Atomic Tuesday: Java Jive

Welcome to this week's Atomic Tuesday!




I wonder if any of you guys have this same problem as I? Do you ever feel...not so fresh?... PSYCHE! That's just gross and inappropriate, 2 things I am not. Ok, I am, just not when it comes to rocking cliche feminine hygiene jokes from the 80's. The problem I have is with finding decent vintage coffee mugs. Dishes, glasses, barware, I've got a ton of it. All mis-matched, of course- well, except for the fancy stuff, which is all matched but never gets used, because, really, who do I think I am? The Queen of England who throws fancy-pants dinner parties? (Does she throw fancy-pants parties? I would assume so, she is the Queen after all. Also, "pants" means something entirely different in the UK, which makes this even funnier.)

You can generally find a buttload of vintage mugs in thrift stores any day of the week, but they're either those artsy fartsy, earth-toned, heavy pottery ones from the 70's that some hippie made with hemp and mud and crap OR factory-made ceramic ones with orange and yellow daisies all over them. I can appreciate both, and in fact, in the right vintage-themed kitchen the orange & yellow floral ones could be cool, but it's just not what I'm looking for right now. I'm always on the hunt for cool atomic mugs, any color or pattern works. I'm easy. (Hey-yoooo!) Sure, atomic-y mugs are out there. But most of the time you have to buy the entire matching set, including all the dishes. Or more commonly, they're always tea cups being called coffee mugs. There's a big difference! Tea cups are too small for a big-time coffee maniac such as myself. I mean, really, how hard is it to find actual coffee mugs in a cool pattern? Well, I've come to find it's pretty hard. (That's what she said. Zing!)

So for today's Atomic Tuesday, I've been stalking online for a while, trying to gather a decent enough collection of cool vintage 50's & 60's mugs to show you. I'm not gonna lie to you though, some of these are, in fact, tea cups, which makes me a little stab-a-rific and they're STILL not exactly what I had in mind, but hey, they're still rockin', so let's move on already. Enjoy!




Vintage Atomic Snowflake Mugs, Set of 4.





Vintage 60's Atomic "Cathay" Pattern Mugs, Set of 2.





Vintage 50's/60's Metlox Poppytrail Mugs, Set of 2.





Vintage 60's "Starlight" Pattern Starburst Teacups, Set of 3.





Vintage 60's Syralite "Captain's Table" Pattern Teacups, Set of 4. Captain Stubing sold separately.






Vintage 60's Homer Laughlin Footed Mugs, Set of 4. DO WANT THESE. These scream "Lewbowski", with all their bowl-a-rama kitschiness.







"Java Jive" by the Ink Spots.

My Aqua Blue Heaven Friday: Sunglasses After Dark

Welcome to Aqua Blue Heaven Friday! Today's theme is something I've been working on for weeks and I'm just gonna have to give up the ghost that it's ever gonna turn out the way I planned. What's the theme, you demand- or are mildly interested- to know?! Well, I've been hunting for vintage aqua sunglasses (or even regular eyeglasses) from the 50's or 60's and there just isn't such a beast. You'd think with the aqua craze from the era that surely even glasses would be in the same hue, but no, you are mistaken, there is not. What gives? You can buy a freaking car in aqua but not glasses?! Weird. Maybe they're just super rare and really do exist in some alternate universe somewhere. I can't say that I've personally ever seen any in real life anywhere, because if I did I would've bought those suckers faster than a drunken jackrabbit on a greased-up griddle. (Huh?) You know what we need? We need Scoob and the Gang to solve this one. So unless you're willing to wear some godawful big honking aqua ones from the 80's (I'd rather chew my own arm off, thanks), you'll have to settle for the closest glasses I could find to aqua. They're more of the powder to baby to sky to cloudy to steel blue color persuasion, but still cool all the same. Enjoy!






Vintage 50's Super Catty Sunglasses.





Vintage 50's Rhinestone Stars Sunglasses.





Vintage 50's/60's Blue Stripey Eyeglasses.





Vintage 50's Wild & Crazy French Feather Sunglasses. These are subtle, no?





Vintage 50's/60's Glitterific Sunglasses. Success! I found *a* pair!








"Sunglasses After Dark" by the Cramps.

Way-Out Wednesday: Georgy Girl

Welcome to another Way-Out Wednesday! Today's vintage pick isn't exactly "way out", not in the usual way Wednesdays around here present it's awesomely wonderful horrors and freak shows. It's not weird or creepy or even all that strange. But it is cool in it's rarity and "who knew there even was such a thing"-ness. Something that vintage lovers and retro pop culture heads will probably dig. At least, I hope you do because I think it's pretty special, all girlie and icon-y:



Why, it's the 60's Twiggy Fashion Tote, of course! Ok, so, Twiggy was way before my time, but the 10 year old girl inside me can appreciate a vinyl carrying case for your dolls and puffy unicorn stickers with a skinny-ass blond bitch on the cover. I had my fair share of Barbie crap in the 80's, so I know how girls must have felt in the 60's when they saw this. "Squeeee! Now I have something to hold my glitter stamp set & rubber Madonna bracelets!"


For those not savvy to British icons, Twiggy was one of the first major teen models, known for those huge Betty Davis-esque eys, short & chic pixie haircuts and rail-thin body, hence "Twiggy". She epitomized Carnaby Street mod and Mary Quant cool.



We all know her for her most recent work as a panel judge on Tyra Banks' riducu-fab modeling show "America's Next Top Model", but I can't imagine how many ultra mod, swingin' little British 10 year old fashionistas there were in the mid to late 60's, let alone ones who would have even known who the hell Twiggy was, but maybe she was bigger across the pond than she was here? Maybe Twiggy in the late 60's was to little girls in the UK as what Barbie was to little girls here in the States? I don't know. My head hurts form all this comparing. At any rate, it's still a kickASS vintage bag, full of pop culture iconic goodness!



"Georgy Girl" by the Seekers. Ugh. This era in music & movies creeps me the hell out. Love the movie, loathe the song.

Atomic Tuesday: Ashtray Heart

Today is Atomic Tuesday and today's theme is something that I haven't really thought about in ages: the boomerang ashtray. I remember the days, years ago, when you could find them for peanuts in just about every thrift store on the planet. Seriously cheap, like under a buck. I rarely see them anymore these days~ so what happened to them? Is it a regional thing? Did college hipsters grab them all up, for the sake of being "quirky" and "retro"? Am I just blind as a bat and am talking crazy again? Those ashtrays always reminded me of old ladies in the 70's who smoked and still used the same ashtrays they've had for 20 years. But you don't have to be a smoker to use them around the house. I use mine to hold spare change, candles and jewelry. And Valium. I mean vitamins.

Where did you go, funny little fugly/awesome ashtrays? The boomerang ashtray is one of those things that used to be cool then became a cliche then became cool again. Their low period was probably the late 90's, when they were almost a mockery, to anyone who decorated their home in mid-century modern stylings of the 50's and 60's. And now since they're getting harder to find they're becoming cool again. Like everything else, really. When it's around, it's lame. When it's nowhere, it's great. The human psyche is stupid. So here are some pretty rockin' ones, available as of now online.



Vintage Royal Haeger Boko Ashtray. I can't help it but the 12 year old in me keeps seeing a butt shape in this one. And I like it.





Vintage Orange & Olive Speckled Ashtray. Makes me want Cheetos. Now.





Vintage Royal Haeger Green Ashtray.





Vintage Flecked Shawnee Set of 2 Ashtrays. What a pair! Now you can double your storage of Valium! I mean vitamins.






"Ashtray Heart" by captain Beefheart

Where Is My Mind?

Oh, Spinnerin. I love you so. They're like crack to me, so full of the crazy. For those not in the know, vintage Spinnerin manuals are pattern & instruction booklets for making various kinds of crap by knitting it into a sweater. The sweaters themselves aren't what's nuts about them, in fact, the sweaters usually kick all kinds of ass and I would hoard them all if I had them in real life. It's the photo documentaries of the models in them that are so ridiculously stupid and make no sense. That makes them wonderful. I've mocked vintage Spinnerin magazines here before- I wouldn't say I'm totally obsessed with them, only slightly. There's a difference.

Here's another great, 1966's Spinnerin: His & Hers, so now the crazy comes in female AND male form! Great. First, the cover.




Ooh, a summer scene! This should be fun AND fitting, since it's also summer! Yay! Ok. So. Let's see, what have we got here...Middle of the summer? Established that. Green murky water? I suppose. Maybe it's a lake. They get a pass, I suppose. Standing in green murky water with pants on? Umm, I guess...? What is that, like some random folding chair sitting in the water? Wha...? How very white trash of them. Fuzzy mohair sweaters in the middle of summer?!...Really?!




This is why you can't screw with the upper class.


Man: "I can't believe the Johnsons are yachting on the same day we are! How gauche. We can't take ours out now."

Woman: "And would you look at Edith! She looks positively ghastly in that pantsuit. It looks like 200 pounds of chewed-up gum shoved into double knit. So I guess using an entire can of Aqua Net to keep my beehive in place was for nothing. Damn that Edith. That cow."

Man: "That's alright dear. I've cut their gas lines, emptied their water coolers, broke their oars AND it looks like a storm is rolling in! And I've just stolen their only life preserver! Mwuhahahaha!..."





The cigarette is the only thing right with this picture.





So...I guess we're not on the lake anymore? Where the hell are they now? And why do the women keep changing? Does Captain Tightslacks have a broad stashed at every port, literally? Spinnerin, you lost me.

"Listen to this, honey! There's an echo when I yell down your sweater! Hello down there?! Hello!--o!-o!-o!-o!-..."

Ironically, the page is titled "Paired to Perfection." Ha!





Aaaaaand we're back on the water with the redhead now? That was fast. Captain Tightslacks prefers his women with a big rack, I take it? Soooo...a table in the middle of the lake? Perfectly reasonable.





"Where is my Mind" by the Pixies.

Atomic Tuesday: Destination Moon

Welcome to this week's Atomic Tuesday! This week's inspiration came from, of all places, driving in the car. Inspiration usually comes from random places at random times, doesn't it? (Can I say "random" one more time like stupid, emo hipster? How random of me. Ha! Ok. Done.) Sometimes, when you're driving in your car, a song comes on the radio you haven't heard in eons and you can't help but sing your face off. I recently heard David Bowie's "Space Oddities" and I belted out that mofo like a drowning cat, but I don't care! Listen to my bad singing and love it, world! That song instantly took me back to being a kid in the 80's and that feeling filled me with glee, or something comparable. I don't know, I'm not good with "feelings" and "human emotions".

Having only AM radio in your car doesn't leave you many options as far as music selection goes, but I *lovelovelove* all kinds of music from all eras, so it's all good in the hood for me. (And hell no I won't replace the radio with a new one or start adding modern technology to my car like a cd player! Or a soccer-mom minivan-driving GPS! Or air conditioning! Sigh. I might sell out and bend on that one. In fact, I know I would.) The only downer of having AM radio is when all you can find is talk radio shows like "Cat Attack! The show all about cats!" OK, so I made that up, but it sounds like it could be a show. This week on Cat Attack: When painting your cat's toenails: do you go with "Jungle Cat Red" or "Kitteh Pink"? Phone in now to win a lifetime membership to Pussy Galore's House of Catnip!

So this week's Atomic Tuesday theme is in homage to that Bowie song that made me feel like a kid again. It's all about outer space today, baby.





Vintage 60's Space Needle Novelty Print Blouse. How frickin' frackin' cool is THIS?! Pink and Aqua SPACE NEEDLE? Check, please. I can only assume the World's Fair took place in Seattle, but fact-checking it too time consuming, so let's just go with it.






Vintage 50's Dinner Table Novelty Print Tablecloth. I'm not sure if you can make out the details, (it's not a great pic from the seller), but they're dinner tables. Flying through outer space. No, really. What was the designer's MO for this one?! Looks like someone mixed up their Valium and and gin rickeys again!





Vintage 50's Tom Corbett Space Cadet Record. For those who don't remember, Tom Corbett was a TV show in the 50's, based on a book from the 40's. I have no idea what a "space cadet song and march" sounds like, but I bet it rocks.






Vintage 70's Space Wars Towel. Hmm. Can't say I remember this "Space Wars" business. Was it a TV show? Movie? Or a cheap and generic "Star Wars" knockoff that your mom bought you from Kmart, hoping you'd think it was the same thing, because the actual Star Wars towel was too expensive? Moms. Scarring you for life with the emotional trauma of being mocked by your peers for having generic crap.






"Destination Moon" by Dinah Washington.

My (Aqua) Blue Heaven: Shake It Up

Welcome to a very late Aqua Blue Heaven Friday! Got tied up today with a whole lot of yard-related drama- long story short: don't run over a yellow jacket's nest when mowing the lawn, even if it was a total accident and you didn't even know it was there in the first place and for future reference you cannot, in fact, flood them out with a hose stuck in their hole in the ground like in cartoons, nor should you then add dish soap to it, expecting them to come out coughing or preferably dying, because all it does it turn the area into a giant mound-o-bubbles and sprinting past the area and trying to throw rocks into their little hole also does absolutely nothing against the wrath of angry bees and I swear this is the nail in the coffin for our neighbors who already think we're odd enough to begin with.

So. Let's just move on already, because if I sit still too long the bees will see me and presumably come after me with a great, unmerciful vengeance for disturbing their love nest with water, soap, bubbles, ant spray, rocks, bleach, sparklers, and firecrackers in vain.

Today's theme is the vintage 50's aqua salt & pepper shakers!




Vintage Egg-Shaped 2Tone Salt & Pepper Shakers w/Stand. These remind me of Mork and Mindy for some reason and give me an incredible urge to say "nanu! nanu!"




Vintage 60's MCM Japanese Salt & Pepper Shakers.





Vintage Aqua Wheat MINI Ceramic Salt and Pepper Shakers. Look how tiny they are! They fit on a spoon! CUUUUTE. They're so...so...wee!





Vintage 50's Windmill Salt & Pepper Shakers. This is so ding dang cool, I'm almost seizure-like! (Of course, it could be from inhaling all that wasp spray when the wind shifted.) When you turn the windmill propeller (what the hell is that even called?), the little plastic salt and pepper holders pop up out of the roof! Popping pepper pot! Sigh. I'm tired.






"Shake It Up" by the Cars.

Atomic Tuesday: Material Girl

Welcome to this week's Atomic Tuesday! I'm gonna keep this short and sweet today, because it's been so sweltering lately that motivation quickly turns to slack, and, wait, OK, so that happens even when it's not jungle-like outside, but it really is especially hard to concentrate and work and be an adult when it's 95 degrees out and all you're thinking about is how good it would be to turn your Slushie from 7-11 into a vodka cherry Slushie. (And don't even tell me I'm the only one who thinks about that at 10:00 in the morning....right?....Right?!) I mean, really, people. It's hot. White hot. (Ha! Did you see how I threw out that random "Pretty in Pink" reference? Did you see that there? Clever, right?! Not so much? Well who asked you anyway? I will quote random 80's movies until the cows come home and you will like it and don't make me pull this car over or I'll show you kids what-for!) Great. See?! The humidity's already gotten to my brain functioning-properly parts and inner dialogue is beginning to unravel, so let's move on before I start arguing with the voices again, shall we? Let's roll.


Today's Atomic Tuesday is something that I know most if you 50's-lovin' girlies and crafty, sew-y chickie types can appreciate: the Vintage Fabric. The possibilities are endless with a kitschy scrap-o-material. Homemade drapes? Too easy. A barkcloth tote bag? Girl, please. A vodka bottle cozy? Now you're talking my language, kid. So without further whatever, the atomic-print vintage fabric:






Vintage 50's/60s Brown Atomic Barkcloth Fabric




Vintage 50's/60's Starburst Barkcloth Fabric- with gold paint stripes & stars. Gold paint! Who doesn't love that?! So shiny...so glimmery...my precioussss.....




And my favorite, this Vintage 50's Crazy Cool Atomic Barkcloth Fabric, with squiggles and polky dots and hourglass-shaped dealies and leaf-like type of thingies. How can you not love this? Well I'm sorry, but if you're not into dealies and thingies and whatevers, I just don't know you.




"Material Girl" by Madonna.

Way-Out Wednesday: Hot Child In The City

Lately I've been finding vintage dolls to be charming, adorable, pleasant, fun to look at, normal, perfectly acceptable, sane, good candidates for Way-Out Wednesday, so today I'm keeping with it and showing one more, this Vintage 60's freckle face...someone or other. Enjoy. (?)


Ever wonder what would happen if Marcia Brady, Janis the stoner band chick from the Muppets, Ron Howard, Spongebob Squarepants, an underage 1970's hooker, Joan Crawford, a blowup doll, Carol Channing, Eric Cartman, a pork chop and a transvestite Cher impersonator had a baby?

This:







You're welcome.






"Hot Child in the City" by Nick Gilder.

Way-Out Wednesday: 16 Tons

Welcome to this week's Way-Out Wednesday! Today's theme is inspired by a conversation with an old neighbor lady remembering "the good old days" of being a little girl, when times were tough (alot like now) and money was tight (alot like now) and her parents were out of work (alot like now) and they buried their money in old food cans in the backyard. (!) Many folks didn't believe in/trust the banks, so they buried their money in the ground or hid it around the house in unsuspecting places that potential robbers wouldn't find. The old "money in the mattress" trick we often see in movies or in old cartoons was tried-and-true. Cliche, but true. (Note to self: Buy shovel. Start digging.)

So today's theme is inspired by money. The lack of having it, the needing it most when you have the least, the saving every last penny of it for a rainy day. So today, I give you the vintage bank, Way-Out Wednesday style!





This Vintage 60's Hobo Bank certainly represents the down and out in Beverly Hills everywhere. It would be funny if it wasn't so true. When you see the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and Rachel Ashwell riding in on their clashing-but-cutesy plaid and rose print horses, it's game over, man. Turns out, our worst nightmares will come to fruition: shabby chic will rule the universe.






Vintage 60's Devil Bank. I think he's after Rachel Ashwell.





Holy moses, this guy rules. This is what I would look like if I was a male ceramic decapitated bank from 1962. I know you've been wondering. Vintage 60's Cuss Bank.





...?...I have no idea...I mean, what the hell...?...If Bert from Sesame Street and Julia Roberts and a pear mated they would create this abomination? Vintage...Smiley Guy...?...Bank.





"16 Tons" by Tennessee Ernie Ford.

Atomic Tuesday: Time After Time

Welcome to another Atomic Tuesday! Today's theme is all about time~ the not having enough of it, the how fast it passes you by, the "holy crap, how is it the middle of July already, more than half of the year is over, dude you'll never believe that I bought my first Xmas present for someone already, and my birthday is creeping up closer and closer, hot damn I'm getting old, oh dear god make it stop, WHY WON'T YOU MAKE IT STOP?!" Yeah. Time. It's not on your side. And I'm not a fan.

So without wasting any more of this precious commodity, I give you this week's Atomic Tuesday time theme~ a must-have staple of any mid-century modern home decor, a little cliche but a whole lot of cool: the vintage 50's/60's starburst clock!




Vintage Ingraham Electric Starburst Clock. Comes with its original box, too!






If silver is more your speed, then how's about this Vintage Ingraham Starburst Clock? (It's just like the one above only this one is battery-run.)





Cutesy Vintage Lux Flowerburst Clock, for those who prefer their decor to be on the girlie side!






Vintage United Clock. I love the font of the numbers on this one! They remind me of graphics you'd see in old school bowling alleys from the 50's and 60's. (Ps: I have no idea if calling the style of numbers a "font" is correct. What DO you call it? Whatever. You know what I mean. Right? Right.)





Vintage German-Designed Clock. At first I thought this was heading into shabby chic hell- you know, all sorts of white with that old timey wrought iron garden gate-esque look, but then the more I looked at it, the more those super spikes grew on me and the more my mind wandered into Vlad the Impaler territory, somehow, and now I rather love it. Don't ask. It's just how this mind works.





Vintage United Battery-Run Clock. This one has me perplexed. I do love the circle-y loops at the end of each spike, but I'm not sure how I feel about the scrolly gold leaf design. Clock design shouldn't cause confusion, should it? I'm torn, sad little starburst clock. I want to love you, but you're borderline tacky. Then again, aren't we all? Ok, I'm not mad at you anymore, clock. We're cool.






"Time After Time" by Cyndi Lauper