on the rocks please

Alex Dram


Alison Scarpulla


Saga Sigurdardottir













Click on picture for source, though I've credited some of the photos already. Last two editorial shots are from Fashion Gone Rogue.

Headed to Las Vegas this weekend with Pete & his cousin, Heather, who is in town from Florida. She wants to spend Halloween in the land of debauch. Personally, I am not a big fan of Vegas. It’s too artificial, and it scares me a little. I’d rather spend my time hanging out on rocks or amongst nature. But I will be a good sport. Maybe, I will play some poker, and I’m definitely going to do some thrift store shopping. Vegas has some of the best thrift stores around. And when all my mini-vacations are done, perhaps, I’ll sell some vintage clothing. Lord knows, I have a ton of it.

xoxo,

Crystal Lee

Olvera Street and my favorite silhouette

Tor, my work buddy, has returned to work after 3 weeks out at seminars and then vacation. Without him, I am left with few work pals, and am, otherwise, pretty isolated, which can get boring for gregarious ole me. So, I'm glad that he is back. Today, we went to lunch on Olvera Street, and splitsied some delicious grilled and seasoned chicken. I love chicken, especially fried chicken. If I end up dying some tragically funny death,
it'll probably be choking on a chicken bone while driving. This image flits through my head on the many occasions that I engage in such behavior. What can I say, I'm a dare devil. Well, before I go off on an ode to fried chicken, I best tell ya'll a little bit about my outfit and the history of Olvera Street.

Olvera Street is the place to go if you want good authentic Mexican food, embroidered dresses (the kind that are still so popular on Etsy & Ebay), and Mexican wrestling masks. You can also get your picture taken on a donkey while wearing a sombrero. Besides being kitsch, Olvera Street is also historical. Olvera Street is home to some of the oldest buildings in Los Angeles, including the Masonic Hall, built in 1858. Unfortunately, the Masonic Hall, as well as several other turn-of-the century buildings, have been left empty & unused for some time now. The main thoroughfare of Olvera Street is bustling with tourists, though beyond the vendors and taco stands can be found a quiet cobblestone alley surrounded by old brick buildings, where Tor took some pictures of my outfit. We wandered around this empty alley, opening doors and exploring, without being bothered. It was kind of like walking around a movie set.

onwards to my outfit: My 60s pencil skirt and 60s leather swing coat create one of my favorite silhouettes. I don't usually wear all black, so I threw on this grayish/teal cashmere top for some contrast. After this weekend's series of ankle rolls, I decided to try and wear flats for the week. We shall see if I can stick to this plan.

Outfit: Everything thrifted, but the ballet flats, which I bought at Nordstrom's Rack.

Ciao for now,

Crystal Lee

fairies take over Lake Arrowhead

mushy fairies, Desi & Mikey

To celebrate my best friend, Desiree’s, birthday, a bunch of friends headed up to Lake Arrowhead to relax, play board games, have a photo shoot, eat loads, go on walks, and cut up. Pete and I headed up late Friday evening after work, which probably wasn’t the best idea because we were greeted with the thickest fog once we started our trek up the mountain. It was very difficult to see the road in front of us. Thank goodness Pete was driving because my driving skill are questionable even on a clear day. To make matters scarier, the GPS went haywire and got us lost in a residential neighborhood for about 15 minutes. After about 3 hours, we made it safely to the cabin, though we were pretty beat, but not too beat to play a round of Apples to Apples. When it comes to board games like these, I usually opt to be funny rather than win the game. I think my sense of humor most shown through when we played Loaded Questions the next day. When asked to write down what I think would be the most gruesome death, I answered “buried alive in an ugly dress.” Of course, everyone knew that this was my response.
On Saturday, Desiree, Mikey, and I, dressed up like our version of fairies, and Keenan took pictures of our escapades. We swung from tree branches, posed on an old beat up pick-up truck of questionable structural integrity, drank champagne straight from the bottle while squatting in heaps of Fall-colored leaves, pranced around hills, and sat in trees. I’ll have to show you these photos in another post because Keenan still has to tinker with them a bit. I took some pictures with my Pentax Spotmatic, but the film stopped advancing after only taking 15 photos. Hopefully, these photos turn out so that I can share them with you. Meanwhile, I've posted some pictures taken with my digital camera. After our photo shoot, we went on a walk around the neighborhood and I rolled my ankle 3 times: 2 times on my right ankle & one time on my left ankle. What the hell! I’ve been rolling my ankles since I was 13 years old. Once in Junior High, while wearing 5 inch hells, I rolled my ankle, while falling off the curb. During those halcyon days, my ankle would swell to the size of a pumpkin. Now a days, I roll my ankle, it hurts for a few days, with no visible swelling, and I’m back to normal. However, I do seem to roll my ankle sometimes for no tangible reason. For Pete’s sake, this time, I was just walking. Our trip culminated with me rolling my ankle for a 4th time when we were strolling around the Lake. This was the most painful of the ankle rolls. Mikey captured this moment with her phone camera. I was wailing, and I damned near started pouring tears, but I held it together. Today, I am limping around the office, the physical memory of my trip to Lake Arrowhead. I hope ya’ll had a great weekend too!










My Outfits: blue calico 70s long dress (Long Beach Veteran’s Flea Market, last week), 60s mustard velvet dress with lace bid (hand me down from my friend, Miro; I love this dress so much & it’s too bad it’s kind of falling apart), vintage white slip (Mikey’s), vintage lace vest (Long Beach Veteran’s Flea Market), vintage blue turtleneck (thrifted), Nine West oxfords. Floral Wreaths made by Gardens of Whimsy.

collegiate in lavender

Howdeeee!




When I wore this lavender/purple get-up yesterday, I didn’t even realize it was Wear Purple Day to raise awareness of anti-gay bullying, but I’m glad I could support, even it was unintentional. I do support the rights of the lesbian and gay community, and I pray that the day will come real soon when hate is replaced with love, and fear replaced with understanding.

I think I look kind of collegiate in my proper outfit, consisting of a 50s wool pull-over, 70s plaid wool skirt, 80s oxfords, and blush tights. The hydrangeas in my hair are from Garden of Whimsy. She gave me them free, since I purchased 3 floral head wreaths. The wreaths are going to be gifts for my girlfriends, Mikey & Desiree, who I’m going to be spending time with this weekend in Lake Arrowhead. It’s Desiree’s birthday! She’s been my best friend for 20 years now!!!! Isn’t that incredible! I’m hoping my girls will don their new floral wreaths & we can have ourselves an impromptu photo shoot out at the lake.

No motivational speeches today, folks, but I do want to welcome my new followers, and big thanks to everyone who reads my blog too.

Here is what Long Beach looked like yesterday when I got home from work. I like how the sky kind of matches my outfit:


Outfit: everything thrifted except the hydrangeas from Garden of Whimsy.

I got the feeling.

The gloomy sky suggested rain but wouldn't produce it, and I awaited anxiously for the down pour. Yesterday, the sky was like a gossip monger who in the heat of a story has a moment of moral trepidation and refuses to continue his/her story once your interest is peaked, or like an incompetent sneeze that is felt with the senses, but can’t be expelled, a bloody tease. I continued to look out my big office windows that overlook downtown Los Angeles, mentally chanting “rain, rain, rain.” There’s been lots of talk of substantial rain, but all I’ve seen is drizzle, which is rather unsatisfying to a romantic such as myself. When I was in junior high, the first drop of rain would prompt from me an uncivilized rain dance, done in hopes of bringing on a torrent of rain. My best friends would often participate in my ritual dance, but I don’t believe they felt it like I did. When it really started to come down, I was convinced that my dance had something to do with it. Yesterday, when the sky refused to pour rain, despite my chants and prayers, I felt slightly slighted. Pete was at home and he was instant messaging me that it was pouring in Long Beach. My girlfriend, Desiree, in Orange, later told me that it was coming down pretty hard in her hood. It seemed it was raining everywhere in Southern California, except for outside my windows.
I came home from work a little earlier than usual. Pete had turned on the heater for me. I wasn’t home but 20 minutes, when the rain started to come down steadily. Let’s go for a walk, I declared. These are some pictures of a romantic in the rain.






After a truly enjoyable walk around the neighborhood, Pete and I watched James Brown’s 1968 concert in Boston, given the day after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. James Brown was not afraid to really feel the beat. He performed for an hour in a half, and never stopped moving. Every part of his body was dancing at some point during the performance; sometimes the parts all danced together, and sometimes the parts danced alone, like when his right leg slid and zig zagged across the floor, while the left leg remained raised and frozen. His dancing and singing are not the result of training; it’s all feeling. There are no performers like him anymore. James Brown is dead. But we’re still alive, and if you’ve got the feeling, I hope you’ll show it.

James Brown: Do you have the feeling over there? (Asked several times to different sections of his audience)
Audience: Ya!!!!!!
JB: Then stand up and be counted

“There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. ... -Martha Graham

one classy broad

I happily spent many frivolous hours today with two of my best buds, Mikey & Jesse. It was quite a treat. We started our day with breakfast at Dale's 50s Diner in Long Beach. I had never been there before, but it was the perfect venue for a classy broad like myself. As soon as we walked through the door, I insisted that Mikey take a picture of me in the red mock hot rod. Later, I posed on the blue vinyl car seat because it so perfectly matched my new pumps. (Notice the tag on the bottom of my shoes)



After breakfast, we headed to the Long Beach Veteran's Flea Market for a day of silliness and consumerism. The first item I bought (within 5 minutes of entering the flea market) was a pair of vintage gold glitter round sunglasses (the ones I'm wearing in today's post) which ended up slipping off my face continuously throughout the day. The arms do not have any curves, so my nose is just about the only thing holding the glasses up, which I fear is going to resurrect a nose twitch I once had, if I'm not careful. I did not buy the psychedelic fur coat that both Mikey and I are playing dress up in, but I thought about it. I love to have a toothpick in my mouth a lot of the time because it keeps me from smoking, and because like I said, I'm a classy broad.



We spent many blissful hours strolling around the flea market and playing dress up. I left with 4 incredible dresses, all pretty affordable, including a 1930s bias floral dress. I can't wait to show them to you in a future post.

Later that day, Jesse and I got some sandwiches from the Italian Deli, and went back to his house so that I could watch tv on his 50" screen. Pete & I don't have reception at our house, so we don't ever watch television, which is probably a good thing because tv is addicting!!! I pretty much forced Jesse to sit through Jersey Shore. Like a good friend, he cut me off after an hour because I was getting sucked in big time, plus he hates that show. Next we watched "In Living Colour" and then "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia." I really had to pry myself from the couch so that I could get home in time to do some much needed chores.

ok, friends, I'm off to the back room to try on my new dresses. until next time, enjoy yourself.

Outfit: 50s dress (thrifted), 80s Lacoste belt (thrifted), 80s navy cross-body purse, Nine West blue pumps.

an oddly placed nook: inspiration for my outfit

It's unlikely that'll I'll do anything too productive today. Currently, I'm sippin' whisky, listening to Nino Rota, heater blasting. It's gloomy and cold outside, but full of warmth and cheer in the abode. Pete's at the races this weekend. He works in the pit crew on a top fuel nostalgic dragster named "The Circuit Breaker." Our respective worlds could not be more different today. I've been going through the motions of cleaning house, but all I've really managed to do in half a day is stuff my face with linguine, mashed potatoes, and strawberry shortcake, from At Last Cafe, a small home-style cookin' restaurant down the street. I also created an outfit inspired by an oddly placed vanity nook in our bedroom.





I'm wearing vintage stay press Levis, 80s grid ruffle bib blouse, and vintage oxfords (everything thrifted); accessories: book necklace from The Black Spot books, and 80s headband (thrifted).

Enjoy your weekends! byeee!