bean me up Scotty

If it has leather and a buckle I'm
probably wearing it......
I have worn out a few pairs of LLBean boots...a few pair of lace-up calf high boots, and most recently ..a pair of LLBean mocs that I wore for the few years I gardened pro-style on the water for the Rich People.
I just passed them on to a thrift, so the next person could buy them for a couple of dollars and have the rubber replaced for about 25 bucks. Yes, these are items that are Fixed. Repaired. To wear again.


This is a weird concept in the throw-away culture that has boomed in the last 25 years. I'm glad I'm old enough to know what life used to be like...and I'm thrilled to see the very beginning of a turn-back to the ways of buying quality and not spending every penny on crap clothing.
Of course, giving you excellent quality things is what funkoma vintage is all about. I don't deal in the stupid fast fashion......Every item I deal in ...has to be something good!







I'm a classic-sturdy-quality-tomboy clothes nerd.
I love rubber, and stitching and leather, and canvas, and rawhide, and denim and wool, and tweed and corduroy.....I adore these:
But these are really my LLBean Boot heartthrobs........




So can you imagine my delight when I found these a few days ago?
a LLBean boot with a belted buckle across the vamp.



I love them better than the lace up kind or the mocs...and I lurve them.......

Maine Hunting Shoe
L.L.Bean Inc.
Freeport,ME.
I don't know exactly how old this style is...that resembles an Engineer or motorcycle boot....I'm gonna guess 80s or 90s tho.
And that's the deal with The Classics.

Because the style changes very little over time, it can be hard to date.
At the very bottom of this post is a little video to watch of the real LLBean factory right here in the USA.



LLBean is one of the many labels I always buy......because I'm trying to raise the level of usability and do it with style........
The Pacific Northwest, the West Coast has its own style......
Oh sure these are from Maine...a shoe factory in PNW? Quite a few along the West Coast tho.......Magdesians, Kimel, Fleuvog.......West Coast Shoe Company, Nike...er not.

But Danner in Portland will recraft their fine boots just like LLBean.......



These LLBean shoes are so darn cute.....they have everything I love in sweeeet footwear....quality name and materials....cute cute cute overload style....
rubber and leather......just what a gal needs for a rainy Pacific Northwest day..

and bonus...pick your favorite colorway....here's just 3 choices......


These Coffee and Chocolate are my faves.........

Zombie Zombie Zombie

When Night of The Living Dead played at the drive-in in Napa, I was 14. It was a hot summer night and my friends and I sat outside the car on a blanket with plenty of candy, popcorn and beer!

About halfway thru the movie I wanted back inside the car...it was dark and who know what the hay was wandering around the black night...

Not only that, but my boyfriend kinda resembled that ^^^ tall blonde guy with the Buddy Holly glasses...

A 1968 film directed by George A. Romero...so ...who knew it was gonna become such a favorite family film...
ha.

I saw this weird fabric at the fabric store...and I had to possess it...possess it ....like eat its brains...and I made some leggings and I wore my pair of black....



but for more zombie goodness on etsy...just click...

9-9-9 and my alley is being flattened ...

and rolled and graded and the rumor is....Asphalt will be laid on 9-10 & 9-11...huzzah! then we'll see if the rain drain into my building and my neighbors will stop...oh boy did the Passages bldg get swamped....6 inches of water soaked many businesses...lawyer's office among 'em....Blueprints, legal papers, carpets ...soaked almost halfway from the back wall to the front...most water stopped seeping about halfway....everyone on my side got some damage from the rains since August 10th.
update with pics tomorrow...

Sale ! 10 Years of Selling Online!

Wow! how did that happen?
went by soooo fast. Well, free shipping in the US and Canada and half off International postage....for 2 days, September 6 and 7, Pacific time US.
refund by Paypal or by arrangement.

Here's a tiny sample of what's in my etsy shop....

Mad About You...

I confess...I don't actually watch Mad Men...(I'm taking a break from TV)
tho I will go rent the DVD collections...they are out aren't they?

I MadMen'd myself...click to go to the AMC website and give yourself an e-makeover......because it's fun to see myself in the corporate world (as if) and in the corporate world in the 60s!

I remember them very well...oh sure I was in elementary school, but I was a precocious kid. The show is shocking in its realistic portrayal of that time period...it's a bit dizzying.
In those years, my older sister Pat was a single mom and a secretary for a construction company...what a come down after being a cheerleader at her San Jose high school, and marrying/divorcing the football star!
but I digress.


I chose an up-do, because I'd wear that at work. A purple dress, tight of course. A pendant necklace, a birdy pin (I have a bird-fetish). My glasses. A Martini. A newspaper. A cigarette. Sign of the times.

So, what is so cool about the early 60s? Honestly, it was probably the last gasp of the idea that All Was Perfect. It was an era before War Was Bad, because WWII was good...defeating the Nazi's was SupahGood!
Feminism hadn't started brainwashing everyone into hating Men. Equality was starting to Speak Up, modeled on Dr. Martin Luther King, et al, and the all things seemed possible, tho not without pain and some agony for the Old Guard (racists/sexists).

Fashion was becoming clean-lined...a lot of the fruffy-ness of the 50s sexpot-babydoll was fading and a cool confidence in simplicity was coming along.
It was a transitional time...a time much like the Obama Years...we are moving to a more modern world...a world of changing values where we want The Good Life, but we want it smarter and moral.

It's no accident that Michelle Obama wears clean-lined clothes...sheaths, simple flats, small precise necklaces...and the suits the President wears...Smooooooove.
Rewearing vintage makes Perfect Sense! I love all eras, but the lines, the handwork and detail still done during the 60s, and the exquisite quality and fun, quirky fabrics, such as silk and fine-textured cotton sateens of 60s clothing really seem to fit the mood of the times....

take a look:





All of these 60s fashions are in my etsy shop, along with a sweet little selection of 60s patterns. All this week and thru Labor Day...I'll be adding more 60s. Mad Men is about working in a corporate office, doing the daily labor ...and looking Good!

When I Think of You ST, I think Nasty ...

always happy to see someone cares about a Lovely Tacoma...a Tacoma that works well...and why does it always take an outsider group? Why can't government employees/politicians get with the Pretty+Functional program ?

A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. Margaret Mead

oh, right.

meeting tonight...

Do It Right Tacoma

Join us the Anti-Berm group at our next information meeting. and tour. Tomorrow, Wednesday, August 26th, 5:00, 402 East 26th, Tacoma 98421 in the Dome District. Short meeting scheduled at 5:00 p.m., so it won't conflict with other evening plans.... Please join and show your support, bring friends and family members, and spread the word about this event.
anyway, when I think of The Berm...I think of this...



Nasty Berm...I used to live there, I drive there all the time....a berm is nasty...
Look ...

now if they would just turn it into a lovely always-maintained park...a community Pea Patch...I could support it...maybe.
Long Live Post and Beam!!!

Hey You Get Off My Cloud

Hey Tacoma !
Thanks for all you are doing...
Here's your song of the day.
Russell Employees and anyone in a suit or pantyhose, I suggest you play this song LOUD.
Now. At Work. You have nothing to lose. My next post will be about the Parking Ordinance the City Council will consider. They want to tax your mother when she comes to visit ...
You won't get this perspective on Exit 133.
enjoy...
....I was sick and tired, fed up with this
And decided to take a drive downtown
It was so very quiet and peaceful
There was nobody, not a soul around
I laid myself out, I was so tired and I started to dream
In the morning the parking tickets were just like
A flag stuck on my window screen....




GET OFF OF MY CLOUD
(M. Jagger/K. Richards)

I live in an apartment on the ninety-ninth floor of my block
And I sit at home looking out the window
Imagining the world has stopped
Then in flies a guy who's all dressed up like a Union Jack
And says, I've won five pounds if I have his kind of detergent pack

I said, Hey! You! Get off of my cloud
Hey! You! Get off of my cloud
Hey! You! Get off of my cloud
Don't hang around 'cause two's a crowd
On my cloud, baby

The telephone is ringing
I say, "Hi, it's me. Who is it there on the line?"
A voice says, "Hi, hello, how are you
Well, I guess I'm doin' fine"
He says, "It's three a.m., there's too much noise
Don't you people ever wanna go to bed?
Just 'cause you feel so good, do you have
To drive me out of my head?"

I said, Hey! You! Get off of my cloud
Hey! You! Get off of my cloud
Hey! You! Get off of my cloud
Don't hang around 'cause two's a crowd
On my cloud baby

I was sick and tired, fed up with this
And decided to take a drive downtown
It was so very quiet and peaceful
There was nobody, not a soul around
I laid myself out, I was so tired and I started to dream
In the morning the parking tickets were just like
A flag stuck on my window screen

I said, Hey! You! Get off of my cloud
Hey! You! Get off of my cloud
Hey! You! Get off of my cloud
Don't hang around 'cause two's a crowd
On my cloud

Hey! You! Get off of my cloud
Hey! You! Get off of my cloud
Hey! You! Get off of my cloud
Don't hang around, baby, two's a crowd