1920's Bungalows

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Who doesn't love a cute house? For me the cutest and the ones that make me sigh the loudest are bungalows from the 1920's. Our town has a plethora of architectural styles from across the years and happily for me there was a major building boom in the 1920's. I love driving or walking the streets admiring all the houses.

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The word "Bungalow" is somewhat generic. According to The Bungalow Book by Charles E. White published in 1923: "The term "bungalow" is a misnomer when applied to many American homes. To the average householder the term suggests a low, single-story dwelling with or without a second floor. In the minds of American it conjures up visions of a squatty building hugging hillside or meadow, with windows divided into little panes, verandas or porches extending along one or more sides and a low, overhanging room in the shelter of which trellises clime from the ground, covered with creeping vines. A pergola extends outwardly from a diminutive white doorway spanning a brick terrace or irregular shaped stone flagging; little children run gayly about in the garden picking bright flowers with which the sunny rooms are to be festooned. 

      In America, the word "bungalow" is hard-worked, vacillating, meaningless but it has become so firmly rooted in American mind that the term is now practically sanctioned by good usage.

A bungalow should be a home with all the charm and individuality of the approved house of two stories.

There is something cozy about a bungalow, inside as well as outside, and this most desirable quality makes an appeal to many who, having viewed with satisfaction the better class of bungalows feel a tug at their heartstrings and a desire to create the same type of building for their own home. At the same time an architectural effect on attainable with any other type of building is made possible in the bungalow. Who can forgo the charm of the low, broad roof line, the little front entrance with it quaint door opening so close to the ground, the low outlines of the little building which seems to nestle to snugly in its setting and offers so little competition with Nature as it rests modestly against the sky line, instead of rearing itself aggressively above the horizon.

The diminutive seems to appeal intensely to humans; the little bungalow attracts all eyes even the eyes of those who, with ample means to carry out their most cherished wishes, are yet attracted toward the sweet simplicity of the bungalow types, its freedom from pretense, and the artistic manner in which it fits the landscape.

The adaptation of the bungalow from Indian to American conditions has so changes its design that it is no longer recognizable, but the word "bungalow: has remained and will probably always exist as an architectural term applied to the low, single-story or story-and-half cottages with which we are familiar."

I am not sure if Charles E. White really clears up the question of what a bungalow actually is, but generally they have no more than one and a half stores, have broad eaves with a low pitched roof, generous front porches and ooze charm.

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Recently I realized just how much I love bungalows! Several houses have gone up for sale in the neighborhood and I just had to go to the open houses. The ohh and ahhing I did in the bungalows! Even though the non-bungalow I went through was an old small house, it didn't have quite as much charm.

Somehow, those 1920's architects managed to get everything just right. The living space feels spacious without being enormous, there are plenty of sunny windows and just enough quirks to make it charming. The minute I step through the door I feel right at home!

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All of these floor plans have similarities to the floor plan of my little bungalow, but this one is the most similar.

I hope you have as much fun browsing these as I did! Do you have a favorite style of house that makes you want to cozy in?

Valentine's Day Chocolate Cinnamon Cookies

In our house February is a busy month. It is birthday season! About three-quarters of the family celebrates their birthdays in February. So Valentine's Day often gets over looked. This year, my contribution to the day was making cookies!

 I used the Chocolate Cinnamon Cookies Recipe from On Sutton Place. They turned out really good. Right out of the oven warm, they were like eating a warm brownie, once cooled they are more cookie like.

A word of caution; it is really hard to tell when these cookies are done! The recipe says to bake for 6 minutes and that was right on. I just wish I would have set a timer! As the second batch was in a bit too long and ended up very crispy and crunchy.  

I did change the recipe to make it dairy free by substituting canola oil and coconut oil for the butter. I also skipped the dipping in melted chocolate and made a simple chocolate glaze. Just enough to make the sprinkles stick! Aren't the little hearts fun? (It will probably take me years to use them all up!)

It has been a long time since I rolled out my favorite vintage Valentine. For the month of February, his home is on my dressing table mirror.

Happy Valentines Day Friends!

Vintage Find: Christmas Santa in Sleigh

Each year there is one vintage Christmas decoration we end up bringing home. Most of the time we don't even know we need it until we find it! This year's find is a blow mold Santa in a sleigh. Cute isn't he?

Santa is on the porch right next to Frosty. They are so cheerful. I love the touches of bright red.

This summer I had taken the table down to the basement. It has always been a bit of a clutter magnet, but then I realized there was no place to put Christmas decorations. So back up it came!

The tinsel trees are another crafty project this year. I love the look of cone trees. But I haven't found any that I really liked (usually too much glitter!). So when I found cardboard cone forms at Hobby Lobby, I scooped up a couple. I also purchased at Hobby Lobby mini tinsel garland in the mini tree decoration section. With a bit of double sided tape, I had the cones wrapped in a few minutes. And for both trees it only cost me about $10!

The other side of the porch is dressed in it's usually wintry pillow covers. We kept it pretty simple this year.

 I love coming up with something new for the front door every year. Sometimes I have an idea what I want beforehand, sometimes not. This year I didn't really have a plan, but once I started it came together.

It is beginning to look very Christmasy here! The winter storm last weekend left a blanket of snow. The cookie varieties are piling up. And I only have four more presents to make. 

How are your Christmas preparations coming?

Vintage Find - Cottage Print

My newest vintage find- a little framed cottage print (top). These little prints can be hard to find, but are worth the wait!

So far my collection consists of two, but I am working on it! For now they both look lovely together in the book nook.

I am usually drawn to English countryside looking prints, but this one was too pretty to pass up. To me it looks very 1940's, but there isn't any identifying marks. 

Don't you love the flowering trees?

One of the reasons I am drawn to house pictures is home has always been a special place for me and my family. We have been blessed to have a safe place to be ourselves, discuss ideas and debate the latest crazy scheme. Home for us has always stood for Family.

A Cheerful Print Frock- The Details

Are you ready to be a detective today? I am back as promised earlier this week with lots of details about this sweet dress. Once I started looking there are quite a few interesting things about it!

So let's start with the silhouette and overall shape of the dress. (This is one of the best ways to determine age of a garment.) This dress is very straight with short straight sleeves. When I tried the dress on (Yes, it fits me!), the sleeves; which look like normal short cap sleeves; suddenly looked like something out of a 1920's fashion illustration! Very straight and almost kimono looking.

There isn't any shaping in the back, it is one straight piece. The front has a waist seam and a drop waist seam. This is a very common detail for the 1928-1932 years as the waist made it's comeback.

The accented drop waist seam is also scalloped in dramatic points ending at inverted pleats. The only extra shaping or fabric is these pleats, no darts or pleats anywhere else. Not even shaped side seams!

I was very excited to see a tag, but alas, several google searches turned up nothing. I wonder if this was a small local factory or cottage industry?

The bodice front is also accent with red bias tape. I find the V ends that don't end in a point rather interesting. Was it shortened? Or intentionally made that way? The waist seam is another mystery. It is sewn with a serger, while all the other seams are french seams.

 Side seam sewn with a french seam. Very tidy! 

My guess is the dress was cut down to fit a smaller size. If the waist seam had been taken in, the side seams would also have to be taken in, so that doesn't make much sense.

A few repairs here and there made with red thread. 

 A tidy hand sewn hem, which was probably taken up (or down!).

All in all this cheery frock has quite the story to tell!

I know this post has a lot of pictures, but the dress captured my imagination and I got a bit carried away!

A Cheerful Print Frock and Emilie Loring

I am so excited to have been asked to do a guest post over at the Emilie Loring blog!

While I read, I love envisioning what it would have been like to live during the time a book was written. I recently finished reading Fair Tomorrow and when I came across a brightly patterned cotton dress in an antique store I thought of Pamela, "The sun brought out curious red-gold glints in Pamela's black hair, roughed the magnolia tints of her face and arms. A green rubber apron protected the front of her gay, sleeveless print frock as she vigorously applied a brush to the lavishly lathered dog who shivered violently in the galvanized iron tub set on a lawn, freshly, velvety, springily green." 
 The complete post is Here. And a more up close, detailed look at the dress later this week!

Daffodils and a Vintage Figurine Vase

At last we have daffodils! I have been waiting so long to use this lovely vase. The minute I brought it home this winter I was dreaming of how beautiful daffodils would look in it. 

They are as pretty as I was imagining!

 Isn't that a sweet face? I fell in love with her the moment I spotted her at an estate sale sitting there surrounded by kitchen clutter. And of course how could I not bring her home when the price tag was a dollar.....plus half off!!

I did a little research and I think she might have been made by the Weil Ware Pottery Co., though there isn't any markings or labels. Don't you think she looks very 1940's? 

(I think she needs a name. Does she look like a Helen?)

 The reason her price tag was so low is she has been glued back together again and there is quite a bit of crazing. But that doesn't matter to me! (She still holds water for the flowers!)

Happy Spring!

An Antiquing Mis-Adventure

This is the story of an English sugar pot and how it came home with me.

 I wasn't really looking for a sugar pot, English or otherwise, that day. It was just a pleasant afternoon browsing around the antique shop with my mom and sister.

Poking at the variety of objects, some old- some not so old, turning over a dish here, lifting up an item there, peering into the corners to see what treasures might be lurking in the shadows.

But when I lifted an English sugar pot the unthinkable happened....... the lid slipped between my fingers and smashed into pieces.

As I collected the bits of china I checked the price tag and sighed, of course it was expensive. Thankfully, even expensive sugar pots are not too expensive. But under normal circumstances I wouldn't have bought it at that price.

In all my years of antiquing, that was the very first time I have dropped anything. I was a bit mortified. Curiously enough, I kept hearing little bangs and crashes all afternoon while we were shopping. And my sister reached up to take down an item and some sort of  giant wooden handled knife fell on my head. Thankfully, it wasn't breakable.

Maybe it was a phase of the moon.....

I now have one very pretty, but expensive button container. 

I certainly wasn't going to let that money go to waste! So I glued all the pieces back together and it now sits on my sewing table.

It's a very pretty pot, even if it now is slightly defective.