Vintage clothing Altered Book

I had talked previously about an altered art book round robin that I was part of. It started last year on the ebay vintage board with 13 people. The main theme was vintage clothing and we each had our own sub-theme. Mine was Vintage lingerie & Beachwear. This month I received my finished book back and I'm here to show it off. Each month the books were shipped to a different person in the group who decorated a layout in the book according to your theme. It got a little bumpy here and there during the project, one girl got the boot from the group for being late every month (we were suppose to ship our books on the 15th of every month) another gal had to leave for family reasons, and last month, one girl lost 2 of the books in her own house (glad my book wasn't lost) So the project ended 3 months early, but I was glad to get my book back, because I couldn't wait to see it. To the left above is the outside of the book which I covered with some old rayon tulle and a large beaded applique. Below are the layouts from each of the ladies who worked on my book. Click on the images for larger views. I'm missing a photo of one of the pages, because it came out with glares on it.

Christmas fairies, Doggie presents and leopard pants!

I hope that everyone had a nice Holiday! We made it through alright here. We have always opened our presents on Christmas Eve, so now we also have the turkey on Christmas Eve too. Boris had a very fun Christmas, and you can watch the video below to see him open one of his presents. He loves boxes and presents and loves to rip them open. We had to put him in the other room while we opened our gifts, then we have to hide our presents so that he wouldn't get into them when we let him back into the room!

I received a fairy from each of my grandmom's this year. Above is a pretty one from grandmom #1. I really like this one because she has her feet in a seashell, and there is sandy beach under the shell. You know that I love the shore. It has clear plastic that looks like water inside of the shell, very pretty.
To the right is from grandmom #2, it's a pretty fairy behind a looking glass, and she hangs from a stand. I've never seen one like this before. I like mermaids and fairies.

In between Christmas festivities, I did a little sewing for myself. I bought a new sewing machine, so I had to break it in. Nothing fancy, $60 from WalMart. It does straight and zig-zag stitching, which is all that I use. I made this little rag doll with a dress made from 1950s fabric and vintage ribbons. She's also wearing nylon panties and a lace petticoat. I made her neck too long and alien-like so I stitched it to shorten it, then I had to camoflauge the stitches with a tiny pearl necklace. I embroidered her face and gave her a strawberry blonde hairstyle made from mohair.

Last week I mentioned that the first item that I ever sold on my website was a pair of faux fur leopard pants. I bought a jacket from a seller on ebay last week, and when I went to leave her positive feedback, I checked out her other auctions, and guess what she currently has listed - Faux Leopard Fur Pants - they look identical to the pair that I sold 9 years ago! I thought that was so funny, I've never seen another pair like them. I doubt they are the same ones though. Mine sold to a gal in NY and this gal is in CA.

Now for your viewing pleasure, a short clip (48 seconds) of Boris ripping open one of his presents. This was the 2nd gift that he opened, and you can hear by the panting that he was already tired out, he gets so excited.

Christmas Cookies & Trees

Thursday was cookie making day. I made some chocolate chip cookies from a cookie-mix gift that I received from a gal at work, and I made more using the good old fashion recipe on the back of the bag of chocolate chips. Then I made a bunch of butter cookies, which are a big favorite here. I also made some fudge. It was the first time I ever made it, but I think that I fudged the fudge recipe, because it hasn't hardened yet. I just added a little sugar to the recipe, because the chocolate seemed a little bitter to me. Maybe that messed it up, I don't know why it hasn't set up right.
The little tree here was my gift from my part time job. It's a real tree and under it was a tiny little Christmas present for me.

Below are three photos of our tree. I don't think that I posted photos of it last year. We had just bought the tree before Christmas last year, it's pretty cool. It's about 5 feet tall and it has a furry brown bear standing behind it. It has kind of sparse branches which give it an old fashioned look and a burlap bag bottom. We have it decorated with vintage ornaments and candles from my Mom's Christmas collection. The photos are kind of busy, but hopefully you can see the bear. Behind the tree is a wall of cases that hold my Mom's dolls.

Here's an early morning sleepy Grinch

And here's a recipe for Butter Cookies -

2 cups sifted flower

3/4 cup butter

1/2 sugar

1 egg yolk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Cream butter, then add sugar gradually and cream until light and fluffy.

Add egg yolk and beat well

Add small amounts of flour, mixing thoroughly after each add

Add vanilla and blend well

Put through cookie press. Add optional sprinkles. Bake at 400 degrees for 4 to 5 minutes. Makes about 6 dozen cookies

Geek alert - 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' (yeah, now when will it be released?)

Super geek alert - I'll be watching the Doctor Who maraton on the SciFi channel today!

Happy Anniversary, Happy Anniversary, Happy Anniversary, Haaaaaaaaaaappy Anniversary!

Happy 9th Anniversary to Dandelion Vintage! It was 9 years ago this week that my website went online with just a single page and about 15 items from my own collection. I think I was online about 2 months before I sold my first item, which was a pair of early 1960s faux leopard fur pants! I kept moving forward adding more and more stock, and expanding and adding departments. Now I am one of the longest lasting vintage clothing website online with over 1000+ pices of stock online for purchase.
I'm lucky to have such a great job and lucky to have great friends and fans of vintage who have kept me going - with much more than making purchases, but also with friendship, support and words of encouragement through the rough times. The vintage clothing market has changed alot in the past 9 years, and this year it seems to have taken a severe turn towards trends and fads, but I am here for the long haul! I will continue to bring you a great selection of classic vintage clothing, and try as hard as I can to keep the pieces affordable enough to add to your own wardrobe.

Please click the image to check out the site and take advantage of the 25% off sale going on from now until January 5th. The discount will be subtracted in the shopping cart. Regular shipping charges apply.

Bye for now, Carol

Christmas Songs & TV watching

I'm not a fan of Christmas music. Yeah, the name is Carol, but I find most Christmas Carols kind of corny. I don't mind hearing songs playing in the background when I'm shopping though, so I guess I don't totally hate them. I do have a select few favorite Christmas songs that I do look forward to hearing each year.
In no order, my faves are -
Santa Claus is coming to Town & Merry Christmas Baby- by Bruce Springsteen (hey, I am a Jersey girl, I can't help but have those on the list)
Blue Christmas - by Elvis. Love. That. Voice
Wonderful Christmas Time - Paul McCartney, sappy, but I love Paul in all his sappyness
Happy Christmas - John Lennon, more than a Christmas song
Christmas Wrapping - by the Waitresses, so fun. Do you know this song is 25 years old!
I also like the theme to the Grinch, and the piano music from the Charlie Brown Christmas cartoon, even though neither is really Christmas-y, but you hear them on the radio this time of year.
Also, I should mention U2's version of Christmas, baby, Please Come Home - even though it's not really a big fave of mine, but it is U2. I love them, but I really don't like when they do cover versions of other songs.

My favorite Christmas tv watching each year -
The Christmas Story - come on, who doesn't love that! I've really been waiting to see it this year. Darren McGavin (the Dad) died this year, he's just so cool in the movie. When I was a kid, I was a big fan of the tv show The Night Stalker, and he was great in that too. The Christmas Story was shown on Friday night, but Doctor Who was on at the same time, so I had to choose watching the cute guy over the classic movie. I'm such a girl. But then it was on again Sunday night and I laughed like a dork through the whole movie! They'll be a marathon of the movie starting Christmas Eve for 24 hours. I never get tired of seeing it over and over.
The Grinch Who Stole Christmas - the real Grinch, the cartoon grinch, the Boris Karloff narrated Grinch. Not that movie that I refuse to watch! I love his dog Max. Anyone who has a dog can't be all that bad.

Charlie Brown Christmas - I love the kids choir singing that plays in the background through the cartoon. I love when they are rocking out dancing when Charlie Brown is trying to get them to rehearse for the play. I can't decide which kid is the coolest dancer, I love them all. I want to jump up and rock out too when I hear that piano!

Once in awhile I'll watch Rudolf, and I also like the cartoon with the Heat/Freeze Misers singing their songs.

What are your favorites?

More dog torturing

Here is the video that I mentioned a few weeks ago. On a nice warm November day, my Dad & I took Boris for a walk on the beach, and a little swim. But Boris was more interested in trying to get up on the sand dunes to mark territory. So anyway, here is just a funny little clip for your enjoyment, with my Dad trying to get Boris in the water. Check out the little water shake that he does all the way down to his tail. The annoying sound that you hear is the wind, the waves and my goofy laugh.

Gifts for me!

Yeah for getting packages in the mail! Today I received 3 packages.

The first package was a give-away that I won. It's a special 4x4 collage creation by Lia @ Art Junk - It's called 'The Dress Maker' She also included a cute little card of a Godey's Fashion plate print. Fun, and wrapped in wallpaper, what a great idea!



The next package was my Vintage Christmas Swap from Donna at The Fabric of my Life . First was a little card that I loved, it's so sweet -

Donna made me a cute little stocking from 1950s fabric, lined in pink and white polka dots. Each item was wrapped in red tissue paper, and it was alot of fun to open each present.

Inside was a vintage angel on a star, a hanky with blue roses, a painted ornament, a candy Santa, a funny little wooden Santa, fabric covered buttons and pins, a pretty sachet, a scented soap and tealight and a pretty floral pin that I really loved.

The sachet, the pretty pin and the fabric covered buttons.

The next swap is a Vintage beauty Swap - check it out and sign up if you can. They're really fun. I'd love to sign up for this one, but I don't know if I can round up 4 items in time

The last package was a 1950s Simplicity Pattern Counter book that I won on ebay. I haven't had a chance to look thru that yet, but I'll post photos from it later in the week.

The Annual Christmas Dog torture

So this time every year, we drag Boris around and try to get him to pose, so that we can get a photo of him for our Christmas card. First off, he gets upset because we move things around, including his blanket, which normally no one is allowed to touch. He never likes to set still, keeps trying to walk towards me, and always looks in the wrong direction. It takes many shots before I finally get a good one suitable for our card. We grab him when he's asleep, thinking that he'll be kind of groggy and set nice and still, but he's still very fidgety and fussy.
To the left is the 'Oh jeez, not another Christmas card, do I really have to do this?' look
Below is a moon doggie glowy eye shot with his bottom snaggletoof-ums sticking out. The photo on the right shows his enthusiam for the whole ordeal. All attitude, just like a supermodel. He won't throw a cellphone at you, but he will nip at you!



Finally we get lucky and get a few shots to choose from. He still doesn't look very happy though. He makes it look like a Grumpy Christmas!

Cute little crafty trees

Yes, I succumbed to the cuteness and simplicity of these little trees too! I spotted them on a few blogs and you can get a very simple pattern to make them yourself at littlebirds.typepad.com/. There is also a flickr photo group for these little trees too.
I made mine out of some very pretty cut velvet tapestry that came from the estate of Olga Schwenker a few years back. The background of the fabric is a matte gold satin with designs in rich colors of green and burgundy. I stitched some little faux pearls on it and a button on the top. It didn't take long and I did it by hand while I was watching Gilmore Girls (I don't know why I'm still watching it. The Christopher and Luke fight started out good with Luke getting in a great punch, but it ended up pretty pathetic, especially considering they were fighting over flakey Lorelei. And why is Rory crying because those two girls don't want to be her friend anymore? Hey Rory, remember your best friend Lane, the one who is pregnant with twins? Logan shows yet again what a spoiled brat DB he is, but I bet Rory will go back to him next week, saying it was all her fault, like she always does. I use to love this show, what happened?)

Next, I started an altered book of my own. The Vintage Clothing themed round robin that I was involved with is just about finished. We were suppose to run until March, but I should be getting my own book back next week. We had 1 gal drop out because of family illness and 2 girls were given the boot from the group, one because of lateness and one for loosing a members book.
The book that I'm doing on my own doesn't have a theme, just pretty stuff that I like. The first layout was made from copies of some vintage paperdolls that I found online, and a bit of some love-sick poetry that came in a load of vintage that I had bought.

The next two page layout was inspired by a photo from Victoria magazine of a very plush, vintage decorated livingroom. I added some old laces and buttons and trim.


Also, I am a knucklehead. I sent out my Christmas swap and forgot to include my name so that my gal knows who the present came from!

Vintage Fishies Give-Away (and some fabric for me!)

A Vintage Give-Away!
Here is a set of unused plaster fish and starfish by Miller Studio. They are from the late 1960s to early 70s, and are still kind-of in partial box. They are bright yellow and orange, one fish and the starfish are still attached in the box, the other fish is loose. I got these several years ago, I can't remember where though! I've never put them up for sale because one fish does have a line down the front of it that I wasn't sure what is was. But I've put pressure on it and it doesn't seem like a crack, just a mark on the surface, which is very faint. This is a great set for your vintage bathroom or vintage beach house. MAILTO:carol@dandelionvintage.com- to enter the drawing for these fun fishes. A winner will be chosen December 15th.

Next, One day I ran out to two shops to try to do a little Christmas shopping. I only bought 1 present, but I found some great vintage fabrics at an antique shop - for myself! I don't often buy at antique shops, well, because you know that I am cheap. But they were having a sale and I couldn't resist these great 1940s fabrics.
First is a dark blue and white tropical floral plisse. It's only 32 wide by 1-1/2 yards, but I'll make something out of it. Next was a blue, white and chartreuse challis, 4 yards! I'll get a dress and more out of that. Finally is a blue Bemberg rayon chiffon with white and lavender flowers, another 4 yards of that, which will be another cute dress for me! Now I have to track down a few cute 1940s patterns.


I also bought two large pieces of a grey print rayon and a 1950s Waverly hollyhock decorator fabric, which I will be reselling on the website in a few weeks.

On Thursday, the weather was really nice, so we took Boris over to the beach for a swim. He is more interested in walking around peeing and sniffing than swimming though. He'll go into the water a little bit, bite a few little waves, and then try to make a beeline to the dunes. I took a video of him at the beach, I'll have to put some of it online so that I can torture my blog readers!

Bye for now, Carol