Monday, July 30, 2012

Catch me if you can, I'm going back....

 

Taking the summer off is a tradition with me.....I need time to plant and gather, and soak up some sun, and see the wide water of the planet.  I need to see the naked stars and the big moon.
It takes a lot of juice to charge me for the hard-working 9 months that are to come on .
there's changes a-brewing....there's lots of good vintage to come for the fall and winter and spring....and all my handmade projects are coming along...
The big debut will come about mid-August.
Catch me if you can....I'm going back.
But first ....let's take a mid-summer trip to Sugar Mountain...via the Neil Young Express.....

Oh, to live on Sugar Mountain ....With the barkers and the colored balloons,
You can't be twenty on Sugar Mountain....
 Though you're thinking that you're leaving there too soon, you're leaving there too soon.
It's so noisy at the fair
But all your friends are there
And the candy floss you had
And your mother and your dad.





Now you're underneath the stairs
And you're givin' back some glares
To the people who you met
And it's your first cigarette.


Now you say you're leavin' home
'Cause you want to be alone.
Ain't it funny how you feel
When you're findin' out it's real?
***************************************

HyperRust







Neil Young unofficial....place

Neil Young talks about his California ranch and the Bridge School

neil young 300x262 There Is Still a Town in North Ontario: Neil Young Plugged.






Neil Young’s 1959 Lincvolt Hybrid

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Traveling without leaving home....


the 1973 Winnebago was purchased to be our home.....but we need to search for great vintage goodies farther afield now...it's been that way for at least 5 years. Good stuff is not so much around Tacoma, and well, the good stuff is a diminishing supply. So travel we must.

....and I tell ya, it does feel weird to drive your home down the highway. I'm driving my bathroom, my kitchen, my dinette, my bedroom....down the highways and byways.
As we drive, we always get a lot of looks from other people driving....every time we stop for gas someone wants to chat, and when we pull up to the rv park, folks wanna talk about the Winnie.
It's fun!
I'm happy to talk about my mobile home. She's a sweetie.
Our last foray towards Portland allowed us to stay 2 days at the Sou'Wester lodge and vintage trailer park. It has been a "secret" place to stay for people who value experience over fancy and luxury...so it's perfect for people like Mark and me.




Now, under new ownership as they say, I was worried that it was gonna go the way of the Ace Hotel hipster hell bent for boring ass hipster cliche. But no!
I'm happy to report, the Sou'wester is still artfully down home, and it is slowly being cleaned up and all the deferred maintenance of the trailers and the grounds are being worked on and freshened up. And, uh, the Pacific Ocean !! is 3 blocks away....







While at first glance, the 'wester might seem like High Concept, and in other hands all would be lost....but it is still retaining its sweet lo-fi charm.
What should take center stage are the sturdy old simple buildings and the mid-century trailers....and they are the Center Stage...That big lodge building is so sweet and the decor is simple. They're sticking with the rustic and unassuming, and no taint of self-conscious hipster pre-packaged Anthropologie/Pottery Barn can be found anywhere.


Oh sure ...there's old typewriters, there's funky 70s Salvation Army decor, but on the whole, it feels real and it feels comfy. We were there in the middle of the week so we didn't attend the music or the other activities that are scheduled .....in...
AUGUST
Sat-August 4th – Flash Flood and The Dikes
Sat-August 11th -The Golden Bears. AND… Our First Vintage Travel Trailer and RV Classic.
Sat-August 18th – Joseph Appel (from Swing Papillon, AnnaPaul and the Bearded Lady, and the Clambake Combo).
Sat-August 25 – Old Light

I wish we could go back for this....  the Sou'wester is having their....
 FIRST VINTAGE TRAVEL TRAILER RALLY!..

  • August 10th, 11th and 12th. We are very excited to see some beautiful trailers and to meet the people who have taken so much care with them!
  • It should be a fun weekend. And we plan to have live music in Saturday night in the pavilion. There will be an Oyster Bar, a local vendor whose Willipa Bay oyster concoctions are amazing!
***************************************
Here's the perfect example of that hipster goofiness that the Sou'wester Has None Of....the way the Ace is over-the-top...and not in a good way....

so pretentious...





I should have taken more pics, but here's a few of the old girl herself....if the shots of the trailer interiors don't get your heart pumping....you must not like vintage !



 


Thursday, July 26, 2012

Summertime...right in the thick of it.

these have been on the turntable this week......here's a few vids to experience the aural and optical beauty that is soothing, and inspirational....and so very Summer....

and in between the songs are pictures of my garden right now....
the rainbow swiss chard is going strong...so damn tasty.










striped nasturtiums ....I love nasturtiums...so much reward for such a tiny bit of work...




relaxing with my thoughts in the back yard....




bright purple allium....a tall plant with a tiny head....
crazy !!
dusty miller yellow flowers in the back ground...










the side yard.... rusty gate, old pots, an old coffee can, big clay pots, the old tricycle, a few rusty junky water sprinklers...blue lobelia and a dark purple lily, and the johnny jump ups have gone wild.....and my little sassy kids horsey...he's losing parts but he retains his charm!








a tower of hot pink and red petunias....a few pink and coral geraniums and long trailing creeping charlie....
and a cracked pot of succulents....



in the background, an Autumn Joy sedum....those green flower buds will change to pink in the autumn, and then fade to rust...this is another joy! ;-)
and the daisy is a Magnus echinacea...so purple..and I love the big center orange cone!



Tuesday, July 24, 2012

the sweet pea ...Old Spice Mix



Lathyrus odoratus, Old Spice mix, is an  heirloom collection of the sweetest sweet peas ! These are loving growing up my cyclone fence. These are amazing ! Fragrant fragrant and oh so very fragrant flowers. I started them in late February, after enriching the soil with chicken manure. By July, most Sweet Peas are all done and over.
They took a while to start after sprouting....they seemed to just languish in March and April....then in May they really started growing.... I should have planted more...one pkg is pretty Scotch........I only got about a 4' run...but I'll grow this variety Old Spice, again and again. .....Look at the colors! A 2 tone purple cutie...


Bright pink in a mottled pattern....




 Mottled and rather ombre pink......these are so great !




 These are bright neon pink raspberry ! 
and lastly..... a blurry pink and white mottled sweet pea...
I'm telling ya....this is a great package...
I bought these locally, they're Territorial Seed Company, from Cottage Grove OR. Clicky this link for all the info you need to grow these beauties.....


Sunday, July 22, 2012

2 years ago. RIP JP Patches.

the very beloved JP Patches died today, July 22, 2012. I never saw the original show, but Mark loved it!  A man in a dress, a clown that lived in the city dump....that's when kids shows were just silly....
2 summers ago we saw JP at a car show in Fern Hill...a few years before that we saw him at a show at the Tacoma Dome, and that's when John became a Patches Pal. We did everything we could....
-----Here's a recap of our last time seeing JP. We loved him and his show....



Off we toddled to Fern Hill in south Tacoma to see Mr Patches. JP lived at the town dump, Gertrude wore a dress tho a man (even the kids knew that!) and well, for Mark, the rest is history...

So the Fern Hill car show was sweet... a few cars, some vendors...and JP PATCHES !! we couldn't get too close....he has many many fans! But we did wanna see him...he's quite old and may not be with us much longer...and he meant a lot to Mark, and I have grown to love him...JP And Mark (ha ha) in the years of growing moss here in PNW.
JP is a little hard to see...but he's next to the blue balloon.....just to the left of bald head man...

 
And again.........


Fern Hill is very cute.......Look there's Sonics Man...more of him later........

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Planet Moronica




Planet Moronica.*
The interwebz is full of so much shit that it is so hard to find what I actually want anymore. So many websites with nothing but garbage.

I was looking for info about Converse shoes and this gem popped up....OMG, I Dress Like My Kid ! 
... maybe it's me, and it usually is, but I dress like, either, a 14 year old boy in Cons, moccasins, jeans, t-shirt, sweater or trench coat......or I dress like I slept in my Stevie Nicks costume one day too many.

so, this gal, 
"One day when my son Eddie was 4, I got out of the car at preschool and realized that we were both wearing hoodies, Converse low-tops, jeans and T-shirts. My 36-year-old self and my toddler son were dressed identically."
And I'm thinking...SO WHAT.

yeah, so what? I dress for comfort. Are women still supposed to dress in high heels and pearls and a fake a smile everyday??  If dressing in boy's clothes is what you like, if you are comfortable, I say, Do It!  If dressing like 1952 is what makes you happy, well, same thing. do that.
I was forced to wear a dress to school every damn day of my life as a school girl until.....High School in 1970! yes, CAN  YOU IMAGINE?
You kids can wear anything you want....and us oldsters had to wear a dress (but not the guys, they got to wear pants!)



 anyhoo.......Sally goes on to say ," Unless you have exceptionally amazing hair, hair that would be criminal to cut short (think Maria Shriver), think twice about keeping its length much longer than your shoulders. Do you want dads at the park oggling those tresses from afar, only to get close and feel bummed that you're not 22. (Yes, you're gorgeous in your own way. But not in that 22-year-old way.)"
 Really?
I can't imagine why any married woman out at the park with her kid would give a flying turd what a dad-man thinks of her.  I guess this poor woman, Sally, has so little self-esteem, she is still dying for man-attention that she wants the eyeball of Any Man to give her his approval.

I find that sad.
I intend to continue to wear my hair long and gray...if I damn well want to, and if I disappoint a 22 year old boy, well, I guess I shall just run that risk.......
So Ladies, dress like you want. Even if you are 74 years old and dress like a clown. Be my guest.
so yeah, I find all the "how to dress for your age" advice ...mostly just sad and so old-fashioned. I like to dress for comfort, or to dress like it's Halloween!
If I actually had a real day job, or had to appear in court, I'd take advice from this sweet lady....the always sartorially sassy Trystan Bass.



and then there was this bit of advice about choosing a new hairdo. (I lost the link to the actual e-article, but trust me, it was dumb.)
It was a post about how to choose a hairdo. yes. Gee, I don't know how to pick a hairdo. I am a grown woman but I can't pick up a magazine at the grocery store??

I can't book an appointment with my hairdresser and ask Mr. Steve, "What length should I do now Mr. Steve? Should I go long or how about those blonde streaks all the ladies are doing now?"

I don't know how I arrived there, at that dumb lady-website, but it made me want to poke out my eyes... Who is that stupid?!?! Even a 5 year old can cut hair.....poorly, but still.
If you land on any blog aimed at women who have hair or wear clothes, you will regret your life when you read crap like this...Who writes this shit?? and gets paid??

BUT if you want to hear something cute tho....I suggest this! This 3 minute link of pure joy....goes to Cafemom, and it's an audio link to hear a dad asking his 2 girls How did this haircut happen? ;-)

*thanks to my smart husband for the Great Title!


Wednesday, July 18, 2012

A California thing?

I like to make up my own clothes....I sew them from scratch with patterns I make....if I buy something secondhand....I have no fear to whack sleeves off, or cut neckline ribbing off t-shirts, add a ruffle, hem or add darts, change buttons....So....I've been noticing this a lot...It's back !!!....Sleeves cut off denim jackets and shirts.......
I do this all the time...I'll decide I want one, and then 2 years later, I donate, and then the next year I want a denim vest or sleeveless denim shirt and then it's back to the thrift to buy one, and whack whack whack.


and since your dad was hip before you were hip.....dads are the original hipsters wearing his jean jacket vest

Your dad wore a sleeveless jean jacket before you did and he’s got the homemade vest to prove it. Upon body diving into his denim street war suit, the sleeves of his pants jacket rage-sploded into a million awesome pieces. His arms were like Thor’s hammer because they delivered thunder-punches with the power of the heavens and burst through all fabrics that tried to contain them. His upper-body version of jorts also advertised his lady holders, which drew your mom to his side. 

So hipsters, next time you’re knife deep in a seam of your Levi’s sleeve and you’re dreaming of how “badass” you will look with exposed arms, remember this… 

You dad was sans-sleeves because they were just another thing in life that couldn’t contain the fury of manhood that he was. 

Thanks to Big-Things on tumblr for today’s killer photo.


I was bloghopping and noticed it a lot ! here's  a few pics...and 99% are California. I think I'm influenced by California's own, The Hells Angels. yeah, that's it.


Hells Angels San Bernadino....... 


What really happened in Hollister, July 6, 1947– what the San Francisco Chronicle called the worst 40 hours in the history of a town?


aubrianalauryn san francisco street fashion style

cute girls and a  denim vest , all from Fashionist


kelly san francisco street fashion style


more....
 bleached out denim vest with a dress and really tall heels....

 blue denim vintage distressed vest jean jacket

and a super bad ass dyed and studded denim vest from Australia's Big Bad Wolf



oh no no no no....the sleeves cut off - Yes !  cut the pockets off...bitch please!

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

to whom do you belong?


 rainbows
I have thought about sending photos to silly blogs like LOLCats,  or Awkward Family Photos...or other places on teh interwebz....but I never have and here's why.
when you send pix to these kind of websites, you most often give up all rights to the picture. If you don't understand elementary copyright laws, you could permanently lose your family picture! A corporation could make thousands of dollars off your silly picture, and there would be nothing you could do to stop it....or get any of that nice money !
But, you can make your own cards, your own tote bags...etc. Spoonflower, prints your fabric designs and never takes your copyright.....or ..... FabricOnDemand, doesn't take your copyright either.
I think, you should set up your own store, and market your own pictures with a company like Zazzle. Got a fantastic picture? A cute cat pic? A funny picture of you during your gawky phase? Why not make coffee mugs, tote bags, Tshirts, etc etc etc yourself? And make the money off your efforts!
Zazzle does not take your copyright from you....but it reserves the right to use it forever to promote Zazzle. 

 

That's what I do, and will be doing it even more in the future. Will I make any money? Maybe. maybe not. But here's what I do know. I Own My Pictures. I'm Not Giving Away Something Fantastic to someone else so they can make the money off my efforts because I am an Artist.


 I had a ball sponsoring fully illegal, I'm sure, private parties at my downtown store. I gave it away. It was fun. Everyone had a good time.....and since the City of Tacoma wasn't doing a damn thing to help any of the business downtown while the city tore up our whole neighborhood, destroying several small business and causing heartache and bitterness.........I decided to make something fun while my store was ruined....
Sell, or Give it Away.......This is the same issue as pirated movies and stolen music. This is a different issue from an artist or musicians like Grateful Dead that encouraged tapes of shows to be traded among fans....this is different from those artists that give away art like Beautiful Angle, or musicians and business that give away good stuff as a strategy....
If you know exactly what you are doing, you can give your efforts away....and I do give a lot away...but there is a lot I put out there for sale. As I have time in the future, I'll do free tutorials and turn you on to free public domain artwork...
When you take from an artist, or take "content" or "materials" from someone and don't fairly pay for it, you are starving the artist!
That's no different for paying for a carpenter to remodel your kitchen, no different from paying for a meal  at your favorite cafe.
Artists work too!
For instance, Awkward Family Photos takes your "content" or "materials" and keeps them forever and makes money off your picture for ever. For..Ever. And you lose your family picture. For..Ever. AWF doesn't say they take your copyright....it sure looks like it though. ...since they give you very damn little (a book or a calender they send you as "payment"), a court will most likely rule you gave it up. Forever. LOLcats (ICanHazCheezburger), says they don't keep your copyright, and neither do many other companies. Be sure to always read the tiny print.....
FOREVER.Here's the Terms from Awkward Family Photos "

Terms of Use Agreement

By uploading any photographs, videos, and/or written materials including, without limitation, captions and stories (collectively, “My Materials”), I certify and acknowledge that I wholly own My Materials or have the sole and exclusive right to permit Awkward Family, LLC and its parents, members, managers, directors, shareholders, partners, representatives, subsidiaries, affiliates, sponsors, successors, assigns, heirs and licensees (collectively, “you” or “your”) to use, edit, publish and otherwise exploit My Materials and my name in connection with My Materials without obligation or liability to me or any other party whatsoever.
I hereby grant to you the non-exclusive, irrevocable and unconditional right to describe, relate, publish and/or exploit My Materials in such manner as you shall elect, in whole or in part, on your websites and in print and electronic form or in any other media now or hereafter known or devised (including without limitation, books), and in related products and services in connection with any exploitation thereof (including but not limited to clothing, bumper stickers, mugs, toys, posters and other printed materials, and any related promotion and advertising of such items), throughout the universe in perpetuity, and in any advertising, promotion and publicity related thereto.  I agree that you shall have the right to edit, change, add to, take from, rearrange, vary, embellish, alter, modify, revise, translate, reformat and/or reprocess My Materials in any manner you may in your sole discretion determine and to use them as you in your sole discretion may determine and to make derivative works of the same, in whole or in part, without notifying me and without obligation to me; and I waive any right to inspect or approve the final display or other exploitation of My Materials now or in the future, whether that use is known to me or unknown, and I waive any right to royalties or any other compensation arising from or related to the use of My Materials."

Sunday, July 15, 2012

I see....you see...





Listed in my etsy shop, these amazing vintage glasses have been quite popular....with tons of looks and hearts...It reminds me a bit of the classic early ebay picture of the naked man reflected in his copper tea pot he'd posted for sale....if you look in the right lens, you can see my legs reflected....and between my house and my neighbors, a little slice of my vintage Winnebago.





wanna see more vintage sunglasses? all shapes and sizes....