I know that you just gotta have this swimsuit - Offered by Whitaker on ebay - I wish they gave more info in their descriptions, I'd realy be interested in knowing where this piece came from. I guess time and volume keeps them from adding more details.
You can see the catalog for their April 7th Auction Here
If you are in the Philadelphia area, or will be nearby there anytime from April 1st to May 21st, you might want to check out the Grace Kelly Wedding Gown exhibit -
http://www.philamuseum.org/exhibitions/collection/221.html?page=1
It will feature her gown, veil, prayer book and her shoes which were made with a penny in the sole as part of an old Irish tradition. On the news they were also talking about the bride's maid gowns and hats, so I assume that they are part of the exhibit too, although I didn't see them mention on the museum's website.
Vintage pretty ladies
I love pretty vintage ladies (who doesn't?) Here are a few gals from my collection.First, probably my favorite girl, I bought her on ebay awhile back. She's from the 1920s and she is on a stand because she was suppose to be a hat stand. How could anyone put a hat on her though, then you couldn't see how pretty she is! She came to me nude with just her silver shoes. Her face is composition and body is cloth. I made her clothing out of some old black silk lace and teal silk. Her shawl is a collar from a ladies blouse. The necklace is some beaded trim from a long-gone-falling-apart flapper dress that I had. Her hair is original. I love her smokey make-up.
Next are two boudoir dolls. Both were missing their original clothing, but their faces were great. I put red mohair on the one girl (looking a little messy right now because some bad dog grabbed her and tried to make her his own toy, Thank goodness her head didn't pop in his mouth) The dark hair girl has her original hair which is real. I made both of their outfits. One is a black satin pajama set and robe, made of new fabric. The soft teal dress is actually a damaged lace dress from the 1950s. It has cord trim and rhinestones on it.
Here are some fair haired girls.
To the left is another bed doll, bought bald and naked, but with a pretty face. I replaced her hair with some golden mohair and made her a gown from some vintage peach lingerie satin. The laces were trims from old lingerie that was dry rotted and so were the beaded appliques.
Next to her are two composition half dolls, one on a green silk pincushion and the other wearing just a little pink velvet trim.
Below is another half doll and an original box that a half doll came in. Then is kind of frazzeled looking pincushion doll with a tattered bonnet and a chip on her nose. She came from a house clean out.
This little lady is a Storybook doll, not sure which one though.
Finally, this embroidery is not old, but her frame is. I did the counted cross stitch, it's one of those great Mirabilia patterns. I use to cross stitch when I had free time (before the internet) I probably did her about 9 years ago. She sat for a long time, waiting for me to find the perfect frame for her. I found the frame last year digging out in our garage. The frame was in the garage for about 20 years (I found all kinds of good stuff that my parents had stashed out in the garage) The fancy wood trim had rotted off of the bottom edge of the frame from setting for so long, so I got out the hot glue gun and glued some flowers along the bottom of the frame.She nice and big too, the embroidery is about 16x20 and the frame is a few inches bigger. They were a perfect match. Don't you love it when things end up going together like they were made for each other?
Bye for now, Carol
Summer Fashion picks, courtesy of 1936
I love old mail order catalogs like Chicago Mail order and Bellas Hess. If you ever see one for sale, they are great to buy. It's fun to look at the great vintage styles, and the cheap prices from way-back-when, and they also usually have a few a pages of household items in them too. They are also good researching sources for studying vintage clothing too, I'd love to be able to use some of today's money to buy at 1930s prices. But, sorry, I'd be buying for my own wardrobe though, not for resale!Here are some scans from a 1936 Bellas Hess catalog. Kind of a fashion forecast for what I'd like to be wearing this Summer. Click on the images for larger views.
Novelty prints - I love fun novelty print cotton dresses for this Summer. Not too bold or too obvious prints, just something to make someone take a second look to see what the print is, maybe something a little funny. To the left is a Polo player print.
Lightweight cotton dresses - to the right is a dotted swiss dress, read the ad - do you 'Dote' on dotted swiss?
Wide legged pants - I know, everyone wants these. 1930-40s pants are one of the most requested items that I hear about. I want them too! I've probably only had about 5 pairs for resale in the past 8+ years. My own personal problem with wide legged pants are that they are usually very high waisted, which bugs me, because I don't like anything high on my waist. But last year I did find a pair of Liz Clairborne wide legged cropped pants at Ross. They had a lower waist and they had the buttons down the sides, kind of sailor style. I just bought a pair of really wide legged cropped pants with a wrap/tie waist from Newport News that are pretty cute too. I know, I know, I'd really rather be wearing the real vintage thing too, but if you can't find it vintage, you gotta buy it new.
Swimsuits - I don't think that I've ever had a swimsuit body. I was underweight and very skinny for most of my life. I didn't feel too selfconscious about it until I was in my 20s, then I stopped wearing swimsuits in public for over 10 years. Now I feel better because I've gained weight in the past 2 years, but I can't find the right swimsuit! These 1930s swimsuits look perfect, cute but modest with all vital parts covered. But wool? No, how about a nice lightweight cotton, then I'd take all 3! And Summer sandals, you can never have too many Summer shoes. I really love cheap Summer shoes, they are fun to buy and to wear - by cheap I mean under $10. I have this big green metal tub that I keep by my backdoor, and I throw all my flip-flops and sandals in it, and decide which to wear as I go out the backdoor. Summer fun.
Here are the pants that I bought at Newport-News, cute huh? I am worried that the tie at the waist is going to drive me crazy though. Below are a pair of shoes that I also bought from them. Not exactly cheap, these were about $18, which is more than I usually like to spend on Summer shoes, but these will go with a few 1950s dresses that I have.
OK, so that's all for now, Carol
A taste of Spring!
We have had such nice weather the past few days, in the 70s. Today is still warm, but overcast and drizzley. So, nice weather means no work! Yeah! At least no indoor work. Saturday, my Dad put up my birdhouse in the front yard - see photo to the left here. It's a big one, on a ten foot pole, hopefully some little birds will move in soon.
I spent some time raking a ton of leaves out of the garden area out back and a little out front. I paid for it later in the day when my back and leg hurt. It was just too nice to set inside at a computer. Although Spring is really still a few weeks away, I couldn't help dragging out all of my little Fairies and garden things and setting them out around the yard. I also bought a shephards hook to hang one of my birdfeeders. I thought the squirrels wouldn't be able to get up the pole, but I was wrong. By the end of the day there was a squirrel hanging upside down on the side of the house eating up the sunflower seeds, with another squirrel on the ground eating up whatever he dropped. Here is that cute little cottage feeder, I bought it online at Christmas.Some other things out in the yard - a cute bulldog welcome - and the bulldog garden stake was a gift from one of my vintage friends when our old gal Ms. Fatty died. He's not stuck on the ground though, he has a special place on the railing right next to our door.
I bought this cute windchime from Collection Etc. It's made of floral granitewear (of course they were all facing the opposite way when I took the photo) It has silverware hanging from it too, and it's pretty big.
Project Runway - Wow, Chloe won! I was surprised at that. Each collection had some nice pieces, but I generally don't like runway clothing anyway, so I guess that I'm not a very good judge. I think they chose Chloe because she has more design experience with her own shop and she'll probably be easier to work with. She seemed like a fun girl and she is talented, so I'm glad that she ended up winning.
Altered Vintage Theme Book - well, we were off to a bumpy start on this project because 2 books were late/missing. But now I think everyone is back on schedule. We mail out our current books on the 15th, so I'll have a new one to work on by the end of the week. Here are the 2 pages that were done in my book (1920-40s Lingerie & Summer Wear)
Turkey update - we broke the count record this week, we had 24 out in the yard one day. A few of the boys face off and strut, which is really cool to see them with their feathers all spread out. Must be because Spring is coming, they're showing off for the girls. The girls eat, and then one day they all layed down in the leaves to rest for awhile. A few took dirt baths, throwing dirt all over themselves. One day the crowd came late and the sun was setting. Instead of walking off into the woods, they all flew up into the trees in our backyard and roosted there for the night! Very cool, have you ever seen a turkey fly? It seems impossible, and I don't know how they manage to hang onto the tree branches all night. But they were still there at sunrise the next morning.
Bye for now, Carol
The internet really is a great way to find stuff that you want! I run a website about the history of a little shore town called Strathmere. A man who had an old photo album was trying to identify the photos in it. No dates, nothing written in the album, but a building in one of the photos had a sign that said 'West Jersey Cottage' on it. So he searched that name online, and found my Strathmere website. The West Jersey Cottage was an old hotel in the town, and our house was actually once part of the hotel, it was built as an annex to the hotel in 1902. So this very kind guy took the time to scan all of the photos in the album and sent them to me, so that I could use them on my Strathmere website. The photos are really a fantastic find, they were taken around 1912-14. They show several men fishing and hunting, and they stayed at the West Jersey Cottage, so there are several photos of it and our house too. One of the photos was of this very fashionable young lady. She is standing on a walkway that use to run between the hotel and our house. You can see the hotel on the left, and our house would have been on the right. In the background is the old boathouse, which has now been converted to a 2 room efficiency cottage. WWII and a hurricane in 1944 put the hotel out of business. The larger hotel building was moved up the street, and our house remains in the same place.
So I spent several days this week getting these photos and a bunch of others ready to put up on my Strathmere site, putting off my money-making work until the weekend, typing like mad on Sunday to get the vintage clothing update ready for Monday. I also moved both my website and the Strathmere site to bigger servers. Zoinks
Cute stuff that you really do not need to buy alert - Collections Etc - this place has the cutest little junk for your house and garden. Everything is $14.99 too. I've bought several cute fairy garden things from them over the years. I just bought this cute set of birdfeeders that look like cattails, they are stakes that you stick in the ground and seeds go in the tops. I also bought a windchime that looks like old granitewear. Do not go there if you are weak for cute unnecessary stuff like me!
Some fun items that I spotted on ebay -
Cute guitar print 50s dress - with a 34 inch waist
Watering can circle skirt
Sea Shore border print skirt
Owls in the Trees skirt
Project Runway - well, I had been thinking that Daniel was going to win, but after seeing last week's episode (and searching online for photos of their fashion shows) I think that Santino is going to win. It looks like he really listened to the judges about toning down his designs, because his collection actually looks very nice, nice enough to be the best.
What happened in the last 15 minutes of the Gilmore Girls? I missed it. I missed the previous week too because I had a migraine. The last I saw, Rory was pouting (what's new?) because she found out that her obnoxious boyfriend hooked up with other girls while they were broken up and Lorelei volunteered to babysit Christopher's daughter. Gilmore Girls is one of the few primetime shows that I watch regularly, but I really don't like either of the Gilmore Girls. I find them both very immature and spoiled. How old is Rory now? I think she can stop with the baby talk, and does she have to succeed at eveything she does? Oh, and poor Rory can't tour the Orient this Summer because her boyfriend actually has to get a job. If I had to choose between the two of them, I would choose Lorelei, because she's less annoying, but really very selfish and immature. So your parents tried to control your life when you were 16 and pregnant, get over it! So why do I watch this show if I don't like the 2 main characters? I love everyone else on the show. I love Mr. & Mrs. Gilmore, Luke, Lane (hey Rory, remember your best friend) and Lane's band, and all the kooky people who live in the town. L&L are alright really, they just really bug me sometimes.
Carol
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