New Art for the Atomic House!

This is not my house - though I wish it were! Just a nice image to pop up in Followers' Readers!

via Flickr here

Oh, I've been waiting to do this post for a looooong time! A month or so ago, I came across the Flickr photostream of Veronica Diago and promptly fell in love with her images. She started a blog (Veronica Diago), which I follow avidly, and we've become blog buddies. It was her idea, sparked by a comment I made, to start the Paint Chip Fun Project. This is the third week of that project, and I've been sidetracked by other stuff going on, so I didn't get my piece done this week. Check out her blog for her new paint chip piece and some others she found on Flickr and wanted to showcase.

After waiting what seemed a very long time, her Etsy shop was opened! You can find all her art for sale here, and soon she will be offering prints. She is having a sale of 25% off her works through May 27 - that's only 5 more days, so hurry!

Well, today, I became the very proud owner of an original Veronica Diago!
This is what I got in the mail...my daughters were having a hard time understanding why I was squealing with happiness.

Carefully opening....oooh, it's very safely packed!

Here is a very hurried, therefore very blurried, shot of my dining room wall where I've been planning to hang a bunch of new art.

And here it is - MY "Gotham City"!!!
Just out of the box


And hanging on the wall. It's very difficult for me to get a good photo in my dining room because of very poor lighting.



A wide shot of the dining room to give you a better idea of what I'm going for. Soon, I will have an original Ebbo piece, and four Derek Yaniger prints I'm having framed. Now, I'm really wanting an original Tommy Kovac, Anthony S. (Pop Circus), and Jem 'n Tonic! Then, my art wall will be complete! (Oh, and I need matching chairs.)

Paint Chip Fun Project Part 2

Here are the completed pieces for Week 2 of PCFP!
I had a couple of people run into technical difficulties or lack of time again this week, so they couldn't send anything in - but remember, there's always next week!

"Balanced" by JEM 'n Tonic of Amidst Mod

Just yesterday, Jem introduced me to another fabulous mid-century artist I'd never heard of, Karl Benjamin. I can really see how Jem is carrying on his tradition. I can see the balance here, but also so much movement.

"Paint Chip Fun Logo" by MoonDoggie

She had quite a time of it this week getting her piece completed. She writes, "After a bit of drama (paint water spilling on chips), a few resourcing problems (no glue), some technological glitches (wrong photo resolution) and some digital manipulation (the easy part) here is my submission to this week's paint chip fun friday. Dah dada DAH! MoonDoggie logo paintchip style!" Just look at her logo over on my sidebar to see how this is the paintchip version!

"Ode to my Family" by Veronica Diago

Veronica writes this about her piece:
"The taller figure is my hubby, followed in height by me, then my boy dressed in camouflage as usual and the peachy, chubby small thing in the middle is my daughter, looking up as always. The object at the extreme left is our couch in the living room, the object at the extreme right is our house's door. These two match the real layout of our house. The ones at the top, could be clouds, paintings, thoughts, conversation, or ideas."
Isn't that a great family portrait? I love how Veronica's work is modern and abstract, but always has warmth and feeling.
Don't forget to see her post today here, because she's got a fantastic project done by photographer Ilda Oliver that you've just got to see! (Paint chip potato chips?!)

"Music To My Eyes" by Tikimama

I know you had to see this yesterday, too, but I did want to give a bit of a description. Music is very important in our house. It's what brought my husband and me together, it's what we brought our daughters into the world with. Our girls already play gleefully on real musical instruments, and we hope that we pass down our musical knowledge to them - they've already got the love of music! If you look at this image bigger (you should be able to click to enlarge), you can see that all of the paint chips I used have musical names for the colors. The images are stamps I've had for a long time and never used, with black and silver ink.

Paint Chip Fun Project Tomorrow!

Well, I'm going to show everyone my latest paint chip creation to remind you all that there is still time to send in something to share tomorrow!

"Music to My Eyes"

The original post with the ideas on how to participate is here.

The submissions from last Friday are here.

Hope you join us tomorrow!

Vintage Thingies Thursday - My New Canisters

I'm participating in Coloradolady's Vintage Thingies Thursday, so go check out her blog for her vintage goodies, and a list of all the other participants. You never know when you'll discover a new fun blog to read or some vintage item you never knew existed!

I have been wanting a vintage set of kitchen canisters for a long time now. Every once in a while, I'd do a search and find things I liked, but usually too expensive, or not in great shape...or both.

Finally, about 2 weeks ago, I found this set, perfect in several ways:
~ It's chrome, which fits in with my kitchen
~ It's in fantastic condition
~ The price was good
~ It hangs on the wall - no loss of precious counter space!


The individual canisters pull out of the box that holds them all. Yes, that's a reflection of me taking the photo - they were THAT shiny after I had a go at them with Brasso!


I like the typeface used, which I often didn't on other sets I'd find. It's stamped into the metal and has a definite 1950s feel.


Here they are, hanging on the wall above the stovetop. They're a perfect place to show off the chrome creamer and sugar I found for 50 cents at an estate sale, and the nut/candy dish given to me by my parents. You can even catch a glimpse of my vintage recipe box and just a bit of the handle of my new (old) aqua hand mixer! I'll feature those in another post some day!

Now, if the Wallpaper Fairy would just visit my house and swap out the 1980s country-style paper for something mid-century kitschy or atomic, the kitchen would really be on its way to high retro style!

Vote For Real Style!

A few examples of Rejuvenation's Modern lighting and hardware collections:

Love the Boomerang cabinet handles!

If you're not already aware of it, Rejuvenation is having a big contest with a big prize. I first found out about it on RetroRenovation (Goddess Pam's blog), and then two of my favorite bloggers entered their homes. What to do? I was really in a pickle. I love both of their houses and what they have done with them.

Today, Morgan of The Brick House came out with the funniest post here. She was amazed and saddened by the "style" of homes that were getting lots more votes than her entry of her living and dining rooms, so she ranted a bit.

I love reading her blog, because she just calls it as she sees it and has complete confidence in her own taste. She's a bit of a potty-mouth, so those of you who take offense to such things...oh well! Well, her readers rallied and voted, and so far she has doubled her votes from this morning. Ain't blogging cool!

My other blog-friend Gretchen of Eichler Homes in Sacramento entered her amazing front entryway and living room.

She describes her house as half-Flinstones, half-Jetsons and it is sooo mid-century cool! She and her husband own this house AND an Eichler that they are renovating - how lucky are they??!!

Please, if you haven't already voted in this contest, go and check out these two wonderful women's entries and cast your vote. We need to out-vote the bland, Home-Depot-esque, "Housewives of the O.C." remodels and vote for hip, retro, modern, cool, STYLE!

I ended up voting for Morgan, because she is a fellow poor chick struggling to have a fab home on a low budget, her posts always make me laugh or get all envious....and she lives in the high desert, where I only lasted a year! If I figure out how to vote more than once, I'll give Gretchen my vote too :)

I'm Working on My PCFP - Are You?

I sure hope everyone is thinking about an idea, considering joining in the fun, already done, just starting, or putting the finishing touches on...for this week's Paint Chip Fun Project!

We had a great time last week, with submissions sent here to Atomic Tea Party and to Veronica Diago at her beautiful blog (this was all her idea, remember?).

I had a busy weekend and this week hasn't been so hot for blogging, so this may be all you get for now...but I wanted to remind everyone, especially those of you who wanted to join in last week but couldn't - now's the time! My effort this week is going to take me probably all of an hour (not counting the curse-word-laced time I wasted looking for my supplies that weren't properly organized). Jem of Amidst Mod is still claiming that his piece from last week took him 21 minutes. So, if you can just find a wee bit of creative time, go for it!

Send in your submission by Thursday (or Friday morning if you're in the Pacific time zone, because I'm not an early blogger!) to elisafolino at gmail dot com and you will be featured! Be sure to let me know a bit about you and your paint chip piece, and include the address or links to any blog, website, Etsy shop, etc. that you would like me to mention.

Can't wait to see what new lovelies we get this week!

The Unveiling of the Paint Chip Fun Project Submissions!

First, let me say, if you didn't participate this week, you've just gotta give it a go next week! We are going to make this an ongoing party, and it's going to be a blast!

I am not an artist, like so many of my wonderful blog buddies and contributors, but I love being creative. I'm even posting the "art" made by my two little daughters, just to show that ANYONE can have Fun With Paint Chips!!

I'm going to start with theirs, then mine (because it's only slightly more sophisticated), then we'll get on to the awesome works created by all my other friends and readers!!

Here is Miss May's (she's turning three this month): She just cut, glued, then rolled it all up in a tube.


Here is Miss June's (she's turning six in June): It has two sides.
She had it glued all nicely, then wanted to cover it in shiny cello tape. No dissuading her...she's got an artist's temperament!

Here is mine. It's called "Walking". I couldn't decide whether to post an image of the original item (the strips of paint chips are glued inside a small box), or the one I photgraphed and tweaked. I'm leaning towards the idea of making something by hand, but then photographing it and letting that image be the final product. Opinions?

And now with no further ado, and in no particular order, the gallery of submissions!

These next two were probably the biggest surprise to me - they are by Pam (aka My Retro Goddess) from RetroRenovation.com! I didn't even know she read my blog, so imagine how I felt to find these in my inbox! She has just started learning collage, and is incorporating vintage wallpaper (one of her favorite things) and vintage paint chips. I don't think she looks like a beginner at all!

"Mama Bird"

"Flower Pot"

Pam writes, "I am obsessed with collage right now. This is a work in progress. I actually had the 'flower pot' all pasted to a background but took it apart. Now I'm reworking it ... put those ladies there just for this scan - kind of like it! All made from my collection of vintage wallpaper, vintage paint chip, and found photography.... it's nice to be contributing to some one else's blog for a change!"

Next, Sylvie from The Butter Flying, or lepetitpapillon, is an artist with a blog and Etsy shop. She loves to create art from paint chips (she says she is "addicted"!), so she was a natural to join in this project! She submitted her photos to Veronica, too, so I'm going to feature a few different ones here:

Make sure you go look at the beautiful garlands and mobiles she makes!

My best friend Anthony, of Pop Circus fame, completely stressed out about the "deadlline" for submissions and emailed this to me at 2:00 am! Geez, people, I'm NOT that prompt, please do not worry! It's now 9:30 Friday morning and I'm still working on this post! (Short break - had a stinky diaper to attend to - see what I mean about not having the luxury to blog when I'd like to? BTW, have you seen the movie Bolt (animated, about a dog and his girl)? It's really charming, and it's been played at our house about, oh, a thousand times. Where was I? Oh, yeah, art.)

Anthony's piece is Fab-u-lous! Bright, fun, and very vintagey! I am sooooo impressed! The bright colors and the black-and-white vintage images make a vibrant combination. It's just such a happy piece! (Did you read Anthony's post 'Laughter IS the Best Medicine?') This piece is called "Vintage Rainbow":

Wow! Do I have talented friends, or what?!

And now, for the works created by my wonderful co-hosts, both very talented artists whose art I admire. If you have not checked out their blogs and their work, you must do so, right now!

Veronica's "Shelter". This is very evocative of all her work, where she uses various media, and always has a bit of the element of surprise, or happy accidents. She keeps promising to open her Etsy shop soon, and I will be the first to let you know!

Check out her PCFP post for her description of her work, and the works by her readers that she is featuring this week. This was all her idea, so be sure to go by and show her your support!

Veronica also posts a funny explanation for the following piece, by JEM 'n Tonic:

JEM's blog is Amidst Mod, and his piece is "A More Tonic Future". He says he only worked on it for about 20 minutes! I find that hard to believe. It's is very mod and swanky!

When I posted about PCFP on Monday, a lot of you said you didn't have time this week, but would like to participate. Well, here's your chance! Just send something in by next Thursday, and you will be featured! If there are any lurkers out there, come on out and join in the Party!!

Vintage Thingies Thursday

Sometimes it's fun to participate in these blog events and check out what everyone else has posted. Today I'm going to try out Vintage Thingies Thursday, which originated on Confessions of An Apron Queen (no longer actively blogging) and is now hosted by the lovely Suzanne of Colorado Lady. This week's theme is "What Was I Thinking?!" She's got a funny post up today about a daschund boot scraper that she bought - and didn't realize how truly scary looking it was until she got home! Check out her blog for links to all the other participant's blogs if you enjoy looking at vintage finds.

I knew what I was thinking when I made this purchase, but I bet my husband wondered! I picked up this very sad looking lamp at the Goodwill for $5.99 because I recognized the modern shape of the wood base. I was just hoping that the hideous purple fabric would come off and it would shine up nicely. Here are the photos that show the lamp from the way I found it in the store to the end result:



I had to basically take the lamp apart to remove that fabric! I was happy to see the brass underneath was in good condition.







I used Songbirdtiff's recipe for wood cleaning oil and it worked like a charm! I've been using that stuff for all the wooden objects I pick up at thrift stores, and for my wooden furniture. It's great - so easy to make with 2 ingredients you probably already have in your kitchen, cheap, and good for the environment. Thanks Tiff!

I had the lampshade on hand from a previous purchase for another lamp (awaiting rewiring) that it didn't fit. I love it when things work out that way!