Be Kind, Thrift and Rewind

I spent Christmas in Denver with my daughter, Emily. We had a great time. Her apartment is so vintage punk, but that is for another post. I didn’t get to see a lot of Denver but one day we went downtown to a section with vintage shops and a shop called Sewn that sells all handmade clothing, or upcycled vintage clothing, and lots of other little trinkets and fun items. We also went to a crafts shop called Fancy Tiger Crafts. Emily had bought me a gift certificate so I chose some lovely fabric to make myself a Dottie Angel dress. I had made her one for Christmas but that is also another post since I am waiting to get a picture of her in it without her winter sweaters on top for warmth.

One night we walked down to the mint and I took pictures of it all lit up in its holiday glory. We also spent some time in lovely Boulder, Colorado, where I had raised her. I took some pictures of the downtown city hall and the lights in the surrounding area.

It was great to be back in Colorado where the mountains go on for miles. I always feel so comforted knowing they are there. I used to like to think that the mountains offered nurturing protection, as if they held me when I slept all those years as a single parent raising my daughter. It may be a ridiculous sounding romantic idea but sometimes when I had to be strong all the time, whether I was weary or not, those notions offered much needed comfort. The Flatirons were dusted with a light snow as it snowed on Christmas just a bit. I really like rocks, stone, whether in brownstones, as mountains or rocks on the beach. I am not much a of a beach gal; I prefer lakes. One of my friends was saying that even when we went to the beach I wanted to sit near the rocks. My ideal idea of a beach is where my mother took me in 2006 when we went to Italy and she wanted to go to the Viareggio beach. There were mountains in the distance. Now that is a beach view I will never forget!

We also went to this little café in Denver called Weathervane a couple of times. I really liked it; such a charming place. The sandwiches I had were yummy and the atmosphere in there is so down home, a country rustic feel to the place. I bought logo t-shirt there as well, which I thought was as charming as the café itself. They also had a small vintage shop upstairs.

Well I had a great trip. I saw a couple of my old friends, met some new folks that I really enjoyed meeting and it was wonderful to be with my daughter. I really enjoyed getting to know Denver better and look forward to seeing more of it in the future.

Happy New Year! I hope you all have a good year and hopefully I will find steady work this year! I have more ideas of creative things I want to do and share. As usual I will try to keep creating and sharing my experiences with you.

Photo by Bill Bernthal

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weathervane, denver, co

Black Thrifted Coat and Vintage Grunge Mix

December 22, 2015

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I found this thrifted wool coat on the Lower East Side of NYC when my daughter Emily was visiting this past May. We saw a sign for a $5 bag sale and headed in that direction soon afterwards. The petite lady who had the stoop sale had some really nice quality dresses, tops, sweaters, bags and my coat. It must have been quite large on her since I couldn’t possibly fit into any of her lovely dresses, or I would have gladly bought one or two. My daughter, Emily, luckily snagged a few of those items. We walked away with two bags full of clothing and I’d spent a mere ten dollars.

My black wool must have been brushed since it has a slight fake fur look. I didn’t really notice it at first since it is not very raised or furry but then later I asked a dry cleaner and he said it is in fact all wool. Well now that that enigma is figured out I am accustomed to the texture and like it. I like wearing the coat with the vintage brooch pinned on it. I usually don’t wear brooches that large but with it on a coat I feel a larger one does look better. I was attracted to the green colors in the brooch, which I found on eBay.

Thrifting pays in that it helps you retain more of your money for other necessities, plus it is a win-win cycle of reducing mass production’s effects on the environment.

I have been intrigued recently with the concept of mixing my vintage clothing with the grunge look. This type of look was big in the 1980’s and early 1990’s. Vivienne Westwood had her punk look of the “Buffalo Girls” with long prairie skirts, plaid and hats. Marc Jacobs in 1992 had the prairie-look dresses mixed with flannel shirts, and combat boots. For a bit about the early 1990’s grunge look, see here. I haven’t mixed in the flannel shirt yet but I wore a baggy grey sweater over my Liberty of London jumper from the early 1990’s. I have been wearing it with my black pirate-looking boots from Steve Madden’s collection a few years ago. The grey sweater I traded for at Buffalo Exchange. I like the mix of shapes in the outfit. When I first put on my Liberty jumper by instinct I reached for my vintage cardigan and dainty jewelry. Then I remembered I was looking for the grunge look so had to change all that. In this photo I am wearing the dress with a vintage Celtic silver cross that was my mother’s in the 1970’s.

Well I am going to experiment with my wardrobe in the next month and try to come up with more grunge/vintage looking outfits. I think it is a fun mix.

I hope you enjoyed this post and are having a happy holiday season. I am headed to visit my daughter in Colorado very soon. I will be there for Christmas! Hopefully I can get some great photos of the mountains and maybe some snow.

I decided to try it with a flannel shirt tied around the waist!

Outfit Details:

Vintage Liberty of London jumper early 1990’s

Sweater- Love 21- traded from Buffalo Exchange

Socks (thigh high’s) Pact Organic Clothing

Boots:Gift- Steve Madden

Simple Black t-shirt

Razzle Dazzle NYC Dressed Up In Christmas Lights

December 15, 2015

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This is Part 2 of “Razzle Dazzle NYC Dressed Up in Christmas Lights.” For Part 1, click here.

The various smaller stores along the way of this walk up 5^th Avenue were Ralph Lauren, Gucci, Tiffany’s, and a couple stores whose windows I took photos of but whose names I can’t remember.

Barney’s as usual stuck to simple elegance and their windows were beautiful and bright with frozen ice themes, playful colors or scenes. They had a city that was filled in with super bold color. The “Chilling Winter Brilliance” of frozen huge icicles, a completely frozen purple and blue ice scene, and a work space for an ice sculptor.

I have more photos of shops in the Village and from downtown. I will create more posts in the next week of those. In general it is fun to get out and walk in Manhattan right now and view all there is to see. Many of the lovely, colorful lights I have seen are from small shop windows on the darker side streets. Some homes have lovely decorations, plus I walked by the Christmas tree lot downtown on the edge of Soho and 6^th Avenue and took pictures of their lot and some of their merchandise. I hope you are enjoying these photos and posts and are getting prepared for or celebrating the holidays with friends and family.

Gucci

Tiffany’s

Bergdorf’s

Barney’s

Macy’s

Razzle Dazzle NYC Dressed Up in Christmas Lights

December 15, 2015

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Last night I went up to Rockefeller Center to take pictures of the shop windows like I did last year. The area around the Christmas tree was so inundated with people that it wasn’t appealing to me to stick myself in there like a sardine. I can go back there perhaps this next week at a better time of day or early evening. On the weekends it is particularly crowded right now. Plus last night was Santa-Con in Manhattan so all the people going out to celebrate that were flooding into town. New York is especially lovely with Christmas lights. We normally have lots of lights here but all the extra of the holidays definitely adds to the razzle dazzle look and feel of the holiday season. The glitz and glamour of it all shine super brightly.

The windows at Saks Fifth Avenue had a Winter Palace theme this year. The models looked frozen in time, somewhat tense in certain windows and a few of them were quite spooky looking. In one a frozen model is holding the tablecloth edge from a table that is filled with a holiday spread. She’s poised to pull off that tablecloth at any moment. A few of the windows had a theme like the Frozen Great Wall of China or Paris at the Eiffel Tower. Some of the windows were brighter than others and in general they were very pretty, either brilliant and shiny silver or an electrical, psychedelic deep blue. Last year they had a story-book theme and such bright, lovely colorful windows filled with story-book characters. You can view those here. They also had several Art Deco window themes. As usual the crowds were flocking to see their windows. Some of them had to be viewed close up once you got into the line, at least if you wanted a decent picture of them.

Walking up Fifth Avenue with my friend we saw lots of pretty windows and buildings. The Harry Winston building was particularly beautiful with all the lights they had displayed on its surface. At Bulgari on the corner of 57^th Street and 5^th, there was a beautiful ribbon of lights attached to the corner of the building.

Next we came upon Bergdorf’s, which also usually has some really beautiful windows. Theirs were really glitzy and glamorous. Very bright, deep, electrifying colors. This year they had over-the-top sparkle going on. Last year they had many windows with a book theme. The ladies in some of the windows were covered in sparkles, and one window had a Gypsy fortune teller. Actually last night there was a Gypsy fortune teller seated outside there with her little table right next to the window. She said she “may as well make a go at making some money” since they set up such a window. One of my favorite windows was the more subdued, chic, simple one of a model in the side window dressed in an elegant blue and silver glittery dress, looking oh-so-elegant with her blue fur stole wrapped around her shoulders. To top off her lovely outfit she wore blue drop earrings, a blue feather hat and blue-grey long gloves. They had her surrounded by a gold background. Gorgeous!! The side window opposite that one held two models wearing extremely bright, glittery dresses.

There are so many pictures and I don’t want to overload the post to where the pictures don’t load well. So this is going to be a continued post that invites you to go to the following blog post – like a chapter in a book that gets continued. So if you are enjoying this post please follow me to the next, which I will release immediately.