Friday, September 18, 2009

Vintage Violet

I spent a better portion of yesterday whipping the basement into shape. Not the corner where my sewing machine and accoutrement have refuge, but the rest of it. The part where the laundry, sports gear, beer making supplies (not even out of the box in 3 years mind you), camping flotsam, canning shelves, bags intended for donation, the pair of groovy vintage boots I keep meaning to take to the cobbler, a gifted Mexican hammock, my craft books, his engineering books, Belgian waffle maker, clumps of hanging garlic and shallots, a 40 gal. bin filled with baking flour (all sorts), extra chick-chick feed, the detritus of my former life in boxes, delicate things put up when Lil' Hurricane Nova was born - learned to crawl - began to walk - started to climb - turned into a rock star of the utmost kind, power tools, old paint, vacuum cleaner, furnace, water heater, lumber, travel cases, fire wood, and 327 spiders share 290 square feet of raw discord. It had gone way beyond the pale. Whew! Lord, let's hope I've got that out of my system! I have the occasional bent for a tangent; I can 'run on' a bit.

Where was I? Oh yes, change of seasons, freaking out..er, I mean tidying up, sorting piles to purge and what not. In the midst of my dusty labor, I came across my box of old photos. I have a small tip to share with you – when one has limited time and a serious goal to accomplish (such as cleaning up one’s basement), it is not wise to open a neatly closed up box from the past. I’m not suggesting anything akin to the whole Pandora debacle; still, it is bound to be trouble of the most distracting sort, leading to a significant divergence from the task at hand.

And so…apropos of nothing - but for vanity and a case of rusty nostalgia, I present to you a glimpse into my past. Just file it under ‘getting to know you’.



I chose these photos for the fashion. A devout fan of the vintage from way back. The black and white photo shows a 1950's 'Ladies Lunch' dress, red and white silk screened fabric with hundreds of tiny hand sewn silver sequins. The shoes don't look like much and weren't vintage, but rather the most perfect pair of Italian boys oxfords, outlandishly expensive (a gift) and possibly one of my most loved pairs of all time.
In the color photo I am sporting an early 1960's Harley Davidson motorcycle jacket, a 50's petti and some righteous vintage cowboy boots. The Buddy Holly glasses are fakes by the way. Loving those poses!
I may immediately regret my decision to post these as I don't care to share many pics of myself, but for whatever reason, here you are.

Oh, and of course, I hinted at some gossip last post. No, it's not the big news but, I have set myself a real deadline for my grand Etsy Experiment. Regardless of whether I have 3 items or 10, I have given myself until September 30th to open shop. I mean it! I will keep you all abreast of the situation.

Have the greatest of weekends!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great photos! Love your style!!

Unknown said...

Delightful poses! So self-confident! Get cracking on that deadline...

Nancy in Iowa

Mare said...

Hmm...Maybe that is the secret! I need to set a date too! I have a shop all set up but on hold till i get more things together. But with my daughter's shop demanding more of my work, and everybody having babies and birthdays, i never seem to make that goal. Hmmmm... I LOVE those pictures of you! Especially the black and white one.

Pia K said...

oh, after semi-quickly skimming through your blog i can see that 'a bun can dance' has made a wise choice in letter-swapping partners, so many lovely things here!

and you certainly were a stylish teenager - i'm very fond of oxfords too, they go so well with lots of things really.

i feel i should comment a lot more, finding so many cute things here (and lovely photos, your wonderful header being the cutest!), but i'll be back. and i'll mull a bit over what exactly our letter-swapping-theme could be.

Pomona said...

Have a good weekend, too - I am sure that I wasn't nearly as stylish at that age - still wearing flares probably - but then my age is probably an excuse!

Pomona x

diane said...

love the pics AND the deadline! so excited for your shop's debut!