More Armstrong Floors

I wrote a post back in January of last year about Armstrong Floors. I love all of the great rooms featured in their advertisements over the years. I also just recently found a fabulous book from 1953 which shows quite possibly everything Armstrong had available back then. It is SO cool, and brings to mind the great "Linoloeum" book I wrote about back in this post.
So I found a few more ads, and I wanted to share them with you. Let's start with this one from 1954 - I'll take that yellow lamp and the super-cool barkcloth:

Excelon vinyl-asbestos Tile, here in this "sunken garden" living room made possible by opening up an old basement, circa 1955:

Spatter Linoleum in the living room below, from 1955. I happen to be a HUGE fan of Spatter Linoleum; I absolutely love the way it looks:

Here are some "Spatter" pictures from my book:



Here's family room with a floor of Mosaic Style Corlon, circa 1959:

In this room from 1959, you see the "fashionable glitter of metallic particles" in Excelon Tile:

This one is a downstairs playroom, with a floor of Montina Vinyl Corlon, from 1964:

More Montina Vinyl Corlon, from 1965 this time - "Inspiration: a Hawaiian Lanai":

Coronelle Vinyl Corlon, from 1966:

Another family room, this one with a vinyl floor from the Coronelle Collection, 1968:

This one is a game room with Rocosa Excelon Tile, from 1968:

And a couple of more pages from my fab book:

Makes me want to go to the nearest flooring store and check out what's available now!
(I could dream about great-looking vintage style flooring in my sleep- probably because our kitchen floor is in such DIRE need of replacement. No exaggeration - ask my sisters!)

Leoni Meadows Field Trip, Part Two: A Tour Of The Homestead

Give me the opportunity to tour an old home, and I'll take it - any day of the week. They fascinate me. And getting to walk through the Leoni Homestead at Leoni Meadows was a treat.
This display was set up in what may have been the front parlor - the old time version of a work/craft room (more work than craft!):

One of the bedrooms:

An example of the vintage clothing on display:
Another bedroom:
An antique wedding dress:

And yet another bedroom:

They even had some of "my" Jeanette Jadeite on display atop the old stove in the kitchen:



Not everything in the home is original, nor even necessarily period-appropriate. Doesn't matter a whit to me; I enjoy seeing it all:

A gorgeous art nouveau-style sconce:

This crazy quilt was so spectacular, I had to take a bunch of photos of it:






And that concludes our tour of the Leoni Homestead at Leoni Meadows.

Models From The 70's - Susan Dey

I did a post about Susan Dey back in 2009. But, since I am doing this series now on models of the 70's, I decided to revisit her, since she was one of my favorites.
(Please go back and view my earlier post to see many more great pictures of her.)
Here she is dressed in suede with fringe:

And wearing a lovely smocked dress:

Wearing a dress from The Red Eye, 1969:

With Lucy Angle, in an ad for Ship 'N Shore:

From a Pursettes ad:

And in an advertisement for Avon:

All of these photos are from my vintage Seventeen magazines. I love those old magazines of my youth! I swear, I wish I had every single issue!

An Anniversary

Thirty-one years ago today, my sisters had a double wedding. They were married inside the Emmanuel Church in Coloma, California. Tina wrote a post about the church back in May. Click here to go back and read her post. In the picture you see below, from left to right, that's cousin Elaine, Tina, Lori and me:
They made their dresses, and our outfits, too. Their wedding dresses were made from this Gunne Sax pattern:

And I think the pattern below may have been the one that was used for the skirts worn by Elaine and me. You can't see them, but they were off-white cotton with eyelet lace trim:
I still have my skirt, but I couldn't find it for this post. I did find my blouse, though. Made from a pretty little posy print with lace trim:
I don't know which pattern the blouses were from, but maybe I'll come across it some day. How sweet are those little heart-shaped buttons?

(I'm hoping to borrow Tina's dress from her some day, and I will dress Penny in it so that I can add it to this post and share it with you. If I find my skirt, I'll do the same with my maid of honor outfit.)
Happy Anniversary!

For Columbus Day

Although the real Columbus Day is October 12th, we do observe the holiday today, so I thought I would post this poem and illustration that Lori and I found in a vintage book.
"Dark-Eyed Lad Columbus", by Nancy Byrd Turner::

 

 

Illustrations by John Gee
Happy Columbus Day!

A Visit To Apple Hill

Lori and I managed to make it to Apple Hill last week. It was quite late in the day, and we only had time to visit Abel's Apple Acres . Both of Lori's kids worked there when they were in high school. I don't think I had ever been there!
They sell pies, of course, and all kinds of other goodies. But I didn't buy any of these:
...or these:
I did, however, bring home some apples.
Oh, yeah....and some fudge:

One ounce of fudge equals three Points Plus Values on Weight Watchers.
I can do this.
I'm certain that I can.