Uniquely Rochelles

So, now is when the fun begins. I know I have been talking a lot about the Lawrence Welk show and I know you all are thinking, "Come on Rochelle, can you talk about something else!?" Well, it will all tie in and the wait is over! Disney! Bear with me. While watching….you guessed it, the Lawrence Welk show…this is getting somewhere, I promise. He brought a quartet on his show and introduced them as the Mellomen! How fun! I love quartets!  As I was enjoying bopping my head around to the singing, I started to slowly realize that one of them looked strangely familiar. I'm not some quartet guru, so it's not as if I knew them really well…hmm…who was he!? Does one of them look familiar to you? Any guesses? As I was oddly eyeballing the TV, I exclaimed "I got it!!" Tell me if you find him! You guessed it!! Thurl Ravenscroft is from the quartet The Mellomen and he is one of the head busts in Disney's The Haunted Mansion!! No wonder I didn’t recognize ...

My grandpa was a TV news anchor/reporter back in the day and would interview celebrities of the current times. My mother had special perks growing up because she got to have backstage passes to shows with meet and greets from the performers. She has an absolute special autographed picture from Bobby Darin. But, the story behind the photo itself is the best part. She had finished watching him in his show when my grandpa took her backstage to meet him. She explains that Bobby opened the door wearing his robe and slippers while smoking his cigarette. If that doesn’t just scream 1950's then I don’t know what else does.  But, my favorite picture I own is of when my grandpa interviewed Lawrence Welk. Sadly, I wasn’t around yet to meet Lawrence Welk but I love having that picture. I asked my grandma if she was able to meet him too and she explained that she was, in fact, the one that took the picture. She laughed and said, "I technically wasn't supposed to hang around...

In the midst of all of our home improvement fiasco, Matt, my parents and I all took a trip to Walt Disney World. If you don’t already know me by now, my love for Disney pretty much exceeds everything else. Well, that is after Matt, my family and the 1950's. Speaking of which, before we take a turn down Disney lane, let's talk a bit about my 1950's fantasy life. Obviously, I love the décor, the fashion and the music but what about the entertainment? We're going to head back to Christmas 2017. Matt bought me a beautiful 1950's television that didn’t work. Oh, I was living the dream! I know you're probably thinking, “Rochelle, get real, he gave you a broken telly, how is that the dream?” Well, with my love for Disney I will quote "anything is possible" and yes, I made it possible.  Carefully, we removed the old tube in the television to leave an empty cabinet behind the glass and dropped off the old tube to an old electric drop off place and...

I know you all have been waiting with baited breath to find out what happened with our flooring story but do not fret! The time has come and here we are! Part 3!  I ended the Vinyl Tile Horror story part two, thinking that our floor situation couldn’t get any worse but in fact...it did. As Matt was scrubbing off the glue, he didn’t realize that he was scrubbing so hard, he was also scrubbing the color of the vinyl tile off. Completely off!! So, now my streaked tile looked like it had transformed into a polka dot pattern! When re-doing our house, no one ever told me that I needed to start out by purchasing every stress relieving smelling salt out there! I started to pace down the hallway to get my thoughts together because I was out of control by this point. When I looked down I saw that where they had cut the tiles to fit next to the baseboards, on some of the edges they had chipped a big chunk off the side and instead of trying again, they just filled it in with white caulk. ...

I figured it was time to take a break from the vinyl tile horror story because….it still hasn’t ended. And besides, it's time to take a break from that mess and talk about having some fun! The other day, my mom and I spent the day thrift shopping, which is how every day off from ballet usually starts. We walked into our local thrift shop and I headed straight to the knick-knacks, like I always do. I tease that instead of becoming a crazy cat or dog lady, I'm going to be the crazy knick-knack lady that has an entire zoo of them. It’s also helpful that our home has a built in knick-knack shelf around every room at the top of the walls. Anyway, back to my story. While treasure hunting, I found this super cute cookie jar. I recognized the maker "American Bisque" but what is fun about this piece is that on the bottom it reads "Patent Pending." This is even before it became American Bisque. So, let's delve into some history about this company! In ...

Where did we leave off? Oh yea, we are at day 7 and the flooring project is completed! Whoo! Eager to see my beautiful floors, I burst through the front door with eyes filled with anticipation. But, what every homeowner does not want to see was in fact, what I saw, that dreaded add-on room that I talked about in my earlier post. May I remind you that the flooring guy was so confident he could make the floor even? Well, nope. He did not. How can I explain this best as to how it looked? You know when you walk on sand at the beach and you leave a foot imprint in the sand? THAT’S HOW IT LOOKED! I know it’s supposed to be a tiki room but I never said to have it look as though you were walking on sand! Could it even get worse? OH YEA! Remember when I said that we bought the asbestos free streaked tile and that we had just enough for the square footage we needed and we couldn’t buy it anywhere else because we bought the last of what they ever made? Yup! All gone. Used every last box!...

Thanksgiving 2018 Matt and I bought our first home!  Our 4 year anniversary is in just a couple of days and within our years of marriage we have lived in an apartment and in a rental home. They were very nice places but I always felt deprived not being able to change anything in the space! I wanted to paint the walls, change the floors, I wanted a project! Well, when my dream finally became a reality when we purchased our 1957 home, I knew my most important project, well...after painting the walls, so, my second most important project was changing the flooring. Just in the living room alone, there were four different types of flooring! Four! Yes, it was my dream being that it was built in 1957 but unfortunately, it had gotten a makeover in the 70’s. And yes, I hate the 70’s. So being me, I started doing my research for “fun 1950’s flooring” and then my head went spinning! A sailboat, a top hat, a champagne glass! I could have an entire art gallery of vinyl tile on my fl...