From the category archives:
HAPPINESS IS… a cozy house. What has made you happy about your home this summer, dear readers? Me: Outside, my perennials are getting well established and sending me lots of colorful blooms. Inside, we had the kitchen floor polished so it’s nice and shiny. Best of all, my brother and his kids came to visit, and we spent a lot of time at the nearby lake. How about you? Are you glad you chose the home you did? Is your home happy you chose it?
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WE FIRST MET MARYANN ROY when we interviewed Pat Henry, publisher of Fashion Doll Quarterly magazine, in honor of Barbie’s 50th birthday. I so loved contributor Maryann Roy’s miniature retro interiors that I asked her for an interview, too. Read on…for details on what it’s like to create mid mod looks for Barbie’s dream house… and 8 photos in all, with plenty of ideas to consider for our own, fullsized homes.
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The Lane County Home Show in Eugene, Oregon, was a terrific experience. Despite being jet-lagged and overdosed on a particularly luscious brownie sundae (my Saturday night excitement), it was absolutely exhilarating to talk about midcentury modest homes…the audiences at my talks were fantastic and clearly so considerate of doing nice things with their homes…and the staff of the show – Karen (center), Emily (left), Bijan (right), along with Helen, Jaye – everyone – made me feel so at home, and were topnotch professionals who ran a great show.
On Monday, I returned to Portland where I spent the day touring Rejuvenation (including Satellite Modern)’s factory and store. That’s Tim Wetzel, Industrial Designer – and a Retro Renovation regular (left), along with Bo Sullivan, Historian, who led me and Portland reader Elvis aka Jane on a TERRIFIC tour. Oh yes — I was joined by Elvis aka Jane! That evening I met with members of the Portland MidCentury Modern League for dinner and a talk at Country Bill’s restaurant on Woodstock. A wicked fun day all around!
I’ll have lots of coverage over the next several days about my visit to Eugene and Portland.
To start, here is a link to the Eugene Register-Guard story about my talks: “Cooking Up a Retro Revival.”
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All photos: Copyright Mattel
Today – Judi, aka Sumac Sue, shares her memories of growing up with Barbie. Thank you so much for contributing this, Judi — you are a beautiful writer and story-teller!
My younger sister, Joni, and I probably got our first Barbies in 1963, when she was in kindergarten and I was in second grade. These were the Barbies with hair in a ponytail with a fringe of bangs in front, sultry eye makeup, and pert red mouth. These features, along with a rather long, slender body, made the Barbie mildly similar to Audrey Hepburn….
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The votes are in — and congratulations to the winners for our 2nd annual contest: Kevin has won 1st prize — two pendant lights from Satellite – for the memoir about his mother’s Kokeshi Dolls. And in 2nd place, Meredith R. wins a set of our Retro Renovation “bibles” from Schiffer Books for the vintage photo she discovered featuring her flapper grandmother.
Thanks so much to everyone who entered, and to everyone who took the time to read the entries and vote.
Already, there are some new contests in the works – stay tuned!
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The clock is ticking down — voting for our winners in the Found Objects Found Art contest ends tonight at midnight. Results will be hidden until I announce the first and second place winners on Monday, Feb. 22. They can collect their yummy prizes, #1 a pair of pendant lights from Satellite, and #2 a pair of our “Retro Renovation bibles” from Schiffer Books.
Note: The poll software allows one vote per computer, but there’s no stopping you from launching your own mini-campaigns. Don’t curb your enthusiasm – spread the word to friends and family, and along the way, help encourage the preservation of these wonderful memories of our collective past.
Our finalists (in the order their submissions came in) with all links opening in a new window:
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Kevin in North Carolina — one of our readers — has amazed the retroblogospher by solving the “Sister Mystery” within 24 hours. I asked him how he did it, and here is his story – which is now a part of Maureen and Noreene Everett’s story:
Hi, Pam, it’s nice to finally meet you firsthand.
I’m just thankful I could help find out who the sisters were. Like most of the other people who saw Maurine and Noreene’s pictures, their obvious love for each other and for life struck a chord in me, and the mystery of the whole collection and how the photographs ended up on eBay intrigued me. History, genealogy, and preservation are some of my passions, and it saddens me to see once valuable possessions being sold off or destroyed and losing their original meaning. Fortunately, Roz gave the photos a new meaning to be shared by so many who never even knew the sisters.
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Two more entries in our contest. SO SORRY about that! Penultimately — here is Lisa’s entry in our Found Objects Found Art contest, an intriguing stash…. Heck yeah there is more…
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Now … our final entry in the Found Objects Found Art Contest. Judi aka Sumac Sue’’s tribute to those days when there were only three network TV stations – so we played games…
This is our final contest entry – I think. If I missed you, please email me, retrorenovation at gmail dot com. And get ready: Voting starts Sunday.
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Tom’s entry in our Found Object Found Art contest is our final one – I think!
This is our final contest entry – I think. If I missed you, please email me, retrorenovation at gmail dot com. And get ready: Voting starts Sunday.
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