Prints Charming Sunday: Leave It To Barbara

Welcome to Prints Charming Sunday!





I thought today's post should be done in honor of Barbara Billingsley, who I'm sure you all remember for her role as repressed housewife June Cleaver on the 1950's-'60s tv show Leave it to Beaver. R.I.P, Miss B. We'll miss you!

Barbara's fashion style on Leave it to Beaver was upper middle class, but not flashy or too "money" (she was "just" a housewife and mom, after all). She rocked smart, matching shirtdress and cardigan sets and the ubiquitous (and now cliche) pearls like nobody's business!





It wasn't an easy feat to find a classic shirtdress with a novelty print that wasn't *too* nutty or over the top for today's post, as her character never would've worn anything too bold, but I think I found just the thing (and how much it resembles her dress in the pic above is kinda cool), this Vintage 50's Butterfly and Pocket Watch Novelty Print Dress, available on Etsy from seller Our Tea Party, for a mere 40 bucks!:




I admit I never knew too much about Miss B and her acting career outside of Leave it to Beaver, though I recall her small but WAY sassy bit part on an episode of the tv show Roseanne in the '90s. But my favorite is, of course, her *ingenious* role as the jive talkin' old white broad on Airplane! ("Stewardess, I speak jive."). She was ahead of her time in those unexpected comedic roles, long before Betty White became, well, Betty White. And so I leave you with these final thoughts, immortalised by Miss Jive Talker herself: "Chump don' wan' no help, chump don' GET da help!"

Aqua Blue Heaven Friday: Gliding Light

Welcome to Aqua Blue Heaven Friday!




I've been burned-out on our aqua theme for the past "x" amount of months, in a creative funk you'd say, but I feel like my "aqua mojo is back with burnin' fury! (Or whatever.) To my luscious new followers (yes, you are indeed luscious and don't you forget it), Aqua Blue Heaven Friday is a day (friday, duh) I showcase a supercool/wicked/fantastic/ridonkulous/enter any fitting descriptive word here/ vintage item that is, shock and surprise, aqua. Now lets ride, mofos!


Today's pick is not only grand in scale, but also in sheer awesomeness. Something I SO wish I had but never seem to get my grubby little paws on. A Firebird-driving, cutoff-denim-jacket-wearing, mullet-rocking, lifting-weights-in-the-garage-listening-to-Motorhead-on-cassette-tape-on-a-ghetto-blaster, Big Gulp-of-Mountain-Dew-chugging, poolboy named Zeke? Well, no, not exactly. (Though I really wish I did.)



I mean, this:




But the BEST, most filthy and suggestive thing about it? It reclines!



Awwww, yeeeah.


Vintage 50's Aqua Patio Aluminum Glider is currently available on Etsy from seller The Vintage Supply Co. They do not, however, have a poolboy named Zeke. Pity.

Way-Out Wednesday: Ill Communication

Welcome to Way-Out Wednesday!



You know, after taking a mini break from blogging recently, I thought I'd make a triumphant return with swift vengeance, ready to take on the blogging world with a great many new themes and ideas of which to simultaneously blow your minds and thusly knock your socks off... buuuuut... it's obvious I suck at time management. Hell, I couldn't even find the time to come on here to let you guys know I didn't have any time. (How do you daily bloggers DO it? Also, I said "do it".) I have no big circus acts of freak show awesomeness for you guys, no major shows of dramatic creativity. I *did* have this swell idea to carry on last year's tradition of doing a weekly vintage Halloween theme, but I just couldn't pull it together this past month. Oh well. Maybe with December will come a month of freaky deaky themes, who knows. But you know what I do know? We do still have our 4 (ish) regular, weekly themes (side note: this friday will see the return of Aqua Blue Heaven Friday!) and we do still have Way-Out Wednesday and by gawd we're gonna rock Wednesdays like it's nobody's business! And today, kids, we're in the ketchup biz.




What I mean, of course, is this Vintage Heinz Ketchup Bottle Phone. (And anyone who calls it "ket-sup", ie: catsup, is gonna catch the business end of my stabbin' hand. It's pronounced "ketch-up" and always will be. The end.) The seller doesn't mention an era, but I'd wager a guess that it's from the decade of wacky novelty crap, the 1980's. (Recall the Sports Illustrated Football Phone?) The phone's sort of beat to hell, but it still looks bizarrely awesome (you know, for a novelty telephone) and it's only 6 bucks. ($6.00!) The phone's available on Etsy from seller My Serious Side. (Have I mentioned its 6 dollar factor? 6 bucks!)

Way-Out Wednesday: Sweet Adeline O'Mine.

Welcome to Way-Out Wednesday!




I can't even get begin to think of witty repartee for today's pick...I just can't...no words... Seriously, there's not a word in the English (or Elvish or Klingon) language to describe the fuckuppery that's going with today's vintage pick. I mean, good gawd. It's terrifying. It may be having a stroke. And it's totally freaking awesome.

I give you...

the Vintage Sweet Adeline "Singing" Barbershop Head Ashtray:





Sweet....jebus... To be clear, it doesn't actually sing. Apparently the "stroke victim/borderline retarded face" is supposed to *look* like it's singing. But here's where the awesome happens: That creepy-ass, gaping, stroke victim mouth is an ashtray. OHMYGODILOVEITSOMUCHITHINKI'MHAVINGASTROKEMYSELF--WAIT A SEC,IJUSTSAID"STROKEMYSELF"AHAHAHAHA.

But wait! There's more freakish goodness -- If you rest your cigarette on his lip, smoke will rise up and come OUT OF HIS EARS. It almost makes me wish I still smoked! But really, it doesn't matter if you smoke or not, because something this grotesquely fantastic would look just as nightmare-inducing sitting the shelf even without smoke wafting from his ear holes.




Vintage "Sweet Adeline Ashtray" is currently available on Etsy from seller Soul Man Vintage for a super decent price. But guess what? She just happens to have an alternative to the Stroke Victim Ashtray for sale, if that one doesn't do it for you. But don't worry. It's just as sexy. Behold:

Way-Out Wednesday: Mo’ Money Mo’ Problems

Welcome to Way-Out Wednesday! And in case you're been wondering: why yes, today's title does come from a Notorious B.I.G. song, thanks for asking. My second choice would've been 1970's Funky Dollar Bill, Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow by George Clinton, so there you go. All this talk of money will make a helluva lot more sense in a second, I promise. The references to gangsta rap and funk? Probably not so much.




Since you haven't been truly terrorized by bizarre, unearthed vintage items from the evil clown underworld in a few weeks, today's your lucky day my friend, because I give you this:


Vintage Scary-Ass Clown Piggy Bank:



Could you imagine waking up in the middle of the night, rolling over and seeing THIS staring back at you? I'm repelled yet oddly want-y of this little guy!


Bank-o-doom is currently available on Etsy for a mere $12.50 from seller Luna Park Foundry, who has, in fact, quite a charming shop full of lovely vintage bits and not filled with, say, evil clowns of evilness, I promise.

My Triumphant Return!

Just a quick pop-in to say I'll be back to my regular blogging features as of tomorrow, right in time for Way-Out Wednesday! I've missed you all SO much and missed reading your blogs! Thanks to a most un-characteristically dramatic personal life crapstorm involving, but not limited to: a heart attack, double bypass surgery, multiple sclerosis, job loss, moving, and most recently, breast cancer, my commitments have been to my family and sadly my blog has taken a temporary breather.

(No need for concern- most of what's happened has NOT happened to me, but still, when it happens to your family, well, it might as well happen to you.)

Many thanks to those of you who dropped me a concerned line, phone call, telegram, secret note, (or whatever)- you guys rock so hard you don't even know it! Special thanks to my good pal and soul sista Cherry Bubbles of Past Life blog fame, who puts up with my flakiness and scatterbrained-ness for some unknown reason and deserves an award so grand and fabulous, it hasn't even been invented yet.

So no worries, mates. Tomorrow is another day (or whatever) and we'll be back on track with Way-Out Wednesday. See you then, loves!

Prints Charming Sunday: (Don't) Return To Sender

Welcome to another Prints Charming Sunday!



You know what I have zero of? Long-sleeved vintage dresses. Seriously. Not a one. I just never came across any cute frocks with long sleeves, I guess-- and not because I have especially long arms and legs, making it a feat against nature to find anything that doesn't make me look like I'm wearing a kindergartner's dress. (Ok, so maybe I do have that problem, but that's not the reason for no long sleeves, I swear.) So upon waking this morn to a particularly fall-ish day (cold, grey, rainy, blah-yet-ohmygawdilovethisweather), I decided to search for vintage long sleeves (in novelty prints, natch) and found this awesomeness, this Vintage 50's Letter Novelty Print Dress, available on Etsy from seller Sixsexsix (LOVE the shop name, btw!):






So, OK, it's technically only got 3/4-length sleeves, but oh well. That's a sacrifice I'd be willing to make with a fun print like that. Cold arms be damned!