Thinking ahead about my future vintage kitchen again - Kitchen curtains

The future kitchen is dancing around in my head again. I've been thinking about curtains for the 2 windows. I'd love to use vintage fabric, but it would be hard to find the yardage, plus I hate cutting  large pieces of vintage fabric. Also, the kitchen is on the 2nd floor and the light is very bright in there. The curtains will fade and most likely will have to be replaced every few years, and I don't want to destroy vintage fabric for that.
So I've been looking at vintage inspired fabrics. I found these two fabrics on the left from a collection called 'American Retro c.1945', and I think that I am pretty set on ordering them. I'd use the grid/floral print to make cafe curtains for the two windows. And the ric-rac print would make a skirt under a section of the counter.

I've also been searching online for repro linoleum rugs, you'd think that someone would make them. I found the oilcloth below in a nice retro print that would match my future kitchen. I don't think that it would be durable enough for under kitchen chairs, but I think that I could make some throw rugs with it.

4th of July weekend and vintage laundry

I'm in Strathmere for the 4th of July weekend. But on Thursday I made a large purchase of vintage stock, with many things that need to be handwashed. So along with my own clothing and food, I packed a bag of laundry to bring with me for the weekend, which included several 1940-50s day dresses and Victorian/Edwardian whites.

Whites soaking in some Biz and a dash of bleach.

And below are the whites after hanging out to dry in the seashore sunshine. These are children's dresses.

Next I washed the day dresses and hung those out to dry too.

Then I took my morning walk on the beach. I saw this gal heading out to sea (I'm assuming that it was a gal because she was nicely accessorised)

And I added a few selections to my Pretty Stones Collection.

This afternoon I'll be doing some more soaking and hanging while I also do aome sunbathing.

The vintage swimsuit related display that I did at the Strathmere Library

This morning I set up a display in the Strathmere Library Mini Museum. I worked a few pieces of vintage into the display by using 3 vintage swimsuits, a head scarf and a beach hat, along with vintage photos of girls in swimsuits on the beach in Strathmere and our treasured Strathmere felt pennant.

Relaxing on the beach in Strathmere

Check out the cute little guy/gal who took a break from the blizzard by resting on the beach in Strathmere! I wish that I had been there to see him/her in person. A guy from the marine stranding center checked out the seal and said that it was fine. My friends fed it some frozen fish and after a rest it was on it's way.

Working on my Beach

Trucking up the beach, they are now pumping sand out at Winthrop -




Starting to rebuild the dunes along Neptune at the ends of Seacliff and Seaview -




Standing behind the rocks on Seaview, looking towards the ocean, slightly south, then straight out to the dredge and then towards the rough water at the inlet -

My little island

Well, I'm not there right now. Actually I'm only there weekends in the Summer. Physically. But my mind is there all the time.



Aerial photo taken 3/8/09 by Ella Diamond.

And I torture you with more videos . . .

Harlow chasing seagulls on the beach 10/2/08 - yes, we took them back today because they had so much fun yesterday.
By the way, Harlow is 4 months old today and she weighs 30 pounds!




Harlow splashing in the waves.




Boris strolling on the beach. He was more interested in getting up on the dunes to sniff around and mark territory. It was pretty windy, that's why his ear is up in the air.

Harlow at the Beach 10/1/08

Today Harlow went to the beach for the first. She loved the water and wasn't afraid to jump right in. She did some doggie-paddling and walked in shallow water making big splashes with her feet. Only one big wave that pushed her scared her a little. She also spotted her first seagull off in the distance.

Two days of hard labor

We had some nice weather this week, so I headed over to Strathmere to work on the garden. My Dad put down new borders and a load of mulch a few weeks ago. So we went to Lowes and bought some perennials. Of course there were a few hydrangeas, some phlox and other complicated names. One was some kind of blue Columbine, a sweet Victorian-looking flower.
Here's out back at the cottage. The daffodils were there already. I trimmed the edge with the seashells that I had in there previously.





Inside the cottage, a new-Vintage wicker furniture remains unpainted. I'll get some time to work on them eventually. Plus I have to get some new cushions. I got the couch, chair and a rocker for $85, which I think is a bargain.




Here's the left and right side of the garden in front of the house. We put two holly shrubs in there too. What was so hard about the job was that my dad put about 6-8 inches of mulch in there, even deeper in some spots. So just digging through the mulch to get to the dirt was a chore in itself. My dad worked on putting up the new door while I did the garden. My Dad put new siding and new porch on the house during the last 6 months. He was going to wait until next year to get a new door. But I want everything to be all nice and matching now, so that the house is all finished. So I ordered the door and bought new furniture for the porch because our old stuff is mish-moshy. I love this house. This week was the 26th anniversary of my parent's buying it.





The next day I went over and cleaned, because we have friends coming down to stay next week. Scrubbed the kitchen and bathroom (with barely lukewarm water because the hot water heater was just lit that morning) vacuumed everything including the stairs, which I hate to do. Now it looks all nice. We already did our yearly work there during the winter (paint and new carpeting in the attic and new carpet in the lvingroom) There's always work to be done in a 100 year old house, especially when you rent it out for the summer. There's natural wear and tear and people on vacation sometimes seem to lose regard for other people's things.

I played hooky today

Today was just too nice to sit inside and work at the computer or to iron a pile of vintage clothing. So I went with my Dad & Boris over to the beach, for a little swim. It may be October but the water is fairly warm still and it's 80-some degrees outside. Boris took a swim in the still water between the beach and the sand bar, and I took this very short video -




And here are a few still photos - slurping, testing the air with his tongue, a view of the stern with his tail out of water, and paddling with eyes opened and with eyes squinted shut.





He keeps drinking the salt water while he's swimming and biting the little waves. Of course when he got home, he ate some dog food and then threw up the food and all that salt water (bulldogs have sensitive tummies)

The beach in April

So, this morning I got the call to reschedule my vintage look-see, again. Now it's suppose to happen on Monday. I was so bummed and it was such a nice day, that I couldn't work, I had to go out and enjoy the (finally) beautiful weather. So I took my little beach buddy Boris over for a walk on the beach at Strathmere. I also took my little camera buddy to get a few snaps. To the left is a close up of some old pilings on the beach, under sand for many years, they've been revealed from the recent stormy weather. I love the way the wood is worn from the water and sand.

Here, is a cute couple taking a romantic walk on the beach

This is a view of the beach, looking north from Seacliff Ave.

Here's my little buddy, walking by my side. And even though it is April and the ocean water is only about 40 degrees, I got my feets wet, and my sneakers (yes those are plaid sneakers) and my jeans midway up the legs. Boris waded in to belly-high water, and he likes to bite the little waves. We met two Golden Retriever puppies on the beach too. It was nice to go over there to just have fun, rather than to work, as we have been doing the past few months.