"Bite To Eat Diner" verses "Seaside Diner"

        The My Generation Diner itself includes: a checkered black and hot pink faux linoleum floor, a pink pay phone, a chalkboard for the menu, a juke box (plays music) at the table for two, a shuttered window that moves, a large counter-top with faux marble look, a spinning cake and desert display unit, the counter lights-up with neon lights, a wall that attaches to the back of the counter that looks like stainless steal.

• The most detailed description at YouTube is by DeenaandBeena

The Food Accessories In "Bite To Eat" Diner: Again, I will link into crafts that I have posted to replace those pieces you do not have for either Diner set in the near future...

• two pink and orange stools
• one cake/cake stand with domed lid: strawberry cake with white icing and chocolate covered strawberry topping, drip styled strawberry icing too (one slice may be removed)
• one banana split in a transparent plastic dish
• silverware, two of each: fork, knife and spoon
• two blue bowls
• two plastic cups
• a plastic pitcher
• two dinner plates and two dessert plates matched set
• a faux metal napkin dispenser with one napkin
• large sugar shaker for table
• salt and pepper shakers with colored glitters inside the pepper
• one vinegar bottle (empty)
• vintage, plastic ketchup and mustard bottles 
• one hamburger that comes in pieces: lettuce, buns, beef patty, pickles
• a grilled cheese sandwich
• a hot dog with a bun that comes apart for play
• 4 Entrees attached to dinner plates: smoked meat sandwich with pickle, spaghetti and meatballs, fish sticks with lemon slice and red dipping sauce, and pancake stack with butter slices, maple syrup and three blue berries on the side
• 1 dessert attached to desert plate: brownie, whipped cream and cheery on top
• Loose single serve foods that may be stacked separately on the empty plates: eggs sunny-side-up, two slices of bacon, loose stack of sausages (3)
• One bowl of tomato soup with saltine crackers
• 1 plate of french fries and red/white checkered napkin
• 9 doughnuts iced: lime, strawberry and chocolate
• 6 heart-shaped cookies with jelly filling and glaze icing
• cupcakes 3 of each: red velvet with cream cheese icing, chocolate with pink strawberry icing, vanilla with fluffy white icing + each has a cherry on top
• A lattice work blueberry pie that can be removed from a faux tin pie plate: it comes with one slice of pie that can be removed and served separately
• 1 dish of pink ice cream and red syrup, the dish has a pedestal base
• one blue cup of coffee with saucer
• One coffee pot filled
• 2 sodas: grape and coke come with straws
• 2 juice drinks: grape and cherry with straws
• 1 strawberry milkshake with whipped cream and cherry and straw
• paper money, plastic coins
• chalk for writing on the menu board
• order forms for the diner treats and meals

       The American Girl, Maryellen's "Seaside Diner" itself includes: an attached vintage milkshake machine, a black pay phone, a white counter top with stainless steal edging, faux glass blocks at one end, a neon "Seaside Diner" sign that lights up, clips for orders, two stainless steel stools with vinyl-like blue cushions, tiled counter sides and floor. This unit is very authentic 1950s retro design with accurate colors: pastel pink, blue and white. The primary unit also plays conversations and music.

       The seating unit includes a coral colored top with stainless steel edge and grey metal table leg. Two bench seating covered in authentic glossy vinyl upholstery.

• dollidays reviews this set in detail at YouTube here.

The Food Accessories In "Seaside" Diner:

• a vintage paper hat with "Seaside Diner" logo
• 8 paper trays for fast food
• paper money and plastic coin for pay phone
• Seaside diner advertising cards
• 2 paper menus
• one sheet of many advertising stickers, daily menu and clock
• paper order forms 
• 2 orange bowls with fruits
• a jar of maple syrup with a metal-look spout/lid
• bacon 3 attached pieces
• two sandwiches with olive on top, very detailed
• salt and pepper shakers
• four ceramic plates 50s designs
• 2 Milkshake cup
• Mac and cheese separates
• grey serving tray
• stainless steel condiment tray, round with handle, attach menu
• spinning diner sign, stainless steel detailing
• extra paddies for the grill
• milkshakes: chocolate and strawberry
• a working bell for the counter
• four stainless steel forks
• Loose breakfast foods: two eggs over easy, 2 toasts, one waffle, one stack of pancakes
  
• 2 hot dogs with mustard
• vintage, plastic ketchup and mustard bottles 
• two stacks of crinkly fries
• a special apron with "Seaside Diner" logo

DIY 8 Malted Milkshakes for Dolls

Students will have fun combining multiple colors of air dry clay with puff paints to create their
own interpretations of these delicious, doll sized, malted milkshakes!

       This adorable craft is fun but a little pricey. The milkshake glasses are a must; and may be ordered online from many craft suppliers. Ours were purchased from ebay, but you can also find them easily at Amazon too. These are about 2 1/2 inches tall. You will also need colorful air dry clay, puff paints, foam mini-balls, cocktail straws, Mod Podge, Sculpey for the finer-detailed toppings and hot glue to apply these.

Left, the plastic milkshake glasses we ordered online. Right, here I have added puff paints inside
of four examples to look like syrup. I left the remaining four without.

       I made a large menu to display our milkshakes above the counter of the Diner. You may wish to print it out and post it inside your dolls diner or ice cream shop too.

8 Different milkshakes look so good; I want one right now!

 Below are the descriptions with corresponding numbers to the chart above.

1. Banana cream milkshake topped with toffee and caramel chunks (butterscotch syrup drizzled on top)
2. Nutella malted milkshake topped with crunchy coffee crumbles and chocolate sprinkles (chocolate syrup drizzled inside)
3. Malted Strawberry Delight topped with fresh berries and cream (strawberry syrup drizzled inside)
4. Cool Creamsicle Shake topped with mandarine orange slices, mint leaves and a maraschino cherry
5. Blueberry Cheesecake Surprise topped with fresh picked blueberries and cream cheese fluff
6. Minty Leapin' Leprechaun Cream topped with chocolate chips and cherries
7. Birthday Bubblegum Shake topped with mixed fruity candies
8. Classic vanilla milkshake topped with butterscotch cream and chocolate fudge chunks (caramel syrup drizzled inside)
   

Watch how other crafters made similar shakes for doll diners:

• How to make American Girl Halloween Milkshakes by Always Dolls
• Milkshakes for dolls from soap and paint by cute kids making mess! ("Guys don't drink this!")

More Links to Sodas:

• "You're Sodalicious Valentine!"
• The History of The Soda Fountain from Naperville Library
• This Is What I Miss Most From The 1950s
• MacAlpines Soda Fountain
• How to make ice-cream parlor deserts...

Sculpt French toast for dolly's breakfast!

Our finished versions of sculpted French toast and puff
cereal. The toast and strawberries are made using Sculpey
oven bake clay. The strawberry syrup is red acrylic
paint. I also used red puff paint to show a heavier, creamer
syrup on top of the toast dripping down the sides. The
white powdered sugar was painted on with a thin tipped brush.

        French toast is a dish made of sliced bread soaked in beaten eggs and typically milk, then pan fried. Alternative names and variants include "eggy bread", "Bombay toast", "gypsy toast", and "poor knights" (of Windsor).

Above, I included strawberries, syrup and powdered sugar here to top
our doll's French toast breakfast.

       When French toast is served as a sweet dish, milk, sugar, vanilla or cinnamon are also commonly added before pan-frying, and then it may be topped with sugar (often powdered sugar), butter, fruit, or syrup. When it is a savory dish, it is generally fried with a pinch of salt or pepper, and it can then be served with a sauce. Our doll's version includes strawberry sauce.
       In New Orleans Louisiana Creole cuisine, French toast is known as pain perdu and is most commonly served as a breakfast dish. The recipe calls for New Orleans-style French bread; the batter is an egg-based custard. Common toppings include cane syrup, strongly flavored honey, or fruit syrups; a dusting of powdered sugar is also traditional.

Left, paper egg carton is recycled to make the bowl shown above. Center and Right,
detailed photos of the puff cereal. Puffs are Styrofoam balls painted
yellow to resemble cereal for a doll's breakfast.

Dollfun version of clay french toast, 

visit her site to see much more!

Poster and Enamel Signs for A Doll Diner

        Children may download and print this clip art for their doll sized diners. The bottled Coca-Cola poster is an original ad from 1922 and both the Ice Cream 'n Cake Roll and the Hires Root Beer signs were originally printed onto enamel. All three very nostalgic and also typical of what you might  have found decorating the walls of both a Diner or a Soda Fountain during the 1950s. Back the prints with cardboard and seal them with Mod Podge.

Text reads, "you'll Enjoy Ice Cream 'n Cake Roll Just slice and serve...Try some Today!
 Jack and Jill Ice Cream Cake Roll."

Text reads, "It's High Time for Hires Root Beer"

Text reads, "Sell Bottled Coca-Cola
 Delicious and Refreshing, Every day and
every hour we are making sales for you!"

Tour Diners Online:

• 50's Grill - 1950's Themed Restaurant!
• Coke Museum inside 50's diner in Michigan
• Order UP! Tour of Vermont Diners 

A Jukebox for Your Doll's Diner

Table sized jukebox from Our Generation Diner for 18" dolls.
It plays pre-recorded tunes.

       A jukebox is a partially automated music-playing device, usually a coin-operated machine, that will play a patron's selection from self-contained media. The classic jukebox has buttons, with letters and numbers on them, which, when one of each group entered after each other, are used to select a specific record. Some may use Compact Discs instead.

• Retro Diner Bite to Eat OG Stop Motion - from Our Generation
• American Girl Diner vs. Our Generation Diner by Totally Rudy - from 2015
• American Girl Doll Maryellen's Jukebox Review by Bigmoon

This transistor radio is built to look like a jukebox. It lights up when it's turned on and plays
whatever is being radio broadcasted in your area. I purchased this instead of American
Girl's version because I thought my little ones could learn more through the use of it. 

       Styling progressed from the plain wooden boxes in the early thirties to beautiful light shows with marbleized plastic and color animation in the Wurlitzer 850 Peacock of 1941. But after the United States entered the war, metal and plastic were needed for the war effort. Jukeboxes were considered "nonessential", and none were produced until 1946. The 1942 Wurlitzer 950 featured wooden coin chutes to save on metal. At the end of the war, in 1946, jukebox production resumed and several "new" companies joined the fray. Jukeboxes started to offer visual attractions: bubbles, waves, and circles of changing color which came on when a sound was played. 

See the music selections up-close. These are a mix of tunes
from the 70's and 80s.

       Song-popularity counters told the owner of the machine the number of times each record was played (A and B side were generally not distinguished), with the result that popular records remained, while lesser-played songs could be replaced.

• 1950's Jukebox Mix
• 1960s Jukebox Mix
• 1970's Jukebox Mix

       Jukeboxes were most popular from the 1940s through the mid-1960s, particularly during the 1950s. By the middle of the 1940s, three-quarters of the records produced in America went into jukeboxes. Billboard published a record chart measuring jukebox play during the 1950s, which briefly became a component of the Hot 100; by 1959, the jukebox's popularity had waned to the point where Billboard ceased publishing the chart and stopped collecting jukebox play data.

       The invention of the portable radio in the 1950s and the portable cassette tape deck in the 1960s were key factors in the decline of the jukebox. They enabled people to have their own selection of music with them, wherever they were. Jukeboxes became a dying industry during the 1970s, before being revived somewhat by compact disc jukeboxes during the 1980s and 1990s, followed by digital jukeboxes using the MP3 format. The greater selection and track length flexibility of digital jukeboxes offered more for the listener, with lower space requirements and operating costs making jukeboxes more attractive to establishment owners. While jukeboxes maintain popularity in bars, they have fallen out of favor with what were once their more lucrative locations—restaurants, diners, military barracks, video arcades, and laundromats.

Fonz from "Happy Days" sitcom works the jukebox, his way.

More Links to Jukebox History:

• 1950s Wurlitzer Factory Tour
• Jukeboxes: the complete history
• Comparing a Wurlitzer to a Rockola Jukebox
• The 1940s Wurlitzur jukebox, 5 cents a tune.

Bakery & Deli Food Clip Art

        This bakery and deli food clip art would be fun to print, cut and paste onto the back counters of a doll bakery display. Below there are: loaves of bread, English meat pies, filled jelly doughnuts, knockwurst and potato salad, finger sandwiches with the crusts cut off and platters of deli meats.

Clip art for student projects and crafts. Not to be redistributed from alternative websites.

Sew a Stack of Felt Pancakes

Barbie would enjoy eating these breakfast cakes!

      To make a stack of felt pancakes you will need to collect: tan felt, pale yellow felt, scrapbook paper, cardboard, white school glue and a matching needle and thread.

       First cut out circles from the tan felt using a quarter as a pattern. Stack several together and sew the sides together to give each cake a bit of dimension. I made three pancakes from nine circles.

       I cut tiny squares of yellow felt for the top of this stack to look like a square of butter. 

      Thread the final stack of pancakes and butter with a needle and tie this off on the bottom side of the felt breakfast. 

       Cut a plate from the cardboard and cover it with decorative paper. Glue the final felt flapjacks to the plate!