Kitchen Shower Part 2

We played several games at Kristin's  Shower. As a mingler we handed each guest a card with an ingredient on it. They had to talk to other ladies and come up with a recipe having no more than six ingredients. The ladies were amazing and it was difficult to pick a winning team, but in the end Shrimp Scampi won. For another game, we covered spices bought at Dollar Tree with scrapbook paper to hide the labels and then numbered them. The spices were passed around and the ladies had to identify the spices by sight and smell. The guests who had the most correct answers won a prize. The bride was then given the spices to stock her pantry. Another game had the ladies try to name a selection of oddball vintage kitchen gadgets.

A collection of vintage kitchen gadgets

The favorite game was the toilet paper wedding dress game. Usually, the bride or a person from each team is dressed in a toilet paper dress. I wanted to give our ladies more time, so I decided to use mannequins. I found the mannequins on Craigslist. They were black and in rough shape, so I spray painted them pastel colors to match our theme. We provided 24 double rolls of toilet paper, tape, needles, thread and scissors. I was impressed with the dresses our teams made!

This dress had shoes, a veil and bouquet

Toilet paper chic

The winning dress

Notice the rosebud detail down the back

Because I had so many games, it meant I needed a lot of prizes. My budget was tight, so most of our prizes were dollar store items dressed up. The magnetic chalkboards were Dollar Tree silver trays painted with chalkboard paint. We glued ribbons to the back with hot glue then covered the entire back with felt. The magnets and felt were on sale at Jo-Ann's and the pearl and silver buttons I used for the magnets were 25¢ each at SAS. This brought my total for the chalkboards to about $1.75 each. The chalkboards are great to keep in the kitchen for messages or to write down grocery items as you run out.

I wanted all our friends to look lovely while they are doing the dishes.

My husband made the custom tags which I paired with Dollar Tree treat bags

I made a variety of colors and patterns

The glam gloves started with Dollar Tree rubber gloves. We lucked out because they actually had a good array of colors. The fabric I used came from Goodwill (some in the form of sheets), and my ever growing fabric stash. The only other cost was the grosgrain ribbon, which I bought half-off at Michael's (and it was also used on the coordinating towels). I opted to pleat the cuffs because I think it looks nicer than gathering. If I have time before Christmas, I will post a tutorial because they make GREAT gifts and cost about $1.50 to make.

The ruffled dish towels were made from flour sack towels I bought at Walmart for $5.00. When I opened them, they were double the width I needed so I cut them in half, hemmed them, and ended up with 10 towels for the price of five! I ironed, hemmed, and gathered three strips of fabric for each towel, added a band of ribbon and a bow, and came up with what I think is a darling towel for about 75¢ each.

Keeping with the kitchen theme, my sister embellished Dollar Tree coupon organizers (for beginners) with ribbon and rhinestones. I think they were adorable.

We filled the rest of the basket (also on an earlier bog) with dollar store kitchen items for a total of 65 prizes at about $65.00.

Maybe it seems excessive, but on several of the games we had a possibility of 24 winners per game. I think being a good hostess requires sometimes having too much, but never not enough.

We finished the night with the die-hards (it was a 13 hour party) with more pictures and a Bridal Pictionary game my darling daughter Mary Kate put together. She was my graphic designer for all the party games and she did an amazing job, especially considering it was mid-terms and she's an honors student! For Pictionary, we used a chalkboard I made with an old gold frame, 1/4-inch ply, and custom chalkboard paint in dark pink.

You can make chalkboard paint in any color by mixing 1 cup of latex paint with 2 Tbsp of grout. I used a foam roller to paint the plywood, but you could use any roller to transform a wall into a chalkboard. It's great for a child's room. 

I'll be back soon with more DIY's from the shower and wedding!

I Am Not The Hostess With The Mostess
I'm more like the hostess without two pennies to rub together! I know I haven't blogged in a long time. I have been busy with my girls and working on my niece's bridal shower and wedding. We wanted the shower to be a surprise so, as much as I wanted to post what we've been up to, I had to wait.

Our beautiful bride

My niece is also my Goddaughter and has always been a daughter in my eyes. She lost her mother when she was 7 and was raised by my mother who passed away 3 years ago. Almost her entire life I have lived less than a mile from her. She has been a joy and a blessing in my life. You may remember in an earlier post that I was taking a sabbatical from parties after throwing 15 last year. Dummy me, I volunteered to HELP the Maid of Honor with the shower (my 3 girls were bridesmaids) and I ended up throwing the shower. 

All my beautiful girls

The theme was vintage kitchen. Early on we decided to make a recipe scrapbook as a way to incorporate my niece's mother, grandmother, great grandmother, aunts and other important women in our lives who are no longer with us. The second half of the book is filled with the women who were at the shower, the women who are there to love and support her now. My oldest daughter and I put the book together and we sent out pages and embellishments with the invitations asking the guests to scrapbook a handwritten recipe and photo to include in her book. 

Our Scrapbook

One of her mom's pages

One of her grandmother's pages

One of Great Grandma's pages

Her sister's page

My page

Kristin absolutely loved it. I felt awful when she started to cry, but everyone assured me they were good tears.

The photo booth backdrop for the shower was made using the same paper (on sale at Michael's 6@$1.00). It was a huge hit. I made it from two sheets of 8 x 4, 1/4" ply. I had Home Depot cut a foot off the top of both pieces and one in half. The finished backdrop was 7' x 8'. The ply wanted to warp when standing so we glued 5 1x2 strips to the back. One in the center and the other 4 on the inside edges so we has something to screw the hinges into. It worked like a charm. The scrapbooking paper is 12" x 12" so no cutting was involved. The hardest part was laying out a pattern. It took a couple of extra trips to Michael's for additional page styles that weren't in the scrapbook (while the paper was still on sale) to give the backdrop the right overall look. We put the paper on using white glue and a foam brush. We thought about spray adhesive (which is a favorite of mine) or Modge Podge but because of the size it was too costly. We had to do a little smoothing to work out bubbles and creases, but the end result was fantastic!

My niece Lauren putting the paper on. 

I made a silverware chandelier for the booth to tie in with the kitchen theme. All the silverware I used was $3.00 on half price day at Goodwill. I tore apart two old lampshades I had laying around, (one small, and the smaller part of a large shade) to get the hoops to hang the silverware on. I thought I was doing great! A silverware chandelier for $3.00! Then I started drilling. I have a fantastic variable speed Dremel that takes drill bits and I bought bits made for drilling stainless steel. The spoons were a piece of cake. One drill bit did all 8, but I switched to a new one for the forks. Then my trouble began! I think I went through 4 bits on the forks. I did one knife and called it quits. Luckily my husband stepped in with the big drill, lots of muscle and several more bits and finished my knives! I strung the silverware and attached the hoops together with fishing line, then added some crystals from my collection. I think it turned out cute and it makes a great wind chime! 

We won't talk about how much I spent on drill bits. The lesson I learned, spend more money on the silverware and buy vintage pieces that are much easier to work with and prettier to look at!
The antique camelback trunks I had on my blog over the summer are off the market. My husband commandeered the huge one for his office. It now holds his watercolor board, mat board, poster board, and other art supplies.

The smaller trunk paired with a rickety antique coffee table I fixed, is a perfect place to hold and display props for the photo booth. Part of the lid compartment was missing and it was ideal for sticking containers full of sunglasses, lips and mustaches, blurbs and other small props in. The bottom of the trunk held hats, frying pans, rolling pins, frames and other large props. We also put a large mirror on the patio so everyone could see how silly or glamorous they looked before they had their picture taken. By the way, the photo booth including props, is available in the Metro Phoenix area for rent! I'll have more handmade party goodies to show you tomorrow. 

Lemon Heaven

I have some great blogs to post, explaining where I've been the last couple of months, but I had to put this cake on right away. I know there is a Twinkie crisis right now, but years ago we lost one of our favorite desserts. My husband was craving Entenmann's Lemon Crunch cake the other day which we have not been able to find at our local stores for a few years. I searched the internet for a recipe but had no luck. This is a combination of three different recipes that isn't exactly Entenmann's cake, but a cake that my husband and dad absolutely flipped over. The cake is very moist and reminded my dad of an elusive cheesecake that I have been trying to find for him for years. 

Lemon Cake Crunch Cake
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup (one stick) salted butter, softened
3 eggs
1 cup buttermilk (I didn't have any, so I just used sour cream thinned with milk)
2 tablespoons finely grated lemon zest
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup coconut
flour and margarine to grease pan

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Grease and flour a bundt pan. Add 1/4 cup of sugar and coat entire pan. I left the remaining sugar at the bottom. I also added about a 1/4 of shredded coconut to the bottom of the pan. The sugar and coconut give the cake it's crunch.
Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl and stir to combine.
In the bowl of your mixer, combine the butter and sugar and beat until well-blended on medium speed. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour mixture and buttermilk alternately to sugar mixture, beginning and ending with the flour. Beat in the lemon zest and juice.

Pour batter into prepared pan or pans. You want to get it poured into your pan(s) as quickly as possible because this batter starts reacting -quickly- and you don't want to lose too much air.
Bake in the preheated oven for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.
Allow to cool in the pan for a few minutes before turning onto the serving plate. Once the cake has cooled slightly top with the lemon glaze recipe that follows.
 
Lemon Glaze
1/3 cup lemon juice
2 cups confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 tablespoon water
In a medium bowl, combine lemon juice and confectioners' sugar. Beat in the melted butter and 1 tablespoon water. Poke holes in the top of the cake and put on a coat of glaze. Wait until the glaze harden slightly and repeat with the rest of the glaze.If you notice, there is only 2/3 of a cake in the photo. My family was into the cake before I could take a picture! They really love this cake, hope yours family does too!

Great New Finds

Antique Androck Dish Drainer Office Organizer
This great antique dish drainer has found a second life as a vintage mail holder, desk organizer, with a fold down utensil tray that is perfect for pens & pencils. The galvanized metal is aged but not rusted. It measures 17" long without holder 20" with the utensil holder, 12 " wide x 4" high.
SOLD

 

Adorable Vintage Oak Bentwood Child Chairs

These adorable little vintage chairs measure 24" high at back, 11" high at seat. Great vintage seating for the kids.

Asking $45 for the pair

Vintage  Spanish Conquistador  Stirrup
This incredible decorator piece is made of brass but has a silvery finish. It has a hole in the foot and can be hung on the wall to hold flowers, pencils etc.
Asking $25.00

Gorgeous Vintage Hollywood Regency Mirror
This beautiful vintage mirror with ornate plastic frame measures 23" tall x 12" wide. Very ornate! Perfect for a French, vintage or shabby room.
Asking $35.00

 

Amazing Vintage Hollywood Regency Mirror

This beautiful vintage mirror with ornate plastic frame measures 29" tall x 18" wide. Fantastic addition to a French, vintage or shabby room.

Asking $45.00 SOLD

Beautiful Vintage Hollywood Regency Mirror

This beautiful vintage mirror with ornate plastic frame measures 19" tall x 12" wide. Gorgeous for a French, vintage or shabby room.

Asking $25.00 SOLD

Fantastic Vintage Horse Tricycle

This wonderful wooden horse tricycle has metal and wood wheels, glass eyes, leather saddle and horsehair tail. The tricycle if fully functioning. He measures 22" long x 23" tall x 12" high. He does have missing paint on on his face and chest.
Asking $125.00

Vintage Wicker Bassinet Basket  Stand
This incredible vintage bassinet dates to the 1940's-50's. It measures 35" long x  21" wide x 31" high with the stand. The basket sets in the stand which is on wheels. I used it for years in my bathroom to hold rolled towels. It would also look fantastic filled with flowers. The the stand and basket are in wonderful condition. It would be gorgeous stenciled with French print.
Asking $150.00

Incredible Vintage Display Case
This awesome vintage display case is perfect for smalls. It can be used on a table top or could be hung as a shadow box. Store thimbles, medals, or make a collage. Lined in purple velvet with metal corners. The case measures 16" long x 12 1/2" wide x 3 1/4" tall.
SOLD

 Adorable Vintage Oak Picnic Pie Basket
This wonderful vintage oak basket measures 13 1/2" long x 11 1/2" wide x 5 1/2" deep. One of the pins on the backside of  the basket has been replaced with a nail, otherwise very nice.
Asking $15.00

 Wooden Cigar Boxes
These wood cigar boxes are excellent for crafting or stylish storage and make a darling centerpiece when filled with flowers. I have 10 in various sizes.
Asking $3.00 each

 Incredible Vintage Brown & Taupe Suitcase
This old Rail-aire suitcase is a beauty. Taupe with brown trim on the outside chocolate brown on the inside, brass hardware. The case measures 21" long x 13 1/2" wide x 17" tall. The handle has some cracks but is still functional. Would make an excellent side table,nightstand or cooler for your next party.
Asking $25.00

Great Old Galvanized Metal Coal Bucket Shuttle & Shovel
This vintage coal shuttle is great for kindling next to the fireplace or for a stylish magazine holder. The shovel is pretty rusty.
Asking $25.00

 

2 Vintage Popcorn Chenille Full Beadspreads

I believe these two popcorn chenille beadspreads are made by Morgan Jones. They are a soft aqua with a silver tread running through and fringe trim. They measure 89" wide x 98" not including the trim and  88" x 107" . One has a small hole, not that noticable or you would have plenty of perfect fabric to make pillows or pillow covers. The other has some small stains.
SOLD

 Lovely Vintage Yellow Chenille Bedspread
This darling vintage yellow spread is in excellent condition. I measures Measures 102" wide by 106" long.
Asking $50.00

Please contact me at Bseaingu@aol.com if you are interested in any of my items.

Native American Dolls

This week I am featuring vintage Native American dolls. Skookum dolls were factory produced from about the 1920's to the 1960's for the tourist trade. They are known for their folded blankets and life-like expressions. They range in size from 3" to 36". Skookums do not have arms, they are always wrapped in a blanket and the head and legs are stationary. Their hair is usually made of mohair, human hair examples are rare. The children typically have rounded "moon" type faces, while the adults generally have more realistic faces and more character. Early dolls have leather or oilcloth shoes, later examples have plastic feet. While there are other Indian dolls produced around the same time they do not command the same prices as Skookum dolls. 

 Most of the dolls I am selling are marked with the Bully Good Skookum label and date to the 1940's. The last doll is a rare antique bisque Native American doll made by Bahr & Proschild in Germany in the late 1800's. Hope you enjoy these wonderful dolls.

12 1/2" Bully Good Skookum Indian Doll Squaw With Papoose
This beautiful all-original Bully Good Skookum squaw has such a serene face. She does have some soil on her dress. Her shoes are painted oilcloth and have the Skookum sticker.
Asking $125.00

 

13 1/2" Bully Good Skookum Indian Chief Doll

This all-original Bully Good Skookum chief is in wonderful condition and has a great character face. His shoes are painted oilcloth and although missing the Skookum sticker the shoe bottom has a lighter oval spot where it the sticker was.

Asking $145.00

 13 1/2" Bully Good Skookum Indian Doll Squaw With Papoose

This all-original Bully Good Skookum squaw is in wonderful condition and has her original beaded necklace. Her shoes are painted oilcloth and have the Skookum sticker. She has a wonderful character face.

Asking $145.00
SOLD

 10" Skookum Indian Child Doll

This Skookum child is in excellent condition. He has hand sewn felt shoes and no sticker but I do believe he is by Bully Good.

Asking $65.00

10" Skookum Indian Child Doll

This Skookum child has a replaced headband, otherwise all original. He has hand sewn felt shoes and no sticker but I do believe he is by Bully Good.

Asking $45.00

10" Skookum Indian Child Doll
This Skookum child has a replaced headband, and damage to one cheek. He has hand sewn felt shoes and no sticker but I do believe he is by Bully Good.
Asking $25.00

6" Bully Good Skookum Indian Child Doll
This all original Skookum child is in excellent condition. He has leather shoes complete with Bully Good Skookum Sticker and has a beaded necklace.
Asking $45.00
SOLD

 6" Bully Good Skookum Indian Child Doll
This adorable Skookum child is in excellent condition. He has leather shoes complete with Bully Good Skookum Sticker. All original including feather and beaded necklace.
Asking $45.00
SOLD

6" Bully Good Skookum Indian Child Doll
This sweet faced Skookum child is in excellent condition. He has leather shoes complete with Bully Good Skookum Sticker. All original including beaded necklace.
Asking $45.00

4" Skookum Sitter

Sweet little Skookum sitter is in excellent condition.

Asking $25.00
SOLD

 

4" Papoose Mailer

This darling little papoose mailer is complete with unused tag. Made by Dennison Mfg Co.

Asking $35.00
SOLD

SOLD

 Antique Bahr & Proschild Belton-Type Bisque Indian Doll.

This gorgeous scowling Indian is marked 244. He measures 12 ½". He has a perfect sienna-tinted bisque socket Belton-type head, inset brown glass paperweight eyes, painted lashes, feathered brows, closed mouth, shaded and accented lips, and pierced ears. He has his original hoop earrings, black human hair wig, headband, original cotton suit, which does have some holes, belt and metal arrow. He has very fine quality bisque and decoration, excellent original body with original finish. His sienna-tinted composition five-piece body with painted shoes is in excellent condition with only very slight wear on his fingers.

Asking $1200.00

Please contact me at Bseaingu2@aol.com if you are interested in any of my items.