Cowboy Songs For Little Buckaroos

I wonder how you all would feel if I started calling you "my little buckaroos"?


Remember the creepy crawly junk store basement where we found the Ranch Dressing squirrel mascot, Swiffer McCluster?



Hi Swiffer!


We also found a great album there called "Cowboy Songs for Little Buckaroos".




That's Champ Butler and I'm pretty sure that those other guys aren't the Range Riders. See how his boot seems to be propped on his own name? I love touches like that.

Is anyone as in love as I am with the aqua and orange number of the little cowpoke on the right?

The album is put out by Golden Tone Stereo and sadly, they thought so little of the album that they didn't even write anything on the back about the album itself - only ads for their other albums! Oh, Golden Tone... I had to do some research myself and learned that Champ Butler kind of danced on the edges of stardom in the 50's but never really hit it as big as some others did.

There IS a sweet little handwritten note in cursive at the bottom of the album from a young Danny Brock who lived in Richmond, Indiana. In my usual fashion of wanting to delve into history, I looked up the address to try and see if the family still lives there. I wanted to bug them and find out how Danny is doing these days and if he's still into buckaroo tunes ("Buckaroo tunes...why can't I quit you?!"). Apparently, the family has now moved away and the address is now home to a registered sex offender. Doh! So, I left it alone just like I think that cowboy troubadour, Champ Butler would want me to do.



Thanks, Champ!


So, my little buckaroos....that's how I'm going to leave you - with a sense of what Nancy Drew-ing can lead to AND a cowboy tune from Champ himself. Let me tell you - the ragtime really consumes Champ's entire being in this little ditty that I found on the web:




Until next time..
x's and o's (and clippity clops)
Eartha

Meanwhile Back At The Ranch - The "Keep on the Sunny Side" Post

As with any renovation project, it's easy to get bogged down in what is left to do. There are lots of things that are still hanging on around the ranch, waiting to be done...or waiting for the money to do. In these "bogged down" situations, I recommend walking around and taking a good, hard look at what you
have done. Sometimes, it's really easy to not even take a second to scream cheers out into the universe when we finish a project. Sometimes, we just move on to the next one.

I thought I'd post some snapshots of the Kitschderosa today so that you can see what kind of dressing my personal ranch gets. There are a lot of areas that are still in renovation mode and those will be coming up soon. For now, let's just pretend that they don't exist. :) (especially that smell in our pantry that we intend to find this weekend - please renovation gods, don't let it be between the walls!) I'm getting together some before and after pictures so you all can see how things started out. I'm also planning to show you the muckety-muck of current and upcoming projects. Thus, the "dressing" side of Ranch Dressing.




Doesn't everyone have a cat in the fireplace? Faux fire, thankfully. Those coffee carafes got parked there after I brought them home from junking in S.C. and they never left. The painting of Richard Nixon is by a killer artist named Mr. Hooper. The paint-by-number jungle scene was found at an insanely cheap estate sale. My late grandparents' amber vases are included. And glued down with museum wax because of wild eyed kittens.





Sun Porch - "You are My Sunshine" by Yee-Haw Industries out of Knoxville






A little mountain view in the pink bathroom - so that we can pretend like we're on vacation instead of looking at paint samples and sweeping up sheet rock dust.






The garage laundry room from Hell. It's currently 98 degrees in there! 98! I know that I said that I'm not going to show the bad spots but hey, I'm lucky enough to not be scrubbing laundry down by the river on a rock so...

I put the chick on the wall to try and cheer things up. Work your magic, chickie baby! And how about fluffing and folding if you get around to it?




View from the Dining Room - everything pink, all abloom - and my neighbor's laundry. I don't ever mind seeing clothes lines full. I love clothes lines. People hardly ever use them anymore....strange.




The Den/Studio - Amy Carter and some bunnies on the mantel - Mr. Kitsch's touch





Sun Porch - Vintage girl's dress in cherry lipstick red




Sun Porch - My Mom made these curtains for me out of a shower curtain from Target! Squirrels! Eee!




My favorite room - The Kitschen






If you're in the middle of projects, I hope that they are going well. And if you are in the hoping and planning stages, know that those stages are important too. Sometimes, they are the very best parts. And for those of you who are actually out taking vacations and spending money on non-house stuff, do some whooping it up for the rest of us, would ya?


Until next time...(remember, measure twice and cut once!)
x's and o's,
Eartha

Music for Bathroom Baritones and Bathing Beauties

I'm in love with vintage pink bathrooms so I couldn't help but snatch up this album recently. It was given out by the American Standard plumbing company and is chock full of sing-along tunes for your next bath.




Music for Bathroom Baritones and Bathing Beauties



I'm not sure how many people had or have record players in their bathroom but honestly, I think that it might be a good trend.

The description on the record jacket is a little bit wild and wordy saying things like:

"Now...perhaps bathing isn't the social event it used to be, and we aren't suggesting that you have to be slightly mad to appreciate a violin air, but we do believe that a good soak and a good song are still effective to relieve tensions."

Don't you miss the days when bathing was a social event? I know that I do!






Whoa Nellie! Okay..okay...I promise to never reference the 70's hot tub culture again. Not without warning you at least. Let's tighten the belts of our robes a little tighter, gather our wits about us and move on, shall we?

The text is actually referring to the first paragraph's preening about how the ancient Romans used to go to bath houses:

"Forgotten were the latest nuisance taxes levied by an autocratic caesar, the ominous rumblings of barbarians, massing on the eastern borders..."

Calgon! Take me away from the nuisance taxes and the ominous rumblings of barbarians!

Later on in the text:

"We have music to dine by, to wine by, to sleep by, to weep by, to fly by and to buy by - in short - we have music for any mood, any activity. Yet a few areas have remained untouched. That's why it's fitting that American Standard - the world's best maker of quality bathroom fixtures - and RCA Victor have united to fill in one gap by bringing you 'Music for Bathroom Baritones and Bathing Beauties'.."

God bless American Standard. I DO love their fixtures and you can't beat RCA Victor for a good time...so, I'm in!




The album contains such classics as "The Whiffenpoof Song", "Flirtation Walk" and "Paddlin' Madeline Home".

I think that I kind of love the idea of someone singing lyrics such as these from "The Whiffenpoof Song" at the top of their lungs while in the tub:

"We're poor little lambs who have lost our way
Baa, baa, baa
We're little black sheep who have gone astray
Baa, baa, baa

Gentleman songsters off on a spree
Doomed from here to eternity
Lord have mercy on such as we
Baa, baa, baa"

Why, your upstairs neighbors will think that you've gone simply mad! Yes!


I'll leave you with these inspiring words for the next time that you rub-a-dub:


"After all, in the bathtub every man is a golden-toned Caruso..."




"...every woman a silver-voiced nightingale."




Until next time...(be sure and wash behind your ears now!)
x's and o's,
Eartha

Patsy's Ranch Dressing

Since I'm coming to you from Nashville, Tennessee, I'd love to show you a number of the ranch homes of some of the entertainment greats who live and have lived here. There is so much history in this town and being able to see the homes of such great artists really thrills me. I'll never forget telling my late grandfather that yes, I did indeed drive past George Jones' house from time to time! That really tickled him.

First up, I'd like to show you the home of the late, great Patsy Cline.




I remember looking at her album covers when I was a young girl and thinking that she must have been one of the most beautiful women on Earth! I still believe that she was. Her talent was equally as splendid. In a time when women normally appeared as opening acts for their male counterparts, Patsy blazed a trail as a headlining act.

I'm sure that most of you are familiar with Patsy's music and her story. She found her fame first off in 1956 in her twenties and had enormous stardom. Sadly, her time with us was short-lived. On March 3, 1963, she was gone at the young age of 30. She passed away in the crash of a private plane that was flown by her manager Randy Hughes, along with fellow stars, Cowboy Copas and Hawkshaw Hawkins after performing in a show in Kansas City. Her friend and fellow entertainer, Dottie West offered her a ride home in her car, but Patsy wanted to quickly return home to her children at her home in Nashville and decided to travel in the plane. The plane went down in a wooded area near Camden, Tennessee - a mere 90 miles from their destination.

Patsy was originally from Winchester, Virginia and moved to Nashville for the music scene. Patsy's dream home is located in a small community just outside of Nashville. The home sits on a mid-sized lot in a quiet subdivision neighborhood. Though it might seem modest by today's standards, at the time, it was Patsy's brand new dream ranch home:



This is what the home looks like today - still a sweet ranch house. I love the wrought iron details around the front porch. I have to admit that kind of like when I went to Graceland, I expected a huge, grand and outlandish mansion in line with today's wealth flaunting style. It makes me happy to see her home looking like a normal home of today.


According to Wikipedia:

Success enabled Cline to buy her dream home in Nashville's Goodlettsville community, personally decorated in her style featuring gold dust sprinkled in the bathroom tiles and a music room. Loretta Lynn stated in a 1986 documentary interview, "She called me into the front yard and said, 'Isn't this pretty? Now I'll never be happy until I have my Mama one just like it.'"

Gold dust sprinkled in the tile! How about that? Splendid!

Patsy called her home "The House That Vegas Built" since she was able to pay it off with the money she earned during her time there headlining her own show. That gold dust is a very Vegas (and Patsy) touch.

I'll leave you with Patsy singing one of her many great hits. She is greatly missed and still just as greatly admired.



Until next time,
x's and o's,
Eartha