Vanity. I haz it.

Finally... I have my very own waterfall vanity. She is in poor shape and needs TLC, but for only $45 I couldn't pass her up. She is mine!! Yay!! Now to just fill her up with vintage goodies! I am so very happy!!

I also need to find a bench seat for her.

Bettie Haze

Originally I wasn't going to post to post this photo here as I didn't think it had much to do with the theme of this blog. After posting it on my MySpace profile and my personal blog I recieved a bunch of Bettie Page related comments. How the photo was my take on her or in tribute for her for her recent passing. Truth is, the night before I did see a photo of Bettie in bondage the night before the shoot and it did inspire me to do a rope shoot, but in no way was I trying to pay homage to the raven haired beauty. I could never produce anything that would properly honour her memory. In fact, when it comes to tributes, I would think the last thing anyone would do in her honour is a bondage photo. She had said that she never regretting any of the photos (not even the nudes) except for the bondage ones as it wasn't something God would have liked. Now, I am not a believer in the holy spirit, but I am a believer in Bettie. :-D

So once again, while the photo was inspired by Bettie, I don't feel it a tribute for a few reasons... but being that the Bettie Page we all know and love is vintage and people have compared my photo to hers, I thought I would go ahead and post it anyway...

Vintage Goodies from my friends for X-Mas

Last night the antique store that I work graphics for had their holiday party. Just an intimate party of 5. It was rather lovely. We had dinner at Hanny's in downtown Phoenix. Hanny's, now a restaurant, was originally a department store that was built in 1947 if I remember correctly. They kept the name and the original signage for the restaurant. On the side of the building a ghost painting for the department store remained. It was really sweet. I wish I had brought my camera... but on to the goods...

My gal pal Jenny was wonderful and seems to pick out the best gifts ever!
First up, she got me sheet music for the tune Baby Face. She thought the cover reminded her of me. :)


Next... to add to my dead boyfriend collection... a photo of a gent. I am guessing from the 20's? Cutie.


Lastly... and bestly... a book from 1939. Streamlining your figure. An exercise book that tells you how to get the perfect porportions and what those are. I will state that the perfect proportions differ from Earl Carroll' s porportions, but being a showgirl, I'll still go with his.




Now Heidi was kind enough to fill my rhinestone fetish with a beautiful braclet and pair of earrings.



All very wonderful and thoughtful gifts and I am truely grateful!

Pinup part deux

Pinup

Last night I did a photoshoot with a friend of mine. Here is one of those photos from the shoot!

Casual Updo

Here is a rare sight... me with my hair up. I have a mess of a head at the moment due to not being able to pick up my hair care goods. Plus my hair is too long and it's just ick. I didn't set it last night and just crashed so today when I had to look semi cute for people who are providing me with clothes to "model" I had to do SOMETHING! I had worn my hair with faux bangs yesterday that looked amazing. Today however, they proved to be difficult to work with when I tried to reset them. They had a kink in them and wouldn't let me put it in a front roll or a back roll, so finally I got pissy and just pinned it back with a hair comb. The kink in the base, plus the curl from the faux set left my hair falling into place with a neat kink 'n' kurl. The rest of my hair was shot, so I pulled it back into a modified french twist bun thing I do. Sorry, no photos of the back. I took some photos before I put in the flowers. I then took a quick shot to include the flowers and that is why I am whoring my mug out with 3 photos instead of just 1.

The Perfect Figure

Earl Carroll, theatre legend describes the ideal girl as...

Height - 5'5"
Weight - 118
Neck - 12"
Bust - 34"
Waist - 24"
Hips - 35.5"
Thigh - 19"
Ankle - 9"
wrist - 6"

Being that I too am a performer of the stage and a vintage lover, I feel that I should strive to acheive these measurements as well. Other than the height -- as I am 5'6" -- I think these are measurements I can acheive. I know I can because not too many years ago, I was 119 with a 24" waist. Besides, 5'6" isn't but an inch different

Now trying to stay away from more personal feelings in this synthetic blog, I will say that I don't need to hear about not having to reach those ideals. It doesn't translate to me as people saying you are beautiful just the way you are. It translates to people wanting to keep me plump for their own selfish needs. On Sex and the City Carrie once said to Miranda, when finding out Miranda didn't like Carrie dating the Russian and moving to Paris with him, "I can't stay in New York and be single for you." This is kind of how I feel about the weight and body issues. I don't know if people want me fat to make themselves feel better, but that is how it translates to me. So moving on...

I have already noticed that cutting pop out of my diet (90% anyway) I have lost 7 lbs and 2 inches. Even though I still have a big noticable pooch, it has shrunk dramatically. I need to firm up the lose skin a bit, but not completely. I like soft not muscular. Now I need to cut out the artificial sweetners I have been having instead of the regular sugars and work on my over all diet.

It is no secret that my idea of the perfect figure was Sherry Britton. As much as I would love to have her frame, it will be impossible. I am 3 inches taller and my boobs are far too tiny. There is no way I could ever have an 18" waist uncorsetted either. But while the numbers might not match Sherry's... I would love for the ratio'ed figure to match. That I believe can happen.



So after having now taken my measurements I can see what I need to work on...

Height - 5'6"
Weight - 145
Neck - 12.5"
Bust - 35.5"
Waist - 28"
Hips - 38"
Thigh - 23.5"
Ankle - 8"
Wrist - 6"

Well... at least my wrist is on mark. I also don't think I am measuring my ankle right, because I have fat cankles and for it to be smaller than the inches he requested... I don't know. I have to be doing it wrong. Not the most recent photo of me, but still probably most accurate. I have a long way to go until I get my perfect Burlesque figure...

Time for another haircut

My hair is getting a bit long again. I think I am going to cut it just above the shoulders. This will be the shortest I have been in years. I'll just have to learn how to tame the thick poof. I'm going to wait until after my show for sure though. In the mean time... I wasn't able to set my hair for long yesterday and this is what I came up with.



Today however, I will be stealing a hair style I spotted on a friend of mine today. I am seriously ganking her do! Muhahahaha. Oh and I think I am going to wear that dress again today. I only wore it for a few hours at most yesterday so it is still clean.

Winter stockings

The air is a bit crisper lately... the winter is definately starting to come into Phoenix. While it isn't a blizzard outside it is still cold enough to want to wear something on my legs. Trouble is I like to wear dresses! Which means stockings. Stockings are great, but it "seams" as though that stockings are no longer made for function, but for fashion. If they aren't the cheapy fake seamed versions, they are the reproduction nylon seamed stockings. Which are fabulous most of the time. But what about for the winter months? The nylon isn't going to keep my legs warm. Why can't I seem to find thicker stockings? I see winter tights or thicker pantyhose, but no stockings! I don't like wearing tights unless they are some zany fashion related expression! So now I am starting to wonder if I can turn the thicker tights into stockings. Obviously by cutting them, but how do I do it without them running? I see an experiment coming on!

Getting into the SWING of things!

Lindy style!!

I have to admit, I am a bit proud of myself. Make that A LOT proud of myself. For the past 3 years (more like 2 -- I started 3 years ago, but didn't dance for like a year) I have been dancing east coast swing. It has been perfectly lovely and I enjoy doing it so much! While I knew the count and the steps to the lindy, I could never get the swing out. :( I have folks try to teach me over and over and over again and I just couldn't grasp it.

I was frustrated beyond measure because I am usually pretty quick at picking up dance steps, plus I pride myself on being a semi decent dancer. Not being able to lindy was a disappointment, especially since some of the better dancers wouldn't ask me to dance, because they wanted to lindy.

A couple of weeks ago, while working the door at the Shrine, the regular teacher Steve couldn't make it, so instead Dabney taught the lindy class. There was a shortage of girls so I had to fill in. I don't know how Dabney was teaching it any different than anyone else, but boom! I got it! Now two weeks later I feel like I am rocking the lindy!!! Super fast and everything! Whoo! This is so exciting for me! Of course, I haven't seen myself lindy, so far as I know I look like a complete jackass doing it!



Since then I don't want to just east coast it anymore! I want to lindy all night! :-D Now I just need to tackle west coast and the balboa!

Ironing

I have recently taken a liking to ironing. I find it to be rather relaxing and a wonderful stress reliever. I don't know why it is such a simple task, but I seem to enjoy it.

I have a vintage 40s/50's iron that works far better than any modern iron I have used, but I don't use it as much as I would like as it is not an upright and I haven't found a trivet I like. Not true... I found this amazing trivet at Goodwill. It had a pentacle on it, but Goodwill wanted 13$ for it! GOODWILL! I have seen trivets in high end antique stores for far cheaper than 13$! I would have paid up to 5$ for it.

I like to press my clothes more for the task of doing it than for the polished outcome. I suppose it is because when I iron, I don't think about anything else that is weighing on my mind. I iron things that don't need to be ironed, just so I can relax.

I am hoping to get my hands on a vintage 30s/40s wooden board! That would be a dream. I haven't found what the average price for boards of that type are, but they always seem to be more than what I want to pay for them. I'd like to pay 10$-15$ not 30$-40$.

Hair Chronicals

Here is a vintage style hair do that can be either casual or fancy depending on what you wear. Since I am staying at home today and doing housework, it is going to be a casual do. I have two centered victory rolls facing forward with the rest of my hair curly and loose. I was reminded of this hairdo looking at the old photos from 2005. You can wear your hair in this style with braids loose, braids wrapped back underneath, a snood, or a french twist.

From the archives vault

Here is a photo of me from 2005. The photo was taken by the brilliant Josh Curtis. I want to get back out his way again so we can shoot some more photos. This time with me as a blonde! We did shoot photos with me as a blonde in 2006, but none of the fun outdoor shoots. Besides, I need to get my dress back. I forgot it while I was out there in 2005 and I think he is holding it hostage! Hah! I will periodically post more photos from 2005, but for now, it will be just the one.

My new suit.

My new suit and just in time for my date!

I made this suit from a 1940s pattern. It isn't perfect because I am clueless about how to properly sew on collars! Arg! I actually started this suit about a year ago and just never got back to it until now. My friend Amy Jeanne has been sewing like mad and inspired me to do so as well. So instead of starting a new project (which I am notorious for doing) I decided to finish what I had started. Which was perfect because I was in need of a autumn/winter suit. I wanted to add lining since the fabric I was using was pretty thin. Unfortunately I had made the skirt already a year ago and didn't line that, but I was ok with just lining the jacket -- well, as ok as I could have been for never doing a lining before. I wasn't sure how to do it, but I figured it out alright. After I had finished the suit, I realized that I forgot the flaps! Oops!