Some Girls Wander

Sailor Dresses

Via Etsy

Just something too nice not to share, here among the tumbleweeds!

Mechanical Gentleman Bird

I want this dapper little wind-up bird 75% for his excellent box.
The other 25% can probably be accounted for by the tiny top hat.

Found here.

Perfect Little Grouch

Favorite old photo of late:

(source)

Spooning in a Spoon

Humpty Dumpty 1935 /An Ub Iwerks Comicolor cartoon

This is one of my favorites of the Comicolor animations...the colors are so beautiful, and there are lots of details and visual jokes that I think are really delightful.

But all you really need to know to be certain it is fantastic is:
A.) There is a very funny & catchy little jingle of a love song (referred to in the title of the post)
and
B.) The villain is just called "The Bad Egg"

Henry Darger's Room

These photos are of a now-lost place - a realm of dreams. 

All photos copyright Keizo Kitajima

These beautiful photos of the apartment at 851 Webster were taken 25 years after Mr. Darger's death, before the room was, at last, dismantled.

The collection of Oz books feels so familiar, because there are so many similar little volumes littering my own shelves. 
 

But this is the photo that makes me feel like I might start crying - every single time I see it:

The boxes of pencil nubs and crayons and cracked watercolor cakes. Irrefutable proof that the most humble of materials can create exquisite things.

These photos are just a smidgen of the two visual records contained in this book. One set of photographs is in black and white, taken after the initial discovery of the strange and wondrous room. The second is a color series, taken in 1999, before the bits and pieces of the room found their way to the Intuit Museum in Chicago.

Some excellent friends presented me with this book last Christmas...they had squirrelled it away for me on their own trip to The Room, as it exists now.

It's really a treasure, and I get lost whenever I look through it. The sheer amount of things in that room: the pencils, paintings, clippings, balls of twine, thick stacks of paper wavy from time and paste.

It was somebody's whole world in there.

Lured in By Another Fancy Collar

Dress - late 30's?
Cardigan & tights - JCrew
Shoes - Biviel
Birdie barrette & Mr.fox tote- gifts from Francesca

I know I've said it before, but finding a long-sleeved dress from the 30's or 40's that doesn't have silly/crazy sleeves feels like such a prize. And that this one had such a neat collar and is covered in little white square dots just makes it extra-good.

Okay, this dress is just covered in nice details...I didn't even think of the sweet scalloped trim!

This photo is from a few weeks back...it's starting to warm up a bit now, and I actually got to have bare legs today while I was out working in the yard. Pretty sure I'll still have some more chances to wear this long-sleeved gem another time or two, knowing the Portland Spring/Summer.

Beach Dream Girl

(photo source via VintageGal)

Ms. Lila Lee, a 20's actress cutie, in one of the best bathing beauty photos I've seen.

I also searched around the internets and found this excellent paper doll version of her, via The Paper Collector:

The pup and snowpants/shoes combo is especially good.

Whatta dollface!!!

Serpent & Butterfly

I was watching a little of the TCM Unseen Cinema avant garde cinema broadcast at our friends' cozy house whilst on our Georgia trip, and I went crazy for these beautiful dance films from the late 1800's (now I reeeeally want the DVD set !)

Naturally, I started photographing the television, which any true friends won't ridicule you for (and mine didn't.)

I think this is a variation on "The Serpent Dance", which I believe was performed by several famous dancers (Loie Fuller is one famed dancin' gal I ran across in my sleuthing who had a Serpent Dance):

And this one is most certainly "The Butterfly Dance":

I'm not sure if both are Annabelle Moore, but "The Butterfly Dance" definitely is.

It's the first thing on this little video, so you can see it in all its moving glory:

There are several different dances (all beautifully hand-colored) contained therein...so be sure to watch it all the way through.

I could watch these dozens of times...really need to get my mitts on that DVD set!

Green Apple & Mr. Fox

I've been on the lookout for more green dresses lately, and I recently nabbed this comfy, rayon, prettiest-green 40's number for a song. The only problem was that the neckline was a bit of a plain-jane. I remedied this when I hemmed it, by using the extra fabric to make a big, floppy bow I could pin to the top of the bodice!

It's also a smidgen too big, 'cause it's always easy to take things in, right? The enormous pile in my altering/mending basket says otherwise, but I keep it up! And I was too excited about the polka dots and green-on-green action to take it in before wearing it the day we snapped these.

40's rayon dress - Ebay
60's wool cardigan - Etsy
Tights - JCrew (my favorites - the super opaque!)
Oxfords - Biviel
Fox tote - Libris Lunaria

I was also really excited to break out my new fox tote from Francie's alter-ego shop, home of pretty prints, and now this excellent vulpine pal.

Here I am doing...I don't know what.
Modeling how one uses a tote? Checking on the family of mice that I'm carrying around?

I had been wishing a Mr. Fox tote would get made, and now he's carrying around all my necessities for me. It's a lovely size - not-too-big and not-too-small.

And I'm extremely impressed by all the delicate lines the printer was able to retain from the original engraving.  All those tiny bits of fur!

It's really sweet to be able to carry such a nice old drawing around with you.

Now you can buy hats for all your outfits

Extremely fancy and marvelous hats - and the prettiest pink-cheeked ladies!
My complexion idols.

I can't decide between the blue wing-motif one on the top left, and the simple(ish) green cloche in the middle. Via one of the very best (and prolific!) blogs for vintage images - specializing in both the bizarre and lovely.