Oh, gosh, what have I been up to? All of this heat makes the days melt together.

• Taking the dog on long walks in the August heat to get zucchini tacos at El Chilito.
• Listening to John Waters read his new book “Role Models” on my iPod everywhere: on the bus, on long walks, and passing endless hours at the DMV. In this, Waters recounts nearly everything, from his friendship with Leslie Van Houten and her life in jail to the brand and color of the pencil that he uses to draw on his signature pencil thin moustache. In honor of John Waters, I created a sundae this week called “Pink Flamingo,” which includes two tiny toy flamingos, pink sprinkles, and a Fingerstache temporary tattoo. So far only girls under 8 years of age have ordered it, which I think is kind of funny.
• I hope I’m like Vivienne Westwood when I grow up. Tangerine hair included.
• This is important: You must know about the Harlem James Gang! Snappy dressers, magic acts, catchy songs, and THE most handsome men I’ve ever seen! I hope they plan to come to Texas sometime in the future… but for now I’ll be jealous of all y’all who get to Huff with them.
• Speaking of other male performers that I’m smitten by, I hope everyone was cheering for Prince Poppycock’s performance on America’s Got Talent yesterday.
• In other reincarnation/timetravel news, I recently found out (via Darla Teagarden’s facebook feed) that my MOST favorite song from when I was a kid was not originally by Trout Fishing in America, as I had previously thought, but written in the 1930s and sung by a British radio and variety entertainers, Sovell and Wheldon. Warning! It’s a tongue-twister song that will be stuck in your head for days. Proceed with glee:

“Proper Cup Of Coffee” sung by Scovell & Wheldon 1934

Favorite filmstill I snapped this week: Marlene Dietrich, 1935 with teacup and upside-down heart kiss curls.

Prince Poppycock’s Striptease at Dances of Vice – be sure to watch until the end! Yow!

1. Alfred Cheney Johnson, Woman with Face Obscured by Fan 2. Dia De Los Muertos 3. Alfred Cheney Johnson Woman with White Mask
4. Prince Poppycock 5. Prince Poppycock 6. Roxanne Carter
7. Heart Lips 8. Glitter Lips 9. Cupid’s Bow Lips

Me, dressed as Hello Kitty

The blogsphere can be misleading. A quick scroll down a fabulous fashionista’s page, and it’s all talk, talk about fabulous new perfumes and quirky adventures performend in the name of fashion. No mention of day jobs or drudgery. I’ve been blogging since 2002, and for me, it has always served as escape. It’s a place I can catalogue my adventures, vent about passions, and connect with like minded ladies and gentlemen. I’ve met some of my best connections through blogging! Who else would I have to stay with in PDX, NYC and Paris if not for networking? So, to keep things interesting for y’all, I seldom talk about my jobs, unless they were directly related to the blog in some form.

Right now, my fabulous job that I’ve had since I moved to Austin at the toy store is coming to a close. Gone are the days when I blast Prince songs and hype up on coffee and sugar fumes to greet the patrons of the day. My days of soft serve slinging will be put on hold in favor of Texas history and recounting the adventures of Lewis and Clark to twelve year olds. Tomorrow I begin my last week of full time, before I leave to teach middle school in a TBD place in Austin. I’m scared to switch gears, but I’m up to the challenge. The hardest part will be living with no income for the next four months. I’ve grown accustomed to eating meager meals and biking everywhere to save money. Yikes! I think I can do it.

Toy Joy’s second annual free art show was a complete success! We had everything: face painting, cupcakes, awesome bands, incredible toy-inspired art, vegan root beer floats, screen printed tshirts, and an animation station.
A sea of people crammed into the United States Art Authority
Sean and Elia manned the Toy Joy tshirt table. All three designs were created by Toy Joy employees.
Maine Root donated a keg of root beer and we served my vegan softserve and made over 300 vegan root beer floats! I worked the line for two hours in an evening gown and had a sore throat after shouting over the music. Here is Diana, talking to a girl who got octopus face paint. Notice keg of root beer in the background and a stack of vegan softserve in cups in the crates.
Belleweather and I transformed into Robots and Rody’s in Jenny’s special photobooth. Photo by DirtyJerz.
I showed a variety of kid-friendly embroidery.
I wore a 1930s wedding gown and a cuff by Louise Black

Jennifer Ramos took some lovely pictures of all of the displayed art (I was too busy to snap photos!)

Jenny Rose of DirtyJerz Photography has an amazing set of photos from the evening.

Here were some of the quiet corners of NYC I was able to see:

Street Art over Brooklyn.
A 1770s tombstone with Death Head and wings.
Sipping freshly squeezed juice from food carts downtown under the shade of the graveyard.

Spending time with Erin Fae, after being online friends for nearly 6 years! We hung out at the Brooklyn flea and ate some exotic hot dogs that were topped with Apple Kim Chee and curry sauce. I’m so glad I got to see her before she leaves NYC forever today for New Zealand. But maybe we’ll see each other in New Zealand… I wish!!

One of the most exciting parts of our trip was staying with Kim Boekbinder who has a cd releasing very soon and we got to see some of the inside action. It was very sweet and I can’t wait for the album to come out!

Hi everyone! Please meet my dear friend, Caitlin. She and I traveled to NYC this past weekend in search of vegan milkshakes, odd antique stores, and flapper frolics.

I’ve always wanted to go to Coney Island, partly because I love quaint rides like Ferris Wheels (not rollercoasters, ah!) but also because one Mills Brother’s song, Coney Island Washboard Roundelay is so catchy.
On her Coney Island washboard she would play
You could hear her on the boardwalk ev’ry day
Soap suds all around, bubbles on the ground
Rub-a dub-a dub in her little tub, all the tunes she found, hey!
Thimbles on her fingers make the noise,
She plays the Charleston on the laundry for the boys.
She can rag a tune right through the knees
Of a brand-new pair of BVD’s.
Coney Island washboard roundelay.
-music by Hampton Durand and Jerry Adams, words by Ned Nestor and Aude Shugart.

Of course, it’s not really the season yet for any real Coney Island action. It was a rather drab and deserted day for a visit to the Boardwalk, but we ate grilled corn, fat french fries and Cokes while looking out at the ocean and ENORMOUS seagulls bouncing on the beach. We had plans to see some of the shows there at night but we decided to go play Atari video games in a bar in Brooklyn with a NYC friend.
Here is a video and song with images from Coney Island in the 1940s. I really want to come back when it’s in full swing, like the Mermaid Parade!

Here is a secret: as good as we are at traveling Europe and the Middle East, we just kept getting turned around in NYC. We would be in the right neighborhood on the right block and still be lost for twenty minutes. On the plus side, while we were hunting for vegan ice cream in the city and took a wrong turn, we ended up finding Obscura Antiques & Oddities, a gem of the store with the friendliest folks running it. They let us dress up in these hats made from fetal sheep fur and we gawked at the medical specimens, taxidermy and a walking umbrella embellished with embroidered swastikas (you can see it in the right hand side in the case). It reminded us (of course!) of our favorite antique store in Austin, Uncommon Objects, who is partly the doing of the wonderful Angeliska.

I had very specific things that I wanted to see on this trip. The first was Henry Darger’s personal coloring books and art inspiration walls, on view at the American Folk Art Museum, Up Close: Henry Darger and the Coloring Book (through September 19, 2010).
This showcases all of the art Darger pinned to his walls, most of them religious photos or advertisements “framed” by hundreds of Easter Seal stickers. After watching “In the Realms of the Unreal,” I keep finding these thesis dissertations on Henry Darger’s works and I’m just amazed at the breadth that is analyzed about this one solitary man. He is like the Lucy of the art world, we only have his artifacts and relics to complete him as a person, but when we do it unlocks a whole secret insight to the mind of an artist. He is endlessly fascinating.
Photo of Henry Darger’s grave, “Artist and Protector of Children“

Oh, and lastly we found SO MUCH vegan ice cream sold throughout the city! And cupcakes! Won’t someone in Texas throw some money at me to make my dreams of vegan softserve Austin domination begin!? I promise I’ll make you proud!

Here are two large-scale embroideries that I’ve been working on lately. They are a mixture of 1910/1920s original embroidery patterns (that I got from Angeliska for my 27th birthday) and 1930s film stars. Helen Kane is used as the base to make the Sob Sister’s face.

Sob Sister
10 inches x 10 inches
hand embroidery on vintage pillow ticking, pastel

Tea’s Too Hot
8 inches x 10 inches
hand embroidery on vintage pillow ticking

We started on my new tattoo piece last Friday. I tried to take photos of it but it’s in such a unique angle that a video did it the most justice. I’m so excited about it! You can see Nick’s work on his wonderful website.

One thing that I was going to say (that got cut off in the video) is that I got the “Lost Princess of Oz” primarily because I saw it in the Henry Darger documentary and I loved his little frog feet.

Behold some captures of in-between life:

Waving my hair… needing to apply more lipstick. Vintage grooming requires lots of serene morning time wherein I drink coffee, listen to Margaret Atwood audio books and dawdle about my homework.
Eye lashed out. This was for my Gadjo Disko costume last week, which I didn’t get to wear properly since the line to get into the disko was so very long and I never made it in. Sadly, I will have to debut my Josephine Baker banana outfit elsewhere.

Coral rose crown for Valentine’s day. I just got back from being a cigarette girl for “The Mouth is for to Fuck” at Rio Rita for a Valentine’s day Extravaganza. I sold two of my embroidered tidy cloths! Here I am at home with my “Buy me a whiskey” glitter valentine pinned to my chest. Shortly after this I fell asleep watching the HBO/Barrymore version of “Grey Gardens.”

This past Saturday I had a valentine making party with Belleweather in order to make decorations for her birthday party.
Elodie sits next to my cup of lavender tea and over looks my new copy of Zelda Magazine, the Magazine of the Vintage Nouveau. It’s put out by my dear friend Diane. Do you have your copy yet!? This issue is only $7.50, shipping included, and it features Roxanne and The Minsky Sisters, among other vintagey tidbits.
Tetsie cuts out paper dolls from the Art Deco Dress Up book.
We’ve got 1920s ukulele sheet music and little valentine doilies as the backgrounds.
Mary Louise Butters brownies are an Austin fixture. They have spicy chocolate, fruity, minty and every other brownie flavor in between. Of course, I’ve only tried the vegan variety, but I still like the packages!
Finished valentines! Note the rolled stockings and hearts-covering-faces.
The pinking shears were a nice touch for zig zag edges.

“Excuse me, you speak English, right? You are my personal hero, hiking the rainforest like that.”
- Girl from Chicago

Here I am, pictured above, on the sea-facing coast of Ilha Grande, Brazil during my vacation there to see G. this past summer. Before this photo was taken, G. and I had hiked several miles up and down a mountain through rain and lots of puddles. I have just taken off my extremely muddy shoes so that I might dry my toes in the soft powdery sand.

I had only bought one pair of shoes to Brazil, some flat t-strap Mary Jane that were black, shiny and perfect for dressing up an outfit but still being able to ride my bike. I had such fun on this trip to the island! The sights were so wonderful that I didn’t mind offering my favorite shoes as a sacrifice to the Rainforest!

I have been traveling a lot lately in the past year – mostly to attend my own gallery openings or just to vacation to see old friends. Seattle, New Orleans, San Francisco, Providence, Belo Horizonte, Brazil: in each city I’ve managed to wear nearly 100% vintage with no hassle and little effort. I’ve made a list for you all below in hopes that you’ll remember it for your next trip!

I first discovered Tea Tree baby wipes during a layover in the Denver airport on my way to Arkansas for holidays in 2005. I bawked at using what is essentially a baby wipe at first, but I love tea tree oil and use it in my baths and as laundry solution so I wasn’t opposed to trying it. I’ve found that the wipes are indispensible cleaning tools for long days on airplanes, trains or walking city blocks. They freshen face, backs of necks, knees, and anywhere else you might need perking up.

Wear practical lingerie. At least two slips, one dark, one light, will suit most needs. In the first image of this post, you can see my trusty pink slip poking out from my print dress. It is a must! A comfortable, flattering base such as a lace full slip can also double as pajamas, as I am oft to forget to pack them in the first place. Also, you never have to get fully undressed if you wear a slip under everything, which is very helpful if one is staying in crowded hostels.

Part of the hassles of smart dressing means dealing with wrinkles in your fancy things. My solution? When packing, choose lace or patterned dresses; these garments won’t show that they’ve been squished in a backpack because the patterns are distracting. I roll each garment separately in a big ziploc bag so that nothing gets snagged while in transport. Those little lace bits are magnets for hook-and-eye closures to snag!
Still have wrinkles? I have been known to put a silk scarf over a screaming tea kettle to smooth the wrinkles out. Just don’t get the steam too close!

I am at the Musee Mechanique in San Francisco in front of the French Execution game in this photo. For this, I set my front kisscurl at night and put on a helmet cloche hat in the morning! It saves a lot of time and looks very chic at the same time.
This last trip to Seattle was a total treat for me – I got my hair fingerwaved by the loveliest young lady at the Aveda Institute. It cost about $20 and has lasted for four days so far! In my experience, those who are willing to do fingerwaves are either salons who cater to vintage styles or those fresh out of beauty school. Fingerwaves and pincurls are still taught in schools, I’m told, although most think they are outdated. I’m happy to find a stylist who is excited about fingerwaves, because usually when I phone a salon to ask if they provide them, I expect a groan!
Paired with a little dark lipstick and groomed eyebrows, the fingerwave will dress up any little black dress or spice up a vintage sweater set. Also, old ladies on the bus will smile and point to your head and whisper to their grand children, “That’s how grammy did her hair when she was a little girl!” It’s so cute!

Do you have any travel tips for Vintage Vivants?
Bon Voyage!