Vintage Photo Friday: Beach Edition!

This Friday I thought I would show you some of my beach photos, not to be confused with my collection of men and awkward bathing suit photos. Haha. 

Butch and Ross, Oceanside, California 1938. Travis and I did this on the California beaches too, of course. 

Look at these two sitting under the Atlantic City boardwalk with that fabulous poodle!

Here are Bryan and Mary Charles in 1956. I love her little bow barrette, and those smart little robes!

Here are Sam and Pearl Lee sitting on their porch at the Beachcomber in Daytona Beach, Florida. See the cat in Pearl's hands? And what a great spot for a beach cottage! See that surf in the back?

I wish there was a note on the back to tell me where this is. Any ideas? I'm pretty sure I bought it for that guy in the front right wearing suspenders and no shirt on the beach!

Those matching swim caps! To bad they aren't all smiling. It might be because their bathing suits look pretty uncomfortable.

Here is Dad and Jim goofing off in front of a great looking beach playground.

And here we have another one of my all time favorites! Another shot from Pearl Lee's Daytona vacation. check out her sandals! And the monkey on her shoulder! The photo by itself is great, but the back makes it: On US #1 South of Daytona at Ella's bar. The monkey stole the show by the way I look He was untieing a ribbon I had my hair tied with. And he has just whipped his tail in my wide open mouth!" It doesn't get any better than that. 

Home Again!

We finally made it home! The only downside to visiting the other side of the country is it takes forever to get there and back! But I wouldn't trade it. We had an INCREDIBLE week in Southern California! I can't wait to go through all the photos I took and share them with you! It might take me a few days because I've got a weird work schedule for the next few days, and a date with Jinkx Monsoon! Until there, here is a little preview from my instagram.

Stay tuned for tales of Disneyland, roadside attractions, tons of good food, our first time in a desert, and the day I met both Mr. Tiny and Mr. Richard Simmons himself! 

Craft Room Close Ups

I thought I would share a few more photos from around my craft room. I needed a place to group all my woodland themed knick knacks, and this is the room that won! It has been a MESS for a long time, and pretty unusable, but I spent some time in there the other day and heres hoping it will inspire to get in there and do something creative!

There are mostly squirrels and deer and owls, but you'll see a healthy smattering of skunks and foxes rabbits too. I've got a couple bins full of vintage fabric up there begging to be used. I would love to make a simple quilt sometime this year.

 I'm working on filling the walls. It is a challenge because I don't want to hang too many squirrels in one place. Haha, the struggle is real!

 Teeny made in Japan deer on my thread holder.

 My expidit shelf is BURSTING with art supplies and books. I tried to group everything so I will be able to find it.

 I think that owl is the cutest ash tray I've even seen. I have a LOT of ashtrays around my house, even though I've never smoked. Sometimes they are too adorable!

 Another little collection, walnut crafts! 

 This skunk is my favorite. I like the bump chenille tail.

There you have it! One little over stuffed corner for my craft room! Hopefully I'll be back soon to show you something I've actually made!

Collection 20: Black Forest Weather Houses

Oh man, I haven't posted a collection since February! And you know I'm not out of them! I've been wanting to share this one for a long time but it is kind of hard to photograph. So here is my collection of Black Forest style weather houses (with an occasional cuckoo clock!) I have them hanging on a wall in my craft room. I would love to fill the whole wall someday!

This guy is the biggest and my favorite! If you aren't familiar with these, they are called weather houses because you can tell what weather is coming with the little man and woman. The woman is out when the weather is fair, and the man comes out when it rains. All of mine actually work, except for one that doesn't move. 

I love the little rabbit on this one, and you can't really see it, but there is a dog at the man's feet!

Most of them have cute little toadstools, too.

I like anything in this style, so I include the little cuckcoo clock in this collection. I just noticed, when I was taking the photos, that it is probably missing a roof. Oops! Still cute.

Another sweet tiny clock.

Here is the one that doesn't work. I'm not sure why. But you can see the little guy better. See his umbrella?

This one is a different style, I haven't seen others like it. It is Hansel and Gretle themed! See the witch? There is a little printed scene behind them with an open oven! Cute and creepy!

So there you have it! My little collection of Black Forest weather houses! I don't really seek these out, I just buy them when I come across them in the wild for a reasonable price. Maybe someday I'll be able to fill the whole wall!

Vintage Photo Friday! Vacation Edition!

My vintage photo collection is probably the collection that I am most into at the moment. It is so fun to go through bins and bins of photos at the flea market or at antique malls. As far as collections go, it is very inexpensive and doesn't take up tons of room! I always like seeing Lisa over and She Was a Bird doing her photo friday posts, so I thought I would start a similar feature over here so I can share some of my collection with you!

Over the years the categories I collect have expanded. I thought I would start this week by showing you some of my favorite vacation photos, in honor of our vacation to the West Coast that starts today! I can't WAIT to show you what we get up to, but for now, check these out:

I loooooove this couple posing with the taxidermy bears! I feel like this could be in Cherokee, North Carolina! Wouldn't you kill to be able to dig through that gift shop behind them? I can only imagine the amazing walnut crafts and beaded moccasins to be found!

I found this lady at the World's Longest Yard Sale. The photo by itself is incredible to me, but the caption on the back just pushes it over the top. "Sitting on a log, cooling my dogs." I can't even...

A trio of cuties on a  ferris wheel by the ocean in New Jersey.

A cute couple enjoying the beach. Hopefully this will be me and Travis come Monday afternoon!

"Edna Belou and poodle, 1922" Don't you just LIVE for Edna's cute boating dress with the striped collar, sleeve, and skirt? That looks like the perfect little boat to be on, and don't even get me started on the poodle.

A roadside chief! I have a few of these photos. I should frame them all together!

This is one of my favorite photos in my whole collection! I THINK it is Mexico, because I have seen boats like these on a few travel shows. Don't they look glamorous on that floral boat? A perfect way to spend a lazy vacation afternoon.

Hobby Land! It isn't a vacation without a little gator wraslin'

Smokey Mountain roadside bears are another category I keep an eye out for. Can you believe people used to encourage the wild bears up to their windows! I actually have an old reel from my dad's family vacations of a bear standing by the road with tons of people standing in a circle around him! It is crazy!

And look at this! The public are separated from this bear with just a tiny fence and chain. Poor thing. This photo actually makes me a little sad. Notice the sign says "Do not PUNCH". It makes me wonder what the rest of the sign says! You can see a little of another bear to the right. 

And here is another favorite! I picked up this trio of dude's at the yard sale as well. I have a few more photos with a similar painted backdrop but this is the best! The back is a little worn, but this is what I can make out: 

"Three Drunks

these are three of my bosses

Middle "best gay of them all" 

Don't you love it? Their uniforms, the mustaches, you can just TELL these three are a HOOT. 

Nashville Rollergirls!

This past Saturday our friends Crystal and Marc invited us to go see the Nashville Rollergirls. I have been talking about going for years, so I was happy we finally made it! Their bouts are in Municipal Auditorium downtown. That place doesn't seem to have changed since I saw the circus there when I was a little kid. You know I love that. 

We took the bus downtown so we didn't have to worry about parking and it was pretty fun! Nashville is not known for its public transportation so I have only ever taken the bus one other time when my car battery died.

 Cutest tile mural.

 The first bout was kind of boring, because it was the B team and they were really unevenly matched. Nashville won with a score of something like 350 to 95. Thankfully we waiting for the main event because it was awesome! They were playing Cincinati, who won, but it was pretty close up until the last minute.

I tried really hard to get a got shot, but they were moving too fast! I'm TERRIBLE at roller skating, so these ladies were amazing me.

 I would definately go again. Crystal's sister is training with them, and I would love to go see her play!

 The last bus was at 10:20 so we walked around downtown for a little while. It is mostly bars and gentlemen's clubs and karaoke, but there is this great candy and soda shop right downtown. It is called Rocket Fizz and was great!

 Of course we have to get a photo of everyone with their treat. 

 My favorite part was these cute little signs in the taffy! I really wanted to get something, and there are lots of vegan candy options, but they all seem to be gummy or taffy, and I have my temporary crown still so I can't eat that stuff.

 I picked the pop shoppe soda because it was so cute. It was just ok. Travis' almond soda was GOOD! I LOVE those Haribo wheels, even though no one else i know does. More for me!

 One more picture of those cute signs!

After we got our candy we walked down Printer's Alley, past nude karaoke, and back to the bus stop. A guy got Travis to buy an American Flag hat for a dollar, pretty much so he would leave us a lone and stop making trumpet noises with his mouth. Haha. It was a great night! There were mysterious fireworks over the river on our way home! We got back to Crystal and Marc's and were watching Event Horizon until I got scared (I'm a big wuss when it comes to scary movies) and we went home.