Christmas Happenings are Afoot.

And all of a sudden, it’s December.

The magic of Christmas has crept in. The house is filled with the smell of vanilla & pine, A Charlie Brown Christmas is on heavy rotation, and the halls have been decked. We’ve kept it pretty simple with decorations – a small white Christmas tree tricked out with trolls and twinkly lights, a creepy santa head, and a little spahkle & glittah are sprinkled here and there.  Perhaps Kitschmas is a better word for what’s happening around here.

This month I’ll be wrapping gifts (my favorite!), watching Emmet Otter’s Jug Band Christmas, drinking spiked hot chocolate, watching Scrooged, wearing fuzzy socks, turning off the lights and staring at the tree, and making the yuletide gay. Just kidding! You can’t make the yuletide gay, it was born that way.

And I’ll definitely be listening to this.

This album will make you laugh, cry, and cringe. Just like the holidays should. Here’s a little taste for your ears.

xoxo, ho, ho, ho.

Posted in christmas, decorations, john waters // Add a Comment

Vintage Finds and the Woeful Ennui of a 1930’s Homemaker.

If you know me, and I think you do, you are aware that I’m often popping in to estate sales, thrift stores, and fleamarkets, searching for treasures and a ruddy bargain or two. It’s my strange addiction.  Here’s what I nabbed over the past few months.

Sip N’Smoke ashtray from Oddfellows.

Oh how I miss the days when smoking wasn’t bad for you. You could drive around in your car with the windows rolled up, your kid strapped in the backseat (or not strapped, because seat belts weren’t really important back then), and smoke away without a care in the world. Sound familiar mom & dad? Just kidding! [cough cough]. Really though, why hasn’t someone invented a healthy cigarette yet? I’m not talking about that e-cigarette garbage, I’m talking about real cigarettes, but instead of  nicotine they’re full of ginseng or some shit? A smoke-able multi vitamin. Can someone please get on that? I could really go for a non-cancerous sip n’ smoke.

Speaking of cancer sticks…  I found this ash tray at Oddfellows as well, but gifted it to my friend Tiffany for her birthday. One can only have so many unusable, yet adorable ashtrays in their home.

Let’s talk about these crazy-sexy-cool poodles.

I went to an estate sale put on by Vogue Vintage for a family who collected e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. Ceramic garden bunnies? They had fifty. Wicker baskets? Probably a hundred. Christmas teddy bears? This is where they went to die. It was impressive and horrifying all at the same time. Not only did they have every shot glass and ceramic bell ever made, they also had a large collection of pink spaghetti poodles. I’ve often admired spaghetti poodles at antique stores, but they’re usually too expensive for me. Lucky for me, this one was priced to go. A few weeks ago, I came across the white Japanese poodle at Oddfellows, and having an inherent soft spot for weird poodle figurines, I couldn’t pass him up.  It has real fur, which ironically feels nothing like that of a poodle.

Back in July I bought these two tropical print serving trays for $2 at the annual Royal Oak Garage Sale. They were marked $5 for the set, but when I handed the seller my cash, she said “Oh, these should be $2″. And who was I to argue? They are perfect for outdoor parties.

Don’t they remind you of something Joyce from Edward Scissorhands would use for serving her ambrosia salad?

Ask anyone who interacts with me on the regular and they will attest that my sole mission for the past 5 years has been to find a small, mid-century, stacking record player console. My requirements are as follows – must work – must stack – must be small – must be mid-century – must not be a million dollars. And did you know? They’re about as easy to find as a tap dancing unicorn. Every now and again I’d find one on ebay, but it would be in Texas or Florida, or I’d find one around here that was in bad shape or a million dollars. I decided to pop into Vogue Vintage one day, and the owner mentioned that he rented out a small 1955 RCA Victor to the Rattlesnake Club for a mad-men themed party. He said it would be back in the store in a week. So a week went by, I popped in, and lo and behold, it was perfect! And small! And affordable! And…. broken. Womp, womp. He sent it off to his repairman, told me to call back in a week, I called back, it wasn’t fixed yet, he told me to call back in three days, I called back, it wasn’t fixed yet, yada yada. That went on for several weeks and was kind of excruciating. But due to the powers of blogging, BAM. Here she is, all shined up and in my living room.

Hello, record player of my dreams!

I found this 1960’s Saltillo blanket at Lost & Found Vintage in Royal Oak.

The colors are beautiful and it’s very soft, but I have no idea what to do with it. Hang it on the wall? Drape it across the back of a chair? Make an outfit for Celia?

I just showed her these pictures and she was unimpressed.

I picked up a stack of Good Housekeeping magazines from the 1930’s for two dollars a piece at the Royal Oak Garage Sale.

I found some AMAZING articles. And by amazing, I mean sexist and horrible.

In an article titled How to be a Swell Wife, I found this golden nugget of advice:

Nothing more thrilling than marriage, eh? And these tidings of encouragement:

Thank God I’ve been able to hold my job based on sentiment and sex and not had to rely on sheer efficiency. I mean, can you even?!

And this barf-a-thon:

Can someone explain to me what sanitary belts are? Wait, never mind.

Ladies! Prove you are wise by washing your face properly!

At least these chauvinistic texts look nice on my coffee table and provide for entertaining discourse at parties.

Oh, olden times. You so crazy.

xoxo

Posted in chauvinism, gender roles, good housekeeping, oddfellows, saltillo, sexism, spaghetti poodle, thrift store, thrifting, vintage, vogue vintage // Add a Comment

Shop Update and a Sale!

Here we are, the eve of Thanksgiving already. I’ve got a busy weekend planned and can’t wait to kick off my holiday shopping at some local shops for Small Business Saturday (and then of course Cyber Monday, because who are we kidding?).

Here’s a peak at some new prints in my Shop. Perhaps you’ll find the perfect gift for a friend or family member or a little something for yourself.  Oh go ahead, you deserve it. To kick off the holiday shopping weekend, I’m offering blog readers 15% off their entire purchase through Saturday November 30th, 2013! Just use coupon code Thanks2014 at checkout.

If you have an online shop of your own, or a favorite handmade shop, feel free to leave a link in the comments. I love hearing about new handmade Detroit area shops too! Let me know your favorites!

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday and stuff your faces to the max! I’ll be back next week to share my latest vintage finds.  I nabbed some gooooood stuff, dudes.

Posted in coupon, discount, etsy, france, holiday, paris, photography, prints, shop, shop handmade, shop local // Add a Comment

God Save the Film

The above photographs were taken with my 50 year old Polaroid Land Camera and the incomparable Fuji 3000B instant pack film. I’ve worked with more breeds of instant film than you can shake a stick at – color, black & white, sepia, high speed, low speed, Polaroid, Impossible Project, but the Fuji 3000B film is by far my favorite. The contrast and grain is absolutely lovely, and the images always turn out the perfect amount of dreamy. The high speed of the film lends itself well to a multitude of lighting conditions and the 15 second development time is particularly handy when shooting on the move, as I most often am.

On 11/14/13, Fujifilm announced the following via email from a USA rep:

“Please be advised that FP-3000B is being discontinued, as a result of decreases in world-wide global demand. We know that the discontinuation of a well-loved and long established product can be difficult to adjust to. We appreciate your interest in this product, and will be reporting your comments.”

I’m devastated. This film is the meat and potatoes to the instant photography world. It’s the Adobe Suite to graphic designers. It’s the cast iron skillet to chefs. It’s the Zildjian china trash to drummers (thanks Mike D!).  I won’t let it go without a fight. So please, if you have a moment,  sign this petition to save this instant film and spread the word. Will it do anything? I don’t know, but it certainly can’t hurt.

xoxo

Posted in black and white, fp-3000b, fuji300B, instant film, photography, polaroid // Add a Comment

Halloween, Thirteen

Halloween was one week ago today, and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t suffering from a little post-holiday depression. October is always a whirlwind of Halloween festivities. This year I attended Theatre Bizarre, Creepy Cheapy (an amazing annual costume party where Detroit musicians put on costumed covers of their favorite bands), a haunted forest in Detroit, High and Haunted Tea with a tea leaf reading from a psychic medium at The Whitney, and a night of tribute bands at The Loving Touch on Halloween night in which Vince Neil spilled a drink all over my skirt *swoons*. But perhaps the most fun event of the season was my annual Halloween party, co-hosted with my partner in crime, Mish. We’ve held the party at Exodos bar in Greektown for the past seven years, but this year we tried out a new venue – The Berkley Front.

I made a mug shot style photo backdrop out of a flat white sheet, black electrical tape, and vinyl sticky numbers. We placed a table of photo-booth props next to the backdrop (severed limbs, mustaches, a megaphone, etc.) and encouraged everyone to take pictures and hashtag their photos #cleotilda13.

Sidebar – Cleotilda is the name of a terrifying Halloween prop that we display at our party every year. Bearing the likeness of a young dead girl in a soiled nightgown, her eyes light up green and she snarls at anyone who comes near. This year, our good friend Annie dressed as Cleotilda, winning best costume of the night for the second year in a row!

Here are some shots from my phone that night.

We handed out prizes for the best costumes, we Thrillered, we Time Warped, and we danced until we were dead.

We returned the following day to pick up our decorations and found this note from the bar.

I couldn’t agree more! Thank you so much to The Berkley Front for being awesome.

PS: Eleanor wasn’t able to attend the party, but she insisted on dressing up. Here she is as Sexy Satan and a Cobra Kai.

Only 358 days until Halloween!

xoxo

Posted in berkley front, costume, halloween, party // Add a Comment