Retro House in Malibu Photo Series

Yesterday, I told you I was going to show you the house that inspired my new section Retro Recipes Saturdays  here is the link to that post Mary Mac's Brown Bacon & Retro Recipe Saturdays.  Today I am going to show you this wonderful house, that so many of my childhood memories come from.  I had most of my birthday parties there, and I can remember New Years Eve's, and Passovers, and taking my wonderful husband to meet my aunt for her approval.  This is one of my favorite places on earth.  When I see it I breathe a sigh of relief,  it is kind of like all of the stress leaves my body when I get there.
Okay, so on to the pictures.

This is the big rock ( I wrote about it in Otters - Photography Series 5 )in front of my aunts house, and a picture of the house.

 This is my mom and my cousin Jack talking out on the front deck.

 These are some houses on the beach.  The house on the left was Tony Danza's and the one on the right is one of the newer homes.  A lot of people are buying the older homes and tearing them down to build larger one.  So you don't see as many of the older beach cottages.

 

The house on the left is one of the older houses on the beach, and the picture on the right is looking down the beach.

 

 These pictures are of the dining room and the stained glass window at the end of the dining room next to the built in cabinets.

 
 
 

These are some of the retro serving pieces that my aunt had in her cabinets.  They are really beautiful.  It was really fun looking at all of these things.  I love the bowls.

  

The picture above left is the kitchen with the original appliances, a the picture on the right are the inverted champagne flute Murano glass light fixtures.

 I love the den on the left.  It has a bar, which is always well stocked.  Jack and his wife Dede had this couch custom made for the living room.  It totally fits in with the 50's theme.  Just beautiful.

The first two pictures are of the guest bathroom's soaking tub and the counter and sink. The third picture is part of the master bathroom.

 

 Finally, Jack and Dede found an original Don The Beachcomber menu, and framed it with glass on both sides, so that you can look at it from either directions. 

I hope that you have enjoyed this little tour of my Aunt Charlotte's house in Malibu.  I have such great memories of growing up there. 

Enjoy!!!
Debi
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Brown Bacon & Retro Recipe Saturdays

I was recently in California visiting my family. I grew up in Sherman Oaks in the San Fernando Valley, and it is always great going home. My whole family still lives there, so I got to see everyone. I had a really great time, but now I miss them all tremendously.

I went to visit my cousin Jack at the beach house in Malibu on Old Malibu Road. That is where I spent most weekends as a teenager, also every birthday, 4th of July, New Years Eve, and every other party that my Aunt Charlotte and Uncle Ed used to throw. It was one of the best places in the world to hang out. They built their house in 1958, and at that time is was very modern, but now is considered totally cool and retro. It was like the GE House of the Future at Disneyland. I don’t know if any of your are old enough to remember that ride, but I certainly am. It had Clarkson electric cooktop and oven and the Nutone appliances built into the counter. They even had a thing that looks like a speaker, but had all of the electrical cords for appliances built into the wall. The house was featured in Sunset Magazine in 1958 after it was finished.

My aunt passed away about 8 years ago, and my cousin restored the house to back to its original style and décor. My aunt had kept all of the original appliances in good shape, so it was mainly paint bathroom fixtures, tile, carpet, even a Murano glass light fixture that had to be remade. The house is beautiful I will post pictures of it in tomorrow’s blog, but for today I want to talk recipes.
All of this background is for a reason. My aunt and uncle loved to have parties. She loved to cook, and she also shared her recipes. After my aunt passed away, my cousin Jack, gave my mom all of my aunts cook books and recipes, because my mom and I love to cook. It was 4 boxes of cookbooks, so we have gone through some of it, but since we both already have so many cookbooks, it seemed overwhelming at time. I was telling Jack about my blog, and that I was having a hard time feeling like my weekend posts were cohesive with my blog. They just felt random. He suggested that since I was doing recipes, and since we have all of the cookbooks and her written recipes that I do a Retro Recipe day, and I thought that was a great idea. So we now have Retro Recipe Saturdays. We just went through one box of her cookbooks this time and I brought home quite a few along some of her handwritten recipes, which I will provide copies of in my blog. It is pretty fun trying to do this. I can’t wait to hear what you think of these new recipes. I have some cookbooks dating back to 1940. The pictures and graffics are pretty cool. When I have a cookbook I will scan in the front and the copy write page so you can see it also.
Today though I am going to do one of my aunts handwritten recipes. I hope that you give it a try. It is a really simple recipe and it came from her neighbor Mary Mac. By the way, Mary still lives on the beach also. So here it is, Mary Mac’s Brown Bacon.

Mary Mac’s Brown Bacon

Ingredients

1 lb bacon cut in half
½ box brown sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Cover cookie sheet with foil. Spray cake rack with non stick cooking spray.

Dunk bacon in water and then dredge the bacon in the brown sugar.

Put on a foil lined cookie sheet.

Bake for 20 minutes and remove immediately with a fork.

Put on sprayed cake rack to drain.

This can be made ahead and stored in a plastic container in the refrigerator until ready to use. Then just reheat. They of course wrote if not eaten first.

I hope that you like this recipe. Let me know what you think. It can be used for breakfast or as an appetizer. Send me your comments, and I hope that you like this new series, which is called Retro Recipe Saturdays.

Enjoy!!!
Debi
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Favorite Friday Blog Links 11

We are on to Favorite Friday Blog Links 11, and I am so excited.  This week I reached my first 100 followers on GFC.  My blog has been up for just about 11 weeks at this point, as you can see from this weeks post.  I am so grateful to all of you for following me.

If your are a featured blogger.  Grab this link for your page.

I am a featured blogger on Adorned From Above's Favorite Friday Blog Links

Now I am really excited to present this weeks Favorite Friday Blog Links.  These bloggers are truly amazing.  So read on and enjoy.

I love this post from Jerri at Simply Sweet Home's 13 Homemade Popsicle Recipes

 This is the greatest skirt tutorial called The Maxi by Leann Barlow at Elle Apparel

I read this yesterday and thought is was so beautiful it is called Walk Away! by Gail at 1 Minute Bible Love Notes.

This is a great informative post from Aimee from Twigg Studios called Turn Your Paintings into Digital Art

I hope you love looking at this weeks Favorite Friday Blog Links.  Let me know who your favorite bloggers are.  I love hearing from all of you.

Enjoy!!!

Debi
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Danny's Peach Ice Cream

Hey Everyone, I hope all of you are doing well.  I just wanted to thank everyone who is following me.  Yesterday I hit my first 100 GFC followers.  I am pretty excited, since I have only been blogging about 2 1/2 months.  I am hoping to double this over the next month, so please let your friends know, and if you are new to my blog, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE follow me if you like what you read.

Today I am sharing a recipe for DANNY'S PEACH ICE CREAM.  A few weeks ago, Danny decided that he wanted to make homemade peach ice cream.  We found several different recipes, but we decided to go with my regular ice cream recipe with a twist.  Danny had found a recipe that used sweetened condensed milk, and we thought that this was something unusual.  So we did use this, and changed up my recipe a little bit.

DANNY'S PEACH ICE CREAM

Ingredients:

2 cups heavy whipping cream

1 can sweetened condensed milk

3/4 cup milk

4 peaches, peeled, cubed, and mashed

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

Mash peaches and add the sugar and mix.  Let sit while you get the other ingredients ready.

Mix cream, sweetened condensed milk, milk, and vanilla.

Then stir in mashed peaches and sugar mixture.

Pour into 1 quart ice cream maker, and follow directions for your ice cream maker.  Mine is a cuisinart and it was done in about 30 minutes.

Pour into a container and freeze.

We did six individual servings in small mason jars, and then the other half we put into a container in the freezer.  Sorry that was the only picture that I took that day.  Sometimes I forget that I write a blog and need pictures.

I hope that you like this recipe.  Let me know what you think.  I love hearing from all of you.

Enjoy!!!

Debi

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Face Cleansing Oil and Wednesday's Adorned From Above Link Party 10

Welcome to my Wednesdays Adorned from Above Link Party 10. I hope that all of you have fun, and I can't wait to see all of your beautiful work from the last week.

This week I am featuring the three top blog that had the most visits. Clicking on the like button will also help to pick which posts you like the most.  Right now I am picking the links with the most page views.
 
I am thrilled to feature the following posts this week.  So without further ado, I would like to present these beautiful and informative bloggers.  To those of you that I featured I would love for you to feature this link to the blog showing that you are featured blogger at the Wednesday Adorned from Above Blog Hop. Just copy and paste the link below somewhere on your page.

I am a featured blogger at Wednesday Adorned From Above Link Party

Homemade Foaming Hand Soap from Practical Stewardship

Cheap Eats: Dinner for Under $1 a Serving

Crockpot Freezer Cooking 4 from Six Cents

Coconut Maple-Bacon Cupcakes from Kathe With and E

I want to thank everyone who linked with my Wednesdays Adorned From Above Link Party.  All of your projects are wonderful and I would post all of them if I could, but I think that the blog would probably be a little too long.  I hope that all of you link more posts this week.  Let's Party!!!

Your posts can include:

• anything DIY
• Recipes
• Arts and Crafts
• Sewing
• Knitting and Crochet Ideas and Patterns
• DIY Cleaning Solutions
• Natural Beauty Product Recipes
• Decorating Ideas
• Thrifting
• Book Reviews, Movie Reviews, Christian Music
• Inspirational Articles, Poetry, Life Stories, or Short Stories
• Bible Studies 

1. Bloggers, use the linky tool on the bottom of this post to share your best post. Non-bloggers, feel free to add a comment here with any ideas or thoughts you have. 
2. I would love for you to add the blog hop link posted below to the post that you are linking also.  It will give us additional opportunities for more people to see our blogs. This is not a requirement just a request.
3. Please take a look at what other people have posted and vote on the ones that you like.
4. I would also love for you to post a comment in my comments section telling me a little about yourself and your post.  This also is not a requirement just a request.  I would love getting to know you and your blog.
5. Wednesdays Adorned From Above Link Party Link
6. I would love to have you follow me in some way, either through RSS feeds, email, or Google.

I am a new convert to cleaning my face with oil.  I was reading a post this morning from Simple Mom - Oil Cleansing Method, and she said that she finally broke down about 4 weeks ago and made a face cleansing oil.  She also said that it worked, so I thought I would give it a shot.

Well it is amazing.  It really does clean your face.  My pores were totally clear, which truly amazed.  The deal is that oil cleans oil.  When you rub the oil into your skin, it actually helps dissolve the dirt and oil in your pores.

This is a quote from acne.org:

“Oil dissolves oil. One of the most basic principals of chemistry is that “like dissolves like.” The best way to dissolve a non-polar solvent like sebum/oil, is by using another non-polar solvent similar in composition: other oils. By using the right oils, you can cleanse your pores of dirt and bacteria naturally, gently and effectively, while replacing the dirty oil with beneficial ones extracted from natural botanicals, vegetables and fruit that heal, protect and nourish your skin. When done properly and consistently, the OCM can clear the skin from issues like oily skin, dry skin, sensitive skin, blackheads, whiteheads and other problems caused by mild to moderate acne–while leaving your skin healthy, balanced and properly moisturized.”

So this method is even good for skin with acne also.  It is pretty amazing.

Face Cleansing Oil

Ingredients:

1 oz castor oil
3 oz jojoba oil
1 oz evening primrose oil

Directions:


Measure out the oils and pour into a container.

Squeeze a quarter size amount in your hand and massage into your face.  Massage the oil into your skin for about 2 minutes.

Then you will get a wash cloth wet with very hot water, and lay it over your face.  This will help open your pores and dissolve the dirt with the steam.  Once the wash cloth cools off, you can then wipe the oil off of your face.  I wet the wash cloth with hot water a second time, and then wiped my face with it again.  The hot wash cloth will help to dissolve the impurities in your pours.

I did need to extract a little bit, with the deeper blackheads, but most of the surface ones were cleared out after I finished wiping my face with the hot wash cloth.

Now the reason that I used jojoba and evening primrose oil rather then olive oil, is that jojoba oil is one of the best oils for penetrating your skin and evening primrose oil is great for mature skin.  If you are under 40 you could use olive oil or jojoba oil which are both great for your skin.  The other oil, that I thought about using is rose hip oil.  That would be a great one to mix in also, but I would just use 1 TB of it with jojoba or olive oil.

You may also notice that you have oil coming out of your pores.  These are your pores adjusting to not being clogged any longer.  Our skin is an amazing thing.  Your skin will not feel oily after using this method to clean your skin, just clean.

You should also only use this method about 3 times a week.  Castor oil will dry out your skin if used to often.

By the way, I am old enough to remember my mom cleaning her face with Noxema when I was young.  Again, dissolving oil with oil.  When I reminded my mom of this, she had forgotten also.  She was surprised that oil dissolved.  I am sending her some cleansing oil next week.

I hope that you give this cleansing method a try.  Let me know what you think.  I would love to hear from you.

Enjoy!!!
Debi
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DIY Laundry Detergent

Today I am going to share a recipe for DIY Laundry Detergent from Busy At Home's - DIY Laundry Detergent.  This is the 2nd batch that I have made, and I love this stuff.  It is just as good as Tide, and works great in my HE washing machine.  This is a recipe that I highly recommend.  So here goes.

DIY Laundry Detergent

  
Ingredients:

1/4 bar Fels Naptha Soap
2 TBL Borax Powder
1/4 cup Arm and Hammer Washing Soda (not baking soda)

Directions:

Cut your bar of Fels Naptha Soap into quarters, and save 3 of the quarters for future batches.  Grate 1/4 bar of the Fels Naptha.


Heat 1 cup of water in a pan on the stove and add the Fels Naptha soap.  Stir constantly until the soap dissolves.  I use a whisk.  It will get foamy on top, but you can use a large spoon or ladle to look at the water / soap mixture to see if it has totally dissolved.  Just try to get the mixture without the foam.  It took me about 10 to 15 minutes with the water lightly boiling.

Once the soap has dissolved turn off the heat and add the borax and washing soda, and whisk together well.  Make sure that there are no lumps.  It will be thick, but I found that it is easier to do it this way, then the to add it after after you add the additional water.  The recipe at Busy At Home tells you add them once you add the additional water, but I found that it was harder to get rid of the clumps that way.

Next put this mixture in a bucket and add 10 cups of water.  Whisk together well.  Then add another 10 cups of water.  Cover the bucket or put in a container with a lid and let sit overnight.

The next day stir well again.  It will have thickened up overnight.  Then pour this mixture into containers, and only fill containers half full.  Then fill the next half of the containers with water.  Shake well to mix detergent.  I have used different containers and they all seem to work well.  I have an old tide bottle that I use, but I have also used 1 gallon empty water jugs, and also large juice containers.  I save empty containers, because I never know what I am going to need them for.

My suggestion is to shake the bottles before each use, so that you do not get lumps.  Otherwise, use as you would any other laundry detergent.  I use about 1/4 cup or a little less per load. 

Makes approximately 2 1/2 gallons of laundry detergent.

I hope you like this recipe.  It is amazingly easy.  Let me know if you like this recipe.  I would love to hear from you.

Enjoy!!!
Debi

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Upholstering Couch - Update

Hi everyone.  Today I am departing from our Bible Study, since I posted that on Saturday.  I also wanted to tell everyone that since I was gone for about 3 out of the last 4 weeks, I have not been able to answer everyone's comments.  I really appreciate the comments, and would like to answer all of them, but so many are coming in, I am not always able to do that.  I love everything that you have to write, and I will try to answer everyone, but it may take some time.

Today wanted to talk about a post that I had posted a long time ago that I was reupholstering our living room couch.  Here is the link to the original post Upholstering My Couch.   It has taken forever, since I have been trying to get this blog up and going, and also, because we travel quite a bit.  Since we travel, it seems like I am always trying to get posts ready ahead of time, which means like the rest of you I'm sure, I don't always get everything done.  So my goal this week is to finish the couch.  Which means I may not blog quite as much.  We will see how things go. 

I am going to post pictures of what has been done on my couch.  I had taken it all the way down to the frame, I have put new cotton batting on the couch and have covered it with muslin.  I am getting ready to start sewing the fabric together for the front, back, and cushion of the couch.  I will also be sewing the cording for the couch and the cushions.  So this will be a busy week.

  New burlap over springs on deck.

  New pad on deck over burlap.

New cotton batting on arms.

 

  New muslin over arm batting and deck padding.

 

 Seeing the backside of the couch

 

I forgot to take a picture of the new cotton batting on the back of the couch, but 

this is a picture of the muslin over the new cotton batting.

The couch is now covered with the new batting and muslin on the front, arms, and deck.  

The cotton batting for the back and sides will not be put on until I have gotten the fabric over the front, deck, and arms.  I have to be able to stretch the fabric in between different parts of the frame before I can add these batting to these other parts.

I hope that the re-upholstery project will be helpful to any of you who are thinking about doing something like this.  I will say, it is not easy, and it is time very consuming.  I was originally going to do two wing back chairs also, and I am not sure if I will do that now.

Enjoy!!!
Debi

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Mexico Photo Series

I wanted to show you some of my favorite pictures from some of the towns near our home north of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.   Maybe a little beauty can give us a little peace after what happened in Aurora, Colorado early Friday morning.

 

These two pictures were taken from Tino's Mariscos Restaurant in El Anclote, Nayarit, Mexico

 Tablecloths on a clothes line in El Anclote.

 

Amazingly beautiful flowers around houses.  I love the pink roses against the blue and green background.  I couldn't have planned it better.

 The crocodile zone at the end of our beach.  There is a lake down there.  I have never seen a crocodile on our beach, but I assume that there might be some there.

 

The sun setting at the end of a busy day.  Spectacular!!!  Isn't it?  God blesses each and every day with sunrises and sunsets like this all around the world, every day.

I hope that you have enjoyed this photo series.  Let me know what you think.  I love hearing from you.

Enjoy!!!

Debi
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