I've Gone Missing......

 

 I suppose you can call me a slacker! I have neglected this sweet little space long enough! I am back and have such fun things to post!

 

 

Awhile back (like last year in December) my gal pal and I went to Charles Phoenix's Big Boy Lighting. This fun event took place at the Boy's Big Boy in Downey California. Since we are both fans of Charles Phoenix we thought it would be a great holiday thing to do. So off we went!

 

 

We all gathered in the chilly weather to see Charles light up Bob with strands of vintage Christmas lights! Here he is all decked out and pre lighting!

 

 

In case you haven't been there, the Bob's Big Boy in Downey is very retro in décor! They often have classic cars shows in their very own parking lot. I snapped a photo of some of the cars in the car hop car port.

 

 

More pics of the outside. When I was little my parents often took us to eat at Bob's.

 

 

Charles gathered us all and gave a sweet little speech about Bob's before he lit him up.

 

 

Just like a Christmas Tree!

 

 

Our group pic with Charles and Big Boy!

 

After the lighting we all went in and had dinner. After that they had a free raffle and I won a Bob's Big Boy Bobble Head! Not too shabby!

 

 

 

Because I am a fan of Mr. Phoenix... I thought it would be fun to make one of his holiday recipes!

After careful consideration... I decided on the Melting Snowman. This was quite easy enough. You just take some Velveeta Cheese and roll it into three balls, frost it with cream cheese and decorate with olives, carrots, pretzel sticks and such. The you pour some salsa into a fondue pot and place your snowman inside it and fire up the pot! He will melt into a delicious dip!

 

 

Here he is already melting away! I took him to our family holiday shindig!

 

 

Me and my little friend!

 

 

 

All in all Christmas was a hoot!

 

 

 

New Years Eve did not bring any crazy parties our way. We opted instead to head on over to my in laws for an impromptu poker game and cocktails. Even though it was winter out.... inside it was all about Summer

 

 

I brought along what I like to call my "Traveling Bar Kit".

It adds a bit of Retro Fab to any situation. Normally I pack it with plastic tiki cups and

martini glasses but since it was a holiday, I went with the real deal. I thought it was a swell way to ring in the new year! We sometimes find vintage bar kits at estate sales. These are usually hard cases that open and have a cocktail shaker, cups and room for a bottle of something inside. Sadly they are always missing the inside goodies but like to buy them anyway and hunt for stuff to put inside.

They make great gifts as you can fill them with nifty cups and cocktail napkins, vintage barware or a bottle of booze.

 

Next up.... Valentines Day! As married couple, I think it's sweet to celebrate Valentines day with all the trimmings! My husband spoiled me with surprise treats he placed on the table sometime after I went to sleep the night before. I woke up to this:

 

 

I love my husband!

 

We celebrated by going out to dinner at a local place called Phlight. We dined on delicious Tapas

and I enjoyed a glass of Sangria or two while Bobby had beer.

 

 

Interior of Phlight.

 

The next day we went to celebrate Valentines Day again with friends. We drove out to Long Beach to meet up and have dinner at The Attic.

 

 

The Attic is a sweet place that once was a house and still very much looks that way.

 

We dined outdoors and then headed out to see our friends band play at a near by bar.

 

I hope you enjoyed this little recap and I know I am not up to date as there is still more I would like to share but I think I shall put that in another post!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Retro Glam: Capri Pants

 

Audrey in her Capris

 

 

 

The Capri pant is a staple..a must have in a retro glam gal's closet. The Capri can be summery, saucy, dressy and sexy. They can come in solid colors or prints. You can belt them or leave as is. Sometimes they sit high on the waist or zip on the side. Capri pants are normally above ankle length and sometimes are shorter which I think makes them perfect for showing off fabulous shoes. They are sometimes fitted or relaxed. They can also be a bit pricey should you purchase a vintage pair or a well made repro.

 

 

 

Fitted High Waist Vintage Capris

 

 

Relax Fit Vintage Capris

 

 

 

Leopard Print Repro Capris

 

 

 

I am a gal who loves a bargain as well as a challenge. While I could have easily purchased a pair of  vintage or repro capris online, the price of them as well as the shipping cost is what sent me out the door on a hunt for well made capris at a bargain price. Because I'm a believer that I can thrift just about anything, I went in search of Capris at a few thrift stores.

 

I tend to thrift every week and I usually keep a list of items I am on the hunt for. In my search for the Capris, I knew that I wanted printed ones. I wanted to keep it Retro so that meant that my prints needed to be in that same family. In my many thrifting adventures, I was able to find 3 pairs of Capris that I felt fit the bill AND at a fraction of the cost of the vintage and repro I had seen online.

 

 

Now I do realize that there are some gals out there who prefer vintage. I love that! If my budget allowed, I too would love to have a few vintage pairs of Capris. I still look for quality items when I thrift as I try to get the best bang for my buck so I tend to avoid certain fabrics and prints that look too faded. Another good reason to thrift is that they have clothing for ALL seasons. While you may be able to find a pair of Capris at a department store in Spring or Summer..... you may not be so lucky to find a pair in the cooler months. Because I live in California.... I can basically wear Capris all year.

 

 

Here are the three Capri pants I was able to find:

 

 

 

 

 

These beigey fern print capris have a very retro tiki look to them.

They are also 100% silk! They were WELL within my budget and they

had a more relaxed fit to them which I am a fan of.

 

 

 

These darling cotton black and white polka dot capris are in stellar condition and the look

is very retro. They can easily be worn for day or night. I found these for only

$4.00!

 

These lovely gold Asian print Capris have a more thinner cut. They also sit

higher on the waist. They are 100% silk and zip and fasten on the side.

These were less than $6.00.

 

I think I did pretty well. I did not however find these all in the same day but I did find them all in thrift stores which saved me a ton of money!



 



The Retro Glam Girl Gets Crafty: Part 2

 

It's Christmas and like most people I have a lot of gifts to get but not a whole lot of  money to spend. Being that it's Christmas... I would love to be able to give gifts to everyone however that could be very expensive. I decided that this year I would make some gifts to give away with a card. Normally I would bake some cookies but this year I wanted to do something a little different. I have a small group of pals that meets for Christmas Cocktails once a year. Since gift giving tends to be expensive we normally decide not to do a gift exchange... but it's CHRISTMAS.... and I normally take something!

 

Since my pals have nice hair... I decided to go with hair clips this year. Since it's Christmas... I decided to go with RED ones. I found most of my supplies at the 99 cent store when I was looking for my turquoise Christmas balls. I saw the red bows...which I believe are meant for decorating the tree... and the idea just came to me. I was also lucky enough to find the hair clips there as well. Everything else I had at home. Total cost for supplies.... $2.00

 

 

 

 

I got out my glue gun and scissors along with a few other things and got busy. The first thing I needed to do was trim the gold thread in the back of the bows. I needed the surface to be smooth.

 

Snip

 

SMOOTH!



 

 

The next thing I did was hot glued the silver hair clips to the back of the bows. You need to be careful when doing this and make sure you have then going in the proper direction of where you want the bow to be on your head.. otherwise they may get glued on backwards.

 

 

Glued Down

 

I let them sit for awhile and cool. The next step is to simply decorate the front. You can do this with a number of different things like vintage buttons or trinkets. You can simply add glitter to it or small faux flowers. Because my group of gals like more of a dark theme..I went with some skulls and bats.

 

 

I had a bunch of spooky trinkets left over from Halloween crafts. The skulls and bats

were plastic rings. All I did was snip off the RING part and then hot glued them to the center of my bow.

 

 

Just like this.

 

I actually took these a step further and glued rhinestones (I had from another

craft) into the skull eyes and bat wings just to make them a tad more fancy. I also decided to make my own cards this year so I found some vintage holiday images online and printed some pictures which I then glued to index cards. I wrote personal messages on the back for each girl and attached the clips to the card. To dress the card up more ... I punched two holes on the top and then tied a bow in the center with some leopard ribbon.  Again I had the card stock and ribbon at home already so I didn't have to purchase anything but the bows and clips.

 

Christmas always brings out the crafter in me. These little bow clips were so simple and fun to make!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Retro Glam Gal Gets Crafty: Holiday Issue Part 1

 

 

I am huge fan of crafting. I love to sit at a table while sipping yummy coffee

while having a wonderful crafternoon. I get inspired by lots of things and always

love to use vintage items. I find many a vintage things in thrift stores. One of the many thrift shops I

visit has this large chest of drawers all devoted to crafts. The contents inside those drawers is

usually old and vintage. It's quite a treat.

 

Awhile back I had taken out my Christmas bins and was looking at all my wonderful

vintage Christmas décor. I have so much and not everything gets used every year. I decided to use some of these items in a new craft. My inspiration came from a vintage item I saw on Ebay.

I thought " I can do that!" and so... I did.

 

The first thing I did was gather my materials.

 

Some items were non vintage but they still had a vintage look. I was

happy that some of my vintage pieces were being put to good use. I wanted to make

little vintage Christmas trees to display as décor in that house. I bought a few extra so that I

could give them away as gifts to my vintage loving friends. The inspiration piece I saw

used vintage bottle brush trees however I did not have any so I went with white and green artificial

mini trees which I purchased at a discount craft store. My local dollar store had some great ornaments

that came 5 in a pack for 1.00. I bought some to use as stars on my trees. I especially felt the one that

said Merry Christmas was vintage looking.

 

What was also needed for this craft was a base for your tree to sit in. I had some vintage Santa mugs and was lucky to find some vintage Christmas plant holders at The Goodwill. One was a super cute boot and the other was a box with a Santa Clause on the side. While on the hunt for these things, I ran across Styrofoam cone shaped item in the craft section of the dollar store. I knew I could also use them as a tree so I grabbed two and headed on home to craft.

 

I had vintage balls and tinsel holly leaves along with beads, garland  and vintage ornaments. I also had a Styrofoam brick left over from another craft night. When I had everything laid out on my table, I began by taking the plastic base off my mini tree. This was easy as it simply unscrewed. Next I took my Styrofoam brick and sliced a small piece off. This is what would hold my tree inside the cup. I hot glued it inside my Santa mug and let it cool a bit. The tree had a wire point bottom, this slid easily into the foam base in the cup and held it tightly in place. When that was done I got busy decorating the little tree. I hot glued everything onto the tree. I thought it came out super cute!

 

 

 

 

 

Some of my vintage items were not perfect but I simply hid the imperfections

by either gluing the bad side of a ball to the tree so the pretty side showed. My Santa mug

had a small chip near the handle so I glued a cute mini red bow over it.

 

Next I decided to make a tree out of the cone shape Styrofoam piece I got a the dollar store.

I had a smaller Santa mug for the base which was perfect because it fit the foam tree nicely.

I glued the vintage silver tinsel around the foam, added some vintage red mini glass balls

to that and then glued a sweet vintage angel to the top of  it.

 

How cute is this?

 

 

 

My vintage Santa mug was not in the best condition. I didn't mind his imperfections

and thought they added to the charm of the piece so I left it alone. The hubs really loved this

one so we decided we would keep it.

 

I finished off the rest of the trees and then took a group shot.

 

 

I still have some left over pieces to used on another craft.

I think they came out great and I can't wait to gift them to my friends!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Retro Christmas Tree

 

 

We normally do a big green Christmas tree with lots or keepsake ornaments. This year I really wasn't feeling it. I longed for something sleeker, cleaner, crisper and... Mod. I was able to talk my husband into going with a smaller tree. One less bushy so ornaments could hang nicer. Then I talked him into going with a WHITE tree. I felt at this point I was on a roll so I took it a step further and suggested we do only ONE color ornament on this tree. To my surprise.... he said ok!

 

I wanted a fake tree and knew we would set out to purchase it. Because Christmas is so expensive we knew we could not spend too much. Since I also did not have Christmas ornaments in the SAME color.... I knew we would also have to... gulp... purchase these as well. The hubs said he had seen trees out in East LA and suggested we try it out. So we did. They have all these little five and dime stores around. We tried a couple stores and only found green trees. The third shop was the charm.

Inside we found a 6ft white non bushy tree for..... $14.99!

 

We took it home and set it up.

 

 

Oh Christmas tree!

 

It was exactly what I wanted and the hubs even approved! We went out in search of non expensive

ornaments for our tree. We ended up finding them at the 99 cent store! The colors were so pretty that it was hard to choose just one. Our color choice was Turquoise.

 

I purchased 3 tubes of pretty plastic turquoise balls for 1.00 a piece. I also ended up finding a Retro tree topper in silver there so I nabbed that as well. We took it all home and decorated our tree. I threw on a vintage Ray Conniff Singers Christmas album. The same one we listened to as kids. When all was done I turned off all the lights and admired our little tree.

 

 

It was perfect!

 

This little retro tree fit so well with our décor and it all cost less than 20 bucks.

 

Getting Ready For Christmas

I love getting ready for the holidays! I always get excited when I pull out my big bin of Christmas décor. Most of my Christmas décor came from thrift shops or estate sales. I seldom by anything new to put up around the house because the vintage items fit our style so much more. I don't really put out much as I don't like a lot of clutter but I do like to be festive!

Christmas Cocktails anyone?

 

 

I had everything already. The vintage glasses I got at a thrift store many years ago and the glass martini pitcher was part of a set my mom gave me awhile back. The tree swizzle sticks I got at the 99 cent store last year and the paper Santa coasters I got at an estate sale. The bamboo tray I had and do not remember where I got it. I just added some silver garland inside the pitcher for a more glitzy look.

 

 

 

The sounds of Christmas

 

I know I bought this album mainly for it's awesome cover. I had it for years and felt it was just what my bar needed. The vintage Santa was a candy dish. He sort has Gnome like qualities but I love him all the same!

 

 

Mistletoe and Holly

 

I has this vintage plastic wreath in a box in my garage. I believe it's actually meant for

a table centerpiece in which you put a candle in the center. My kitchen needed a little Christmas-ing.

I thought this looked like a wreath and so it is. The vintage gold Mod angels I found this year at Goodwill.

 

 

Vintage Art

 

I had found this sweet vintage card in a thrift store and wanted to send it out to my

BFF. I never got around to doing it because I loved it too much to write inside it. I figured it would look great as some art work on my bare wall. I just placed inside a vintage frame and added some

green felt like material.  Now it hangs above my record player.

 

 

Decking the shelves

 

More purchases from thrift shops many moons ago. I decked out one shelf on my little bakers rack in the kitchen.

 

 

 

Feeling crafty?

 

I had this Santa tray that I knew I wanted to do something with. I decided to turn it into a wreath. I used a mixture of vintage glass and non vintage plastic silver balls. The Merry Christmas and silver star on top I bought in packs at a dollar store.

 

Just a few simple vintage things to bring the Christmas feeling and spirit into our home!