Happy Thanksgiving

I wanted to write a Thanksgiving post, so I decided to share this T-day bacon turkey I pinned. Even though Thanksgiving is tomorrow, I wanted to give you plenty of time to jam out and purchase a slab of bacon:

Source: therunawayspoon.com via Elisha on Pinterest

How meta would that be to use turkey bacon? And stuff it with turkey sausage stuffing!

Vintage Advertising: Coke vs. Pepsi

I'm a Dr. Pepper drinker, but if I had to choose between Coca-Cola and Pepsi, it's DIET Pepsi all the way. But if I had to choose between their mid-century advertising, it's Coke all the way.

One of my top five favorite blogs, How to be a Retronaut, posted these vintage Coke and Pepsi ads just days apart. I find the Coca-Cola ads to be more brightly colored, have better fashion, and are decidedly less tawdry than the Pepsi ads (although the Coke ads still have an element of innuendo to them).

Source: flickr.com via Elisha on Pinterest

"Drink Coke at a party and be hit on by George Clooney while his wonky cousin looks on in the background." (LOVE the Kelly green sheath dress).

Source: americanartarchives.com via Elisha on Pinterest

"Drink Pepsi at a party and be  hit on by some old man while you pretend you're distracted"

Source: flickr.com via Elisha on Pinterest

"Drink Coke in a swimsuit and look charming and demure."

Source: americanartarchives.com via Elisha on Pinterest

"Drink Pepsi in a swimsuit and be ogled by a smarmy dude."

Source: americanartarchives.com via Elisha on Pinterest

This houndstooth suit is awesome! Ideas for my recent houndstooth purchase. And Pepsi is slimming? News to me! (Incidentally, I shouldn't be drinking soda at all because I'm pretty sure it's single-handedly responsible for my current weight. But I'm addicted.)

Source: flickr.com via Elisha on Pinterest

Neighbors exchanging knowing looks re: their Cokes. Offer your neighbor "some Coke" these days, and it could go much differently.

The Coke ads are from the 1960s and are illustrated by Pete Hawley, the original source is flickr user leifpeng. The Pepsi ads are from the mid-to-late 50s and are either unsigned or have varying artists, they come from American Art Archives. More images at the links!

How about you? Coke or Pepsi? (Or Dr. P?)

Dad sews daughter's wedding dress

My favorite part is the bed sheet muslin!

Found via Butterick's Facebook page.

My blog, Wordled

Project: DIY Nursery Letters

When I was a kid, I was always super disappointed whenever I perused personalized souvenirs. You know the ones; keychains, license plates, and shotglasses that come already emblazoned with common names. I could never find my name.

So now, I love the chance to personalize anything I can. That's carrying over to purchases for my son, too. So even though nursery letters are becoming pretty cliched, I still wanted to make some. In fact, since his first name is so short, I decided to plow forward into his middle moniker as well.

They're pretty straightforward, so I'm not going to insult your intelligence with a tutorial. I wanted the "cobbled together and collected from various sources" look, so they intentionally have different fonts and paint designs.

UPDATE: I've had lots of people landing here looking for ideas to DIY their own, so even though I didn't photograph a tutorial, here's a list of what I did (see below the new picture for a list of tools and materials):

1. Shopped at local craft and hobby stores (and one big box chain!) for mismatched letters.
2. Sketched out the letters on paper (see the new picture below), and drew designs on the letters so that I wouldn't have the same patterns too near each other.
3. Came up with a color scheme, and just like the patterns, sketched it on paper so I wouldn't have too much of the same color too near each other.
4. Lightly sanded the letter with a fine-grit sandpaper. I was mostly looking to smooth out the manufacturing imperfections.
5. I considered priming them, but didn't! I got right to painting the base coat on each letter. Some took more than one to get the base as dark as I wanted it.
6. Once they'd dried, either free-handed the next design layer, or started applying painter's tape. (TIP: paint the base coat over the painter's tape before changing colors. This'll keep the second color from seeping under the tape).
7. Finished each one off with a layer of clear spraypaint! DUNZO.

DIY Nursery Letters
Acrylic craft paint on wood
Letters: From Richard's and WalMart, $1.99 - $2.49 each, approximately $18 total
Paints: On sale for 50 cents each at JoAnn (Purchased in Navy, Cobalt, Orange, White, Black, Yellow, Red, then mixed)
Foam brushes: $1.99 at JoAnn
Crackle medium: $2.49 (Used on letters "T" and "L")
Clear spray paint finish: About $3.69 at WalMart, KRYLON in Satin
Total project cost: Approximately $29