Method products score at Community Food Store

Yesterday I was out thrift store shopping with my bestie Maddie and we stopped off at the Community Outreach thrift shoppe. I found a few cute things for my kids, of course.
After, we stopped off at the Community Food Outreach store. I always thought you had to be on food stamps to shop there but it turns out anyone can shop there. My husband and I have been on a very tight budget since we had kids and I work from home doing my populuxe books thing.
So I said, why not shop at the community food store? I was blown away by the prices they had! Campbells soup for .39 cents. They had tons of Annie's organic kids snacks and foods for $1 and under. They had my favorite cereal Barbara's Puffins for $1.49 a box! Most of the items were scratch and dent. The label on the can or the box may have a smudge or dent and couldn't be sold in the store. I asked where the food comes from and they said it is donated mostly from Target and Publix. That's where I normally like to shop!

My greatest score was a bunch of Method and Seventh Generation cleaning products all for under $2 each! I got bathroom cleaner, kitchen cleaner, wood cleaner, hand soap, etc. I love to clean with all natural products, its safer for the kiddies and pets. I was told to check back often because you never know what kind of bargains you'll find each week. Wow!

Method products score!

British Christmas Tree

The other day, my daughter and I were riding our bike in the neighborhood and we decided to stop by and visit our favorite friends and neighbors, The Kanes.
Tasha just loves Christmas decorations so we popped in to see their tree.
This year they created this amazing Christmas homage to the UK. Our friends families are from English descent, I believe. Recently our friend Bret has traveled to the UK for work. He has a super exciting job. He is a decorator for the Harry Potter theme park at Universal Studios Fl. His job is to travel to the UK to shop for all things Potter to decorate the theme park. What an awesome job!
I think this year England has made their Christmas holiday extra jolly.
Their tree is a huge silver tree adorned with red white and blue ornaments, lights, Union Jacks and Buckingham Palace soldier guardsmen. I suggested they throw in a little blue TARDIS. We shall see...

 

 

Bloody brilliant tree

If you have an unusual or unconventional tree, feel free to email me a pic. I would love to post it on my blog. Happy Holidays!

1950s ranch house Christmas Lights

Even though we live in sunny Orlando Fl, its beginning to look a lot like Christmas!
My husband and kids have been busy little elves decorating our 1950s ranch house with some Holiday Cheer. My husband Brian used to be a set decorator and he has done the Christmas decorations at Walt Disney World and Universal Studios.
He loves decorating for the holidays and so do our kiddos.
He decorated the roofline with the big multi-colored retro bulbs.
Stringed smaller multi-colored lights around the windows.
Spread the weblike lights on the hedges.
We have 2 inflatables featuring Santa riding a polar bear and Santa riding a rocket ship.
We have a festive wreath made of Christmas balls
Through our big picture window you can see our vintage aluminum tree.

More lights Dad

our happy home during the Holidays

You spin me round like a Lazy Susan

My mid century modern pick of the week is...
The lazy Susan! Does anyone remember these?
I found this 1970s mod vintage Rubbermaid lazy Susan this week.
My 2 year old daughter thinks its so much fun to spin it round and round.
She puts her trucks on it and even spins her bottle on it. She likes it stirred not shaken, I guess.

My son thinks it looks like slices of an orange, I think it looks like a pizza.
What ever it is, its a lot of fun and looks snazzy on our mid century tulip table.

Disney Pixar Cars Hotel - Art of Animation

This weekend, as part of my extended Birthday celebration, our family went to The Art of Animation Resort at Walt Disney World. It is a resort hotel devoted to some of the best animation Disney and Pixar have to offer. It features The Lion King, Finding Nemo and Cars!

Our son Grayson started getting into Cars when he was around 2 years old, now he's 5 and still loves them. Our daughter Tasha is 2 and she loves both the Cars movies and loves to play with her brother's Cars toys. We plan to get her some Cars of her own for Christmas.

The Cars hotel was really well done! The architecture looked just like Radiator Springs even down to the landscaping. They used beach grasses and gravel to transform Florida into the Western US. The Cozy Cone Motel was the adult "quiet pool". The cones were relaxing poolside cabanas.

 All of our favorite Cars were there. Lightning McQueen, Sally, Mater, Flo, Ramone, Doc Hudson and the rest of the gang. Their scale was just smaller than real life automobiles. Perfect size for the kids to pose for photo ops.

We stayed in the Luigi's Casa Della Tires building with Guido and Luigi and the leaning tower of tires out front.

Our room was amazing! We got the suite which included 2 rooms. All the furniture was custom made for a Cars theme. The dining table folded down to reveal a Mater murphy bed. My son really liked that. He now wants a murphy bed for his room at home.

The living room had a convertible sofa decked out in cadillac style upholstery. The kidney shaped coffee table had a map of Radiator Springs on it. The tv and kitchen looked like tool chests clad in red, black and chrome.
The 3 tiered pole lamp had road cones as shades.

The master bedroom had a comfy bed with Cars style headboard. Even the art in the room was well thought out. The master bedroom featured Sally and McQueen on their romantic drive.

The two bathrooms were designed to look like a car wash.

My kids loved the Finding Nemo pool. The huge pool featured all the fish friends from the movie. The water in the pool and splash pad was heated. The water was warmer than the air on a November day in Florida. The pool had a 0 entry so you could just walk right in and out of the water. The pool had speakers underwater. My son said he could hear the music underwater!
The splash pad was just adorable. Nemo and Marlin were bigger than life. The fish quirted water at the little ones as they ran around and played. It was so cute!

We had a great time at the hotel. I'd definitely like to stay there again. Wow!

Philip Johnson's Glass House Hurricane Sandy Damage

A few years ago for my birthday my husband took me to visit The Glass House by architect Philip Johnson. It was such a beautiful, serene experience. Its not just about touring the house, the land, forest, buildings and art galleries are just amazing. It was one of my favorite birthdays ever!

The Glass House property in New Canaan CT was damaged by hurricane Sandy.
Luckily,  The Glass House along with the other structures and sculptures all seem to be in tact but the gorgeous, pristine forest lost over 20 trees and there is a lot of debris.  The Art Galleries have several leaks.

Check out photos on The Glass House website to see the damage. The property is without power and they are still assessing the damage. If you would like to donate to The Glass House, you can do so on their website. I hope they are able to restore it so more people can visit and enjoy it as much as I did.

Best birthday ever!

Populuxe Books pic of the week

I've been super busy these days with 2 kids but I've decided to start blogging again. I would like to at least post a Populuxe books pic each week, meaning something mid century that I have come across that I would like to share.

I was shopping at Target today with my family and I spotted a side table which looks a lot like the metal side table by Warren Platner. It is only $48 on clearance! Wow!

 

 

 

 

 

$48 find at Target

The real deal can be found at All Modern for around $1000

Knoll Warren Platner side table

Pretty similar, right?