Lusty, Mirthful, Gal-Stealin' Musical, er, Casserole Dish!

I'm not sure if it's just in Portland, but good thrift stores are hard to find. And, I mean true thrift stores. Not Goodwill or Salvation Army, because that shit is expensive.  Luckily I have a favorite that's amazing because a) I think no one knows about it and b) they don't know what they have.  Until recently, I feel like Goodwill was like that too; you could find good shit there for cheeeeap, but it seems like they started hiring people who actually know clothing brands and antiques markets, and therefore price accordingly. Boo! This place is kind of like a church thrift store, so they get weird stuff, and it is so reasonably priced. I can't divulge my secrets, but today I found some GREAT china pieces. I didn't buy all of them, just a casserole dish, but I may go back tomorrow and see if some others are still left.

Buck's County by Royal China

I really love americana and kitschy style patterns, and this just takes the cake. There's a gd barn raising, for christ's sake!  I think it's supposed to be Amish themed, but Royal China be damned, it'll never be anything but Seven Brides for Seven Brothers to me.

IN EVEN BETTER NEWS, AS I UPLOADED THIS, I REALIZED THERE ARE SEVEN DANCING COUPLES ON THE LID, YES, LIFE COMPLETE, CAPS NECESSARY, ECT ECT.

I've never seen this pattern before. I saw a girl carrying the casserole around with several large plates, and picked it up after she set it down. I almost didn't get it, since I was just going to be looking, but I did a quick ebay search and decided to grab it anyway.  The only other "casserole"  I could find  ebay was asking $120, which is stupidly insane an asking price (especially since I spent two bucks on it! ha!), but it seems like it's not a very common pattern. It's so much fun, I'm actually surprised I've never seen it. I'm probably going to put it in the booth space I share with a friend, but I kind of want to keep it!

Morris T. Cat gazes right through your soul

Then, icing on top of the  aforementioned cake, I found this amazing MORRIS THE CAT MUG AAAAHH.  I collect mugs, can never have too many cats, and am highly and regretfully nostalgic for a Morris the Cat t-shirt I didn't buy at Red Light like seven years ago and I know I will never see again. But a mug- even better!

White Suit Optional

Space Librarians

    If I were to have a bullet-ed list of things that at one point in my life I never thought I’d like in a thousand years*, but now, as a reasonable adult, actually enjoy, clothing from the 1970s would rank top three at the very least. When I was a dumbass teenager and obstinate about what was not cool, I hated seventies fashion. I mean, I did live through the nineties and the awful resurgence, much as I am currently struggling to wade through the 90s revival mom jeans trend, but that is not an excuse for me looking past what is now one of my favorite aesthetics: disco deco.   In the 1970s, the 1930s Art Deco glamor came back- first subtly, then with a vengeance and a glittery, spandex-y aftertaste. And that is an aftertaste I’m unreasonably excited about. Sure, it was ridiculous, but so much of the culture of that time was ridiculous. I think the 1970s in America were a very interesting and socially conflicting time (much like the 1930s) and the fact that disco came out of that only to  promptly self destruct a year later is just the cherry on top. People always need an escape, and if doing blow off a balcony while wearing a man’s tuxedo jacket and underwear is an option, might as well. 

The Pointer Sisters

Helmut Newton, 1974

1971

Grace Coddington

Anjelica Huston and Yves Saint Laurent, 1973

Can't be a 70s post without Jerry Hall

More on my Historical Costume: 1970s pinterest board!

*Right after rap music and lamb.

(Remix)

I was going to make a post about something relevant, but then I realized I had never seen the video for "Poison" by Bell Biv DeVoe. Thank you internet age, because now that I have, I feel my life is just one tiny step closer to being complete. This video has everything I've wanted in a music video circa 1990: out of control primitive green screen, a plethora of ladies that are super 90s-hot, sitting in a basketball hoop while singing.  EVERYTHING.  But perhaps the best thing was this comment left on the video: 

 

Ok.

Calc-U-Later!

It's been a long time, but I've finally made some more stuffies. I've found that creatively, I go in cycles: I make a ton of one thing, then get super burned out. I'm still not 100% excited about the stuffies again, but it was nice to get back into the swing.


While I tend to make historical figures, we all know I can't resist pop culture, particularly television. I originally just made Leslie Knope from Parks and Recreation, but wound up making a Ben Wyatt to go along with her. I'm really happy with how Leslie turned out!

Lady Adventurers

Osa Johnson: author, adventurere, zebra wrangler

What's more glamorous than excavating 2000 year old mummies in the sweltering pre-air conditioning jazz age?

Perhaps flying sea planes and slashing through the jungle to rescue talismans and being a general swashbuckling bad ass Lady Adventurer. 

Ok, so maybe the malaria, Nazis, or uncomfortable Imperialism might not be super worth it to be, but the clothes are.

Visiting Egypt

Helen Richey, first female commercial airline pilot

 

 

 

 

 

Marion Ravenwood, Indiana Jones

Evie Carnahan, The Mummy

Meryl Streep inOut of Africa

VeraVague on Etsy

While digging around on Pinterest (who's surprised), I found a bunch of inspiration and a couple bloggers that have been embracing this style, and it reminded me how much I love this look. I love that it spans decades and conventional genres. It can be either tomboyish or girlie, practical or steampunk-y. Just like the ladies who originated the look, it's unique and exciting. 

Plus, Indiana Jones, am I right? 

On Style

via Johanna Ost

Personal style has always been very important to me.  I’ve always been very interested in clothing and fashion-y things, not only vintage and historical fashion, but modern style as well. Because of a combination of reasons, namely lack of funds, enforced dress codes  and lack of confidence, I haven’t always felt comfortable or been able to express my personal sense of style in everyday life. I really admire those who have distinct personal styles and wear them with confidence. 

When I was younger, I especially admired those who dress solely in era specific vintage clothing.  It’s a huge commitment and undertaking, and something that I could never accomplish. Not only to commit financially to buying only true vintage (1930s-60s, is what I’m mainly referring to), but committing to a single decade or look. I could never choose just one!  Maybe it’s the amateur fashion historian in me, but I’m truly inspired by every decade of the 20^th century and earlier. 

Starting in January, I made a conscious decision to try and wear what I really wanted to. I certainly don’t dress up every day, but I’ve been trying to dress up at least once a week when I’m at work, and so far I’ve been pretty happy with what I’ve been able to do. I am of limited means, and of fewer articles of clothing, but I’ve been slowly adding pieces to my wardrobe that fit in with what I want to wear, not what I think I should wear. 

Unfortunately, we are heading into those ol' S/S seasons, where my style inspiration drops considerably. Fall and Winter are my absolute favorite fashion and style (and all around) season. I love the rich and opulent styles that are often present, and for the past several months have been very inspired by the dark colors of Biba and the intricate deco details of 1920s and Teens costume.

Pastels and ditzy florals, the de rigueur look of every spring since the dawn of clothing, are not up my alley, and the early 90s look that seems to not be going away is something I can easily pass on *. It’s not the least bit flattering, and personally, I’m not emotionally prepared to be revisiting the same things I was wearing in second grade. Despite what they may try and tell you, Mom jeans are not the look I’m going for. 

Most importantly, who does the weather think it is, coming into my house, telling me I can’t wear long sleeves all year round?! Every year, I vow I will not let the weather win and hold out wearing long sleeves as long as possible, but I always end up being either miserable.  Jackets and sweaters are some of my favorite pieces of clothing to wear, and I usually make it into June before woefully trying to find something short sleeved to wear. I also refuse to wear open toed shoes out of doors. Hell, half the time I refuse to wear open toed shoes in-of-doors.

Anyway, what I’m trying to get around to saying is that I’m going to be trying to post some inspiration here every once in a while. I post it every damn day on pinterest, where I spend about 96 percent of my waking time, but sometimes it’s fun to organize it in post form.  This won’t be turning into a personal fashion blog, because, as I have stated over and over again, I’m broke and have like one pair of pants and three shirts.  And, more importantly, sometimes I like gathering and organizing “research” more than actually doing.  Defining a personal style is something that I think is important, but I think it should be fun too.

*though I do hope that the 90s trends continue chronologically up to the early 2000s, because I’m really anxious to see some Forever21 selling jeans with “BOOTYLICOUS” in rhinestones across the ass just like I recall a girl wearing to a dance in 7^th grade circa 2001. Now THAT IS the look.

That's No Moon, it's a M U N I C I P A L E L E V A T O R

   Yesterday, I went with my thrifting friend way the hell out to Oregon City. We rode the

 O R E G O N  C I T Y  M U N I C I P A L  E L E V A T O R, 

which I still can't believe is a thing, up and down at least four times trying to find an antique mall that no longer exists.  Instead we wound up going into a 'hobby and coin' shop right by the entrance to the MUNICIPAL ELEVATOR, which looked kind of dumb from the outside, but my friend had been in years before and promised great things.

    Now, normally coin and hobby shops are not so great if you don't care about coins and hobbies, but this place was insane. They had the standard coin collecting and industry standard model railroad supplies, but they also had an incredible mishmash of random old (ooooold) ephemera, postcards, books, militaria, bottles and packaging, comic books, toys, tin lunch boxes, actual junk,  anything you could possibly think of.

    When we first walked in, there was several racks of vintage to antique postcards and other paper ephemera. The very first one that caught my eye featured the Eureka Inn! Weird! I can't escape it! And, since it was only a dollar, I bought it!

Postmarked 1934 in San Jose

    The Eureka Inn was (and still is, though I'm not sure if it's in use again. For a while it'd been shut down) a very grand Tudor style hotel near downtown Eureka. I've never stayed there, but when I was younger, they used to have a christmas tree put up every year and I think we went on a few field trips to visit it in elementary school.

1922, Humboldt County Historical Society

    The store had such a small town-Cohen Brothers oddness to it. There were several people in the store, but aside from the two obvious employees, I couldn't tell if people were working there or just hanging out.  Some of the stuff that was in this store was just incredible.  The whole overall feeling of the store was like a three way mix between traditional hobby store, estate sale and flea market.  New and vintage model train tracks mixed with completely random bits and pieces of everyday life that you never see anymore, like a curling iron from the 60s with the original box, aspirin tins from the 40s, Portland General Electric pamphlets from the 40s, music score sheets from the turn of the century.  My friend found an old wooden box that Kraft government cheese used to come it.  Past several rows of truly old boardgames and toys, I found the true reason for this post: a corner and several shelves crammed with old-ass Star Wars crap.


    I managed to keep my shit together for about six seconds until my friend came over and I perhaps revealed too much of the depth of my shameful nerdiness when I proceeded to identify all the characters in several boxes of 12 inch action figure dolls. They had everyone. Humans, droids, whatever the fuck Ponda Baba was.  There was even two like, two and  a half foot tall  Taun Tauns that I almost bought. It was close. And did I mention, they were CHEAP. My friend nabbed a $5 Lando Calrissian and I walked away with this gem:

DO I NEED THIS?
NO.
IS IT THE BEST THING I'VE SPENT MONEY ON IN RECENT MEMORY?
YES.

Every reader should be proud of my restraint and the fact that I didn't walk out of the store with all four boxes plus the taun tauns in tow.

Photos of (Probably) Dead People

As a lover and protector of vintage photographs (I have a large collection of family and non-family photos that I have inherited and purchased over the years), the saddest thing I've found at the Bins has been albums of pictures.  I know they're only photos, but I have a tendency to get weirdly attached to the people in them, and it's very sad to me to see them being buried under piles of literal junk. I have a strong interest in geneology, and after collecting antique photos as a teenager, receiving a large collection of my own ancestors' photos was one of the best gifts I've gotten. Vintage and antique photos, especially candids, let us have a sneak peek into how people lived, what they wore, and who they were. With my own family photos, it is a huge addition to oral stories about them.  I can't imagine seeing them wedged under a leaky crockpot stoneware and a Taco bell cup. Or worse.

About a month ago, I found a ton of photos loose in a particularly gross bin, complete with unidentifiable liquid lurking in one end. There were probably fifty of them, clearly all from the same source. I snapped up these four. I have no idea who the women (and girl) in the photos are, as there was no labels anywhere, but I just love them.

 These two are quite tiny, from the 1940s and 50s, I'd imagine.

The color one didn't come in the frame.  The frame came from the bins too, but had a new photo of a car in it. Nope, bye, don't care. It was printed from a slide and had a date of 1968. It's so bizarre, I love everything about it. I believe the dark haired lady is the same from both photos. The one on the right may be from a graduation or something along those lines.

One of these days I'm going to have to upload some of my collection of photos. It'd be nice to have them digitized in one place.

We're a Regular Matt and Ben

There are a scant few times in one’s life when you catch a fleeting  glimpse at someone and just know.  With a wave of fluttery, yet resisting emotion, you are swept off your feet. Is this a fairytale? Like the opening verse of  a Taylor Swift song-can this be happening to me?  Wooed, wined and dined. Is this truly “the one”? It’s a love story, baby just say yes.

 

Or you’re me, and you just watched all the available clips of Broad City on comedycentral.com.

Have I ever fallen in love faster and with less to go on than eight 2-minute clips? I don’t think so.  I finally was able to get access to Hulu Plus, where full episodes are available and immediately binge watched all of them. 

Following two best friends as they adventure through New York City with gross roommates and long train commutes, Broad City is about 1000 percent less precious as it sounds.  The main characters are totally relatable in how ridiculous they are. Abbi has dreams of being a fitness instructor at the gym she janitors at, being the go-to gal for all ‘pube incidents’.  She struggles to be an adult and buy her own pot, lives with a roommate who’s never there (but whose disgusting boyfriend won’t leave, or buy toilet paper) and is awkwardly in love with the quarter Latino dude across the hall. Ilana loves Lil Wayne, in a “purely physical” relationship with insanely loveable pediatric dentist Lincoln, works/naps at an office and sings the praises of nature’s pocket.  The characters complement each other perfectly. Abbi is self aware, Ilana wears mildly inappropriate crop tops to work. I read a post somewhere on the internet noting that Abbi and Ilana are a great example of two sides of a person. Ilana is how you are in the house, and Abbi is how you are in public.

Just on a side note, one of the things that really stuck out to me is the way the characters speak. They sound just like regular 20- something year old women. They have the oft-frowned upon speech patterns, say ‘like’, and it’s not done for an effect. Or an affect.  It’s just who they are, and it’s not being presented as a character flaw, as it so often is.  The way it’s done, you can really, really tell it’s being written by the women themselves and not some old dude trying to ‘rap with the kids’.

(x)

What seals the deal for me is this:  the show is written by ladies, stars ladies, EP’d by universal lady hero Amy Poehler, doesn’t shy away from “lady issues”- it’s got an episode called Pu$$y Weed for fuck’s sake - but isn’t patronizing at all. It isn’t delicate, but it isn’t forced (something I felt with Bridesmaids.) Abbi and Ilana are a little over the top, but they’re very real. Ilana doesn’t apologize for being in a sex only relationship and Abbi over apologizes for shitting in her own apartment when there are people over. In the life metaphor to top all life metaphors,  Abbi gets bunjee corded to the side of the moving  van while Ilana dances with the van’s movement. 

(x)

Episodes focus on the everyday- scoring Lil Wayne tix, going to a friend’s wedding, losing your phone. This is why they’re so relatable as characters. No one’s ex boyfriend is an Internet millionaire. There aren’t any tearful AHA moments shoved in your face. In fact, their lives kind of suck. But, as a fellow 20-something, so does mine. I love tv as a means of escapism, but sometimes you don’t have to go to a distant land with dragons or drunken ad execs to reach that. If it’s funny enough, you don’t mind staying close to home.

Here is a really great interview with Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer over at Mass Appeal.