The Earth loves a Vintage Wedding.......

Of course you should choose a vintage wedding dress...

because it's better to use what is already here, better to use what comes from a local source, better to think about the disposal problem...I know...but you are a GrownUp now!

vintage and handmade wedding ideas here at etsy

you know me...I like marriage so much...I did it twice.
I think everyone should have the right to marry...
the old joke: Everyone should have the opportunity to be miserable like the rest of us !!
(ha ha)
But seriously, marriage takes work and a pretty wedding takes some pretty stuff.........
My 2 weddings were all diy...1st one made my dress (duh) of natural crinkle gauze (duh) from India and I embroidered pretty flowers all over it, and made a matching shirt for the groom (duh)

The second wedding was an elopement affair because I was under too much pressure to invite/feed/entertain/mollify about a 100 people and I was not up to it. (everybody will tell you what to do...few will actually help)

Traveling to San Francisco to be married at City Hall in 1997, my second wedding dress was a lacy antique silk slip that was mostly falling apart..
I made that into the mini skirt, then for the blouse I used a 70s faux Victorian blouse that I remodeled ....
I wore some new/edwardian style shoes....and paired it up with my favorite leather jacket. I was hot! Mark wore a thrift store linen suit, with a bright blue shirt and a vintage pink/blue tie and 2 tone Saddle shoes.
Vintage sunglasses of course.
The pics are packed away.....after my big move I'll copy them and post them for you all to laugh at.

So....a Vintage Wedding Dress?
I always buy pretty white dresses for my shop and I adore vintage lingerie for the bride. A bride and groom should indulge themselves (sensibly) for their wedding and honeymoon, because soon enough, it won't be about just you 2. There is real life.

Right now I have these on etsy:
a loverly Emma Domb from the early 60s...it is tailored in the front and girly on the back! I love love love the deep back and the bows.








Going more Bohemian?

70s crinkle gauze with sheer lace. This is ethereal and fairy.







Like the tailored look? Classic ivory wool boucle set by Tina Hagen.

Decorating and living with found stuff.......

Decay is inevitable......and quite charming.....
so, it's funny when someone who has had her life handed to her on a silver platter....talks about "process"...and "growth"
Puh--leeeez. Shut. Up. What has this got to do with Tacoma.......99% of Tacoma looks like Grey Gardens without the trust fund and rich relatives....we're on the High Wire without a net.........
Clicky here for a swell slideshow....
I thought we'd like to visit Grey Gardens again....



I first read about this strange movie/documentary in the SF Chronicle just after it was released in 1975. I immediately identified with little edie for many reasons....the wardrobe manipulations were certainly familiar to me......but I had even back then the sneaky feeling that I was caught in a trap......a trap that I am just now pulling my head and the rest of me out of.....finally, just in time for Depression 2.0
so yes, life is weird. And well the theme is biblical...Ruth...and certainly Shakespeare..and Dickensian. the theme of a Life Lost ...a dream denied...so Tacoma. So often.

Vintage clothes larger than Paris Hilton....

I am asked all the time...Why is vintage so small?
well, Victoria, people were generally tinier back in the old
days....they did more stuff that burned more calories and let's
not forget the food shortages because
of the war years and a Depression. Smaller people = smaller clothes.
Today, we have vitamins in our food, and in water that comes in plastic bottles.
We have food that has 12,000 calories per teaspoon, and that makes a bigger human.
Now,my people were hardy short and wide peasant stock from Eastern Europe, when they
weren't dipping into the Mediterranean gene pool...also tending to be shorter rather than taller....
The larger ladies want fancy dresses....I have some of those coming up soon.
I mostly have the Daily Dress...the marketing, the car-pool, the casual lunch with the girls...all cute, but not a party dress.
I am sorry about this...but larger sizes tend to be the Day Dress ....clothes were expensive compared to today's bargain shopping at "CheapNess Is A Virtue Corporate Chain Store"......du jour.
Here is a lovely selection in my etsy shop, for your perusal, all starting at 40" bust and up.
60s blue plaid day dress....


70s shift with white soutache....


60s paisley shirtdress....


60s sailor girl shift...


60s daisy dress....


40s XL suit jacket...



50s Sweater dress with beads and pockets ! Wow !

Housing in Tacoma

it still ain't cheap enough. I've been busy but I was following the comment thread over at EX133 (my nickname)for this: Metro City Homes Up for .........and I LOL'd at this --Is “Tjorax O’Tool” T’OT’s Swedish cousin?

23 | Posted by jamie from thriceallamerican | Apr 6, 07:59 AM

and generally I wanted to say I agree with thorax (Tjorax) and Crenshaw...I've been saying for years...

Building those condos is stupid. They don't appeal, as Crenshaw said @52...Tacoma is boring for folks that will spend 350,000 for a condo. Tacoma is boring, period.
so, my major housing rant in the last 6 years or so has been that there is not enough housing for the poor, the lower income workers, and the lower-than-middle-income families.

What should have been built downtown is a mix of high end with lower end prices with family-type services encouraged like:
Grocery stores, daycare, small department stores, doctor/dentist offices/doc-in-a-box, affordable movie house, movie rentals..........you get my drift.
Those things families (and others) use all day/everyday.
Families do not spend their nights out drinking and dining at El Groucho. I do, but this isn't about me(yet).

Imagine if every single empty condo (How smart is it to name your condo MTCondos....say it out loud)........
if every single empty condo was filled with a family....
Rent or buy. The economic dribble would be huge....

All those pizzas. All those diapers. All those impulse purchases.
I see this around Staydumb Thriftway n'hood where there is more of a mix.
Singles can live downtown. I'm downtown almost everyday, weekends too. It's pretty quiet. Not enough to do. Not enough entertainment. 80% of people who come thru my store are just looking....looking for something to do. Very few buy. But they could if they wanted to!

I know what the City Council was trying to do........Get rich people downtown to spend money. Give them free taxes.......
Pay them to come here. Gee, sounds so desperate.
If condos were built at a price of 100 grand to 200 grand with formica countertops.....downtown would be busy busy busy right now, instead of the ghost town it has been for the last 30 years.
I blame the City Council for toxic governing or lack thereof.
Good Urban Design is more than sidewalks vs cars.....
It's more than condo vs house....

I shop mostly at Albertsons at 38/Pacific. Businesses on every corner and around the block.
IT is BUSY there!
Why?
Affordable housing surrounds that corner.
Great public transportation too.
And a liquor store.

It's a Mary Maxim world...

I hate sweaters.....I love sweaters.........
I hate them because 99.99999% of them are ugly. Like face-thru-a-windshield ugly.
I love them because they can be sexy and have rhinestones.

I look at racks and boxes of sweaters and I think:"I can't believe someone has a job designing this crap."

Therefore, I buy really ugly and really weird sweaters and cut them up or shrink them to make other things from them. It's transformative. It's like Sweater Karma where you go Up the levels of enlightenment....I am a goddess....I control Sweater Lives.

So, I love Mary Maxim graphical sweaters...they always tell a story...and they are hand knit. I can't knit, so I admire those who do. I can't walk a tightrope, so I admire those who do.........You get my drift.

Mary Maxim produced charts for knitters to follow while knitting...these became very popular in the 50s and 60s.They are not Cowichan sweaters which are made by members of First Nation tribes... the Cowichan band of Coast Salish.
There are also Brown Buffalo Canadian sweaters...but back to Mary Maxim...
Welcome to Mary Maxim…
...the largest mail order merchandiser of exclusive needlework and craft kits in North America now offering secure internet ordering on the world wide web. Mary Maxim began with hand knit designs in the early 1950s. Influenced by the beautiful wildlife in North America, Mary Maxim designed bulky outdoor zippered jackets to knit using the first easy-to-follow graph-style charts created.

Here's some on etsy right now !
a kids fawn sweater (so Bambi!!)

clickable links, and click the pics for a better view......

McYarnpants has a keychain...

Fishing with a creel!
etsy seller yellowdogvintage



Hound Dog...from etsy seller FastEddiesRetroRags.....



Mallards that button (they usually have a big zipper)
from etsy seller vintagerevolver



and this Killing the Pheasant...I love the knitted gun and shells!
from etsy seller VargasVintage.......you have to click her link because the pic is quite large......but it is so worth it........

I Want A Dress

My Mother's Day dress is this:


a moment to chat about Mother's Day, May 10, 2009
hint hint hint hint........

In 1907, Mother's Day was first celebrated in a small, private way by Anna Marie Jarvis in Grafton, West Virginia, to commemorate the anniversary of her mother's death two years earlier on May 9, 1905. Jarvis's mother, named Anna Maria Reeves Jarvis, had been active in Mother's Day campaigns for peace and worker's safety and health since end of American Civil War.
Back to the Dress.........
It's a knockoff of a Balenciaga design circa early 60s. At first I was gonna do it in the turquoise in long sheer sleeves. Turq is a good color for me, and I do not need one more black dress....right now.
But the more I think about it, the more I will likely eliminate the sleeves .....I'm choosing a washable fabric even tho the dress must have facings and interfacings, but at least the crinoline that comes with, is detachable. Of course you knew that a big bubble skirt like that would need a custom crinni.......


I don't know the exact year and collection because I haven't done That much research...but I did find this one at Doyle's Auctions......
Lot 1094
Balenciaga Chine Bubble Cocktail Dress
French, circa 1960
Of silk taffeta, black ground with warp print red roses, camisole bodice with wide shoulder straps gathered at front, trimmed with two horizontal self bands at empire and waistline concluding in bow at center front, gathered skirt with revealed harem hem net over tulle underskirt, tulle lining with silk gauze hem.


Born in 1885 in Guetaria, Spain,Cristobal Balenciaga opened his first boutique in 1913 in Spain and moved to Paris in 1937. He retired in 1968 and died soon after. He dressed the European royals, High society women and our first lady, Jackie Kennedy. Balenciaga invented the modern styles we now take for granted including the chemise dress, that we now call the shift, the baby doll with it's sheer lace flounced tent over a slim underdress, the balloon skirt, the cocoon coat revived from the teens and 20s, and the revived Empire line in the 1950s.

Hi Blog, Hi Faithful Readers...I can hear you breathing...

I haven't posted anything anywhere lately...I have been super busy with work aka.....The Shop, and listing stuff on feebay and etsy, and selling so that keeps me busy. And..........we're moving !
We have been cleaning out a basement apartment and I just gave my landlord notice, so it is really gonna happen! Moving is a pain! But the good news is...I get to do that Spring clean I was telling you about...oh wait I didn't ...... So, Basement apartment. It's a little over 300 square feet. tiny eh?
Well, with the shop I don't need much living space.
I love living in a weird space, and my apt overlooking the Tacoma Dome was swell, except for the rats living in the garden and the filthy people who drop their garbage all over, and the last flippin' straw was.
BRITNEY BITCH !!
There were 10,000 idling cars after BRITNEY BITCH and her concert (that lasted all of 45 minutes!!!) (I know...girls were returning to their cars at 10:46 pm !!)
So my apt overlooking the Tacoma Dome filled up with car exhaust and it was stinky as hell for 2 days. Not to mention my screaming f'n headache.
So I am ready to go. Every time there is a concert here, my apt. fills up with exhaust from all those people who drive to the Dome, because there is no public transportation.
No city bus. No Sounder. No Greyhound. nothing. nada. Must Drive SUV !!

My digs keep getting smaller and smaller. That's fine. In about 2 years Mark and I will blow this Pop Stand and do something else. Fuck, we might even move to Seattle!!
So I will update you on the cleaning the decorating and the special problems and solvings we must do to move in. Let's tag it: Something From Nothing.
There is a bathroom but no kitchen sink....yet. No counters. No storage. No stove. No w/d. No refrigerator. The ceilings are 15 feet tall though. It's an Art Project. An experiment in guerilla squatting in a space that did not cost 350,000 dollars. But we will have granite counters. It will be fun!
Here is a pic of my former home on N. 21st.


Happy Easter. Thanks for killing Jesus, and rolling away the stone. Yes, let's Live Again and be happy for Second Chances.