Dreaming of a Vintage Christmas........tree.

Paulette Goddard, a perfect Hollywood Christmas

Last year we purchased a real Christmas tree and it was gorgeous, but my heart has always been set on a fake one. Preferably a vintage 1950's or 1960's tree and any color would suffice silver, pink, light blue, even white. I have been searching all year but alas still no vintage tree has found its way home with yours truly. There have been a few hopefuls over the years, but a typical dark green tree will not do for our retro home.

A store down the road from us advertised white, pink, red, blue, and even a frightful lime green color Christmas trees. Size wise I am completely open as long as the overall look is vintage inspired, tiny like this one below or massive like Paulette's. Hopefully one of them will tickle my fancy, otherwise we will be treeless this year left to dream about the vintage one I will find someday (see how determined I am) and what it will look like all decorated then.

December 1955 The Ed Sullivan Show Dancers

Are you a sweater girl?

I am! My all time favorite style of any period in time, would unquestionably have to be the sweater girl look. In my book nothing beats a bullet bra, a tight sweater and a pencil skirt or capris.

Sweater girls, Girl Watcher Magazine, I highly reccomend you check out this magazine its a gas!!

Ultimate sweater girl Beverly Owen, such great hair!!!

Anne Francis looking smoking hot in her sweater. She is the epitome of good girl gone bad here.

The next best thing to a vintage sweater to pull of that sweater girl look would be one of these. So adorable and perfectly 1950's I need 10 of these, seriously! These adorable sweaters are available from Bernie Dexter and are $68 each.

Would you believe Bernie Dexter has a sparkly and a leopard version as well!!!!!!!

What do you guys think of the sweater girl look?

Bumps in the road and the best weekend ever

Last week was just one of those weeks you never want to think about again. It was completely awful with no time for posting, hours sitting in the Emergency room and hardly anytime for living. Such a dreadful week though was followed by one of the best weekends I have ever had!

Saturday we woke up bright and early to take a trip to Pleasanton Texas about 35 minutes south of San Antonio. A vintage seller in the area bought out a clothing store that had been abandoned for at least 40 years, her warehouse was full of clothes from the 1950's and 1960's deadstock, new with tags.  My favorite find of the day I would have to be a tan pencil skirt with small pockets, the only word to describe it would be BOMBSHELL, slim, past the knee, kick pleast and best of all it fits like it was tailored for me. Though the sale was a bit of a mad dash through the racks along side agressive vintage resellers, I came home with a pile I barely could see over while carrying it to the car.

A sneek peak at what I brought home from the sale

Most of the items I picked up fit like a dream, a few though are a bit too small and no matter how much I work out after Thanksgiving will never fit me. Instead of adding all of these gorgeous items to my wishful thinking "these will fit someday" pile (which is quite large and since moving to Texas has only quadrupled), I have decided to open an etsy shop. Please forgive the horrible photographs of the loot, I snapped those in a jiffy this morning. All day I have been washing any dusty or dirty items and giving everything else a nice steam.

I buy a good portion of my vintage on etsy and love it, so I am thinking why not sell my vintage that needs a new home and that way I will have more money to spend on etsy. Ahhh a perfect circle. If you have any advice or knowledge you want to share about selling on etsy, please fee free to send me an email or leave a comment!

Asking for Bad Luck on Friday the 13th, 1940.

Happy Friday the 13th!

Members of the anti-superstition party walking underneath a bad luck ladder. Notice the umbrella opened, the number 13 twice, a black cat and a sign stating everyone must walk under this ladder.

A man happily breaking a mirror with a hammer at the anti-superstition party of 1940.

I think I will do without all the bad luck and stay away from anti-superstition partys also If I see a ladder I will no doubt walk around it. Do any of you guys give into superstitions? I don't have any problem being a tad bit superstitious giving into a few like if I spill salt, I always take a pinch and toss it over my left shoulder. These guys are just insane!

I hope you all have the luckiest friday ever!

Saving lives and making sweet shoes since the 1880's

Thank you again for all of your lovely comments on my last post, I was smitten by all of the sweet and thoughtful responses. Also I just wanted to point out I have yet to make anything out of those paticular patterns but do not worry, now that I have my handy sewing book to reference I will be diving in to more difficult patterns very soon.

I stumbled upon these beauts via one of my favorite blogs Letters from the Home Front, its so fascinating to own a piece of history, especially from an organization dedicated to saving lives since 1881 like the Red Cross.

1940's Velvet Red Cross Peep Toes $58 Adelinesattic

1940's White Satin Red Cross Peep Toes $38 tigerluxe

1940's Red Cross First Aid Text-Book, 1st Edition $9 TheFancyLamb

WWI Red Cross Pin $4 PassingItOn

Sewing Made Easy, really? Yes!!!!

Sewing Made Easy 1959, yet to be made vintage patterns from my collection.

I love to sew and I am not to shabby but I am self taught, everything I know about sewing I have learned on my own (well there was that week in 8th grade Home Ec where we sewed a snake, weird huh?). Over the years I have been collecting patterns well not really more like hoarding patterns, but any who these gorgeous patterns seldomly get used and that is so very very wrong. Shame on me!

A few of my favorite patterns from my collection.

 

Self taught has made me a master at tailoring ready made, making wicked awesome pencil skirts, sewing my own designs (like my halloween costume) and whipping up accessories but horrible at understanding written directions and terminology amongst a few other important details. So when it comes to getting ready to make most dress patterns and especially suits I am scared out of my wits.

Gosh, I really cant wait to make these.

All my problems have been solved, well in away. Today I stumbled upon something I have been needing for way to long, but did not have the extra pocket cash to pick up via the internet. This book is entitled Sewing Made Easy and that is exactly what it does.

A few more favorites.

My first sewing book and its from 1959 perfect for all of my vintage patterns, best dollar I ever spent! I am no longer scared to make a fancy dress but excited, if I have any questions I can just refer to my new lil sewing bible! Over 400 pages covering all the basics and then some, along with lovely how to's, like slip covers for furniture, curtains, hats, slippers, belts (which I have included a picture of below for you to save or use as inspiration) and turning two ugly dress' into one gorgeous dress.

Click to enlarge. The first is my favorite, using a mans watch chain to make a belt how bad ass is that for a 1950's housewife!!!!

I hope all of you guys have an amazing Veterans Day and even better sewing adventures.

Autumn Amenities

Doris Model 1930's Wool Coat w/ Mink Collar Allencompanyinc

Slate Blue 1940's Swing Coat DearGoldenVintage

1940's Plaid Jacket and Coat Set eldiabloshoes

Scalloped Cuffs 1950's Gray Wool w/ Mink Coat ClubVintage

House Guests!! Wild Baby Jack Rabbits

These two little guys came into my care Saturday, friends of our's dog had gotten into the nest and injured a third baby Jack Rabbit that did not make it. Not knowing what to do and if their dog had attacked the mother they took these two babies in.

Having expierence with baby animals and the time on hand, I willingly took them and have been rehabilitating them back to health. Once they are old enough or about 8-9 weeks, I will be releasing them back into the woods just feet from the garage they were found next to. The faint blue on the front bunny rabbits wick, is completely harmless, recommended to make sure they get fed equally and it helps to tell them apart.

When Blue and Jumper were found they were about 5-6 days old completely furry, with eyes closed and ears back, seldomly moving. Now they are getting stronger, standing up, pushing with their feet, reaching their neck out to look for the other one or food. They are just growing up so fast, the first night I had them I was so worried they wouldnt make it, so many dont, but these little guys are tough as nails and cute as buttons.

For right now I am the only one that comes in contact with them, because they are wild animals they need a quiet area with really no human interaction except feedings. When they are released into the wild they should have no interest in myself or others but just hop into the woods to grow up, sad for me but its whats right for them. I probably will cry.

If you find a wild baby bunny nest it is actually best for them to leave the nest alone. When worried about the mother being gone or killed, take two twigs and make an X untop of the covered nest and if in 4-7 hours the twigs are disturbed the mother is near by and they will be perfectly fine. The mother stays away from the nest to keep predators at bay.

Helpful articles on nursing wild baby Jack Rabbits, Rabbitweb.net, PetPlace.com, and Rabbit.org,

Thrifting a winter wardrobe, mmmm.........pumpkin pie!

Having lived in Southern California my whole life where you could practically wear flip flops all year, resulted in a very lacking fall/winter wardrobe. Texas is a whole differnent story from CA, it gets really really chilly. Yay a valid reason for me to go thrifting.

My first stop was my favorite goodwill down the street from my house. This is not just your ordinary goodwill its a discount center, its the place unsold goodwill items go to die. Alot of the stuff is broken, empty or missing almost every component but now and then I find a gem or 2 or like today, 5 gems for a steal of a price.

I did quite well today, found an adorable brown and orange plaid pencil skirt (pictured top left), 1950's jacket w/ fake fur collar (top right), two pieces of floral fabric perfect for blouses, two records at 49 cents each, and a late 1950's book entitled Immortals of the Screen all for under $6. While at the goodwill a nice lady recommended a thrift store down the street, on my way I found a church rummage sale but didnt find anything at all. The thrift store turned out to be quite a fine, great selection and tons of vintage. Resisting the urge to look around I only browsed the sweaters, since I had already picked up a few things at the goodwill that wont keep me warm this winter. I ended up buying 3 sweaters; a short sleeved number which makes me think of eating pumpkin pie everytime I look at it......mmm, a long sleeve green Jantzen sweater and a white long sleeve zip up.

This book is a treasure trove of photographs and screen shots from so many stars of the early 1900's to late 1950's. Some of the stars covered in this book are Gary Cooper, Errol Flynn, Marilyn Monroe, Jean Harlow, Marion Davies and Will Rogers, just to name a few.

Is it not the best when you find exactly what you intended on buying as well as a few bonuses?

Wake the Dead!

Happy Belated Halloween!

This year I wanted to be something traditional, and mummys are a traditional halloween costume right? The dress is actually not a dress but two pieces, a top and pencil skirt made out of white stretch cotton. My strands I made out of strips of cheesecloth, then I dipped everything in a bucket of tea to give it an aged feel and then hand sewed for days! Finished the look with some deadish makeup and my bangs in a happy pompadour thanks to Lauren of the bobby pin blog and her wonderful tutorial.

The bf was a very vicious vampire, somehow we managed to not get one picture together all of Halloween. Boo for me.

If you can tell me what movie the title of this post is from, you will forever be the coolest person in my book.

Its seems like forever

Tons of apologies for being m.i.a. for quite some time. I really missed this little blog, as well as my lovely readers as well as visitors, along with reading your comments, and of course reading all of my favorite blogs. Unfortunately about a day or two after the last post I wrote my laptop crashed. Some sort of evil Darla hating virus murdered my computer brutally. From then on a few minor set backs resulted in a lack of funds to fix said laptop. That is no longer the case and I am thrilled to report my laptop is fixed, and all important files were backed up.

With that out of the way I just wanted to say so far I love Texas!

Texas is beautiful, the weather unpredictable, and the vintage finds plentiful!

Like this bad boy, General Electric clock radio I picked up at a goodwill for $2. The clock works swell the tubes to the radio are burnt out and thats an easy fix. Not quite sure on the exact year yet, I am guessing mid to late 1950's. If anyone has a better idea on the date I would love to hear your opinion. The model is C400a.

I hope each and everyone of you have had a lovely past couple of months.

I am sorry it has been so long.

We are still settling into our new home and sadly we do not have internet just yet. But trust me I am working on that.

I have not found out any history on are house so far but I am still researching. Due to the age of the house and the fact that it was abandoned for two years my boyfriend and I have had are hands full. Aside from cleaning and unpacking we have been extremely busy fixing things, from replacing the original clay plumbing, the foundation, putting in lights, digging out all of the weeds in the front and back yard and turning the soil. We still have so much to do to restore the house to its original luster, for example the garage is leaning a bit and needs to be reinforced, we still need to paint the inside and outside of the house, plant new grass, sand and polish the hard wood floors, rip out the ugly boring tan tile in the bathroom, kitchen, and my sewing room to replace with black and white checkered tile as well as fixing some minor cracks in the inside of the house.

My paint plans for the outside of the house which is currently a horrid light blue with a even worse poorly painted crayola (don't ask me why) bright blue is to paint the house gray with white trim, black details and the front door and back door will be dark red. I am working on a sketch of my plans right now so stay tuned.

I forgot how long it takes to unpack, we moved in about 3 weeks ago and we are still not fully unpacked yet. ekkkk! As soon as I get a few more boxes unpacked including my sewing machine I will be able to sew as much as possible each and every day. Its inspiring to have my own room for drafting, sewing, and all of my artwork but unfortunate to not have everything accessible or in working order yet. Currently I do have a bathing suit in the works right now, the fabric is a dark blue art deco one way stretch and the design for the suit is very 1940's and I cant wait to get started on it.

Again I am sorry for how long it has been since I last posted, things are just now finally settling into place. In no time at all I will have plenty of new things I have created and vintage items I have picked up as well as photos of our house to share.

I miss reading all of of your guys comments along with each of your blogs. I cant wait to get Internet in our home and be able to update everyday. We do visit my loves aunt and uncles house a couple times a week, so I will be posting and uploading photos each time we are over here.

We recently rented Cadillac Records which I now have to buy for my collection, and I was delighted by how well the director portrayed each of these legends. The movie revolved around the history of Chess Records and its African American acts who broke the racial musical barriers. Acts like, Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Howlin Wolf, Chuck Berry and of course the forever wonderful Etta James. Not only the story but the costumes, sets and cars where incredibly moving.

Happy Independence Day everyone!

Old Fashion 4th Of July 1954

Photo Credit: Life

I hope all of you guys have a wonderful and safe 4th of July!