save this eichler, ferndale ave., orange ca

Eichler. Oh how I love an Eicher. I was trolling our local real estate listings, and I found an Eichler that is hard even for a mother to love.

814 E. Ferndale Ave., Orange Ca 92865

What would Eichler himself say to this?  The over grown tree gives you a bit of a clue.

blog update: new look for 2013

I gotta admit it. I am kind of ecstatic and over-joyed. The blog has a new look for 2013! In case you have already forgotten, here is the old look:

I have made do with the old look for over a year. But it is an absolutely, positively, straight out-of-the-box Blogger template. Kind of embarrassing if you happen to know what I do for a living.

hearts for children and cookies for you

Glad to see everyone on the back side of  the deadly trio of Martin Luther King, Junior Day, the Presidential Inauguration AND my birthday. The next big holiday to get behind us is Valentine's Day. I put "mid-century" and "valentine" into Google. The most charming images appear.

Red Olivetti Valentine Mid Century typewriter courtesy of eBay Seller  powercameras77777

Did you know there is a whole sub-culture of people who collect typewriters and obsess about typewriter fonts? I Dream Lo Tech is devoted to such concerns and is seriously quite an interesting read.

big birthday bauer balls

When I went to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art with my son at the end of December, I was fascinated by the big Bauer garden orbs featured in the gift shop.

Bauer Pottery Garden Orbs picture compliments of LA Magazine.

I have a serious thing for Bauer. Bauer was my first foray into eBay in 1998. I was home on maternity leave and eventually wound up on a first name basis with the FedEx guy. These garden orbs at LACMA thrilled me but they were ever so expensive.

retro vegas vintage roundup, #nmv and pinterest

The trek through Vegas vintage continues. Last week I went to BlogWorld - New Media Expo 2013 #NMX and had my head stuffed with good ideas. Like Pinterest. If you are a guy, before you click away, here me out. Why the buzz for Pinterest? I listened to Debba Haupert, founder of Girlfriendology.com and a social media expert. Here are my four take aways:

1. The Pinterest demographic is women (duh) and an excellent social media outlet for content creators focused in women's spaces (recipes, diy, arts/crafts, fashion, inspiration/quotes).
2. Pinterest has become a popular way to drive traffic (good post on driving blog traffic from Social Media Examiner).
3. Repinly.com gives you Pinterest social media stats. The top board is Elephants. Seriously, who knew?
4. Tall image sizes do better on Pinterest, 300 to 554 chars and get repinned more (makes sense). And, bonus fact, Pinterest skews more business in Europe. Huh?

Retro review time!!! Last but certainly not least.

I spent late Sunday afternoon at #NMX trolling around Antique Alley in the Las Vegas Arts District. One of the first shops that I found open on Sunday at 3pm was Retro Vegas. Retro Vegas is a massive warehouse of retro stuff-i-osity and more. I'll explain the "more" towards the end. I am sure you think I am giving out "5" ratings like water, but Retro Vegas gets a "5" for very different reasons than then other two stores I reviewed, One Man's Trash and Patina Decor.

RETRO VEGAS
Mid-Century Rating: 5 out of 5 stars 

1331 South Main Street
Las Vegas, NV 89104

(702) 384-2700

Retro Vegas

one man's trash: las vegas vintage industrial shopping at #NMX

Before I reveal the next retro shop tour, let's talk about BlogWorld - New Media Expo 2013 #NMX from last week. A session that made a HUGE impression on me  was +AmandaBlain's talk on Google+.  Amanda is the creator of AmandaBlain.com and is a Google+ expert. Yes I know. Yet another thing to check, do, and/or not understand. And, I have gotten mixed messages from the mass media who accuse Google+ of being a ghost town. Here are the reasons to give Google+ a try:

1. Google+ has over 500 million members. Facebook brags about 1B and Pinterest has about 40M depending on who is counting so 500 million is okay.
2. Google+ Hangouts are a great way to have virtual private or public meetings, and record them (Albert says he uses them with his guys at work). I would like to try them with a little blog work group. 
3. Google is working to tie content together all over the web and continue to improve search. Google+ Authorship is an important mechanism to achieve this and a critical tool for bloggers. 
4. Final reason, Google+ is still early, and influencers on Google+ are still accessible. Which means you could be a bigger fish, in a smaller pond. Great article here about using Google+ for influencer outreach as well as SEO.

Now for the retro review.

Circus Circus, Las Vegas, NV #NMX 

I used my conference down time to check out  Antique Alley in the Las Vegas Arts District. One of the last shops that I found open on Sunday at 4pm was One Man's Trash. It took a minute  for me to figure out what was going on. Everything looked brand spanking new. BUT IT WASN'T. What?!?

One Man's Trash
Mid-Century Rating: 5 out of 5 stars 

1300 South Main Street, Suite 140
Las Vegas, NV 89104

(702) 778-7988

One Man's Trash

more #nmx #blogworld and the pick a masthead winner!

Before I reveal the winner of our Help Us Pick a Masthead Contest from last week, let's talk about BlogWorld -New Media Expo 2013 #NMX (held just prior to #CES) in Las Vegas. Tuesday night's key note was @LeoLaporte. In the United States, Leo is a beloved radio personality known as "The Tech Guy" who also runs podcasts and video shows. He knows everything tech. Everything.

Leo Laporte photo compliments of  Joe Manna on Flickr

Geeks dig him, both guys and gals alike, probably because he never makes fun of anyone, no matter how dumb the question. And, he is rarely stumped ("Let's ask the chat room"). Leo Laporte is just as friendly and personable live as he is on the radio, although a tiny bit more sarcastic. But, to be honest  not as sexy in person, as his voice sounds (okay, a tiny bit disappointing).

patina decor: mid-century modern shopping in vegas and blogworld #NMX

I am spending the early part of this week in Las Vegas attending BlogWorld -New Media Expo 2013 #NMX. This morning one of the key note speakers was @GuyKawasaki, who is as about as down to earth as you can get for a technology thought leader and successful venture capitalist. Here are four big things I got from his interview:

1. He owns no IOS devices (but loves Apple)
2. He thinks Google+ is THE BIG THING and we can all be in on the ground floor, 
3. He believes, for all intents and purposes as far as relevancy, Microsoft is dead. "If you wait by the river long enough, you'll see your enemy come floating by,"
4. He is also fore-telling the end of big publishers controlling the book market, as evidenced by his book on self-publishing APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur-How to Publish a Book (I bought it on impulse during his interview, it is actually really interesting butI don't have any plans to self-publish a book -- yet). 

Iconic Stratosphere, Las Vegas, NV, off of Las Vegas Blvd.
as seen from Main Street.

Las Vegas is also a hot bed of new mid-century modern, retro and vintage stores. I took this opportunity to run down to Main Street and Casino Center to see the shops, some less than a year old, that have been established in Antique Alley in the Las Vegas Arts District.

First up was Patina Decor. Honestly, I was beyond impressed.

Patina Decor
Mid-Century Rating: 5 out of 5 stars 

1211 South Main Street
Las Vegas, NV 89104

(720) 261-9290

Patina Decor

vote on a masthead and be entered to win a mid-century modern vase - CLOSED

As part of my regular New Year's resolutions (exercise more, eat better,  blah blah blah), I decided it was time to upgrade the blog's look in preparation for more mid-century modern musings in 2013. But I need your help. Please vote for your favorite masthead by leaving a comment below. Also, please add any editorial comments you see fit as well. I reserve the right to choose the top vote as the masthead or revise the drawings based on feedback and pick some alternative combination thereof.

Yes, you CAN win this authentic mid-century modern turquoise vase by both entering a comment on this post and VOTING for your favorite masthead below as well as "liking" MidCenturyModernRemodel on FaceBook. Details of the drawing at the end of the post.