vintage thanksgiving menus

From the early 1900’s

These sweet vintage menus offer great insight to how our past generations celebrated Thanksgiving. Some traditional menu items haven’t changed much, but there are some sort of old-school goodies that one keeps seeing on these old menus, like french peas, mincemeat pie, oyster dressing, olives and turtle soup! Hmmm, interesting! What’s your favorite Thanksgiving menu fare? 

Thanksgiving menu 1905, illustrated by George Elbert Burr

Civilian Conservation Corps Thanksgiving, 1968

Alcatraz Island, California 1927

The Hotel Normandie, Detroit, Michigan 1905

Sturtevant House, New York 1899

The Waldorf Austoria, New York 1956

The Windsor New York 1896

The Park Avenue Hotel, 1900

René & Jean, Los Angeles 1938

Eaton’s,  1938

Thanksgiving dinner at the Plaza Hotel, 1899

Grand Hotel in Walla Walla, Washington, 1949

ciao! fabiana

menus courtesy of 

Buzz Feed & Ephemeral New York

home style with the new york housewives

“Word on the street” is that the Real Housewives of New York have already been busy filming season 10 and not only that, but a few of them have been busy redecorating their homes and getting their homes ready for the holidays. The best news of all for me is that the entire season 9 cast is back this year!  

So let's get started...

Firstly, I have to apologize for this being a bit of a long post today, but there's a lot to cover! These women have been busy!

One of my favorite things about watching the Real Housewives is checking out their homes, and my all-time favorites are New York and Beverly Hills! 

I also love that most of them own more than one home.

In addition to their city apartments, lofts or townhouses, several of the NY gals have homes in the Hamptons. And then of course, there’s Dorinda with her fabulous Berkshires mansion! 

Luann’s Hamptons home has recently appeared in Architectural Digest so we can take a sneak peek at its recently zhushed-up interior.

As you can see, Luann replaced the red patchwork cow head in her kitchen with one of her antique mirrors.

This really is a favorite spot for her to pose,

isn’t it?

Here’s a little real action in the kitchen with Sonja,

during filming and seen on Instagram.

Here’s Luann, her son and her niece out on the front porch of her Sag Harbor home. This 19th century Greek Revival house is quite a little gem!  

Do you recognize the kitchen from the show? 

I love how bright and airy it is!

Yum, Yum!

Did they take one of these dining room mirrors

into the kitchen just for the AD photo shoot?

Maybe...

Here’s Lu singing and partying with Sonja

in her dining room, possibly during filming of RHONY…  

A peaceful view out back.

Here’s where she sat with Andy Cohen

for her post-divorce interview.

Sonja and Lu single and ready to mingle!

This little sign is so funny after what happened

 last season to Luann in Mexico!

Here's another pretty view of the back of Luann's home.

And now on to Dorinda...

She's been super busy promoting Home Goods 

and with all the excitement of the holidays,

I don't blame her!

Who would turn down getting your whole apartment

decked out for Christmas courtesy of Home Goods?

If you follow Dorinda on Instagram,

you’ve probably seen all of her fun

Home Goods insta-stories and posts.

Don’t you just love her?

Her tree does look very pretty…

Here’s Dorinda’s dining room in the city, but what I really can’t wait to see is her Berkshires dining room. I hope all the ladies get to spend lots of time there this season.

Shopping at Home Goods is always a good time!

Bethenny has great style too, and news broke just this week that she purchased a second home in the Hamptons. She’s becoming quite a real estate mogul as well as Skinny Girl mogul. 

Don’t forget she has a new real estate show coming to Bravo soon with Fredrik Eklund. (BTW, Fredrik and his husband just welcomed twins into the world this week, a boy and a girl!)

Simple holiday décor is the best way to go in Bethenny’s New York apartment. Don't you just love the white tree and fluffy stockings? 

Fabulous “Skinny Girl" red highlights Bethenny’s front door and it also plays a big part in accenting the rest of her Hamptons home.

 Such charm in the Hamptons!

Here’s the front of Bethenny’s new Hampton’s home, not far from her other weekend home. This former bed and breakfast may be a new business venture for her.

I can’t wait to see how she renovates, decorates and designs the inside of this home.

How about making this a vacation home for wayward housewives? Lol.

Bethenny’s a big fan of TJ Maxx and Home Goods too, so I hope she shares some of her decorating tips with all of us!

And we can’t forget about Ramona (and her contractor Mario)… She just renovated her lower east side apartment last season and it was a HUGE improvement. Now she’s working on updating her Hamptons home. This is a little peek she just shared on Instagram.

Carole is always on top of the most fabulous design trends and her home also recently appeared in Architectural Digest.

Tinsley recently moved into her own place after breaking up with boyfriend, Scott and finally moving out of Sonja’s townhouse. We’ll have to see what her place looks like!

I hope you enjoyed this little bit of RHONY. The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills starts up again on December 19th, and until then, I’ll anxiously be awaiting the latest design updates from the BH gals!  Who are your BH  housewives faves? 

ciao! fabiana

photo credit:

Architectural Digest, People, Instagram

collecting: souvenir plates

Sometimes one little treasured find can spark a whole interest in collecting something new. Last summer, I was all hot and heavy into collecting vintage colored glassware, like Indiana glass. 

This summer, I’m into hunting for Vintage Souvenir Plates. I have picked up a few here and there over the years, but this time I’m focusing more on the transferware type, both the blue and red varieties. 

Blue Transferware Souvenir Plates and Red Transferware Souvenir Plates, both on my radar everytime I go into a thrift store, antique store or to a yard sale!

I just love to use them for my table settings, but they also work quite well in a wall collage with different plates.  

Recently on one of my thrifting adventures with my friend Laura at the Orange Circle, I found a few really great ones.

I think it’s so fun to collect Vintage State Plates from places I’ve visited, especially my favorite cities, like this La Jolla plate.

Seattle is another one of my favorite cities, and I couldn’t pass this plate up! We had lunch at the top of the Space Needle, which was quite memorable. 

And that’s what collecting and souvenirs are all about, memories. It’s a way for us to capture a moment in time, so we don’t forget about the fun time we had on vacation!

This New York State plate is quite different and so pretty with its pastel colors. I found this one a long time ago, and it’s one that I really treasure, having grown up in upstate New York.

It's a real beauty that crosses over to another collectable that I love, map plates. I have found some interesting ones from England and Scotland, as well. 

These next two photos are examples of pretty settings from Better Homes & Gardens magazine.

Aren’t they fun!?

via etsy

Here are a few collections from around the web that are interesting.

via Jojotastic

This week I even found an Italian souvenir plate that’s hand-painted and so pretty! Santa Margherita is a beautiful coastal town in northern Italy near Genoa. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to visit someday? 

Another new branch of my collecting tree, Vintage Italian Souvenir Plates. So Fun!

What do you enjoy collecting?

ciao! fabiana

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