Shall we dance?

{RFC_5025, originally uploaded by robcuni.com.}

When I first saw this picture on the Flickr homepage (under "Everyone's Uploads") I thought it was a dance studio or a very fancy karate or exercise studio. Then I realized that the contraptions in front of the "paneled" wall were not pilates torture devices but garage door tracks. It's a garage. With chandeliers. And a tin ceiling. And checkered floor that would make Fifi Flowers swoon.

Don't you just love Flickr?

Peonies, redux

{Prom Dress and Peonies, original painting by Fifi Flowers}

Interweb, behold the fabulousness. Very late Saturday night I posted a photo of some peonies I picked in my mom's garden. In the wee hours of Sunday morning, the lovely and talented Fifi Flowers was the first comment (it wasn't quite as late on the west coast) saying she'd like to paint them. Of course I said yes!

Sunday morning I woke up, put the kettle on, and fire up the laptop, and there in my inbox is a mysterious email from Fifi: If you want to be surprised don't open this until Wednesday Morning... I love surprises but am terribly nosy and nosiness won out. Ta da! It was the painting above. She whipped it up that quickly! Note the drapes which are inspired by my prom dress, and the pillow on the settee, which was New Bird No. 2, from one of my first posts. Here is something uncanny - in my living room I have french doors that open onto a wrought iron balcony. But Fifi does not know that... or won't until she reads this post.

Thank you Fifi for making my day, and for preserving my lovely flowers in paint. The real ones are spent, and have exploded in that way that peonies do when their time is up.

You know you are old when your prom dress is "vintage"

{Vintage '80s Gunne Sax taffeta dress, photo from Midnight Glamour}

When I think "Vintage Prom Dress", I imagine a spiffy little number from the 40s, a Dior "New Look" full-skirted, wasp-waist frock from the 50s, or a something mod or Jackie-esque from the 60s. So I am a little disturbed today to learn that my prom dress is considered "vintage". I sported the lovely black & white number above to my high school prom, only 24 years ago. While everyone else was wearing pastel prairie dresses and lace, I was pushing the ol' fashion envelope. Well, as much as one could push it, back then in the 80's, when it was already pushed pretty far. We had our prom at a very grown-up catering hall. Our theme was the power ballad of the decade, "Heaven" by Bryan Adams. The DJ used a turntable, and played records (I was tempted to link that to a wikipedia entry for all you young'uns).

Midnight Glamour sold the above dress (and no I did not buy it) for $135, pretty close to what Mumsie shelled out in 1984 at the Jordan Marsh Department Store. But let me tell you, we sure got her money's worth:

1. Wore it to my Junior Prom in 1984.
2. Update (June 7) Wore it to emcee "Mr. Advocate" high school pageant*
3. Wore it to someone else's Junior Prom in 1985.
4. Had my grandmother (a seamstress) shorten it to "tea length" and wore it to some guy's college formal at SUNY Maritime in 1986.
5. Had grandma deconstruct it and sew the knee-length skirt to a drop waist black taffeta bodice with big puffy sleeves (please try to remember this was the 80s, people) and wore it to a formal at my college in 1987 with some guy from SUNY Maritime.
6. Wore it to yet some other guy's college formal at SUNY Maritime in 1987 (what can I say, I liked a man in uniform).

Stopped short of a Molly Ringwald/Pretty in Pink New Wave redesign of the dress. I think it went to Goodwill after that. Adding in the cost of the additional fabric (but not for labor -- for that was priceless) and dry cleaning, the average cost per wear was about $29. Not bad, eh?

I almost wish I still had it in its original incarnation, because I still think it is pretty cute. I have no idea where the heck I would wear it though!

*The Advocate was our HS newspaper and every year we did a "pageant" as a fundraiser. The contestants were all boys. It was a lot of fun, especially the big opening dance number. We had some good sports at our school.

Black and white and I toile you so

{meghan fabric from Rubie Green}

There is something so refreshing about a crisp black and white print, especially when it is something unexpected like these pineapples from Rubie Green. "Rubie Green" is actually 25 (!!!) year old Michelle Adams, a former Domino market editor who left the publishing biz to pursue her dream of designing beautiful upholstery fabrics and producing them in an eco-friendly way.

{Country Life fabric by Waverly}

When I first moved to my current apartment I stiched up drapes and a duvet cover in Waverly's black and white Country Life toile, a pattern I have loved-loved-loved forever (and by "forever" I mean waaay before toile went from being "classic" to "the latest trend" to "ubiquitous" to "so passe you can find it at Ocean State Job Lot"). Now it seems commonplace and pedestrian. Thankfully the other side of the duvet is natural muslin, which looks great with the new natural muslin drapes and coffee-with-extra-milk walls. Someday I may feel the toile love again, and I'll flip the duvet over and rehang the drapes and be ahead of the curve. Everything old is new again, n'est pas?