Cathrineholm Pretty and a diy

Cathrineholm, a company near Halden in Norway,  started producing ironwork designs and farm equipment beginning in 1907. After the times changed, the company started to make kitchen items and housewares in lovely bright happy colors in vitreous enamel on metal. This pretty oval pattern is called Lotus, and  was designed by Grete Prytz Kittelsen who was known as the Queen of Scandinavian Design, because she was so influential in the Scandinavian design movement of the post-World War II era, from the 40s thru the 60s.

My doggie has a well-used Cathrineholm metal and enamel bowl to eat his little dog food out of....awesome !



Grete was the nifty designer of this oh so loved pattern, and much much more. Very much of the modern art and design that became that Mid Century Modern we love love love, originated in Europe. Grete was born in Oslo, Norway in 1917, and died at age 93 in Oslo in September 2010.
But.....This pattern is still wildly popular!


This Coffee/Tea pot is listed by Lara111

Clicky to see lots of Cathrineholm prettiness listed on Etsy.

I think you should make these!

pic from How About Orange crafty blog.

All you need is brightly colored paper, glue, rubber bands, x-acto knife or tiny scissors, and  little clear votive glass candle holders, or any small glass tumblers big enough to hold a small candle.
This craft idea is from the How About Orange blog, which is always full of sweet amazing crafty goodness. Clicky here and she will show you how she did this.
Practice, practice ! You can print off a picture of the lotus pattern in black ink, or using scrap paper, try drawing the pointy ovals by hand, if you feel confident.
First wrap scrap paper around the glass for sizing it correctly. Trace the Cathrineholm designs on scrap paper. Best to try it with scrap !
Then, lay the scrap paper on the pretty color paper to cut it to the right size, overlapping a bit in the circumference. Then trace the designs after you space them smartly, & cut out with an x-acto knife or tiny scissors.
Wrap it around your votive and glue sparingly with Aleens or Elmers paper glue. Hold it in place with rubber bands until the glue dries.

Pot in the garden

not that kind....the clay pots..the things that you put your plants in. Let's take a look around my garden in February after a snowy winter.... oooo, not cool, man.

I buy my pots at yard sales, and very seldom at retail, and I always will pay a premium for an Italian made pot. Why....because after 50+ plus years of gardening, I know that a cheap pot, ie, Mexico-made, will crumble and crack in the freeze-dry-sun-freeze cycle of a year outside. I'm lazy, I admit. And I'm a Californian...so I think things that live outside, should live outside all damn year long.........god knows I used to!! (damn you Washington, you suck).

Can you tell which pot is made in Italy, and which pot is made in Mexico??

OK, but what's going on with the clay pots?
If clay has too much "temper" or too little it won't be strong when exposed to temperature extremes. Posts from Mexico, like almost everything from Mexico is cheaply made.

Pots made in Italy, like most things made in Italy, are very well made. If you are gonna invest in good outdoor pots, please ask the vendor or garden store, where and how they are made, and, are they really outside pots? Can they live outside all year long? Must they be emptied in the fall and placed in a freeze-free storage zone?

this one says ITALY...it survived quite nicely!

DEROMA

What's "temper"? It's crushed gravel or sand, or other rock-type material that's added to clay in specific proportions, to be sure that the clay will stick together when exposed to harsh extremes.
Too little temper  or too much, will cause a pot to crack during the drying process, and certainly during firing and outdoor use. A cheapskate manufacture will skimp to save a few pennies per pot to increase profits. If you buy Mexican pots or now, cheap Chinese pots ...just be prepared to use them inside only, or empty and store them come fall. Outside uses require a quality pot. In the garden!

What's that sticky stuff in my boots?

Now is the time to learn what to ask of an online seller.
If you buy vintage boots, pay special attention to the lining condition. Often the glue that was used in the 60s - 80s to attach the nylon, polyester or acetate knit to the inside can get sticky, flaky and break down. It's toxic. Sadly, toss those boots in the garbage. Period. Don't buy them....don't wear them....don't sell them.
If a vintage clothing seller tells you "Oh, you can just wear socks to protect your feet!", I say, run! No reputable vintage clothing seller would pass off severely damaged merchandise. The only possible time to offer goods that are very damaged, is in the case of very rare examples of fine vintage designer clothing or antiques than can and should be saved for museum or educational purposes, and then, price accordingly.

Even if you ignore for the moment, that the glue/fabric breakdown is toxic because of chemicals and/or minute particles breathed in to your lungs, just ask yourself....Why do you want to buy or sell something that is clearly damaged? Stickiness, flakiness and ooey-gooey isn't in the original condition when new...and it is damage that is in an entirely different class than a few minor scuffs or heel taps that can be replaced.


What's in the glue that is used in boots, and by the way, used to bond nylon knit to fabrics? (you see this in 60s acrylic plaids and tweeds, mostly).
Well, here's a list of what industrial glues can contain: volatile solvents like toluol,  hexane,  trichlorethylene,  acetone, toluene,  ethyl acetate,  methyl ethyl ketone,  trichlorochthane, isopropanol, methyl isobutyl ketone,  methyl cellosolve acetate, cyclohexanone, or other solvents,  or a combination which might be releasing toxic vapors.

It's a case of Buyer Beware, so ask a seller some questions before you hit that Buy button. So sad, but I'm still seeing sellers on etsy, ebay and around the interwebs that Should Know Better, but still have rotten boots for sale...without proper disclosure.

I see this sticky breakdown all the time with the brands Connie, Cobbies and Joyce.
This can happen with any brand that uses glues... but those 2-3 brands seem to be the most prone. Not every pair of Joyce, Cobbies or Connie, of course, and I have a pair of sticky-lined Zodiac tall cowboy boots with feathers that I'm gonna deconstruct and clean-up and install eyelets, so I can save them. ...with a dust mask on, and lots of hand-washing. I think a very good wipe-down with some kind of painter-type stuff like Goof Off will remove the sticky glue after I pull the lining off....

I love vintage...boots. Thank you Some Lady for shopping at Nordstrom or JCPenney's in the 70s and 80s and spending big bucks to buy boots, and thanks for getting bored or allowing your feet to grow, and deciding to sell them to Me !

The heel caps may be worn out and they can be replaced at a real cobbler shop, for around 15.00 a pair. Call around to ask about quality of the replacement caps and price. Ask them about a return policy too. I've had some replaced that fell apart the very same day I retrieved them from the cobbler....boy I was a mad little elf ! They got a piece of my mind, but none of my return business.

My faves to find and sell are either unlined, or lined and from Italy. Yugoslavia, Canada, and Brazil make a good boot, and like I said, there are plenty of other brands that do hold up over time.
Most boots made in the US are quality....most vintage cowboy boots are great....as are Tony Lama, Frye, Dingo, Dexter, 9West, Zodiac (most of the time), Aigner,....oooh there is nothing like a silky leather lined pair of Italian boots.

(an 2009 archive post, updated for your vintage pleasure)

Is It Hot in Here?

archived from 2007...

  Come 2025 there will be more than 1 billion postmenopausal women on the planet, according to Newsweek journalist Barbara Kantrowitz, co-author of a new book Is It Hot in Here? Or is It Me?
So.....about 1/6th of the world's population will be cranky, resistant to your demands for more, and living in stretch pants.......
Mmm, Welcome To My World......

New places Old vintage

I rearranged a bunch of stuff.....and I have a nice new photo spot...It. has. barnwood. I hope you like me better because I sure do. Moved the lights around it wow, such a difference. Spring cleaning! I needed a change...and now I'm very happy....the pictures are so much better and clearer too.
Lots more work to do...reorganizing my whole work space too...
After ---

BEFORE---

The other reason for moving/cleaning and organizing....is so Mark and I can revamp small furniture and get going on all the projects we THOUGHT we'd be able to do when we moved our shop to downtown Tacoma. ....but, fighting construction woes, building breakdowns, flooding, electricity blowing up, thieves, and general building-sharing fuckery, meant that I was continuously preoccupied with putting out fires instead of..... making things, and staying super-organized, which makes me happy!!!
2 things I learned from that 3 loooooooong years in Downtown Tacoma.
1. I'll NEVER open a shop in Tacoma, ever again.
2. I'll never share a space in a building EVER again.
So, it's good to learn lessons as one goes along....But why are the best lessons always so damn expensive???
oy vey.

random shots....still more organizing to come ...because....I'm going to increase my listings...and so organizing is very important or I will go crazy ...

because they are wealthy, tall, and slim

that's why. No one loves the beauty and wisdom of the oldsters more than me....especially now that I am one....Advanced Style blog has cornered the market on old women and a few old guys on teh interwebz.

And now they have a book! 

 All the pictures below are the Sole Property of Advanced Style!!

I sell style. So I do like to see an article or 2 or 50 about how to look nice, be healthy and enjoy life into the late years of life....but I am really sick of seeing pretty women with lots of money being held up to the rest of us...as examples of the "right" way to age.

Without fail, 99.33% of the ladies he features, are uh, monied ladies. And when you have money, you have it easy. Where are the turkey necks? Few to be seen, that's for sure. And high cheekbones, slim bodies or at least not fat....these are the biases with Mr. Cohen's choices.
So many of the ladies (and I've been reading it since day one), have the "ideal" womanly body in American culture....high cheekbones, no flabby neck, tall, slim...in other words, they are just a wrinkly version of any young model on the runway today.

I'm sure they are all just wonderful ladies, real nice folks and all, my beef is the ...Pretty Pressure Never Ends !!  We are being set up. We'll have to be pretty in our fucking coffin. We'll have to remain fuckable when we are a corpse.

This whole "Old ladies are foxy too!" thing just so ticks me off ....it used to be that women could "taper off " the Sexay and the "hey good lookin" as they bumped up to 40...which ain't old. Then Dynasty, that nasty TV show in the 80s.......and thanks! those 40-somethings Linda Evans...and Joan Collins, were primped, polished, padded, uplifted and vaseline-photoed....

and the pressure was on to be horny sexy and seductive when you'd just reached the age when the spread and the comfort of a few extra pounds was earned, and felt comfortable, and was healthier than being starved into sexy and skinny, as the culture demanded.....But no...The Modern Older American Woman Ideal, is demanding that older women stay fancy and wear a lot of makeup and shoulder pads, and....be....sexy.

Now the age to stay pretty, to stay sexy is pushed to, for crying out loud, to 90? to 100? Dressing in an interesting way is one thing....and I really love that, but it's coupled with the same old pretty pressure way into the elderly years.

French women, as the fable goes...look good all the time....but the dif is...they aren't pressured to be beautiful/youngy/slim/tall/and no turkey neck. They are "allowed" to age...naturally.
Today, older women are under the same pressure as young women to always Be Pretty! Do I need to tell you about anorexia and bullimia, and the headlines about young models...pre-teens pressured into becoming sexy at a very early age......and the pressure continues...it starts early and goes on...long into the elderly years.

all pictures belong to Advanced Style

I sell style. I'm all about dressing how one wants and feels, whether young, middle aged or old....but I am really sick of seeing pretty women with lots of money being held up to the rest of us...as examples of the "right" way to age.

It's the same Tyranny of the Pretty Lady....and I am sick of it.

A Trip thru the Trees to buy stuff and do the Winnie thing

a Winnie trip to the salty waters edge....a drive thru "Ron Paul" country....if you've been one place in Western Washington, you've seen it all because it all looks exactly alike. Only the mountains get farther away...or closer. It's either raining or it's raining real hard. Ron Paul people are scary because if I were to break down, or slip and fall in the Safeway, they would just step over me to get their cheap Medicare drugs....

 Hey! I did a couple of things to the Winnie ...aka,Winnebago, aka, my only home I'll ever own. We hooked up the water since the freezing weather is over now....Oh That was 30 wet and terrifying minutes of my life...but Mark figured out the problem...and we had water, hot water, a flushing toilet ....cold martinis and life was Beauty!!


Most people paint their faux bois 70s interiors white....I think that looks really cool and oh, so pretty, but for me....the faux bois is so very comforting. When decorating, I'm trying to make Ralph Lauren cry.....
 and referencing a California cabin in the woods on the Marin coast, and a bit of classic 70s stuff....the kind of things I had when my kids were little....

I forgot to pack the extra lighting...so the pics are too dark. ..there will be more pics, oh yes!

I adore the spare simple modern fabrics from the 60s and 70s...All things Vera Neuman...ferns and green plants, and baskets.

I added big fat zig zag trim to the edges of the shades, but I do confess, I'm having big trouble choosing the fabric for the curtains in the kitchen/dinette.
Mark suggested covering the ugly dinette seats with vintage camp blankets, and he is a genius.
I'll probably default to mattress ticking stripes to cover the front seats. (gahd, are they ugly!)

 I hung up the barkcloth curtains along the back window, and green mattress stripe cotton on the back side windows. I have very wooly and warm vintage blankets, (the top one with stripes is a 30s Orr wool blanket, thick and warm)....... and some thrifted Ralph Lauren floral pillow cases....I'm gonna make some striped ones too, and make about 4 or 5 smaller throw pillows in different barkcloth fabrics, in the same brown and green tones. I really adore the barkcloth on the back window.....it feels very Arizona desert.

 a super-favorite Vera Baked Fish (!) tea towel, a dried fern....old rusty thermometer...vintage Yosemite pennant

There are several hipster cliches I'm avoiding like...the plague. No chevron prints, and no letterpress anything, no fucking banners, and chalkboard paint. I will have an antler or 2, birch bark and big letters (but I was doing the cabin in the junk yard thing long before those kids were even born!)

So it's happening...

waterfront view for 22 hours....

 Vegetarian Corn Dogs baking in the oven!! yes it works like a dream, and the frig works perfect....

I tell you....living in the Winnie....makes me so happy.
I have a semi-long list of things to get it all set up like a ready-to-go home. I'm trying really hard to spend nothing or close to nothing on the things I need, since, good grief, I have a 45 year collection of homemaking stuff....

Here's a little shade with big zig zag trim....

I am fascinated with oversize replicas of things that are usually very small, and I am fascinated with tiny replicas of things that are usually very large....