Friday, December 30, 2011

There and back again-

My good lord.
I've just returned from a four day long trip into the mountains with three of my best friends. It was a fantastic time - rivaling the original Idyllwild trip, I think.


And I'd love to tell you all about it but I seem to have caught a cold somewhere along the way so I'm less then eloquent at the moment.
And as for photos, well....I took over 100 during the trip so if you'd like to see them, feel free to hop on over to my facebook album as I haven't got the energy to repost them all here.


And hey, I'll leave you with some videos a video we took of sledding fun.


(I do actually have two videos but the second is taking much longer to upload then I had originally thought. I'll post the second one as soon as it finishes.)



Monday, December 19, 2011

Pink Foam Rollers: or The Progression of Hair

Remember when you first started dressing in vintage? 
The hours spent online- combing youtube for pincurl tutorials, nearly crying when Nocturne's website, that mecca of beginner vintage hairstyling, went down, painstakingly rolling your hair for hours into little 1 inch sculptured pincurls?




And now, if you're anything like me, you can hardly be bothered to put your hair up in a bun, much less do a full wet set. My current go-to styles of ponytails and quick hot rollers are a sharp contrast to my earlier days of victory rolls and nightly pincurling. I can blame some of it on the fact that my hair was much shorter back then and wet sets were less of an ordeal. But honestly, I'm lazy and busy and no longer have the will to put in the time for full sets unless I have a special event. 


Well, if you remember, I did have an event over the weekend, an invite to The New Boy's holiday work party. And the night before, I found myself busting out my pink foam rollers for the first time in months. It was just like I remembered, difficult to sleep in and the look is still more crazy lady then Rosie the Riveter when I scarfed up the next morning.


But the effort was worth the results- the authentic look you get from a wet set just can't be duplicated with a curling iron. 


 Another drawback of rolling your hair- being stuck in the house half a night and all the next day. Because really, the public doesn't want to see this.


 Here we have that stage known in the vintage circles as Poodle Hair, Shirley Temple on Crack or "Oh, Dear God- what have I done?"


Ah, but you see, with a little faith and about 20 minutes of brushing, poodle hair of doom calms down and turns into lovely 40's glamour waves. Now if only I could figure out the secret to keeping this look all night, I would be the happiest little vintage-wearing gal on the block. Until then...

Friday, December 16, 2011

It's 58 Right Now

and we have 5 mph winds coming from the north. I don't think I can recall a time when we've had northern wind.


Anyway, this post isn't about the weather. It's about music.


Yesterday, I worked at the KFMB station for the first time in months. It's always a trade off working there. On one hand, everyone is always so happy to see me again- asking me if I've lost weight and telling me how much they missed me. Who doesn't love that?
But on the other hand, I'm stuck in a small little cave for 9 hours at a time by myself without so much as a cigarette break. Nightmarish. Add to that the fact that business was pretty slow and I was practically bouncing off the walls. My only saving grace was that I had a fully charged ipod to help offset the madness. And that got me thinking on how much music affects my day to day.
My music is one my few constants- it's always playing, in the car, on breaks, even right now I'm blogging to music. I realize that I spend more quality time with my music then I do with some close friends. And it isn't that I have such a huge collection of songs- I don't. I have maybe 15 bands that I listen to with any regularity. So, I'm certainly not varied with my music tastes but what I do like is always brilliant. With only 15 slots, I don't want to waste time with music that makes me anything but supremely happy.




Like Red Hunter.

Or Redding. Or Peter and the Wolf. He goes by a lot of names. He is one of the greatest things to come out of Texas. He also got me through a bad break-up and came along for my first road trip with the SC boys.






And The White Stripes.
Whom I had to listen to in secret my first year in college after I rashly denounced them in my English Literature class as doing nothing more then coattailing The Doors. My god, I was stupid at 19.






Then there's Miss Gillian Welch and this song which hold one of the most gut wrenching lines in all of music....






Devendra Banhart With his improbable name and nicety- he never fails to make me wish it was summer. And that's a feat as I hate summer.






And Far Who ruled my life from 2000 til 2005. And yeah, okay- they still get a fairly strong say.






And Colin Meloy.... Who once had a little band. And before they called it quits, that little band created my single favorite song in the world. He could have stopped there and still had my eternal gratitude but no, He iced the cake and formed the Decemberists.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Regarding shopping schizophrenia and birthdays

A lot of girls will say that their shopping weakness is shoes or purses or maybe something completely different- like model trains. And while I do love shoes and purses and (to a lesser extent) scale models, my real shopping weakness is events. 98% of my purchases happen when I've got a fancy party or a trip or show coming up. I get an image in my head of how I want to look and then scour the internet and local vintage shops in an effort to force that mental image into outfit reality. 
 The process goes a little something like this....


Self: Oooh, I'm going to a work holiday party with The New Boy this month. Dang, what am I going to wear?
Frugal Self: Don't go buying a new dress- you have a million hanging in the closet. Wear one of those.
Self: Alright, I do love The Wedding Dress and I've only worn it twice....
Indulgent Self: But what about shoes? It's the holidays and nothing says the holidays like red shoes. 
Frugal Self: We have red shoes.
Indulgent Self: They're falling apart.
Self: That's true, ok I'll buy some new shoes and I'll make sure they're fairly inexpensive.
Indulgent Self: And a giant statement bracelet...
Frugal Self: No way! Totally unnecessary.
Self: Hmmmm...
Indulgent Self: And new underwear!
Frugal Self: What are we, made of money or something???
Self: Ummm...
Indulgent Self: AND YOU HAVE TO GET A NEW PURSE!
Frugal Self: THIS IS WHY WE STILL LIVE WITH OUR MOTHER!! BECAUSE YOU CAN'T BUDGET YOUR MONEY!!
Self: Both of you just shut up! You're not even real- you're just Freudian manifestations of my own internal dialogue.

End scene.

Ok, so here's what I ended up buying.
 Bangle set I picked up from Taneesi Jewelry on Etsy.
 
New Red Shoes from modcloth

And a whole bunch of pretty underthings from Dollhouse Bettie.

I showed all kinds of restraint and did not buy a new purse since I own a perfectly lovely red evening bag that was a gift from ML. Also, it's my birthday so that mean I have to share this which has been my birthday song for something like 8 years now. I don't think I've ever posted Jonah here but He is another of my favorite people and I will forever love his music. so here ya go. 


Jonah Matranga Live at WAH part three // 14-41 from We Are Home. on Vimeo.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Clever Headline Here!

I'm think I need a tag called Failures in Blogging and that way you could click a link and see every one of my "apologies for not posting for 3 weeks" posts. You can add this one to that list.

I'm actually on my way out the door to the reason for my recent internet absence- work. Yes, yes the dead folk of San Diego have been keeping me pretty busy this week but I get tomorrow off and am hoping to convince The New Boy to go with me to the Southpark walkabout tonight. I love the walkabouts- especially the one in the winter months.

Anyway, I thought since I can't get around to doing a decent blog for the life of me,  it might be nice to share with you my favorite blog. This girl is my ultimate icon- the epitome of ideal vintage perfection. I shamelessly copy her looks and all of my favorite repro shops I found through her. She's one of my favorite people which I realize is quite odd as I've never met her. Nevertheless.




addendum: These photos belong solely to The Freelancer's Fashionblog and appear here only to advertise her awesomeness.