Mother-in-law Chronicles day 4

Today is day 4 of the invasion. First let me say this, my mom-in-law is a nice person, kind and generous too. It's the other part of her personality that's something else. She is set in her ways and in the way she sees things. One of her quirks is people's eating habits. She eats healthy and thinks the rest of us should too. I love food. I love to eat and yes, I can stand to lose a few pounds, but being tsk tsk'd when I walk into a candy store or eat a snack cake is rather irratating. It's awful to know that everything you pop into your wagon at the supermarket is being quietly tabulated for it's unhealthyness in someone else's mind. Perhaps I'll need to join a 12 step program soon because it has gotten to the point I am hording and hiding snacks. Candy safely tucked away in my craft supplies, a recently rereleased creamy dream cake in the hall closet and chips stored quietly in the petfood cabinet. Unfortunatly I cannot do much to hide the ice cream (insert exasperated "Uuuugh!!!" right here) Like an alcoholic hiding bottles around the house, I have snacks and candy here and there, burying things like a frantic squirrel who knows winter is almost here. Before this, I never realized how fast I could shove food in, or how much, just so no one would see me eating! There is a bag of nacho chips calling my name right now but she is sitting between me and the cabinet.. Should I go for it and know I am being judged as I happily crunch away or await her afternoon nap? Sigh. Thinkng.. Thinking.. Halleluia it's naptime! Thank you jetlag! C'mere you crunchy bag of nacho-ee goodness :)

A mild purple obsession..

A very popular color and indeed my favorite. When it's paired with green it is completely irrisistable to me! I'll just let the color speak for itself...

These were collected from all over the internet. But they are just so nice to look at all together :)

Welcome Autumn

Don't you just love the holidays? Of course I am gearing up for Christmas but I must not forget how much I like Halloween and Thanksgiving also. Autumn is by far the best season for me with the chill in the air, cozy sweaters and the multitude of colors nature provides via the leaves on the trees. Nice! My parents live in an area where the leaf color explosion is beyond amazing - bright oranges, deep reds and sunshine yellows. The colors provide a shock to the senses not just by sight but the smell also beckons back to a time when I lived in the country and could smell nothing but crisp clean Fall air. Being in a city suburb has it's advantages, but then again so does the country. One is good for your wallet, the other is good for your soul. It's a shame that fall doesn't last as long as winter. I prefer the slight chill to the deep chill!

What were they thinking when they did that?!?

One week to Christmas Eve. Yep I'm ready. Loooove this time of year, all the crazies out panic shopping on the last shopping weekend before the holiday. There was even a little bit of snow to make everything wet and some of the crazies even crazier.

This brings us to my next bunch of vintage Christmas photos for your holiday viewing enjoyment. I'll call today's collection "What the heck were they thinking when they did the garland?". Growing up, my mom always did the garland on our tree and her slight OCD made it quite enjoyable to watch. Here's how it went: 1) Dad and us kids put the tree up 2) Dad does the lights 3) kids put ornaments up 4) mom puts garland up 6) mom adjusts garland 7) mom adjusts garland some more 8) Mom takes garland off tree and re-puts it back on 9) Mom hates it, takes it down 10) mom puts the garland up but at another angle 11) Mom hates it and takes it all off again 12) Mom puts it back up the way she had it up in the first place 13) Mom adjusts the garland. Then we were able to put the trainset up. Looking at the following photos I can assure you that Mom would most definately NOT approve of the garland...

Garland matches the carpet, they get points for that.

One strand?!? And on the bottom?!?

Looks like someone's arms got tired after the first wrap. Gotta love people who like to conserve garland by only wrapping around the front of the tree.

One gets the impression that the garland wrapper felt the need to restrain this tree.

More tired arms. Start at the top, and then straight down and once around.

This is definately not my mom's tree. She couldn't reach that high.

Wow. Creative yes. Wow again.

Look at the shiny ornament and pay no attention to the goofy garland my dear.

No tree midsection, no place to hang garland. Keep that in mind when you go out looking for a tree!

Merry Christmas!!

I'm too Sexy for my Tree!

Here are some more fun vintage Christmas photos. We'll put these in the "I'm too sexy for my tree" catagory.

She was in love with her dress, her photographer husband just loved the new carpet though...

Vinyl dress with coordinating go-go boots and obligatory turtleneck.

Work it honey! And when your done get some ornaments on that scrawny naked tree woman..

Another one too busy Christmas dress shopping and no ornament shopping. Sigh. LOVE the shoes though!

The higher the hair the closer to God. And on such a holy night. Plastic on the furniture would make my mother proud.

More Vintage Christmas fun next time!

Christmas Kids

I love old photographs. Nothing in particular, but just the fact that they can teleport you to a different time and place. Plus they make you wonder: What ever became of the the people in the pictures? What where their lives like? Oh well.. Let's have some fun with some old Christmas photos... :)

"Santa Baby, just slip a sable under the tree, for me..."

Ma! This ain't what I wanted for Christmas!!!

Got my trusty steed and peacemaker.. Santa better not forget what I want or else!

As my 9th grade English teacher used to say: "Blessed art thou among women"

Grandma I don't know what's scarier - your dog or your lamp!

OOOO Shiny ringy thingy!!!!! WANT!!!!

Have a happy Christmas season!

Hey crafters! Here's a tip for you!

Ever wondered what to do with all those crazy colorful pom poms you have hanging around cluttering the old craft or sewing room?! Nicki Minaj has the perfect solution for you:



Waste not want not. Love the socks!

80's Hair. High and Foofy!

Tonight's topic is 1980's hair. The 80's were my formative hair years, I went through my teen years dreaming of sky high tresses whipped up with Aqua Net and Tenex. Mousse wasn't just for dessert anymore! Gobs of gel made hair helmets and a few 100 shots of hairspray made those helmets impenetrable. One night I was feeling rather giddy and took a razor to my head and gave myself sort of a mini Mohawk that was easily hideable under layers of feathered camouflage. It worked but I learned one valuable lesson: Prell might be a good shampoo, but it's hell on razor burn.

Ahh 1980's on Long Island, where outfits were big and hair was even bigger! The 80's were also my formative music years. Nothing was better than New Wave stuff and my goodness could those people think of some really wild hairdos!!! Here's a bunch of my favorites.


The Alarm, a personal favorite. Give me love, give me hope, give me hairspray..


Alphaville. The guy in the middle looks sad, maybe it's because his hair went flat...


Bananarama! Poof! Poof! and Poof!


Depeche Mode made 80's hair really cool.


OK, the Flock of Seagulls dude wins the "How the heck did you do that" award this evening.


Gene Loves Jezebel. Yikes.


Teri Nunn of Berlin looking uber cool in her bi-color style.


Howard jones makes foofy hair look good. I saw him in concert in 1985 and throughout the show his do never went flat. Damn.


Kajagoogoo


Missing Persons, plastic boobies and big hair.


Boy George. Need I say more?


Nick Rhodes from Duran Duran. That's the hairstyle I would have loved to have when I was 15. Neither my hair nor my mom would cooperate with me on that one...


Nitro. Never heard of these guys but when I saw the pic I knew it needed to be added to this blog. Wow. That's all I can say.


Poison. Purple jacket, check. Lipstick, check, Bracelets, check. Peroxide, check.


Sigue Sigue Sputnik. I like when the mohawk matches the jacket, don't you? That shows a refined sense of style.


Specimen. These guys weilded cans of hairspray as well as they weilded black kohl eyeliner. I wonder what happened to the Bat Cave?


No 1980's hair compilation would be complete without Robert Smith of the Cure.


Thompson Twins.


Queensryche. The lure of the aerosol can hit the Northwest too, not just the Northeast.


Strawberry Switchblade. Offray Ribbon and their local craft store must have wept when they went away.


And we finish with Vicious Pink and Yazoo:





It makes you want to go out and buy some Aqua Net, doesn't it?!