Shop Update - December 2010

My "antique booth" experiment in the Antique shop nearby is underway.... with a few sales. I had a "open house" that I did not advertise properly, so hardly any people showed up. (My fault.) The owner and I have pretty much decided to shut the shop down for January/February and re-open in the early spring - as it is very expensive to heat the old building and much work needs to be done. We will open by appt. only, while we work on thinning out her old inventory, and on some cleaning/redecorating/remodeling projects in the building. Then we'll have a huge event in the Springtime - which I am planning now. I've been thinking that a vintage fashion show would be awesome - if I can get enough people to parade around in their vintage outfits!

During that time I plan on working on my own inventory - I have some painted furniture projects I need to catch up on. I also plan on vamping up my vintage clothing inventory - with a few out of town shopping trips planned over those few months.

I am working on re-doing all the photos in my Etsy shop, with my new camera; and giving it a new vibe.

I recently came upon a stash of new old stock, very cute, adorable, romantic and girly sleepwear and lounge wear pieces; and some other "stuff". Here is a peek at some of the new stuff to hit the shop this coming week:


"Popcorn" beaded envelope clutch - 1950s. Like new!


1976 bicentennial colonial style costume dress. In pea green. Whoa.

Snow Days

I woke up to a few inches of snow this morning, and had to be driven to work by my hero husband. :)My job is usually done from my house; but on certain days my job requires that I sit with an elderly lady and oversee meals, daily activities, and medications. So I have a lot of time to read, reflect, and remember.

Oh, and shop on line. But that is a different story.

Kids who (are blessed that they) live in the Southern United States know how special, and exciting, and fun snow days are! And even though my mom home schooled my siblings and me, we didn't have to do our schoolwork on those rare winter weather days.
It was especially rare for us, moving here from Florida in the mid 80's. When I was about 6 or 7, I remember we had one really huge snowfall, about a foot. Then for years, winters in North Carolina were pretty mild, often warm, and we certainly never got measurable snow - except for those rare occasions.

Snow days always began with bundling up and playing in the snow until we were wet and cold. My parent's house is perched on a tall hill, with a steep driveway that was perfect for sledding, as was the streets around our small village.

Mom would toss our wet clothes in the dryer and feed us a lunch of tomato soup and grilled cheese; and hot cocoa with lots of poofy marshmallows on top! Then we'd put on the warm clothes, toasty from the dryer, and go out again! Dad would usually play his guitar and sing; and mom would sew clean things.


As we got older, snow days were still exciting; but in my teen years, the first order of a snow day was to feed our horses, and feed the horses at the other horse farm I worked on; which entailed driving around the countryside - always risky for Southerners who don't have a lot of winter weather driving experience.

In 1996 we had a "southern blizzard" in the Carolinas and into Virginia; a surprise snow storm that dumped 8 - 10 inches of snow and then ice all in one evening. We didn't have a 4-wheel drive vehicle, and my Dad, sister and I had to load the horse's feed onto sleds and trudge down the 3/4 mile driveway to feed the horses at the farm I worked on.

In our teen years, my sister and I were allowed to go out after dark with our neighbors for evening sledding parties; because the snow re-froze after dark and the sledding was superb - and fast!

Today, for the most part, I do not like winter weather and extreme cold. And it has been extremely cold in my Southern home recently.
But I still like snow days for the stillness they cast on the world; and how all busyness stops. I like being snuggled in my toasty farm cottage with our wood stoves roaring and my kitties cuddled all around. And this year, we have a puppy to cuddle also.

I still have those horse chores; made simpler now because I have a big, 4 wheel drive truck to navigate the farms in.
I love bundling up and bringing my horses in to their stalls, with their deep pine shavings bed; hearing the munching of hay and grain; and seeing them all bundled in their blankets.

Once chores are done I like to bake something, or make some soup. Watch movies in my PJ's under a quilt with something hot to drink; and maybe doze off. And then I like to make a big hearty dinner, like pot roast, or Spaghetti.

That's what I'd like to be doing today - but I'm working. Oh well.

Gingerbread

Gingerbread is another old-fashioned taste of Christmas... whether you call it gingerbread, or just plain old molasses cookies; they're a favorite in my family.
I remember going to Old Salem, NC in school and getting paper thin Moravian Molasses cookies in their old-time bakery. And I remember baking cookie with mom at Christmas time, cutting out the gingerbread men with her big cookie cutter, and pressing raisins in for the eyes, nose, mouth and buttons.

Years ago I started making gingerbread, the kind that is like cake. Some people like it with lemon sauce; I like mine warm with a little orange peel and real whipped cream. Yum.

Another gingerbread favorite is gingerbread houses..... or even gingerbread horses.

Open House

Well since no one - well, just a couple of people, actually - showed up to my Antique Store Open House, I figured I'd have a virtual Open House for you who read this blog.

The only thing you are missing is the hot Wassail, four kinds of home made cookies, and old fashioned ribbon candy that we served.

Yes, it was a very.Very.Very disappointing weekend.... but nevertheless.

(These are the first photos I took with my new camera, so some of them are a little "off"; because I am getting used to the new features, etc.)














(I love this set of sorbets. They're from the 30's, from what I can tell.)





(My sister Noelle re-reading The Fellowship of the Ring in front of the cozy wood stove.)




(View one of the downstairs level of the store.)


(View 2 of the downstairs level.)




This is my tree in my "booth" in the upstairs part of the store. Most of the ornaments on it are vintage ones.)






(Me & New Camera.)




(My shop.)


(China in my shop.)


(Furniture I have painted and re-done)

Peppermint

One of my favorite flavors ever - peppermint.

Especially at Christmas time.

Nothing is more old fashioned than a candy cane.....



Or how about creamy, slow churned peppermint stick ice cream?



Then there are my other faves, like the dark chocolate fudge brownies with peppermint icing I made a few weekends ago;

Or a peppermint candy cane stir stick for your hot chocolate;

And the oh-so-addicting peppermint nougat candy.

Nothing tastes like Christmas more than peppermint.

Red Velvet Cake

So Thanksgiving starts the "holiday season" and with the holiday season all the holiday treats.

I do a LOT of baking during the "holiday" (CHRISTMAS) season.

A lot of baking, and a lot of eating. Too much, in fact.

Every weekend and sometimes even weekdays, my family finds an excuse for getting together and eating some feast of hearty, heavy food and decadent desserts. It is really terrible for people watching their weight. But nevertheless.....

I will feature certain desserts and dishes that my family counts among our traditional "holiday fare" all throughout this month - yum! (I may or may not include photos I took myself. I have no luck taking food photos. So most photos will be courtesy of some cooking website or another.)

So this past weekend the family was over for chicken curry and Red Velvet Cake. (I use a recipe from Southern Living Magazine.) I make it with cream cheese icing. It's just not the same with plain white icing.



I made it, and we ate half of it that evening. The next day my sister and I ate more..... and this morning I took the remaining 1/3 of the cake to my parent's house to get it out of my reach before I ate the rest of it for lunch.

Mmmmmmmmm

Fashion Decade: 1970s

Okay, I'm going to do it. I'm going to find some good things to say about vintage 1970s fashions. Because in my opinion, there is something salvageable from every fashion decade.

Not everything was horrible in the 1970's. Take away the gold, rust and avocado colors; the huge bell bottoms, polyester jumpsuits, Afros, sideburns, mega platform shoes, hideous prints, thigh - high go-go boots, and frumpy hippie styles and you have a few decent things to consider.

For one thing, there was Gunne Sax. Gunne Sax was founded in the late 60's, but really took off in the 70's. The older frocks have a "black label" and the Black Labels are hard to find. Most of the Black Labels have very elegant Renaissance styling - with high collars; laced bodices to resemble corsets; and materials like velvet and brocade.




Later in the 70s, the dresses took on a more "prairie revival", and turn of the century Victorian look; with gauzy fabrics, calico, pinafores and ruffles on the "prairie" frocks, and Leg 'O Mutton sleeves and high collars on the more Victorian styles.






In all my years of collecting, I have only ever found one essentially "true" Gunne Sax. I have two for sale in my etsy shop right now, but they're not the 70s versions; they're early 1980s styles that I will cover in another post at another time.

Suffice it to say, "Gunnes" are hard to come by in thrift shops and yard sales; but abundant on line. Most of them are in teeny tiny sizes.

Other nice things in the 1970s dresses department were sundresses, certain maxi-dress styles, some adorable mini dresses, and other romantically - inspired feminine things. (I can't show a zillion photos here, unfortunately.)Here is an example of a not-overly tacky 1970s cocktail dress in my Etsy Shop.

Some other neat things that are from the 70s, or 70s inspired include flare jeans (not as popular as skinny jeans are, but still)graphic tee shirts; headbands like the ones Taylor Swift frequently wears -



And Star Wars.

Okay, so Star Wars has nothing to do with vintage fashion - unless you count Princess Liea's groovy white dresses and outfits; especially my personal fave - the one she wore at the end of the first movie -





The movie came out in 1977; I was born in 1981; and my brothers indoctrinated me with Star Wars from a very young age. Princess Liea was always my hero; and still is.
When I got older people started telling me how much I looked like Princess Liea - I've even heard this from strangers.

How did I get off into Star Wars geekery?! (YES. I am a proud Star Wars geek.)

So.... I guess my point is; don't be tempted to throw an entire decade of fashion into the garbage just because a lot of horrible, unflattering, downright tacky stuff was created and worn at that time. There is always something good to be plucked from the tackiest of decades.

So now I have to go digging and see what I can find from the 80's to support this notion. Hee, hee........