Showing posts with label Bakelite. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bakelite. Show all posts

Monday, April 29, 2013

OOTDs...Or Is It Outfits Of The Weekend?

I never do OOTDs, because frankly, my workaday outfits have left a little bit to be desired lately. Think yoga pants, random T-shirt, hoodie, and sneakers...not even vintage sneakers. Hey, I work in front of the computer in my own house! Who am I trying to impress, here? But I digress...

This past weekend I got a chance to do my vintage thing TWICE!

First up, Saturday morning:

This is one of my favorite novelty-print early-60's dresses. It has clocks and calendars and the days of the week written in French, which totally reminds me of the French teacher/tutor I had in 6th grade, Madame Clinard. I can hear her voice in my head right now..."Bonjour, Dina!!!" The cashmere (mmmm, cashmere) sweater is an estate sale find. Shoes are thrifted, not vintage, but whatever. I was telling my hubby the other day that if a person has a whole wardrobe of vintage shoes, they are truly hard-core. You may notice there's no Bakelite happening here...I was going to a religious service where you need to be vewwy, vewwy quiet!

Here's Sunday:

Going to the Vintage Fashion Expo in Santa Monica. Dress is a 40's Etsy find. I got it for a steal, because it needed somewhat major restoration, something I love to do wen I have the time! You can't see it, but the scarf in my hair is a souvenir scarf from Hawaii, an estate sale find. The handbag is one of my MoMosMadness creations...an upcycled 60's handbag with my own hand-painted tiki design. Bakelite earrings and bangles were bought from mix of places...estate sales, antique stores, eBay, etc. Shoes are thrifted, vintage repro's.

Hmmm, that was fun! Maybe there are more OOTD's in my future! What do you guys think? should I do more?

 

 

Saturday, October 27, 2012

America's Most-Hated Color

 Or in other words, An Ode To Orange!

Crazy LA orange sky (I took this pic when the space shuttle was traveling through the streets of LA)

The arrival of Halloween always brings with it a blast of a certain color...
Do you like orange? Or hate it? Apparently orange is one of those colors that inspires strong feelings.
I remember reading, a few years back, that when Americans are polled about their most-liked and least-liked colors the color orange consistently comes in last place. Most liked? Blue, of course *****snoorrrrrre****
Nothing against blue, really, it's just so...predictable. Blue is the opposite of orange on the color wheel, so blue and orange really make each other pop!
Here are a few things I bet you didn't know about orange:

~It was Frank Sinatra's favorite color...he said it was the color of happiness.
~Orange is beloved in Holland, where it is the national color.
~Creative people are said to like orange.
~Vincent Van Gogh said that "without orange there is no blue"
~Orange is the color of the Sacral Chakra, and is linked to sexuality and fertility!
~The "black boxes" on airplanes are actually neon orange.
~Alexander the Great liked his hair to be bright orange, so he washed it in saffron, which at the time was more expensive than diamonds or gold!

 I happen to love orange, but I do admit it can be a strong presence! I find that oranges with a bit of "something else" in them are the most wearable...like spicy oranges with a bit of brown in them.

Here are some fab orange lovelies I found on Etsy this morning:

Fabulous juicy orange peacoat at MoMoDeluxeVintage

Chic orange 40's slides at Decadence Past

Adorable little box bag at Hillbillyfilly

Juicy Bakelite faceted bangle at The Bakelite Temptress

Gorgeous fitted cocktail dress at La Belle Vintage

Super-fun Mod sweater-coat at MoMoDeluxeVintage

So, do you like orange? Or hate it?

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Ebay Alert!

I just found this super-amazing Bakelite (or maybe Lucite) bangle on eBay (OK well, actually, I found it surfing eBay on my phone in the middle of the night). I've never seen one quite like it so I thought you lovely readers might like a peek:

a-mah-zing vintage eye candy
To go to the auction on eBay click here

I love vintage jewelry with a bug theme! I think these little cicadas look like gummy bears. I kinda want to eat 'em. I sure don't want to eat the real kind :-)
The ebay seller doesn't say specifically  that this is Bakelite, but judging by the looks of it, I think it could be...I don't really care, I love it anyway. Unfortunately with the dollar conversion and the shipping from England it's a little rich for my blood right now, but maybe one of you gals will snap it up!

UPDATE:   This cool bangle ended up selling for $81.57. I think that's less than it's worth, if it is in fact Bakelite. What do you guys think?

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Burbank Vintage Clothing & Textile Show

Last Sunday I went to a fun vintage clothing show, in Burbank, right by Disney and Warner Brother's Studios.
They have this show three times a year, but this is the first time I'd been able to make it.
I'm so glad I went! I had a great time, and most importantly bought a few fab things to add to my vintage wardrobe.

The show is held at a place called Pickwick Gardens where you can have wedding receptions & things like that. The grounds are full of flowers...really beautiful!


Right away I saw some great stuff:

Love those "telephone cord" bags





gorgeous late 50's copper jewelry

I've been interested lately in this type of 50's/60's copper jewelry with colorful enamel. I can't deal with clip-on earrings (ouch! Pass the Advil, please), but a bracelet would be nice.



There's a vendor named Wear it Again Sam that always has the best things. Check out this leopard swimsuit:


You can't really see in the pic, but there is lacing up the front...super hot!
The owner, Kristine, has the best taste...I could burn up some serious cash in that booth, if I had any serious cash ;-)
I also loved this dress & jacket combo:


 Isn't that a great print? The dress is sleeveless, with an Empire waist.

I think my favorite find of the day, though, wasn't a clothing item, but a person. Check this out:

Joanne with just a portion of Verona's wardrobe

 The nice lady in the pic above is Joanne, from Joannes' Vintage Lifestyle. She's a super nice gal, very passionate about vintage stuff, and she sells at the Rose Bowl and at the Pasadena City College Flea Market. Yeah, yeah, that's all well and good, but here's the interesting part: every single thing in her booth came from the wardrobe of ONE LADY. Her name was Verona, and here she is:




That's her in the red dress. She started out her life as a nun, of all things...apparently she made up for lost time later in her life! Boy, Verona knew how to shop!  There were easily 100+ items of GORGEOUS clothing in this booth, and apparently these were only the springtime & summery clothes! Joanne said there were just as many fall & winter things she'd be showing later in the year.





Many of the clothes still had the tags on them. Some, like the adorable dress above, even had the original catalog tear sheets! Another interesting thing is that the clothes were a small spectrum of sizes, not just all one size, because Verona's shape changed over time...as shapes are wont to do ;-)
Joanne doesn't have a website that I know of, but she'll be at the Rose Bowl every 2nd Sunday, Row H21.
She'll have lower-priced items of clothing (around $25) and also some mid-century furniture that belonged to the lovely Verona, as well.
If you're in the LA area you should definitely check her out! 

Well, that's enough for now...I'm going to save the goodies I bought for another post!


Sunday, March 11, 2012

A Fun Trip to Wertz Bros. Antiques

A while back I stumbled upon a gem of a place, in Santa Monica (pretty close to where I live) called Wertz Bros. Antique Mart. You know how sometimes you drive by a place a million times, and every time you say to yourself "I've gotta go in there someday!"  Well, I guess it was someday! Mostly it was because I spied an open parking spot right by the door...I loves me some "Doris Day" parking :-)

Wertz Bros. looks unassuming from the outside, but the inside!!! I literally gasped when I walked through the door. It's enormous and filled to the rafters with every kind of vintage amazingness.
Here are my favorite finds of the day:

my favorite color
this chair NEEDs to be in my living room
the most exotic perfume bottle ever
yummy Bakelite...you can never have enough



Wertz Brothers Antique Mart in Santa Monica, CA

Here's a link to their website:Wertz Bros.Website


What a fun place! If you're ever in L.A. it's worth a look!