A Roseville Mantel

I received my first piece of Roseville about 25 years ago as a birthday gift.  It was my one and only “perfect” piece as I continued to receive Roseville gifts through the years.  I’m very happy with pieces that have a small chip or crack because I know they were displayed and loved by someone.  Unfortunately, last Christmas I dropped and completely shattered my perfect little vase and replaced it last summer with one that has a chip or two.  The pattern is Bushberry.

I received two more beautiful pieces of Roseville this Christmas, a Columbine ewer and a Water Lily vase…

…and thought it might be a good time to get out all of the treasures and place them on the mantel before beginning my post-Christmas display.

In addition to the three pieces above, there are 3 candle holders (Snowberry, Primrose and Magnolia)…

…two large vases (Hibiscus)…

…a large vase and a bookend (Freesia)…

…a console, a sconce shell and a creamer (White Rose, Magnolia and Zephyr Lily).

I love having these beautiful pieces to display throughout my home at different seasons of the year.  I enjoy this collection particularly because it is a product of Ohio.  The company was in business from 1890 to 1954, starting in Roseville, Ohio and moving to Zanesville, Ohio in 1898.  I’m also attracted by the 1930s-40s style and muted colors.

The Robert Fabe signed print over the mantel is called March Morning and shows a street in the Mt. Adams suburb of Cincinnati.  (Click picture for close-up)  It’s not where I lived as a child but looks very much like my old neighborhood.  I sure hope we don’t have that much snow this year in March.

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It’s Christmas Time in my December Kitchen

In 1990, my youngest daughter gave me a Hallmark ornament showing Santa as the caller at a hoedown for his reindeer.  It was especially appropriate because my husband and I were ardent square dancers at the time.

The ornament became the centerpiece of the windowsill over the sink with a few small tins and figures added.  I’ve used the same display ever since.

The shelves on either side of the window hold snowmen made by my oldest daughter, Christmas mugs from grandchildren who are in their mid-20s now, and little S’Mores figures.

In the bay window area, I have a vintage paper bell, two favorite Rockwell Christmas plates and red plastic cookie cutters I bought at the dime store in 1953.

The top of my primitive shelf holds items handmade by my daughter

And the rest of the shelves hold vintage bottles, a fragment of a fancy apron I made for my mother over 50 years ago, grandma/grandpa salt and pepper shakers from a favorite restaurant of long ago, Christmas spoons, a St. Nicholas tile and my favorite Mary Engelbreit figures – “I Love Christmas”.

I have two wall hangings I made – one, a primitive based on my Christmas china…

(This is my post on how I designed and made the wall hanging.)

…and a countdown calendar in which felt cookies are removed from the big mixing bowl and placed into a pocket.

A Department 56 lady reigns over everything as my kitchen muse.

The newest addition this year has been a 1940s era doll table and chair set.  The set now has a hostess, a 1960s Penny Brite doll.  She’s graciously serving from a bountiful table with punchbowl, cupcakes, gingerbread house and candy canes.

My favorite is a tiered fudge dish fashioned from small bolts by my daughter.

Luckily, I was able to get most of my decorations up this year before I had some medical problems, so everything is ready for Christmas.

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Time for Halloween in my October Kitchen

I love to get out all of the vintage, collectible and handmade items for my October kitchen.  On the window sill there is a pumpkin that my mother had 30 years ago, some funny S’More figures in costume and my oldest daughter’s hand-stitched tea towel.

The shelves at the side of the window hold crafted pieces by both daughters.

In the bay window is a painted witch that goes back over 20 years to my decorative arts days.

There is a picture embroidered by my oldest daughter and two wall hangings I made in my early days of quilting.

The top of the big set of shelves holds my painted haunted house and some vintage candles….

…on the middle shelf is a miniature chair I painted along with candlesticks made by my youngest daughter, and some pieces made by my oldest daughter, including some felted wool figures.

I love this decoration my oldest daughter made from an old woman’s shoe.  Remember when grandma wore this type of shoe?

In this case, it’s the “Witch’s Night Out” and she has everything she needs for a good time – an invitation to the dance, a fan, a mask and feathers, beads, her dance card, and her “Eau de Lizard”.

All I have to do is get a big bag of candy for the trick or treaters and I’m ready.

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A Tea Set for my Doll Table

When I posted about finding this darling set in an antique mall awhile back, I said I needed to be on the lookout for some little dishes and a doll to fit the furniture.  My blogger friend, Sarah, at Sarahdidit, suggested a “tiny table topper”.  I hadn’t thought of that and made up one from two 3 inch log cabin blocks.

Then, on my birthday, I found my table decked out with a hand-crocheted table cloth …

and a little bitty tea set plus a birthday cake with a candle.

Now, I’m all ready for a casual lunch or high tea.

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Look What I Just Found at the Antique Mall

Today, we went to one of my favorites – The Covered Bridge Antique Mall in the Mt. Healthy suburb of Cincinnati.  This darling 1930s-40s era metal table and chair set in depression green was marked down from $70 to $35.  I have no idea where I’m going to put it but it had to come home with me.  The table is 3 inches tall and the chairs, about 3-1/2 inches tall.  There is a darling graphic of a sunbonnet girl on each piece.  The color is a little off in this picture.

Now, I’ll have to be on the lookout for a vintage doll or two and some dishes.

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It Was a Very Good Year – 1975 – 1981

On July 13, 2012, my two daughters surprised me with a big box of wrapped gifts, informing me it was exactly 80 days until my 80th birthday and I would be able to unwrap one gift a day.  The gift items would commemorate a year in my life in some way.  This is what I received this week.

1975 – A collage of pictures from an old area amusement park, Fantasy Farms, including vintage tickets.  One sunny afternoon, my mother and I took my five-year-old daughter to the park.  My mother had just made herself a dress of denim with red bandana trim and also made one for my daughter.  I thought it was a cute idea but my daughter was indignant – not only that she went to an amusement park dressed like her grandma, but that all the other girls were wearing shorts and tee-shirts, not a pretty dress.  My oldest daughter made up the collage that includes bits from a home movie I took that day and some photo-booth antics of my daughter.  She also did a classic 1970s design on the back.

1976 – An RC soft drink bottle commemorating the Bicentennial 1776-1976.  This is even more special because it pictures and lists the Presidents who came from Ohio.

1977- A vintage Atlas Strong Shoulder Mason jar and zinc lid with a 1977 Ohio State Fair blue ribbon and entry tag.  This is amazing for me to receive because I remember so well seeing this woman’s food entries at the Ohio State Fair for many years – most of them with blue ribbons.  The jar dates between 1896-1902.  Somehow, the jar, ribbon and entry tag wound up in a Cincinnati antique store where my oldest daughter found it.

1978 – A 1978 Hallmark Date Book with calendar, gift guide and wedding anniversary gift list.  Also, a First Day of Issue for  the 13-cent square dance stamp, dated April 26, 1978.  This is important to me because I had just graduated from square dance class in March of 1978 and continued to square and round dance for over 15 years.

1979 – The 1979 Royal Copenhagen Christmas plate – Choosing the Christmas Tree.   I’ve always loved Christmas and this plate will be a nice addition to my decorations this year.

1980 – 1980 issue of Quilt World Omnibook.  I hadn’t begun quilting yet in 1980 and I love seeing the patterns, stories and pictures from this era.

1981 – 1981 catalog – Gifts from Top Value Stamps.  These were the stamps our neighborhood store handled and it was like a wonderful bonus to collect the stamps each week and finally have enough to exchange for something nice.  I found a couple of items in this catalog that the girls remembered having in our 1981 kitchen.

All of my posts on this wonderful celebration are listed in Family – My 80th Birthday in my index on the right hand side of the page.

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It Was a Very Good Year – 1968-1974

On July 13, 2012, my two daughters surprised me with a big box of wrapped gifts, informing me it was exactly 80 days until my 80th birthday and I would be able to unwrap one gift a day.  The gift items would commemorate a year in my life in some way.  This is what I received this week.

1968 – A double CD set of favorite songs from 1960s.

1969 – My oldest daughter put together a booklet of clippings from her 1969 scrapbook.  There was quite a bit about Neil Armstrong and the moon landing.

1970 - This is something of a tongue-in-cheek gift – a David Cassidy/Partridge Family trading card.  Although I was never much of a fan, my daughter who was born in 1970 is and was delighted to find this gift for me.  The lyrics to the song are on the back of the card.

1971 – A Gordon Lightfoot songbook.  This is perfect for me since Gordon Lightfoot is my all-time favorite singer.

1972 – A 1972 edition of Sport Story with Pete Rose on the cover.  No one lived in Cincinnati in this era who didn’t know Cincinnati Reds star Pete Rose.

1973 – The book Secretariat.  Secretariat was the Triple Crown Winner in 1973.

1974 – My youngest daughter knitted a pair of mittens in the classic colors of the 1970s from a vintage pattern.

All of my posts on this wonderful celebration are listed in Family – My 80th Birthday in my index on the right hand side of the page.

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It Was a Very Good Year – 1954-1960

On July 13, 2012, my two daughters surprised me with a big box of wrapped gifts, informing me it was exactly 80 days until my 80th birthday and I would be able to unwrap one gift a day.  The gift items would commemorate a year in my life in some way.  This is what I received this week.

1954 – My oldest daughter embroidered dish towels from 1954 patterns.  The Dutch Boy is from The Workbasket – April, 1954 (the same month and year she was born) and the girl with the umbrella is from a 1954 coloring book.

1955 – A 1-½ inch diameter tin labeled School Buildings 1955 and containing an actual film strip showing the latest improvements in school buildings in that year.

1956 – A TV Guide for February 4-10, 1956.  A note is attached, “You were probably watching some of these shows waiting for your first son to arrive.”  My oldest son was born on March 8, 1956, so I was spending a lot of time watching Gary Moore, Perry Como, Annie Oakley (a favorite of my toddler daughter), and Cincinnati’s local star, Ruth Lyons.

1957 – A Betty Furness Westinghouse Roast Meat Thermometer and Skewer.  Betty Furness was best known in the early days of television for opening Westinghouse refrigerators and talking about all of their wonderful features.

1958 – A 1958 copy of Woman’s Day Cook Book of Favorite Recipes.  I have a large cookbook collection but have never seen this one.  I was interested to find a lot of canning and bake-from-scratch recipes.

1959 – A metal tin that had held a typewriter ribbon.  It has an interesting graphic on the top of the tin and Feb 59 on the back.  After all of the years I spent typing, I love anything dealing with typewriters, especially the vintage items.

1960 - A picture of President and First Lady Kennedy leaving the hospital with John Kennedy, Jr.  The note attached to this picture says, “1960 – The year two important John-Johns were born“.  This refers to my youngest son, John, who was born March 11, 1960.  When he was a toddler, we did refer to him as John-John now and then.

As I was leaving the hospital with my baby John, I looked nothing like Jackie in her perfect suit, hat, gloves and pumps.

All of my posts on this wonderful celebration are listed in Family – My 80th Birthday in my index on the right hand side of the page.

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It Was a Very Good Year – 1947 – 1953

On July 13, 2012, my two daughters surprised me with a big box of wrapped gifts, informing me it was exactly 80 days until my 80th birthday and I would be able to unwrap one gift a day.  The gift items would commemorate a year in my life in some way.  This is what I received this week.

1947 – A 1947 magazine article about the Cincinnati Reds’ star pitcher, Ewell Blackwell.  I’ve always been a baseball fan and was particularly devoted to the Reds in 1947.  As usual, we had a pretty poor team but then Ewell Blackwell came within two outs of consecutive no-hitters (I’ve never forgiven Eddie Stanky of the Brooklyn Dodgers for ruining that moment) and dazzled everyone that season.

1948 – A set of leaflets showing the wonderful hair styles that could be achieved with cold wave permanents.  I always had naturally curly hair and never needed a permanent, but I remember my mother and sister trying every means to having pretty hair – and they succeeded. 

1949 – A 1949 baby care book which I would have loved when I had my first child in 1954.  This is really interesting to me but there’s a bonus –

…there’s a letter from the old French Bauer Dairy in Cincinnati which I can add to my collection.

1950 – My youngest daughter copied 26 songs from the 1950s, chosen by my oldest daughter who remembers hearing a lot of them when she was growing up in the 50s.

1951 – A 1951 baseball card for Cincinnati Reds third-baseman, Grady Hatton.  Ewell Blackwell, mentioned above, was a super-star, but the one all the girls liked was Grady Hatton.  He was young, single, and handsome.  I’m sure he made the Ladies’ Days at old Crosley Field a lot more crowded than they normally would have been.

1952 - A special piece my oldest daughter made from an Altoid tin.  I was 20 in 1952 – not old enough to vote but I admired Dwight D. Eisenhower from World War II days.  The inside of the tin shows a picture of me showing off my I LIKE IKE pin.

I was more of an Eisenhower fan than I was a Republican and I was so thrilled when he won.  I posted about that 1952 election here.

1953 – My youngest daughter knit a great dusting mitt from a 1953 pattern.

Here is the link to my daughter’s blog for the pattern and information:

http://wardenslog.blogspot.com/2012/08/celebrating-80-yearswith-knit-dusting.html

All of my posts on this wonderful celebration are listed in Family – My 80th Birthday in my index on the right hand side of the page.

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Mayonnaise Chocolate Cake – a 1940s Recipe

One of my Christmas gifts this year was a small 4-½ x 6 inch leather bound book engraved “Cooking Recipes”, purchased at an antique mall in Sugar Creek, Ohio.  The pages are edged in gold and there are 10 index tabs for food categories.  

The real gold in this book, though, is the collection of handwritten recipes.  There aren’t a lot of recipes – just 25, 22 of which are desserts.  The book itself could have been from the 1930s, but I believe the recipes are from the 1945-1950 era.  This is based on a lot of recipes calling for shortening, for using the word “oleo” rather than margarine in most recipes and the attention given to oven temperatures.  I believe it’s post-World War II because of all of the sugar-laden desserts.

The handwriting is clear and ingredients are listed correctly, although most of the recipes give no idea of how the item is to be prepared, what kind of pan to use or how long to bake.  That’s why I’ve decided to make each of the recipes, using the products specified, and adding my own instructions.  I like to think that the woman from the 1940s kitchen (who would have been about my mother’s age) would enjoy having someone fuss around with these recipes again and turn out some delicious food for the family.

This is a good, family-style cake – soft and moist, but not too rich.  Normally, I use a reduced-fat, olive oil based mayonnaise but since the mayonnaise is replacing eggs and shortening in this recipe, I went with the full-fat version (Hellman’s Real Mayonnaise).

MAYONNAISE CHOCOLATE CAKE

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup regular mayonnaise (not low fat)
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• ¼ cup cocoa
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp. baking soda

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F for a glass pan, 350 degrees F for a metal pan
Grease and flour a 9 inch baking pan

In the large bowl of a mixer, beat together the sugar, water and mayonnaise.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and cocoa.

Add the dry ingredients to the mayonnaise mixture and beat on medium speed for 2 minutes.

Pour into prepared pan …

…and bake in preheated oven for approximately 40 minutes or until cake tests done when a tester is inserted in the center of the cake.

Cool in the pan on a wire rack.

Keep cake in pan and when cool, frost with:

VINTAGE CHOCOLATE FROSTING

• 2 cups powdered sugar, divided
• ¼ cup cocoa
• ¼ tsp salt
• ¼ cup butter, softened
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 3-4 Tblsp. cream (or evaporated milk)

Place 1 cup of powdered sugar, cocoa, salt, butter and vanilla in mixer bowl.  Beat for one minute.  Gradually add remaining cup of powdered sugar alternately with cream until of desired consistency.

Frost top of cake.

Makes 9 servings

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