Aluminium of the 1960's- in full color

Vintage aluminium clothespins from
LittleBeach Designs on Etsy- already sold. See more below.

       Though the buzz word with the business men was "plastic" in the 1960's, the hot item for women was anodized aluminum.  The home was still the woman's domain and she was exercising her rights to choose. She choose color, crisp primary colors like only anodized aluminium can offer! Anodizing is an electro-chemical process that took the light weight silvery material and transformed it into vivid color. And because of the shine of the aluminum the colors were metallic in a way. And, though not as strong as steel, stronger than ceramic and much liht weight than both. It was the perfect material for partyware and came if an array of party colors.

These vintage clothes pins reminded me of my childhood and going to a neighbor Eva Mae's house, who has grandchildren my age, to play and she would pull out her multi-colored tumblers and fill them with liquid that seemed exotic in those glasses, but was probably just Kool-aid.

Here are some great 1960's anodized aluminum item from Etsy. Please click on the link in the caption to take you to the item.

clothes pins from Avericia

buttons for Fagin's Daughter

Mid Century Modern tumbers from Glamour Girl Antiques

Bowls from Soogees

expanding files from HabitusVA

Coasters from Four Proffitts Vintage

Peach and Mint- Summer colors

According to Etsy's extensive research, peach and mint are THE colors for the summer. Fortunately, they are also easy to add to any decor. Here are a few suggestions on great peach and mint accessories for your home!

Great Kantha throw from One Kings Lane!

Set of Peach and Mint clothes pins from Owl and Thistle on etsy

Mint green paint can be grounded with earth tones and white from House Beautiful

Arrows are my secondary trend for right now! And they are so fun in peach from Fletcher and Fox on etsy!

Mint green can look dated, however once it is paired with a crisp white, it goes fresh!
From House Beautiful

Peach is great for warming up a space with out heating it up! What a great private space from Design Sponge!

Back to School: The Dorm - tastic freshman room

I had the best dorm room on campus when I was in college- a large corner room in the dorm with bathrooms in the room. Though the dorm was on the periphery of campus and had gross light green metal furniture, the attached bathroom trumped everything else. I made a quilt for my bed the summer before my freshman year from a dress with a full skirt and a coordinating fabric that was purchased at the time the dress fabric was purchased.
To celebrate the back to school spirit and the joys of leaving home... combined with the sadness of missing home. I have collected a group of dorm must haves for that first year of college. Hopefully the rising freshman will find some great ideas to help bring a bit of home with them to school.

Kindles and Nooks are great, but you will probably have some real books, too!

Great for future heroines, drama queens and art deco fans. The leaning ladies book ends.

Fun signage for the dorm door or as a reminder for when deadlines get tight and dances are coming up!

Pink and Green and Happy! Great dorm collecting of duvet and pillows!

Ferocious, that you! Attacking homework, devouring books, dominating on the Dean's list.. no? Not you? How
about dominating in your dining hall, devouring rush week and ferocious in your school colors!  Plants help
to clean the air, which is nice in a dorm and succulents are easy to care for.

Pin notes, keep up with papers, decorate your bulletin board! Clothes pins are also handy for clipping bags closed!

Dorm keys, car keys, or lab keys- you have to keep up with them! Great to start the new school year
and perfect for the college care packages from Mom! Great gift for you roommate, suite mates, or sisters!

This little guy will be the best college boyfriend you'll ever have! You can never have enough plugs...
Maybe you are like Mr. Weasley and you collect them! This would be a great addition to the collection.

My computer's hotness level!

So, I have a hot computer. Yes, it's a real looker in brown plaid with a touch panel on the top of the keyboard to adjust the volume. But my computer's hotness was temperature related. (sigh)

See, isn't the volume slider cool!

I've been diligently typing, adjusting, grammar checking and looking for images for my final paper to complete my Master of Arts in Interior Design. All of this has caused my computer to break into a sweat! And frankly, I do not need hot air blowing on me in the summer. So how do I fix this problem on grad student funds! After quite a bit of Internet research, which contributed to the problem. I came up with two solutions, one was inspired by a techie pages on the web, and one from my problem solver-ness.

Here's the techie plan-

This is not my laptop, but it is similar.

1. First find a screwdriver small enough to fit the screws on the back of your computer.
2. Turn off the laptop and unplug it (safety first!)
3. Pop out the battery with the mystery slider on the bottom of the computer and remove all panels you can with out taking the actually back off (no need to be extreme, now.)
4. Place the little doors on the other side of the room so there is no chance of vacuuming the screws up.
5. Get your strongest vacuum, or your only vacuum. (Not the one for the computer, the one for the floors.)
6. Then, suck out all the open compartments, even if they look clean.
7. Next suck out the fan vent section- a lot... like until you are deafened from the vacuum noise.
8. Put all the little doors back on the laptop back and the battery back in place.
9. Plug in turn on and continue working. Be amazed at how quiet your computer fan is!

Step two- my problem solving plan!Because I do not use a computer desk, but a vintage desk, it is a bit high for laptop use. So, adding the special fan base to cool my laptop really made typing for a long period of time uncomfortable.
I needed the vent-ability of the cooling fan mat without the bulk.
Then it hit me.
Clothes pins!
Yes, clothes pins!


These are some of my clothespins on etsy!

I have placed two wooden clothes pins under the back of my computer to tilt it up. They allow air to flow underneath my computer without altering the height of the keyboard... much.







Please know that I am not a computer person. And this is only my experience with my computer. Use my advise at your our risk. By keeping your laptop clean and cool you will extend the life of it and in the long run prevent excess electrical appliances out of landfills. Always recycle computers when the time comes!