Build It Yourself, or, How Mister Hit the Jackpot...

On a recent antiquing jaunt, my Mister was lucky enough hit the jackpot!

I'd recently heard about Iroquois Antiques & Collectibles in Bainbridge, NY and thought it sounded worth the trip. What a fun multi-dealer shop! And what an amazing array of vintage, antiques, and collectibles - just about anything you can think of!

Iroquois Antiques & Collectibles, Bainbridge, NY

Well, we weren't too long in the place when my Mister discovered a treasure trove of Popular Home Craft magazines... all from the 1930s, no less... and only $1.50 each! 

 Of course, he ended up buying all twenty-two issues.

Along with the brightly-colored covers, the magazines contain all sorts of do-it-yourself projects. Here is a sampling from the March/April 1934 issue... including building your own travel trailer and wiring a doll house for electricity!

What's your favorite "vintage jackpot" experience?

A Hundred Gold Stars to the New York Public Library's Digital Gallery!

The other day, my Mister remarked about how amazing he thinks the New York Public Library's Digital Gallery is. 

Now, this was the first I'd heard of NYPL's online library of images, so, of course, I had to see for myself. Let me just say that he wasn't exaggerating... it is an AMAZING resource for all manner of images. I found photographs, fashion illustrations, book jackets, sheet music, and postcards, to name a few, ranging from the distant past to the recent past. Just search a year, a place, a person, a topic and you'll be presented with hundreds of images to browse, study, or even embed, as I've done here.

And did I mention that this incredible resource is FREE? Thank goodness for public libraries!

And while I'm on the subject of libraries...

 

...Visit, use, and, 
most of all, support your local library! :)

Miss CherryBubbles' Vintage Kitchen Favorites: Sunbeam Egg Cooker

Today, I thought I'd show you one of my myriad vintage kitchen favorites... the Sunbeam Egg Cooker...

I'm not sure exactly why, but vintage appliances like this always seem magical, yet highly scientific, to me. The Sunbeam Egg Cooker makes poached eggs and hard- or soft-cooked eggs and, let me tell you, they always come out exactly the way I want. Just like the advertisement says...

The little plastic measuring cup on the top of the lid is used to measure the amount of water needed to cook poach eggs to your liking. The lid itself is used to measure water for hard- and soft-cooked eggs. Basically, the eggs are cooked by the steam created when your chosen amount of water heats up. Once the water has completely steamed away, the egg cooker shuts off automatically and your eggs are cooked "Exactly as Desired"...

Incidentally, we ate these poached eggs on toast made with an old-timey Sunbeam "Radiant Control" Toaster... but that's a vintage appliance story for another day. ;)

What about hard-cooked eggs or soft-cooked eggs, you ask? Well, here's a video I found that demonstrates how hard- or soft-cooked eggs are done in Sunbeam Egg Cooker. Note that the cooker used here is an earlier version without the clear plastic measuring cup on the top...

So, do tell... have you a vintage kitchen favorite or two?

It's February... let's Stroll!

Here it is February of 2012 already and by golly, this lil ol' blog is 3 years old...

Life has been so busy over the past several months that I've sorely neglected my blog. Not that I haven't had a multitude interesting ideas for posts... Anyway, I'm going to try to post at least a little something here on a semi-regular basis and I'll start off Past Life 3.0 with this terrific demonstration of The Stroll from February of 1958: