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.

Make Mayan a Hawaiian...

...a Hawaiian shirt, that is. But not just any shirt. Oh baby, what a shirt this is! Just listed to Fast Eddie's Retro Rags, this amazing Vintage 50's SHAHEEN Hawaiian Shirt...




...with the iconic, Surf 'N Sand angel fish handprint!




But the pièce de résistance is that the shirt can be seen on page 113 of the Aloha Shirt Book (copyright 2000) by Dale Hope and Gregory Tozian! (Only difference is the colorway.) It's fantastic!




Click the links or pictures to take you to the listing!

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

My Aqua Blue Heaven: Heat Wave

Welcome to another Aqua Blue Heaven Friday! My inspiration this week was born from the sluggery and slackishness that summer heat brings. When it's too hot, that means the motivation for carrying out dull and meaningless adult tasks like working come to a screeching halt. I have 3 air conditioners running and somehow it's still only lukewarm-feeling in here. What gives?! I demand an arctic blast of freezy arctiness when I come home, you bastard air conditioners! Sorry environment, you'll have to take one more for the team. (Furthermore, I do my fair share of enviro-friendly crap around this dumb earth, so lay off with the lectures, pleaseandthanks. Not you guys, of course. The damn hippies.) And I know, enough already with the "Wah! It's hot. Wah! Its summer." I've turned into one of those people that *I* mock for complaining about the weather, when there's not a dang thing you can do about it. I am ashamed. Still, it's REALLY FREAKING HOT. There. I'm done now.

What's not only really good but really stinkin' cute in weather like this is a vintage 50's cotton skirt! I've been wearing them and simple 50's cotton sundresses all week. I'd rather get a full-frontal assault of icy air from an air conditioner that worked, but cute vintage summer pieces are a good second. So this week's theme is the vintage 50's cotton skirt! Cool novelty prints, and of course, touches of aqua blue!




Vintage 50's Ribbon Stripes Skirt.





Vintage 50's Sequined Mexican Tourist Circle Skirt.





Vintage 50's Circus Novelty Print Circle Skirt.





Vintage 50's Cowboys & Cowgirls Square Dance Novelty Print Skirt.





Vintage 50's Asian Fishing Boat Novelty Print Circle Skirt.




"Heat Wave" by Martha and the Vandellas

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.

Hell Bent For Leather

When good cats are misunderstood, as told in this 1951 pulp fiction mystery novel by Dorothy Salisbury Davis.




Skirt: "Judas Cat?! Oh, Ju-u-u-u-das Ca-a-a-at! Where are you, you naughty kitty?!"

Suit: "Halt! I think I see Judas Cat! Be still, you silly woman!"

Skirt: "Golly! What makes you think its Judas Cat?! I'm just a girl, so I have no deductive reasoning skills of my own!"

Suit: "Ha ha, that's right dear. I see...a cat...And he's wearing...now wait, it's hard to tell in the dark... he's wearing...black leather assless chaps, a spiked collar and a ball gag, it IS you, Judas Cat! You're back!"

Skirt: "Now don't you ever run away again, do you hear me you bad little kitteh?! Even if this town IS full of hate for your...well, your "alternative lifestyle", we love you and I'll buy you as many riding crops as you want from now on, I promise. We love you, Judas Cat."

Suit: Now darling, you better turn that frown upside down. You know that worrying gives you wrinkles. And next to intelligence and fat, you know I don't accept wrinkles on my woman.


Skirt: Yes, dear.

*whispers to Judas Cat*: Judas cat, tomorrow I'll teach you "sic 'em."





"Hell Bent for Leather" by Judas Priest.

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.

Cold As Ice

Lots of rainy days mean lots of indoor jobs and fix-its and crap I'd rather not do, thankyouverymuch. But when you have a home-based job, the projects and messes stare you down. Even if you try to escape it by walking into another room, that room sucks and needs cleaning up too. Its a no-win sitch. People assume that if you work from home, your house should be the epitome of Better Homes and Gardens perfection, a sparkling, twinkling delight that whiffs of Lysol and bleach. Somehow, my house is more out of order now that I'm home all day than when I had a "real" job in the real world. Believe me, I'd love to be like Martha Stewart, minus the jail time. After 4 years of doing this, you'd think I'd have a routine down by now and have my shit together yet somehow, I still lack in the "shit getting together" department. I'm working on it. One day I'll have it all together: a spotless house, a well-oiled vintage business that can run on autopilot, a tended garden, a blog that gets written a week in advance, full-course meals made homemade every day, washed & waxed cars and a happy, well-adjusted family. But not today. Tomorrow won't work for me either. But one day.

But today I have no excuse: It's crazy pouring outside again, the menfolk are off to Jersey to meet a great-grandfather for the first (and probably last) time and I'm at home with those projects making me feel so guilty, they'd give a Jewish mother a run for her shekels.

So in the wee hours of the morning I started a project: the defrosting of our vintage 50's fridge. Oh the joy, I almost can't contain it. For those of you who know already, it's not exactly fun but it's not so bad if you do when you're supposed to-- and not wait until it's a giant block of arctic wasteland, like I do. One day they're thawed out, ready to take on the world of chilling beverages, the next day they're angry, full of angst and frozen up to the world, not letting anyone in. They grow up so fast.

So here's a mini-documentary, a How-To Thaw Out A Vintage Refrigerator, if you will. Mine is a 1952 apartment-sized General Electric Super Freezer Refrigerator. (Super freezer my ass.)




Step 1: Turn the dial to "Def" (yo, that's def!) for defrost, natch-- I have to unplug the fridge though, because it thinks "defrost" means "I'll take my damn time thawing out and don't rush me, woman!"






Step 2: Open the door and leave it open. See the fun that lies ahead? Oh wait, not so much fun.



Mama mia, never wait this long to defrost it! That's as far as the I could open the freezer door! What's that, like, 2 inches? That's bad and can force the metal freezer door to pop off it's hinges or warp so it never closes all the way right again, so DON'T WAIT THIS LONG. I always swear that I'll never wait this long again, but do I listen to my own advice? Not so much.






Step 3: Put as many bowls and cookie sheets down as possible to catch as much water as possible. As the ice melts, you can open the freezer door more to let the warm air get to it.




As it thaws, you may notice things long since forgotten about that lie within. Hello, old friend! I don't even remember even having Hershey bars because I'm not a fan of them, so where could they have come from?!-ohmygod, they've been in there since Easter! Holy crap, I suck. (But don't think I didn't totally give these to the fam and act like they're brand new because I totally did and what they don't know won't hurt 'em. "Waste Not, Want Not" I always don't ever really say!)







Step 4: You'll periodically need to take the filled-up bowls out, dump out the water, and put the bowls right back in the fridge to fill up again. However, if you can use that water instead of pouring it down the drain, do so! I watered all my indoor plants that way! You'll also be able to pull out large sheets of the stuff from the sides and bottom of the freezer. I also put those to good use: I take them outside and lay them in the garden. It's so humid outside that they melt fast without freezing any flowers or vegetables!







Step 5: You may need to take a knife or some sort of pointy stick type object to hack at the stubborn ice chunks that won't come off of on their own. Be careful though, it's much more slippery than you think. I cut myself on a freaking butter knife for crissakes.








Step 6: Shazam! Good as new! Once all the ice is totally gone from all sides of the freezer and all the bowls are out, give the inside a good rub-down with a towel. Now you're ready to start all over again, ignoring it and denying it your love for another 6 months until you can't close the freezer door again and remember to defrost it. It's a vicious, dysfunctional circle. Like family.





"Cold as Ice" by Foreigner. I know. I am ashamed.

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.