History and Holidays with Charles Phoenix

For 2 summers I went to The Ford Center to see “histo-tainer” Charles Phoenix. For those of you who are not familiar, He is an author of several Mid-century coffee books,and is famous for his live comedy retro slide shows. The first retro slide show I went to see was his Retro Vacation Slide Show Tour of the USA in 2003 then I went to see The United States of Charles Phoenix (A Comedy about Mid-Century Americana) this summer.All his slide shows are different but the gist of it is that he celebrates the kitschy and classic 50s, 60s & 70s in slide shows.
The latest show he had in Los Angeles was THE CHARLES PHOENIX HOLIDAY JUBILEE which we were lucky enough to catch on Monday night.
The show was fantastic and I highly suggest if you're a big mid century, kitch 50's, 60's and 70's fan, and love to laugh.. He's the guy to catch if he's in your hood! His show is nothing like you've ever seen. He's just AH-mazing and quite the snappest of dressers too!

Our Christmas card.. The Unveiling

So here it is folks. the Unveiling of our Christmas card. Taken by resident "Wicked" cutie pie Philip of thephlipsideofthings photography. We are so thrilled by the photo.We put in a special suprise in the pic as an announcement to all our family and friends. The best thing about this pic is that it's soooo us and if you can't tell, we are soooo happy to be back in sunny Los Angeles!

The Holidays are HERE!

It's that time again- Officially December so let's put up all our decorations up and eat, Eat, EAT! For those who know my husband and I .. we are very private people so it came as a big surprise that we decided to have a Christmas party and invite his entire cast and crew to our 1234 square foot home. Funny, I didn't anticipate very many people to want to show up but from the looks of things, I think most of his cast is coming. It was already crazy when we had 15 people over for Thanksgiving. Now, I can't imagine having over who knows how many. I'm hoping for great weather so most of the time we can do this outside. It was 80 degrees here yesterday so I'm praying for another wonderful California winter day for our party.

We started with some of the projects that were on the

"To Do" list but were cut short due to a death in the family . My husband left for Hawaii to be with his family as I stayed home to hold down the fort and left with some 1/2 finished projects- We started by laying down the black weed cloth and putting down the white granite rocks. Yup, that's 5 bags full-As you can see.. not enough to fill the dirt garden. The cute mailbox is from Chiasso I loved it so much I drove it cross country from their store in Chicago!

We also decided to paint over the terracotta tile in grey- It looks better than the terracotta but it gets really dirty quick.

Now here's what the house looks like inside with some of our Christmas stuff mixed in.

Here's the vintage E-bay tinsel tree in the living room. I still haven't found the perfect tree turner for it but I do have a fabulous color wheel!

The Hubby is a huge collector of Department 56 Christmas Village pieces and unfortunately there's just so many village pieces and not so much space. I saw this piece at Jo-Ann's in 2005 when I was in Chicago and it reminded me of our house so I had to have it! I think it fits right into our decor! The line was called Retroville and since then it's been discontinued :(

We couldn't leave the kitchen out of the Christmas decor..

See the tree on the table matches the wreath on the front door both bought at Target!

The Hubby is also a big fan of these candy dispensers that like to "poop" jelly beans...So, of course we had to display those.

Here's what's at the end of the kitchen.. Our guest bathroom and to the right is our guest room

Underneath the "Warhol"-ized portrait I made of my pugs Penelope and Skylar is our Puggy-bank "Dollar". Yeah, the Target trees have made their appearances all over the house!

Here's Skylar in her Christmas blankie doing what she does well- Snug like a PUG in a Rug!

Viva Las De La Nuez!

Las Vegas is always changing- I remember when this hotel used to be the Aladdin- Now it's The Planet Hollywood Hotel. The outside is kinda funky. It's Disneyland meets Broadway in Manhattan (but only for adults!) Those round disks on the building change colors from Blue to Purple.. Kinda funky, kinda cheesey and very Vegas!

One thing that I did find was a very cool ceiling mural in the mall part of the hotel. It reminded me of local LA Artist De La Nuez but a little different since the people in the mural were current pop idols. I think one was Christina Aguilera ( not sure) but I really thought this was really COOL! I must have looked like a total TOOL taking pictures of the ceiling- Ah, who cares- at least I got the shot !

Viva Las Vegas

Hizees! Just got back from Las Vegas- I guess the beauty of living in LA is that you are just a hop, skip and a jump away from all the fabulousness of Las Vegas! I make the trip there at least twice a year. Once in July for our anniversary and the other usually at holiday time with the in-laws. We all LOVE to gamble and we LOVE Vegas! For the past few years we usually stay at the Wynn.

I love the details like the Warhol pictures in the rooms and and how the decor is slightly funky, elegant and eclectic. Sorry about the blurriness of the pics-That's when I didn't quite know how to adjust my camera.

Anyway, here's a shot of the lobby.

I really like the mosaic tiles they did on the floor.

I enjoy the Wynn but this time we stayed at one of the older casinos- The Flamingo!The Flamingo has been around since the 50's. Not one of the newer "super sized" hotels on the strip but this hotel has HISTORY! The casino itself is pretty dank but this is from someone who likes to gamble her money at the Wynn , Bellagio, or Mandalay Bay. Boy, was I pleasantly surprised when I say the newly remodeled rooms at the Flamingo. I think what impresses me is that with a little know how, you could probably do this decor yourself, Something a little more posh than Design on a Dime but all do-able. Here's what I mean

See the headboard.. It's white vinyl tufted- I think it's super cute- The room is kinda girly but I still dig it. The color scheme reminds me of Neapolitan ice cream- Pink, Brown, Beige, White
Yummy! Check out the wall paper.. It's totally Ice cream!

Another genius thing was the TV in the bathroom mirror- Ok, I think I've seen this on HGTV's "I Want That" and yeah, the Wynn has a TV in the bathroom too but this one is in the mirror- So much better!

The next two pics are of the desk in the room and the light fixture above the bed.

See the lamp and the chair? Very Jonathan Adler! I swear I think I saw an episode of Design on a Dime and they showed you how to make a lamp just like that one.. well, kinda like that. Here's what the room looks like in the day and here's a shot of the wall paper in the natural light.

The Flamingo may be an old hotel but what a pleasant surprise with the room renovations. Very cute.. and If I still had a New York apartment and I was a single girl, you could bet that I'd be redecorating my place to look like this!

The Kitchen..(room by room)

Since my last post was about goodies I had for my kitchen, I might as well start the room by room tour of my home.. You got to see the living room now, let's move on the second best place in the house- The Kitchen!!!

When we moved in, there were a couple of things that we had to live with in the kitchen. First of all, the Hubby and I are not big fans of the maple cabinets. (Oh well, they were new when we bought the house.) and we HATE the tile the previous owner picked out. It's a tumbled pinkish Mexican tile.

Yes it's neutral but when you think of 1953 ( the year the house was built- you DON'T think Mexican tile) I have to say to her credit, the previous owner did take fantastic care of the house. When we bought it, it was newly renovated. She actually lived here for a while with her family. She didn't just flip the house, add a bunch of Home Depot crap to it and go off and sell it- You can tell that she really loved living here and took the time to pick out what she thought was" nice".

NICE to her.. Not so nice to us.

I've learned to live with the tile- I don't really obsess about it too much but what I couldn't stand was the random "basket o' plenty" fruit tiles on the back splash. our back splash is pretty standard- White tile. I guess to add "interest" she put these random tiles in. We have so many cool things on our counter , we really didn't mind the white tile as a backdrop to our colorful collection of kitchen stuff- Here's a pic of when she lived here and we did the walk through ( Notice the arrows and that hideous random tile I'm talking about)

We had to come up with a solution to hide those ugly tiles.. so I came up with these.

I am a HUGE fan of SHAG and it was a perfect opportunity to infuse him into the home. I made these tiles by priming white tiles ( You need to do this so the oil based paint will stick to the tile) I bought a bunch of Shag decals. The cool thing about these decals is that they are clear so the color shows with through. I thought they turned out pretty good.

I was only limited to the stickers that had in those sizes. I have since learned that you can get the same effect with using something called water slide decal paper. If you use that.. you can pretty much do whatever design you want- even real photos since you print them right off from your home computer.

After the decal is on the tile, you have to make sure you put the clear sealant on the sucker or else it could possibly peel. I get them wet all the time and I clean my back splash with Mr. Clean and Fantastic- I haven't had a problem at all!

Here's what it looks like on the white back splash with all my colorful kitchen stuff-

I Love Stuff- for the kitchen

My kitchen is probably the second best place in the house. and just like the rest of the house, I love to fill it with "stuff". Whenever I have friends over, they always say something like,

" Wow, looks like everything you have in your house belongs here".

I totally agree with that! It's so true that I feel as if even though it's kitchen stuff- It should be fun too! So here's some of my favorite kitchen "stuff" that I wanted to share with all of you-

Yesterday after losing the top for my favorite mini bottle of dish soap, I wanted to get something that looked cool in the kitchen and I found this

It's called the Koziol Salto Bird Soap Dispenser of course, I got the red one- It's super cute and just sucks right onto your back splash. Koziol carries so many cute things for the home. For my bathroom I bought this Koziol Kai P Piranha Dental Floss Dispenser




I think it's funny because the little fish has a piece of string ( The floss) hanging from his tooth.

The Koziol line carries a bunch of stuff for the bathroom, office and kitchen. A couple of months ago I got this Luigi Spoonrest I think he's super cute holding my spoon whenever I cook .

I just love their line! Another favorite place I love to shop is Chiasso . I got this as a gift from my Mom when we first bought the house. Sometimes I hate to use it because it's so cute!

Oh and here's one of the best finds that made it's way into my kitchen. My husband says it's a little macabre but, I have a pretty twisted sense of humor- I think it fits right in...

"The Ex" knife holder It's HILARIOUS! I actually scored mine without the knives from Ebay for a fraction of the price- I already had knives with colorful handles and it looks so much better with my knives than the ones that it came with!

It's about THAT time-

Last year was pretty crazy.. We were in the process of coming back home from living a year and a half in Chicago. It was so crazy that we didn't even get to celebrate Christmas that year. All our stuff was in transit back to L.A and we were traveling by car, cross country the day after Christmas so, we kinda put Christmas off and decided that our Christmas celebration was us coming home! Anyway when I was in Chicago, I scored a tinsel tree from E-bay-

I've always wanted one so for Christmas 2005, I got my wish and we had our first Tinsel tree ... color wheel and all-

I was stoked that it was in great condition and the crazy thing is that some of those vintage trees can put you back a pretty penny. I think I paid less than $40 for mine - It was complete with no branches missing and I think it's about 6 feet tall- I have seen fuller ones but I kinda like the "minimalist" look of this tinsel tree. Oh, yeah and those tinsel pom-poms and clear glass ornaments-Totally IKEA! (I loves me some IKEA)

Anyway.. since we are going to have our first Atomic Ranch Christmas back HOME at our house, I figure it's time to really deck out the house this year. So what did I find at TARGET???

Yes!! Baby colored tinsel tress for $2.50! I can't tell you how stoked I am! I know, they're not for everyone but, have you seen my house?

It's not for everyone-

The best thing about these trees is that they come in pink, purple, silver and blue.. even the font on the packaging is retro! And for $2.50? I suggest you get in your car NOW and get them before I buy them all out!! You can find them in the dollar section bargain bins..

You're welcome! ;)

I love L.A.!

I think one of the best things about California living is the weather. I've been back in L.A for almost year now after living a year in Chicago, and I lived in New York for 3 years too- All I can say is there's nothing like a 82 degree day in the middle of November in California!

Today the hubby and our "kids" took our annual Christmas photo in front of my favorite new setting-

I found the "Pink Motel" when my GPS took me on a goose chase around my 'hood. It's so unique because it looks as if time stood still there. Apparently, they use that location for movies and TV shows. I swear it's the coolest place to check out!

So early this morning, we loaded up the SUV with my husband's co-worker (who is a fantastic photographer and certified "cutie-pie" Phillip ), and our 4 pugs. It was a perfect day for photo shoot- The girls were a little distracted since they were used to harnesses and not collars, and there was a really noisy junk yard dog nearby barking his head off. I think Phillip got "the shot" and I'm really excited to see the pics tonight when the hubby gets home. Thank God for digital cameras, computers and Photoshop!

I'm hoping that it'll turn out kinda like a picture from one of my favorite photographers,

David La Chapelle. His stuff is so colorful and kinda strange.. Just how I love it!