Photo Friday:1968 Vacation to Michigan Edition

Good morning!

Since I'm embarking on a mini-vacation this morning, I thought it would be fun to look into someone else's family photos for vacation snaps this week for Photo Friday. This user had 18 photos in a set labeled "Vacation 1968", and darned if it did fit the bill all too well for what I was looking for! Travel back in time, if you will, to almost fifty years ago, when men were men, and vacations were suitably kitschy:

Outside a building called "Rockin Chair" which offers "Jewelry" , "China" , and faux-Native American charm, stands our family of four. One of the captions labels the locations of all of these as being in Michigan. Do you see the amazing totem pole to the far left of the photo? Also, I am bugging OUT over dad's vacation wear-- his socks match his shirt, which both match his wild print bermuda shorts! I know this is the kind of stuff that people look back on and go "Dad, you look so goofy!" but in point of fact, how much classier is this ensemble than the "Big Dog" t-shirt and Reeboks of your average male vacationer these days? Dude is COORDINATED and PUT TOGETHER! While the other photos must have been taken by the mom, who disappears after this photo, I wonder if they got a stranger to stop and take their picture as a complete unit? So sweet!

Here's more kind-of-sort-of-Indian kitsch, next to what looks like a cement cow and hay cart. You can read all about the different tribes of Indians that lived in Michigan, including the group the state was named for, here, but I'm not sure if any of them had totem poles. I'm frustrated that I can't find it, but on the first or second season of Saturday Night Live, circa '75-'76, Al Franken and Tom Davis had a sketch about what the Lone Ranger would have been like if Native American culture had won out in North America, where Tonto was the wise, well-spoken hero of the sketch, and the Lone Ranger was a bumbling, Swedish immigrant type...this pastiche of "ah, Indian's an Indian" reminded me of how funny it was. At any rate, cultural hodgepodge or not, I am kind of in love with this teepee and totem pole. Can you imagine being the enterprising young gas station owner, going, "If we got a teepee in the playground, people would REALLY go for our service station!"

Look at the horse in the background made out of an oil drum! I also love this giant turtle, and how awesome that little girl's sunglasses are. Do you see the high-wheel cycle in the background? They used to have one of those at the Cumberland Science Center that was similarly anchored in place for you to get an idea of how high up it was. 

Back at the motor court, which looks like it features adobe style cabins and is within spitting distance of a lake (see between the buildings in the background?), a relaxing game of shuffleboard. I am ashamed to say I have never had the opportunity to play shuffleboard, but am open to any offers. I wonder who's winning.

And last but not least, the littlest member of the family is riding in an AWESOME children's stroller with a fringe-top style sun guard in place on top, and the dad is hard core lounging. Doesn't he look like a Don Draper type in this photo! I take it this was all on the same day, judging from the outfits. Love it!

Do you remember any fun roadside attractions or oddly misplaced cultural landmarks in your childhood vacations? What was the wackiest outfit YOUR dad had to wear for special occasions? Which one of these photos do you like best? Let's talk!

That's all for today, but I'll be back on Monday for more vintage tips and quips. Have a fabulous weekend, and I'll see you on the other side!

We're Going to Six Flags!

Good morning!

I got a great surprise yesterday after Matthew got home from work-- after a month of planning, he revealed that we're going on a weekend trip to Georgia for our fifth anniversary this weekend! Technically, the anniversary is next weekend, but this one works better in the grand scheme of things, and I'm tickled to death he came up with a reason to get us the heck out of Dodge for more than a day. Now, usually people who have expressed an interest in visiting a major metropolitan area for a romantic getaway would schedule in fine dining, wining, dancing-- I don't know, things you would see on a Zale's commercial. My thoughtful little dude has centered the itinerary, in a grand prize showcase like dossier he presented me with last night, around a trip to Six Flags. SIX FLAAAAAGS! I haven't been since an 8th grade field trip in 1998! 

THIS IS GONNA BE SO AWESOME!

Vintage Six flags over Georgia Atlanta Serving Tray Platter Wall Plaque

Six Flags over Georgia is the second-oldest of the Six Flags brand theme parks, and the first expansion Six Flags park founder Angus Wynne (you can't make these names up, folks) created after his success in Six Flags over Texas. My dad actually visited SFoG during or slightly after the inaugural year, 1967. As a seven year old, he said the most memorable parts of the visit were a) the flags (good eye, Pappy) and their corresponding that-country-themed sections of the park and b) the predominance of the song "Windy" by the Association being piped over the sound-system in between every announcement, in its entirety. Maybe the Association's manager had some kind of "in" with the theme park? Maybe whatever Atlanta DJ at the station that was being broadcast was REALLY into them? At any rate, every time the song came on the radio when I was a kid, which was a lot on Nashville's Oldies 96.3, my dad would tell this story. And now, friends, I have passed it on to you. Maybe I could put it on a mix cd for the drive down there, and the Association would be inextricably associated with Six Flags in MY mind as well!

Ever since the closing down of our beloved Opryland, I have really MISSED having theme parks as a major part of my summer activities. When I was a child, we'd have season passes every year and just go in the late afternoon to ride all the rides without any kind of wait, as tuckered out Music City USA tourists had already retreated to their hotels for the night. I wonder if there are any similar tricks to this for SFoG that I need to know about...

1970s Vintage Brown Ceramic Glazed Souvenir Six Flags Over Georgia
 Beer Mugs Rope Handle 3D Log Ride Antique Car

I went to the park once, as I said before, on that field trip, and the key things I can remember are riding some kind of Screamin' Delta Demon style roller coaster with a Vietnamese classmate named Phuc Tri, who may or may not have had a crush on me; buying a hat shaped like a lobster for a nine year old Sus; and participating in a conspiracy to take a picture of our Algebra teacher asleep on the tour bus home. Also, there was a girl in our class who ordered the pre-paid hamburger dinner at McDonalds on the way home with bun and lettuce, but no patty. Remember being a picky eater in middle school? Or worse, an adolescent dieter? At any rate, there's a yawning blank there for the most part of what I did at a theme park almost fifteen years ago...I'm ready to fill in some spaces with memories of freakin'-my-kix on a roller coaster or six! :)

Vintage Six Flags Autograph Dog

Concerns I have coming out of the gate here-- what do you take with you on vacation to a theme park? While I would usually be wearing a beehive and a pretty sundress, I have a sneaking suspicion that I might be  just rockin' a ponytail, my swimsuit under a pair of cargo shorts, and Columbia waterproof walking sandals to the park itself. And maybe whatever the non-nineties' equivalent of a fanny pack is. I am getting the actual heebies typing out what I just typed out, but what do you wear to a theme park?! I have a complete terror of either one, not having what I need when I am far from home, or two, having what I need but being compelled to stow it in a storage locker, thus not having what I need even though I brought it when far from home. Additionally, if you see me walking around Six Flags this weekend, act like I won't act like I don't know you, as I sure wouldn't want you to know me! Haha. 

ATLANTA GA Six Flags Over Georgia Amusement Park Satellite Ride Vintage Postcard

Regardless of the fashion crimes I intend to commit while on park grounds, I know it will be a lot of fun. Matthew and I always have a freakin' ball on vacation. And look at all this! Rides! Cheesy souvenir photo taking opportunities! Thrills! Spills! I will marshal my sartorial misgivings before embarking tomorrow.

Atlanta Georgia 1973 Vintage Park Map Six Flags RARE

So! If you're an old hand at theme parks, what are your recommendations for what to wear/what to bring? Do you know of any super cool places to go to in Atlanta, GA? We've mapped out a couple of vegan restaurants to take out for a spin, but if you know of any must-see, rabbit-food-eater-friendly places to hit, let me know!

That's all for today, but I'll see you tomorrow for a lightening fast Photo Friday. Til then!

Wedding Invites: to DIY, or not to DIY?

Good morning!

Well, I hope you all will bear with me over wedding posts-- I'm still chipping away with glacial speed at some of the minutiae and blank spaces still left on my "To Do" list for the big day this fall. It's on my mind! Invites are the top of the priority pyramid at the moment. Even though a late September wedding would warrant a mid-to-late-August invite, if the last couple of months have been any kind of indicator, that mile marker will be upon us before I know it! One of the questions I've been grappling with lately with regards to decision making on that front-- do I DIY? Do I dare?

While I'm not looking for anything this elaborate,
OH MY GOODNESS, what a cute wedding invitation! (source)

I know the key mantra to keep in mind is the "It's your wedding, you do it the way you want". But what do I want?! I am reminded of the thunderclap like moment of realization I had in the greeting card aisle at Kroger, several mother's days ago, that there were as many different kinds of cards as there were kinds of moms. In the winnowing of the candidates, cards about booze, farm humor, male strippers, were all out. Cards with weird, treacly sentiments splashed across a background of glitter were out, and ditto on the singing cards (she would hate how much I spent on it enough to hate the card!)...how long would it take me to negotiate my own schema of my mom into Hallmark's idea of moms, standing two aisles down from the cleaning products and about ten minutes from being late to a family gathering on the holiday? This is a lot like what I'm doing now with the wedding planning, except on a GRAND scale. So many different types of brides! I know who I am and what I like, but how do I incorporate that into this big stakes wedding thingamado?

I lo-o-o-ove this....I honestly lo-o-o-ove this..imagine a less tree,
more twenties'/thirties'  novelty vibe with this one. (source plus DIY instructions!)

I'm torn between wanting some firecracker of an invite, something people would do a fist pump and a Kool-Aid man "OH YEAH!" to, and something just as plain and formal as one's grandmother's stationery. Oh, the dichotomy in this beating heart. Secretly, I should leave it up to Matthew and it would probably be a series of vintage robot trading cards with our event info scribbled on the back. The more I think about it, the more I unsecretly love this idea:

Maybe I could do this for a boys'-night-in retro video gaming night...
wouldn't that be cute? (source)

Can I incorporate these into the design somehow so's I can justify buying them? File this under "how I am effectively distracted from looking for more vintage-inspired wedding invites". (from this shop)

Here's a sample of the kinds of things I've been kicking around the old idea ranch. My mom saw these, complimented me on how cute they were, and then offered to pay for "real" invitations. She loves me, but I think she's worried people will think we're throwing a kegger rather than a real wedding with invitations likes these. What are your thoughts? I think these images, on a really nice cardstock of my choosing with the help of the Rivergate Fed Ex Office Store staff (they helped me make my Save the Dates, a tough act for the wedding invites to follow!), this could be chic enough, right?

You may have noticed on the sidebars and header of this blog that I love, LOVE, LOVE cut-up style collages. The flip side (minus the parents information and the address and some other miscellaneous text) would look like this:

And the RSVP would look like this (the other side with our address and the return address is in a similar black and white mode):

The flipside text part I'm nuts about, the RSVP card I'm nuts about...I haven't quite decided if the front of the invite lives up to the wow factor of the other pieces. It might yet need tinkering. I may replace the photos of Matthew and I with illustrations of Rock Hudson and Doris Day. I may take some special photos of us in scandal-sheet/tabloid style looks of surprise in black and white. For the meantime, those photos serve as place holders for the real deal.

Now seriously! I need your opinion! If you were me, would you use these cutup pieces? Are these too "informal" for what I'm going for, or do they kind of capture the spirit of my goofy little aesthetic? What did you do/have you thought of doing for your wedding invitations?

All right, all right, I promise to shuddup about wedding worries for the rest of the week at least. But that doesn't mean I won't be thinking about it! :) Have a great Wednesday (we're halfway to the weekend!) and I'll see you tomorrow.

PS: I forgot to mention yesterday, in talking of Tammy and George, that I suggested we perform "The Ceremony" at our wedding in lieu of a traditional vows. Now, THAT would probably put my mom over the edge, but it cracks me up every time I think about it, so I thought I would share:

                              

Tammy and George: A Love Letter

Good morning!

So yesterday, I mentioned that the return of my beehive came from a place of love for a rediscovered musical interest-- and this one's very close to home! Ladies and gentleman, the focus of my laser-like latest obsession, George Jones and Tammy Wynette:

(source)

I recently finished Jimmy McDonough's fantastic biography, Tammy Wynette: Tragic Country Queen, on audio-book from the library's Overdrive ebook collection. Folks, were my eyes welling up a little on the bumpy ride home from work on the bus, earphones spelling out the final days of the First Lady of Country? They were. This is one of only two times I've been reduced to sentimental tears over a biography on a MTA bus, the first incidence involving an equally stellar dual biography of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, Sam Kashner's Furious Love. Like Burton and Taylor, the former Wynette Pugh of Tremont, Mississippi and country's acknowledged king of the sad song, George Jones, were a glamorous, tempestuous pair, both onstage and off. I started listening on a Monday and by Tuesday afternoon, I was trying to think up things to do while wearing headphones. Didn't the dishes need doing? Yard need mowing? Some mindless task I could complete while absorbed in this compelling life story as big as anything a Hollywood screenwriter could dream up? At the end of the week, my house was clean and my heart was full with feeling for that oft-dismissed period on music's 20th century timeline, country music of the sixties' and seventies'.

(source)

It's funny how living in Nashville makes one both hyper-aware of and somewhat inured to the charms of country music. Johnny Cash, who inhabits a pop culture air pocket where his associations with country are somehow transcended by his folk hero like place in common conception, is a given. Rockabilly queen Wanda Jackson or historic icon Patsy Cline might sneak her way into a playlist or two of the uninitiated, but it's funny how "separate" and "other" country music can seem from people with otherwise open-minded iTunes libraries. I don't know what it is about country hits of the post-Kennedy, pre-Reagan era that cements those songs to kitsch or ironic appreciation, if not an out-and-out dismissive attitude, but I'm telling you, I AM HOOKED on this former husband and wife pairing's solo and collaborative catalogs!

Early publicity photos of the future married couple (source, source)

Wynette Pugh decided she wanted to sing country music listening to George Jones's duets with Melba Montgomery on the radio in the late 1950's. A pretty and popular teenager, member of the school basketball team, Wynette left school at seventeen to embark on an ill-fated union with her older, carousing first husband Euple Byrd (what a name!). Leaving the ne'erdowell Byrd a few years later, pregnant Wynette packed the car with her two daughters and all her belongings to drive to big city Birmingham, and soon thereafter, Nashville. Here, her tenacity and lungpower sufficiently impressed producer Billy Sherrill to sign her to Epic Records in 1966, renaming her "Tammy Wynette" after the Debbie Reynolds movie role. 

Wynette was married to husband number two, songwriter and motel manager Don Chapel, when she started touring with her hero Jones the next year. Jones and Wynette maintained a platonic friendship until one night, visiting the Chapel family home for dinner, George became incensed by overhearing Don, arguing in the kitchen, call his then-wife a "son of a b-tch". Jones recounts in his hit-and-miss 1996 biography, I Lived to Tell the Tale, that he intervened, flipping over the already-set-with-dishes dining room table, declaring Chapel wasn't going to talk to Tammy that way. Chapel, fairly enough, asked what business it was of Jones's how he talked to his own wife. Jones replied that it was plenty his business because he was in love with Tammy, and what's more, Tammy was in love with him! "Isn't that right, Tammy?" he asked a thunderstruck, on-the-spot Tammy. "I guess I am in love with him!" she replied, and thereafter, George told her to go get the kids and went off with her into the night.

I. LOVE. STORIES. LIKE. THIS.

(source)

Jones and Wynette went on to marry that year (after several starts and stops around the legality of either her first divorce or their Mexican wedding), and moved to Florida, building the Old Plantation theme park on the grounds of an antebellum home they fully restored as their personal residence (now for sale, here). The Jones's welcomed a daughter, Tamla Georgette Jones, in 1970. The duets they recorded together on a flurry of releases during their marriage are electric...between the natural teardrop in Tammy's plaintive, powerhouse vocals, and George Jones's ability to weave a heartache into every living syllable that comes out of his mouth,  the songs are both compelling intimate and compulsively listenable. My favorites are "Golden Ring", "We're Gonna Hold On", and the conspiratorially blue-collar "We're Not the Jet Set". The marriage fell apart towards the six year mark, and ultimately dissolved in 1976 (Jones ascribed its failure to her "naggin' " and his "nippin' " being essentially incompatible), but George and Tammy worked together professionally up to 1980, and even reunited, after a decade long estrangement, for a final album, 1995's One. While Tammy clocked another two marriages and a serious affair with Burt Reynolds, and Jones, for his own part, finally got "straightened out" by his last wife, Nancy, the Wynette-Jones fan base continued to see Tammy and George as the quintessential and inseparable first-family of country song.

Yes, George Jones himself admits to taking a lawn mower to the liquor store on MORE THAN ONE OCCASION when another source of transportation was unavailable (source)

On the bookshelf of items from the library on one or the other of them:

• Tammy Wynette: A Daughter Recalls Her Mother's Tragic Life and Death by Jackie Daly
• Ragged But Right: The Life and Times of George Jones by Dolly Carlisle
• Stand By Your Man by Tammy Wynette
• I Lived to Tell It All by George Jones
• The Three of Us by Georgette Jones

In addition to building that bibliography, I spent a lot of this weekend culling the record bins at two Great Escape locations, Cd Warehouse, and McKay's for records of the two, either together or separately, with greater or lesser success. Great Escape Madison had TONS of Jones albums, but most of them had lived a harder life than the Possum himself. As I was trying to grab these recordings mainly to use my USB turntable to convert them into listenable cds, these trashed vinyl copies were of no use to me, and the cd section yielded up a sparse incidence or two of late-career releases. At Great Escape Charlotte, I found the excellent compilation record George and Tammy by Country Music magazine for $3.99 and five or six duet and solo albums in decent condition. Like old times, I got about six albums for $20, a great savings over trying to track the songs I wanted down on cd (the listings of which are often pasted together in "Super HITS!" collections that aren't worth anything). I can't wait to get everything converted so I can listen to a playlist of my own concoction wherever, whenever I want.

A mirage at the Gallatin Rd Great Escape-- all these were in terrible shape, scratch-wise!!

I've also made this spotify playlist, which has been seeing heavy rotation in the workplace at my cubicle:

                                                  

So if you're interested, listen! Enjoy! Report back to me on what you think! I'd love to talk Tammy and George with some fellow fans!

Do you divide and conquer subjects you're interested in in a similar manner to the way I've described? What's the last thing you got "crazy into" as far as pop culture? Are you a country fan, or do you shy away from sad songs and steel guitars? 

That's all for today, but I'll see you back here tomorrow for more vintage-o-philia. I'll see you then!

The Weekend That Was: Adventures in Beehiving

Good morning!

Whew, LORD, the weekend I had! I'm here to talk about it, somehow, as it's Monday. I've "revived the hive" (note the title of this morning's entry), so let's start by talking about maintaining a beehive in 80 plus degree weather (it ain't eeeeeassssy....)

I've been recently going through a new/old musical obsession that's got me thumbing through record bins at all corners of the Davidson County area to track down well-worn copies of albums that came out forty plus years ago...the amount of fervor I've put into it warrants its own blog post later this week, but as teaser (no pun intended, haha), I can offer up the tidbit that going back to my high-high-high hair has definitely been an offshoot of this passing fancy. It had been so long since I've Aqua-Netted my hair to landagarshen! As you might be able to see over my right ear, I'm still working on the structural stability, but it felt nice to go out with eye-catching hairdressing, back like I usta. Do you have an outfit or a hairstyle that just makes you feel like a thousand extra watts of personality? This one's mine.

This is a new dress from Gallatin Goodwill last week, which was fitting as I wore it out to a little past Gallatin  on Saturday afternoon to visit Matthew's dad and his wife April up in Bethpage. Fun was had! We journeyed back down  off the mountain in time for Matthew to sit in on a set of fifties' and sixties' songs with Chubby and the Dots for a wedding reception at the Stone Fox. He said that other than the air conditioning being out (calamity!), it was a really neat gig (the setlist sounded like an amazing mixtape someone would make for you of that-era music, so you can bet I was taking notes). This is me and the little guy lookin' serious. Do you ever forget to take pictures of yourself and your loved ones except on some rare special occasion? I do! I need to get my act together on that one!

On Sunday, my mom met up with Matthew and me to visit Sip in Riverside Village (which is a convenient, like, two minutes from our house on the other side of Gallatin Road). Strange bedfellows for a Father's Day morning? Not at all-- the three of us were meeting up with a friend of my friends the Huberts to talk about wedding catering. We had initially planned to do some kind of buffet spread through the hotel where we're throwing the whole to-do, but faced with the prospect of baked ziti or....baked ziti, at a king's ransom  no less, we needed new, more elegant offerings. Katie, who could not possibly have come better recommended from her friends-who-have-eaten-her-food, had prepared four menus, each of which sounded better than the last. We might actually have good food to eat in September on our big day! I am really stoked to decide whether I want food that sounds delicious A rather than food that sounds delicious B. Here's the second beehive I concocted this weekend for that meeting (and a later, run-over-to-the-house-for-hugs-and-gift-exchange with my Pappy):

 The dress is a little number from that amazing boxfull-of-mint-vintage-dresses haul almost exactly two years ago. The best news being, this would not zip two years ago, and fits like a charm now! I need to get back into that box and see what else is better going now that I've whittled down my waist a little bit more.

Last but not least, we visited Goodwill that afternoon after the two family-related-events (and an outfit change/de-hiving, to facilitate the trying on of new dresses) and found these:

Black velvet paintings from Mexico for three dollars a pop? SIGN ME UP. A thirties' print of the Hermitage in a professionally framed setting from the sixties' for six bucks? I'M IN. I know I'm going to have to build on to the house to have enough walls to display all my art, but dang. I couldn't leave these behind!

 So! I gotta get back to work, but let's chat! How was your weekend? Any clothing/hair successes or estate sale/Goodwill finds of note? Any tips about wedding catering or the best way to go about selecting a menu? What have you been up to lately?

That's all for today, but I'll see you back here tomorrow with more vintage goodness. Til then!

Photo Friday: 1930's Children's Clothes Edition

 Good morning!!

It's FRIDAY! I don't know how we made it, but we did! I have a pressing engagement at 10 am, so we're going to see how fast I can clack out a Photo Friday for you all, based on a pre-selected set of photos from my grandma's family in the early thirties'. In case you missed a family Photo Friday or two, my grandma, Hazel, was born in Falmouth, Massachusetts in the 1920's, and lived there until she was eighteen, at which point she married my Tennessean granddaddy and moved south for good. 

What caught my eye this week, running through the family photos, were the preponderance of grown up clothes on little tiny tykes in photographs. I know we've talked about before how little fifties' children in miniaturized belted jackets and fedoras look like the living bee's knees, but it never ceases to surprise me that children in shrunk-down versions of adult ensembles appear to be EVEN CUTER than children in classic kid's clothes and pose.

Example: here's my grandma's brother Charles (left) and the gal herself in a snap shot circa 1930:

See my grandma's well nigh adult hat? Or Charles's belted tiny overcoat that looks like something Robert Montgomery would wear over a tuxedo while elegantly trying to win back Norma Shearer in a movie contemporaneous to this time?

While lots of kids' photos from the south, at least during the course of my mom and dad's photographic record, chronicle the youths running around in a temperate or fair weather state of dress, as you can in these photos, Falmouth doesn't mess around about wintertime cold, and these little guys are dressed accordingly. What's interesting to me is...according to what!

 I'm not sure if this is my grandma or one of the two older siblings she had that passed away in early childhood, but either way, this tot looks like the Stay-Puft man. Is the furry sleeve/headpiece thing part of a hooded jacket, over which a Carhartt like onesie has been placed? Look at the collar sticking out askew from the nape of the teeny guy's neck, and how his feet almost disappear under teeny gaiters. 

 Here's my grandma in an outfit I would like to have in adult size:

Sweet cloth coat? Check. Striped stockings and double strapped patent leather shoes? Check. A hat that looks exactly like an adult ladies' hat, only cuter for the the fact of being tiny? Check.

This might be the same older brother, only in a tonified outfit that matches more smoothly this time. Hat, jacket, and cardigan seem to be made of the same wool material. And look at his out in the snow like it's no thing with his shovel! "Whaddya want, ma, I got work to do! This driveway ain't gonna shovel itself!" Note the clapboard, New England buildings I mentioned in an earlier post making a snowy reappearance in this photo.

Above is one of my favorite photos of my grandma from her childhood, in which her impish face looks a lot like my sister when she was little. Another adult-like clothing combination. Look at the way the buttons are arranged in groups of three at the two closures on the coat. See the tiny fur detail at the neck and sleeves? JUST LIKE AN ADULT COAT, BUT LITTLE. Also, how the wool leggings overlap her sturdy leather shoes. Also, how I want a hat like this one and the one before MORE THAN EVER.

Last but not least, this guy (I think the same from the other two single-boy photos) is lookin' snazzy:

I LOVE this football styled helmet hat, and the wool overcoat. And his sweet, shadowed, cherubic expression under all this outerwear. What a cute little kid.

Do you have any photos in your collection of family or strangers' children in impossibly chic or grown up children's versions of adult clothes? Was there an outfit you had when you were a little guy or girl that made you look like a shrunk-down version of a very soignée adult? Which one of these kids' clothes pictures do you like the most? Let's talk!

Well, I gotta be off like a shot here...have a FANTASTIC weekend and I'll see you on the other side. Til then!

Celebrity Watercolors (Cate Parr, Silverridge Studios)

Good morning!

When I was fantasy shopping Etsy and Ebay last week at work (sorry, work, I have my priorities), one of my favorite searches, "silent movie star", turned up this print from Cate Parr:

Giclee Print of original Watercolour llustration - Buster Keaton

What can I say?! I am a big, BIG fan of these. With all the weird, weird celebrity "art" out there on the internet (I came across this looking up Joan Crawford...HOW?! WHY?!), it is refreshing to see a hyper-talented professional creating affordable prints that just cry out "Lisa, take me home!". I love how not-twee and not-amateur these pieces manage to be while also being something accessible. Oh, and how they reflect a taste in pop culture that is HIGHLY evolved. Prints of sixties' model Penelope Tree alongside a watercolored re-imagining of a Godard movie poster? YES AND YES. Can we be friends?! #letstalkaboutnoveauvaguemovies

Original Watercolor Painting Fashion Illustration. Titled - Penelope Tree

Original Watercolor painting, Fashion Illustration: Vintage Poster Vivre Savie, Jean Luc Godard

It's interesting how much detail Parr manages to pack into what I essentially think of as a soft-focus medium. This portrait of Marlene Dietrich, for example, manages to define the contours of her wondrous cheekbones and the detail of her waved hair while still allowing the kind of smudgy color variation that makes watercolors so dreamy. Those eyes! Parr captures completely the twenty-yard smoldering stare Dietrich perfected onscreen in the thirties'. I want wall-sized mural of this piece, exactly as is.

Original Watercolour Painting, Portrait Painting of Marlene Dietrich. Titled: Marlene

Print of Watercolor Painting, Fashion Illustration - Tilly Losch artist dancer

Lucky for you and I, all of these are available on Cate Parr's Etsy shop, ranging in price from $35 for a museum grade archival print, to $800 for some of the original watercolors themselves. While I see myself there on the low end of the retail scale as far as what I'm able to buy, wouldn't it be something to have the original! Maybe in the next life, when I'm a Powerball heiress.

Print of Watercolor Rock Star 13" 19". Titled - Mick Jagger Watercolour Print

Watercolor Fashion Illustration Print - Biba inspired 7

So! Which of these prints really gets your heartbeat going? Have you seen any art that's really caught your eye lately? What kinds of things do you habitually look up on Etsy? Any fabulous shops I need to know about online? Let's talk!

That's all for today...I'm off to get some work done. Have a great Thursday, and I'll see you tomorrow for Photo Friday! Til then.

Elvis and Me (Vintage Elvis Portrait and Collectibles)

Good morning!

Whoo-wee, did I have a lousy afternoon at work yesterday. Nonfiction was overrun by people, from all walks of life, who do not assign due importance to the use of deodorant and practice of personal hygiene made necessary by humid southern months, right up in my face, taking temporary passes for the computer. Towards the homestretch of the early-evening shift, I was harangued, at length, by a patron who was certain that by restarting his computer after a technical glitch, I was in some way sending his personal information first-class mail to the tin-foil people in the sky he reports to, and let me tell you, he was not having it any other way. Blessed with a Jimmy Stewart like sense of perseverance, somehow coupled with the withering sarcasm of someone with an actual mental disorder, it was a soul-crushing example of the "sit there and take it" I have come to associate with working a public information desk. Ugggggh. There are days that I hate civil service worse than others, and Tuesday mid-day was one of them.

However! The universe rewarded me, kind of sort of, in a laugh-forget-your-sorrows trip to Great Escape in Madison, by offering up this consolation prize for a day that was "I just quit" worthy. Don't we make a sweet couple? Check out me and the Big E:

I've broken the cardinal rule of never posing in a photo with Elvis that I set down years ago in this blog post.
Oh well!

Ain't he a pip? The image is screened on canvas and bears a copyright on the back that dates it to "PORTRAITS OF THE STARS, INC." and the year 1979. I can't wait to find a suitably enormous, ornate gold frame to put around this guy! The relatively realistic rendering of the man himself, coupled with the weird, fiery red background, makes for a lot of vintage bang for my buck, here. I love it!

While he spent years and years under my radar, just to the periphery of the oldies' I was interested in, I read Peter Guralnick's INDISPENSIBLE two volume biography of Elvis Presley the in-between freshman and sophomore years of college summer I was a Girl Scout camp counselor. Almost immediately, I sank like a stone in a deep pool of Elvisophilia. I can remember sitting in my bunk, doused in OFF bug repellent but still smacking mosquitoes off my shining shins, so deeply interested in the Greek tragedy like rise and fall of the 20th century's most recognizable musician that I would be loathe to rise and lead the little cadettes off to the mess hall for dinner. So engrossing!

Over the years, I realize I have amassed a number of Elvis related vintage items, some of which you can see here:

1) T-shirts:

These I've mentioned before, but never had a chance to photograph and share with you guys...AMAZING Elvis iron-on t-shirts from probably a little after the King's untimely death in 1977. I picked these up at an estate sale where there was TONS of Elvis memorabilia, ranging from coffee table books to multi-cassette box sets to a pair of lamps with bases shaped like EP in the "Hound Dog" phase of his career. Strangely, right down to the cassettes, everything was priced between ten and thirty dollars (ie, between five and thirty dollars more than any of it was actually worth in an estate sale setting), except this stack of t-shirts, which were ONE DOLLAR apiece. Now, knowing from my post on rock n roll concert shirts how freakin' hard it is to not be a Miley Cyrus level celebrity who can spend $500 on a t-shirt, and get rock n roll t-shirts for anywhere near a reasonable price, you can imagine I almost had a heart attack in this transaction.

2) Photo Plus Frame:

While the perspective in these two photos make them look similarly sized, the one on the left is 12'' x 36'', and the one on the right is maybe 6'' x 8''. Gold-suit Elvis came from a 50% closing sale at Hollywood Video, and just couldn't be resisted. That suit was made by western tailor Nudie at the behest of Presley manager Col. Tom Parker, and worn together only once for the cover of 50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can't be Wrong. Elvis, who had a sincere interest in clothes since his early days in Memphis buying shockingly rockabilly items for his wardrobe at Lansky Bros, thought he looked goofy in all gold, and would wear the shirt with a black pants, the jacket with a white shirt and black pants, or the pants with a black shirt, but never the gaudy combo all together as you see it here. To the right, an Elvis Presley Enterprises "Love Me Tender" plastic frame with "signed" Elvis candid inside. "Best Wishes, Elvis Presley", the inscription reads. DREAMY. Found this at an estate sale in Clarksville almost a year ago (and blogged about it then!).

3) ELVIS BUST

One of my most prized vintage items is this Elvis bust, which was spotted at an estate sale in the Neely's Bend area of Madison for one dollar. ONE DOLLAR, you say. How is that possible?! Well, at the time, EP looked a heck of a lot more like Liberace, with the skin tone you see painted in, but his shirt, eyebrows, eyes and hair a ghostly white. I think this was intentional, is the weird thing-- someone bought the bust unpainted, did the skin, and went "Hey! He looks kind of freaky like this! Let's leave him!" Luckily, my sister Sus had both the art supplies and the skill to restore EP to his rightful color scheme. Thank you, Sus!

As you can see, I have kind of a thing for Elvis. And I'm glad my Tuesday was made a little more bearable for the fact that I could snap up this awesome portrait to add to the collection.

Do you have any pop-up, mini-collections of things just based on your fondness for a certain public figure or thing? Any Elvis memories or memorabilia floating around in your life? How's work been treating YOU lately? Let's talk!

Gotta get back to the grind. Pray for me that the guy from yesterday's verbal debacle does not return. Either way, have a lovely Wednesday and I'll see you on the other side!

Remember Mix Cds? (OSFM Mix cd, 2008)

Good morning!

Well, I am worse for wear this morning, kiddlings. I went over to Emma from The Fiercest Lilliputian's darling apartment last night and had a WHALE of a time cooking mushroom mutter masala (Vegan! Delicious!), expressing jealousy over the fine appointments of her furniture selections, and gabbin' my little head off. I had so much fun, I lost track of time and ended up staying way past my usual "at-home-by this, in bed-by-this" schedule (but for a very good cause!). Upon stealing home late-in-the-night-for-me, for some reason I thought it would be a good idea  to watch the latest episode of Mad Men that had queued up on Amazon Instant Video (the drama! the chills and thrills of last night's episode!!). All that adds up to, I had an unusually  awesome Monday night, but I am a sleepington. Lord! You could really open a grave and just lay me in it for how tired I am this morning. Coffee! Buoy me up, sweet, sweet coffee!

Whatever the preamble, and in the interest of keeping the steamer that is She Was a Bird afloat, I nevertheless present you with today's subject, a relic from the ancient past....a mix cd.

Matthew and I started dating in late June of 2008...what was the first thing I did, in classic maybe I am that guy from High Fidelity fashion? I made him a mix cd. Natch! The cover (above) features an illustration of a Mohawk Indian from a sixties' children's encyclopedia, gleaned from the discards bin at McKays' in Knoxville some years earlier. I used to hoard vintage primary school textbooks and young adult illustrated novels and college-level science workbooks for all the weird and wacky illustrations dedans, in the interest of making cd covers and gifts. As you can see, sometimes this hoarding comes in handy.

If you're one of those girls (or guys), you remember the delicious indecision that was trying to cement the setlist for a "first mix" [tape or cd...format at this point had compelled me to use a CD-R, but I started out on 90 minute blank Maxells or Sonys just like everyone else]. You want to look cool to the potential or newly minted significant other, but you can't put too many unlistenable or alienating tracks on the dang thing. Nobody wants to know how unabashedly into Woody Guthrie you are at first glance...you gotta ease 'em into the good stuff. My friend Kelsey and I spent most of our high school careers perfecting the art of the well-balanced mix tape (first-class-music-nerds), and I didn't want to let myself and my new beau down. After many hours of planning, here's what I came up with for July 27, 2008:

Congenitally bad handwriting. It is what it is!

"OSFM" was the name I gave all mix cds post-2003, coming from the sizing tag abbreviation for "One Size Fits Most" and the idea of FM being like FM radio. I know, dorky, but still. It's nice to have uniformity in titles. I still stand by almost all of the decisions here. I'm bummed that a couple of the songs didn't show up on Spotify, but for the most part, this is what it sounded like (isn't the future amazing? I just playlisted a physical cd in a digital format. Mind blown.):

                                               

[Tracks that are on Youtube but not Spotify: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' Jim Morrison-esque b-side "Come Into My Sleep", the RZA and Vincent Gallo's collaboration on "(Something I Want) For Real", the theme song from the Japanese spy girl show "Playgirl", Malay sixties' pop group Naomi and the Boys' almost atonal "Bad Loser" and South African jazz singer Dolly Rathebe's "Tlhapi Ke Noga"]

Hi, vintage Nick Cave. Love you! (source)

Something that occurred to me as I was tracking down these cuts online-- the ubiquitous mp3 blogs from my college days have gone the way of the dinosaur! I hadn't thought about how anti-piracy legislation and heavier restrictions on what you can share online would affect me until I thought about where a lot of these songs came from in the first place. I know there still ARE some, but many of the mainstays of my college autodidacticism are gone, gone, gone. I would have never known about the thirties' track "Adam and Eve in the Garden" by Chris Bouchillion, which I have committed to memory in its entirety over the years, without the prewar blues and roots blog Honey Where You Been So Long, last updated in 2010. There was another called Bubblegum Jukebox that introduced me to the Spanish version of "Come and Get Your Love", which, if you ask me, is better than Redbone's original. For a couple years there, people with amazing and obscure taste in music were sharing it all over the world... I get bummed out thinking that the era of being able to discover new, truly off-the-beaten-path music is over! Back to the analog drawing board.

Remember me? (source)

I have to try and rise to the occasion of work today, through my sleepiness, but let's talk about mixtapes and cds. Were you the type to swap cds practically a second after phone numbers on the dating trail? Where did you find inspiration for new music? Did you have any particular rules in making cds or tapes? Any wildly ambitious mixes you made back in the day? What do you think about the mix I assembled above? Do tell!

That's all I got for today. See ya back here tomorrow, once I've had some rest! Til then.

Couroc Trays (Gotta Catch 'Em All...)

Good morning!

Today, for your viewing pleasure, I've assembled three Couroc serving trays from my collection. Friday morning, I only had the owl and the fish, but I was overly pleased with myself that afternoon at Goodwill to lay hands on the third, cardinal-embedded tray on the far left. Takin' it to the next level!

I've been having the lousiest luck even at my favorite thrift stores lately, so when I saw a small, dirty black tray peeking out from under a pair of those oversized "BIG GULP" mugs you see at gas stations, I actually groused to myself inside my head, "Yeah, would be nice if that was Couroc, but what are the chances of...((picks up tray)) omfg, it is a Couroc...!!" The square tray has very little surface damage, in spite of the honest to God dirt, and the winsome little cardinal sitting on a branch became much sharper after a quick soap and water run when I got it home. To top it off? The ninety-nine cent green tag on Friday meant the tray only set me back forty-nine cents. Glorious! I take back all those nasty things I said in my head BEFORE finding this tray.

Couroc trays were manufactured by the Couroc company of Monterey, California from 1948 into the early nineties'. The company was created by a husband and wife team, the improbably named Guthrie Courvoisier and Marie Wallace. Courvoisier and Wallace's staff of artisan designers created the iconic, sunk-in-phenolinic trays by inlaying, as you see on the sticker from the back of the owl tray above, "shells, coins, woods, and metals". According to this ebay history of the company, the trays were very expensive gift items when new. 

The three that I have were all snatched up from different Goodwills-- the oldest being the large owl tray in the background. I found it in late high school at the old Goodwill outlet near the Bicentennial mall (miss ya 'til I join ya, old Goodwill outlet-- the new one has never been the same!). I saw the tray in the glass case up front near the checkout, but unlike retail Goodwills, this is not necessarily a warning sign for price gouging on the used goods, but rather, a protective measure against the regular stuff-slingin' that goes on in the bins there. That outlet did everything, e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g by a single by-the-pound pricing, so I doubt the tray cost more than $2. The green guy is from the Hermitage Goodwill-- I very rarely find stuff at that location, but this was back in housewares for ninety-nine cents, and made my whole trip that day worthwhile. So now I have a triad of trays to break out with canapes and the like, next time guests come knockin!

The problem with the success story of having scored these three little guys for so little, and out in the wilds of a thrift environment, is the sticker shock one experiences when trying to find similar items online. I go home, happily clacking out the search parameters "Vintage Couroc" on Etsy and Ebay, and bo-o-o-oy does a reality check come into play. Now, I would love to have ANY of the trays you see below, but with price tags ranging from $12 (plus shippping and handling, making it closer to $22) to $399 (I DON'T EVEN CARE, THAT CAPITOL RECORDS TRAY WOULD BE WORTH EVERY PENNY), the prohibitive cost will keep my pocketbook in check but my eyes peeled for the next Couroc. Maybe Goodwill will be good to me again! Just gotta keep lookin'.

The whimsical nature of the patterns! The science-ish thrill of the pieces being inlaid, in 2D fashion, in a smooth sea of jet-black plastic!

Some of the things I hope I spot in my own hometown, keep your fingers crossed for my next yard sale haul:

Vintage Large Mid-Century Couroc THE OWL & THE PUSSYCAT Inlaid Tray

Couroc Hand Inlaid Unicorn Serving Tray 18"x12"

Vintage "Three Partridges" Tray by Couroc of Montery Bay

Couroc Hopi Kachina Hummingbird Inlay Large Tray

vintage 1950s TRAY Presidential Coins Couroc of California

Vintage Couroc Southern California Serving Tray

SALE Vintage "Couroc" Small Roadrunner Trays

COUROC Capital Records Albums Promotional 60s Mad Men Era Drink Serving Tray

Do you have any of these adorable trays in your collection? Which one of the ones above would you most like to have? Do you have a certain thing that you started collecting in physical stores, and now have to hunt down online out of vintage product sparsity? Let's talk!

That's all for today-- I'll be back here tomorrow with more vintage tips and quips. Have a fabulous Monday and I'll see you then!