Gimme Some Lovin'

Just wanted to say a quick howdy-do to my new followers! I'm up to a whopping 69 new followers....You know I really wanna make a Beavis & Butthead-ian joke about that, but for the sake of retaining an iota of class and dignity, I will refrain. I'm just sayin', 69 is a funny number. The joke could write itself, people!

Just so you know: if you follow me, I will follow you right back! I'm all for helping a fellow blogger/vintage seller/crafty bitch/retrophile/sewing guru/grumpyass out when I can, so if you want to score some extra karma points like I do, follow along and I'll return the favor! A word to my ol' faithful followers: I'm in the process of following you guy! No worries, I'll get you all covered, assuming I remember or are sober enough.


So thank you, new followers! You're in for a trainwreck of good times.









"Gimme Some Lovin" by The Spencer Davis Group.

My Aqua Blue Heaven Friday: Sunglasses After Dark

Welcome to Aqua Blue Heaven Friday! Today's theme is something I've been working on for weeks and I'm just gonna have to give up the ghost that it's ever gonna turn out the way I planned. What's the theme, you demand- or are mildly interested- to know?! Well, I've been hunting for vintage aqua sunglasses (or even regular eyeglasses) from the 50's or 60's and there just isn't such a beast. You'd think with the aqua craze from the era that surely even glasses would be in the same hue, but no, you are mistaken, there is not. What gives? You can buy a freaking car in aqua but not glasses?! Weird. Maybe they're just super rare and really do exist in some alternate universe somewhere. I can't say that I've personally ever seen any in real life anywhere, because if I did I would've bought those suckers faster than a drunken jackrabbit on a greased-up griddle. (Huh?) You know what we need? We need Scoob and the Gang to solve this one. So unless you're willing to wear some godawful big honking aqua ones from the 80's (I'd rather chew my own arm off, thanks), you'll have to settle for the closest glasses I could find to aqua. They're more of the powder to baby to sky to cloudy to steel blue color persuasion, but still cool all the same. Enjoy!






Vintage 50's Super Catty Sunglasses.





Vintage 50's Rhinestone Stars Sunglasses.





Vintage 50's/60's Blue Stripey Eyeglasses.





Vintage 50's Wild & Crazy French Feather Sunglasses. These are subtle, no?





Vintage 50's/60's Glitterific Sunglasses. Success! I found *a* pair!








"Sunglasses After Dark" by the Cramps.

Make Mayan a Hawaiian...

...a Hawaiian shirt, that is. But not just any shirt. Oh baby, what a shirt this is! Just listed to Fast Eddie's Retro Rags, this amazing Vintage 50's SHAHEEN Hawaiian Shirt...




...with the iconic, Surf 'N Sand angel fish handprint!




But the pièce de résistance is that the shirt can be seen on page 113 of the Aloha Shirt Book (copyright 2000) by Dale Hope and Gregory Tozian! (Only difference is the colorway.) It's fantastic!




Click the links or pictures to take you to the listing!

How'd You Pin That One On Me

Did you ever notice that when you have no dough, you find everything that you want? Screw what you need, like Veruca Salt said "I want it NOW!" Word to the wise: never window shop when you don't have the resources to buy things that you'd sell your soul to the devil to have, if you hadn't done so half a dozen times already for a bag of Cheetos and a Cherry Coke.

I'm usually the junk jewelry kind of gal~ oh wait, I'm sorry, the PC term is "costume jewelry". I like cheap stuff, plastic crap, and I'm a huge fan of pins, especially the enamel flower types your Grandma wore in the 60's, that sort of thing. I'm not a girlie girl or high maintenance when it comes to accessories. No need to give me diamonds, I'd rather have the plastic gem ring out of the 25 cent candy machine at the supermarket. But I'm noticing that as I get older, I really need to upgrade my jewelry collection, make it a little more growns-up. That doesn't mean looking like everyone else in the crowd and resort to shopping for a dime-a-dozen crap from Kay Jewelers at the mall~ you can still have your vintage jewelry and eat it too. Or whatever.

So while window shopping online (computer screen shopping? I have no idea), I found some kickass-tacular vintage pins that have enough quirky flair (yes I said "flair", shut yer piehole) to please people like me, who refuse to grow up, yet they're growns-up enough to reflect that you're in fact, not 10 years old. But not just any random pins~ delicious, vintage 30's Bakelite pins. Ooooooo! (That's what you're supposed to say, as a collective crowd.) So even though moths are flying out of my wallet, doesn't mean that the rest of the world does, and I know you guys love you some Bakelite, correct? (This is where you collectively scream "hells bells yeah!)

Enjoy the wonders of the vintage Bakelite pin:




Vintage 30's Deco Butterscotch Brooch.




Vintage 30's Ribbon Bakelite & Celluloid Brooch. I *lovelovelove* pins that have dangly, jangly bits! So with that in mind, wait until you see the next 2...




...See? What'd I tell ya?! Swoon? I think so! Vintage 30's Amazing Cherries Cornucopia Bakelite Pin from Dorothea's Closet Vintage. But wait! There's more...




...More hanging bits! Love it! Another Vintage 30's Cherries Bakelite Pin from Dorothea's Closet Vintage.








"How'd You Pin That One On Me" by Dinosaur Jr.

Way-Out Wednesday: Georgy Girl

Welcome to another Way-Out Wednesday! Today's vintage pick isn't exactly "way out", not in the usual way Wednesdays around here present it's awesomely wonderful horrors and freak shows. It's not weird or creepy or even all that strange. But it is cool in it's rarity and "who knew there even was such a thing"-ness. Something that vintage lovers and retro pop culture heads will probably dig. At least, I hope you do because I think it's pretty special, all girlie and icon-y:



Why, it's the 60's Twiggy Fashion Tote, of course! Ok, so, Twiggy was way before my time, but the 10 year old girl inside me can appreciate a vinyl carrying case for your dolls and puffy unicorn stickers with a skinny-ass blond bitch on the cover. I had my fair share of Barbie crap in the 80's, so I know how girls must have felt in the 60's when they saw this. "Squeeee! Now I have something to hold my glitter stamp set & rubber Madonna bracelets!"


For those not savvy to British icons, Twiggy was one of the first major teen models, known for those huge Betty Davis-esque eys, short & chic pixie haircuts and rail-thin body, hence "Twiggy". She epitomized Carnaby Street mod and Mary Quant cool.



We all know her for her most recent work as a panel judge on Tyra Banks' riducu-fab modeling show "America's Next Top Model", but I can't imagine how many ultra mod, swingin' little British 10 year old fashionistas there were in the mid to late 60's, let alone ones who would have even known who the hell Twiggy was, but maybe she was bigger across the pond than she was here? Maybe Twiggy in the late 60's was to little girls in the UK as what Barbie was to little girls here in the States? I don't know. My head hurts form all this comparing. At any rate, it's still a kickASS vintage bag, full of pop culture iconic goodness!



"Georgy Girl" by the Seekers. Ugh. This era in music & movies creeps me the hell out. Love the movie, loathe the song.

Atomic Tuesday: Ashtray Heart

Today is Atomic Tuesday and today's theme is something that I haven't really thought about in ages: the boomerang ashtray. I remember the days, years ago, when you could find them for peanuts in just about every thrift store on the planet. Seriously cheap, like under a buck. I rarely see them anymore these days~ so what happened to them? Is it a regional thing? Did college hipsters grab them all up, for the sake of being "quirky" and "retro"? Am I just blind as a bat and am talking crazy again? Those ashtrays always reminded me of old ladies in the 70's who smoked and still used the same ashtrays they've had for 20 years. But you don't have to be a smoker to use them around the house. I use mine to hold spare change, candles and jewelry. And Valium. I mean vitamins.

Where did you go, funny little fugly/awesome ashtrays? The boomerang ashtray is one of those things that used to be cool then became a cliche then became cool again. Their low period was probably the late 90's, when they were almost a mockery, to anyone who decorated their home in mid-century modern stylings of the 50's and 60's. And now since they're getting harder to find they're becoming cool again. Like everything else, really. When it's around, it's lame. When it's nowhere, it's great. The human psyche is stupid. So here are some pretty rockin' ones, available as of now online.



Vintage Royal Haeger Boko Ashtray. I can't help it but the 12 year old in me keeps seeing a butt shape in this one. And I like it.





Vintage Orange & Olive Speckled Ashtray. Makes me want Cheetos. Now.





Vintage Royal Haeger Green Ashtray.





Vintage Flecked Shawnee Set of 2 Ashtrays. What a pair! Now you can double your storage of Valium! I mean vitamins.






"Ashtray Heart" by captain Beefheart