Bathroom Snacks

Well, you may all be interested to know that the end result of this day was this... Billy just caught me standing in the bathroom starring blankly off in to space eating a piece of burnt toast. At like 11 o'clock at night. He walked in and said "What are you doing?" And I laughed until I cried. All the while eating my blackened piece of bread. I can offer no further explanation for why I was eating toast in the bathroom. It's a mystery even to me.

In short.... my Yves Saint Laurent ended today on eBay for a whopping $1425.00. Need I say more? It's obviously my new all time sales record for one day of selling vintage. I feel totally legit man. Too legit to quit in fact. I think I will try to keep it rollin'.

I photographed a bunch of new stuff to list in the shop today. I spent way too many hours in front of the computer. I am officially fried. We did go for a nice walk around town late this afternoon where we caught a mariachi band up from Chihuahua, Mexico playing out on the plaza.





The woman pictured dancing in the photo above was their biggest fan. I even caught her letting fly with what I consider to be sort of an exclusively heavy metal/rocker hand signal... because she was so enthusiastically rooting them on from the sidelines.



Good clean fun. That's what it was. I love the plaza on the weekends. It always delivers.

I have to hit the hay. I will leave you with solid proof that Spring has arrived in Santa Fe. All the trees are in bloom on our street. In another two weeks it should be full blown, with flowers everywhere. I can't wait.

Busy, Busy, Busy!

Sorry I have been so absent lately. There just don't seem to be enough hours in the day for me to get everything done. I have a lot going on somehow. Usually I have nothing going on... but the tables have turned. It is the Year of the Rat after all. I am trying to take full advantage of it.

So my YSL Safari jacket set goes off on Ebay on Sunday night. The listing has made The Pulse on eBay... which is a page with the top ten most watched items in any given category. It's something every vintage seller gets excited about.... making the pulse. Even though it is mostly dominated by six foot tall sickly looking chics selling tiny little boys suit coats as clothing for grown women. Bizarre the trends that eBay creates. So on top of that.... last night one of my dresses in my Etsy shop made the home page treasury on Etsy. I had over 500 visits to my shop in under two hours because of it. Being on the home page treasury rocks. I am totally game for that happening again (and again.)

I have been trying to work my tail off to get new stuff ready for sale at Road Trip Journal. We are also gearing up for next weekend's oil painting workshop. We have three students and I think it is going to be a lot of fun. We are packing Rudy off to a dog sitter for the entire weekend. Yee Haw! He gets to go stay out in the country with 5 other dogs for 4 days. It's going to be like a mini dog spa vacation for him. He may not want to come home.

Also.. in anticipation of warm weather and getting the Airstream back out on the road we have booked a ten day trip to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and to Monument Valley, UT for the very beginning of June. I can't wait! Billy has not been to see the canyon yet. And Monument Valley will be a first for both of us. Plus it will just be cool to get back out camping.

OK... sorry for the updatey boring post. No pictures... no fun stuff. DMAM... I am still alive and kickin'... I hope you are enjoying Spring and a non beanie hat wearing, dirty minded, spandex free existence on the other side of the big pond.

Beauty and the Beast

Let's cover the "beauty" section of this post first. This is Billy's latest painting. It's a watercolor of Big Sur in California. Can I just take this moment to say that Billy is fabulous? Because he is. Do you people SEE that painting? Yes. I am gloating. But I am allowed that. Especially being that today is officially our anniversary.

We passed the no smells test at Trattoria Nostrani last night. They let us in and fed us. It was a really great dinner. We drank stupidly expensive wine and managed to pretend our way through the she-she-foo-foo affair without offending the elite clientele. The only problem was a woman who was seated near us who kept loudly announcing that she has millions of dollars. She was actually wearing a dress made entirely of blood diamonds I think. She was hideous and am pretty sure that I could smell her stinking vaguely of moth balls... but somehow they did not throw her out.

I took a portrait of us before we headed out for the night... I told Billy to make the most snobby face he could conjure up. I did the same. Here we are at our snobbiest...



Yes... we are both wearing pink. And YES. I am wearing a vest made of sequins. It's too late for an intervention now... as this is all part of our confusing fashion history. You should also know that on my feet were cowboy boots. I take risks.

Now... let's move on to the "BEAST" portion of this post. We have one that lives with us. Sometimes it is most inconvenient. Sometimes a bit of fun can be had with it. Sometimes it throws up under our bed. It has many different ideas about how things should go in this household which are very different than my own very strict opinions on the topic. Allow me to share with you tonight's activity.... dirty, stringy rope fighting and chewing. This activity is annoying and leaves mess all over the house. But the Beast does not care.





Here he is trying to entice me with the delicious possibilities of playing with the dirty chewed up rope.



Here he is caught looking exactly like a gremlin....



And finally... truly enjoying a nice focused chew on the dirty, crappy rope.



I should probably mention that the other day while I was out with Michelle, Billy and Rudy had a celebrity sighting downtown. As they were passing by a store front a couple walked out right in front of them. After doing a double take Billy realized it was Robert Redford. What happened next? Robert Redford and Rudy looked right at each other. Just think about that for a minute. What does it mean? Probably nothing... but perhaps it was a cosmic connection. Maybe Redford is laying awake in bed right now worried and wringing his hands over the missed opportunity of having not gotten Rudy's autograph.

Amatuer Rock Climbing and Low Riders on Good Friday

So... yesterday was Chelle and I's big day out. We had a good one. We drove to a place out in the middle of nowhere near Abiquiu, NM called Plaza Blanca and hiked around. It's a really stunning place visually.







As you walk through the canyon begins to narrow at a certain point. It eventually becomes a slot canyon and you reach a spot where a bit of rock climbing is involved if you wish to continue on. Now... these rocks are smooth. And there is not much, if anything to really grip on to for the climb. It's really only about a ten to 12 foot climb up but if you are an idiot about these sort of things (which we we both apparently are) it can present a truly difficult situation. Several attempts were made. At one point we were both wedged up in the rocks at about a height of 8 or 9 feet in the air in very Spider Man-esque sort of positions and we broke down in to hysterical laughter. It is very hard to maintain a slippery rock climbing position when you are weak with laughter. The only thing that really keeps you in the air is the knowledge that falling may result in a broken bone or two. Or at the very least bloody knees and ripped jeans. If you would like to see what this all looked like I do have a very accurate and powerfully impressive visual to share.



Sorry Chelle. I had to post it. For the sake of blogging history. For the sake of rock climbing history. For the sake of really funny pictures of people's shadows and butts. No injuries were incurred during the climbing session. Well... no injuries other than the photo pictured above. Michelle did manage to achieve the top eventually but I was unable to due to being too short and also a chicken. We abandoned the scene and moved on.

Next we hit Ghost Ranch (where Georgia O'Keeffe used to reside.) It is one of my favorite places in NM. We poked around out there a bit and bought a bunch of hot deserty looking O'Keeffe postcards to send to friends and family who live in areas of the country still plagued by snow and winter. Here's a view from near Ghost Ranch of Pedernal Peak which was O'Keeffe's favorite mountain to paint.



That is Abiquiu Lake in the foreground. It's a man made lake created by a dam on the Rio Chama River.

After we grabbed lunch we headed to the tiny town of Chimayo. On Good Friday every year hundreds of Catholics make a twenty some mile pilgrimage to the Santurio de Chimayo (it's a really eclectic and famous little church in the town which supposedly has "magic healing dirt" that you can rub on your body and be instantly healed from whatever ails you.) We wanted to get a load of what all this looked like so we drove through. The most exciting thing I have to share about the drive was seeing lots of really cool low riders and hot rods on the trail.





We almost ran out of gas while doing this drive. This would have been epic. We were about 15 miles from the nearest gas station when I realized we were on "E." Michelle and I have a bit of a history of running out of gas in really stupid places so this would have been no surprise to most people who know us. Somehow Big Berta made it out and we got to the gas station without incident.

OK. There you have it. Tonight Billy and I are going out to a really fancy dinner to celebrate our 7 year anniversary (which is actually tomorrow.) We are both in ridiculous anticipation of the place where we are dining. They enforce a STRICT no fragrance policy and rumor has it that if the owner or a member of the wait staff smells ANYTHING on you they will kick you out of the place. I have read reviews where people claim to have been kicked out because they were wearing hand cream and the owner could smell it. Bizarre. So... will we pass the no smell test? Will we be clean enough and civilized enough? Probably not. It could result in a funny story. I will report in tomorrow.

A Vintage Quickie....

I am on my way out the door for a day of wandering the back roads of Northern New Mexico and doing some hiking with Michelle. I just wanted to throw two things at you... First of all THIS...


"Is that what Marlon Perkins wore when he went out for a hot night of disco dancing?" Is what you MAY be asking yourself. But NO! It is actually a highly collectible piece of vintage Yves Saint Laurent from his early years (1968) creating his ready to wear line called Rive Gauche. I discovered it a few weeks back and I now have it listed on a ten day auction on ebay. So bookmark it and cheer me and Yves on into fashion auction history and record breaking bids on this safari tunic!

The second thing is this... please head over to the other blog I author and check out the cool feature I wrote up on Justine from Ikonic Vintage. Her etsy shop is really sweet and she has some killer vintage goods. She is offering a 20% discount to all blog readers through March 31st. I am loving this bedspread...


Actually I love the bed itself too. She has that spread listed for only $40. Someone go buy it for pete's sake!

OK! I will be back tonight or tomorrow with loads of fabulous and probably ridiculous photos from our adventures today.

Pissing Into The Wind With A Swollen Face

If you have ever wondered what it might look like... Rudy has offered up a fine example here.



The place pictured above was apparently the scene of the crime that ended up pretty much ruling our day yesterday. Those of you who have known Rudy since the beginning will not be surprised at all to hear that he was stung or bitten by something awful while out on our walk. For those of you who have not known Rudy that long.... allow me to introduce you to the world's most stung dog. Bees, wasps, scorpions, spiders... you name it... he has been stung by it. Why? Because he pokes his nose in to EVERY hole he sees.

Whatever got him yesterday remains a mystery. But it was something nasty. He has never had such a bad reaction. Allow me to display the reaction... (sorry for the bright photo it's the only one I took.)



Please note the enormity of his swollen face. His eyes were swelling shut and his cheeks (do dogs have cheeks?) were like 5 times normal size. He did not seem to be in any pain but I was worried that he would not be able to breath if it kept up or got any worse. So off to the vet we went. They gave him shots of cortizone and an antihistamine. It seemed to do the trick. Today he has been a puking mess and I am not sure if this is from the meds or from the poison of whatever nailed him. But lets just say I have cleaned up many a pile of dog puke today. Hopefully we will have moved on to calmer shores by tomorrow.

I have been working my A.S.S. off getting new stuff photographed to go in to my Etsy store. I am starting to try to get some handmade stuff up in there along with the vintage. I finished this cute crochet cuff with vintage buttons and listed it today. I will embark upon some sewing projects with vintage fabrics this week.

Saturday afternoons have come to mean a regular meet up with Chelle at Cafe Paris. We usually go late afternoon and just hang out talking for awhile. If you would like to see what this looks like I can provide images. Here is what I look like at Cafe Paris...



It has the air of Cirque du Soliel don't you think? Or perhaps the air of a crazy person who also happens to be very excited. Here is what Michelle looks like at Cafe Paris....



Lovely, calm and mysterious. Well... she is not mysterious to me. But I want her to be mysterious to you. Think anything you want to about her... as long as it is packed with danger and intrigue. Our waiter today tried to feed me seafood quiche. I ordered a vegetarian quiche and boy was I surprised when I sank my teeth into a big honkin' stink assed piece of fish. Fish with eggs and cheese. Who the Hell thinks this is a proper way to eat? It was all ok in the end though because he brought me the right quiche out immediately after and also gave me two free cookies. This is exactly how to handle a situation like this with me... free baked goods.

OK. I think that just about caps off this post full of random tidbits of information. Oh... I almost left Billy out. Here is what Billy looks like while I am out eating free cookies with the mystery lady.



He is smiling because A. I am gone for a few hours and B. I will bring him home a slice of cake.

Walkin' Around

The view pictured above is about a ten minute walk from our house thanks to Old Fort Marcy Park. You walk up a huge incline to the park and end up with a great view of all three surrounding mountain ranges. The distant range in the pic above is the Ortiz. The park is totally surrounded by bazillion dollar homes but you can wander through on a trail for quite a way and it is really pretty. Rudy is nuts for it up there. I wish we could let him run off leash but there are potential problems with that. Mainly this... terrier + lots of rabbits + lots of cactus = major problems and possible large vet bills. So we keep him trapped on the lead in the interest of keeping cactus thorns out of his eyes, feet and belly.

This view is looking to the foothills of the Sangre de Christo Mountains and the neighborhood you see in the distance is where we used to live the last time we stayed here in Santa Fe.



Thank Gawd Spring is about to pop. After being laid up in bed for 9 days I am all hot and bothered to get outside as much as possible. In a few more weeks we should be rolling out with some seriously fine weather. For now I am thrilled with these 50 some degree days.



Another big event in my day today was a trip to Trader Joes. I went in there hungry. I bought everything. I bought stupid stuff. I bought huge bottles of fancy beer which I am mildly drunk on right now. This is a good thing. It's like a little recovery party from being sick. I also bought fresh flowers which is one of the perks of shopping at Joes. The flowers are cheap and it feels rich to bring them home and set them all about the house in jars and vases.

Back to the walk... here is a view of Billy on the rail of the walkway that leads up in to the park from town...


It's a great spot to watch a sunset from and see the lights of town after dark. I am really looking forward to sharing some photos with you all from our favorite hikes around Santa Fe once we get out in the good weather in the coming weeks.

That's it for today. Nothing riveting. I'll leave you with a colorful shot of some paper star lights in the window of a design shop downtown. It's one of my fave stores to poke around in.

Alive!

Weeeeeeeellllllll. I guess I made it. Here I am. My body fought and won against the dirty demons that had invaded it. Let's not do that any time soon again though... ok?

What can I say? What do I have to report? I have been getting fully clothed and out of bed for like two days now. I have eaten solid foods. I have seen the light of day. It may not sound like much to you all... but trust me, it was wildly thrilling.

I have been to Cafe Paris with both Michelle and Billy on two separate occasions in the past two days. It's my favorite place to go near our house. This morning when Billy and I went they had a French accordion player as entertainment. He and some woman were singing French songs and people were jumping up at random to do silly dances. This plus a fancy French pastry is pretty much all I am asking for in a day. We need more pastry and silly dancing in our daily lives.

I have also been hard at work listing new stuff in my Etsy vintage clothing shop. If you want to see go to www.roadtripjournal.etsy.com

I have signed on to be the blog administrator for the Etsy Vintage Street team. The blog is HERE and I should start posting in a day or two. The blog features a core group of vintage sellers from Etsy and we will be running promotions and contests and just generally covering the topic of collectible vintage and featuring certain sellers goods and whatnot. It's going to be nuts trying to keep up with all this blogging but I will have a few helpers on the Etsy blog so it should all work out in the end. I hope.

OK. I wish I could say that I had more fun/funny stuff to talk about. But I don't. The reality is that I have one mean mamma jamma of a headache.

I will leave you with my best Tyra Banks "FIERCE" image from my vintage photo shoot today. Well, I am as fierce as a gal can be in this particular dress taking photos of herself in the living room on a Sunday afternoon anyway. It's all in the eyes baby.... it's all in the eyes. Just ask Tyra.



In reality I look more pissed off and militant than fierce.... do you think it will sell the dress? Hmmmmm.

In my Absence...

Please enjoy this silly video...

Light a Candle for Me...

Well Internet... This nut has cracked. I am servin' myself up to you as a big hot plate of crazy. I am still sick. And when I say sick I mean it. Again I will treat you to an illustrative visual of what is happening inside my body...




See all those guys? They are having a week long party at my expense. Tonight I dive headlong in to night number six. Another sleepless, disgusting night writhing in agony!! Make tea! Drink it! Go blind from the taste of yet another damned Ricola cough drop in your mouth! Try! To go! To sleep! You CAN'T!!! What is that buzzing in my chest? It feels like fat furry mice are crawling in my throat! Ahhhhhhh.... these are great times.

Last night I tried to sleep in the bath tub. It seemed like it could potentially be the answer. It wasn't though. I just laid in the cold empty tub wrapped in my robe talking to myself for about 25 minutes. And then I moved back out on to the floor. Whatever passes the time. I always seem to be able to finally pass out around 5 or 6 A.M. It's 9 P.M. right now so if history holds true I will be hitting the sack in about 9 hours. That's cool. More time to enjoy coughing and hacking and general delirium in the night!

OK... I just wanted to give you an update. Thanks to anyone who cares. Thanks to anyone who has been here where I am now in this state of being. If you have been here and made it through to the other side I love you and you are my hero. Please send me an autographed photo of yourself and instructions on how to slay the goblin king. I seem to be stuck on level 5.