Green Fields of France

War is so glorious y'all.....



Green Fields of France is my favorite anti-war song....






Please don't forget the troops dying.
45 in July and already 40 in August...there will never be enough bodies for Afghanistan.

Music for an Irish American's Passing

In Teddy's honor.

Mmmmmm, Raspberry

No, not raspberries to eat, but this amazing raspberry silk HATTIE CARNEGIE gown at Dorothea's Closet.

Strapless gown has fantastic seaming along front and off-set pleats to side of center waist, drapes dramatically to the floor. Supported by self crinoline, has RIGHT metal zipper suggesting it was custom made for a left handed wearer! Stole wraps around shoulders, seams create lift, straps pull under arms.

Carnegie was in business from 1909 until her death in the 50's but her business continued until the late 70's. From the Vintage Fashion Guild Listing:

It was said that a lady could be dressed from "Hat to hem" at Hattie Carnegie (the one item she did not have being shoes!) By the 1940s, Carnegie's store was actually a department store. There was a handbag shop, where a customer could order a bag to match an outfit or hat, the fur salon which was next to the Custom Salon, a millinary shop and a ready-to-wear hat shop, her jewelry department, an antique shop that sold furniture, china and glass, a cosmetic and perfumes department, the Jeune Fille shop which sold Spectator Sports and ready-to-wear from other design houses.

To see more of this great dress go here and for more information on Hattie Carnegie check out the entry for her on the Vintage Fashion Guild.

Liberal Lion

This is how I will remember him.
Fighting the good fight for the regular guy.


The good stuff is around min 3:35....




TeddyCare.
In lieu of flowers, let's pass health care reform.

Statesman

“The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dreams shall never die.”

Requiescat in Pace

New Life for Vintage

My views on taking perfectly good vintage and hacking it up to make "trendy" garments that for the most part are NOT well made is well known.
But in the hands of a talented seamstress and designer a piece of vintage clothing that is damaged and has outlived its usefulness can be a thing of beauty.

This brings me to re:couture a line of designs now being offered at Shrimpton Couture (a site that is everything I want to be when I grow up)....

"re:couture is a new label from designer Tallulah Charlotte and is exclusively available through Shrimpton Couture. Tallulah is a long time vintage devotee who chooses to work with damaged vintage and restores or re-works it to make pieces wearable once again while adding her own unique vision to each piece."

(Tallulah. I love that name. I hope that is her real name. If I had had a girl I would have named her Tallulah. It is a name that you don't mess with. Powerful.)

These are just lovely designs that stay true to their original eras.

I would even argue that this delicious design (really, it is just lovely) is a step up from the "originally a maxi length vest that was ruined beyond repair near the hem" it stated out as, because maxi length vests should never had existed in the first place.
Except maybe as garments for Maude or Mame, no one else could pull these off without giving off a real "crazy cat lady drinking highballs at lunch" vibe.



Another wonderful design.
Respect paid to its 50's base with an added modern twist.

re:couture.
Re-making vintage done right.

Shitty Movie Blog

If you like movies you might want to check out Shitty Movie Blog.
It's no Pajiba and the author is one foul mouth dude (takes one to know one, right?) and our household TOTALLY disagrees with his review of Inglorious Bastards (though Quinten could be more generous with his editing and I am tired of the black hole that is the Tarantino ego) but still, there is some good fun writing there.
Go check him out.

WWBW? (what would Betty wear?)

If you don't watch Mad Men (why not?) then you won't get this.
This is what Betty would wear:

Betty would wear this* after the baby and then tell Don that she has a headache.
Forever.
Because Don is a cad.
He's hot.
But he's a cad.

*"This" is a vintage 50's Vanity Fair Peignoir set in aqua that you can find here at Damn Good Vintage.

Sadness Abounds

Tonight we found out that a wonderful "online" friend, Mary Catherine Lamb, passed away last night.
My heart is heavy with grief.
After a good cry I went looking for an old post I did on MC and her crazy sock monkey quilt.
Here tis:

I know that Sock Monkeys have their fans.
So do clowns...and those creepy "dolls" that crazy ladies display
in glass cases.

I am NOT a Sock Monkey lover.
I think they are creepy and probably plan to take over the world,
but when Sock Monkeys are added to a quilt and created out of
vintage Bark Cloth fabric, well, then that might equal love.

I give you "Sock Monkey Jamboree"

That makes even me smile with glee.

The quilt has been aquired The University of Nebraska's
International Quilt Study Center along with other quilts created by
the extremely talented and creative Mary Catherine Lamb including a
quilt titled THE FOUR HORSEMAN OF THE freaking APOCALYPSE(!).

From their website: "The INTERNATIONAL QUILT STUDY CENTER at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln houses one of the largest publicly owned collections in the world. The quilts range from outstanding early examples of American quilts to contemporary and international quilts. The International Quilt Study Center's comprehensive collection now numbers more than 2300 quilts from seventeen countries, dating from the early 1700s to the present."

Of course this begs the question what will she create next?
I think there is only one way to go after using the Four Horsemen and
Evil Sock Monkeys.
That would be to place all of the Evil Overlords List on a quilt.

I'm sure this is all some evil plan to bring about the APOCALYPSE
and install Sock Monkeys as our Evil Overlords....hopefully they
won't read the list.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Also you can enjoy this video of her and her work that Oregon Public Broadcasting produced.

Requiescat in Pace

Sand and Light

Watch this amazing video of a performance artist who uses sand and light and music to tell a story of WW2.



You can read more about Kseniya Simonova here.

Weekend Sale at Damn Good Vintage

Vintage 50s 60s Pink Linen Shirtwaist Dress
Was $75
Now $37


Vintage 50s Vogue Special Design Box Jacket Suit with Shell
Was $24
Now $12

Aloha

Great article on the Honolulu Star Bulletin's website:
50's Years of Hawaii Fashion on View
via Fashion Tribe twitter.....

LOL

Tomato Pie

Last week I made Paula Dean's Tomato Pie recipe.*
Last week my husband and I ate the whole damn thing.
It was just that good.
This week I made a larger one (just dbl the recipe and made it in a 9X13 dish instead of a regular pie pan) so I could have leftovers today.
Just as good this week as last except The Teen who hates tomatoes said "ok, you were right mom, this is really good". So much for leftovers.

Great recipe for this time of year when you have all those tomatoes sitting around and wondering who you have not given some to.
The first time I just used a pre-made pie shell, but this time made my own pie crust.
Really pie crust is easy folks, especially if you use a food processor.

Yum.
and Yum.
Oh, Yum.

Tonight it is fried pork chops with gravy and mashed taters and probably cantaloupe.

*You need to peel the tomatoes. To do this you make an X into the bottom of your tomato, drop it into boiling water for a min or two (just to the point where you see the skin begin to peel away at your X) the drop them in cold water for a min. You can now just slide the skin off.

Weekend Bonus Sale at Damn Good Vintage

From Damn Good Vintage and Sew-Retro this weekend.

Vintage 40s New Look Nipped Waist Suit Quitted and Beaded Peplum XS B32


Was $150
This Weekend Only $75

Vintage 60s Pattern Spadea Suzy Perette Fly Away Panel Tunic Dress with Skirt Factory Folds NS-217 B35


Was $20
This Weekend Only $10

90's Revival

Who knew?
It seems there is already a "revival" of 90's fashions.
My guess is that it has to do with the overabundance of 90's clothes at the thrifts and yard sales and the fact that you really can't label something made in the 1990's vintage.

Here's a bit of real vintage clothes:

Vintage 40's Blue Tweed Jacket

Vintage 40's Purple Plaid Swing Dress

Vintage 60's Serbin Day Dress


Vintage 50's Red Wiggle Dress


Crazy Fred Perlberg Party dress.
I love this dress in a "Sharon Stone in Casino would
look so awesome in it" kinda way.

Morning Glory and Disappointment

I did finally hear back from my Doctor.
The scans did not really show any real issues with the parathyroids, but they might have seen something with my thyroids.
Sigh.
Getting an ultrasound on Friday.
The problem is that my Dr. took off on vacation today (no I do think re deserves a holiday, he's a nice guy) so I could only talk to his nurse. Nice lady, but she was just setting up the time and trying to explain what was going on.
Ultrasound on Friday, results at the beginning of the week with a visit to see Dr. Mayfield.
I've gone down the thyroid road before and nothing has ever come from it.
So this is all probably an exercise in futility and a waste of money and I'm just disappointed because it would have been nice, for once, to have a cut and dried "this is what is wrong and it will fix what is wrong with you" ending.


Pretty.
Morning glories are one of those vintage flowers I love. Old style, vibrant colors and a bit chaotic.
The ones pictures are going on the sunny side of the back deck.

Weekend Bonus Sale at Damn Good Vintage

This week.
LS Ayres knitted wool shell covered with crazy discs.
Was $80, this weekend $40

Vintage 60's Jacques Heim Coat Dress Pattern from Vogue
Was $45, this weekend $22.50