Cheesy Retro Party Food

Looks like a vintage pic from the late sixties, non?

Actually it's a picture I took from Christmas last week (with a bit of image manipulation, of course).


I got the idea from Go Retro's blog post about frightening festive food earlier this month. She posted this picture and commented on its similarity to a Christmas tree.

I thought that it looked easy (and cheesy) enough for me to have a go - so I did. I decided to use green grapes as well as the cherries to continue the Christmas theme. The cocktail onions were an after thought. It probably would have looked more effective with more but to be honest I got a bit fed up of it. Especially, as I could hear everyone else not in the kitchen enjoying themselves.

Here is a non-manipulated picture of my creation.

After Christmas dinner, we removed the table and chairs and set up snack and drink areas. I displayed the cheesy pineapple with the punch and the tiki bowl I got from the London Trader Vic's for my birthday. I borrowed the punch bowl from my friend. Now, I'm on the lookout for a funky mid century style punch bowl set for myself.

Although this 'project' was particularly easy, it has inspired me to try some other mid century recipes - preferably not the scary looking ones with gelatine and loads of spam.

Christmas Quest Finale 2009

At long last I have managed to salvage my Christmas photos. I had to buy a card reader though and I urge you all to 'remove your hardware safely' just like your computer always tells you to do. I only really bothered to do that with my ipod and that was the only USB device still working so I think that my devices were basically corrupted. Luckily I've managed to squeeze in this post before New Year.

Anyway, above is my tree. I know it looks a little sparse but it's one of those pop up trees given to me by a friend so I had to tie each decoration on individually and eventually got fed up of it. I prefer to think of it as a modern, minimalist look (but my tree next year is gonna ROCK).

Next are some closeups of my amazing tree topper and some of the glorious vintage baubles hanging on my tree.

I promised to show some before and after shots of my wee, little flat. Sorry the images have turned out quite small but you get the overall effect.

The fish tank was detaining some vicious fish evicted from the community aquarium due to bad behaviour and is now gone. We finally got around to moving the exercise bike into the garage and I swapped the cylindrical light shades for round paper ones for that snowball effect. You can just make out the snowflake stickers on the windows. I got some new picture frames and bedecked the place with tealights and colourful candle holders (hard to see in this picture) that we bought for our wedding. The drawer unit the fish tank was on has become part of the table along with a fold up table (and chairs) kindly loaned to me by a colleague.

Due to space issues (remember this is a small one bedroom flat), we needed to use the bathroom to store/chill drinks. So I added lots more lights in there as well. With the lights off I think it looked very effective and kind of made me forget that I was, well, in the bathroom. It did get incredibly warm in there with all the flames but it was pretty.

Remember the colourful baubles I got from Heal's? Well, I put them into small fish bowl vases (also from our wedding - we put smarties in them!) and you can see the Babell cake stand with mini mince pies and chocolates. As you can see, this was displayed on our television/entertainment unit - we needed all the surface area we had.

I should also add that David (aka Ebbo) cooked our entire Christmas dinner for five people and it was absolutely scrumptious. He really excelled himself. He also made a Christmas cake from scratch and his own trifle. Hurrah!

In the centre you can see my beloved Carlton Ware cruet set which I thought I had blogged about before but mustn't have. We had a great Christmas Day and I hope you all did too.

If you are new to my blog, you may want to click the links in the post. They will take you to the related Christmas Quest posts I made in preparation for the day. Enjoy!

A Real Giveaway

Dee Adams is a designer/artist who seems to really love orange.

That's great because I do too.

What's also great, is that she has a brilliant giveaway at the moment on her blog - deedee9:14. She is giving away the THREE fabulous vintage orange vases seen above to one lucky person. Now, I would LOVE to win these vases and display them lovingly in my home but it would be selfish of me to keep this amazing giveaway from my fabulous followers. Be quick - contest ends New Year's Day

While you're there, check out her other orange things of beauty down the right sidebar.
Best of luck.

Fire It Up

A Very Merry Christmas To You

'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even Santa Claus! Here's another fantastic illustration by Jan Balet for Lee's Carpets. For more on the artist, see my post here and check out Leif Peng's flickr stream.

I hope Santa doesn't fall asleep on the job and brings you everything you were hoping for.
Wishing you all a peaceful and relaxing Christmas.
MoonDoggie

Bauble Me This

These baubles have been a great way to reminisce about our life together so far and will help us keep these memories for the future. I also got my cool vintage tree decorations this year, so when we gaze upon them each year, we will recall the first time we hosted a Christmas Meal.

What are your Christmas traditions?

Elephant-itis

Here's yet another thing I've fallen for.

I desperately want one of these plastic elephant money boxes but at a reasonable price.

They are available in different sizes and three different colours - green, yellow and orange/red. I would gladly accept one in ANY colour.

These gorgeous creatures were given away by banks in the 60s and 70s and widely believed to be designed by Luigi Colani. Apparently, this is incorrect. According to this site, the only elephant Colani designed was this black one with coloured stripes in 1984:

My Brady Haven

I really did take photos of my tree, honest! I just can't get at them.

4 and 20 Eames Birds...

I have fallen in love with this bird.

It's sleek form is made from alder wood with a black lacquer finish (and steel wire legs). It is minimal yet highly decorative in my eyes (I don't have many knick knacks).

Fellow modernists may recognise it as the 'Eames house bird'. Although the Eameses didn't actually design this bird themselves it seems to have become synonymous with them.

They apparently found it on their travels. It featured in the Eames home and they allegedly used it in many of their photographs. I say allegedly, as I was only able to find one online.

The following image appears on the packaging for this bird which is available at a range of stores (including Atomic Interiors where I obtained the above image).



Here is a picture of the bird on display in the Eames house (California):

I wish I may, I wish I might

I may be a bit late to the game with this but I only discovered wishpot a little while ago. Since then I've been slowly but surely adding my material desires in the hopes that a fairy godmother (or my husband) will present me with one as a surprise.

It works by adding a little button to your browser, then when you see something you fancy, click the button and it will add the item to your list. You can make lists for different types of things too. I currently have a regular wish list, a clothing wish list and a 'fab finds' wish list for those cool things that don't really fit into my current home.

Horsing Around

I'm not usually a horse person.
Now, don't get me wrong, I love all animals but I was never one of those girls who dreamed of a owning a pony. This one caught my eye, however.
I came across an auction for this bronze mid century horse during one of my regular trawls through ebay.

Here is a similar set (I didn't even notice the pattern in the first one until I saw these):

The first one reminded me of the horse sculpture in the Brady Bunch at first, but a little research shows that it's actually nothing like it.

Here is a picture of the Brady horse as it appears in 'A Very Brady Sequel'.

Merry Christmas from MoonDoggie

If you're anything like me, you haven't even started to write out your Christmas cards.

If you're anything like me, you may also be a bit disappointed at the standard fare of Christmas cards that you can buy.

If you're anything like me, you want something a bit more... mod.

Well, I AM like me so I designed my own.

I based them on my new 'Festive Blog Banner' design. As a special Christmas gift to my dear readers, I am happy to offer the pdf file for you to download and print your own.
Use them as mini cards or maxi gift tags - just don't use them for profit.

Get them here or click the link at the top right of the page.

MoonDoggie Christmas cards.

The fine print:

This file is for personal use only. This file (or any element of the design) may not be copied, redistributed or mass produced. This file (or any element of the design) is NOT to be used for commercial purposes.

My New Old Modern Vintage Decorations

I am now the proud owner of some glorious vintage Christmas tree ornaments and a stunning vintage tree topper.