Thursday, April 29, 2010

A visit with mom on the Oregon Coast


In case anyone is interested in my outfit that I have on:
Vintage sweater thrifted on the Oregon Coast from one of my favorite haunts when I used to live down there - I am actually wearing this sweater right now even - can you believe it this thing was only $5.00!
Skirt is black and just a few inches above the ankle - I got this from Nordstrom about 5 years ago which I think was the last time I set foot in a shopping mall.
The big chunky faux pearl necklace from the 50's/60's came from the same place I got the sweater - I had befriended the manager there and I think she just gave me the necklace because the clasp was broken - I happen to be a beader and jewelry maker so it was real easy to fix.
Shoes are one of my very favs! I would say they are from the early 90's but they have a very 1920s look about them. They are four-color suede: dark brown at the toe, then a dark cinnamon bark color, then a goldish mustard and a nice warm tan in the back. They are piped in black with black laces, they are very unusual, I have never seen anything like them before or since and they go with so many things.
I will be going on a little trip to visit my mom this weekend! The first picture above is a picture of me looking out the window of the sunroom over looking my moms beautiful property. This picture was taken during the time when I used to live there. I lived there for about a year and a half. I had my mom take these pictures of me right after I had my hair bobbed, I have since grown it out and now it is down to about 2 inches past my collar bone.
My mom lives on the Oregon Coast in a little town called Beaver, she has lived there for almost 20 years (about half of my life). The Nestucca River which is in the picture above runs through her back yard. It is about a 10 to 15 minute drive to the Pacific Ocean from her house. It is very beautiful and peaceful at her house. Plus there are many opportunities to spot wild life from the back yard or the sunroom window (elk up on the mountain side just above the river, deer, heron, beaver, geese, eagles, you can hear bobcats at night and my mom says there is even a bear that lives across the river!) the second pic of me is in the sunroom - we did not alter this pic in anyway to give it that old time grainy look and faded colors - all that quality is from a cheep camera ha ha that my brother found laying in his driveway when he lived in California.
Mom and I have plans to do major thrifting and junking this weekend. My dear mom will be 79 on May 22nd. She has been thrifting for most of her life and me... I literally have been thrifting my ENTIRE life - my mom used to take me to the Goodwill and Salvation Army in my stroller because I could not even walk yet. My mom says when I was a toddler, riding around in the stroller that I used to grab shoes, books etc.. what ever I could get my hands on and stuff it under the stroller - she says my stroller had a little shelf like thing underneath it and she says by the end of the shopping trip in the store she would be pulling all kinds of things from underneath it!
Last trip out to moms, I made quite the haul of vintage finds to resell and some to keep, I hope I will end up so lucky this time around again. I will have one of the best thrift shoppers in the world with me, she tought me how to do it. Basically everything about thrifting I learned from her. Plus the Oregon Coast is prime territory for thrift and vintage!

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Bohemian style of the late teen's and 20's

Over the years I have been very enchanted with the bohemian style that was going on (for a breif time) during the teen's and 20's. It has a very beautiful and whimsical feel to it. I have an entire CD (of about a 1000 pictures) collection of Ziegfeld girls and other gals in various stages of dress and undress. At one time I did a photo shoot (an implied nudity photo) where I am emulating one of the Ziegfeld girls (someday when I have the courage I may post this picture). For right now though I will share these pics of the lovely gals from my collection:







































Friday, April 16, 2010

Easter Hat Parade

I am sorry it has taken me so long to get these photos posted. I have been having many internet troubles for several days. The Easter Hat Parade was loads of fun! It was the Saturday before Easter. We started off at Pioneer Square in down town Portland, there were so many photographers there it felt like the paparazzi was there.




Along the way we stopped off at the Benson Hotel because it made for a grand setting for photos:










Here is a picture of me at Elephants Deli which was our final destination for the parade. It was a great place to end the parade because they have the most lovely foods, pasteries, and beverages:






In this pic I have on my hat that I won from Solanah's contest that she had a couple months ago, I have a huge hat collection and out of all of them I decided the one that I won from Solanah would be the very best. To check out Solanah's wonderful blog just go here: http://vixenvintage.blogspot.com.
My outfit:
Vintage hat from fellow blogger Solanah
Vintage pale pink blouse from Red Light Store
Full length dark peachy pink slip was thrifted
Light pink skirt from a 24 hour yard sale (I caught the very tale end of the sale and they just wanted to get rid of everything - so I got 3 wonderful skirts for a dollor!)
Black Boots from Meier and Frank (pre Macy's - tells you how long I have had them)
I really wanted to wear one of my pretty vintage flowered dresses with some beautiful strappy shoes for the Easter Parade but it ended up being very, very, wet that day. I wore my long black wool coat, my pink, black, and white Pendleton scarf, my little black vintage unbrella with the lavender rhinestone handle, and my trusty black boots. I ended up going with the pink for spring and the black because it still felt like winter.
Oh yes and I did end up being on TV, I would post this video onto my blog but I can not for the life of me figure out how to down load the video and put it here on my blog. Oh well.