ThirteenEleven

Vintage Wallpaper Part 3

2009-12-27T13:40:00.000-05:00

Sadly, these are the last of the photos I shot of the vintage wallpapers.

It was getting dark and the flash... well it flashed on some.

If I go back, I will be sure to take more pics.

Vintage Wallpaper Part 2

2009-12-26T15:27:00.000-05:00

More great vintage wallpaper samples for a little eye candy.

Puffy flower stripes.

Dogwood.

A bird, fruit, and flowers. I love this one, maybe I need this pattern for kitchen window treatments.

Oh... Look at these Poppies. Although this looks like many of the popular poppy prints out there in canned artwork land, I love the colors.

Ghost of Christmas Past.

2009-12-24T14:34:00.001-05:00

ALL images via Shorpy.

We wish you a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS.

Already Thinking of the Garden.

2009-12-23T13:05:00.003-05:00

Monday, in the mail I received the first seed catalog of the season.

What is it with the seed catalogs? I love 'em.

Then today I was flipping through the design blog pages and came across this post from Oh Joy.

Images via Gardenhouse.

Swoon worthy vintage garden furniture from GardenHouse.
L.O.V.E.

Reminds me of the furniture we found in the basement.

Vintage Wallpaper Part 1

2009-12-22T15:07:00.000-05:00

While helping some friends out on their old house in Birmingham, AL, I came across this great old wallpaper book in the house.

I had to take pictures of these retro patterns.

Every page was filled to the brim with COLOR and FLORAL pattern.

Now, I wold like fabric with this pattern for window treatment in ThirteenEleven's kitchen.

Such Fun.

Sunday Shadow Play

2009-12-20T17:22:00.000-05:00

I love my dog. I just wish he would pick up the ladder.

"Great Balls of Fire"

2009-12-17T11:05:00.010-05:00

Yes, Georgia went from severe drought the summer of 2008 to severe rains and flooding in 2009. The past week there has been no sun, only rain. I even tweeted that I am considering moving to Seattle for dry weather.

Until yesterday morning.

Then I tweeted...

"There is a strange bright glowing orange orb peering from behind the clouds. http://twitpic.com/tqrmk"

I stared.

The night before I stayed up late watching Gone With the Wind on TCM. NV, of ThisD*mnHouse, and I had a blast tweeting all the clever lines from the movie.

Did you know the Scarlett says "Great Balls of Fire" almost as many times as she says "Fiddle dee dee?"

This made me wonder about this phrase...
Quoting Wikipedia

" Great Balls of Fire is a Southern expression which some Christians consider blasphemous that refers to the Pentecost's defining moment when the Holy Spirit manifested itself as 'cloven tongues as of fire' and the Apostles spoke in tongues. "

hummm...... I did not know.

I just like to think that the phrase refers to the wonderful bright SUN.

(and you thought this post was going to be about Jerry Lee Lewis)

Window Wednesday.

2009-12-16T12:44:00.001-05:00

A couple of before pictures.....

Thankfully, these two windows are the by far the in the worse condition.

If you do not know about Window Wednesday. Learn more at Preservation Nation.

(In the last picture, before removing the glass, I labeled each pane and made the "Tape Tabs" to make it a bit easier to grip the panes.)

A bit of Christmas around ThirteenEleven.

2009-12-15T11:18:00.002-05:00

Trying my best to rid myself of a infestation of the humbugs....

I dipped mini pretzels in chocolate and sprinkled with red and green nonpareils.

....Then ate um....just 10.

I made the red velvet cake balls made famous around the internets by Bakerella. Then boxed them up in gift tins. (Found at Hobby Lobby 1/2 price)

....after eating 10.

I baked Christmas cookies which I have not done since I was 11. Back then we only used sugar sprinkles to decorate the cookies. I am not sure if that was a trend or if Mom did not want to mess with the mess of icing the cookies.

I did not eat many of these, but I did bite a head off a snowman. Chris did discover that Puppy loves the sugar cookies.

I am boxing these up for gifts, too.

Finally we put up a tree, which we did not do last year. We seem to be an every other year tree sort of people.

I used the old fashioned ceramic C7 bulbs mixed in with yellow mini lights.

Happy Fall.

2009-11-03T11:01:00.004-05:00

I am not sure why flickr is blurring up these images when I link them over to blogger......

Window Wednesday

2009-09-16T14:27:00.002-04:00

The National Trust for Historic Preservation wants you to Love Your Historic Window.

(image via Preservation Nation on Flickr)

Upload your historic window pictures on the Love Your Historic Window Flickr Group.

The National Trust also has several great links on Historic Windows including this one.

A Garden Web.

2009-09-11T11:55:00.003-04:00

The spiders have been busy the past few days. Just thought I would share.

Saturday Drive

2009-09-08T14:19:00.005-04:00

Birmingham, AL

Saturday, I went with a friend to see a house she and her husband were looking into restoring in Birmingham, AL.

I kept getting distracted looking at all the lovely homes in the neighborhood.

There may or may not have been squealing when I saw this craftsman.

and gasping at this Tudor.

and I just stopped short knocking on this door and asking for the paint colors of this one.

L.O. V. E.

Plant Stand

2009-09-02T12:55:00.004-04:00

Frost is about 6-8 weeks away here in the Deep South.

I have several plants, ferns, begonias, etc. that I bring in for winter.
However plants inside the house placed on floor level creates confusion for our dog.

Last year I placed all the plants in the sun room and closed the door. With the door closed, I went on with my life, forgot about them, and stressed the plants totally out. I am so very surprised the poor neglected things lived to talk about me.

When I saw this great plant stand with MCM lines at a Flea Market a couple weeks ago and it was just a couple of dollars, I picked it up.

There it sat ignored on our front porch a week or so.

This weekend I decided to turn off Twitter and get something done.

I sanded, primed, and had planned on painting the stand orange. However the primer grey was really talking to me. I liked how it looked on our floor. ( Yes, Chris REALLY needs to stain/seal the deck. You are preaching to the choir.)

Right now it is only primed. I cannot decide to paint it orange and finish it with a clear coat or leave it the matte grey.

Decisions.....

Dressed in Yellow and Black.

2009-08-27T15:38:00.001-04:00

From my mom's garden.

Sunflowers in the Garden.

2009-08-25T14:56:00.004-04:00

It is the time of year of bright white light and strong shadows.
The past few mornings were filled with crisp air.

Happy Day.

For the Wright price....

2009-08-22T15:35:00.000-04:00

An architectural work of art could be yours.

I saw this link on Twitter the other day and I have been day dreaming since.

Go ahead and pick yours out.

FLW 's F.B. Henderson House for almost $2 million.

The Millard House for $7,733,000

or maybe the Stromquist Residence for $3.5 million.

10 Amazing Frank Lloyd Wright Homes for Sale Today via Design Crave

Also take a looksy at BeachHouse's Wright post.
and the post here.

This Place Matters.

2009-08-20T15:04:00.003-04:00

I am so going to do this. ( Well... in my spare time)

It is not so much the National Trust's photo contest as the message it is sending.
I love this campaign.

All images from "This Place Matters" Flickr Pool.

Go ahead and spend a few minutes there.

(Images uploaded to Flickr Pool by users Sarah Coolen, Seth McGee, and Wayne Kelley. )

Garden Pests

2009-07-30T14:57:00.004-04:00

What the squirrels leave behind.....

The lubbers are sure to eat......

I found all of our corn shucked on the stalk the other day. I could not figure out what may have eaten all the corn off the stalks. Twitter said that is was Raccoons or Opossums. I believed them until I caught the furry tailed rascals green handed this morning.

As far as the Lubbers.....I hat them. Nasty bugs.

Good Day!

Baby Blue Jay

2009-07-26T14:16:00.000-04:00

Last Friday, I came home to find this baby squawking on our front sidewalk.

I went to see if he was ok. Looked around for the cat. Stayed on the front porch a bit, looking for his parents. Picked him up and placed him in the shade on the grass near the same spot.
Dug a worm. Watched for his parents a little more. Decided to squish the worm a bit and feed it to the baby.

Made the baby a little nest near the same spot with pine straw from under the tree. (So he was not out in the open.) Watched over him and fed him worm bits (totally gross) and a smashed blueberry til dark.

The next morning, I got up and expected not to find him. At least not alive, but he was, squawking up at me. Like "Where in the world have you been?" I then brought him to a box on the porch nested with dryer lint. I keep up the almost every 20-30 minute feedings throughout the weekend days only to find him peacefully gone Monday morning.

I am pretty sure one of his legs were broken and he had a slim to no chance of survival anyway, but I just could not turn my head and leave him there on the hot sidewalk.

I tried.

Front Sidewalks a Dying Detail.

2009-07-24T13:43:00.007-04:00

I kinda miss the days when one would REALLY use the front sidewalk.

A stroll to town to pick up a spool of thread.

A walk to the neighbor's house to borrow a cup of sugar.

Or to step out and wave at the newest motor carriage passing by....

While most of the front sidewalks along our street are slowly disappearing.
Chris has been trying to save ours.

Yes, there are a couple cracks. At 90, who doesn't have a few crevices?

It seemed like a long wait....

2009-07-07T11:39:00.008-04:00

The first lemon yellow bloom .....

The scent of the vine on my finger tips.

The first hint of golden orange hues..

To the scarlet colors still on the vine.

To finally.....

Thin crisp bacon fried to perfection, young tender spinach leaves, Duke's mayo, fresh bread, and Alizarin crimson slices sprinkled with sea salt and ground pepper.

I wanted the tomato juice to run down my elbows as I took the first bite.

It did.

I learned something today about Pink.

2009-06-25T15:03:00.011-04:00

....And I was excited, so I thought I would share.

Let's back up a bit.

I know... It has been a whole month since you have heard from me.

Life has been busy, the vege garden has been demanding, the house has been at a standstill and I was a bit board with the blog. I am working on changing things up a bit around here. So stay tuned while I work out some details.

Anyway.....

Do you remember me telling you how ThirteenEleven was at one time all pink? The pink that your mind associates with upset stomachs and fake bubble gum flavor. ( Is there really a natural bubble gum flavor? ) Yes, I have scraped pepto pink wall paper, pepto pink plastic tile, pepto pink trim paint and even pepto carpet, 'til I needed a strong dose of Pepto-Bismol myself. ( click for THE color)

THAT color Pink has a name.

__________________________

The name of the Pink Color that was very popular for home interiors from 1953-1957.

(insert Jeopardy music)

"What is Mamie Pink, Alex?" (Aly, are you reading?)

__________________________

Mamie Pink, is the name of THAT color pink.

I was hopping through Twitter today and went to a link, then another, then another. I then landed on Save the Pink Bathrooms. As I scroll around, I land on THIS post.

"Where have I been?
Why did I not know this?"
"History and Design are my things."
"I feel like a blonde."

So go over there and read up, but basically THAT PINK color is named for
Dwight Eisenhower's wife Mamie. Mamie decorated the White House's private quarters all pink, causing a design rage of the times. Pepto Pink (oops Mamie Pink or First Lady Pink) then spewed through all the magazines, oozing into paint cans and on to the walls of your old home.

Mamie Doud Eisenhower
our 34th First Lady.

Image via Library of Congress.

Thank you Save the Pink Bathrooms for teaching me something for the day.

oh.....and giving me something to blog about.

New Bowl.

2009-05-28T14:53:00.005-04:00

Don't tell my sister.
OK.

Mom and Papa Joe bought me this bowl.
(Well not this bowl, YOU can buy this bowl on Etsy.)
They bought me a bowl like this one.

I love it.

Thank you both very much.

By the way.....
Have you seen one like this?

Isn't it cute!

Bowl images via RetroRevival shop on Etsy.

Jenni Found a Gun.

2009-05-23T16:21:00.000-04:00

A dinosaur leg.........

And a broken metal star.......

in this years Big Dig. (for the vege garden)

Here is a reminder from last year.