Happy Bastille Day, Some Helga Fecking Vinyltastic Bags, and Dressing Like a Grown Up

 

I'll just repost these cookies I baked in 2011, because Bastille Day in butter and icing sugar is only worth doing once.

It would be hard to come up with something to top these anyway.

 

 

So let's see the vinyl.

I had a Helga http://helgavontrollop.blogspot.com/ moment at the thrift store when I spotted this red bag. I owned this bag once-I used it to tote my wet swimsuit and towel home from camp each day as a child. Waterproof, wipe-clean, and full of pockets for stashing the house key, a packet of Teaberry, and a quarter for emergencies, this was the best bag an eight year old could own. I loved it, and I wasn't letting it slip away again. I sorta let lose with an exclamation in the Goodwill to the effect of, "This bag is so Fecking Helga Vinyltastic!"

 

 And it IS. But then the next day, I spotted this bag, and it happened all over again!

There's something so cool about being able to wipe down a new bag with Lysol inside and out. Try that with your Hermes bag. Actually, don't. Really, don't do that.  This one has some sort of washable canvas, but inside is pure vinyl heaven. Oh, I know they're made of toxic cancer causing chemicals-but I'm wearing it, not teething on it. I promise, I won't stick my head inside and zip it up.

So three cheers for Helga and Fecking Vinyltastic bags.

Still, it takes more than great bags to feel properly dressed as a grown-up, so when I saw this dress yesterday at Thrift World, I had to buy it. This strikes me as a very grown-up dress. Not granny, but the sort of sophisticated thing our neighbor when I was growing up would wear. She worked at a department store downtown, and was very glamourous. Red lips, long red nails, strawberry blonde hair and a white VW bug. Clearly, she was the coolest woman on the street, and for my ninth birthday she bought me a coffee-maker. This was before coffee was a thing the way it is now, so having the plastic cup that sat above a mug that you dripped coffee through with hot water was the 70's version of European high tech. She was European (I think she was Czech), a divorcee, and just the best dressed woman I had ever run across. I think she was responsible for my love of clothes and the excitement of getting dressed each morning as a form of performance.  I went through a period of mourning when she moved to San Francisco. Anyway, this is the sort of thing she would have worn, though I know for a fact she'd have had it tailored to fit better.

 

See that gap? That needs to be fixed. The dress is huge in the bust, so I'm holding it closed with a pin for decency, but it really needs to be taken in. Normally, I wouldn't bother for a .98 cent dress, but I love this one so much, I'm going to make the effort.

 Isn't it funny how an item of clothing can change your whole demeanour? I didn't flip off ANYONE today, AT ALL. Imagine!

 Outfit Particulars:

1960's (possibly early 70's) dress-Thrift World
Gold sea shell brooch-Hand-Me-Ups
Milk glass bracelet-Hand-Me-Ups
Earrings K-Mart
Shoes K-Mart
White Bag-Goodwill

 

 

liberte fraternite egalite

and cookies.

Happy Bastille Day

2014