Funky

Today is one of those days, a mood day. I'm funky, moody, slightly bitchy. But mainly I'm non-chalant, nothing makes me really bat a lash. Except for maybe this cute pic of Miss. Honey:

It's an X-ray of her belly. See that white dot?
That's a be-be pellet. Sad.

This weekend is the weekend before Halloween. It's weird being out of gay town, Halloween just isn't the same. Gay town is full of gay ghouls and goblins.

This year I am slated to attend a party at some che-che hotel downtown.... I am suppose to dress up as a celebrity, these are the party 'rules.' I have chosen to dress as Dita Von Teese, that is if I go. Dita's hot and refined. I'm considering instead to be Britney that way if I end up getting trashed and flashing my boobs I can say it's all about the costume.

I should rent some scary flicks for the weekend. I could rewatch Knocked Up that is one scary movie—scary to think that load of crap made people laugh.

Seriously, what's a truly scary movie? When I was nine that movie was Children of the Corn; who freaked me out more Isaac or Malakai? Isaac. Even though Malakai killed with a machete, Isaac killed with one darn awful creepy sneer. Chilling. Steven King certainly offered up some truly chilling characters.

One word: Pennywise.

A movie that I recommend for a chill is Fire in the Sky. Its about these men that swear their friend was abducted by aliens in 1975 Arizona, why it's so chilling is that it's based on a true story.

Renting a classically scary movie can always be a real treat, try Rosemary's Baby, The Omen, and of course, The Shining!

Well my mood hasn't changed with this post... I thought it may help, instead it's just made me realize I need to plan a trip to the movie store...also I must get my other costume ready. On Wednesday the girls here at work and I will be dressing as Mary Kay girls... that means hosiery, face powder, pink lipstick and super high-heels. It is my hope that at lunch we will harass real MK girls.

Have a happy and safe Halloween. Make sure you keep your kitties safe, especially the black ones, there are way too many freaks out on Halloween.

-Dita

Halloween Inspiration

Burlesque performer and MAC Viva Glam spokesperson, Dita Von Teese... is my Halloween Inspiration...What do you think, can I pull off this absolutely flawless specimen of glam? I'll be lucky to absorb even one percent of the glamazon. Photo by David Azia.

Next to Butter

Aaaah reminiscing...This was my first solo apartment on Grand Avenue in Minneapolis. I lived in the top right corner apartment...for five years. I painted the walls lavender, yellow, and rosy pink. I had that much room. Two walk-in closets, a dining room, full kitchen, separate bedroom and spacious living room. My rent for that first year was $550 a month. Weep.

The building is right next to Butter. But when I moved Butter was still Sweetskies—super pink and girly with to die for eclairs and a very butch lesbian owner. Prior to Sweetskies it was the Good Food Cafe, a strictly vegan restaurant. It took sometime to figure out why they hated me so much when I came in for coffee. It hit me a year later, I was wearing my leather jacket there...

Ahhhh those were the days of a young naive Minnesota girl... now I'm just a tidge bit older, still a sweet Minnesotan and only about 10 percent less naive.... oh if you happen to be around in the hood, do keep an eye out for Miss. Xena. This was her last home with me and Miss. H.

One thousand and 80 bazillion kisses to her.

Keen on Keane

You know you've seen them: big eyes; big, sad eyes; giant, depressed, sad eyes on sweet little girls, puppies, and kitties. I am speaking of the paintings of Margaret Keane. Popular in the 60s and 70s, Keane's paintings often adorned many young girls' bedrooms.

Funny thing is Keane's paintings were credited to her second husband Walter Keane. As the Wikipedia site stated, under the name Margaret Keane, "Many reasons might be put forward to explain this, but it was also one of the reasons they divorced."

The site also says that Keane did not want to relinquish the rights to the artwork when they divorced. Thank God! So the divorce went all the way to Federal court. At the hearing, to prove she was the artist of the Keane paintings, Margaret painted in front of the judge, which showed her obvious talent. Of course Walter couldn't do this and deniied the chance to paint. In 1965, the courts sided with her, enabling her to paint under her own name.

Why I am speaking of Keane is because her paintings certainly had an impact on Jolene's World... of course! While I did not have Keane's work adorn my childhood walls, two of her prints decorated a wall in my Grandparent's guest bathroom in Monett, Missouri. To this day I can still visualize nearly every detail of that bathroom. I loved it because it was very pink and very girly!

There was the mauve and light pink shower curtain tied back with decorative pinks ropes. In the corner of the bathtub rested a bottle of hot pink bubble bath emblazoned with a pink rhinestone brooch. Across from the toilet was a tiny bench with a deep mauve velvet bench cover.

And of course there were the Keane prints.

My father bought them in 1962 while visiting San Francisco and gave them to his mother. When I was little, visting Granny and Gramps, I'd ogle the prints and think that someday they’d make a great addition to my home.

After both my grandparents passed I received the prints and have had them hung in my home ever since. Not only are these prints reflective of my tastes, but they also have much sentimental value.

Above they are shown in the old EP suites. Now that I am getting ready to decorate my new apartment, I am reminded of how I love these prints and I am excited to see which wall will request their presence today... to find out stay tuned for more posts!

Welcome to my sale!

So I have officially moved out of the EP Suites. I had a good three-year run there—me, honey, the steel giraffes and one goat—we were all pretty happy. But considering I was in the heart of boystown, it was, I suppose, a matter of time the rent would skyrocket, and it did at a jump of one hundred dollars!

So I thought, hmmmm, I don't like moving, but $800 for a small studio apartment infested with centipedes seemed like a rotten deal." So I began my search for my new apartment and also began packing up the old. It was about this time I realized "Wow I have a lot of junk! It's time to have a sale!"

Turns out the neighborhood was hot-to-trot for a Jolene Special sale! Items that were most memorable selling include a hot pink T-Shirt with the phrase "Sun your Buns." The guy that purchased it was so excited with his 75-cent purchase, he put it on right on the sale grounds!

Another fun item that I sold was a tween-inspired pink sequined phone with feathers... (sorry mom)... I knew this phone would be happier elsewhere considering I was no longer going to have an actual phone line, and let me tell you the gentlemen, about 35, that purchased it, could not have been happier.

And then there was Karen the Quinceañera doll.

About two years ago I went to my first Quinceañeras for my co-worker's daughter, Karen. Well as you leave, part of tradition is take a gift, I immediately scooped up this doll. I was quite proud to carry her down the street and into the bar later that evening....

But with any move, sometimes it's time to part with those pieces that brought you happiness at one time, but soon just weighed you down, (kinda of like the Jennifer Lopez CD in the background.)

The phrase, "Another person's trash is another person's treasure" couldn't have been more accurate a statement than when it came to Karen, the Quinceañera doll.

This gentleman literally jumped out of his friend's moving car to pick-up Karen, and not only was he psyched about this great find he was insisting I take an extra dollar for Karen...but alas I said "the price tag is a dollar sir; your happiness and one dollar is all I ask for!"

And look how happy he is!

After he hurriedly paid, posed for this lovely pic, and then ran off back to his friend's car, I realized a mini traffic jam had occurred all because of my hot and sizzling sale!

Numerous other shoppers stopped by to pick up a great cd, or a dvd, such as the compelling Spanglish. Other happy customers included my friend Mandy and her boyfriend, Ben. Mandy left with a black skirt and pink plastic bracelet.

My best shopper though was Frank. When traffic was low Frank would jump in the middle of the sale and "pretend to shop." As passersby strolled by, Frank would make such statements as "Wow this is a collectors edition." Or "Man I remember this from my childhood!" This earned Frank the title of "best pretend shopper."

Frank's first title of the day though was "stock boy" as he unloaded all the merchandise from my apartment to the sales floor. Later, aside from being a pretend shopper, Frank was also head of loss prevention. He was quite good at all duties.

All and all, I was very happy with my sell, not to mention, $152 dollars richer!

Dead Leaves on the Dirty Ground

I found these cool leaf pics online done by Minneapolis' photographer David J. Turner; his stuff is pretty cool and he makes these dead leaves look like blooming flowers...it makes saying goodbye to summer not so bad...

Designs by AimLene

Ooooh so cute! Frank just emailed me these photos that I took with his camera... Amy and I made baby onesies for Wil... we cut out fabric shapes and used the iron for adhering them to the onesies...aren't they the cutest!?




Here's Amy at my old apartment (sniff). She's showing off her ultra fashionable onesie titled "Fresh Farm Eggs."



Can you guess which two onesies I designed? Take a guess!! Yes, I did the kitties! Do you know that baby boy clothes rarely ever feature cats or kittens, apparently felines are for females and dogs for boys... well Camri and Chris only like their two kitties so Wil is a cat baby as well then—and for that he needed a onesie with kitty cats! Meow.

The above photo shows the back of the onesies, while the photo to the right shows the onesies' front sides.

The other one I designed is on the far right, the ice-cream cones. Camri loves ice-cream, so naturally since I'm sure Wil got lots of it la la tummy land, he loves it too!

Aside from Fresh Farm Eggs, Amy also designed the colorful onesie with shapes and circles. We loved them.

Of course the more wine we drank, the cuter they got!

Karma

It's times like this that I am happy I have a blog. A moment when something happens to me that I am quite pleased to share with you fine folks.... so here's my quick, but seriously funny story.. okay wait I hope it's not one of those stories where you "had to be there" Nonetheless, if you use your imagination you will love this story!

(I giggle now as I begin to write.)

This evening on my way home I decide to stop at Treasure Island (note to Minnesotans, this is not a casino, in Chicago Treasure Island is a 'European' grocery store.) So I am making my selections, the regular pathetic single-girl fare, (today it was tortellini/mozzarella salad, one can of soda, one meatball, a baguette, and a bottle of wine.) So I'm looking adorable (I think) wearing a uber cute dress slightly reminiscent of Edie Sedgwick, I have on a pair of killer black tights and my black Kedzie pumps; I'm listening to music, bopping around. Suddenly a favorite song comes on my Ipod, Walking with a Ghost by Tegan and Sarah.

I'm feeling good.

I'm in the back of the store and need to get up front to the wine cellar, but dare I go through the produce section. No, the produce section always makes me depressed. So I whip down the dairy aisle and there's a guy with his Ipod pumping and I think "wow we're both jamming to our tunes and we are happy." So I sashay pass him, showing him how cool I am with my own happy musically inclined mood, not to mention how cute I feel in my pretty dress. I pass him, I'm a super model, I'm strutting it, I'm feeling Tegan and Sarah and suddely a thought goes through my head, but before I can even compute the thought it happens!

My left ankle whips out from under me, my right foot goes for the save, but to no avail and both my legs fail me and the next thing I realize my entire body is lunging forward, hands and head first and my music is pumping in my ears but I know I scream "Oh my God." As I slide across the floor with my basket of goodies and my purse, both lopsided falling next to me, my whole body splatters on the floor. I'm mortified; I'm beet red and, of course I start laughing, half because it's damn funny and half to say "hey look I can laugh at myself!" Within seconds the music man is running toward me and one of the workers is right behind him with a second worker nearly ready to call the paramedics straight behind him. The stranger offers his hand and helps me up and I laugh, catch my breath and then tell them about that sudden thought.

I had almost fallen at work earlier that day as my ankle had gone out on me in the lobby, and that sudden thought was "oh I best slow down or I'm going to fall for real!" I couldn't believe these two men were not laughing. They were gentlemenly and concerned.

If I were them I would have laughed just like I laughed at the girl that fell on the bus yesterday morning. So I guess that's why I fell.....Karma.

My knees are killing me!

Babbling and words

Man, Woman, Cats and Dogs, I promised myself I'd be better at keeping the blog up to date.... and yet I have been busy.... and now, here I sit in front of this blank screen with nothing to really say, except, again I have been busy. I have been busy procrastinating the important things, wasting time, working a lot, and paying immediate attention to emergencies.

This morning Miss. Honey was diagnosed with a bladder infection, thus crowning her the world's most expensive cat. Meow! What can you do? You can't ignore the cries of an animal, unless if you're evil and mean. Or if you're super poor and you think that maybe it was just due to a switch in food....and things would clear up....

So last night I started to freak because she demonstrated to me that she was now peeing part blood. My friend Brett is married to an amazing woman, Jill, she is a vet tech and so super smart and good with animals. She suggested I come there where she treated Honey with meds and fluids and got her comfy for the night so I wouldn't have to sell my ovaries to pay for the animal ER.

It was Sunday night and these two people opened their home to Me and Miss. Honey.... you gotta love that! What good people.

Aside from taking care of The Kitty, I have had to work some part-time hours back at the restaurant because A: My current job has low pay; B: I have spent too much on cute clothes, shoes, and cat care that my debt is too much to manage, or C: all of the above. For fun I have been flirting with the opposite sex, but haven't met anyone to spark my fancy. I've always enjoyed my independence, but I tell you as of late I am getting dog-tired trying to stay afloat all on my own.... Can someone please hire my cat?

Aside from the flirting, I have been watching movies....but I haven't seen anything recently that was profoundly wonderful. I did enjoy Year of the Dog with Molly Shannon—her dog Pencil broke my heart in two. When Pencil dies (not a spoiler, it happens in the beginning of the film) I cried as I recalled my life with Miss. Xena. Shannon is so delicate and pitch perfect! The movie kind of went off in a weird track, but all and all it was fairly enjoyable.

Other happenings of my world include graduating from S of SSKCw/oS (that is the School of Successfully and Swiftly Killing a Centipede without Screaming. This just happened last week. The apartments here on Elaine Place are invested! I finally had had enough of the drama of half killing a CPM (Centipede Man-don't ask).... this often involved legs dangling on a wall and a large body squirming away somewhere on my floor. Now I scoop it up like it's a hunk of jelly, fast, quick, without thought! I'm really quite proud of myself. I remember a time when I was about 14, reading around 2:00am and a CPM crawled next to me and I freaked and woke my dad up who groggily killed it for me. Thanks Dad!

So I am getting retardly excited to move out of the hood up to Ravenswood, just on the outskirts of Lincoln Square. My new place is sparkly clean and uber cute! I will be having a sidewalk sale to pay for the movers!!! It will be quite the event!

Aaaah October is a good month, I get to move, my parents will be celebrating their 38th!!! Anniversary and My grandma turns 90! Yowzers, I think October will be my new favorite month, not to forget it's also the fun, spooky month!

On that note.... I must go back to something else productive, such as write correspondence for all the September Birthdays I sadly fell behind on...bad Jolene!

Run Forrest Run

This summer has been so fun, ever since I succumbed to the fact that I hate winter I have fully embraced the summer months. And aside from just loving summer, I have made a point to seek out exciting summer events, such as Ladies Hat Day at Arlington Park Horse Track.

So, just a few weeks ago my dear friend Amy accompanied me on the Metra train to go out to the Arlington race park, just a mere 30 minutes from downtown Chicago—also near Sarah's Grove where our friend Ashley resides!

The three of us donned our finest hats to enjoy the races!

Since we had hats on, and we are ladies... we got in free! And so we enjoyed some bloody marries for breakfast, champagne for lunch and bets all day! As part of Ladies Hat Day the Millinery Arts Alliance held a special event in the Governor's Suite where they sold hats, had free champagne and hot pink frosted cupcakes and the prime view of the horses!
Turns out many others were just as excited about hat Day, including the CUTEST couple in the world (besides my parents) this red hat polka dot duo! Now that is love! And you can't tell from the pic, but she had some hot black fishnets on! Sexy!

There were four couture hat designers at the hat day, and the cheapest hat was probably $275. Later, on the Metra train home Amy noticed this lady had two hat boxes- a guess of a $600 dollar value! Her hubby loves her!


This woman's hat was designed by Nicole M. Le Blance. Ms. Le Blance was also the designer of the hat that I wore that day! See, you can see it here as I intently watched my horse.

A note about our betting: Amy and I first bet on the horses that had names that were interesting, this proved to be fruitful for Amy, not me. So I went my separate way. I decided to bet on the third favorite horse, figuring it was his time to shine. This worked once and I won $8 bucks! But then it stopped working and Amy too was not having luck. Finally we realized it was all about the outfit! From then on out we only bet on the horses that donned pretty attire. Amy won $12 on the horse and jockey that had a purple suit with lime green polka dots! Yay! Since fashion seems to mean a lot, I decided to enter the Ladies Hat contest...and guess what!? NO I didn't win, BUT I was a finalist!


See me there. They had us go on the, um, place where the horses walk before they race... and this woman from Chicago NBC announced the finalists on the big screen and everyone snapped our photo. Ms. Amy is my personal photographer. I'm the green blob in a cute hat! All the ladies were HOT in great hats! After we waved and looked pretty, the winner was announced and soon, the pretty NBC lady escorted us all back to the Governor's Suite for free drinks..... Photographer Amy really enjoyed that! Amy's hat designer is Nine West... My Mom knows all about this hat!

Isn't Amy so pretty!?














And this is my friend Loretta, a couture hat designer, she's so talented and fun! That hat she's donning is her own creation, it's gorgeous!


All and all it was just another lovely day at the races!

Hello 1985

Today I went to the local DSW to check out the sales... I left with a pair of jellies. I'm a 33-year-old nerd—but I'm a nerd with bright red shiny jellies! They're pretty cool, even if they make my feet sweaty.

The last time I owned a pair of jellies was in 1985; they were light pink and worn to pieces. The jelly straps turned to strings and my hot-pink polished toes stuck out. Of course those jellies made some pretty cool tracks around Minnesota before they officially died. They hit up the Bel-Air School yard where I argued the counter-points of why, sometimes, Cyndi Lauper was cooler than Madoona...but true to indecision form, those same jellies made it to Madoona's Virgin Tour concert at the St. Paul Civic Center. Now that was a trip. I was 10 and my friends and I were giddy when we overheard the older girls refer to us as 12-year-old Madonna Wanna-Bes. My mom was there too! Madonna certainly did have quite the affect on 80's fashion!

Can you imagine the little 10-year-old girls that were obsessed with Britney Spears during her hey-day? They had so many other POP singers to argue over...Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson, Mandy Moore....Turns out Christina and Mandy turned out pretty okay, but that Britney-yikes almighty! However, as weirdo as she is (I think she's the next Anna Nicole), was Madonna any less strange? I mean I went to the Virgin Tour concert where Madonna played with her Boom 'Box'. Of course I seriously didn't get any of this until my parents had to explain it all to me, which was then followed by my screams of STOP!

Ah pop-girl moments to ponder... nonetheless, the one very awesome thing about Madonna is that she certainly did create some cute wanna-bes, especially the little tart in the middle... can you see my jelly shoes!?

Baby Cutness!

Welcome little Wil! Born Saturday, 8:56am, at 7 pounds 1 ounce, 20.5 inches long.

Is it weird I think he's so cute that I just want to eat him?

Congratulations Mom and Dad Chris and Camri!

To Minneapolis with Love

Pray for my hometown... Above is my old stomping grounds and of course, below is the bridge... I took this bridge everyday for years... I always said the damn thing shook too much.

Millennium Park

Okay so I know I said that for my Chicago adventures, I'd be going to places I have yet to be, but I can't resist yet another trip to Chicago's Millennium Park! It's too pretty and full of cool architecture!
And just look at my beautiful photos!

The "Bean", as it's known here, is actually titled Cloud Gate. It was designed by British artist Anish Kapoor—it's his first public outdoor work installed in the United States!!

Can you see me in the bean? Look close!!! I'm the cute one with the hips!

Oh I love this part of the park! It's these funky sculptures with faces that move! Titled The Crown Fountain, two pillars face one another with images that interact with the ground and offer fun water activities! Designed by Spanish artist Jaume Plensa.

See, this lady means business!

Renowned architect Frank Gehry, utilized his wacky and revolutionary design sense in the park here with the outdoor concert venue. Wilco is playing here in September!
I love you Jeff Tweedy!

Gehry also designed this uber cool bridge that connects Millennium Park to Daley Bicentennial Plaza... this slopey bridge is 925-foot-long and tempts one to slide off the side! You can see more of the outdoor theatre in the background here as well. PS for more on Gehry rent the documentary Sketches of Frank Gehry, it's really interesting. Some people love his work while others seriously hate it....
oh the beauty of art!

Antiques and Heart

It's nearly Monday and this past weekend, in Jolene's World, has been full of ponderings, walks, bike rides, antiquing, and nachos. Under "The Bean" in Chicago's Millennium Park.

I think I may have started my weekend off on a bad foot. I rented a documentary that was truly unsettling. I'm not going to go into details, or even name the movie, as the disturbing layers are just too much, but I will tell you that the topic was suicide. Hmmm I bet some of you winced.

It's interesting how the subject is so taboo, so wrong, so disturbing. But, while this film truly blew me away, and not in the best way, I better understand the importance of empathy. So this whole weekend, I have been pondering such individuals that were so lost they decided to end their lives. How does one go there? How does one think this is an answer? And, maybe more importantly, instead of "the rest of us" thinking that such individuals couldn't hack life, everyone should understand that the human psyche is truly and incredibly delicate. So really I'm saying, let's all just be a tad bit nicer to one another, and I'm not talking to those in our lives already, but strangers on the train, the homeless on the street, etc. etc. etc!

To lighten things up.....


On Saturday my friend Leigh and I headed to the Chicago Antiques Art Fair. The Antiques Art Fair takes place the last weekends of the month, May-October. Here I am in a "fancy hat" in a favorite girly booth! The fair is often full of shiny objects, blasts from the pasts, and special pooches, such as this handsome fellow here.
His name is Rudy.













With aisles and aisles of antiques, inside and out, Leigh and I strolled throughout many eras and perused all the glittery treasures. We listened to a live band playing the fair, ate fair treats, and even came up with a new slogan "The Chicago Antiques Art Fair, where Tchotckies go to die."
But alas when it was all said and done the only true treasure we found was Mr. Rudy.
Leigh especially liked him, even if he did bark like a girl.

People Are Strange

Yes, I have been very upset over Lilo. The world is upset over Lilo. That poor angel, as my co-worker said to me yesterday "I just wanna take a hold her and give her a truly nice smack-down cocaine experience that will make her feel all better."

So the thing is, people are strange, and fascinating. I just read about this uber-hot, art couple, Theresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake, that apparently committed a double suicide. Duncan killed herself on July 10 and a week later Blake was seen walking naked into the ocean and was never seen again. The couple apparently had become very paranoid that members of the Church of Scientology were stalking them, well here's the article from the LA Times, it's crazy.

Duncan was a blogger and had a site that was apparently THE blog of blogs, it was titled The Wit of the Staircase. She posted a very interesting quote the day she killed herself...and what's weird is reading her past posts, it seems like everything was okay and she had so many plans...

And what did I learn from all this? It's about the blog's title, as described here from the blog, The Wit of the Staircase:

From the French phrase 'esprit d'escalier,' literally, it means 'the wit of the staircase', and usually refers to the perfect witty response you think up after the conversation or argument is ended. "Esprit d'escalier," she replied. "Esprit d'escalier. The answer you cannot make, the pattern you cannot complete till aterwards it suddenly comes to you when it is too late."

I'm so always thinking of the esprit d'escaliers.

Amy's Rodeo de Mexico

This is my friend Amy.
Two weeks ago Amy went to a Mexican Rodeo right here in Chicago! Amy snapped lots of rodeo photographs. Then she made a funny video gif thingy with her photos. Isn't Amy so creative? I have the coolest friends! I like how fast the rodeo guy looks. It reminds me of an old cartoon.

I do feel really bad for the cow/bull character. :(

Summer Time Shopping

A week ago I decided I was going to explore parts of Chicago; To see more of what makes this city so amazing! I have been living here for four years and yet there is still so much I haven't seen! So last week I started with a Trip to the Garfield Conservatory, a wonderful adventure!

So this past weekend the ideas began brewing, maybe I'll venture out to the Botanic Gardens in Glencoe (um that's a loooong bike ride)? Or I could take a trip to a museum I haven't see yet (snooze), or, um I could just do something I so so so love!!!
That's right! Go shopping! And what do you know my favorite place was having a sale! The Edgewater Antique Mall! Seeing this postcard was all it took! And on Sunday I set out for some treasures... and here's what I found!

Favorite finds that I didn't purchase but dearly covet:
—A set of six 1950's glassware featuring pink flowers and blue birds
—A 1950's odd little glass water pitcher a pink base and a pink stripes on the glass.
—A beautiful mirror, circa, yes the 1950's, with a pink wood frame and pink flamingos adoring the actual glass of the mirror
—This funny swivel chair decked out in a turquoise, tweedy fabric.
—A small deer statue, so wittle, so wee, so cute!
—An even cuter ceramic mouse with big mouse ears.
—Okay this one is a little crazy, and I seriously considered purchasing this, a haute couture baby dress. It was velvet black with pink ruffles and SO freaking cute! I want a baby girl so bad so I can decorate her...Dammit I just realized I could have bought this for the cat.
—A strapless blue organza gown that was so amazingly made with gorgeous ruffles and a side sash-thingy, it seriously looked like something I'd wear to the Oscars!
—A pair of 1950's barkcloth window panels in a deep greenish/gray shade with a design reminiscent of an Asian theme with a bright watermelon pink as the focal color. YUM!
—These adorable animal figurines with big rhinestones eyes, two cats, a squirrel, chihuahua and the cutest owl!

What I ended up purchasing...
well let's start with my favorite: This beautiful blouse!!!!! The clerk said it reminded him of the Yves St. Laurent collection from the early 80's. Yes, I thought. "oh yeah I know all about his collections..." now that I think about it, maybe he said Givenchy? Okay I must go get that Vogue book tomorrow.... Oh who cares, the point is, I Love this blouse! It's so beautiful and well made and fits me perfectly. It has a zipper back and pleated sleeves and it only set me back a mere $13.50!
Next was the necklace, shown in the photo, it's gold with white beads. I also got the cutest bangle...And finally I snagged the original photo which was the basis for the store's sale. You may have thought this was Ms. Lucille Ball, which I thought, but it's actually Betty Hutton, a comedic and musical actress of the 1940's and 1950's. Hutton had done numerous roles, but her most notable was playing Annie Oakley in Annie Get Your Gun; she was considered a zany blond bombshell that was goofy and energetic and had this body that didn't stop. In this photo, dated 1944, Hutton's expression is full of so much life and energy. Lucy? Betty? No matter! This lady makes me smile...it's a beautiful woman showing that she can be funny and zany, something an old improv teacher told me once was not possible...I never believed him and often am being proven wrong by such images as Ms. Hutton as well as the knock-out ladies doing improv all around Chicago.

So yes, I may not have gotten uber cultured today, BUT I did learn about a starlet of the past that I was not familiar with until today, so here's to Ms. Betty Hutton!

Stars, They're Just Like Celebrity J

Newly coiffed Celebrity J & uber cute baby Hun pass through the office on their way to the living room. CJ dons an H&M Cornblue pleated dress, circa 2006; Hun wears a vintage blue silk baby gown.

Lady Head Vases

If you’re looking to take on a new hobby of collecting, consider collecting Lady Head Vases from the 1950s and 60s. Originally manufactured by various ceramic companies just prior to World War II, Lady Head Vases were made for the floral industry. While the first vases were made in the U.S. and feature plainer styles, by the 60s styles were coming out of Japan and featured such accouterments as dangling earrings, faux pearl chokers, gloves, hair bows, eyelashes, and more. The above vases are part of my Mom's collection!

While they initially were sold for just a couple dollars, today such vases are worth anywhere from $75 to well into the thousands. To seek out vases start perusing your local antique shops and flea markets. Also be sure to note the difference between authentic vases and fakes. An article from American Antiques gives you a good start on the history of the Lady Head Vases as well as clues on authenticity.

If you love the look of the vases, but don't have the dough for the pricey items? You can still enjoy head vases with head vase wrapping paper from PopInk. Frame it for a fun wall decor piece.
The paper is appropriately titled Glazed and Confused.