That 70s Porn

Look for this peep-show/pin up/soft core porn 70s tie to be on the website Friday! Wanna be the cool 70s dude at the office who looks like a dork with his hideous tie but amazes and amuses his co-workers when he flips over his oh-so-risque tie? Love that 70s natural look? Then this tie is for you.

Hot. Smilies NOT included.

~Ang

A Few of My Favorite Things.....

Happy Holidays from DOROTHEA'S CLOSET VINTAGE!

In the spirit of giving, I have decided to share a list of some of my favorite things! Click the links to learn more about my favorite....

MAKE-UP
I'm currently totally obsessed with make-up from MIXOLOGY. Sparkly and luminous! She sends free samples with orders...you'll be hooked!

HAIR GOODS
I have loads of these little hair pins and clips decorated with sweet little felted balls or candy shapes! I wear several at a time, and especially love the martini olives. From PENFELT on etsy

SPA PRODUCTS
I use SPA GODDESS facial cleanser, lavender facial toner and shower fizzies daily. Fantastic stuff, great scents!

KITSCH YOU CAN WEAR
I've long been a big fan of appliqued goods from Jessica at Aorta. One of a kind! Click pic to shop....

DECOR
The hot trend in home fashion lately, the wall decal (also for windows and general stuff). I had BADASS CUSTOM DECALS take the red bird from my logo and make a decal as big as my front door at the shop. I'd priced it locally and it was about 4x what it cost me to have it done at BadAss AND they gave perfect directions for me to install it myself! They've got really cool stuff, I especially love the Bruce Lee wall decal.

HANDBAGS
I have the cutest 50s cotton kitten print knitting bag (I don't knit, it carries other stuff just fine) handmade by Margaret at MATERIALGIRL BAGS I'm crazy for this polka dot one too!

ART
Love the work of MALAM on etsy! Her mixture of her drawings with photography, as in the linked iamge of a girl in front of "the Dancing House" in Prague. She lives in France and designs fabulous clothing too (what a life!). Check out the rest of her stuff on etsy too!

JEWELRY
Wallpaper jewelry! I haven't bought one of these yet but towards spring I'll be sporting one for sure. There are several designers selling them on etsy, but I love the 70s wallpaper ones from DRAWFLOWERS in Italy

I HEART VINTAGE STUFF
I made these! This logo and my website logo available in my CafePress shop, shirts, bags, stickers...

INTERNET TIME WASTER
I spend way too much time playing with this site, FACEINHOLE.COM. My cat as George Harrison....

LAUGHS
ICANHASCHEEZBURGER.COM. Cats, captions, links to other LOL sites....it can consume your life. Be careful.

VIDEOS/MUSIC
MY YOUTUBE FAVES features the Eagles of Death Metal, April March and The Real Tuesday Weld. My 5 year old daughter and I have become HUGE fans of the Eagles of Death Metal....thanks Suzanne!

BLOGS
Seriously hilarious and one of my best friends, Kim at FAST EDDIE'S RETRO RAGS writes on of the funniest blogs ever. Said as a friend and fan.
Julie, another great friend and also funny, writes at DAMN GOOD VINTAGE, about life, vintage & occassional profanity-laced political rants.
Lisa blogs about her family and somehow ties it into vintage at RANDOM ACTS OF VINTAGE....good stuff.
If you're not reading DRESS A DAY, you're missing out. Don't miss the archived "Secret Lives of Dresses" on the right side, brilliantly written short stories from the point of view of dresses.

JOY
No matter your political view, this is A) funny and B) the link to the slideshow of babies and kids for (or with) Obama is heartwarming. At SEND BARACK YOUR BABY.COM.

I could go on and on, have likely missed a slew of favorites but time is short and I'm off to celebrate the holiday with my family. I'll be back Saturday and should have new pieces and updates to the site then. PS, I added a Twitter feed to the front page of the website where I will post daily updates regarding the site. Now it will be easy to see whats new every day!

Happy Holidays to all of you!

~Ang

The First Spritz

As in spritz cookies, and the first ones I've had since my Grandma (Dorothea) died over 10 years ago. She made spritz cookies every Christmas, along with some fabulous cornflake and caramel bars.....both cookies were a tradition in our family. The caramel bar recipe became a pretty big deal as my Grandma got on in years.....one Christmas I asked if she was going to make them and she simply could not remember what I was talking about. She insisted she'd never made them, it had to have been someone else. She was so upset about it that she ordered a cook book from Kellog to see if she could find what I was talking about.....needless to say, she never made them again (though as it turned out, we didn't have many Christmases left).

After she passed away my Mom came upon the recipe and its been in my possession since, and I've made the bars (remarkably simple, actually, but a secret so don't ask me) every holiday for years now to carry on the tradition.

I also insisted on keeping Grandma's cookie press and kit, still in the same box she kept it in, all the discs with the different cut out shapes and different tips. However, while bars requiring no baking are a cinch for me.....working with dough and an oven has never been my strength. But something this morning made me decide to finally get the cookie press out and take a look at how it was done. I read the instructions, went to the grocery to get the ingredients, enlisted the help of my daughter to sugar and sprinkle. While I did burn a few (trays) learning how to get the timing right.....I actually managed to make a few dozen of Grandma's Spritz Cookies! They even taste the same. Amazing to think I haven't tasted these cookies for nearly 15 years.......I think my Grandma would be proud. Thanks Gram.......

Happy Holidays

~Ang

Wobblers.

I have a cat named Buhaki. Bu is handicapped. Bu is just like Charley, amazingly in appearance but moreover in his demeanor. This video sums up why its important to Bu & I (and everyone who loves Bu) to not dismiss wobbly cats as unhealthy.....Bu is 13 and has never had a health issue in his life. Aside from tipping over while he pees (in a covered litter box) and knocking over the water bowl occassionally, he's a perfectly normal cat that on the upside, can't get up on the kitchen counter to eat your dinner when you aren't looking! We love this video....shout out to all the cats on the planet with the wobbly arse.

Here's our Bu....

~Ang

Face

Create your own FACEinHOLE

Create your own FACEinHOLE

Create your own FACEinHOLE

Create your own FACEinHOLE

MmmmmmmMoschino

Create your own FACEinHOLE

www.faceinhole.com. Endless potential for time wasting!

~Ang

Have Creepy Christmas. Or Boozy. Whichever.

I realize I'm not the only one on the planet with great appreciation for Christmas kitsch with a creepy bent, but these earrings screamed loudly (and a bit threateningly) to me from a shop on etsy recently. So loudly that I actually DID buy them, and while the creepy-slash-mutant Santas are not grinning maniacally from my ears, they grace the tinsel tree I have devoted mostly to weird elves and other holiday oddities here in the dining room.......

Worn correctly they appear to be conspiring to pierce my temples simultaneously with teeeeny Christmas trees. Holiday garb of yore...so cheery!

And while likely too late to grab cards for this Christmas, I give you 2 of my favorite sources (with lots of cards for year round events as well, so bookmark 'em). If all your friends want for Christmas is a visit from the Booze Fairy (and if thats the case, I am clearly your best friend!), then this card is perfect! But don't dare think it gets you out of gifting a bottle of scotch as well, bub. From UNUSUALCARDS.COM.....

If booze isn't your poison, maybe the smokes are? This cheery Christmas gal daringly lights her smoke from a holiday candle, oblivious to the skull and crossbones on her pack o' sticks warning her of imminent death from the eebil lung cancer. I carry some of these cards (this one included) at my SHOP right here in Des Moines if you need one ASAP, and are also available online at ROGERTHATCARDS.COM....

~Ang

Geeee.VAWN.Cheeee.

Nifty new doo dad at the shop, and a fantastic gift for your fan of buying logo-laden goods to pad the pockets of overpaid designers for jabillions of dollars OR buying the cheap knock off version to support children suffering in third world countries! No need to have the same bag or pocketbook as your BFF at work, if you buy vintage you can count on having the ONLY one, mucho envy from friends! Good times. Behold the Givenchy 60s pocketbook edged in and lined in soft supple lurvely Spanish leather.

A great way to tell your SO its time to give up buying knock off Coach (or LV, or Givenchy, or Kate Spade) bags and get real!

~Ang

515Magazine Video Interview at Dorothea's on Vintage!

Check out the new 515Magazine available here in Des Moines (at my shop among other places!) for a fantastic photo essay on wearing vintage clothing and click the link above to see a video interview with the models! From the home page scroll to the pic of the wedding cake and click the text link to the vintage fashion video. A pdf file of the print story is linked from the bottom of the page as well!

Thanks to Nikki Omundson from Drake University for using clothing from Dorothea's Closet to do her article and to the models for making it look so damn good. The vintage....it sparkles!

~Ang

I'll Be Seeing You.

Sweet little Basil cat passed away today. 2 hours ago, actually. She had been ill, very ill with cancer and I fought like hell to keep her home, safe and warm and comfortable, and let her choose her own time to go. But Basil (aka Basilroni or Princess Baloney) had too damn much fight in her.....even today as she was unable to get up and struggling to breathe she would not let go. I held her almost all day as she steadily got worse, thinking certainly she would let go.....but it came to a point where I realized if I didn't take certain steps (that I really, really didn't want to have to do), there was a very good chance she would keep holding on, suffering, and overnight there wouldn't be a thing I could do about it.

A nightmare decision to make, all alone, wishing so badly she would be the one to decide when she went....but it wasn't to be. She was always a scrappy little thing, the runt from a litter born on a farm, brought inside with her siblings when I realized I am never going to be a person that can have outdoor cats (after they went missing for 2 days while their Momma cat took them out to learn to hunt). I found homes for all of them but this brightly colored tortoiseshell marked, freckle faced mini cat. Fifteen years ago this sweet little cat became a part of my family....

Basil retained quite a lot of feral, farm cat attitude and while most people never even saw her (she was a hider), she would occassionally grace me with her presence at bedtime and sleep near me....not close enough to snuggle really but close enough to feel a bond, and let me pet her now and then. Too much and she'd bolt. She loved to lay in the sunroom in a spot of sun, sit in window sills, drink bath water from a bucket left in the tub by my daughter, and loved to roll on the kitchen floor after a fresh bleach cleaning, rolling around on the floor getting some kind of goofy high (the floor was dry, mind you). She had the wee-est, tinist girlie miaow of any cat I've met in my life, even 'til this morning she would greet me with her tiny salutation passing in the hallway or from beneath the bed when I called to her.

So. As I made my decision, I called the vet I have had for the last few years and, crying, asked them if they do house-calls for euthanization as I had some sort of bizarre need to protect her from the cold Iowa winter air. They said yes, thankfully, but couldn't come for an hour and a half so I hoped and prayed in the meantime her body would finally release her from the pain on its own.....we sat on the couch, she a tiny thing to begin with now so terribly frail and weak. I knew I was doing the right thing but it was breaking my heart....I told her she would be better soon, have a new kitty body and would see our kitties who have passed before and the kittens she had years ago that were born very ill and passed away within hours. I told her we love her, and my cat Buhaki sat very near all day as well. I listened to the 40s channel on XM on the TV for some quiet, soothing music. I sat quietly, and Bu sat quietly, and we gave her our strength and stillness to face the transition.

The vet and assistant came and were wonderful. I took Bu in another room, certain he should'nt witness this.....but he came right back out and sat next to me, so I had one hand on him and one on her in a surreal yet perfectly right arrangement. Basil passed just during the first shot that is meant to calm, before the actual "real" shot....she was so close to being ready all it took was being able to relax. As she went the song "I'll Be Seeing You" by Frank Sinatra (especially poignant given that I am a big fan) came on the radio, and in that moment my heart both broke and was soothed by the poignancy of the lyric.

I'll be seeing you

In all the old, familiar places

That this heart of mine embraces

All day through.

In that small cafe

The park across the way

The childrens carousel

The chestnut tree

The wishing well.

Ill be seeing you

In every lovely, summers day

And everything thats bright and gay

Ill always think of you that way

Ill find you in the morning sun

And when the night is new

Ill be looking at the moon

But Ill be seeing you.

Click HERE to hear it if you'd like, its worth a listen if you haven't heard his version. Some friends of mine created a candle lighting page for Basil last night and you can click her image to go there and light a candle for my little kitty to help her find her way to the Bridge.

Good bye, Princess Baloney.....sweet Basil.

~Ang

Moustachio'd.

I have waaaay too many kitschy drinking glasses and need these ever so not at all, but still WANT! On etsy from BREADANDBADGER....

~Ang