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Monday, July 14, 2014

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
 
 

10 comments:

  1. Coffee maker for your ninth birthday? That's pretty out there! A friend of mine got a frozen chicken for Christmas when she was 11 from one of her 'aunties'. When questioned as to why she thought it was a good present for a child she said, "Well it's so difficult to know what to get them at that age'.

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  2. I am still laughing at you not teething on the bag or putting your head inside and doing the zip up. You have the VERY BEST sense of humour dear woman!! Now the bags are very Helgatastic and she will be so proud of your purchases. The dress is very grown up and looks perfect on you. So grown up no flipping took place? Wait til tomorrow.

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  3. Those Bastille Day biscuits are just brilliant! You ARE clever. Marat is my favourite - with extra blood, mmm.
    Come to think of it, your dress looks rather French - tres chic, Madame. Funny you should mention your neighbour - I have been thinking of a neighbour of ours who was very stylish and wore capes and boots and had a Mary Quant-style bob. I was in open-mouthed awe at the sight of her. Compared with my mother, she looked like a different species.
    Helga-fucking-tastic vinyl bags - I love 'em both! xxxx

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  4. I remember when the brown & white 'Mr Coffee' automatic drip coffeemakers were the 'hipster foodie' trend of the 70's. Geez, now we pay $5 for a 'brewed' cuppa at Starbucks.
    Did you know that the handbags Coach makes nowadays have their interiors lined in some sort of 'wipeable' nylon material? I bought a Coach satchel for the Hubster & some swish Coach bag for myself at an outlet in Florida 2012 - neither the satchel nor the bag survived 6 months in Nepal. Just goes to show expensive ain't always quality. My fake Thai tangerine Birkin lasted longer than that. ;P

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  5. @Asparagus Pea

    Oh, a frozen chicken is a wonderful idea! I wish I'd thought of it when my sister's children were young.

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  6. @Bibi

    I once caught my dad trying to reheat coffee in the Mr. Coffee maker by pouring it back through the top to be re-brewed. He preferred it that way as it got hotter than the warming plate.

    At least I figured out why the coffee at his house tasted like it did (not good).

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  7. @Sue

    Around the time Danny was born there started to be warnings about all the vinyl right down to the rubber ducks that float in the bath. It got to the point where we would have had to strip the house of everything and live like pioneers in a log cabin to protect him from everything. I let him keep the duck, but wouldn't let him chew on it.

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  8. Wow! You sure got some amazing things while thrifting! Loving the new bags and seriously that dress is fantastic! Can't believe it was only .98 cents! Great idea with the pin to make it fit a little better!

    Rebecca
    www.winnipegstyle.ca

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  9. Seconding the brilliance - literally! -- of the additional Marat blood. Absolutely gorgeous.

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  10. You have so many lovely 98 cents frocks but that one is truly stunning.

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