This past Saturday, Oscar and Debbie Sessions, plus myself, volunteered to appear in a couple historic Reno homes, included in the Reno Historic Preservation Society’s second annual “Harvest of Homes” tour. Oscar…
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Pretty Victorian Creatures – New Photographs, and New Old Photographs
Holy Fritatas, I’ve been been busy. The Victorian Steampunk Ball is this Saturday and I kinda went off the deep end and decided to make new costume pieces for it…with two days…
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What If I Were…my Grandmother in 1945?
Lots of photography, but not much costuming lately. I’m going through a sewing funk, but still need an outlet for history-related geekery, so photography is it. So far in the “What If…
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What If I Were, 1930s
“What If I Were…sitting with Hurrell in 1930?” Yesterday I received Vintage Hairstyling: Retro Styles with Step-by-Step Techniques in the mail, and read it cover-to-cover last night. That meant hair adventures today, so I…
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Edwardian Footwear – Thrift Score!
It seems like every time I go in a thrift store lately (all two times in the past two weeks), I come away with some really great stuff. Both the Salvation Army…
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The Lady Sunbeam Vintage Hair Dryer – Controlled Heat Deluxe!
Last week I met a friend of mine at the Salvation Army Thrift Store, and we proceeded to giggle like idiots whilst scavenging for *really cool stuff*, which this particular Thrift Store…
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What If I Were…1950s
Continuing on with the historical photo project I talked about last time, I’ve played around with some 1950s style photos. The 1950s are an interesting time, because *everything* is stylized: models, makeup,…
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The “What If I Were…” Historical Photo Project
As most of you know, I love photography. It’s not only a very important aspect of presenting our work on our blogs, but it’s also something we can have a lot of…
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Back from The Lake Tahoe Gatsby Festival, 2011
Sunday – picnic at the Pope Mansion, replete with vintage cars, great music, and wonderful costumes to oggle. The Lake Tahoe Gatsby is a lovely, miniature-version of the Oakland Gatsby. It’s a…
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How to Make a Quick and Easy 1920s Bathing Suit
In honor of the delightful 1920s events we’ve had this Summer, including the Lake Tahoe Gatsby coming up this weekend, I want to share with you a fun little project you can…
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1920s Fun at the Ehrman Mansion, Sugarpine Point, Lake Tahoe
On Saturday, four Great Basin Costumers “invaded,” as we do, the Sugarpine Living History Day, a mildly 1900-1930s event held at the old Ehrman Mansion on West Shore at Tahoe. We went…
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Pretty New Vintage Things to Admire …
Two new items for your consideration, now available in my Etsy shop: A beautiful, handmade Edwardian reticule. The first is an Edwardian reticule. This little purse is truly amazing, and in absolutely…
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How to Take and Make 1920s-style Costume Photos
Last time, I posted a number of lovely 1920s portraits and asked you to take a look and be inspired, so that in this post I can show you how you can…
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1920s Photo Inspiration – Portraits of Pretty Pretty Ladies
This one is lighted with artificial lights from 2 directions – shot on a black backdrop, a persian rug, and with a cool chair. This is a good shot to show off…
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Vintage Black 1960s Dress
Gratuitous outfit post, to distract you while I feverishly work on the red polonaise, to be worn this weekend (eeek! it has no sleeves!) Also, this is one of my favorite dresses…
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Vintage Patterns in the Boutique
Just as a quick aside, I’ve started listing my recent vintage pattern haul in the Boutique on Etsy. I have quite a few to list – 20 or 30 – mostly from…
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Vintage 12-in-12 and a Great Many New Old Patterns
Yesterday was a glorious day: I got my hands on 43 vintage dress patterns from the 1950s and early 60s. All of them are fab, some more my style than others, and…
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New Vintage Hat Finds
I love hats, didn’t you know? I picked up three gorgeous vintage hats last weekend, for the Boutique on Etsy. The hardest thing about this “job,” this acquiring of vintage hats for…
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Vintage Summer Dress – Yellow Dots and Lollipops
Okay, so really this has *nothing* to do with lollipops, except a vague idea that lollipops and fluffy girly dresses go together….? Anyway. Butterick 6582 The other night I thought, “hey, I…
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Bits and Bobs … and Life After Those Shoes
So what the heck do I post about after all that craziness with the Georgiana shoes? Life’s returning to normal, but I’m still quite excited: We met the 100 shoe order minimum…