Danish Modern Kitty

I promise, this blog won't morph into a "how cute is my cat!" blog. I just had to post these pictures of Isaac, our swingin' 70's cat, as we've had many readers ask for more Isaac. I took these yesterday afternoon while he was napping on the orange footstool and I was watching General Hospital (one of my guilty pleasures!). This footstool was a cheapo Value Village find, and we think it might be a homemade jobbie, but we love the bright orange fabric as it's oh so Danish Modern looking. He's adopted this footstool as his favourite napping place, as well as his scratching post, which we're very happy about as we were worried he'd get too frisky with the couch one day and we'd be looking at another reupholstery job. The footstool cost eight bucks. You don't want to know what our couch cost to get reupholstered!
This is Isaac covering his eyes while napping. I guess he's afraid of the boogeyman.


This is Isaac sticking his tongue out at me. Nice manners eh?


This is Isaac giving me the "where's my treats, dammit!" look. Again, nice manners!


It is fun having a cat around the house again. Although he has yet to make us any drinks at the bar.

Revving up for the big reveal!!

Things are heating up around here at the Atomic Playhouse, and I don't mean our sorry excuse for a summer!
I'm almost ready to reveal to the world the big business news, but not until the ink is dry on the oh so important documents, and there are many of those! Suffice it to say, we've been playing a lot of hurry up and wait, meaning I'm only moving ahead on stuff that I know I can, and not moving ahead on stuff until the aforementioned ink is dry.
One of the things we are doing is stocking up on inventory (you can probably guess that the business is retail based and mid-century design based). We headed out this morning to hit a few garage sales and ended up stopping after the first one as we blew the wad at that one. It was actually a content sale and we scored a lovely teak dining set (table w/ leaves, and four chairs) a groovy chrome pedestal table with a white laminate top with an exploding grid pattern (hard to describe but very 2001), a Danish Modern style arm chair and ottoman (original upholstery and in great shape), a teak end table and a pair of teak candlesticks. None of this would fit in our car, except for the candlesticks, so there was a mad scramble to rent a van (Thank you U-Haul!), and bring that load home. It's all safely ensconced in the crawlspace, waiting to be moved to the new store when the time comes.

I've also been stocking up on small stuff too, and I did a thrift run yesterday. I found a hobnail amber glass Italian style decanter (not sure if it'll end up at the store or with our collection in the lounge), a big boat shaped teak tray with handles, not Dansk but close, and a big baby blue Pyrex mixing bowl with a funny pattern of circus balloons and oldfashioned planes.


Hubby and I love that nod to the roaring twenties that was a big style element in the 70's (think flapper style, movies like The Boyfriend starring Twiggy, and anything circus inspired) and we sing the line "that's what the did in the 20's" from the SNL parody of a 70's variety show (The Lundford Twins Feel Good Variety Hour) when we see something from that era. I'm still a mid-century gal, but the 70's can look good too, if done right.
Speaking of the 70's, our cat Isaac is fitting right in here at the playhouse, although he has yet to mix us one drink! He was a little freaked out by all the furniture coming through the front door (new smells for him but also a lot of cursing and swearing by us trying to fit it in the crawlspace). Right now he's meowing at hubby who's making dinner. I better go make sure he's not using the new Pyrex bowl!

Isaac the bartending cat

Things have been busy around here at the Atomic Playhouse, mostly to do with my new business venture. Who knew starting a business involved so much! Well, I guess other entrepreneurs out there would know. We're hoping to have everything ready by mid October, and yes, I'll take any advice you're willing to send me! Once everything is finalized (I don't want to jinx it), I'll be posting about it.
This summer has also seen a loss and a gain at the Playhouse.
Back in June, we had to say goodbye to our cat GiGi. She was 14 and had ben suffering from kidney problems for two years (yes, she was a victim of the pet food scare of 2007, although she did survive and was doing well with at home treatment), but she took a big turn for the worse in June, having developed liver problems too. I knew that morning when I took her into the vet I wouldn't be taking her home, and it was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. I'm so grateful that my parents were there with me (hubby had to work). We'll always remember her as GiGi the moviestar cat, a sweet loving kitty who was as dainty as Audrey Hepburn and as beautiful as Marilyn Monroe.


We thought we'd wait at least 6 months before considering getting another pet, but neighbors of ours who were going through the same thing (losing their kitty after 16 years) had adopted a kitten, and once we met him (the kitten) we knew it was time. We brought home Isaac last Friday from the Toronto Animal Shelter, after first meeting him on a preliminary visit on Monday. He's a two year old neutered brown tabby and is about as laid back as Dean Martin. He was named when we picked him out (rather, he picked us out) so we decided to roll with it and we call him Isaac the bartending cat (after Isaac on the Love Boat). He's now sporting a gold collar (very 70's) and we're trying to teach him how to mix drinks but he'd rather lounge on his chair (which also used to be GiGi's favourite chair) and just watch the world go by. Lets hope he can do that for a long long time.

Logo inspiration

Things have been really busy around here at the Atomic Playhouse. It seems every weekend we're out and about, whether it's yardsales, going to someone's cottage or just enjoying the summer. I've also been busy working on my big venture. I'm not ready to reveal the name yet...although a few of you blog followers know it (this means you, Atomic Radar!). But I will share some logo inspiration.

This is an album cover for the notorious Rusty Warren, a bawdy 60's comedienne, and a rat pack era Vegas fixture. She's still performing, and as far as I know, still telling the same bad jokes. Maybe I'll invite her to perform at the store opening!

Big business news!

Since being let go from my last job, I've been giving a lot of thought as to what I want to do with my life and I've decided to go out on my own and start my own business. Scary!
My background is commercial interior design (retail, restaurant and hospitality spaces) but my passion is collecting mid century so I've decided to combine the two and start a multi faceted business that will allow me to do both. I'm working on a website that will offer my residential interior design services and then from there, work on opening a store to sell some my collections, vintage furniture and lifestyle products, while also along with allowing me to collect even more stuff! The store would also serve as another platform to offer interior design services. I used to run one of the better known vintage furniture stores in Toronto (EyeSpy) so I've done this before and I can't wait to do it again. Finding the retail space is challenging as there's only a few neighborhoods I'm interested in, and storefronts don't come up that often. There's also a lot to do before I can officially launch the business, and not all of it is fun. Meetings with accountants, writing a business plan, begging the bank for money...all of the dull stuff. But the fun part is that I am now focussing on finding cool stuff for the store, which means hubby and I are doubling our trips to Value Village, hitting as many estate sales and yard sales as we can and doing the antique market circuit. I'm also working on a line of custom refurbished furniture and exploring green lifestyle products to carry.
Hubby came up with the name for my company, but I'm not revealing it till I have something to show. So far, all of our friends and family that we've told have really loved the name and the idea for the business. I just hope they all come shopping there once I get it open!

Tea time

It's a bit cold and chilly here at the Atomic Playhouse today (spring is still here but it's not summer yet!) so I'm having a cup of tea while I pound away at the computer. Growing up in a frugal household (shout out to Mom for your thrifty ways!) we never made just a cup of tea, we always made whole pot, so you didn't waste the teabag (even though they cost about 5 cents each!). Anyway, the habit stuck so I'm having a pot of tea. Here's my lovely french robins egg blue teapot with the chrome dome warmer, sitting beside my new green and turquoise tile trivet. The teapot was a birthday gift from Hubby when we were dating (he's definitely more of a coffee person but he knew how much I loved my tea) and the trivet was a 10 cent find at a recent church bazaar sale. I love how the green, blue and turquoise tiles work with the blue teapot. The Shag mug is from Value Village, but there's no shag signature so methinks it may be a knock off. Still I love the maraca playing glamour girl and the bongo beatnik. Maybe I should be drinking something stronger out of this mug!


Here's another Atomic Ranch vignette I put together a few weeks ago in an attempt to class up our kitchen with some recent thrift scores and some older favourites that were languishing in the crawlspace. It's on the crappy upper cabinets over the crappy stove, and it gives you an idea of our sloped kitchen ceiling. The sputnik ceiling fixture makes it hard to get a good photo, hence the two part picture.


Featured from left to right, in the back row:
- a big 50s BBQ tray that was a housewarming gift from hubby's big brother
- a smaller red tray with a rather odd graphic of a cowboy at a ladder and anther in the window - this was a Value Village find years ago
- two purple crazy daisy trays, the first from a yardsale two years ago and the end tray from Value Village. This one was designed by Ian Logan for JRM Designs in 1967 and the pattern is called Lollipop.
In the front row we have the following:
- a pair of redwing salt and pepper shakers from a recent estate sale,
- an anonymous cream and blue teapot from Value Village (It looks vintage but it also looks like a pottery class special)
- a metal cake carrier from Value Village that's rather worse for wear (we don't use it but we like the leaf graphic)
- two reissue Fiestaware disc pitchers
- one pink ceramic pitcher from the Trinity Bellwoods park community garage sale a few years back
- a "crazy daisy" teapot in dark blue with orange, mauve and red graphics from the same estate sale as the redwing salt & pepper shakers
It gives you an idea of how much we love to collect and how we're always looking for space to put it all!

In other atomic news, the groovy hoop Solair outdoor chairs are now being manufactured again so all of you with motel fantasies can now get your very own colour coordinated pair!

Originally designed by Fabiano and Panzini amd manufactured by IPL in St.-Damien, QC, these chairs were seen in pairs in front of just about every motel on the 401 and for the longest time were very hard to find. We have two vintage ones in brown and yellow (hubby had the brown one when I met him and the yellow one is from craigslist last summer) but the new ones come in lots of colours. I'm thinking of getting an orange one to go with the brown and yellow. Available in Toronto at EyeSpy on Queen St. East. www.eyespygifts.com
In fact if it was warm enough, I'd be outside sitting in my solair right now! But since it isn't warm enough, I think I'll go get some more tea and maybe plan a tea party for me and hubby for later!

Are these dishwasher safe?

While my current employment situation has put off the kitchen renovation yet again, (I am yet another casualty of the current recession), when we do actually get to renovate, I hope to increase the storage as well as display space for our always growing collection of vintage glassware. Right now, most of it squeezed in there, but some of it is hard to reach so I forget how much cool stuff we really have.

These orange, blue, yellow and black harlequin glasses are our everyday tumblers. Hubby had them when I met him, and he had bought them from Warsaw’s, the now gone Polish (or was it Ukranian?) grocery store near Schwartz’s in Montreal. These glasses are almost indestructible and, thankfully, are dishwasher safe!

Our secondary everyday glasses are these beauties. We found the ones with the square pattern about a year ago at Value Village, and recently we found the diamond pattern ones. When we got them home, we realized the colours were an exact match, so we wonder if they were made by the same company. All I know is I handwash these as I’m not sure if the colours would fade. So that’s why they’re the secondary everyday glasses.

These cute little juice glasses were a gift from a friend of my mom’s for my 29th birthday. There’s three pink, and three blue and I only use them on the weekend when we are having boiled eggs ‘cause they match the pink and blue melmac egg cups. Also because I have to handwash them as well ‘cause they’re hand painted. The blue, black and yellow striped glass is from a set we bought from a coworker of hubby’s parent’s estate sale. The gazelle glasses seen below were from this same estate sale. These were in the bar at the sale, and hubby’s friend totally remembers the swingin’ cocktail parties his parents used to throw so I’m sure these have seen their share of gin & tonics, Harvey wallbangers and Singapore slings!

These gazelle glasses also came from that estate sale. I think we have two of each colour.

This pair of juice glasses were from VV too. They’re slightly bigger than what we normally use for the ever costlier orange juice (man, is that stuff made with gold or what?) but we love the little international style building on them. I wonder if that lodge is still around?

These apothecary themed glasses were another Value Village find. There were 7 of them and I couldn’t bear to break the set. I love the lime green and pale coral colour combination and the bizarre vintage druggist theme, with the prescription “RX” on the book and the other vaguely medicinal apparatus shown.

These smoked “roly poly” glasses came from my parents when they downsized. My mom told me they were gas station give aways and I have about four to six each of each size, so I’m sure my parents were filling up quite a bit back then. I only remember using them during the holidays when I was growing up as they were the only matched set of small drinking glasses we had (my brothers, sister and I were particularly hard on the glassware in my house, especially when I would throw glasses at my sister when we were fighting…don’t ask). The roly polys get a lot of use now though, as they are the perfect size for gin & tonics or a scotch when hubby’s having a cigar.
The yellow rubberized glasses were a recent Value Village find. I believe these are called spaghetti string glasses and the rubber coating makes them ideal for outdoor use.

This pair of pink starburst glasses are yet another Value Village find. I wish there were more of them, but there’s only the two. Wouldn’t it be great if we found more in different colours?

These red and gold glasses were, again, from Value Village. We have three of them (we try to only buy even number multiples when we find glasses at VV, but I hate breaking up the set). They look lovely when housing a nice refreshing Caesar, especially with a stick of celery popping out, to contrast with the red.

These are just a sample of our bowling glass collection. We had our wedding reception at a bowling alley (great idea to get people mixing and not just sitting around not talking) so ever since we keep getting them as gifts. The bowling pin cocktail spears are from a great vintage store in Leslieville called Winkel and the gag bowling shot glasses are from VV.

These are a set of four glasses that Hubby had when I met him. His parents gave them to him when he was a bachelor for his swingin' cocktail parties. I love the camel theme. Camels get thirsty, get it?

These travel themed glasses also are from VV and came in a set of three. They’re great for international highball cocktails like a singapore sling or a South Seas Sunset.

Speaking of international themes, this set of United States themed glasses are, again, from VV and have been collected over the past few years. Every time we see one we’re not sure if it’s the same size as the ones we have at home, but we luck out every time. 9 states down, 41 to go!

These three 1964 worlds fair glasses are from an outdoor fleamarket in Dunedin, Florida, that we went to during our trip to Treasure Island for our anniversary last October. I worked at a company that had these glasses in the lunchroom. I should’ve swiped them when I had the chance, then we’d have a complete set!

Lastly is our favourite collection. These are called Fantasyware (or at least that’s what I’ve been told they’re called) and they were gas station premiums back in the day. I think they were only available in Canada as I see them go for big money on Ebay due to their kitschy aomeba pattern in turquoise and gold. They came in many different sizes, including highballs, shot glasses, beer steins, pilsner glasses (I have some of these but they’re too tall for the back bar shelves), stemmed cocktail glasses, roly poly glasses and old fashioneds. I love them ‘cause turquoise is my favourite colour, but I have to hand wash these too, as the gold comes off in the dishwasher. We come across them at VV every now and then, but they’re usually in pretty bad shape, due to this. I always joke with hubby that if we can’t make a mortgage payment then we could sell this set to make some quick cash. Well, if I can’t find a job soon I could either sell these glasses or just drink my blues away!