Feeling a little Mid Century Modern

For the past few months my husband and I have been on a quest for a retro/vintage HiFi ala Rob and Laura Petrie

We were searching for a very specific look....warm oak or maple with fabric or woven wood panels covering the speakers...preferably slide top with storage space for albums..of course it had to work and have an excellent sound and we had be within our budget which was between $100 and $150. We finally located one on the everloving Central Jersey Craigslist site...and wonder of wonders it was in our township!! The couple we bought if from were lovely and had taken such very good care of their 1967 Magnavox HiFi/stereo...they even had the original receipt!

So slowly but surely we are finding the pieces to give our living room the Mid Century Modern vibe we have come to love....oh how I wish I still had some of the pieces from my childhood living room but the hunt for them is most of the fun!

Let the Year of Creativity begin!

I have decided to dedicate the coming year to living the most creative life I possibly can. This will not only pertain to the obvious...beading, fiber arts, cooking, decorating, etc........but also to things like finding a part time job, how to stay active and such....I have always been a relatively creative/think outside the box kind of person when it comes to arts and handcrafts and why not apply that to other areas of my life where I really could use some help? My grandmother Madeline comes to mind when I think of creativity....she was a fashion designer for a small firm back in the 50s-80s and she brought that creativity into every aspect of her life and home. She was re-purposing furniture way before it was the thing to do. I remember the huge round coffee table in the living room of her and my Grandfather's home on Linden Blvd. in Brooklyn circa 1965...the couch was one of those low slung sectionals

that had deep seat cushions that allowed you to sit comfortably with your legs curled up under you but were not easy to get up and out of if you were an adult of a certain age...and this couch needed a low and large coffee table! Of course they could not find a table that was large enough or low enough so Madeline found an old round kitchen table, sawed off the legs and did this Pollack-like paint technique and viola'...the perfect coffee table! She was so ahead of her time and I miss her terribly. So in her memory I am dedicating this year to creative living. One of the first things I have done is explore some free apps on my phone...the first one being PicStitch...it allows me to stitch together 2-6 pictures into a quiltlike collage.

I can see many ways to use this app very creatively!