Monday, April 30, 2007

Summer Has Arrived

I think summer has arrived! We set a new record for the temp here today! Even my laptop is making me hot! I need to get one of those lap desks to put it on so I don't feel like I'm going to have a heat stroke every time I use the computer. It's time to go shopping for summer clothes (and a lap desk)! I found this beautiful dress at French Vintage Company. I love the way it fits. It looks so cool and delicate. I also really like the square neck line. Perfect for a day like today! French Vintage Company has a lot of nice items in their shop. Go check it out! If you know where to get a cool retro looking lap desk let me know!

Sunday, April 29, 2007

Chicago Chic

I spent the weekend in Chicago which explains the lack of blog posts the past few days. In honor of my trip I thought I would do a few Chicago shout outs in my blog. I just came across this cool shop located in Chicago called Lasting Values There is some nice bakelite jewelry at this shop. I really like this green marbeled bakelite bracelet.



Speaking of bakelite.....I love the work of this artist I found on MySpace. She has a business called Bakelite Couture. She makes the most beautiful jewelry out of vintage bakelite. I really like this mod looking ring.



These bracelets are just beautiful! If you want to buy me a Christmas present one of these will do!





OK, back to Chicago. I wish I would have had some time to see some Frank Lloyd Wright houses while I was in Chicago. I LOVE his architecture. I would like to see the Robie house sometime. It was completed in 1910 and it looks like it was built yesterday! Talk about being ahead of your time!

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Singin' In The Rain

It's raining and storming here so I was in the mood for vintage rain gear! I came across this cool site called Bella Umbrella. Who knew there was a business in vintage umbrella rental! They are all so pretty! I love this one. It reminds me of a ginkgo leave!



Here is a ginkgo leave I found at Words and Pictures. Can you see the smiliarities??



I like this one too. I thinks it's because it's green. I love green. This umbrella reminds me of oil on water.



This oil and water photo came from Woody Thrower Photography.



This one is beautful! I can just imagine Audrey Hepburn carrying it!



This beautiful black and white Audrey photo came from Leo Fuchs





These umbrellas are just amazing! This one looks like a mushroom.



This beautiful mushroom photo came from Nature Diary.



This umbrella is double sided!!

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Celebrate Earth Day In A Retro Way

I decided I should do a blog in honor of Earth Day. While trying to think of my angle I thought of Smokey the Bear and Woodsy The Owl. When I was a kid I remember how huge these 2 characters were in promoting care for the Earth to kids. I think at one time or another I owned every piece of Smokey the Bear advertising in the photo below. Do these 2 characters even exist anymore? I never see them on TV or any of the other places I saw them as a kid. I found these vintage Smokey and Woodsy advertising items at Vintage Depot Direct. There is a lot of really neat vintage advertising in this store.




What about earth shoes? Did you ever wear a pair of those things?? For your sake I hope not! They are as ugly as can be. But if you are really think you need to have a pair to round out your wardrobe you can get a vintage pair in the orginal box at Dress That Man. They have lots of other cool vintage items also. Take some time and shop around!


I have recently stumbled upon a world of crafters who recycle vintage items to make some of the most amazing art! In the process they are also doing their part to help the environment. One of my favorites is Lori Marsha. Here is some of her amazing work!

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Vintage Malls

My blog today was inspired by Vintage Malls of America. When I started my blog I spent some time Googling other vintage and retro related blogs to see what else is going on in the vintage blog world. I kept coming across this blog called Vintage Malls of America. It was really annoying me because it was coming up at the top of all my searches. I really wasn't interested at all. I couldn't think of any reason why I would be interested in a bunch of big old boxy buildings! What was I thinking? Apparently, I wasn't thinking!

I came across Vintage Malls of America again last night and I finally surrendered! I was drawn in by some creepy store mannequin in the dark and I didn't turn back! I spent more time looking at this blog last night than any other I have ever looked at. I saw an image of a deserted mall with a beat up theatre sign that just made a pang in my stomach. I have no idea why! I think it reminded me of the old mall we used to go to when we would visit my grandparents. We always ate dinner there and got to go shopping for some kind of little treat. It is now on the list of deserted malls. Then I saw more pictures of more malls that made my stomach drop. There were memories of the mall I went to as a kid and the trips we took to the mall in the city. Then there was a picture of an old Sears store from 70's. Again, it resurrected more memories of going to the Sears by Grandma's house. This was back in the day when Sears was a stand alone store. Vintage Malls of America brought up so many memories and emotions. I never realized how many of my childhood memories were connected to malls! It really is so obvious but I just never thought about it!

I was then reminded of some photos I took in the fall. My Grandma had just passed away and we were in town cleaning out her house. We went downtown and I took some photos of the old Kresge store we used to visit as kids. I really don't remember a lot about this store. But, the image of what it looked like is still very vivid in my head. Kresge was a five and dime incorporated in 1912. Kresge and K-Mart were the same company. In the late 1970's K-Mart began taking over. In the late 1980's the last of the Kresge stores were sold to another company. In the late 70's the Kresge near my grandma's house closed. It was like an old fashioned store with a soda fountain and a little eat in dinette. To this day the location of the store is still empty. Someone has painted a mural on the windows of the store. It looks just like it used to. If you look at the mural it almost looks like a real store inside. You would never know that it has been empty for 30 years!

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Twelve

How could any kid not love math with videos like this!! If you watch this video you will be singing the song for days! I never knew it was the Pointer Sisters who sang this!

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Finds

There is something about this pitcher that reminds me of being 5 years old again. I'm not sure what it is! Maybe it reminds me of the gigantic orange and yellow flowered wallpaper that used to be on my grandmas kitchen wall. Anything that reminds me of grandma would have to make me feel good. Whatever it is there is something about this pitcher that is so familiar! Do you ever see things like that? Do you see things from your childhood that look so famliar and make you feel so happy but you have no idea why!


This jewelry box makes me feel the same way. It is so familiar. It reminds me of a Barbie doll dress I once had or maybe an eye glass case my mother used to own. I can't place it yet it's so familiar and makes me feel so happy! Both of these great retro items can be found at Finds vintage store.

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Jenn Ski


I have stumbled across this most amazing artist named Jenn Ski. She has these very retro, mod looking paintings called pods. I love the colors. She also has a background in design. She has a website at jennski.com but it's not finished yet. It just redirects to her design portfolio. Hopefully it will be up and running soon. You can see her work on MySpace
I encourage you to go check out her stuff. I can't wait for her site to be completed. I definitely plan to keep an eye on her. A piece of her artwork would look great in any mod home! I hope to be moving soon. If I can find my dream mid-century modern home I will HAVE to get one of these paintings to adorn it.

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Finishing Touches For Prom Night

OK, I'm back with my finishing touches. I got a photo of my mom's awesome vintage patent leather purse! When I was a kid she always took this purse to church. I HATED it. I thought it was soooo uncool. It reminded me of the "stupid" patent leather Mary Janes she made me wear. These days my opinions on the purse have changed just a little bit. I will absolutely be taking it to prom! I remember entertaining myself at church by looking through my mom's purse. This purse always had wedding programs, funeral cards and weird things like that in it because that was the only time she ever used it!



My prom night will be starting early and ending late! With an early start I'm going to need some hip sunglasses. I really like these vintage bakelite glasses from Online Antiques.



I think I also need a coat for prom night since it SLEETED here last night!! It is April! It should not be sleeting! I'm ready for the sun! I'm not a huge fan of fur but there was something about this coat from Sydney's Vintage Clothing that I kind of liked.



I have looked and looked for some earrings! I can't find ANYTHING! If you know of some cool retro, mod earrings to go with my prom dress let me know about them! Now I just need my prince charming! If you hurry you can purchase my prom goodies before prince charming shows up at my door!

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Accessorizing For Prom

OK, I absolutely love that black dress I posted yesterday from Buffalo Gal Vintage. I'm just going to pretend that my prince charming is coming to take me to the prom!! I'm gonna wear that dress along with these shoes from Prototype Vintage.

I absolutely LOVE these shoes and they are in fabulous condition! I have been searching and searching for earrings to go with this dress but I can't find anything I like! Ugh! I will have to keep looking. My mom has the PERFECT purse for this dress. I'm going to have to get a picture of it so I can post it here! I think I'm going to have to finish my accessory shopping tomorrow. The earrring hunt took me much long than I expected. I will be back soon with more.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Vintage Prom

I realized today that we are upon prom season so I thought I would surf the web and see what kind of vintage prom dresses are out there. I found this beautiful dress from Posh Girl Vintage I think it would make any girl feel like a princess!



I also think this dress from Memphis Vintage is so pretty! I can just picture Doris Day going to Valentine's dinner in this dress.



I absolutely love this mod dress from Buffalo Gal Vintage. If I was going to prom this is the dress I would want to wear!!!



OK, it's time for bed! Maybe I'll do some more prom shopping tomorrow. I still need shoes and jewelry! I have a very classy looking vintage formal in my eCRATER store. Go check it out if you're in the mood for a vintage prom dress!

Saturday, April 7, 2007

Pattern Panache


I have a friend who has a degree in fashion design. I am so jealous! I wish I could just whip up the perfect outfit that I can't find anywhere at the mall! One day I was at her house and she was showing me this beautiful fabric she had purchased. She wanted to make a vintage 50's style dress out of it. She was trying to sketch a picture for me of the dress she wanted but I just couldn't picture it. She came up with the brilliant idea to jump on eBay and look for a vintage pattern in the style she wanted.


Until then I had never given vintage patterns much thought. But, I LOVE vintage clothes. Often times I will find something I love in the itchiest fabric imaginable! There is just no way I could suffer through wearing it for the whole day. These vintage patterns are the perfect solution!! You can make WHATEVER you want in the most comfy fabric around! How do the rest of you who love vintage clothes deal with the itchy fabric thing? Am I just too sensitive?


I suddenly thought of my grandma's house. I had been there about 2 weeks before and found out she had tons and tons of vintage patterns. They were the coolest styles. My favorite patterns are the 60's mod styles. Most of them are not in my size so I have them listed in my eCRATER store. I love the patterns that have drawings instead of photographs on their covers. The artwork is just beautiful!


I have seen people do the most creative things with vintage patterns. Of course, the obvious is making your own clothes. I have also seen patterns used as wall paper. I think this is such a unique and cool idea. I'm going to have to try it sometime. I have also seen envelopes made of the pattern instruction papers. They were the cutest looking envelopes I'd ever seen. What I Found has a wonderful selection of vintage patterns for anyone who is interested in trying out some of these ideas.

Thursday, April 5, 2007

Schoolhouse Rock Rocks!

I went to a concert tonight that consisted of Schoolhouse Rock songs! I love Schoolhouse Rock! The people who came up with this concept are complete geniuses! I have seen kids sit and watch these videos entranced 30 years after they were produced! And, the music is amazing. I don't know if most people realize that the music was done by some of the best jazz musicians around. One of my favorite Schoolhouse Rock voices is Blossom Dearie. She was a very popular jazz singer who did all of the songs that have that sweet, angelic, child like, little girl's voice. Don't you just love her glasses! My favorite Blossom Dearie song is Number Eight.



Blossom Dearie also did Unpack You Adjective which is probably one of her more popular songs.



I've fallen in love with a new version of Mr. Morton. This is such a great song both new and old! Does anyone know who sings the old version? He is in so many Schoolhouse Rock videos. I have to do a Google seach and find out what his name is.



The new version I love is by Skee Lo. It can be found on the CD of School House Rock covers called School House Rock Rocks!



If you're in a Schoolhouse Rock sort of mood you can get a Schoolhouse Rock t-shirt at Rockit Tees

Wednesday, April 4, 2007

The Death of Small Town America

Since I started this blog I've been thinking a lot about how my retro romance got started. I was reminded of an event that took place in my first year of college. At the time I thought I was just getting caught up in the excitement of the moment but I now know it was really one of the things that lead to my love of vintage clothes.

My grandma lives in a very tiny town that has about 1000 people in it. My high school had more people than her whole town! In this town was a Dry Good's store that we all called Gina's because the lady who ran it was named Gina. I think the store had a real name but to me it was just Gina's.

This store was a huge 3 room (I think) building with an apartment above it. Gina lived in the apartment. In the first room on the lower level was drug store items. The next room had shoes and clothes. And, the third room had a bakery. When my mom was little everyone did their shopping at Gina's.

My mom has prom dreses from Gina's. Her brothers got their basketball shoes there. All of the ladies in town got their sewing and quilting supplies there. People got EVERYTHING at Gina's except their groceries! As Gina got older and Wal Mart and Shopping Malls began to take over the country Gina's business started to decline.

I'm sure the bakery was first to go. Then eventually people didn't go to Gina's for their clothes anymore. Why would you do that when you have all the exciting possiblities of a mall? Soon people were going to Wal Mart for their drug store supplies. Why go to Gina's with Wal Mart's everyday low prices?

When I was little a trip to Grandma's house always included a trip to Gina's! Her store reminded me of the store on "Little House on the Prarie" except it was much bigger. It had the wood plank floors that creaked when you walked and high shelves up to the ceiling with a sliding ladder to get to the top. She had the oldest cash register I 've ever seen! It looked like this!

If I was really good and really quiet while the grown ups talked I might get a treat before we left! She had a kid's area with books, small toys and coloring supplies. While the grown ups talked (I think there was more talking than shopping going on at Gina's) I would quietly eye the coloring book or doll I hoped to get. I especially remember one very beautiful plastic charm bracelet!

I didn't realize it but by this time Gina's only business was close friends and loyal community members who might save their birthday card, socks, or sewing purchases for Gina just so that her business would stay open but not much else was being purchased there. When I was a kid I didn't even realize Gina used to have a bakery and I thought the only clothes she sold were men's work clothes and maybe some underwear. Little did I know!

By the time I was in college Gina was too old to be able to run her store anymore. One of the last times I was in her store she was so blind that she thought a dress hanging on a rack was my mother. Gina was a very close family friend and my aunt often helped her in her store. Because of this we had the opportunity to help her clean out her store and purchases some of the last items remaining in her store. We made many, many trips to the store before it was closed. Each time we returned with a new treasure.

This is when I found out about the bakery and all of the other rooms I had never seen! That store was like a time capsule that I never knew existed. It was almost as if time had stopped about 30 years early. One day the customers quit coming and the store came to a stand still! I found the most amazing shoes I had ever seen in my life! If I only had size 4 or 5 feet I would have been the owner of them all for about $2 a pair!

I also discovered beautiful dresses and sweaters hidden away in perfect condition with the tags still on. Unfortunately many of these clothing items were too small for me to wear. I did purchase some dresses that were too special to leave behind even if they didn't fit. Some of these will eventually be listed in my store.

This cardigan sweater is my prized possesion from Gina's! I probably got it for about $2 and it is so cool looking . This picture doesn't do it justice! Every single time I wear it I get TONS of compliments! I'm not 100% sure how old it is. I would guess maybe from the 1960's. Does anyone have any ideas? I looked up the tag at Vintage Fashion Guild Label Resource but it was not listed.






I wish I would have known then what I know now! I would have bought everything, even if the shoes didn't fit! I could have had mannequins and all kinds of cool stuff! It makes me sad when I think of what became of Gina's store. There is no way Wal Mart can ever compare! Vintage Merchant at Ruby Lane has some lovely vintage clothing including some beautiful cardigan sweaters similar to mine. Go check them out! Purchase one and you could also be receiving all of the compliments I get!

Monday, April 2, 2007

The Light Of My Life


Starting this blog has gotten me thinking about this lamp for the past few days. This is the lamp on my bedside table. I absolutely LOVE it! It has been there for 15- 20 years, long before the rest of my retro romance began! Don't you think this should have been some kind of sign of what was to come? It's kind of like the little gay boy who played with Barbie Dolls! Shouldn't someone have put 2 and 2 together?? (I know, I know! Playing with Barbies dolls doesn't mean you're gay! I'm just sayin!) My dad gave me this lamp. He calls it the mushroom cloud lamp. He got it at some antique shop. That is the cool thing about having a dad who is into antiques. If he gets something that I end up totally falling in love with he will give it to me! It doesn't matter what it is. If he knows I truly love it, it's mine! He isn't this way with everything! Just the antiques! According to him this lamp is probably worth a good amount of money. I'm no lamp expert so I don't know. I just know that every day I fall more and more in love with it. And.....every day I become more and more paranoid about it getting broken, especially now that I have a kitten that is in need of ritalin! This cat who can't weigh more than 7 pounds managed to knock over an entire dresser!! Yes, yes, yes, I know it sounds unbelievable but it's absolutely true. There was some complicated physics involving an open dresser drawer involved in the whole incident. Back to the lamp! Did I say I love it? Every time I move it gets packed in it's own box inside the biggest towel I own which is the size of a blanket. It gets its own special place riding in the car with me. There is no way movers would ever be permitted to touch the mushroom cloud lamp. I also have a fancy self defense plan which involves the mushroom cloud lamp in case some rapist ever breaks into my bedroom in the middle of the night. The base of the lamp is extremely heavy. So........I have decide that if I can keep my wits about me in the heat of the moment, gently remove the shade and place it in the safety of my soft fluffy bed the base of the lamp would be an amazing tool of death to wack some intruder over the head with! If you want your own mushroom cloud lamp you might check out 20thcenturydesignsny. There are some amazing space age items for the home in this shop.