Bakelite Couture

Not too long ago I did a blog where I mentioned an amazing bakelite artist called Bakelite Couture. Bakelite Couture has just opened a new store at bakelitecouture.com. Bakelite Couture by Olof Bridgeford is a line of Bakelite Art Jewelry made using only Genuine Vintage Bakelite. All pieces are cut, carved & polished by hand using the same techniques & processes as the master Bakelite jewelry makers of the 1930's & 40's. Pieces range in style from Traditional to Geometric & Art Deco, specializing in High End Investment Quality pieces that are either one of a kind or limited. Bakelite Couture pieces can be found in a number of major US Collections as well as in England, Japan, France, Germany, Australia & New Zealand. Bakelite Couture accepts special orders & commission work & is always happy to collaborate with a client to create exactly the piece they want. The integrity of every piece is guaranteed to be of the finest quality. Her work is amazing!

Pink Cotton Candy

I found this adorable pink cotton candy dress at iamsonotcool. I love this dress and I want to buy it but I'm not sure if it will fit. It is 17 inches from armpit to armpit. That is REALLY small. There are darts but I'm not sure how much room they will add. What do you all think? I wonder what size bust would fit in this dress. I WANT IT!!! I'm kind of small but I don't know if I'm THAT small. The mod little buttons are so cute. And, I love the detail in the zig zag stitching. I have a dress practically the same style that fits great. I guess I should drag it out and measure it. That's been my best bet for finding vintage clothes that fit. I find something I already own in the same style and then compare the measurements. Well, I'm off to get the tape measure.

Vintage Wedding Ring?

I know I said I would update a lot more this summer but it's just been crazy! Things are not completely finalized with my new job so I've been dealing with that. In the midst of trying to get my house clean for the realtor my great aunt died. Our family is very close and she had no children so we were like her grandkids. I didn't think I would be so upset when she died but it's very sad to think she won't be around anymore. She lived a long happy life though. She was 96 years old and still in great shape in so many ways. She was as with it mentally as you or I. Her body just finally give out on her. We are glad it happened very quickly because she never wanted to be in a nursing home and really had no one to take care of her. Thankfully she got her wish! My grandma is in charge of her estate and most of her stuff was left to us. We went to her house the other day to look around and take anything we wanted. It was really sad to be there like vultures rifling through someone else's things but that is what she wanted. I'm happy because I feel like I got something really special. In her jewlery box I found a ring that was just a plain band. It was VERY black and corroded and looked like a piece of junk. No one wanted it so I decided to take it and see if I could shine it up. I didn't really think I would be able to. Surprisingly it shined up very nicely! We are now wondering if it possibly could have been her husband's wedding ring. He was a man who died when he was only 58 and I never knew him. It is a plain silver band that has some grooved lines going around it. Many of them are worn away which means this ring must have been worn A LOT which is why we think it might be a wedding ring. I'm sure this ring must be at least 50 or 60 years old and possibly older than that. It was my vintage find for the weekend! It fits on my largest finger so I think I will wear it for a while as a reminder of my aunt. She was the type of lady who didn't have a lot of stuff but she saved lots of special little trinkets over the years that were very meaningful to her. I know she would be happy that someone else also found some of her things special. I will probably eventually blog about some more of her things. I got a few interesting vintage scarves including one from Italy. I promise I will try to update more often. Things should calm down at the end of next week!

Marvelous Mary Quant

After taking the mod quiz last night I decided to do some surfing to find out more about Mary Quant. I LOVE her style! She is known for popularizing the mini skirt and hot pants and was a British designer who studied illustration at Goldsmiths College. She owned a popular clothing store in London called Bazaar. Mary Quant claimed the shortening of the skirts during the 60's was very practical because it allowed a woman to run for a bus. Sounds good to me! She also invented many of the colored and patterned tights that were often worn with the miniskirts. Quant was at the height of her fame during the mid 60's. She has been referred to as the high priestess of 60's fashion. Her website is at Mary Quant. There are some beautiful images of her work at this site. She currently has a makeup line. I found this lovely dress she designed at Victoria and Albert Museum. This is a fascinating site I will have to check out some more later. I love this stylish little red dress! It doesn't help that red is one of my favorite colors! Since this dress is in a museum somewhere I guess there probably isn't much of chance that I will ever get to own it! I found a very similar dress at Laura Beth's Vintage. Laura Beth has some lovely item's in her shop!

Bamabelle Bed Jacket

I am completely in love with this beautiful, vintage, lace bed jacket at Bamabelle. It is gorgeous and just the right price. I almost didn't want to mention it in my blog for fear that someone might buy it before I do. But, I have decided it may be a tad too big for me since I DO NOT have a size 40 bust! Bamabelle has some other great finds in her shop. I have read a number of forum posts by her on Etsy. She really seems to know her vintage clothing and she appears to be a very professional seller. I can't wait to make my first purchase at Bamabelle.

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!

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!

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!!

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!

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!

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!

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.

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.

It All Began With Vogue (part II)

After I fell in love with the vintage Vogue magazines I couldn't just let them sit and gather dust. So, I decided to frame some of my favorite Vogue ads in a display on my bedroom wall.









I also made a way cool retro looking Vogue end table.













www.paperpursuits.com seems to have a nice selection of fashion and design print collectibles.

It All Began With Vogue

Well, my parents have been dragging me to antique shops since I could barely walk. But, I was never really interested until I had to go to the bathroom in one! I went to the bathroom in an antique shop that had walls completely wallpapered in ads from vintage Vogue magazines. That's when everything changed! I fell in love with the beautiful drawings and photography. And, the sassy outfits the women wore were the best! I immediately began scooping up all of the vintage Vogues I could find! I love the beautiful colors in this cover!


Ahhh, it's a flower child.

Is this woman sassy or what?

Bazaar also has some amazing art work like this oh so cool outfit!


I don't know what's going on here but she sure looks elegant doing it!