past I had when I found this Disc negative. I had totally forgotten about this type of film and the camera that took these photographs.

Negative from a Disc camera.

The Disc camera was made by Kodak and released in the summer of 1982 with production of the camera ending in 1988. 

Disc camera from the 1980's.

Film used in the Disc camera.

I have a vague memory of my father using this camera, perhaps my cousin Mary who work for Kodak in Rochester, New York gifted him this camera, because I can't imagine my father purchasing this camera.

The round disc of fifteen negatives are extremely small, and I am unable to see what the occasion is for these photos. I cannot see faces but do recognise the shapes of some people.

Each negative is 1/4 inch wide and less than 1/2 inch long.

I also found some slides that are from my parents 50th wedding anniversary celebration taken in front of the church. My parents had their marriage blessed and exchanged vows again for their 50th anniversary celebration. Shortly after this celebration my mother passed away.

 

I trotted myself over to my local Walgreens with Disc negatives and slides in hand excited to see, hold and examine the prints that would be made. My excitement quickly ended when the young girl behind the photo counter looked at me in horror when I showed her the Disc negatives. "What are those from?" 

I left with my negatives in hand and headed towards our local camera shop. They are celebrating the stores 75th anniversary, surely they will be able to process this for me. I should have gone to them in the first place, was my thought. Wrong, they do not have the technology to process this type of negative. 

He explained that Kodak made a specific machine to process prints from these negatives, and they no longer have the machine. He did give me a web page of Rocky Mountain Film Lab that several of his clients have used. Discouraged that I wouldn't be able to have the prints made in an hour, boy am I naive, I returned home to check out Rocky Mountain Film Lab.

I did a quick google search on processing Disc film and found two companies in the United States that did process this type of film. I was stunned when I saw $34.99 from one site and $24.99 from the Rocky Mountain Film Lab.

The processing of the negatives rolled around in my head all night long, should I be frugal and responsible, there is a recession going on: or just go for it?

I am sitting on the fence on this one, I am leaning slightly in one direction on this, so I am asking you what would you do. Should I process the negatives or just forget about it?

The basement clean out continues today, our temperatures are expected to reach 100 degrees today, with a possibility of rain, yes, please. So today will be the perfect day to clean the basement, let's see what treasure I find today.

I eat with my eyes first!

In 1941, the Culinary Arts Institute published a pamphlet that answered the age old question: What should I prepare for dinner/supper tonight? 

The only color that's in this pamphlet is on the cover.

This menu idea suggests rolling sausages into the 

veal roast instead of stuffing, I'm sure it must have been a hit 

with the 1941 crowd. The black and white photo does 

not make it look attractive nor appetizing.

Today updated recipes for stuffed veal roast can 

be found online and in many modern cookbooks. 

With a color photo, the food looks appealing. Photo Source

Pineapple baskets have been around for awhile,

but this color photo of the pineapple basket 

makes my mouth water. Photo Flicker

To make vegetables more attractive try

putting each vegetable inside a separate lettuce cup. 

Today lettuce cups have become a vessel to 

sever many different kinds of foods. Photo Source

Cantaloupe with ice cream was popular in 1941,

and in 2012, we still eat it that way. Photo Source

After spending forty five minutes reading the menu plans, which caused my eyebrows to raise several times, I have come to the conclusion that we are still using many of the same recipes, but with a modern twist.

Here, are a few menu suggestions that made my eyebrows raise...

• Tongue with Raisin Sauce
• Calf's Liver Club Sandwich
• Mock Chicken Legs -my mother used to make me eat these
• Liver Birds

I wonder if in seventy years, someone will be looking at a cookbook published in 2012, and have raised eyebrows because of our recipes.

Pleasant Day

Yesterday was such a beautiful day the temperature was 71 with a fabulous breeze. All the windows and doors were open to let in the breeze and fresh air.  The forecast is for very hot, and humid weather on Thursday, temps are expected to be near 100 degrees. Still no rain in our area, and a ban on open fires is in effect. 

Weather is such a strange thing, some blogs that I read are talking about days of rain and cold weather, while here in the mid west we are hot and dry. No matter what the weather conditions are I thank God for each day and try not to complain.

The basement clean out continues, one trip to Goodwill and one trip to St. Vincent DePaul with more donations to follow. Slow and steady wins the race.

With my new minimalist attitude, I have been looking in every box, storage container, and bag to see what I can get rid of. Way back in a corner of the built in shelf unit I found several boxes that contained items from my parents home clean out. I spent several minutes touching items that brought back such sweet memories. I miss them both immensely but am so grateful for everything that they taught me and for providing me with such a lovely childhood.

Among the boxes from my parents home was a small box filled with these....

My mother was a wonderful seamstress, she learned to sew when she was just a young child. My grandfather died when my mother was three years old, so my mother and her siblings were raised in the City of Children - Mooseheart in Illinois. Out of necessity all of the children had to learn to sew so they could make their own underwear.  

My mother made delightfully cute Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls that were sought after by people in the town that  my parents lived in. I wrote a blog about the dolls you can read it here.

A little bit of cleaning done in the basement and a whole lot of sweet memories. It was a good day. 

Thrift Share

What treasures await inside this 

little box bought at a rummage sale. 

I fell in love with these coat hooks as soon as I saw them.

Looking forward to see what everyone's treasures are.

I am linking up with:

  Her Library Adventures, Flea Market Finds

Apron Thrift Girl, Thrift Share Monday

Me and My Shadow, Magpie Monday

Hey, What's for Dinner Mom? -  The Penny Worth Project

Cap Creation, Thrifty Love Link Party

King Protea

King Protea flower from bud to bloom

also, know as Sugarbush.

Characters Real Names

A Google search will provide you with the information you are seeking and information that you never knew you wanted. That's what happened when I Googled Mr. Clean's first name, an article written by CNN titled: Real Names of 23 Fictional Characters popped up and I was trapped by this useless but fascinating  information.

Here, are a few of my "I didn't know that moments..

Barbara Millicent Roberts

Ken Sean Carson

Patricia Reichardt

Schulz has said in several interviews that he named Peppermint Patty after a dish of peppermint candies he had in his office, and simply thought the name too good to pass up. (Source)

Bull from the comedy series

Night Court. His characters 

name was: Nostradamus Shannon (Source)

Sid

... before eating his first cookie his name was Sid (Source) 

Jonas Grumby was the Skipper

 on Gilligan's Island 

The Man in the Yellow Hat

he doesn't have a name in the books,

but when the movie came out we found out

he is Ted (Shackleford) the last name 

was deleted from the movie before it's release.

As the adage goes, you learn something new every day. This new information is probably useless, except if you are in a trivia contest, but it sure was fun to find out.

Mr. Clean a Fictional Character Has a First Name

Phew, it's been hot, humid, and extremely windy here in my little town of Wisconsin for the past few days.  So to escape the heat, I have been working in my basement sorting and cleaning out my thrift treasures.

If you have been reading my blog for a while, you know that I  love ephemera.  I found vintage cards with the most delightful illustrations and verses, stationary, vintage notebooks, binders, books, both children and adult, cookbooks, wrapping paper, craft and knitting books, and magazines. All of these items date from 1920's to 1970's.

What started as a tidy up the basement project, became a fun filled afternoon flipping through and reading many of my magazines. 

I came across an advertisement in this 1958 Christmas magazine and remembered I had done a post about this magazine last year, you can see that post here.

Check out what finger she is pointing with?

The back of a 1962 McCall's magazine announced this contest.

I never knew he had a first name.

A new home that is completely
furnished house for $30,000!

Some name suggestions: Maynard, Thundercloud...

Baldwin, Bryce... 

Waldo, Alvin...

Castor or Angus.

I never realized Mr. Clean had a first name, so I came upstairs to do a Google search to see what name won this contest.

What is Mr. Clean's First name?

It's Veritably!

So now I know his full name is: Veritably Clean.

My Google search provided me with tons of Mr. Clean information and jogged my memory about the Mr. Clean jingle. Does anyone remember this jingle and commerical?

As for the cleaning up of my basement, that didn't happen, but I sure did have a terrific time looking at my ephemera and finding out about Mr. Veritably Clean.

This got me thinking about what other fictional characters have first or last names I didn't know about. That will have to be another blog, perhaps tomorrow.

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day

Thrift Share

My oldest grandson came with me to a Thursday estate sale. When Declan heard that we were going to an estate sale he wasn't thrilled, but after we entered the house and he saw all the items just waiting to be purchased his attitude changed.

After changing his mind about ten times on what treasure to purchase, he decided on a two dollar hand carved wooden letter opener from Kenya. Which he kept calling a knife, I love the minds of ten year old boys. I think I just might have a new treasurer seeker on my hands.

The kitchen was my first stop, and that is where I saw a small plastic bag that contained hors d'oeuvre serving utensils. Six pieces for ten dollars, too much I decided, and continued to search the house for more hidden treasures.

My mind kept wandering back to the serving pieces. I convinced myself that each piece was less than two dollars so the serving utensils came home with me.

When I got home, I discovered that they 

were silverplate and made in Italy.

These flowers above the tines of the fork  are 

one of my favorite things about this set.

I also like the design of the shell

spoon. If you look closely, on the

right side of the spoon, you can

see the words Made Italy.

We paid for our treasures and went out to the attached garage, there I  found some ephemera, old magazines, newspapers, but they wanted three dollars for each item, so sadly I had to pass on those items.

While, in the garage, we were directed to the basement. How strange that the basement stairs were inside the garage. A nice gentleman greeted us, and Declan and I walked around the basement, Declan found two straw hats, and I found this.....

This 1950's Maid of Honor clothespin 

bag sold by Sear, Roebuck and Co.  

and this turquoise Arnoldware-Rogers

small basket, also from the 1950's.

It always makes me nervous when items aren't priced, but this time I was pleasantly surprised. Two straw hats, the basket and the clothespin bag, for two dollars. We were both happy when we climbed the stairs to go to our car.

Friday our Goodwill had scratch off saving tickets, you could save 15, 20 or even 25% off your total purchase. They have this promotion on the 15th of every month. So off I went, and this is what I found.

This small wooden bench that measures

28 inches wide and 16 inches tall.

What a pleasant surprise to find 

that the lid opened for storage.

Did I need this bench? Not really, but it was priced at $1.99 and my scratch off was for 15% off. How could I pass up this darling little bench for $1.69!

Looking forward to see what everyone else found this week.

I am linking up with:

  Her Library Adventures, Flea Market Finds

Apron Thrift Girl, Thrift Share Monday

Me and My Shadow, Magpie Monday

Hey, What's for Dinner Mom? -  The Penny Worth Project

Cap Creation, Thrifty Love Link Party