I make stuff....many people like it...

Just saying...because when you spend your day and many many middle of the nights, thinking and making, and then someone buys what you Dreamed and Made....well, it sets the world spinning on greased grooves.
I have been playing around with bloomers since I was a wee one...they just fascinated me...so different from modern underwear...bloomers are big and baggy and not form-fitting. Made to be worn under a full skirt.

When I was in Junior High....
we wore tight girdles to keep the stockings up...tights were around and I certainly wore those....and then exclusively after awhile. But as a grown-up I played around with vintage stockings and garters and garter belts and girdles once I moved to Washington.
It's a matter of Cold.



In a screened porch of my parent's cabin at the Hotel, about 1963, I found a trunk of clothes that dated to the 20s and 30s. Lots of satin and lace and fluffiness and fringe and musty smells. There was pair of bloomers made of black satin and trimmed with baby blue ribbons and pink lace, rosettes of velvet and rhinestone buttons.

I was only able to wear them a few times before they tore to shreds. I continued to wear the antique dresses and skirts and do all the things that little girls do who are growing up in a tiny country town.




I've recreated those 20s satin bloomers many many times. I've been playing around with cutting up and restyling sweaters for about 40 years and a few years ago I drew a picture of a sweater turned into some warm bloomers. My prototype was made of a knit flannel and wow! that was the beginning. A few weeks ago I cut out a few pair, gathered my laces and ribbons and got to sewing.........


The Bavarian Steampunk Cashmere bloomers were featured on the front page of etsy where I list everything, until I get the ol' funkoma website remodeled and listed with tons of stuff for sale.
Being on the front page of etsy is important for me because I'm not a Chosen Few for them. I don't live in NY, I am not young, my photos just barely fit their criteria of "white"....so I was honored and it has given me a huge burst of energy.........
well, that and the fact I have a show in early November...and I am a never-ending protoplasm of Ideas...
I got to the Front Page of etsy on pure merit...great idea, well-photographed...and a unique design reinterpreted from something traditional and fun, practical and functional....
and Handmade.
Not factory made. Unique ...there will be more cashmere bloomers with vintage lace, but none will look exactly like the others.
Unique...because no one on the internets is doing this with cashmere for the ladies.

These are the first 4 pair for you.










Filling up and Spilling over it's an Endless Waterfall.
Stay warm Ladies!

We Could Be the New Pittsburgh !

Hey Tacoma....Feeling down? Down Down Down as a Luzon Building Brick? A pile of Luzon Building bricks?

Feeling as down as a world class bridge...that has no purpose in life but to mock you as it lays barren staring at a world class corporation headquarters that just broke up with you....over the phone...with a text???
Hmmm?

You need direction ! You need a Role Model !
Here, take a look at Pittsburgh....
just one quote...OK, maybe 2 or 3...This will cheer you up...because There Is Hope !!
Just get off your flaccid ass and quit accepting the idea that businessmen and women with an MBA know anything about Life!
Invest in Art. Art. Art.
Art Garfunkel.
Art Walk.
Art Run.
(2 of my friends have MBAs and more are lusting for them....)
Oh sure we need Bean Counters, but they can't be Leaders...or you end up with the Tacoma Mall. Which is an underground Tomb of Corporate Crap. (now that there is no alcohol-serving bar)

I mean the name alone...Pitts...burgh...who knew??
a snippet or 2...

"Jeb Feldman, owner and co-manager of UnSmoke, fell in love with the town soon after he arrived from New Mexico, also to study arts administration at Carnegie Mellon. Braddock's empty lots and neglected streets inspired him to work with others to help spur development. He joined ranks with the city’s young and determined mayor, John Fetterman, who has gained national attention for his efforts to create a workable model of urban renewal. With the support of the mayor, Feldman sees investment in the arts as essential, both to invigorate residents and lure artists and their followers. He has become an unofficial spokesman for Braddock's artistic development."

and very very important...

"Once a shell of its former industrial self, Pittsburgh has been busily making itself over. Now its cheap rents and artistic legacy are luring a new generation of creative pioneers, writes Yael Friedman ..."
Linkie here, and no ...I did not forget that Tacoma hates Andy Warhol.... that Tacoma rejected Andy is a mistake I intend to never ever let Tacoma forget...

let's say that again...CHEAP RENTS
I pay 2 grand a month and I have about 3000 square feet for workshop and retail. I love the space, but the rent is waaaaay too much. Mr. Riley charges the cheapest rent for the most space in Tacoma...in a neighborhood you'd like to have a shop in.
You other landlords, fuck you.
This is Tacoma. It is "a shell of its former industrial self"
You, bad landlords, with your insane high rents have kept Tacoma dirty and stupid. It's waaay hard for one with good intentions to get a foothold here. So...the bad neighborhoods attract the Artists, the Creatives, the Brave...
with NO HELP from the Landed Gentry, or the Government. ...which is fine, but it's too hard, and good people have to give up and leave...a dream delayed is a dream denied.


It does not have to be this way. Anymore.
Vote. Vote Responsibly.
When I think of Jim Merritt, Marilyn Strickland, Kevin Rojecki, Roxanne Murphy, Marty Campbell, Beckie Summers Kirby, Catherine Ushka-Hall and Chris Van Vechten for Tacoma School Board, Victoria Woodards....
All have vision and energy and can lead Tacoma to her new Destiny !

One of my lifelong dreams...

is to live in a house that is big and old and decrepit......
The Addams Family is a Manual for Living....according to me.


Here is my fave post of the week...Feral Houses.
I lived in a big feral house once (not counting the places I've lived that were downright falling apart, since, when you are poor, you take what you can get...)
but...
This house that is my alltime favorite was a big falling-down house my ex and 2 of my 3 kids lived in behind the Jack In The Box on Trancas St. I'm sure it's torn down now.

The house had 4 bedrooms, a huge dining room, 1 bathroom, and a glass solarium greenhouse at the back. From that room you could go to the backyard which was about a 1/2 acre. There was an abandoned garden with old fruit trees, an arbor, a small fish pond and beds and borders of all the old-fashioned flowers I love...
trailing roses, peonies, calla lillies, lilacs, viburnums, daisies, foxgloves and campanulas, delphiniums and larkspur, hollyhocks and rhubarb, cardoon and ferns.
It had red brick paths laced with thyme and moss.

It was owned by some folks that owned a big business in Napa, but that family name escapes me now. They were rich, and really nice people. So, I know that landlords don't have to be assholes, but they usually are and they choose to be assholes. When you're rich one of the luxuries you can enjoy without losing any money is the freedom to be kind.




pictures via dornob

Yo, It's almost 55 Day !

er, uh, and 35 day.
It's almost my birthday..and my son Shayne's birthday.

I love my kids...
I love my son...
and I realllllly like Sly and The Family Stone a lot...
Growing up in the Bay Area...well, they just go together like Nutella and Bananas...

Here, Shayne this is for you....this song makes me cry...Still...
Oh, and anything and everything funkoma vintage in the shop is 10% off all day Saturday, October 10, 2009....cause it's my birthday !!

funkoma has stuff and bloggers must be truthy

Real actual vintage hot rod rat rod car club Puyallup Valley Raceway 1962...

and now on etsy !



So now, when indiecult vintage sends Susie Bubble a bunch of free stuff, Susie Bubble must tell us that indiecult vintage sent her stuff for free...when Susie Bubble goes on and on about what "great stuff" indiecult has....or what great stuff Nastygal has....

It was a huge surprise to me that bloggers got sent free stuff...no one ever sent me free stuff, but then I'm not the brown nose type, and I guess that was easy to figure out....
The F.T.C will rule that bloggers must disclose the freebies if they write about "endorsements and testimonials" concerning the freebies.

"The F.T.C. said that beginning on Dec. 1, bloggers who review products must disclose any connection with advertisers, including, in most cases, the receipt of free products and whether or not they were paid in any way by advertisers, as occurs frequently. The new rules also take aim at celebrities, who will now need to disclose any ties to companies, should they promote products on a talk show or on Twitter."
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I don't do trends....I just do...
Pure Cool Style

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What is just in and just photographed? it's on etsy..

I bought tons of new shoes....funky converse, boots, party dresses...and new stuff arriving in the store ....and on etsy....
white Pee-Wee loafers for when you are feeling the Full Cleveland... more pics coming up in a day or 2.




WWII Nurses Cape




60s Rat Pack vintage Sharkskin suit

Happy birthday to me and listening to John Gorka...

here's what the Birthday girl is listening to....October 10 is my birthday...so don't panic...yet.

had drinks with Nick at Doyles........

Just John Gorka this afternoon in the shop....

repost...Happy belated Birthday Andy...Tacoma Hated You..

uh, since you mine me for material...here...read this...Best of Tressie (a series) someone should be paying me for this...big time!
Andy would be 81 now!
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80 years old !
Oh My, what a jumpstart Tacoma woulda had waaaaay back in the early 80s if they'd chosen Andy Warhol.....
That stupid ass decision to put triangles on the Dome delayed T Town's renaissance by decades, my friends.

I think it's sad/tragic that Tacoma rejected one of the most amazing artists of all time....

Sometimes you need someone who is coloring outside the lines.
Whether you like it or not.
I still can't believe I live in a town that hated Andy Warhol !!
People woulda come from all over the world to see it!
Instead the "leadership" of Tacoma had to wait.....
and wait...
and wait........
for The Glass Museum......
and expensive taxpayer subsidized Condos.....


semi-repeating a previous blog:


This:

Not This:

So Tacoma if you want art, REAL ART, you are so on your own.
Do not look to the City for anything that is real.
The City of Tacoma and the phony arbiters of art (snicker) HATE YOU .