Fort Vancouver

Saturday my cousin Ruth and I spent the morning at Fort Vancouver National Historic Reserve. Because thats what cool people do.

Fort Vancouver is basically a recreation of the fir trading base and settlement that was in Vancouver in the mid 1800s. They have buildings you can explore, and on some summer weekends living history events. This particular day we talked with girls practicing their stitching, fur traders, and we just happened to go to the kitchen where some burly men were making bacon. It of course, smelled heavenly. Actually the kitchen reminded me quite a bit of the Bennets kitchen in Pride and Prejudice, which despite having a lack of blue appliances is my favorite type of kitchen: Rustic, with a big prep table and fireplace. But I do like having a refrigerator...

We also played some games from the era, including that thing where you roll the hoop, which is something I've always wanted to do since you see kids in old movies doing it all the time. It's harder than it looks!

We played another game with a hoop and dowels which we really liked, that was apparently supposed to teach you how to be graceful, but we mainly looked like flailing crazies.

Estate Sale

Whenever I mention estate sales on Vixen Vintage I get comments from international readers curious as to what exactly an estate sale is, as it's mostly a U.S. thing. So today when I went with my grandma, nana, and cousin pearl, I snapped some pictures after grabbing all the good stuff.
Basically an estate sale takes place after an individual passes away, and after the deceased's family takes what is important to them. All the persons items are collected and priced, and the house is open to the public, most often on weekend mornings.
Estate sale signs are posted on main roads and neighborhood streets directing treasure hunters to the house. You have to get there early if you want to get in first, and some vintage and antique dealers will get there hours early and wait in line if they think there is something there they want. It can get very competitive!

Anyway, this particular sale was terrific, I got loads of clothing and hats, most of the clothing I will sell on Etsy, but the hats are mine for keeps!

As you can see there is anything and everything at an estate sale, from towels and toilet paper, to dining sets and dressers. Some estate sales have items priced very affordably, and some are more like walking into an antique store! But if anything else, it's a great way to explore neighborhoods and see the insides of old homes :)

My grandma has been taking my to estate and garage sales since I was a little girl, and I just love them. It can be very suspenseful waiting outside a potential jackpot, and finding something excellent for nearly pennies is the best!

Fried foods.

Thanks everyone for your comments in yesterdays post! My grandma was excited you liked her pictures so much, and so am I! One thing I want to add, the dress she's wearing in the fourth photo she hated! It was her 8th grade graduation and her family could not afford the dress she wanted, and that was the cheapest one in town. It cost four whole dollars.

Today I went with the gals of The Pink House to a "pod" of foodcarts in Portland. We actually went for a special cupcake cart, that ended up not being there, so we packed the car back up and went to fried pies and french fries instead. We got pies at Whiffies, and fries at Potato Champion. I really loved the peach pie, and nearly licked the curry mayo dip out of the cup, it was so good!

And we found a cool photo mural of library books :)

Entire outfit-Urban Eccentric Vintage

My grandma in the 1940s and 1950s.

Woodlake School 8th grade photo, 1949. My grandma is the third from the right at the bottom row.

Notice how she's hoeing dirt in a skirt AND saddle shoes.

Here she is with her little brothers, she said her hair was so curly and thick she could barely get a brush through it.

One of my favorite pictures of her, and look at that cute dress!

My grandma and mother, sometime in the late 50s.

All grown up complete with pearls.

I wish more people had taken photos of their room set ups, it's great to see how people actually decorated their living rooms, and not just what magazines tell us. This was my grandmas living room, and she said that the couch and chair set was bright red! *swoon*

Recently my great grandfather passed away, and my grandma and her siblings have been working for months going through his and my great grandmas belongings (she passed away about 13 years ago). Among many, many, many other things are of course family photos! So today I'd like to share photos of my grandma in the 40s and 50s. She was born an Okie in 1936, and grew up in california. My great grandmother was a master seamstress, so most of her clothing was handmade by my great grandma. As you can see most instances in her youth required casual clothing, her style is a huge influence on my own.

I'd love to share more family photos if you enjoy these. There's some really cute outfits in lots of them!

Oh, another dress...

Photos by Ruth!


Last night while watching Poirot I was a good little girl and tackled my overflowing repair pile and had some tea. The tedious activity of repairing is much more enjoyable with murder mysteries.
Anyway, in the pile I found this dress, which my mother gave me last year to sell on Etsy, but I never got around to it. When she had it I had taken it in for her, because she's about a size smaller than me, so all I had to do was take the stitches out and iron out the crumples!

Ok so everyone listen, this is very important. Twila Jean has entered a fabulous contest to appear in an episode of Mad Men. So if you could take a short moment to click here and press "Vote", she would appreciate it so much! It really will only take a second, plus you can see the fantastic photo of Twila in her retro kitchen :)

Dress-Gift from mother

Belt-Thrifted

Shoes-Urban Eccentric Vintage

Sunglasses-Won in a giveaway on Pretty Little Things

Sam's first tattoo

Yesterday my uncle Mav welcomed Sam into the family by giving him his first tattoo. Isn't it fantastic?

Sam handled it like a pro, and couldn't have had a better artist. My uncle Mav is one of the coolest people I know, and his work simply the best. He's a rare kind of man who wears slacks and button up shirts on a daily basis. I've only seen him wear blue jeans a few times in my life, and that was of course only to do yard work or paint the house, and they were always cuffed.
So it was a lot of fun to spend time with him in his shop, Deluxe Tattoo. Seriously, if you are in the Portland area and looking to get a top rate tattoo, thats the place to go. Say hi to my uncle Mav for me.