strawberry lemonade

Space Age Illustration:: Julien Pacaud

2010-11-08T07:02:00.000-08:00

The perpendicular dreams (his term) of French illustrator Julien Pacaud have caught my eye. The retro collage effect is totally groovy.

I can't get this out of my head.

2010-09-18T15:05:00.000-07:00

I also think the couple is really cute.

The sickeningly sweet world of Liz Wolfe.

2010-09-08T20:45:00.000-07:00

It's not often that I use the words "gross" and "adorable" in the same sentence, but hold tight kittens, because I'm about to do just that. Let's talk about Liz Wolfe. I first encountered Liz's work when we were looking for photographers who worked with food in artful ways (for a new campaign we were doing). I stumbled upon her book and holy cannoli, I was totally blown away. Her work is bold, playful, gorgeous and ridiculous. And yes. Sometimes kinda gross. Check it out:

(look closely....that's meat....)

Canadian born Liz Wolfie grew up in Saskatchewan and studied photography at Ryerson University's School of Image Arts in Toronto. In 2009, she exhibited her work at the Architecture + Design Museum (Los Angeles), the Gladstone Hotel (Toronto) and Project Basho Gallery (Philadelphia). Liz currently lives in Toronto. She has a little four year old boy, which makes her even cooler in my book. Go mama!

All images copyright (c) Liz Wolfe. Visit LizWolfe.com for more amazing images.

Modern Embroidery Paula Sanz Caballero

2010-09-05T23:49:00.000-07:00

I'm always intrigued when people put a fresh sprin on a traditional medium. Like embroidery. You might remember my post from a while back on awesome artist Megan Whitmarsh. (If you missed it you HAVE to check out her work....teensy little embroidered canvases with wee images of big foot and KISS! Amazing!) Spanish artist Paula Sanz Caballero is another incredible talent who uses textiles and embroidery to put an utterly modern (and stylish) twist on her work. It's almost like a fashion illustration come to life. Take a gander and you'll see what I mean!

Here's a closeup so you can see the detail. I mean honestly...I'm so impressed. Can you imagine how much time it must take to make one of these? Really cool!

Thank you to everyone for indulging me yesterday and voting for Wolfie!

Six Ways to Make Yourself Feel Prettier.

2010-09-05T18:35:00.000-07:00

I’m going to be totally honest here. This is a somewhat superficial post. Yes, beauty is on the inside. And yes, confidence is the best way to feel fabulous. But there are simply some days when I feel tired, frazzled and just NOT sparkling. On those days if someone were to say to me, “Just smile! Be confident! You’ll look GREEEEAT!” I think I might slug ‘em. So here is a list of practical tips you can employ to make yourself feel just a wee bit prettier. Use ‘em all together. Or just do one. I guarantee it will help pull you out of the doldrums, pronto!

1. SMELL NICE.

“A women who doesn't wear perfume has no future.” Coco Chanel

Oh Coco. I love how she throws down these missives with such authority! Well, whether you love perfume or hate it I think we can all agree that smelling nice is a very good thing. Even if you’re an obsessive showerer or someone who favors a more “European” approach, an added little spritz of something can be just the thing. Don’t over do it, of course. A little dab in the crook of your arm or behind the ear—or heck, even just a spritz in the hair—and you'll smell lovely. I like to choose nice light scents, nothing too powdery or cloying. Nothing is nicer than giving someone a hug and have them says, “Oh, wow. You smell great!”

Oh and if you’re someone who can’t do a scent, try a lightly scented body lotion or a nice smelling hair product. I love Bumble and Bumble Brilliantine for hair.

2. PAINT YOUR NAILS.

Ya know, I wish my fingernails always looked good. But honestly if you are at all crafty or have kids or like to cook or garden etc….its tough to maintain. That’s why I love pale polish. Even if it chips just a bit, you don’t really notice it. And for those who say you don’t have time? I discovered this genius Sally Hanson polish that truly dries in 60 seconds. Like REALLY.

Your toesies on the other hand? Those suckers can last for quite a while. Treat yourself to a pedicure or simply paint ‘em yourself. I personally lerve candy apple red or hot pink on my toes—but whatever floats your boat! And if you’re a guy, you know what to do. Just keep ‘em trimmed and tidy.

3. COLOR! COLOR! COLOR!

Wear something colorful. I’m always amazed when people say to me “I love that hot pink on you….but I could never pull it off.” Sure you can! I admit my taste is a little louder than most, but color is always a good thing. If you’re already playing with color, then BRAVO! But if you’re a bit shy about dipping your toe in the rainbow try some little accent pieces. Tights in a pretty robin’s egg blue or vibrant pink, flats in Kelly green or yellow, picking that red bag instead of the classic black. I promise you’ll have an extra spring in your step!

4. ACCESSORIZE.

“When accessorizing, always take off the last thing you put on.” — Coco Chanel
"It’s better to have bad taste than no taste at all!” — Diana Vreeland.

There is a saying that the devil is in the details, and I couldn’t agree more! I think accessories are where it’s at, my friends. You can be wearing jeans and a tee, but add a sassy little scarf or a fun necklace and suddenly you have an “outfit”. Accessories are a great way to show off your personality and add pick me up to an old outfit. But mostly I think they are FUN—and dare I say a compliment magnet. And who wouldn’t feel better when they have people telling them, “Cute necklace!” all day long?? A bold piece of jewelry, a sparkly hair clip or flower, a fun cocktail ring...and honestly you can get some really fun affordable pieces at stores like Forever 21 (or as I like to call it, Forever 31. *cough*) or go the vintage route.

Now, with regards to the quotes. Coco is right. Let your accessories be the hero and don’t make them complete with one another. Especially if you're a little nervous about mixing up your usual look, go for one big statement piece. Then again, I think Diana is right on the money too! I have to admit I'm a "More is MORE!" kinda gal. Hey, at least an over-embellished person has character! So don’t be afraid to go bold or experiment! If you’re even concerned with overdoing it, then you’re probably not the kind of gal who has anything to worry about. Knowhuttamean?

5. WEAR GIRLIE SHOES WITH A HEEL.

This one might surprise you, but I think a heel makes you walk a little bit taller and feel a little sassier. Let’s be clear, I’m not advocating crazy stilettos, but I know whenever I wear a touch of a heel I feel just a wee bit fancier. Trust me, as a mommy I’m not tottering around in crazy sky high heels…I’m talking a low wedge, a chunky heeled boot or a mid-heel girlie shoe. Even a flat with a kitten heel. I love sneaks and ballerina flats, but I rarely feel “sassy” in ‘em. Take a look at these and you’ll see what I mean!

Images from these lovely ladies: frecklewonder, graygoosie, bitsandbobbins

6. LIP TINT.

Some people love makeup. Some people think it’s a chore. I truly think a little bit of makeup can make you feel just that much more put together. If you are a lipstick lover, then I know I’m preachin’ to the choir. For those of you who claim they just don’t have time I say: LIP TINT! These are those colored lip balms that come in a convenient chapstick-sized tube....and the best part is it can be slicked across your lips in 5 seconds flat, without a mirror. My faves are Laura Mercier HydraTint in Crimson. It looks bright red but actually just gives your lippies the sheerest little blush of color. It also has a yummy fruit smell. Tarte makes a very pretty one as well. Another fave (and even cheaper!) are the Burt’s Bees Lip Shimmers, which you can get at the drug store. These smell pepperminty and make your lips tingle a little. Merlot and Raisin are my faves. Seriously, even if this is ALL YOU DO, I bet you’ll look cute.

AND FINALLY...

When all else fails, go out and buy a big bouquet of flowers are a whole mess o' balloons. You'll bring a smile to your face and everyone around you. Guaranteed!

60s Illustrators are Peachy Keen: Margaret Keane's Big Eyed Wonders

2010-09-02T00:30:00.000-07:00

image: the lovely whoreange

I've long been obsessed with the work of 1960s artist Margaret Keane. When most people hear the name "Keane" they think of the somewhat cheesy big-eyed orphan paintings. What most people don't know is that Margaret Keane's early work is very different. She painted some of the most deliciously languid and lovely mod portraits around. The big dreamy eyes were still there....but these paintings are decidedly more grown up. I have a few prints of hers and an amazing book with excellent photo plates. I thought it would be fun to take a look! (This post goes out to my sweet friend Danielle, of Kistchy Digitals. Thanks for asking me about Margaret Keane and inspiring this post. You're gonna love it, I promise!)

See what I mean? Totally dreamy....let's go in a little closer, shall we? I love these petulant girls sipping their coffee:

This next one is quite interesting. A portrait within a portrait. The young girl looking somewhat realistic and the canvas portraying the more classic big-eyed version.

While we are on the topic of the "classic Keane" look, allow me to dazzle you with a little of the history behind the Legend of Keane. It's a good story. Back in the 60s, Walter Keane was known as the Master of the Big Eyed Waifs. His images were largely of young children with hauntingly sad eyes. Walter and Margaret opened up a gallery in 1959 in New York. Walter was the consummate business man and the story goes that he would often leave faux packing cases addressed to famous movie stars so people would walk in and say, "Oooh, Dean Martin is buying one? I better get one before the prices go up!" Crafty, eh?

Throughout the '60s, the popularity of Keane paintings soared. Stars like Joan Crawford, Natalie Wood, Dean Martin, Dinah Shore, Liberace and even Zsa Zsa Gabor all owned original Margaret Keane paintings. My favorite is this picture of Jerry Lewis and his family. And their pets. All with longing eyes. Totally insane:

In the '70s LIFE magazine declared Keane's paintings to be the most popular art in the western world. They even got a nod in the Woody Allen movie, "Sleeper" (Diane Keaton, presented with a big-eye painting, squeals with delight, "It's Keane, it's pure Keane!").

In 1965, Margaret and Walter went through a bitter divorce—and it was revealed that Margaret was ACTUALLY THE ONE PAINTING ALL THE PAINTINGS! Walter simply took credit for them. It was never clear whether it was because they thought a male artist would have more credibility or if it was because he was a savvy, controlling business man. Either way, Walter was now attempting to stop her from painting "big eyed waifs" claiming he was the one who originated the style. They battled in court for years and finally the case made it to a federal court. The judge requested that they each paint right then and there in the court room. Margaret triumphantly dashed off a quick portrait of a saucer-eyed child looking over a fence....while Walter, in a TOTAL Brady Bunch style maneuver, claimed he couldn't paint because of a neck/shoulder injury. HAH! Needless to say, Margaret won. Bravo Margaret!

Oddly, I'm not as drawn to her more recent work—the post Walter stuff. She said that while she was "living a lie" and letting him take credit, all her paintings had "sad eyes". Her later work (in the 80s and 90s) has "bright eyes" as a result of her new-found happiness (and I think she got religious too, if I'm not mistaken). ANYWAY....let's get back to her sad eyes, shall we?

Soooooo gooood. To date, Margaret Keane's work has been discovered by a new generation and claims fans like John Waters, Tim Burton, Matthew Sweet. David LaChappelle and Kate Hudson (who is slated to star in a movie on her life).

The popularity of Margaret's big-eyed babes inspired a slew of copycats...but I think we'll save that for a follow up post, no? So whatcha think friends....are these paintings terrific or terrifying? As Margaret herself has said, "You either love them or hate them....there really is no in between."

Iris Apfel: Style Icon.

2010-08-30T23:24:00.000-07:00

There is something about an snazzy older woman that is just so awesome. I saw a photo of an older woman and thought "WOW, whata dame!" That woman was Iris Apfel. I am embarrassed to say I had never heard of her before, and yet she is rather legendary. Talk about flair. This lady didn't shy away from style but really embraced it. She was (and is still) known for her flamboyant wardrobe and passion for accessories. She's also known for her trademark saucer-sized glasses. Though she ran in exclusive circles, her taste was very bohemian and wild. Iris effortlessly mixed Dior couture with flea-market finds, which I'm sure was a bit scandalous back in the day. Iris was more than simply a fashion maven, however, she was an extremely shrewd business woman—she and her husband Carl had a fabulously successful textile company that led her to travel all over the world.

Iris is 88 years young and has led an incredibly rich life. In addition to her jaunts around the world to exotic ports, Iris has been featured in Paris Vogue, hob nobbed with designers young and old and the Metropolitan Museum of Art has a standing exhibit of the contents of her Park Avenue closet. I think she's puttin' us all to shame.

As Iris says, "You only have one trip....you might as well enjoy it!" Here is a short but fun little video interview with the lady herself. Did you notice that even the tiger was wearing Iris glasses??? And by the way, I'm soooo getting some of those glasses when I get older.

Psst. I've been cheating on you: MAEVE Mag & Bleubird Vintage

2010-08-29T22:50:00.000-07:00

hello lovelies. I have some fun posts coming (including a big ol Tiki Oasis recap, with loads of fab vintage tiki fashions) but in the mean time I have to confess, I've been cheating on ya'll. I have another article in the groovy MAEVE magazine. This time I wrote about my lerve of Blythe. I love Kate and Lou—the ladies of MAEVE. It was so much fun to write for them again, and Kate is a great designer and always make muh stuff look fab.

Read the whole article over at MAEVE mag.

I was also invited by the super lovely *miss* james at bleubird to guest post while she is spending time with her amazing, new little baby girl gemma. james is truly one of the sweetest and coolest chica's around so it was a honor to be asked. Here's a little sneakie peek:

Check out the whole post at bleubird.

more updates soon!
xoxo

Tiki Oasis 2010: Mai Tai Show You Some Photos?

2010-08-25T21:38:00.000-07:00

Well hello lovies....oooooh, have I got some fab vintage fashions for you. A few weeks ago Greg, Wolfie and I hit the road and flew to San Diego for Tiki Oasis 2010. It was my birthday weekend—August 22 doncha know—and it was thee BEST way to celebrate. [this is a long ass post....just to warn ya. loads of pictures...]

If you’ve never been to Tiki Oasis, you must. It’s a sun and fun-filled weekender down in San Diego celebrating the magic of classic 50s/60s Tiki culture. Hosted by my good pals: premier Tiki expert Otto von Stroheim and his ultra lovely wife Baby Doe. It’s a truly cool experience. Basically they take over the historic Hanalei hotel (now called the Crown Plaza) and fill it with amazing bands, DJs, dancers, loads of tiki mugs brimming with tasty cocktails and unique symposiums on the history of tiki. While it's a decidedly grown up affair, it's also wonderfully family friendly. Wolfie had A BLAST.

For those of you who haven't had a chance to visit me over at Modern Kiddo, my other blog, you can find a super recap of all the events at Tiki Oasis Part 1 and then Tiki Oasis Part 2, which is more focused on the Tiki Kiddos.

Today's post is mostly about the fashions. I'm not going to lie, I love a good dress up opportunity and I took FULL advantage. A bunch of you asked to see what I wore, and whoooooo sistah, all I can say is—YOU ASKED FOR IT!

We begin with ze travel outfit:

I rarely dress head-to-toe vintage but this was a special weekend and yer gonna see a lot of it here. This picture cracks me up. I'm like, defying gravity with my sideways stance. No clue what's up here! I think the wall/shed is a little crooked so maybe the pic got angled weird. On to the fashions....

+ vintage Tiki shift
+ vintage mod/tiki style pendant
+ yellow cardigan, Old Navy (keepin' it real...)
+ vintage yellow slipper shoes
+ vintage Enid Collins Pineapple Princess bag

The yellow slipper shoes are super cool, but I will admit not TOTALLY comfy. My sweet friend Pilgrim (of the phenomenal blog Draw! Pilgrim) gave me the hot tip to score these suckas.

DAY ONE: THE ARRIVAL
The Hanalei hotel is fabulous. It's been refurbished but still has lots of amazing retro details. Cool pool. Waterfalls. Tikis scattered all over the place. The vibe is funky, retro fabulous.

That honker of a tiki bar was brought to the hotel specially for Tiki Oasis.

All told, over a thousand people frolicked at the Oasis that weekend. During the day, you could swim or browse the amazing vendors who had set up shop on the lawn near the pool and in the hotel conference area. Vintage clothing, records, artwork, tiki mugs and necklaces, even polynesian BBQ spices. There were also a wide variety of symposiums—The History of Tiki, Rum & Chocolate, The Persuasive Power of Punch, Pin-Up Hair and Makeup, Live Tiki Carvings...it was overwhelmingly awesome. Lounging poolside was a top priority.

Of course I found myself pouring over the colorful clothing racks with my fabulous friend Denise. She tried to get me to by the best gold lame 60s swim suit (very Esther Williams) but it was just a tad too pricey.

This one guy had the coolest hats EVER. My fave was the hat with the built in sunglasses. SO CUTE! I was ready to throw down a little cash for it (a girl can buy herself a bday prezzie, right?) but the guy wanted $300 for it. YEEOUCH!!!

So many people were sportin' amazing outfits. Check out my glammy friends in their fashiony finest:

Here is Doe looking gorg in her custom Tiki Oasis dress. The fabric was designed by famously hip illustrator, SHAG.

Check out this cool girl in her RAD SUNGLASSES HAT!!!!! It was even better than the $300 one. I told her to hang on to it because clearly it's worth a bundle....

I have no clue who this dude was, but I liked his smooth Tiki Tux style...

VAVOOM! There were several pin up shoots happening through out the day.

DAY TWO:

There was an awesome car show in the parking lot—Wolfie and Greg had a blast checking out all the cool cars.

I got a lovely retro wrap-around gown to wear poolside.

That afternoon was also the grand debut of my vintage Swim Cap. I searched high and low for this sucka. It's hard to find one that is in great shape—the rubber tends to crumble after years of sun-n-fun. This one was deadstock so I was fairly certain it wouldn't disintegrate on my head.

Every day amazing DJs spun vintage vinyl—boat loads of 50s/60s exotica, surf, lounge and more. The vibe was super chill and cool. You honestly felt like you were living in a vintage movie....

Listen, I wasn't jokin' around when I said I was all about the outfits for this shindig. Here's what I wore for the evening show. And yes, we're at outfit #3. Whoo ahhh!

It's not required by any means, but loads of people got dolled up in their vintage Hawaiiana finest. High off my vintage bathing cap victory, I decided to bust out THE BIG BUN for Saturday night! This was a big ol hair piece that cracked me up.

"You like me hairpees?" (yes....it sounds like herpes....)

As the sun set, the vendor booths disappeared only to be replaced by lawn chairs...and the night time entertainment began. Fun bands and dance performances. Wolfie was allowed to stay up a little later to watch the first few performances.

One of my fave acts were the kitschy cool Lampshades, a faux lounge act featuring Kate Flannery from The Office. They were hilarious.

Hangin' with Kate in one of the room parties. (Greg kindly put Wolfie to bed and let mama have a lil late night birthday fun...)

My friends Chrissy and Denise....Denise bought her groovy dress at my Vintage Clothing sale a few weeks ago!

Every night there were a series of themed room parties—each with specialty drinks. The "Tiki Hell" room played Jimmy Buffet and was, indeed, a nightmare. (The place looked amazing....super great decorations) "Tiki Heaven" had drinks served in real pineapples for the first 100 peeps. Yummmm.

DAY THREE:

We went browsing around San Diego, had brunch at a great little restaurant and, of course, found a cool vintage place. I'm totally spacing on the name. Oh oh, FROCK YOU. How could I ever fergit that??

That crazy poodle is a water bottle cozy (!!!!!!)

Awww yeah, got me a cool pair of $10 chooz!

Oh wait, what's that? I haven't had an outfit change.....hah. Here we go. Casual Hawaiian Modern with mah Jackie Os—these Nina Ricci sunglasses are the same style Jacquiline Onassis wore back in the day. My awesome pal Becky, from The Bubb Report, hooked me up with them. They are huge. I love 'em.

All in all it was one helluva time. I leave you with one final outfit....which was as colorful, fun and sunny as the whole weekend. *mwuah!*

And seriously, you GOTS ta come next year...

Strawberry Lemonade Vintage Shop: Open For Bidness!

2010-08-09T21:08:00.000-07:00

Ooooooh weeeee. I have been saying for over a YEAR now that I was going to have a big ol' vintage sale. Well guess what? IT HAPPENED. I held a little Pop Up Vintage Boutique in muh housie and we had a blast! Here is a little sneak peek of what went down:

The perfect video for a simple Sunday.

2010-08-08T12:21:00.000-07:00

found via frecklewonder. thank you jenny for this lovely video.

Fresh Picked VIntage: Enamel Flower Pins from the 60s

2010-07-27T23:14:00.000-07:00

OOooh lalala we love vintage jewelry! And a super favorite of mine are vintage enamel pins, from the 60s. Colorful, bold, girlie but graphic. I think they're such an adorable way to spruce up an outfit.

How gorgeous is that bouquet?? I love them on cardigans, dresses, headbands and totebags! And of course cuffs. One word of caution. If you are a mama, the pins with separate petals can get a little pokey when you go in for a cuddle (or so Wolfie tells me. "OW! Mama. Your flower poked me!").

To score some enamel brooches of yer very own, check out thrift stores, antique shops eBay and Etsy. Also, my friend Jenny over at Frecklewonder has some GREAT pins coming up in her shop on August 1. Take a peek here!

Style Files: A Cool San Francisco Summer

2010-07-22T07:32:00.000-07:00

OK, I know most of you are dealing with sweltering temperatures. Here in the Bay Area we've dabbled in the higher temps, but MOSTLY we've had weirdly COLD weather. Like, blustery winds that made me want to wear a scarf. No lie.

I will say the upside to this is I have been able to wear these mega cute new shoesies that I bought—and they make me feel like dancin'!

Here are the details:

+ Green dress tunic, Target
+ Gray sweater, Thrifted
+ Cropped jeans, Old Navy
+ AMAZING flower toe shoes, Miss L-Fire
+ Red heart pendant

Are you guys having a great summer?? I hope so!

Gettin' Caught Up: Where the Hell Is Alix?

2010-07-21T20:35:00.000-07:00

Hey gang! I've been busy busy this summer....and I still haven't taken any summer vacation time! (Saving that up for August, doncha know.)

Have you swung by Modern Kiddo at all? We've had some fun posts that I think you would like (whether you have kiddos or not).

MAY THE 70s BE WITH YOU
In honor of Comic Con, I decided to to a little tribute to one of my favorite 70s movies of all times STAR WARS!

It's a totally fun post, if I do say so myself. Check out all the retro fun HERE!

BEET RED, WHITE and BLUE
Back in July we had an awesome time in Fresno. Yes Fresno. It was hotter-n-hell but we were with some of our favorite family friends and spent the day sweatin', BBQ-ing and having some 4th of July fun.

Read about it HERE!

And then back in June I was honored to have been a speaker at EVO: Women in Social Media conference. It was a ton of fun, (I went with Dottie, my Modern Kiddo partner in crime) and we did a pretty silly/fun little recap of our adventure.

I promise it was super fun. Check it out over HERE!

How have you guys been? Anything new going on in your world? Feel free to comment and leave me a link to something on YOUR blog that I might have missed!

xoxo

Guess who's in MAEVE Magazine?

2010-05-21T17:21:00.000-07:00

A while back I stumbled upon a really cool photographer from Australia named Kate Vale. Her kid's photos were stunning—super saturated colors and so much energy in them. I was smitten! I reached out to her to see if I could post them on Modern Kiddo and we struck up a friendship. Fast forward many months and Kate, being the dynamo that she is, launched a new e-mag called MAEVE. It's so beautifully designed and filled with totally cool photos, fashion, and fun articles. Of course I'm biased because I have an article in MAEVE too!

When Kate asked me to participate I wasn’t quite sure what to write about, but then I thought, “What about a story about how two girl friends meet??” And so the “Me and My Bestie” series was born! I think the article turned out really well. Please swing by and take a look—in addition to all the swell content, you’ll get to hear about how Dottie and I ended up starting Modern Kiddo!

Thank you so much Kate! We’re honored to be a part of your inaugural issue!

Click here to subscribe to MAEVE and to check out my article! (it’s freeee!)

Style Files: Retro Relaxed

2010-05-18T17:43:00.000-07:00

So I had planned on wearing a vintage dress to the Tupperware party, but alas I was racing around with Wolfie and some friends of ours (ok, fine.....we went to a Pokemon Tournament if you must know. It was nerdy and hilarious...and boring as hell for the parents. But the kids were in heaven!). Anyway, I had to race back home and literally had to throw something together. Despite my hair being a rats nest, I was feelin' mighty fine...

Check out how cute these sandals are. They came with those little flower pins—which look so totally vintage, I was dying. I tweeted about 'em already because I love them sooo.....grab a pair of your own from Target, ladies. Super comfy too!

Here are the details:

+ Retro-inspired print dress/apron, Target (alas, from a year or so ago)
+ Black Cardigan, Vera Wang for Kohls cardigan
+ Cropped side zip jeans, Old Navy
+ Miss Trish of Capri flower sandals, Target
+ Vintage Sequin Kitty Kat Handbag (not Enid Collins, but inspired by)
+ Little teensy pink felt flower made by my friend Jenny/Frecklewonder
+ Pink bubble gum ball necklace. Argh. I can't remember where this is from.

Fancy that! Two post in one day! I think I'm on a rolllll.

xoxox
Alex

The Ultimate Retro Tupperware Party

2010-05-17T23:04:00.000-07:00

So, the other day I went to a Tupperware party. If you're like me then you probably just said, "Whuuuh? They still have Tupperware parties??" (OK, i guess if you read the previous post you didn't say that....) but YES! They still have tupperware parties. For those not in the know, Tupperware was a line of plastic house goods launched in 1946. It was in the 50s when Tupperware really took off as ladies threw lively parties to encourage their fellow housewives to buy buy buy Tupperware!

One of my besties, the lovely Doe, was the mastermind behind this and true to form it was a fantastic bash— held in the fabulous home of Doe's sassy pal Rusty. Rusty is quite the collector and her place was chocked full of vintage goodies. Really amazing stuff! But the best part was, pretty much everyone dressed up in vintage house dressies. It was a total blast!

Not sure what is happening with this mannequin's hand? (maybe she got too close to the grill?). I'm in love with this huge BBQ salt-n-peppa shakers. HOT HOT HOT!

This was our hostess with the mostess—the lovely Karen! She is an old bloggie pal of mine who I had never actually met in person. Lemme tell ya ladies, this girlie is a sparklin' gem. If she hosted these parties every night I'd be there. She was THAT GOOD! So fun and cute.

Please notice the genius vintage fabric dressie and apron she is wearing. AMAZING! To up the ante on cuteness, vintage treats were on the menu (high lights included deviled eggs, veggie pigs-in-a-blanket and lemon chiffon pie). The entire kitchen was kind of amazing....also, since I'm such a 60s/70s girlie, it was fun to see a place that was all about 40s and 50s. Super swell...

You'll notice that Michelle, Karen's Tupperware partner-in-crime, is wearing a MATCHING DRESS. Seriously, how cute are they??

While we spent the first half hour admiring each others cute outfits and chatting....we were ultimately there for the Tupperware. And honestly, it didn't disappoint! It now comes in super cool colors (mmmm, peacock blue....) and cute new sizes (my fave? the smidget....for lil portions). Of course Karen is so good, she could sell ice to an Eskimo....it's no wonder I shelled out $24 for a set of deluxe ice cute trays. *sigh* That was a typo. They're ice cube trays. But they are pretty damn cute...

Oh, and guess what? You can still *burp* the lid. Woot!

Vintage Tupperware and MORE!

2010-05-17T13:44:00.000-07:00

Friends, I have SO MANY THINGS to post about!!! I just need a few more hours in the day. I will have some updates for you soooon I promise (hopefully by end of day). Let me leave you with this little teaser: I went to a retro-styled Tupperware party. Oh yes indeedy! And it. Was. Awesome.

This is me pretending to "burp" my little faux Tupperware (OOPS! don't tell Karen, my Mistress of Tupperware I'm cheatin' on her with this little cutie from Target...).

How is everyone doing? Check in again later pretty please. I'll have more pictures for you and hopefully even more tomorrow!

Woot!

Lucky Juju Vintage Pinball Museum

2010-05-08T00:01:00.000-07:00

In Alameda California there is a super duper awesome place. The Lucky Juju/Pacific Pinball Museum. Friends, lemme tell you....this place is AWESOME. You step inside and are met with a bells clangin', flipper slappin', lights flashing world of glory. There are over 90 playable, historic pinball machines—and it's so soooo cool. My sweet pal Miz Landry had her birthday party there and I was in heaven.

The machines date back to the 1930s (complete with wooden flippers) and the graphics on all the machines are totally incredible. Of course the machines from the 1950s and 1960s were my favorites.

It was a little hard to photograph, since the lighting was dim but I think you'll love 'em as much as I did!

Ooooh little Gigi, whatchoo doing with the clowns??

Now, check out these psychadelic beauties!

They were so fun to play! I'm not bad at pinball, but I have to say some of them were deceptively tricky. Like this lil sweetie:

I can't lie, The Majorettes kicked my ass—with a sweet little smile on their faces. You really have to work for those points on the old games. It seems like the new games you can score millions of points. Heck, you get a hundred thousand points just for showin' up. The oldies have you workin' your fingers to the bone, slapping the flippers trying desperately to light the lights.....and you get 400 points. I was workin' up a sweat, lemme tell ya. But you know what? I totally can't wait to go back and bring Wolfie with me. Get ready Majorettes....yer goin' down.

Style Files: Comfy and Cute

2010-05-07T17:05:00.001-07:00

Hey gang! It's FRIDAY. Whoo hoo! I have so many things I want to share with you, I'm just not finding enough hours in the day! So I thought this was the perfect time for a lil Style Files action. This is me chillin' on a weekend (last weekend to be precise!). No makeup and pretty minimal effort (as evidenced by my scraggly-ass hair...sorry!). But I kind of wanted to show you guys "me" au natural. I am wearing a tinted lippie, but nothing else. This is a super comfy (and I thought cute!) outfit for bummin' around with my boys. We went to brunch, hit the bookstore/groovy toy store, and even took lil walk....

I noticed I had some crazy grey hairs peekin' out. Argh! I'm like Albert Einstein with the crazy grays! You'll be pleased to know I have since dyed it dark.

+ Boyfriend jeans, Old Navy
+ Tunic Top, Forever 21

+ Green cardigan, Thrifted

+ Leopard flats, Target

+ Rhinestone butterfly pendant, Topshop in London

+ Vinyl tote, Paul Frank

What are your plans for the weekend? We are FINALLY having some glorious weather over here in the Bay Area! I can't wait to kick it outside.

xoxo

HAPPY BIRTHDAY STRAWBERRY LEMONADE!

2010-04-16T19:18:00.000-07:00

Oh my goodness peeps....this blog is having a birthday today!!!! How crazy is that? In some ways I feel like it should be much older, and then it seems like time has flown by. Thank you all so much for all the love, support and sweet words! Together we have looked at tons of pretty pictures, met boatloads of inspiring artists and photographers, poured over arty fashion spreads, drooled over vintage clothing, reminisced with vintage snap shots, read vintage children's books, and traded perfume tips. You guys even came out in full force to vote for Wolfie for that crazy Cutest Kid Contest. I was so incredibly touched. (By the way, he was vote #3 out of 4,000 kids and we're headin' to LA next weekend for the big shin dig. BANANAS!!)

You guys are truly the coolest readers out there! Thanks for hanging tough even while I had to abandon the Lemonade Stand for Modern Kiddo and for indulging me in my silly outfit posts! But mostly thanks for simply showing up. You all mean the world to me!

xoxo

PS and thanks to this crazy blog I now appear on the front page if you google search "Goofy Grape." Nice.

Welcome to the Peep Show.

2010-04-15T01:25:00.000-07:00

I have never completely understood the charm of Peeps. I mean, they do have a super cute name...but does anyone really like how they taste? So Dottie sends me this link yesterday for the annual Washington Post Peeps Diarama Contest....and holy smokes people, I GET IT!

The fourth annual contest drew over 1,000 entries with the winner being this super cool take on the movie "UP."

"For their winning entry, Michael Chirlin and Veronica Ettle created a Victorian house from plywood and popsicle sticks and placed it atop salvages mattress springs to give it an airborne quality."

So cute, right?? Love the Carl peeping, er peeking from the window. And please note his little tennis ball covered walker cane.

Check out these other amazing creations:

There are 37 entries in the finalist gallery....check them out on the Washington Post web site.

Peep peep!

Lilacs in the Rain.

2010-04-14T23:33:00.000-07:00

We have had tons of rain lately. So much so that we had to postpone Wolfie's birthday party. It started with an innocent sprinkle of rain, but huge grey clouds soon loomed ominously in the sky. Big fat dollops fell which turned into a violent downpour. Then....it simply stopped. A few rays of sunshine appeared so I went outside—where I discovered that the lilac tree was in full bloom. Heaven! Lilacs are one of my favorite sense-memory smells. Their yummy scent immediately transports me back to my backyard in Michigan on a warm summer afternoon. I LOVE how they smell. I snipped a big bouquet and placed it on the windowsill above the kitchen sink and every time I stand there I can breath in the amazing fragrance. I actually look forward to doing the dishes now.

To help us chase away the rain storm blues, we played records, sang loudly, bopped our heads, and created little mini Lego masterpieces.

Is it raining where you are? Are the lilacs in bloom? (Shout out to Jenny! I know yer my fellow lilac lovin' girl!)

Little Pink Houses for You and Me.

2010-04-14T16:25:00.000-07:00

Whenever I see a pink house, I'm always intrigued. They stand out, that's for sure. Whimsical and quirky. It's such a definite choice. Like, you might buy red paint and it turns out orangey red. Or your blue might have a gray-ish hue. But pink? There's no mistaking it. Someone decided that they were going to buy multiple gallons of bubble gum pink paint and roll it all over their home where it would remain for years to come. Was it a woman? A man? A couple? Did they fight over it or did the man acquiesce and say, "Pink? Sure thing honey. I'm on it."

In my neighborhood in Flint, Michigan there was a Pepto Pink house that I was fascinated by. They had two big picture windows in front, and at Christmas there would be a green tree in one window and a pink, snow-flocked tree in the other. They were serious about their pink. One year there was a huge mural of a Budweiser beer can label on their garage door. I liked to think that the hubs finally rebelled. This is their house.

I started taking photos of pink houses whenever I would pass them. Here are a few of them for your viewing enjoyment! They are all in California.

I didn't snap these, but I thought they were pretty nifty:

Images: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

And thank you John [Cougar] Mellencamp:

Vintage Kiddo Album Art Rules.

2010-04-13T10:53:00.000-07:00

What idiot decided it would be a good idea for me to run TWO BLOGS??? Oh wait a sec. That would be me. Heh. Sometimes it's hard to keep up I tell ya.

Well I promise I have some fun stuff to post over here that will be going up later today (and by today I mean before the clock striked midnight, yo). BUT I wanted to point you in the direction of Modern Kiddo for just a moment. I have a super cool Vintage Record Album post up that I just know you guys will love. I mean how cute is this:

or this:

Is that tacky to give myself a shout out??? Hmmm. Maybe. OK OK. Just to make it up to you, here are two bonus albums that didn't make the cut on Modern Kiddo:

See? You're getting BONUS CONTENT! That's how much I love you. Now do a girl a favor and head over to Modern Kiddo to check out the rest of the vintage goodness.

Hop hop raindrop.

2010-04-05T16:15:00.000-07:00

Wellllll Easter started out fairly sunny. And then the clouds came. Big ol grey clouds (yes, i spell grey with an "e". I don't know why...I think it looks prettier that way. For the record, i don't say "colour" or call potato chips "crisps". Pinkie swear.

Sadly I wasn't really able to take too many photos of our day as we ended up being indoors with the lights on (and I'm all about the natural light, baby!). We had a great time with friends....I made a yummy asparagus/gruyere/carmelized onion tart, my friend made a tasty brisket and we had blood orange and champagne mimosas. YUM! Ain't no way a few dark clouds were gonna rain on our easter parade.

Here are some shots I managed to sneak in before the sky turned dark....

Aw yeah, the Orla Kiely dishes. I was so obsessed with that damn line, but I have to say I use it allll the time. And the table cloth and the dishtowels and the serving bowls and the coffee mugs....yeah, I went a little crazy, but they still make me smile! Those are lil vintage bunnies made out of accordion tissue paper. Really sweet.

That vintage straw hat kills me. It's SO cute...but it looks like a combination top hat, clown hat on me. I think it's made for someone with a smaller head...

This was when the fat little drops of rain started to come down. Waaah!

The Lindt Bunnies are among my favorites. When I was a little girl it was tradition that I always got a white chocolate bunny rabbit in my easter basket...I still love 'em to this day! The kids had an awesome indoor egg hunt and gorged themselves on chocolates. Wolfie, my salty boy, of course passed on the chocolate and was thrilled with his little plastic carrot filled with pretzels. (I know I'm a broken record on this one folks, but I can't figure out how a chocolate lover like me birthed a child who doesn't like sweets!!).

Oh yeah, and here's the rundown on What I Wore for the Style Files:

+ Yep. Liberty of London. Seemed the right choice for an Easter Sunday!
+ Green Cardigan, Target
+ Yellow bow-tie mary janes, vintage
+ Enid Collins butterfly bag, vintage
+ Kooky straw pom pom hat, vintage. It looked ridiculous so I only wore it in the photo!

I hope you guys all had an awesome weekend! Was it rain or shine where you were??

Psst!
OK I have to show off the lil Wolf cub. Check him out in his little tie and seer sucker jacket. He wore it for about 10 minutes and then stripped down to a white tee shirt and his jeans. It was like "How to go from Dapper Dan to Fonzi in 10 seconds flat."
My handsome curly boy turns 6 tomorrow. I can't even believe it!!!

Here Comes Peter Cotton Tail...

2010-04-04T06:43:00.000-07:00

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!

This is one of my all time favorite photos....The year was 1967 and these sassy ladies from Sherman Oaks, California were having quite the day in their easter bonnets! So cute and classy.

Take a look at these happy Easter celebrations through the years...there's just something about dying eggs and hunting for that easter basket that is totally fun.

Images: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

And then there's this. The awesome Rankin-Bass Easter special. I couldn't find it on TV this year, but I always loved the song.

Hope you have a hippety hoppety awesome day.

H2 OH NO!

2010-04-03T22:08:00.000-07:00

Wellllll, I was doing so great with the regular posting and then my fabulous little laptop had an unexpected encounter with this and this:

Argh. Tuxie isn't allowed on the table....but apparently while I was putting Wolfie to bed he took it upon himself to get a little drink of water. Unbeknownst to me, my laptop was sitting in a pool of water for, like 10 minutes. I was freaking. My photos. My writing. My silly folders of inspiration images. My music. Ahhhhhh!!!!! Everyone said "Just let it dry out," but this was MAJOR trauma to the lil lappy. Thankfully the genius IT peeps at my work came to the rescue. They salvaged my hard drive and got me set up with a new Macbook Pro. WHEW!!!! So two things:

1) Back up! Back up! Back yer stuff! up!

and once again,

2) I'm back.

Vintage Ephemera—With a Rebel Yell!

2010-03-23T22:50:00.000-07:00

You know I'm always yackin' about how much cooler and cuter things were in the 60s and 70s. And sure, we all know about things like illustrations and furniture and clothing. But what about.....car brochures? Mmmm hmm. Bet ya didn't think about those, eh? Well lucky for you I've taken care of that. This is a brochure for the 1967 Rambler Rebel SST. And once again, my favorite decade doesn't disappoint!

The first two are my favorites....that top one could be an album cover, no?? But I'm also dying over the dude with the orange George Hamiltan holding a pitchfork in #3. Then again #4 with the glammy girls and those huge blocks in the field and the crazy "Cavorting Cabana" romp in #5....whooo hooo! And of course the robin's egg blue station wagon in the last one is just the most. To say the least.

And hey. Two posts in a row. That cleansing rain totally worked!

hee.

xoxo

Re-Fresh.

2010-03-22T23:03:00.000-07:00

Ooooooh I've been a bad lil blogger friends. But rather than dwell on how I've been busy and give you a boat load of excuses, I thought I'd do a little refresh....clean the slate, so to speak. And what is more cleansing than a nice little refreshing rain shower?

Images: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

Ahhh! I feel refreshed already. But lets round things out with this brilliant scene from Bambi....April showers.

Drip, drip, drop
Little April shower
What can compare
To your beautiful sound

Vintage Kid's: Art Seiden Rules.

2010-03-02T05:39:00.000-08:00

Gather round kiddies! It's time to read a story with Aunty Alex [cue applaus and laugh track]. This week we have the brilliant Art Seiden and a book called, Never Pat a Bear: A Book About Signs. This little story has everything I love about vintage kid's books: a slightly wacky story and colorful amazing illustrations. I especially love how kid's are dressed in books from the 60s and 70s. They're always wearing something fun. Ever noticed that kid's are wearing in today's book? Probably not, because most are dressed in very innocuous Gap-like duds. Take a gander at this fun story!

Never Pat a Bear, A Little Golden Book.
Written by Mabel Watts
Illustrated by Art Seiden, 1971

ROOT FOR THE CUTE! Vote Wolfie!

2010-02-25T11:02:00.000-08:00

OK, we interrupt the usual bloggie goodness for a bit of shameless self promotion. Or rather, the fact that I'm pimpin' out my child for a photo contest to win a college scholarship!!

Every since he was a wee lad people have always told me that Wolfie was a very cute/unique looking kid and should model. That's kind of not my bag, so I always laughed and said thanks, but left it at that. Then my friend sent me a link to this "Cutest Kid" contest being held by Next Direct (a Euro clothing company that is launching in the US). The winning child will win a $100,000 college scholarship—and suddenly this whole "cute kid" thing started to sound a little more interesting. So here I am, asking my lovely readers if you could spare a minute to vote for my boy. The contest is on Facebook, however you do not have to be a Facebook member. You just need a valid email address! Apparently you can also vote multiple times if you have more than one email addy. It literally takes 30 seconds.

*sigh*

I'm shameless huh? Well....the boy's gotta go to college right??

Click to:

VOTE FOR WOLFIE!

Feel free to pass this link along! I'm trying to get the boy in the Top 50. He's currently one Huntly, one Hampton and a handful of Skye's away from crackin' the Top 50:

http://apps.facebook.com/next_direct/gallery/show_entry/5133

My Funny Valentines.

2010-02-15T23:28:00.000-08:00

I'm baaaaack! Oh how I've missed you, my little Strawberry Lemonade friends! This new year started out so krazy. A looloo of a flu (that lasted four ghastly weeks!!!) and crazy work schedule. Of course the few spare moments I had, I spent launching Modern Kiddo—my new side project. It's been soo much fun but I have to say, it sure feels lovely to be back over here. I have so many things I want to share with you, but I thought I should begin with this weekend: Valentines Day! We had insanely great weather—sorry my snowbound sweeties—but it was a shocker to us too! Gone was the rain, and in its place loads of sunshine. Greg and I decided to take Wolfie to the California Academy of Arts and Sciences, which is in Golden Gate Park.

There is a great "living rooftop" which is green green green. It kind of looks like Teletubbie Land.

BY FAR the best part of the day, however, was the penguin exhibit! You might be thinking, "What's so fancy about penguins Alex?" Ah, keep reading friends....

In honor of Valentines Day, they let children decorate hearts that were then passed out to the penguins. And lemme tell you, these penguins LOVED the valentines! It was soooo awesomely cute! They didn't eat them and in fact were quite competitive about them. It was hilarious to see them strutting around, all puffed up. Amazingly the boy penguins kept "delivering" them to the girl penguins who were in these little caves. I guess they were using them for their nests. Have you ever seen anything so cute??

Wolfie was enchanted. It sounds cheesy, but truly it's the best way to describe it!! He was grinning from ear to ear.

We had a really terrific day. The place was totally packed....and guess who else was there?? The super gorgeous Halle Berry with her little cutie pie Nala. She was just strollin' around like a mommy with her little one. Really cool. Honestly the place was so packed, I think she managed to slink around relatively unnoticed.

It's funny, at one point earlier that morning, Greg told me that he and Wolfie had to sneak off to take care of some "things" (which usually means buying flowers for mama and what not) but in the glory of the sunshine, flowers were forgotten....and you know what? I wouldn't have had it any other way! We came home happy, exhausted and hungry....so we ordered a big ol cheese pizza, had a little picnic on the living room floor and watched Finding Nemo (in honor of the aquarium). I have to tell ya, Valentine's Day was pretty darn perfect. I leave you with some goofalicious photos of my little Valentine. And yes, I bribed him to wear this. Hey, a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do, right?? xoxo

Heading to the Summit.

2010-01-21T08:11:00.000-08:00

Whooo weeee! I'm Summit bound! Alt. Design Summit, that is. It's a super groovy lifestyle and design conference happening this weekend in Salt Lake City. A tad geeky for sure, but in all the best ways. I'm super excited. Boatloads of awesome bloggers I love will be there: dooce, design*sponge, notcot,

sfgirlbybay, oh joy, making it lovely....the list goes on and on! I'm totally looking forward to hobnobbin' about with my lovely pal Leslie. She and I are going there to soak up some knowledge and , ya know, pimp out Modern Kiddo a bit.

But now the big question—what to wear??

Style Files: Morton Salt Girl Edition

2010-01-20T21:59:00.001-08:00

GAWD

RAINING

CATS

AND

DOGS

!!!!!

Seriously, "torrential downpour" is being kind. These photos are a bit of a sham. I took them several days ago when there was a hint of rain—fast forward to the past two days and lawdy, Noah build me an ark!!! It's that crazy windy rain, with the water falling in hard jagged sheets....where your pants are soaked front and back and an umbrella is pretty much a moot point. Let's pretend it was a few days ago, shall we? When sneakers were an option and a peek of sun behind the gray clouds gave us all a glimmer of hope!

The details:

+ Vintage bubble umbrella (thrift store many moons ago)

+ Jeans (Ze Gap)

+ Mod plastic raincoat (Target)

+ Converse sneaks

+ Green tee, black cardigan and vintage necklace hidden underneath

Cafe OLE!

2010-01-20T06:35:00.000-08:00

Some people are tea people and some people are coffee people. Just like some people are cat people and some people are dog people. I've been fighting The World's Worst Cold Known to Mankind (4 weeks and counting people) and as a result I am forcing myself to become a tea person. In fact I'm enjoying lovely cup of Vanilla Honey Chamomile right now. But really? I'm totally a coffee person.

Just so ya know, I never liked coffee and cigarettes and I'm not, like, promoting it or anything—I just thought that picture was sorta cute.

Oh, and my new tea discoveries that I'm loving: Tazo Vanilla Apricot White Tea, Bigelow Green Tea with Blueberry, Lipton Black Pearl (comes in a fancy little cloth tea bag) and of course Celestial Seasonings Honey Vanilla Chamomile. None of these is excessively fruity or sweet, just cozy and yummy. Liberal squeeze of lemon and dollop of honey to seal the deal! Any tea people out there with more recommendations??

Images: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

Style Files: New Years Eve

2010-01-14T08:23:00.000-08:00

Oooh I haven't done one of these in a awhile. I really loved the new Rodarte line for Target, but wasn't sure what the pieces would be like in person. This lace-print dress is pretty awesome! I added a belt & some bright tights for a lil color, because we all know I love me some color. By the way, this was outside the studio where Greg's band The Time Outs (a kid's rock band) was doing their "early count down" show for the kidlets—that's why there is a random neon sign by me. I was kind of over dressed for a 4:30 show, but that's how I roll, friends.

Despite his expression, Wolfie had a fabulous time. I, on the other hand, felt like death warmed over. My nasty bronchial thing was in full swing....but sometimes you feel a little better if you put on something perty. It worked for a few hours, then I was pooped!

Here are the details:

+ Rodarte for Target lace-print dress
+ Vera Wang for Kohls cardigan
+ Purple patent belt
+ Purple tights, We Love Colors
+ Vintage rhinestone necklace
+ Gray booties, Kohls
+ Cheapy New Year's tiara ( i love those things!)

Let it snow, let it snow, let is snow...

2010-01-14T01:01:00.000-08:00

I'm baaaaack! Lawdy this cold has kicked my booty. 2010 has had a crazy start, but I'm feelin' much better. We had a really great vacation in Michigan and were thrilled with the beautiful snowfall. Now, I know if you're livin' in the Land of Snow you're probably thinking, "Yeah Alex, you love it because you got to LEAVE IT for sunny California!!!" And you're probably right....I know it's been a rough winter for everyone, but I still think the snow is really beautiful. Especially at Christmas time. My parents live on a lake and it's was gorgeous.
OK, so this is a bit of a time warp, but this was Christmas Eve. So pretty!

While visions of sugar plums danced in his head...so sweet.

Here is our beautiful lakeside. Hard to believe that only 4 months prior we scooting around the lake on our little pontoon boat. It seems impossible that it would be cold enough to freeze it, but frozen it was! We walked on it and pulled Wolfie on a little sled. It didn't click until he saw the dock and realized "Whoa, wait a minute. This is the LAKE mommy??

Me So Crazy. Modern Kiddo is Here!

2010-01-11T22:34:00.000-08:00

Hello friends. I have a wee announcement. Apparently running a zillion miles a minute isn't enough for me...so I've started another blog. It's very different from Strawberry Lemonade (which remains my baby, so nope, I'm not goin' anywhere and I'll continue to serve up pretty pictures and lots of vintage goodness for you all!).

But about this new blog. My sweet pal Dottie recently asked me to join her as she tested the waters in the kid arena and I couldn't resist. Our blog is called Modern Kiddo and will feature fun, cute kid's clothing with a healthy dose of well-designed kids toys and room decor thrown in for good measure. If you have a little one, c'mon by! Don't forget to bookmark us and please, spread the word! MODERN KIDDO is here!

Our super cute masthead was designed by the ever so lovely Pilgrim of Draw Pilgrim! Her work is fabulous, so be sure to pop on over and say hello!

OH, and if you have a hot tip, cool link or picture of YOUR Modern Kiddo, be sure to send 'em my way! Email us at alixndottie @modernkiddo .com

Best of Strawberry Lemonade: Part 2

2010-01-10T23:57:00.000-08:00

Hey gang. OK, so here is the last round of my Lemonade 2009 Link Round Up—these posts are all eye candy (meaning you can breeze through 'em pretty quickly!). Lots of pretty pictures and some little animated videos that I worked on last year. I'm feeling much better, so we'll be back to regular posting again this week! Whoo hoo!

Slim Aarons & the Beautiful People

Slim Aarons photos perfectly captured the jet set era of the 50s and 60s.
See the full post here.

Vintage Stewardess

One of my early posts was on my obsession with vintage airline fashion. This remains one of the most popular posts of the year (I think it shows up on Google when you search for vintage stewardess gear!). Flying the friendly skies!
See the full post here.

Mommy Dearest Style.

I have a fascination with model Siri Tollerand. She always does the quirkiest fashion photo shoots. Like this one.
See the original post here.

A Girl Without Freckles is Like A Night Without Stars.

I love freckles. Nothing is happier or cuter to me than a dusting of freckles sprinkled across a girl's nosey. As before, this set of pretty photos is dedicated to my favorite frecklewonder, Jenny. See the original post here.

The 1970s Knew How To Party.

Back in July I hit the vintage photo jackpot with these images from the 1970s. This seemingly innocent image of two dudes getting their hair curled is from a night of pure early 70s bacchanalian excess. To see other fun 70s pix and a link to the 70s rager, browse theoriginal post here.

Made for Each Other. My TV Spots.
When I'm not hanging out here at Strawberry Lemonade, I'm a Creative at an Ad Agency in San Francisco. Last year I got to work on some very cool stuff with some rad celebrities (Jay Z, Fergie, Kanye....holla!) but it was a little animated lightbulb that stole my heart and became my favorite project of the year! I created five TV spots for Frito Lay Chips & Dips. Here are three of them. I hope you like 'em too!

Watch them all here (there are two more and I promise they're super cute!).

Best of Strawberry Lemonade: Part 1

2010-01-08T12:08:00.000-08:00

Now that 2009 has drawn to a close, I thought it would be fun to share with you guys a handful of the posts I liked best this past year! There is a mix of personal favorites and posts that seemed to spark the most interest with you guys. If you’ve seen them all before, apologies! But here’s hoping you see something fun that you might have missed the first time around!

1. Strawberry Lemonade Vintage.

I’m an obsessive collector. I will say I’m not quite at the hoarders stage….yet. My rationale is that I don’t save junk. I obsessively collect vintage trinkets. So at least my stuff looks pertier than stacks of old newspapers and molding food! (hewww…..that show just freaks me out!)
I literally have enough vintage clothing to open up a shop and I am hoping to have a little Etsy magic happening this year. Until then, here was a popular peek at some of my goodies. Hmmm…..that didn’t come out quite right. Well, you know what I mean, right??
See the full post here.

2. Balloons

One day I was getting ready to do my little “What I Wore” fashion post and in walks Greg with a colossal bunch of balloons. Wolfie and I were amazed. I couldn’t resist grabbing them to use in the picture. See the full post here.

3. A German Rose

Last year was an especially tough one for me emotionally. Lots of tough things happened, but by far the most heartbreaking for me was the loss of my Tante Maria. She was full of life and vigor. This tribute post I did remains one of my favorites—don’t be afraid to click. It’s very uplifting and more a celebration of how awesome she was.
See the full post here.

4. The Cutest Vintage Car Ever

You may think you know the cutest car out there, but until you feast your eyes on the Renault Jolly, you really have never seen cute.
See the full post here.

5. Granny Chic is Still Tops

I love sandals with socks, metallic or jewelled handbags and little cardigans. Yep. It's a little granny-esque, but I prefer to think of it as Granny Chic! Take a gander at what I mean here.

6. Vintage Teen Bedrooms are Jivey, baby!

I have a collection of vintage children's books which all have charming stories and even more charming illustrations. One of my prized possessions, however, is this book on decorating your bedroom. It's from 1960 and crammed full of fabulous slang, in the most ridiculous and awesome way!! Check out the book here.

7. The Clothes of Tomorrow
This video is brilliant and was one of my most tweeted posts of the year. It's a short little clip from the 1930s where leading fashion designers were asked to speculate what they thought people would be wearing in the year 2000. The announcer is hilarious. I think "Ooooh swish!" will be my new catch phrase...you can watch it below but if you'd like to link to it, the original post is here.

Part 2 to come later!

xoxo

alex

2010 delayed.

2010-01-04T13:30:00.001-08:00

Well well, my New Year posting plans have gone a bit haywire. I've come down with a mega ghastly cold—sniffles, achey body and a hacking cough that wracks me bones. Waaah! Not how I was envisioning ringing in 2010. I refuse to let it get me down, however. So while my latest update will just have to wait a bit I'm too too achey to wish you all a most HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I can't wait to see what 2010 has in store for us, but I have the feeling it's going to be a good one.

much love,

alex

3, 2, 1.....HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2009-12-31T14:32:00.000-08:00

Holy smokes friends, can you believe 2010 is nearly here?? Euro friends and those in the land Down Under, you'll welcome it before we do....east coasters too. I have to say I'm really excited for a new year. Fresh start. New dreams, goals, aspirations, plans. BUT before that, I say we all pop the cork and have a little glass of cold bubbly. Raise your glass and repeat after me, "To good friends, good health and lots of love and laughter in 2010!"

....and maybe just a little touch of glamour too.

xoxo

alex

Going Back to Cali.

2009-12-29T11:00:00.001-08:00

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a happy happy holiday. I sure did. Thanks for all the kind messages too. The whole fam is now back from Michigan, which truly was a Winter Wonderland of snow. We had a really terrific time, but now I'm holed up in California with one nasty cold. Fever, cough, sore throat, the works! I'm going to lay low for a few days, cuddled up on the couch with a mug of hot lemony tea and a good book. BUT! I'm also thinking this is the perfect time to get caught up on all my favorite blogs—not to mention discover some new ones. Did you lay off the computer for the holidays or were you one of those who couldn't resist? Help a sick girl out and leave me a lil comment telling me to swing by yer world to check out your latest! (aka if you ever felt shy about shameless promotion, this is your chance! Promote away!!)

I have lots more photos to share, but here are just a few from the last blustery day we spent. There really is nothing pertier than the snow covered lakeside.

That last photo should have been a "before" and "after" shot. The Mega Pout is because I had just said, "Wolfie....don't you throw that snow ball at mama!!" Two seconds (and one mischievous grin) later, I got nailed with a powdery snowball! The photo of Greg and Wolfie with the sled is actually the lake, frozen over. Amazing it freezes solid! OK Team, shoot me some links please! I hope you're having a great holiday, those of you who still have time off. Now, I have a hot date with my book and that cuppa tea.

xoxo

Merry Christmas My Lovelies!

2009-12-24T17:19:00.000-08:00

Hello my fabulous little lemon heads. Thank you sooo very much for a glorious year and for all your love and positive energy and enthusiasm! Thanks for letting me have a peek into your lives and for letting me share with you a peek into mine. You make this whole bloggin' thang pretty darn grand.

xoxo

alex

A Jewel of a Tree.

2009-12-23T18:41:00.001-08:00

I just had to share this little quickie with you—I've been waiting to share these photos with you all fall and almost forgot! My lovely friend Denise, who has one of the coolest homes around (filled with amazing vintage knicknacks and gorgeous vintage clothes) has one of my top favorite vintage pieces EVER. Take a gander at this gorgeous holiday tree, made entirely out of vintage rhinestone brooches and beaded earrings. It's so sparkly and cool I can't even stand it. Denise found it at the flea market and displays it year round. My kinda gal!

Brown paper packages tied up with string!

2009-12-23T15:16:00.000-08:00

Let's talk presents, people. I have to say I love wrapping gifts. When I found out that kooky Candy Spelling had an entire room devoted to wrapping gifts I thought, "THAT would be AWESOME!!!!" I love finding cool paper, pretty ribbons and making little gift tags. I'll take fancy wrapping paper (with metallic embellishments or groovy graphics) but I also love simple craft paper with a little bit of twine. I get so obsessed with pretty paper that after xmas I skedaddle to the stores to scoop up all the sale paper. Among my faves are the Martha Stewart wrapping papers at K-Mart and the wrapping paper that Old Navy makes. For some reason Old Navy's is hard to find, but it's nice and thick and has cool designs. How about you guys? Have you posted any prezzie pictures? I'd love to see!

I still have loads of wrapping to do, but here are some of ours from last year:

Images: 1, 2, 3a, 3, 4

Vintage Kids: Animals' in Cute Christmas Scarves

2009-12-22T22:24:00.000-08:00

This sweet book is called The Animals' Merry Christmas and has adorable illustrations by Richard Scarry. It was written by Kathryn B. Jackson in 1950. Something about animals in little scarves that gets me every time.

"The Animals' Merry Christmas is as bright and gay as a Christmas tree. All the animals have a happy holiday in this charming collection of stories and poems, delightfully illustrated by the ever-popular Richard Scarry."

As they went they sang:
"Rabbits in the snow,
Off to Grandma's house we go -
Holly, pudding, popcorn, toys,
Shining candles, lots of noise:
Off to Grandma's house we go -
Sing for Christmas, sing for snow!"

Santa Claus said he simply could NOT be everywhere at once. He said it was no use trying. Mrs. Santa Claus thought very hard.
"Your helpers will be glad to go to the stores and ring the bells for you," she said. "I'll fit them all out in your old Santa Claus suits!

Then arm in arm, the Hedgehog family hurried through the snowy twilight, heading for the lights of London town, and the wonderful Christmas sights they would see.

The puppy grabbed the Christmas ribbon and began jumping towards the door of the house.

When he saw some boys throwing snowballs, he ran right up to them. "Who wants a puppy for Christmas?" he barked.

"And Donner and Blitzen sang a sort of song:
"Through the snow,
Bringing toys
To the good
Girls and boys!"
But Prancer shook his head in the naughtiest way.
"Not me!" he said. "I'm not going this year."

[What's with ol cranky pants Prancer!?]

Before long the sleigh stopped with a jerk. It stopped on the roof of Tommy's house.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I own this book and scanned it before I left for Michigan, but I cribbed the text from the lovely Pipnstuff's Flickr set.

Santa's Village

2009-12-21T14:32:00.000-08:00

I grew up in Michigan but my family spent every summer in Santa Cruz, California (my dad is a professor and he taught at USCS, at their summer language institute). We looooooved going there, it's such a cool town and the campus is gorgeous. I have tons of amazing memories, but one of the most random ones is of a little place called Santa's Village. Santa's Village was a Christmas-themed, er...."theme" park built in 1958. The idea was to bring Christmas joy to children all year round. Kind of insane and yet....totally amazing! My brother and I were fascinated by the place (we would pass it on the highway whenever we were taking a weekend road trip) and would beg our parents to let us go. Sadly it was already shut down (I think it closed in 1978??), but one day they pulled over and we were able to sneak on to the grounds and wander around the cobwebby rides. My favorites were the flying Christmas balls (kind of like the Dumbo ride at Disneyland, only with xmas ornaments!) and of course all the little gingerbread houses.

I found a site that had photos—you have to see it to believe it.

[EDIT: I just asked my mom if we actually went inside, because I for some reason I felt like I actually was able to go inside when it was still running but then I thought maybe it was just wishful thinking on my part. Mom confirmed that we actually DID visit Santa's Village in 1977, the year before it closed! She said somewhere there are some photos of us on the little train ride. Whoo hoo!]

"Residents of Santa's Village included Santa and Mrs. Claus, their elves who operated the rides and sold tickets. There was a baby petting zoo filled with goats, sheep, bunnies, ducks, deer and a Mexican burro. All the buildings were designed to look like log chalet-type structures, repleat with snowy roofs and gingerbread trim. The park had a gingerbread house, a elf toy factory, a lollipop tree and brightly colored gift shops. Around the village were tree-top tall wooden soldiers and candy canes. Santa himself had a huge mailbox to accept all the letters from children around the world."

IMAGES: Alameda Net

MORE ABOUT THE PARK: HERE

Apparently there is still a Santa's Village in New Hampshire.

1970s Christmas, Lemonade Style

2009-12-21T07:21:00.000-08:00

Since I shared those retro Holiday photos, I thought it would be fun to share some of my own "retro" pics. It's kind of a random collection—most of the albums back home in Michigan at my parents' house—but here are a handful of my memories!

Aww, it's meee and my pretty mama. This is at my grandma's house in San Diego.

I'm pretty sure this is the same year, but at our own apartment at Married Student Housing, at U.C.S.D. That tinsel is very German—although I noticed it on the tree at my grandma's house (in the first photo), so maybe it was popular in general in the 70s. Do you remember tinsel on your tree back in the day?? I don't know if they even sell it anymore. Hmmm.

In the background you can see my Top Favorite Christmas Album of All Time—The Jackson 5 Christmas Album. We still have it and still listen to it every year! Michael Jackson singing "Up On the Housetop" is the best.

Christmas morning, my first little desk! I loved that awesome dolly carriage too.

See? Told ya I was smitten with my carriage! This is later in the day, and I'm all dolled up. Check out the cool Playskool giraffe in the background. I sooo wanted one of those for Wolfie when he was little, but they were going for a bundle on eBay.

Me and my little Fisher-Price Camera.

My mom looks like a modern day hipster here, with her groovy fur hat and cool coat. I'm holding Pinkie, my little pink elephant. My godmother made him for me and he had these amazing psychedelic fabric ears. We're at Balboa Park in San Diego.

My mom has great style and I have always loved this little outfit she dressed me in—red velveteen overalls with heart bib and even hearts on my lil blue suede shoes! I was such a girlie girl when I was little, I looooved dressing up and really loved dresses. In fact, I hated to wear pants and my mom reminded me, "Was it ever hard to get you into that little outfit!" I seem to remember that I was pleased by the red velvet trim on my ruffly shirt. Hmmm.

Aw yeah, this was 1973, the year I got my Blythe doll AND the Barbie townhouse. Twas an excellent year of presents for wee Alexandra.

Now we're in Flint, Michigan. Look how adorable my mom is in her long dress—there are strawberries appliques on the collar. Cuteness!

These pictures totally make me smile. check out how fun my parents are cuttin' a rug Christmas eve! I look at our little house and there's hardly any furniture. My dad was a young college professor and it's not like he made a bundle, but as kids we were never aware that times might have been tight here and there. My parents are awesome. I can't wait to see them next week.

I'm Dreaming of a Vintage Christmas.

2009-12-19T07:53:00.000-08:00

I'm dreeeeaming of a retro christmas. I just love all these old photos—all the little trees are so sweetly misshapen.

Images: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

Lights and Plastic Flowers.

2009-12-18T07:21:00.000-08:00

I work in downtown San Francisco (you may remember the little photo tour of my walk to work I did a while back) and whenever I take a moment from hustlin' and bustlin' I always admire how pretty my city is. During the holidays, my walk is always so much more festive—by the time I leave it's dark outside and all the stores are lit up. Our store windows aren't nearly as exciting as the ones in New York, but it's still fun.

I stumbled upon these, erm...."big balls" the other day while walking back from a lunch date with the faboo Miss Tracy from Shutterbean. I'm kind of a shawty anyway, but these really make me look teensy. I actually took the cable car from my office down to the Ferry Building to meet her (which I NEVER do! Funny how we locals never take advantage of them and you can hop on with any bus pass...). We had a terrific lunch and I gotta say nothing beats a cable car ride on a crisp "winter" day.

This tree is near my office and it looks SOOOOOO pretty come twilight. They wrapped the hell out of every strand with little jewel colored red lights and it's gorgeous. This photo really doesn't do it justice.

Come evening, the storefronts are all glowing with lights. Most are really pretty, but I gotta tell ya the WORST is the Prada store. Like seriously, they made NO effort. And what's with the crazy frizzle hair dos on the models this season? The mannequins look so jank-tastic, you wouldn't believe it. But let's not think about them....let's just take a stroll through Union Square and check out some of the fancy shops.

Macy's always partners with the SPCA during the holidays and there are are always the cutest kitties and puppies in their windows...soooo tempting. I think that xmas "kitty tree" is pretty great.

And finally, let me complete this hodgepodge of photos with a blurry snap shot of me getting ready for our company holiday party last weekend. It was loads of fun—and always nice to get to hang with work friends out of the office. I have to admit I was sort of pooped and at one point thought, "I should prolly get going..." and then the music got REALLY good and I ended up dancing til the wee hours! It also helped that I sneakily brought a pair of flats with me and changed out of my sassy heels when I decided to shake a leg. I missed two really fun parties that friends threw (one the previous weekend and one the same weekend—sorry Kelly and Steph!!!) so it was nice to finally be able to get dolled up! Do you guys have any party plans this season? I like having people over, but since we're getting ready to head off to Michigan (brrrr!) we're not hosting anything this year.

(My silver glittery hairpiece was actually a 99 cent flower from Michaels Crafts—it stayed in all night and I think people thought it was something far fancier! Go Michaels...)

Merry Kitschmas.

2009-12-17T21:58:00.000-08:00

Whooo weee! The Christmas countdown is on! I have been work work workin' but we're getting ready for our trip to Michigan and my last day of work is tomorrow. I'm ready to throw myself head first into the Christmas spirit and I'm taking YOU with me, my loves! Just look at these fabulous creations from 1968 & 1969.

I am koo koo for this little gingham house—but how curious that the only thing that is edible is the frosting roof!!

Look at these clever wall hangings made out of plastic cups with a little ball ornament inside them. Totally space age and totally easy peasy, huh.

I swear that last photo looks totally like something out of a Kate Spade layout, huh. Looooove it! More to come, prettie kitties. Stay tuned!

Images: Flickr

The Jam Fancy Creepy Christmas.

2009-12-11T15:39:00.000-08:00

Ho ho ho, my little chickadees! It's a rainy Friday here in San Francisco. Boo hoo! To warm you up, I have some fabulous photos to share. My friend Christina is a BRILLIANT artist & crafter. I met her thru our shared love of Blythe (I really need to do a whole post on the time my Blythe dolly Sophie went to visit her in Australia). Anyway, she is so wildly creative and talented I just had to share. In addition to being a wonderful illustrator, Christina is supremely talented at making things. Especially tiny things. So it didn't come as any surprised when I saw her Creepy Christmas tree. Straight out of a twisted Alice in Wonderland, Time Burton faerie tale...this little black tree is whimsical, quirky and utterly charming. Hmmm, just like Christina herself! Needless to say I'm a huge fan, and this lovely lady made every single thing on the tree herself!

(Psst! The two-headed deer is my favorite!)

All images: Jam Fancy.

I just know you'll love her blog, JamFancy.

A Little Christmas Cheer.

2009-12-09T17:21:00.000-08:00

The winter holidays are pretty much my favorite time of year. Say what you will, I truly believe people are a little bit nicer and a little bit kinder to one another come December!

Here are a few of my favorite things: the glow of holiday lights, Christmas trees, beautifully wrapped packages, baking cookies, candle light, the smell of cinnamon and gingerbread, peppermint mochas, a crackling fire, crisp-but-clear night skies, Christmas carols, Heat Meiser & Snow Meiser, snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes….and of course that feeling of joy and anticipation that fills the air.

After an outrageous fall (it was a sunny 74 degrees on Thanksgiving, people. Crazy!) San Francisco has grudgingly admitted that it is indeed winter. It’s been sooo cold here (by California standards), dipping down into the 30s at night. Brrrrr. Thankfully our house has central heating, but for years I lived in cute little hipster Victorian flats—that had NO heat!!! Those old Victorians are gorgeous but brutal in the winter. I remember one of my flats had a heating duct OVER the door to my bedroom, so you were toasty warm if you happened to be a stilt walker or were constantly changing light bulbs.

Over the years—egged on by Wolfie—we have gotten bigger and bigger with our house lights. I raided the Target post-xmas sale last year and apparently went a little crazy. We are now the proud owners of THREE light up deer. And yes I dorked out and placed blue lights on the ground in front of the little grazing doe so it looks like she is drinking from a pond. (C’mon now, it’s CUTE dammit!)

Last night we went finally found time to go and get our tree. We own a super fab, vintage aluminum silver tree that has a color wheel and rotates and everything (I’m not even kidding, it truly rotates! And no, it's not that little wee one in the picture above...) but nothing truly beats a real tree. We got a 6-7 footer and oh my is she ever a beauty!

We have a nice collection of vintage ornaments, but I’m not a purest. We have a lot of fun new ones on the tree too. Last year I had to get rid of an entire box of vintage christmas ornaments as they were quite faded and the metallic finish was starting to flake and crackle off. It broke my heart, but it just seemed like a safety hazard. Here are some of my fave ornaments, a mix of vintage and new:

The Snoopy was Greg's when he was a little boy. So cute! This is our tree topper, she always makes me smile:

This year, Wolfie requested we place a star on the tippy top of the tree, so Miss Angel Cakes is taking the season off. I was sad to see her go. I have to confess I'm a bit of a tyrant when it comes to decorating the house for the holidays. I'm totally one of those moms who rearranges the tree sneakily once their child is in bed. (Sorry Wolfgang! Mommy still loves you....and hey, I kept them in the same vicinity as where he hung them himself!) That being said, I'm a democratic tyrant....and really making your child giggle with glee is half the fun of the holidays. So a star it was.

So how about you guys? Do you have any fun traditions? In greg's family, the stockings were KING. They made a big deal about making sure they were filled with awesome goodies. In my family, the stocking was a bit of a boobie prize—we'd get a chocolate bar and other little so-so goodies. But I must say my parents really did it up in all other respects. Not just lovely prezzies, but my parents truly loved Christmas and always made sure it was fun for us. We would sing songs, have game nights, special meals. They've definitely passed that love down to me....and I'm passing it on to Wolfie!

Paris at night in 1962

2009-12-08T00:33:00.000-08:00

Ahhh, I wish I could type in a French accent. Look at these amazing photos of Paris cafes and nightlife in 1962. Ze gorgeous women! Ze smokey eyes! Ze glamorous leeps! Ze chic sunglasses! Ze poodle wis ze brie! Ohhh lala!

These images were taken the same week as Yves St. Laurent's runway show that launched the house of Dior to new and glittering heights. Double oooh lalala!!

The photographer was Tom Palumbo who also shot for Vogue and Bazaar in the 50s and 60s. You can see more of his work on his Flickr page.

Friday Link Round Up!

2009-12-04T15:55:00.000-08:00

Happy Friday beautiful people! First off, thanks to everyone who stopped by from decor8. That was an awesome discussion, wasn't it?? (Holly over at decor8 started a great chat about commenting on blogs! Do you comment? Why do we need or want comments? etc. You can check out the thread here.)

Here are a few things that caught my eye this week.

I love fun illustrations and graphics and lordy, I think I was smitten with every single thing over at Super 7. They have cutest graphic prints ever, at pretty affordable prices:

image: the delightful whorange.

I'm so excited we're in the holiday season now. Forget the scrooges and the commercial bits and lets focus on the joy, happiness and goodwill towards all! I was delighted to find this great example of spreading holiday cheer: the awesome Mibo Studios have an adorable FREE advent calendar to help you count down the days! Grab it here.

One of my favorite blogs to read is The Bubb Report. The irony is Becky runs the awesome Hatch, Design Public blog, but it's The Bubb Report (with fabulously trashy updates on things like Rachel Zoe and The Real Housewives) that I crave. The girl is also really hilarious. Occasionally she posts designy stuff amidst the pop goodness and I was totally smitten with these Jonathan Adler pillows. That damn Adler rules. You can see even more yummy Adler goodies over at his site.

I love retro and vintage photos so I was psyched to discover all the good stuff going on over at Plan 59. The thumbnail of the picture below was that jolly little Santa. Gotta say I wasn't prepared for a Hanes ad. I'm dreaming of a tighty whitey Christmas???

Kate Spade has jumped on the iPhone app bandwagon. And while this app isn't particularly fancy, it *is* an elegant and simple little date book/calendar to help you keep track of appointments and such. Did I mention it's free? I mean, heck, might as well give it a look see!

The last linky I have to share is the Omm Writer, which is the sweetest little gadget ever. In their words:

Ommwriter is a simple text processor that firmly believes in making writing a pleasure once again.
If you are a scriptwriter, blogger, journalist, copywriter, poet or just someone who enjoys writing, welcome back to concentrating.

Think word processor meets Air (or Cocteau Twins....or Enya). You get a serene screen in which to compose your thoughts. It's super charming and perfect for eliminating the clutter of your desktop. Below is a little demo video, but you should just go ahead and download the FREE Beta of this cuteness here. Happy writing! And happy Friday...xox

Ommwriter

I got no strings to hold me down.

2009-12-04T07:30:00.000-08:00

I was cleaning up the other day and found this vintage French magazine from 1967 in a pile of stuff. That's how it is over at the ol' lemonade stand. It may often look like a thrift store exploded over here, but I guarantee you will always find something fun and interesting to look at!! OK, back to this amazingly cute magazine, that I can't read a word of. Loads of amazing stuff, but this one is my favorite by far. How cute are these models?? I love the dresses and mod flats. It has me wanting to paint on rosey cheeks do a little marionette photo shoot!

Hide yer 'stash.

2009-12-02T07:18:00.000-08:00

Last christmas Greg got me some fake stick-on moustaches and we cracked up wearing them and sticking them all over the house (you'll see my Vivienne Westwood book got the 'stash treatment further down the pics). I have to say I think stylized lil moustaches are kind of rad. Maybe it's an old fondness for Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot or the fact that it still makes me giggle when people draw moustaches on fashion magazine photos. I dunno. I'm just kind of loving the fashion 'stash trend!

Get your own personal 'stash over here: Tatty Devine moustache necklaces: 1 and 2; moustache ring 1 and 2; moustache coffee cup/drinking glass 1 and 2; moustache band aids 1; moustache key holder 1; jack spade moustache gloves 1; Queen with Moustache tee 1;

I'm Super Thankful!

2009-12-01T14:48:00.000-08:00

How was everyone's Thanksgiving?? Ours was super relaxing and the weather was unbelievably gorgeous. We had planned to visit Greg's parents in South Carolina, but at the last minute we all decided that a spring visit would be better for them. While we were sad about not seeing them, I have to admit I don't like flying on Thanksgiving. It's always the most crowded time of year. Wolfie didn't have school all week so I took a few days off and spent some quality time with my cute boy. We started out by taking the train to Fresno ("Fresno??"). Yes, Fresno. We have really great friends who live there and I looooove visiting them. They have a totally excellent house on a cul de sac by a park. It's really pretty and very different from our crazy City livin'. Their kids are like Wolfie's cousins and he was in heaven playing with them (they are older than him so he always feels extra special, like a "big kid."). Taking the train was a cool experience. It's a four hour ride from San Francisco, but we both loved it.

Thanksgiving day was spent in the Bay Area with some more great friends. In addition to the classics I made the infamous Shutterbean's brussel sprouts and pumpkin parfaits (YUMMMMMMY, thank you Tracy!) .

Even my non-sugar lovin' boy was tempted by homemade vanilla whipped cream!!

Wolfie really is unique in that way. Doesn't like sweets AT ALL. Our friend Jim was teasing him and said, "Wolfie, if you start acting crazy, I'm gonna make you eat CHOCOLATE!" and Wolfie giggled and said, "Nooooooo!!!" He wasn't kidding. I can count the sweets he likes on one hand: vanilla ice cream, shortbread or snickerdoodle cookies, lollipops and vanilla cupcakes. That's it. No chocolate. No hot cocoa. No candy. No syrup on pancakes (just butter). He once made a cupcake last three days. I'm not kidding. It's so strange—especially considering I have a wicked sweet tooth. I will say that the kid's got the healthiest teeth in town!

But back to the food. I decided that wine wasn't enough and I wanted to make a fancy cocktail. So I came up with Cranberry Mojitos. I made a cranberry simple syrup, muddled mint leaves, ice, rum and a splash of club soda.

I can't tell you for sure if they were good or not because I got all kindsa tipsy making them. I had no idea what I was doing so I was constantly tasting and sampling to make sure I was getting the ratio right. A few of them were really tasty...a few of them tasted awful. I think the simple syrup was too thick—I might just try this simpler mojito recipe with cranberry juice next time.

Over the weekend, Greg made us an amazing breakfast—vanilla french toast, a mushroom, chicken apple sausage scramble, really yummy. Which leads me to what I am thankful for. I know I'm a few days late, but being early was never my strong suit. I'm so thankful for my little family. Greg is simply the best guy around, so kind and funny and cool. He really is the rockinest dad in the universe. And Wolfie....well, he's my little Wolf cub. Our little sunshine boy! A total giggler, snuggler and silly rascal. Both of these guys crack me up on a daily basis and I'm always so happy to come home to them after a long day.

I'm also extremely thankful for YOU! Strawberry Lemonade has been such a fun side project for me. Knowing that you guys are stopping by every day to see what random things I've come up with makes this all so much fun. Thank you for all your sweet and great comments (keep 'em coming!). I also love all the new cool folks I've met and all the amazing blogs that are out there. Keep on sharing! You guys are all thee best. *mwuah!*

Hiya-watha.

2009-12-01T12:30:00.000-08:00

Feathers have been making a comeback in a big way. I've been wearing the "fascinator" style for a few years now—I bought my first about six or seven years ago in New Orleans and usually only busted it out for "nights on the town". Now that I have a child, my nights on the town are few and far between! So I was happy when the more day-time feather look started to make an appearance. Not that I've ever been one shy away from wearing night fancies in the day time...but my first feather hairpiece was pretty large. The new fascinators are a little more chic and a little less show girl.

While I still love the look of these, I'm becoming more and more entranced by the Native American feathers I'm seeing popping up. Granted some of these are pretty costumey.....but I really love the idea of a headband or crown of feathers. What do you think??

Images: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

THANKGIVING Retro Roundup.

2009-11-24T23:28:00.000-08:00

Oooh la la. Tis nearly time for ze bird. I"m super excited because I have Wed-Fri off. Whoo hoo. What is everyone up to? Have you decided what to cook? Are you staying home or going to someone elses house? I'm in charge of mashed potaters and a dessert. I'm also trying to think of a yummy pre-dinner cocktail to make. Anyone have any ideas or recommendations? I'm going to try and squeeze in one more posts before T-Day my lovelies but then I'm gonna take a the weekend off! I hope you all have a super relaxing and fabulous holiday.

This video is extremely bizarro because the person set it to old Twilight Zone "spooky" music, but it's worth a look for the lady's beehive alone! You'll see what I mean.

XOXO, alex

Linky Dinks: TGIF, people!

2009-11-20T17:40:00.000-08:00

Well my friends, count down to T-Day has begun. I'm telling ya, I just love fall and allll the holidays that go along with it. Thanksgiving is always so much fun—it's kinda hard to go wrong with good friends and good food, isn't it? It also means that we are getting THAT MUCH CLOSER to December which just blows my mind! Where has this year gone, people??

OK, so on to this weeks links! This is a rather random mish mash of things, my little mix tape of links. But these are the things that have been catching my eye this week.

As a fan of moody, old timey looking portraits, this painting by Marion Peck had me cracking up. I'd love to see it hanging over a fireplace in an ornate frame!! Get your own print HERE.

If you are a Tim Burton fan and anywhere near NYC, this exhibit at MoMA is a must! For those of us who are too far away, the lovely Gala Darling was at the opening celebration and took some really fun photos.

I love clever things and this one is pretty darn cute. Ad agency Y&R/Bankok created these awesome ice cream bars for their client, Colgate. When you're done eating it, the "stick" transforms into a toothbrush that reminds you to brush your teeth after eating. Sweet!

Speaking of Thanksgiving, my friend Tracy over at the glorious Shutterbean (seriously, AMAZING recipes and yumtastic photos to go along with 'em) hooked me up with some DEElishus looking recipes. The brussel sprouts look really damn tasty. If you're not a fan of brussel sprouts then I maintain you have never had 'em done propa. A bad brussel is bitter and not too tasty, true, but done right they can be soooo amazing! She also has me eyeing these pumpkin parfaits. Mmmm. Find it all HERE.

Oh ho! Those crafty Tokyo designers have been taking their cute pills again. Leave it to the Japanese to find a way to make something as mundane as a bar code make you smile. And yes, they are functioning bar codes!

A house smiles in Brooklyn. Photographer Dan Witz took these great shots of this home on Meeker between N. Henry and Humboldt. (As an aside, his last name means joke in German....hmmm). Pretty cute, no? See more of his work HERE.

And finally, check out this pretty amazing video. One wall. 5 Years of Grafitti. And Serge Gainsbourg. Cool.

Have an amazing weekend my friends. *mwuah!*

Nicoletta Ceccoli is Primo.

2009-11-19T07:48:00.000-08:00

If you are a fan of Mark Ryden, Marion Peck and the pop surrealist movement, then you'll probably dig Miss Nicoletta Ceccoli, a talented illustrator from Italy. I like that her work is darkly dreamy (melancholy?) but still has a bit of a feminine prettiness and whimsy to it. Not too dark or creepy. Most of the images could be plates in a children's book of fairytales. I'm liking it.

Read an interview with Nicoletta over at Arrested Motion.
IMAGES: Nicoletta Ceccoli.

Wolfie rocks the Stella.

2009-11-18T09:48:00.000-08:00

Stella McCartney recently launched a super cute kid's collection for the Gap. We have a flagship store downtown, here in San Francisco, so I got a gander at all the goodies first hand. I must say they had a huge-n-perty display when the line came out. The little girl stuff is especially Shiloh Jolie-Pitt-ish. It was all so stylish and chic looking ( i love the sneaks) and despite the fact that I knew it was all WAY too spendy, I was transfixed.
As I stood there admiring a crazy soft charcoal cashmere hoodie (because don't all toddlers need cashmere??), a row of coats and jackets caught my eye—especially these two.

The little drum major coat was hilariously cute. Totally adorable, I can't lie, but I mean....really? Where does one go with a child in a little toy soldier jacket? The playground? Grocery shopping? "Drum Line 2" try-outs?? But then i saw the little pea coat. And it was sooo freakin' cute I just HAD to see it on Wolfie. I looked at the price tag and about fell over. All the Stella stuff is pretty pricey (little drummer boy was $128, peacoat $78.). Which is just crazy talk for kids clothes. BUT, I was dying to see Wolfie in this little coat. So I bought it. And then returned it. But not before I was able to snap a few photos. Heh.

By the way, Wolfie's verdict? "Mommy, this jacket is not very cozy." "Mommy, this top part is toooo high on my neck!!" "Mommy, it's too pokey!!" and of course "MOMMY NO MORE PICTURES!!"

The coat looks crazy cute, but it's unlined, a scratchy wool and a scandalous $75. Stella my love, if you're going to make kid's clothes they've gotta be comfy. And in the words of my wise little son, these just ain't cozy.

Style Files: Anna Sui Likes to Gossip

2009-11-18T06:51:00.000-08:00

I totally succumbed to the Anna Sui collection at Target. Do I feel weird that this is the "Gossip Girl" collection? Nope! So, apparently this is a "Serena" dress. And while I'm neither svelte, leggy or blonde, I think it's kind of a cool dress. It has these weird metallic, plastic spikey things (kinda like punk rock paillettes) around the neck. I read some reviews where people expressed disappointment that the spikes were plastic and not something more substantial like metal. Personally I'm not too psyched about wearing something resembling a mini bear trap around my neck, so i was totally A-OK with the plastic. It's got kind of a looooow neck line, which I can't quite figure out how to work. I either need to take in the shoulder straps OR invest in some sticky tape. If you are thinking of getting this dress I would say a few things. It runs BIG in the hips, which was lovely news for me....but if you are very slim I would go down a size. Also, the neckline is def tricky. Not sure of bigger boobage would be better to hold it up or if it would look scandalous?? I also think it would hang better on someone taller....but I still am digging it! Because of the low neck, I feel like its more of a going out look. I usually love taking fancy stuff and dressing it down, but the potential for awkward neckline action isn't my idea of a fun day!

+ Anna Sui Gossip Girl Collection, Target
+ Little Black cardigan with birdie applique, Target (eons ago)
+ Grey Booties, Kohls
+ Silver Mini Handbag, vintage
+ Pink beads, thrifted

Vintage Kids: Beware of the Dog

2009-11-17T06:20:00.000-08:00

An awesome little book from 1968. Written by Christine Woyke and illustrated by Stina Nagel. As usual I really love the clothes the kidlets are wearing. Some hip duds!

STELLLLLLA.

2009-11-16T12:55:00.000-08:00

Brooklyn-based artist Stella Im Hultberg has a super cool name. While she sounds like a Bavarian Princess, she was born in Korea and raised in Seoul, Hong Kong and eventually California. Her work has a very dark, sexy, moody style (I'm spyin' some influence by Egon Schiele, no?) but I especially loved getting a peek at her sketch books.

IMAGES: Stella Im Hultberg and Stella's Blog

Hot Legs Monday!

2009-11-16T12:28:00.000-08:00

Happy Monday beautiful people. Let's start the week out on the right foot with a little leggy 60s action. Hot pants and minis, oh my! It's interesting to see how cute they look, even though they are showing off alotta leg. A perfect example of only showcasing one asset. Hot pants and a turtle neck. Today girls wear shortie shorts AND a half shirt or low cut shirt and end up looking all hoochie. They could take a cue from these fine fillies, eh??

Link Dinks for Friday.

2009-11-13T06:43:00.000-08:00

OOOOoh friends, THANK GAWD IT'S FRIDAY!! Even if it's Friday the 13th. Here are some things that were catching my eye this week:

The adorable Sally Jane Vintage posted this image the other day and I was instantly mitten. It captures everything I love about autumn perfectly! Her blog always has the most inspirational vintage.

Giddy Giddy
I recently met a totally groovy couple who are parents at Wolfie’s school. They’re the kind of folks that make you think, “Heck I would want to be their friend even if I didn’t have kids!”

Besides being super nice, Teri and Kenny are totally creative and run their own business, Giddy Giddy. Teri is really talented and she creates the sweetest felt hair clips, bags, and awesome hanger dealies to store your hair clips on (sooooo cute! check out the sillhouette one on their website. LOVE it!) and more. I’m telling you even if you don’t have a child you will want one some of this stuff. Check them out HERE. Teri also has a fun blog over here.

Pretty Dress
Lord help me how I wish I were a size XS. Not because I want to be a skinny minnie, but because then I could bid on this FABULOUS vintage dress! How space-age and dreamy is this sucka??

Smelly Markers Rule!

I was at Staples the other day and spied these Mr. Sketch markers. OH MY LORDY how it took me back. They still smell as awesome as they did when I was in kindergarten. I had so much fun sharing them Wolfie. The brown is cinnamon but I remember it as being root beer flavored and it still smells like root beer to me. Wolfie and I both had little dots of marker on our noses from sniffing while we drew! Get your own set HERE.

The First Decade in 7 Minutes
Newsweek has produced a video that recaps the last decade in seven minutes. It’s part of their series 20/10: The Decade In Rewind which takes a look at the biggest moments in the first ten years of the 21st Century. Pretty fascinating stuff. It's amazing to think of how many things have happened it 10 short years. WATCH HERE.

Dats all for now folks. Have an amazing weekend!

xoxo,

alex

Let them eat cake!

2009-11-12T12:06:00.000-08:00

Mmmm. Cake. You know, back in the day people really made an effort with their cakes. I kind of miss that. Nowadays people either create insane Martha style fancy cakes OR buy store cakes (with that gross, sickly sweet frosting....shudder). I will say I'm a fan of a cute and simple old timey two layer cake. My specialties are chocolate frosting/yellow cake with M&Ms all over the top (cute, easy, tasty and festive!) and then a lemon cake with cream cheese frosting (which is sooooo freaklin' scrumpdillyicious I can't stand it). We were just at a birthday party recently and the mom wheeled out what looked like a grossly sweet POWDER BLUE SPIDERMAN cake. Well shut my mouth, because it was sooooo amazingly delicious. The dad is a chef, so i should have known the cake would be good. It was like a chocolate truffle cake with buttercream frosting that they just dyed blue. Like SO GOOD, I wanted to stand on a chair and say "Children! You don't know how good this cake is!!!!" But for all my yackin', I'm never that adventurous myself. Cupcakes are all the rage with the kindergarten set so we tend to always make those (and I do love cupcakes). I still miss those proper homemade 'fun" cakes of the 70s though. I mean take a look at these babies....yowza! (pardon the well loved butter and flour stains on the little pages)

I love the butterfly, lion and giraffe. The little girl and teddy bear are a TAD creepy, no? "Slab of pink "leg" anyone??" Hewwww!!!

Style Files: Fur the Love of Fashion

2009-11-11T15:19:00.000-08:00

Faux fur mania has hit the Lemonade Stand! So with a crazy schedule like mine I rarely have the luxury of going into a store and leisurely trying on clothes. My new M.O. is to ball park the things I like (for size and fit) and then take them home to try on. Most stores have great return policies these days, so I can then return the things that don't fit or look right. My latest conquest was a little furry jacket. If I were tall and leggy I would rock it with jeans and platform shoes, but being a shorty I went for the dress-n-colored tights look. But which color?? (is there an echo in here? Seems like I JUST asked you guys this same question a few weeks ago!) The white seems fluffy and purty but the black seems a little bad ass. Whacha guys think? Also, would it surprise you if I told you this lovely is available for $29 at Target? Oh yes. They have a more Rachel Zoe-ish vest as well, but that made me look like a Flintstone's reject. This cropped one has a little cap sleeve that is pretty darlin'. Which you like?

They're both kind of ridiculous, I know. But oh so cozy and fun!

I couldn't find this on their website, but I have still seen them in stores.

I thought this furry coat was cute as well as this retro cape with faux fur collar!

Shake it like a....

2009-11-11T10:06:00.000-08:00

Minneapolis designer Sean Tubridy loves Polaroids. In fact he even founded the uber cool Save Polaroid group, which is single-handedly helping to bring back this beloved art form. And as much as he loves Polaroids, I love his crazy cool photos of vintage toys. Featured in the book Toys on Roids, it's like the Reeses cup of photography—two great things that go great together. Take look:

If you don't have your own Polaroid camera, recreate the magic with Poladroid, an awesome free app that lets you turn digital photos into Polaroids.

One other little thing. You may notice the pink R2 droid in that last photo. There is a super sweet story about how it came to be.

Melbourne artist Madeleine Stamer is the bomb.

2009-11-10T11:42:00.000-08:00

I so love these drawings by Australian artist Madeleine Stamer. When I first saw her work I was drawn to the bold and playful simplicity of each piece. They totally reminded me of a mix between Mexican paper cutouts and Chagall (fancy!).

An interview I read confirmed these influences:

There are so many influences which fall into many categories. Nature, natural history, mythology, graffiti, Aboriginal art, European folk art, vintage toys and the decorative arts all play a big role. I love a bit of kitsch too, I guess the most significant artistic influences for my colour and line choice would be Picasso and Chagall. Culturally I am a sucker for folk art, particularly Mexican ceramics and traditional Mexican decoration and religious iconography. The Mexican culture has an instinctive way of including vibrant colour and mixing surreal elements in everyday life, it is a sensory delight!

Excerpt from interview in Indie Art & Design

Aren't they great?

To see more of Madeleine's work, or to purchase a giclee print for your very own, visit Little Circus Design. She also has a cute little blog here.

Presents are my bag, baby.

2009-11-06T13:25:00.000-08:00

Perhaps you remember my quest for this awesome Orla Kiely bag? It's a super cute bag and though a little pricey, seemed fun and useful and something I could schlep all my stuff around in for ages. I was torn between two colors (treated like a fool....lalalala. A little Mary MacGregor 70s sap rock anyone?) and you kind folks even voted to help me chose. The problem was, the bag is discontinued and hard as hell to find. Well last month was my 8 year wedding anniversary and look what my super adorable (and style savvy) hubs bought me!!!

Awww, how cute is that? The super cute, lemon yellow Orla Kiely button bag. Weeee! He read my post and hunted this bag down. I was sooo touched by his sweetness and thought it was genius that he had read Strawberry Lemonade for ideas. Yay! Except....well....except he didn't really read that closely or he would have seen that....

I already posted about how, after massive web sleuthing, I found and bought myself the red bag as a treat for slaving so hard at work. EEP!!!! It was like the Gift of the Magi or something. I think we truly bought that last two bags of these kind for sale out there. I hadn't had a chance to show him the red bag, which had arrived the day before and as I opened up his amazingly sweet and thoughtful prezzie I kind of gulped. Like, do I pretend I never got the red one? Do I sell it? Hide it under the bed?? Waaah.

Being the good little George Washington that I am, however, I couldn't tell a lie. I had to come clean and show it to him. Greg thought it was pretty hilarious but immediately said, "Um, you know you can't keep them both right?" *sigh* I know, I know. I decided to let Wolfie pick the winning color, because I honestly couldn't decide. The yellow was so sunshiney and sweet, but the red felt more "me". And so the winning bag (drum roll please):

I love it. And I love Greg for getting it for me. He has always been one of the most thoughtful, awesome present-givers in the whole wide world. He's a keeper, that Greg.

The beautiful yellow Orla bag will being going up on ebay if any of you lovely readers have a hankerin'. It's truly lovely and so pretty.

Pencils Down, Everyone.

2009-11-05T22:12:00.000-08:00

Some folks like to draw with charcoal. Others with pastels. Some with pencil. Well, groovy Australian artist Ghostpatrol does it one better. He likes to draw ON pencils. I just love these.

Purple Reign.

2009-11-03T22:46:00.000-08:00

My very first favorite color, when I was a little girl, was purple. Purple eventually gave way to pink and then red and blue took their place at the top of the list. But there is something about purple that always pulls me back. I wouldn't say it's my favorite color, but I still really love it. Purple gets a bad rap sometimes (all those dalliances with the wizard-n-crystals set, doncha know) but at its best i think its moody and regal and perty as can be.

Images: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

We now return to our regularly schedule programming.

2009-11-03T10:26:00.000-08:00

OK people. Thank you for indulging me in my series of ME ME ME posts. I am recovering from Halloween mania quite nicely and have lots of vintage goodies and other randomness up my sleeve to share with you this week. It was fun to spread the Halloween lerve, but I'm ready to get back to business. That's all. Carry on!

We Tricked and Treated.

2009-11-02T23:32:00.000-08:00

ARGH matey! So we had a pretty great Halloween. I'm usually a fan of costumes you make yourself, but this year I decided to bust out and buy a pirate costume. Problem was, this cheapo outfit made me look like I should be workin' as a waitress at a Long John Silvers ("Will ye be havin' hushpuppies with yer orderrrrrrrrrr??"). Whoooo chile, the puffy sleeve action was outta control. I ended up adding my own skirt and boots and tights for the deal and have to admit, I had a the best time talking like a pirate the whole night (annoying everyone around me to be sharrrrrrrrrrr!)

We got a little costume happy over here during the course of the weekend. We went to a cocktail party on Friday (kids welcome, which was a great....we all got to have our lil drinkies and the kids had a blast munching on the outrageous snack table). Greg was out of control and had THREE costumes he wore throughout the weekend. He went as the "Elegant Giraffe" to Wolfie's school party (aka, he put on his Frankenstein suit and then Wolfie decided the mask was too scary and asked him to wear the giraffe mask instead...so he was a giraffe in a suit and bow tie. Oddly charming!). Next up, Friday night, he went as Gallagher, the crazy 70s/80s comedian who used to smash watermelons. A bit obscure, but hilarious whether you knew who he was or not. Then on Saturday, his kid band The Time Outs played the Bay Area Discovery museum—I convinced him that the kids would have NO CLUE who Gallagher was, so he did a last minute make shift super hero outfit and went as Super Greg (complete with a towel cape and a sparkly motorcycle helmet, from an old Evel Knievel costume of mine years ago). The audience ate it up! He's pretty amazing on stage—the kiddies love his goofball antics. Wolfie was pleased as punch with his Ash outfit. For those of you who have yet to experience a child who worships at the alter of Pikachu, Ash is Pikachu's "Boy". He looked rather cute, I must say, and wore the hat and gloves ALLLLLL day long with out a fuss. High five!

OH! And I forgot. For Wolfie's school Harvest Festival, we dug out last year's Pikachu costume and this time Greg was Ash (which brings Greg's costume tally up to FOUR). Yes, Wolfie has Pokemon fever. I had bought the Ash outfit offa eBay last year and it came the day after Halloween (boooo) so we decided they should team up this year just for the Festival:

Whew. I'm exhausted but still have loads of little mini twix bars to much on. As nutz as it all was, I skooted over to Target the next day to snag all the sale goodies so we can decorate propa next year! Best score: the light up jar of gurgling, floating eye balls. Bwah hahaha!

Style Files: Booootiful Weather Today!

2009-10-31T08:56:00.001-07:00

Since people here (and on Flickr) were interested in this dressie, I thought I'd post the rest of the photos as a Halloweenie Style Files!

+ Vintage dress. Not sure if you can tell but the flowers have a gingham pattern (you can see better on the previous post!) and the top is puckered like little girl's Polly Flinders dress. Super duper cute, but a wee bit scratchy (it's a poly blend but feels a little woolen.)

+ Pink tights from We Love Colors.
+ Black suede boots. Vintage. But not that old, methinks
+ Pink pumpkin....TARGET!
+ Oh and some scary cupcakes. YUM!

xoxox

The Costume Chronicles.

2009-10-30T20:16:00.000-07:00

One more day to Halloween folks. OK, I know I'm kind of on "personal photo overload" here lately, and I promise to get back to our regularly schedule programming next week, but I had to share these with you. It's kind of a funny story. So you guys know how much I love to dress up—and yet my sweet boy Wolfie has never liked it. Which pains me greatly. I had visions of making him superhero capes...astronaut outfits...cool pirate get ups. The works! Nope. My lil stubborn charmer wasn't havin' it. And Halloween was no better! It all began when he was two. I got him this super cute cowboy outfit...it came with wee chaps, a cowboy shirt and a cute little vest. The thing is, Wolfie liked his jackets/hoodies always zipped up. And a vest? Well it's like a perpetually "open" jacket. He didn't like this ONE BIT. Oh the dramatics!

He threw himself on the ground like a cartoon character, sobbing. Greg and I looked at each other half laughing half shaking our heads....like "Really? All this over a VEST?" Thankfully Wolfie has a pretty sweet little disposition and gets over things quickly. Once the offending vest was removed, he was all sunshine again.

The next year I had a great plan. Greg and I would go as Mr. & Mrs. Frankensteins—and Wolfie would be the Crazy Mad Scientist. Genius, right? I can make his hair all crazy, and he could wear the wee little lab coat I found him....buttoned up! Greg looked great.

I left Wolfie help me with my eye make up so he wouldn't be scared of my wig. Needless to say, this was a huge success.

But when it came time for his own costume, well...once again, you can see how Wolfie felt about all this:

I explained to him that Halloween was all about dressing up, and really he could be anything he wanted to. After some thought he declared. "I want to be a pumpkin." "Um.....a pumpkin?" "Yes. Pumpkin." "Wolfie you know a pumpkin is kind of round, and poofy right? Are you sure you want to be a pumpkin?" "Yes, I want a pumpkin." OK. So I have to admit that I was totally terrible and thought to myself "A PUMPKIN???? Oh c'mon!" But a pumpkin it was. I searched high and low for a non-poofy pumpkin and finally found one. I came home triumphant. YES! Wolfie will be so excited! Except......

Oy! I finally calmed him down and negotiated a bribe. "If you wear the costume, you can have some chips." (he's a salty boy, not a big fan of sweets....). With a sigh, he was resigned to his fate:

The final verdict: "I'll wear it. But I won't like it."

By the next day (which was actually Halloween) he had a change of heart and happily wore Ze Pumpkin. Hallelujah!

Oh my silly little Wolfie. I'm happy to report last year was amazingly struggle free! His friend Emmy got him into Pokemon and decided he wanted to be Pikachu. Not only did he wear the outfit, he wore the kooky hat dealie too! Whooo hoo! We even got Greg dressed up as Ash (Pikachu's "boy").

HAPPY HALLOWEEN YA'LL!

Punkin Head

2009-10-28T17:33:00.000-07:00

This year we went to not one, but TWO pumpkin patches. One was in the Santa Cruz area and super sweet with an apple orchard and AMAZING pies. The other was just this past weekend at the Western Railway Train Museum and is totally charming and unique. You ride a vintage train out for about 10 minutes or so out to the pumpkin patch, which is in the middle of nowhere. There they have a huge maze made out of bales of hay, games, llamas (not sure how they qualify as Halloweenie, but who am I to argue!), amazing little old lady bake-sale treats, BBQ and live music. It's a grand ol time for sure! How about you guys? Any pumpkin patch action in yer neck o' the woods?

Here is our day at the apple orchard pumpkin patch! My favorite picture is Wolfie trying to heave that heavy pumpkin!

Vintage Kids: Numbers & the Seasons

2009-10-28T15:06:00.000-07:00

I'm working on a little Marie Antoinette inspired project at work and have been playing lots of classical to get me in the mood. Vivaldi's Four Seasons is playing right now and it reminded me of these cute pics for Storytime Tuesday. This is from yet another of my Encyclopedia Britannica books. So simple yet so charming. The sweater on that little dog kills me. Hilarious!

Strawberry Lemonade Vintage Halloween Edition

2009-10-27T06:42:00.000-07:00

So I was in Target the other day and wandered into the Halloween aisle. I was kind of bummed out and horrified by all the creepy masks—the weirdo from the Saw movies, the Scream ghoul, random slashers. I thought to myself, "Where is the childhood innocence? Who lets their kid be a crazy murderer?? These masks are terrifying! It's not like back in the day when we were kids!"

Um.....OK. So I'm not sure when you last looked at old school Halloween masks, but shut mah mouth because some of these are positively terrifying!!! The cheap plastic only adds to the appeal. Of course I still love 'em all. And they're miles better than Scream. We'll start out with some of my faves. Look at this motley crue. Each kid is better than the next:

i confess, my heart belongs to the little stressed out Planet of the Apes guy on the end though.

The Snoopy. Hee. Not sure what's happening with the faceless Mr. Skelly.

These cute lil cowpokes are from 1951. I love that you can see her little dress in the reflection of the mirror. So sweet!

Here are the same happy kidlets one year later:

I’m amazed at this nonchalant baby:

If this kid showed up at my door step I’d run screaming. I can't imagine anything more terrifying! Oh wait, that's because this little creeper cutie hadn't showed up yet:

This poor child is like a Tretchikoff painting on acid. 1954.

I can't stop starring at and giggling at this next child:

This poor girl….looks like a classic victim of the dreaded, “It’s too cold out there, you wear a coat under that costume or you’ll catch your death of cold!” I always hated when mom made us wear our coats under our costumes.

This next one kills me too. Devils in Flannel Granny NIghties.

OK, check out the wig on the little nurse. Hee.

I love this one. What child decided that they want to be George Washington? So cute.

And finally, my favorite of the bunch:

The Colonel Sanders girl? I mean....c'mon now. I can't wait for Halloween this year. How about you??

IMAGES: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

We love our beautiful San Francisco.

2009-10-26T00:12:00.000-07:00

I love posting vintage photos for you guys, but this fine Monday I have something a little extra special. Greg showed this to me last night, and I was completely entranced. Vintage footage of San Francisco, shot on Super 8, with a dreamy modern soundtrack by Air. You'll see it all, the iconic cable cars, Coit Tower, Chinatown, the Bay Bridge, Lombard Street and of course the lovely Golden Gate bridge. This is my city as it was in 1958. Happy Monday!

San Francisco 1958 from Jeff Altman on Vimeo.

HAPPY FRIDAY.

2009-10-23T14:14:00.001-07:00

Helllllo everyone! Thanks so much for the awesome happy wishes for our anniversary. You guys are the best! Greg got me a great little gifty, but of course there is a story that goes along with it so I'll have to write it up this weekend. Speaking of, we have another action packed one—wolfie's school is having a Harvest Festival and then on Sunday we're going to this fun pumpkin patch that you ride a vintage trolley to get to. Weeeee! I can't wait. This fall is just FLYING by, I can't even believe it.

So I have been meaning to post about this all week. I just love when you get something unexpected in the mail. I'm happy with a little letter or card (so rare these days!) but just look at the sweetest little package that arrived in the mail last week from AUSTRALIA—from the super cute Lisa Tilse of The Red Thread blog. Lisa is one of my favorite people i've never met in real life. We first became pals during decor8/Holly Becker's amazing (AMAZING!) "Blogging Your Way" class. Lisa is super cool, so artistic and just full of fun. Her blog is pretty great....and for some reason she decided I was the winner of some contest and was getting a little care package. Frankly I think she made the whole thing up, because she's just so darn sweet like that, but either way I GLADLY take any goodies anyone wants to send my way. Check out this lovely package (amazing wrapping too!):

Lisa's artwork is so great, I looooove that little vintage dish, the fun stickie stickers and stationary....but the best thing byfar you can't see (its underneath that stack). Lisa's Sweetie Petite Doll kit—a super cool "make your own softie doll" out of Lisa's illustrations. It is brill, I can't wait to try it! (get your own HERE). THANK YOU THANK YOU Lisa!!!
You rock missy.

Have an amazing weekend friends!
xoxo

Wanna French? (Vintage Photography, silly)

2009-10-23T13:32:00.000-07:00

If you like vintage fashion photography then you're gonna love John French. Mr. French was an English chap who took flawlessly lit high fashion photos in the 50s and 60s. He worked with debutants and high fashion models (Jean Shrimpton, Twiggy, even Grace Coddington—which reminds me I STILL haven't seen that darn September Issue movie. waaah!). Interestingly enough, French was less concerned with the actual shots and more obsessed with getting his models in the perfect pose and having immaculate sets—his assistants were often the ones who actually literally took the photos. Then again, his assistants were Terence Donovan and David Bailey, both of whom grew into hotsy totsy photogs of their own, so I supposed he knew what he was doing! I have some amazing images he did with projections on his models, but lets start out with these beauties!

This is a great excerpt from David Bailey on his friend, John French:
"...French, then in his early fifties, was the epitome of the fashion photographer and portraitist of the era: exquisitely attired, fastidious, posh and gay (although, as it happened, married). "John French looked," Bailey remembered, "like Fred Astaire. 'David,' he said, 'do you know about incandescent light and strobe? Do you know how to load a ten-by-eight film pack?' I said yes to everything he asked and he gave me the job, but, at that time, I didn't even know what a strobe was. We became friends and after six o'clock Mr. French became John. One night I asked him why he gave me the job. 'Well, you know, David,' he said, 'I liked the way you dressed.' Six months later everyone thought we were having an affair, but in fact, although we were fond of each other, we never got it on."

In fact, French—"a screaming queen who fancied East End boys," according to documentarian Dick Fontaine—was the first person to really recognize something special in Bailey. Partly it was his bohemian style—Cuban-heeled boots, jeans, leather jacket and hair over the ears, all before the Beatles had been heard of; party in was his aptitude for the craft. French liked to compare his young protege to the unnamed hero of Colin MacInnes's cult novel about bohemian London, Absolute Beginners—a savvy insight—and he was perfectly willing, as he had with many previous disciples, to see Bailey get ahead in his own work.

"He was an incredibly decent type of man," Bailey would say of his mentor after French died in 1966. "Truthfully I don't think he was very good as a photographer, but he had a good attitude. His photography sort of slowed me down a bit, because I had to break away from his way of doing things, but I benefited from his attitude."

Behind the Scenes.

2009-10-22T16:53:00.000-07:00

Greg discovered the coolest photo shoot the other day in VICE magazine. These photos by Miranda July and Roe Ethridge are pretty damn amazing, in a Cindy Sherman-esque way. Inspired by famous movie scenes they are.....welll, let me just stop talking. It'll be more fun for you to just check them out yourselves.

IMAGES: VICE MAGAZINE.

October 20, 2001. A wedding odyssey.

2009-10-20T08:00:00.000-07:00

Eight years ago, Greg and I were married in Palm Springs, California. It really was a totally glorious and special day for us. As you may have guessed by my last post, we were married at the iconic 1960s "House of the Future" aka Elvis Honeymoon Hideaway. A dream come true! They don't typically rent the place out that often, so it was very special that we were allowed to have our day there (and the lovely couple who own the place were exceptionally kind and really helped to make it happen for us!). Everyone does things their own way...some folks want a small intimate affair, others go for the big hoopla. We wanted a nifty location, a fun vintage cocktail party vibe and something that was special enough that we would remember, but not so over-the- top that we were broke for years after. I shockingly didn't spend much on my dress (shoes and accessories were vintage, the dress was new) and I did all my own flowers. I'm also a vintage kookoo, so of course I also staged the place with my own vintage pillows, bric-a-brac and vintage bridal magazines in the "boudoir" (everyone thought they were part of the place! haha).

I wanted to share with you some photos of our special day. (There are a million stories that go along with them, but I thought I'd let the photos do the talking!) The photographer cross-processed some of the film, which gave it a really groovy supersaturated look—this was before digital was the way to go for occasions. Because a lot of these photos are in frames, I scanned a handful of mediocre copies I had in a box and the colors are a bit extra wonky. The real ones are much pertier, I swear! I was also giggling as I looked them over. The trend of photo documenting your day in an editorial manner wasn't as popular yet (probably because most people still shot on film?). When I look at some of the amazing wedding photo spreads in blogs today they almost seem like a magazine shoot. That being said, these pictures still make me smile. It was a wonderful day for my sweet Greg and I.

To my beloved, handsome hubby Greg, the bestest, funniest, coolest guy I know. I super love you!!! HAPPY ANNIVERSARY sweetie. (We'll get back to Bali by our 15th Anniversary. Hee.)
xoxox
alex

Palm Springs Dreamin'

2009-10-19T17:20:00.000-07:00

Around 9 years ago Greg took me to Palm Springs, somewhat against my will. I had visions of geriatric golfers and bleak desert scenery swimming in my head. What I didn't realize was the amazing mid-century splendor that lay hidden there. Now keep in mind this was like, 1999 - 2000 and Palm Springs Modern wasn't even a glimmer in Kelly Wearstler's eye. We were in heaven, it was so perfectly retro. Even the Bank of America building was cool.

We loved driving around the residential neighborhoods and taking in all the cool architecture. The majority of it was built by the Alexander Construction Company —George and Robert, a father and son team who are responsible for turning Palm Springs into the modern motherland it is today. So one afternoon we're driving around. We happened to make a right turn onto Ladera Circle, a cool little cul de sac, and there it was. The House. Looming like a giant, space-age pale pink piece of gorgeousness.

We saw an older woman out front puttering in the garden and thought "WOW! I bet she doesn't even know what she has here. This place is AHmazing." After doing a little research we realized that this house was designed by William Krisel and built by Robert Alexander for his wife Helene in the early 1960s. It was dubbed "The House of the Future" when it was featured in the September 1962 issue of Look magazine in an article called, 'The Way Out Life.' Check out how suave Bob Alexander is:

It would become even more famous when a certain Mr. Elvis Presley rented it out as the site for his future wedding. Gossip columnist Rona Barrett tipped off the press so Priscilla and Elvis snuck off to Vegas instead. But the house....the house! Elvis loved it so, that he rented it out for their honeymoon and stayed nearly a year.

Let's take a lil look inside!

See those huge round circular stones? They're stepping stones...flip a switch and a water fall comes rushing down the sides of the steps. The first thing you see is the amazing living room. There is a spectacular built-in, white leather, 64-foot curved sofa that runs around the length of the room. Hot hot hot!

The master bedroom is the room that you can see from the very front of the house.

Legend has it that Lisa Marie was conceived in this bed. Hubba hubba! (and if you do the math, it's pretty clear that she really was conceived in that honkin' bed!)

Finally, The Tub. I love sunk-in bathtubs and this one doesn't disappoint.

You might be wondering how I know so much about this house and just what made me suddenly think about posting about it. Well, I'll give you a little hint. Eight years ago, THIS happened:

More to come tomorrow.....hee.

Can you hear me now?

2009-10-18T20:38:00.000-07:00

Happy Monday, beautiful people! How was your weekend? Mine was busy but fun. I got to go to a really gorgeous wedding in Napa, ate amazing food, drank far too much delicious wine and saw what was one of the prettiest sunsets EVER. Super duper fun.

So to the start the week off, I have a little question for you. I have heard from a handful of lovely readers that they have a hard time commenting and I was wondering how many of you had the same thing happen? Would you mind clickin' on Ye Old Poll for me? It'll just take a second, I promise.

Please know that I always read your all your comments and they mean so much to me! If you're one of those who is having a tough time, apologies! You can always drop me an email of you have a question or comment. My addy: modboots [at] gmail [dot] com.
xoxo
alex

OK, on to the quickie poll:

DO YOU HAVE A TRICKY TIME COMMENTING?

I'm Having a Cuckoo Fashion Moment.

2009-10-16T14:28:00.001-07:00

So as you guys might recall, my mother is from a lovely town in Germany called Würzburg. Growing up I always had dirndls and I have to say I have such a fondness for 'em. When I saw this adorable line by Dainty June I was smitten! The names of the garments are almost as cute as the clothes themselves.

I mean the "Schnitzel Dress"?? How cute is that. This had me on the prowl for other modern clothing that was trachten-inspired ("tracht" is the Bavarian & Austrian style of dress often including dirndls and lederhosen). Take a look at these cuties from German brand Ploom:

And then when I was browsing the ever-adorable Draw Pilgrim, she had her own Bavarian moment and TOTALLY reminded me of these adorable little weather houses. We had one of these when I was growing up and it's a humidity detector that lets you know when it looks like rain! Can you stand the cuteness??

I don't know about you, but I'm ready for a big ol stein of beer right about now. HAPPY FRIDAY!

Images:

Oooooh psssst! I also love this crazy cuckoo clock ring from Anna Sheffield! You can get it at Target.

A Little Glovey Lovey

2009-10-15T08:58:00.000-07:00

Back in the day every proper lady wore sweet little gloves when she went out and about. Longer gloves are always glammy for a night on the town, but it's those sweet little Grace Kelly shorties that I'm loving. Fishnet, leather, cotton. They're the ultimate fashion punctuation mark. I'm tellin' ya, little gloves just don't get as much play as they should.

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You ready to give them a try? You'll be in good company!

Down By the Boardwalk.

2009-10-14T23:05:00.000-07:00

Rain rain go away! A few weeks ago we were clinging to the last days of Bay Area summer (also known as September) and hit the boardwalk down in Santa Cruz. I spent most of my summers there as a kid and have such amazing memories of the Pacific Garden Mall, playing on the UCSC campus (where my parents taught) and hitting the boardwalk on weekends. The day was gorgeous—not too hot, but beautiful and sunny. It's literally right on the beach, which makes it all the more fun! I looove carnival food (icy sodas, corn dogs and caramel apples) and all the colors. My favorite rides are the log ride and the vintage carousel. If you sit on the outside horses, you can grab a small metal ring and try and wing it into this clown's mouth as the carousel spins around and around—way harder than it sounds! My other fave, the balloon game dealie where you squirt a water gun into a clown's mouth. Wolfie loved this too and even won a little stuffed dragon. All in all, a pretty rad little day.

Karl Likes 'Em Skinny.

2009-10-14T07:36:00.000-07:00

Karl Lagerfeld is a character. I mean, the ponytail....the perpetual shades....the paper fan. Really Karl? But I can't lie. I think his clothing is pretty fabulous. What's not to love about Chanel? Karl used to be a bit of a chubbkin and famously lost something like 92 pounds—and yet he is very unsympathetic towards the curvy woman. When German magazine Brigitte recently made headlines by saying they would no longer feature skinny models, Karl had to one up them by saying [insert accent], "No one wants to see curvy women. You've got fat mothers with their bags of chips sitting in front of the television and saying that thin models are ugly." Oh Karl. You can read the whole thang here. The man is 71, and despite the fact that I think his comments are ridiculous, I would kill to go to one of his shows.

Oh, and let's not forget:

Tee hee.

The Intense Eyes of Kris Lewis.

2009-10-14T01:05:00.000-07:00

Groovy artist Kris Lewis has some crazy style. I love these portraits—the eyes are particularly mesmerizing. As a total aside, I keep wanting to write his name as Kris Allen, the American Idol dude. I don't know many people who spell Kris with a K. I'm sure Mr. Lewis would be thrilled to hear this. On to the eyes!

Images: Kris Lewis Art

Thanks to my friend Jason for the tip!

The Morton Salt Girl Ain't Got Nothin' on Me Today.

2009-10-13T13:55:00.000-07:00

Good golly Miss Molly it is rainin' something fierce over here. When the weather guy says, "Rain storms expected" i usually take it with a grain of salt. Half the time they're totally wrong (and our weather is so wonky you just never know what yer gonna get) but today?? INSANITY. Wolfie has the stomach flu, so I'm working from home today and man-oh-man is it ever blustery. We ran out to get some saltines and other sicky provisions and I thought Wolfie was going to pull a Mary Poppins on me and fly away.

While we're on the topic of rain, one of my favorite sites is "Umbrella Today?" which is a super simple little free app that will text you in the morning and remind you take your umbrella if it looks like rain. It's usually really accurate (although today when I got my text, "You might want to consider bringing your umbrella today" and then looked outside and saw the gail winds and sheets of rain whipping all over the place it kinda made me wanna let rip with a "No shit Sherlock!!"). Get it HERE. It's actually pretty swell.

I need to update these photos with what is currently going on outside....perfect day to cuddle up on the couch and watch cartoons. If only I didn't still have to work. Sigh.

I'm falling for fall. And my frecklewonder.

2009-10-12T09:51:00.000-07:00

Well autumn is FINALLY here in San Francisco and I'm jumping for joy. That crispness in the air while the sun shines. LOVE IT. I love the season—it's the one thing I really miss out here on the west coast. That sense of time passing as winter gives way to spring and summer turns to autumn. Growing up in Michigan I really loved the rituals that go along with each passing season. Putting away the summer clothes, getting out your toasty warm coats and scarves. Crunching in the leaves. My favorite season by far is fall. I love all the holidays it brings and I love the clothes. I was just browsing my friend Jenny's fabulous site, Frecklewonder, and was delighted to see all her cool fall duds. She has an excellent eye. Just take a gander at some of these gorgeous vintage threads. That first dress is making me CRAZY! It's full length and fabulous but I think I would shorten it to just above the knee. Soooo pretty:

Happy Monday my friends. Did you guys have a great weekend?
xoxo alex

Linky Dinks for Thursday.

2009-10-08T13:30:00.001-07:00

It's alllllmost time for the weekend. I've been feeling a little under the weather myself (fending off crazy migraines and weird fever chills, argh). Thanks for all of you who helped me with my lil handbag decision. The beige was the overwhelming fave, although the red made a strong showing too. The bag is no longer in stores so I had to do some real Nancy Drew style sleuthing to find one. I managed to find a shop in the UK that still sells them, although they were all out of the beige and only had red. So I have a sassy red bag wending its way from jolly ol London to my hot little hands! I did discover a yellow one on ebay, if you're interested.

OK, on to the linkys. Click the red links to see 'em. I know it seems like a no brainer, but someone emailed me and was confused....

My friend Leslie over at Good Crafternoon sent me this hilarious link to the funniest kid's costume ever.

In the spirit of Halloween, Craft mag reposted our Devil-Ette How To Make Glitter Devil Horns. Super fun and easy!

I love me some Rachel Zoe (I have been obsessively watching this genius parody of her show) and now I'm really loving her little email list, The Zoe Report. What makes it great is that at the bottom of each post about spendy and fabulous treats, she has a cute thing called "Parallel Universe" where she highlights an affordable version of the daily feature. All together now: BANANAS!

These little subway stair piano in Stockholm is pretty adorable. Go VW!

These beautiful photos by rune guneriussen are making me crazy. So lovely!

My friend Jeffrey is really hilarious. Except this really happened to him. His Craigslist ad was read on Jay Leno the other night (it’s the first one…)
If you don't have time to watch the lil video snippet, read it HERE.

And finally, have you heard about the new show on Sundance, Man Shops Globe?? Talk about BANANAS. This guy is a shopper for Anthropologie and he travels the world to find unique and cool objects. Talk about a dream job! Watch the PROMO and snippets. You will be green with envy, I guarantee ya.

And I leave you with this hilarious image....love it when protesters also have a sense of humor.

ENJOY peeps!

xoxo

alex

Vintage Kids: Groovy ABCs

2009-10-08T11:50:00.000-07:00

OOPSY, I forgot to post this on Tuesday! DOH! All that obsessing over which handbag to get I guess it slipped my mind!! This week we have a super cool little ABC book. I only picked a few letters of the alphabet, but you get the idea. "O" and "U" are particularly cute. I mean, who can resist an Owl in Overalls??

This lil cutie printed in 1951, illustrations by Cornelius Witt. I love the name Cornelius, by the way....so Planet of the Apes.