Heaven to Betsy!

Vintage Fashion Guild Featured Members for Week of July 9, 2008

 

Susan Denney of Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum

Susan is the Assistant Curator of History and Curator of Textiles for the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum located in Canyon, Texas, and the museum boasts to be "Texas’ Largest History Museum."

Just south of Amarillo, the museum has a fairly extensive clothing and textile collection. Their site says they have..."..more than 500 million years of history that spans the 26,000 square mile expanse and brings to life the vibrant spirit and history of the Panhandle Plains region."

They are located at 2503 4th Avenue - Canyon, Texas 79015, 806-651-2244 and their summer hours are June - August, 9am - 6pm, Mon - Sat; 1pm - 6pm, Sun.

Susan invites anyone interested in visiting to contact her at sdenney@pphm.wtamu.edu.

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Next is Sydney from Sydneys Vintage Clothing.

Sydney is an Alabama VFG member. She tells us that she has been selling vintage clothing online for about 6 years under her Ebay ID, SydneysVintageClothing, and on her own website, sydneysvintageclothing.com. She also says..."...I have appx. 5000 pieces of vintage clothing and accessories. I have anything from Civil War era, to the swinging 40's 50's, mod 60's, disco 70's and pink 80's. I have modern day designer labels. And of course let's not forget the accessories to go along with the clothing!"

Look at this yummy Vintage 30s Blue Velvet Dress which is a new arrival on her site ...(click to view)

Sydney has also mentioned that she may be opening a brick and mortar vintage clothing store soon so stay tuned...

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Our last Featured Member for this week is...

Harriet of Tasty Vintage

Harriet hails from the UK and is a long-time member of the VFG having served as Public Board Chairman, Board Member and now serving on the Board as Treasurer for the VFG.

Harriet says..."...I've been wearing vintage clothing for as long as I can remember, occasionally selling at festivals and to friends in my teens - but mainly buying (and buying, and buying…). I have a fairly large collection of vintage clothing which I began to try and condense a little by selling at online auction (hattysattic)..."

In the past several years she has opened her online store, tastyvintage.com and just last year opened her very own brick and mortar vintage clothing shop at 18-20 Rasen Lane in Lincoln.

This girl loves vintage, especially novelty prints, and says she cannot pin herself down to just one era because she loves it all!

Check out this Emerald Green Chiffon 60s Dress coming soon to tastyvintage.com....(Click to View)

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**These VFG Featured Members are being posted on my blog as a member of the Vintage Fashion Guild.

Congratulations to Vintage Fashion Guild Featured Members for June 18, 2008

Laureen of retrodress.com



A new VFG Member from California USA, she has this to say about herself..."Like so many other vintage clothing aficionados, the love affair with vintage clothes began very young, initiated by a thrifting grandmother, and further honed by Mom, who was something of an expert at unearthing treasures. Regularly coming home with fabulous dress-up booty - everything from luscious, frothy 1950's crinolines and evening gowns to fur stoles and costume jewelry - resulted in a dress-up collection the envy of all my girl friends."

We fell in love with a yellow 70s jersey dress on her website. Click the image to see...

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Next is Samaya from samayalingvintage.com

Samaya is another new VFG member from the UK. She tells us her favorite decades for vintage clothing would be the 20s, 30s and 40s but that she loves it all and really doesn't specialize. She also says..."I have been wearing vintage for over ten years and started to sell vintage costume jewellery and accessories at fairs 2 or 3 years ago and have now a large collection of vintage clothing, fabric and accessories and do 1 or 2 fairs a month including The London Vintage Fashion and Textiles fair in Hammersmith and Frock Me in Chelsea."

Look at this 50s floral Dior featured on her website...(click to view)

By the way, for her 2008 fair dates, click HERE

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And last but certainly not least is...

Sara of of sarasattic.co.uk

Sara is a very active UK VFG member. As a former fashion buyer and retail fashion manager Sara has a discerning eye for authentic and classic items. "I only seek out quality items for SARA'S ATTIC if they incorporate authenticity and a touch of practicality!"

Sara is the envy of all here for her publicity skills having been featured in more news media than I can count, some of which are...The Sunday Times Culture - SELVEDGE - 'B'magazine - Webuser -COUNTRY LIVING - Daily Mail - RED Magazine Independent - 50 Best Vintage Fashion Shops = 3rd/50 - Glamour.com - New Woman.co.k - It's on the Net fuk.co.uk - handbag.com - CUMBRIA LIFE - The Essential Wedding Guide.

Be sure to visit her press page HERE

Check out this luxe 60s two-piece gold party suit on her website!

Memories of The Good "Ol Summer Time

Heavens to Betsy! ..look what we "remember" now! ...Summers from the 1950s.

Reading the Reminisce, June July 2007 issue, starting me reflecting on summertime memories of my own childhood back in the 1950s in a small town in Mississippi.  The first thing I noticed about the cover picture on the left was the popsicles.  How I loved to run to my Mom's freezer and pick out an ice-cold popsicle for me and my neighborhood friends.  Flavors of banana, rootbeer, cherry, orange...I loved them all.  It was so much fun to eat them outside on a hot summer day trying to get the last bite before they completely dissolved and ran streams of sticky drops down to your elbow.  (Hey, I think I had that doll stroller, too!)

"No more pencils, No more books, No more Teacher's Dirty Looks"....You would hear all of us neighborhood kids singing this on the last day of school.  We were free at last to play from daylight to dark with no restrictions or special places we "had" to go.  One of the first things I remember is taking off my shoes and going barefoot.  Watch out for the stickers, though!  I spent many an hour picking those nuisances out of my feet.

Honeysuckle was also abundant in early Summer.  How many of you remember pulling the little stem out of the middle and holding your tongue out to catch the sweet drops that fell?  We also chewed on a certain grass that had pink flowers...had a very sour taste.  It's a wonder we didn't poison ourselves!

Early summer meant eating watermelon.  How I loved that juicy sweet taste.  My Daddy would always purchase these at the old Icehouse which was located by the railroad track in our town.  It was so exciting to ride with him to the icehouse, have that big metal door open and pick out the best watermelon.  (If you were good, the man working there would take his ice pick and knock off a big sliver of ice from a big square ice block for you to suck on...aahhhh..so nice on a hot summer day.  Hmmm, vintage ice picks...maybe that's why I collect them...well, that's another blog for another day.)

Reminiscing about those summertime watermelons and the old icehouse, made me do a search on Ebay and much to my surprise there is an old soda bottle marked "Hazlehurst Icehouse" on Ebay auction now.  You can bet that is on my watch list! 

Those from the South will also remember eating sugar cane.  Big stalks would be purchased and chunks cut off for us kids.  Just peel the outside layer off and suck and chew on the inside...heavenly!

When I had a little change in my pocket, it was always nice to walk to the corner grocery store and buy penny "double bubble" gum, ice cream push-ups and candy bars.  A favorite soda drink could also quench the thirst.  Orange or Grape Crush and good old Coca-Cola were some of my favorites.  You know, a little bit of change could go a long way then.

One of the special summertime activities us neighborhood kids enjoyed was swimming.  Small plastic pools and innertubes were blown up by out of breath and red faced parents.  One day my Mother said that we were getting a new swimming pool.  How excited I was as I imagined a big concrete below-ground swimming pool just like the ones seen on our new TV set.  The next day she called me from inside to tell me my pool was ready.  Excited, I ran down the back steps to find a big metal washtub filled with water!  Needless to say, I was a little disappointed but surprisingly enough, I spent many happy summer hours in that little tub.  My tub looked something like the one to the right, only it was round.  This wash tub is on Ebay auction now.

My Vintage Fashion Guild friend, Marie, better known as TheVintagePeddler.com shared this photo of she and her Daddy in "their" washtub style pool.  I think he is having more fun than her! ..."Hey, Daddy, get out and let me get in!"

 

When we would tire of swimming, our minds were always busy thinking of other messes to get into.  Lemonade stands were popular kid's activities in the 50s although we never did make much money.  One afternoon my friends and I went around to the neighbor's back doors asking for dirty laundry to wash.  Most of them knew us pretty well and gave some old dirty cleaning cloths or some other things we could not harm.  We were up to our elbows in soapsuds washing these in dishpan water and spraying each other with the hose as we rinsed them.  Another great time but a short lived venture which only made us a few cents.

Here are some of the neighborhood culprits on the left dressed nicely for a backyard birthday party.

 

Other summer memories included picnics outside.  Our next door neighbors ate supper out at their backyard picnic table several times a week during the summer.  Being best friends with their little girl and boy, as soon as I saw them eating, I ran to eat with them, too.  This embarrassed my Mother extremely, however, only being about five years old, I didn't understand that you had to be "invited."

Trips to the local lake also highlighted my summer.  My Dad owned his own ski boat which he named "Miss Linda" after me.  Every Sunday we would go to the lake.  My Dad never did learn to ski but he taught everyone else in the whole town how to!

To this day I still love the taste of a cold popsicle or a sweet chunk of watermelon and I STILL go barefooted.

Do you have old summertime memories to share?  We hope you will tell us about yours by making comments below.