California Trip Part 3

Finally, the last day of my trip! That one day was full of so much adventure. First thing I did was, I went to the Hollywood walk of fame. I took pictures of a lot of stars, these are just a few of the many stars we saw.

Dorothy Dandridge for film.

Doris Day for Film.

It's kind of hard to see because of the shadow, but this is Charlie Chaplin.

Also hard to see, is Ingrid Bergman.

Marilyn Monroe!! This was the hardest one to get, with everyone taking pictures we had to wait for a while.

Bing Crosby for Music.

Vivien Leigh, and a lovely shadow of me taking the picture!

Judy Garland for Music.

Fred Astaire for film.

Debbie Reynolds!!

Ginger Rogers!

After hours of walking and searching...

We finally found Audrey Hepburn's star!!

 Along the walk of fame was a lot of souvenirs shops. I loved these Lucy and Ethel dolls!

Frank Sinatra

 And last, my favorite costume designer Edith Head!

You will notice that underneath all the photos are the names, and I have linked those to Wikipedia  so that way if you want to know more abut that person  all you have to to is click on their name. I know these photos are not perfect, but here's why. The area where they have the Hollywood walk of fame is sketchy in areas, and there is a lot of garbage and homeless people around. Also a lot of tourists, so you want to take a picture and keep walking. I really was disappointed in the quality of the area, I thought maybe it would be better kept up. Look how dirty these are, and Audrey Hepburn's was half covered by a construction tent. Plus nobody was even near her's no one cared to take pictures of her's they just walked right over it. However my day brightened when I say the Bettie Page shop! 

Everything in the store was 40% off, and still is through the 15th! Which is great because Bettie Page tends to be more expensive, but it is worth it if it is on sale, because of the smaller sizes they carry. So if you are a teen, like me you can still fit into the clothing! And that is super exciting considering the fact that most vintage style stores don't carry such small sizes. Also, the nice employees working there (that freaked my dad out between the pin up photos and the piercings and tattoos) told me that they have recently opened a Bettie Page shop in Capitol Hill, Seattle. I plan to got here this Sunday!

Petticoats in every shade! Planning to try to make one for cheaper, copying this one.

Shoes, Spanx, and Stockings!

Here are the jeans I tried on. They fit perfectly! This is really great for me because I have made so many pairs of high waisted jeans or pants and none of them have fit properly, or given me the right shape. ( I am very straight up and down, and these pants give me more distinction between the hips and waist). I also tried on a cotton top with it. So, I ended up buying them, for $90, a lot but worth it for me.

I also had to try on this Rockabilly dress I couldn't afford, with a lovely back.

As we were walking back, we ran into another vintage store. I almost didn't want to go into it because I was too tired from walking for hours, and if you know me you know I almost never get into shop mode when I see a decent vintage store. It was called Iguana Vintage Clothing. 

I was super excited when I learned it was the largest vintage store in America. But also sad because reality hit, that I was broke after buying the pants. How could I come across the largest vintage store in the U.S. and not have money?? I was sad, but then I heard that they shipped internationally. That's good right? Until I saw that their website had practically nothing on it. So, if you are in L.A. I highly recommend you go and visit their store. The trip ended with us flying back to Seattle to start school.

California Trip Part Two

Hello Everyone, are you ready for part two? The next day was full of old furniture and vintage shopping! We started out by going to the Getty museum, where my sister and I both roamed the outdoor garden.

The Getty is a beautiful museum, with a small photography section which has pictures from the 1950s. Next we went to the old furniture exhibit.

All these old furniture, makes me think how much detail they used to use, when it was all so handmade, and now the style is not so gody so, how can we use this style furniture in a more shabby chic way? 

The Next, I set out for the vintage shopping. I went to multiple shops. First, was a little place that had mostly old photos and records. I got a red silk scarf for $2.25 there.

Then, we went to the Pasadena Antique Mall, which was great! I got a wool plaid skirt there, ($30) though I would not necessarily recommend searching for clothes there, they have a lot of record players, books, jewelry, typewriters, and sewing machines. It was pretty huge in there, rooms and rooms of old things. One room had old props used my movie stars in movies.

Lucille Ball's earrings and Necklace.

Elizabeth Taylor's Earrings.

Audrey Hepburn's Necklace and Earrings

Audrey Hepburn's golden cigarette holder from Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Marilyn Monroe's vanity set
The next place that was defiantly my favorite place of the day, was called High Low Vintage. It was filled to the brim with the cutest 1950s-1960s dresses and each was in perfect condition. If it would fit in the dressing room, I would have tried on the whole store.

The only problem with this place was the high prices, a single cotton dress can be $100! So, I just bought a plaid skirt (yes, I bought two plaid skirts on this trip) for 75$. Not sure how good that price was, but I felt bad leaving without something and I now I will use the skirt, in fact I wore it on the first day of school. If you want to see how the other days went, stay tuned for part three.

California Trip Part 1

Hey guys! Sorry I haven't posted in a while after we got back from the trip, my first day of high school was literally the day after that. So, here is part one of my trip to Pasadena, CA. The reason we were traveling there was for my mother's cousin's wedding. It was indeed a gay wedding, so it was very important to them that we would be there because of the lack of people in our family (keep in mind most of our family is from the rural south in flordia) that were accepting to gay weddings. I was super excited because that was my first gay wedding, and it seemed like they were more in love than a lot of people getting married I know. 

Here are the lovely ladies of the Northrop family in the arboretum, I am the one to the right.

I was wearing a reworked 1930s dress from Eden in Portland. It took place in the arboretum in Pasadena. It was beautiful, but mostly I loved the peacocks running around. We tried to take pictures of them, but they kept running away,this was seriously the best picture we could get.

So the first day we basically got off the airplane and decided to get some sight seeing done.I used my vintage luggage set I acquired off of ebay and etsy.

I apologize for the bizarre face my cat is making in this photo. 

 A lot of people like the look of vintage luggage but are concerned about the functionality  Here are the top five tips to using vintage luggage. 

First, make sure you look up the overhead carriage dimensions so it fits into the overhead bin. You wouldn't want to check the bag if it is vintage because of how they toss the luggage around. 

Second, You can carry it, mine wasn't that heavy, but often times the handles are a hard plastic that can hurt your hands unless you wear gloves. 

Third, if it is too heavy for you, you can put it on top of another luggage that rolls (if you are traveling in a group that has one) or a one of those rolling things you strap your luggage into.  

Fourth, if you are concerned about space you can have two, they can actually stack up in the overhead bin because of the thin width. 

Fifth, use your train case as the carry on bag that fits perfectly under your seat, and keeps the look of the vintage luggage. 

So, if you want a vintage luggage, here are some things I have learned from my experince. Right away we could feel the heat, being from Seattle we weren't used to such heat. We first went and drove down Rodeo drive and drooled at the expensive shops.

It was a quick drive by, but if we got out and walked, i'm afraid we might have been so sad about how much we can't buy. So, a quick drive through was good enough, especially since our next stop was Beverly hills. We found a map online of movie star homes and stalked them down untill we had seen enough mansions for a whole life time. We saw several homes like Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Donna Reed. Next we ha promised my sister we would go to the store she really wants to go to , Brandy Melville. Bye the time that was over, it was time for check-in at out hotel. 

We stayed at the Saga Motor Inn, it was a really nice place, not super ritzy or anything but a really cute little place from the 1950s.  

It had a great pool too, where I used my new swimsuit I made. CLICK HERE to see how it was made. 

I know there is a huge amount of vintage stores and rockabilly places in L.A. so I was planning my route to vintage shops. Stay tuned for part two of my trip to California!