Merry Christmas And Happy 2014

Merry Christmas and Happy 2014 from all of us at THEVINTAGELAUNDRY.COM

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Heavy Sigh, Face-palm With an Eye Roll Dismount

It has been proven to me again, and again that life is a great unfolding ... that opportunities, wisdom, and understanding will be revealed to me as I go along. I wait, as patiently as an instant-gratification junky can wait, for cues from the universe as to what I should fix my gaze and energies upon next. But here's the thing … and I hate "The Thing" …especially "my" thing. Because my thing is … STARTING. I'm a marvelous starter, a comer-upper of great ideas, an enthusiastic believer that if you work and live and love hard enough that everything is possible. I've started hundreds of things, DIY projects, blog posts, paintings, book writings, entrepreneurial ventures, relationships, conversations, thoughts, sentences … the list is endless and more than a little embarrassing. But here's my "Un-Thing" … FINISHING. I'm like the opposite, evil twin of a premature ejaculation … the iceman never cometh, if you know what I'm sayin'.

And, naturally, the only logical next step in my ever-so-cluttered mind is to start a new project … (insert face-palm.) The new project is a book (insert combination heavy sigh, face-palm with an eye roll dismount.) The chapters are good-natured pokes at all that is me, but are also turning out to be a kind of love letters to myself and to others that share "The Thing." Writing about this has offered me a revelation that although I want to escape, running and screaming from this utterly frustrating habit I have of putting off till tomorrow what I could do the day after tomorrow - I've just decided to embrace it. Because, as they say, you are defined not so much by your imperfect moments, but by your reactions to them. 

So, only time will tell if I can see this "reaction" through to the end … wish me luck, think "finishing thoughts" and if necessary shame me into completing and publishing it.

Below is a snippet from one of the thirty-five chapters in the book. I hope you enjoy and have a marvelous Thursday!

Chapter 1

 

Read Label Before Use

You know how packaged products are required to have a label listing ingredients and such? Well, I think some people should come with them, as well … and I'm sorry to say, that I'm one of them! Before you even think of speaking to me or engaging me in any manner, you should probably read my label. It has recommendations for your use and safety (see label below.)

Nutritional Facts:

Calories: None of your business

Sodium:  Queen of the Swelling & Bloating Float in the High Blood Pressure & Congestive Heart Failure Thanksgiving Day Parade

Carbohydrates:  Girl please!

Sugar:  Can I get a witness?!

LeAnn Stephenson is fun for the whole family. Made from 100% morose introspection and existential crisis, she was founded in Alamogordo, New Mexico in 1965. She played in the White Sands Basin Range where, twenty years earlier, the Trinity nuclear (atomic) bomb was tested (which explains a lot.) She contains more than 75% of the world's eyebrow hair (see nuclear bomb) and in a blind taste test, 2 out of 5 children tested chose LeAnn Stephenson as their mother.

Warning: 

LeAnn Stephenson's singing voice has been described as "very disturbing." 

So, as you can see, I may appear to be perfectly harmless, but I can assure you that I am anything but.

For starters ...

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Catnip Roasting on an Open Fire

We have a crazy cat.  She's called Eva June.  She's a beautiful Maine Coon with striking yellow-green eyes . . . . she's also the spawn of Satan . . .  wicked, evil, mean, and totally unsocial.  She won't let anyone touch her, except me and on occasion my daughter, who's her Mom (but not her real Mom). Most of the time I want to dragon-kick her across the room for using the furniture as her own personal scratching post or string her up by her elbows for hacking up little kitty cigars that I will, without fail, step in with bare feet.  But, for some reason, when she does want to cuddle, I'm her girl.  Which makes me fairly sure that if we were trapped in the house in a blizzard and everyone died . . . . She'd totally eat me last.

I tell you that to tell you this, Christmas decorating at our house is like hugging our crazy cat, "Evil June:"  a little dangerous, a little warm, and a lot of awesome.  Tradition follows that we crank up the psychotically-challenged Christmas carols in her honor.  To start, we play the old standard, "Do You Hear What I Hear?" to soothe Eva's schizophrenia.  We celebrate her multiple personalities with, "We Three Kings of Disorient Are" and poke fun at her paranoia with, "Santa Claws Is Coming To Get You." As a tribute to her dementia we play, "I 'Think' I'll Be Home For Christmas" followed closely by her personality disorder's favorite, "You Better Watch Out, I'm Gonna Cry, I'm Gonna Pee, Maybe I'll Tell You Why."  And finally we all join in with a rousing-ly manic rendition of, "Deck the Halls and Walls and House and Lawn and Streets and Office and the Stores and the Cars and the Buses and Trucks and Trees and Fire Hydrants and . . ."

Hope your Christmas decorating is bright, beautiful, and full of crazy kitty power.  Here are few photos of our efforts.

We hung our Christmas wreath on our newly painted door! We added a bit of vintage silver and a wide red satin ribbon to our boxwood wreath to give it a little patina.

My girl baby was home from university and got to hang all of her childhood ornaments and reminisce . . .  she loves to decorate the Christmas tree …

… and my baby boy just loves the Christmas tree!

Baby It Was Cold Outside!  
We had temperatures in the teens during our decorating extravaganza, so, the Hubbs 
built a roaring fire, chilled a bottle of champagne and threw down a sheepskin rug  to 
keep our tootsies warm!

And it just wouldn't feel right without our vintage ornaments.

I'm kind of partial to our Shiny Brite collections! I love to contain them in apothecary jars on the mantel, in silver Revere bowls on side tables and in niches!

 
And this is what happens when I clean vintage brass and gold flatware all afternoon . . .

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Simply Brilliant: Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel

My girl baby is in the middle of her sophomore year at university.  My boy baby is in the middle of the exciting ordeal of applying to universities he would like to attend next Fall after he graduates from high school this June.  He would like to be a filmmaker and is concentrating his search on universities that have exemplary Radio-Television-Film colleges.  Austin's very own University of Texas is well-known for its program and boasts some very successful alumni.  Topping my son's list of favorite directors and screenwriters is fellow Texan and UT alumnus, Wes Anderson.

Which brings me to today's Simply Brilliant talent.  Anderson's next film will be entitled The Grand Budapest Hotel and will star his regular collaborators Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, and Jason Schwartzman, along with many others cited below. It recounts the adventures of Gustave H., a legendary concierge at a famous European hotel between the wars, and Zero Moustafa, the lobby boy who becomes his most trusted friend. The story involves the theft and recovery of a priceless Renaissance painting and the battle for an enormous family fortune - all against the back-drop of a suddenly and dramatically changing Continent.

Other Anderson films that might be of interest are  Bottle Rocket (1996), Rushmore (1998), The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), The Darjeeling Limited (2007), a stop-motion animation adaptation of the Roald Dahl book, Fantastic Mr. Fox, released in 2009, and perhaps his best received film to date, Moonrise Kingdom, which opened the Cannes Film Festival 2012.

The Grand Budapest Hotel is to be released March 7, 2014 in the U.S. with cinematography by Robert Yeoman and screenwriting/direction by Wes Anderson.  I can't wait for its release and would like to suggest you not miss it either!

Video and photos courtesty:  IMBb and cine.gr

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Two Words, One Finger

The life that I think I lead and the actual life that I have are two distinctly different states of being.  Each comes with its own appalling revelations and pace.  That is to say, that the past week or so has left me a little ruffled, unsure of myself, and questioning every move.  I appall this state of being and I have something to say to these feelings … and I'm sorry to say it involves two words and one finger.

Hence, the touch-y, feel-y quote above.  Just needed to remind myself to live an authentic life and relish the messy unplanned parts, as well as the perfectly planned ones.

Happy Thursday to you!

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I Be A Grinch

Thanksgiving has come and gone. Black Friday is underway. Merry old soul or not, the Christmas season is officially upon us. And, this Monday will mark what is called "Cyber Monday," which to me, sounds a lot like the business-end of a pervy 1-900-number conversation, only online. 

This year, my sugar plum imagine-ings have been slow in coming - my festive spirit missed it's flight and is on stand-by, and I'm thinkin' this lack of merriment basically makes me a heathen! And as it turns out, my children and the Hubbs agree with the "you-be-a-grinch" diagnosis.  So, I've put together a Christmas playlist on The Vintage Laundry Spotify and I wanna share.

Girl Please! Pink and Gold

PINK VINTAGE PLATE  |  GOLD FLATWARE  |  PINK GLASS STEMS  |  DAMASK NAPKINS

We at the Vintage Laundry are kind of partial to pink, and when we pair it with gold and make it all vintage, well, all we can say is GIRL PLEASE!! 

In our opinion, this lovely combo can make anything more elegant, without a smidgen of pretentiousness.  We've taken some gold-plated flatware and gold-rimmed vintage plates, paired them with some pink glass stems, finished it off with vintage Damask napkins and Presto! ...your table is a showstopper!!

So, forget silver and gold this year and check out The Vintage Laundry for an arsenal of pink and gold vintage entertaining essentials to make your holiday table unforgettable this year!

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Don't Get Your Tinsel in a Tangle

Take a sneak peek at our first-ever magazine/catalog!  Full version available December 1, 2013

I feel about the premature promotion of Christmas sales and holiday shopping the way some people feel about plastic surgery. It's a tragic reflection of our beauty-obsessed society . . . unless I need it, in which case, nobody say anything.  

Enter the first-ever issue of our magazine/catalog, Comfort & Joy.  I hope you find inspiration in our Holiday Issue, we searched far and wide for content for these pages and we're hoping that you will find our festive playlists, exciting Christmas decorating ideas, and vintage gift ideas from thevintagelaundry.com worth the read. Here's a sneak peek of our full version that will be published December 1, 2013.  Make sure to follow The Vintage Laundry on ISSUU so that you won't miss any issues!

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The Crack Cocaine of Antique Shows

I'm an antique show slut.

I visit shows all year long, selling and shopping. Nothing gives me greater pleasure than visiting with and making purchases from my fellow vintage and antique dealer friends.

One of my all-time favorite shows is Antiques Weekend in Round Top, Texas.  Round Top, in case you're unaware, is the crack cocaine of the antique's show world and happens to be going on right this very minute (September 21 - October 5, 2013!) The field that I set up in is called The Texas Rose and is located directly across from Marburger Farms at 2075 South State Highway 237, Round Top, Texas 78954.  You'll find directions from Dallas, Houston, Austin and San Antonio here.

Bottom line, I "owe" this show; I wouldn't own my own business or be an out-of-control vintage collector (AKA hoarder) without it!  And the only shopping advice I have to offer is to forget portion control … it is futile! … there are just too many vintage and antique goodies to pass up!

I just drooled …hmmm … perhaps an intervention is in order …

**Note**
I emailed these clips and photos to my talented son, Noah, and he put this video together for me.  He even supplied the music for it!  That's him on the guitar, playing one of his original tunes!!  

Want It Wednesday: Raising The Bar

Vintage Bar Cart, Hollywood Regency Glasses, Faux Horn Bar Tools

Book 'em Danno: Remix: Decorating with Culture, Objects, and Soul

You know 'em, you love 'em, you can't get enough of the husband-and-wife team behind the blog AphroChic, Jeanine Hays and Bryan Mason. I love their take on upcycling.  The pair always manages to live "green" on the glam side of things.  In my travels through the interwebs today I came upon a cover shot of their new book, Remix: Decorating with Culture, Objects, and Soul, a lush style guide that mixes high-end pieces with travel finds and artisan objects, and then immediately went to pre-order my copy.  Authors Hays and Mason have always managed to blow my socks off with their genuine, personal style online and I'm sure I will continue to be rendered sock-less with this offering, as well!

So, if you're all about stylish, unforgettable rooms, then I have a feeling this book is for you!  The title will be released on November 5, 2013 but can be pre-odered here.

Thingy Thursday Revival

I admit freely, without apology to anyone, that I'm a collector slash hoarder slash "if-you-don't-want-it-I'll-take-it" kinda chick.  If someone put it in a garage sale, I bought it.  If someone trashed it, I dumpster dived it.  There is not a minimalist bone in my body and I have the junk to prove it.  I come by this green-recycler-obsessive-compulsive behavior, not because I abhor overflowing landfills (which I do,) but because I'm neurotic - and I'm only sorta kidding here!

So, to make myself feel better about all that, I've decided to resurrect a weekly post that I began a few years ago and then let wane.  It's called "Thingy Thursday" and as the name suggests, it will serve as a vehicle to showcase collectors and the "thingies" they collect.  The plan is to begin with my own personal collections next Thursday, accompanied by specifics and rules and regs for a contest we'll be hosting on our Instagram and Pinterest.

But while you wait with baited breath for next week's "Thingy Thursday" post, I have a few archived posts that I would like to share with you from my friends, Stan Williams, author of The Find (also known as The Elegant Thrifter) and Lynn Goldfinger-Abram, the woman behind the marvelous online store, The Paris Hotel Boutique.

Take a look and walk away, as I did, with a case or two of collection envy!

Want It Wednesdays: Cheetah, Cheetah, Pumpkin Eater

MAXI VINTAGE COAT - Etsy/Doreen's Vintage  •  LOUIS XVI OTTOMAN - The Vintage Laundry  

ITALIAN CERAMIC CHEETAH - 1stdibs/Fat Chance  

Retro Redo: A #Brand New Space for Evolve Media Austin

At The Vintage Laundry we believe in being aggressively colorful.  We know that the colors we choose to surround ourselves with reflect our style and kind of become a signature of sorts.  We firmly believe that color can affect our emotions.  So, when choosing a color palette, we think about the mood that we want to create … Do we want to feel reflective and peaceful?  Or do we want to feel energized and happy?  

During our collaboration with evolve media on their interior design branding, we decided to choose not only a representative corporate color palette but a collection of patterns that speak for their company, as well.  As evolve media has worked with me to rebrand my existing website, I have been impressed by many things, but a few of their most arresting characteristics are how creative, ambitious, and spectacularly focused these young women are on increasing my company's visibility online.  Their knowledge of social marketing and branding accompanied by metric tons of enthusiastic energy is, I'm happy to report, contagious!  The branded decor path that we have chosen for evolve media has resulted in  an interior design aesthetics that has broken out into stripes and chevrons with spots of gold!

The only prescription we can think of is to make two Pinterest posts, follow us on Facebook and Instagram and make sure to get plenty of tweets and share our designs on tumblr.

Retro Redo: Mid Century Credenza

Recently, I had the pleasure of hiring the marvelously talented women of Evolve Media in Austin to help me brand my website, boost my social media marketing, and increase my search engine visibility.  Evolve Media's principal, Morgan Avary, and her marketing director, Shelley Schmidt, have analyzed my existing website, researched my niche in the vintage and antique industry, and have developed a two-part branding plan that will be implemented and launched within the next couple of weeks.  "Excited" really doesn't fully cover my enthusiasm and anticipation for this "strategies implementation!"  And, as if that wasn't enough, my company and I have had the added bonus of working together with Evolve Media in an interior design collaboration that will, in essense, brand Evolve Media from the inside out! This finished project is to serve as an example of how they create brand identities for their clients.  The plan is to take their company's color palette and implement it within their interior design.  This will further cement their corporate identity and serve as an example of just how far a business can take its branding strategies.

So, without further adieu, it's time for a little show and tell from the last few days of our collaboration. We started with a mid-century credenza that Miss Avary purchased from The Vintage Laundry's Prime Time Custom Collection. As it happens, my client is crazy for turquoise, and as a matter of fact, it is one of the hues in her company's corporate identity color scheme . . . so, of course, we had to use it on the credenza.

Some paint, a smooth surface roller, a drop cloth, an hour and a couple of creative minds, and Voila!, a stunning, totally reworked vintage credenza, ready to serve as their coffee bar in their common room.

Make sure and check back frequently to see the progress we are making on this venture!

My Very Own Marathon Man

 Me and my boy at a birthday party in 1996, all dressed

 up like hippies.  What a cutie!

All of us, at one time or another, have had to overcome adversity, and I'm here to tell ya I'm no exception.  Over the past year my little family, my son specifically, has been challenged with a personal trauma.  And in a rare display of restraint, I will give him his privacy and not disclose what that has been, but proudly tell you that he has worked diligently and triumphed in his struggle.

My son is a good and noble man and I am and always have been so very proud of all he is, has done and aspires to do.  So, to have witnessed his world being brought down around him these past twelve months has shattered my sense of reality.   I've watched as he was pummeled by a debilitating condition and stood by proudly astonished as he has picked up the pieces and once again found his greatness.  He has exhibited and I've witnessed the marathon of inner fortitude it has required for him to overcome his trials and tribulations.  

Words fail me when it comes to expressing my pride and admiration, so, I've decided to train for and complete a marathon.  I want it to be a symbol for this past year that my son has had … kind of dedicating the run to him and all of the hard work he has done this past year getting through to the other side of his tribulations.

His suffering has helped the whole family learn how to cope with adversity and rise above it. And because I'm me and I have to make a story or document everything in this blog, here are some things that my son has taught me . . . things that I think I can physically express and learn from through running a marathon:

A. He was willing to change himself. Marathon training will require a new schedule, new priorities, new diet, and a new way of looking at life. His survival through this trauma required that he not only be open to change but that he celebrate that change.  I'll try my best Noey! 

B. His recovery happened one step at a time. I cannot become a marathon runner overnight. It will take patience, time and a step-wise process to train my body to perform and run 26.2 miles.  There was no instant gratification for you, Noey, and there will be none for me.  

C. No guarantees.  Training for a marathon, like surviving diversity, is never a sure thing. There are no guarantees that I will make it all the way to the race or be able to finish it after starting, but Noey has taught me that the possibility of failure should not be a deterrent. Noah has been able to stay true to his goal, even when there was no certainty of getting to the other side, all habits that I will take with me into the training process . . . 

D. Noah's comfort was revoked by his commitment.  I may have to endure injuries or failure on my path toward completion of this run but I will learn from my son's example that success requires discipline and focus.   I've been doing a lot of research on this topic and have read that marathon training is all about learning how to manage suffering to enhance strength and endurance.  Again I will draw on my son's example of not running away from suffering.

When this event fell upon our family,  it was difficult for us to take in the larger picture, to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but somehow we've survived. I would have thought that this event in my son's life would have crushed him, but, in the end, it has brought out the strength and sweetness that he has always carried inside.  I'm so grateful to all of our dear friends and family for all of the support and love that you have shown us through this terrible time . . . may God bless you all. 

So, like the grapes that make up a fine wine, Noah has accepted the crushing force that entered his life a year ago, allowed himself to be broken, and emerged from the process a new man, stronger and more marvelous than he was before.  

I applaud you my darlin' boy and I dedicate this venture into a marathon run to you and all of the hard work you have done . . . I love you more than words can say.