Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Arthelia's Attic

I posted some time ago about the fab snood that Naomi of Arthelia’s Attic customized for me—I was very impressed with her workmanship and attention to detail, and have had lots of fun wearing her creation (snoods are perfect for hot or rainy days, or when your hair simply refuses to cooperate with your styling wishes!) When she asked me if I’d like to model one of her other designs, I jumped at the chance! Naomi sent me two of her classic snoods, in red and black, and I have to say I am just as thrilled with these as I am with the first snood! Doug Monce of Atomic Age Pictures photographed them for me—I’m wearing Able Grable’s "For the Boys" frock (a perfect match with the red version) and a 1940s red gab dress (which complemented the black snood nicely in these photos.) Be sure to stop by Arthelia's Attic and snap up a few of these for your wardrobe--you'll be glad you did!

xoxo,
Amanda Lee








Monday, August 30, 2010

Her Big Night


I'm working with Doug Monce of Atomic Age Pictures on a series of "Motion Pinup" videos, and this is our first one--I hope you enjoy "Her Big Night"!


xoxo,

Amanda Lee

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Sunday Afternoon in Jerome

I wish this car was mine!

On Sunday, my Sweetie and I decided to take an impromptu drive up to Jerome, since we had never been there together (exploring Arizona is one of our favorite things to do, and taking road trips around the state is always a grand time for us) and we were in the mood for adventure. We spent a lazy afternoon walking up and down the streets and window shopping before having a drink at The Spirit Room, followed by a wonderful dinner at the Asylum Restaurant. The Asylum Resaturant is located at the Jerome Grand Hotel, a former hospital that is rumored to be rather haunted (though most of Jerome is believed to live up to its ghost town status.) Our visit was over all too soon, and we are itching to head up there again very soon!

xoxo,

Amanda Lee


Lipstick Vogue "Buckaroo" Dress

1940s Cream Fabric Belt

Rocket Originals "Georgia" Wedges

1940s Alumesh and Bakelite Purse

1940s Yellow Rose Earrings

We named our pony Buck--he proved to be a faithful steed.




You gotta take at least one Myspace shot.

My Sweetie is serious about his work.




We found a little waterfall--wouldn't you like to have this in your backyard?


Friday, August 20, 2010

Outfit of the Day--Summer Charmer

Feels like I haven't done a proper outfit of the day post in forever! Plus, I owe you a picture of the other peasant blouse i made, so here's what I'm wearing today :-)
Black Cotton Batiste Peasant Blouse made from a 1944 Pattern
1950s Circle Skirt in a Bright Pink and Black Rose Print on a White Background
Black Elastic and Patent Cinch Belt
Black Patent 40s-style Slingback Heels by Twolips
1940s Wood and Celluloid Heart and Flower Earrings
1950s Sapphire Ring and Grandmother's 1941 Class Ring
Lip Ink Lipstick--a Mix of Cherry and Hot Pink
Hair Styled in Triple Reverse Rolls with a Pink and White Peony Clip

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Are You a Rosie?

The Phoenix Art Museum's wonderful "In the Mood" fashion exhibit ended last Sunday, and they offered a free hat and wig-making workshop called "Are You a Rosie?" a few days before it closed. My dear friend Rose and I went, and really enjoyed the class—the wig-making process turned out to be a very creative idea, as they use twisted paper cording to create deceptively simple “hair” pieces. She and I each worked on a hat, though we didn’t have much luck with the glue they provided :-)

Here’s a couple of pics from the evening—I’m wearing the aqua cotton eyelet peasant blouse I made (I’m working on the skirt right now), along with jeans and snood (from Arthelia’s Attic—stay tuned for more photos of her wonderful creations!)

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Our Trip to Nashville—or “My Sweetie and I have found our new home.”

Posing underneath the cutest cowgirl pinup sign
1950s-style yellow and black polka dot peasant style dress
Narrow black belt
1940s black leather wedges
1940s black purse
1940s yellow flower earrings


Well, not really. At least not right now, that is. A move to Nashville is definitely a possibility for the future though—this is certainly the place to live if you want to set your music career into overdrive!

So. My Sweetie and I just got back from our mini-vacation in Nashville; we went to attend a family reunion, and took a couple of extra days to explore the city. Couldn’t think of a better excuse to head to Tennessee, in fact; the chance to tour a city that neither of us has ever visited before, and get to see some of my favorite family members (and have my Sweetie meet them)? Sign us up! (Note: This turned out to be a very wordy recap, so I’m splitting it up into three parts ;-))


And boy, did Music City ever feel like home to us! As soon as we stepped off the plane and heard Tommy Cash welcome us (you just gotta love an airport where celebrities welcome you and tell you such need-to-know facts as where to pick up your luggage. Nice touch, Nashville!) we knew we were in the right place.

We arrived late on Thursday evening, and after picking up a rental car, headed to our hotel to check in. Since we weren’t familiar with the city, we had booked a hotel near Opryland, which turned out to be about 20 minutes from the downtown area. The hotel was very nice though, and turned out to be right around the corner from Ernest Tubb’s Record Shop #2, so we were pretty pleased with the location! (Now that we know the scheme of things, we’ll probably stay a more centrally located hotel the next time we visit—parking, though plentiful, was quite pricey!) Once we checked in, we headed right back out the door; it may have been midnight in Tennessee, but it was only 10:00 in Arizona, and we were too excited to go straight to sleep! I mean, c’mon, we were in Music City! That calls for a celebration.


Lane Kristian and his band played Thursday night

Once we made it downtown, we were treated to the surreal neon sight that is Broadway—with its glittering signs advertising honky tonkin’ good times, it looked as if it had been untouched (and what city hasn’t been ravaged in the name of “progress?”). We hurried to park, and started walking up the street, oohing and aahing every couple of feet of course—and wouldn’t you know it, every club had a band performing, even after hours on a weeknight. My Sweetie and I knew we had hit the music jackpot—we could hardly believe of good fortune!



By chance, there turned out to be a club called Robert’s Western World (Roberts is my Sweetie’s last name, so we took that as a good sign), and we made a beeline to it, if only to snap a quick photo of the coincidental sign. Imagine our surprise when the band playing inside sounded straight out of the 50s—it turns out this is the place to go to hear good ol’ country, rockabilly, and honky tonk music! We ended up spending quite a bit of time throughout the weekend here, as every time we stopped in we were treated to the sounds of yet another world-class band. After spending an hour or so listening, we headed back to our hotel and went to bed.

My Sweetie was so thrilled to be here!

The next day, we slept a little later than we originally intended (the plan was to take advantage of the free breakfast spread lol) and headed into town around 11. We grabbed lunch at a restaurant a little ways off Broadway, then headed up the street to check out the shops we had seen the night before (we had excitedly peeked into the windows of each place, marveling as we went along: “Can you believe we’re standing outside of Ernest Tubb’s Record Shop?! Check out this place—look at all those boots!” and so on down the line.) The first stop was ET’s Record Shop, and stepping inside brought a tear to our eyes—there we were, standing in the store that has been in that same spot since 1947, looking as though it hadn’t changed a bit since opening. The music selection was incredible, the old pictures on the wall were amazing, and the display of vintage western stage wear was drool-worthy.



Wearing Able's Grable's "Ready Hedy" frock
1940s-style cherry necklace
1940s red Bakelite earrings
Rocket Originals "Georgia" wedges
Red patent 50s-style purse
1940s-style peach and green sunglasses

We continued down the way, eventually ending up at Robert’s again—and once more, we were in for a musical treat! We stayed there for several hours, hating to leave, but eventually headed back to the hotel to rest up a bit before hitting the town that night. We had a delicious meal at Dinos—thanks to my dear friend Jere’s recommendations, we made sure to find this spot! Then, it was on the town for some more music and sights.

Check out those costumes!

To be continued...


xoxo,

Amanda Lee

Heading to Georgia For the Boys--the WWII Victory Gala

I'm wearing Able Grable's "For the Boys" frock in this photo

This Saturday, I'll be attending the WWII Victory Gala, hosted by the National Infantry Museum in Columbus, GA. This black tie affair is being held in honor of the 65th anniversary of V-J Day; the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra will be playing, and yours truly will be attending as Betty Grable! I'm really looking forward to this event, and I can't wait to share all the details when I arrive back home!

xoxo,
Amanda Lee

Monday, August 9, 2010

Tsk Tsk


I’ve been a terrible blogger of late—I go away for vacation, and just can’t seem to get out of vacation mode now that I’m back. I’ve been naughty, I know! While I’m working on a nice recap post for our trip to Nashville (complete with pictures, of course), I thought I’d give you a little update on my sewing projects to get me back into the blogging swing of things. Currently, I’m working on making up this little 1944 number—I’ve whipped up two blouses already, one in black cotton batiste, and one in a delicious aqua eyelet—and I’m currently finishing up a matching eyelet skirt. I adore the pattern and can see myself making it up again--it sews up quickly and easily, and the only adjustment I made was to add a little extra length to the blouse. Real pictures to follow soon, I promise!

Oh, and I must show you pictures of my new tropical outfit, created for me by a local seamstress—I picked it up yesterday and can't wait to wear it! Here’s a sneak peak of the fabric; I’ll add photos of me modeling it later today ;-)



xoxo,
Amanda Lee