DIY Finial and Curtain Rod for under $5

I finally hung curtains in the living room. I’ve had these cool curtain rod hangers that are swirly from Pottery Barn. They didn’t come with rods or finials. So I had to figure out a way to make it work on my own.

DIY Curtain Rod – $1.27

First I tried a standard curtain rod but they were too thick to fit in the hole. So I went to Lowe’s and got silver-toned metal conduit. A 10 ft length is $1.27! Cheapest curtain rod ever! They are basically like thin pipes, you can cut to length with a hacksaw. Or if you are a defenseless girl like me, sweet talk the Lowe’s pipe cutter to cut it for you. (They cut wood, glass and pipe for free but technically not conduit.) i asked nicely and purchased the $5 hacksaw he had to use as the pipe cutting machine is too strong and basically crushes conduit.

DIY Finial – $1

Now I just needed a finial. Why most of these are crazy expensive and or ugly I do not know. I went to the dollar store and looked in the floral area for Styrofoam balls. They have a bag with an assortment of sizes with 2 of each size. I used the largest. I colored them with origami paper I already had. You could use an thin paper like tissue paper or wrapping paper, strips of newspaper, etc. Glue to the Styrofoam ball. I used spray adhesive that is safe for foam ($7 at Lowes). You can use white glue, wood glue, or modge podge as well. Or the Papier-mâché method of water and flour.

Curtains

These came from Thrift Cit in Austin and were $10 a panel! Gorgeous copper to brown swirls pattern on a shiny cream background.

 

Alice Porcelain Doll by Thelma Resch

Well, I’m finally getting around to selling this pretty porcelain doll of Alice in Wonderland by Thelma Resch from MasterPiece Gallery Limited Edition Artist Dolls.

This doll was made in 1998. It is large, almost 2.5 feet tall. Amazing realistic details. Long straight blonde hair, big blue eyes, detailed porcelain hands and feet. She wears the classic Victorian blue dress and white apron you remember from the Disney movie. She even has a lace petticoat, bloomers, and red and white striped stockings. (The Cheshire Cat would approve.)

Although really a collectors doll for adults, Alice is ready for any little girls tea party as she comes with a tiny porcelain teacup and saucer. Box says for kids 8 yrs and up and with the size and price tag I believe them.

My mom bought this for my niece when she was going through her Alice in Wonderland phase. My sister never allowed it to be given to her as she was too little and the doll too rare and valuable. Only 2000 of this fairytale character were made, this is # 1949. So into the closet the doll went. Still in the original shipper box, never even unwrapped from the bubble wrap and foam. Well, now my niece is pretty grown up and not so interested in dolls, so I’m selling it for my mom. None of us are doll collectors so hopefully this Alice will find a new home.

It includes the doll, box, doll stand, teacup, and certificate of authenticity. Thank goodness for the certificate as I thought it said Thelma Russe from the box as in is in a script font and hard to read. Google sorted it out for me though. This is the only Alice doll I see up for sale, but this doll maker has a few other dolls out there.

It is up on ebay, starting at $99 from May 21st to May 28th at 7pm.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/230984630751?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

I’m happy to ship internationally. This item weighs about 10 pounds and the box is 32 in long so it might be a bit high on postage. I’m so used to using etsy that I’m not sure exactly how the ebay shipping calculates for Worldwide. I estimated it as best I could but if it needs to be adjusted I’m happy to do so. I’m also happy to make it a Buy It Now if you just can’t wait the 7 days, just message me on ebay. Glad to see ebay lets you have 12 free images now! But many more pics are on my flickr page. http://www.flickr.com/photos/vintage13/

Great Gatsby – Movie Stills

Well, apparently it is only the US official site for the new Great Gatsby movie that has very few photos. The official site for Japan is awesome. www.gatsbymovie.jp . Many still images from the movie and in a huge size. Now I just need to learn how to read Japanese.

Click the below images to enlarge.

Awesome headscarf and blonde bob haircut.

Dashing in tuxedos

Kimonos were very popular in the 1920s.

This crystal overdress is amazing. I can’t imagine how heavy it must be to wear.

Lovely pearl bracelet which connects to a ring. And the headpiece is from Tiffany & Co.

Nice 3 piece suit from Brooks Brothers. Check out those cocktails.

Great Gatsby – Movie review, Costumes and Soundtrack

This weekend I saw the new movie of Great Gatsby. A totally visually stunning movie! Beautiful costumes on beautiful actors with lovey scenery and camera work. Leonardo DiCaprio does a wonderful job acting. My only issues are that most of the characters are unlikeable, but perhaps that has to do with the story itself.

Jordan Baker (Daisy’s friend) in a lovely black hat / mask / fascinator

Anywho, the fashion of the movie is amazing! Daisy in lace dresses and jewels (provided by Tiffany’s). Gatsby is quite the dandy in sleek colorful suits and tuxedos (provided by Brooks Brothers). Daisy’s friend Jordan in ladies sportwears suits featuring the long lines of flapper fashions. Check out the Brooks Brother’s site for this fab white linen suit. The costume designer worked with Brooks Brothers to look through their archive of designs from the 1920s and had them make many of the suits for principal characters and extras for the party scenes. Love the shoes and cane in the below pic as well. Very British looking. If only most men still wore 3 piece suits.

Soundtrack is pretty good. There are a few songs I don’t like. Not so sure about modern songs redo with jazz overtones like Crazy in Love. Why couldn’t we just have real jazz songs? But the Lana Del Ray song Young & Beautiful is haunting and lovely, the Florence + the Machine song Over the Love was written for the movie and is amazing. The Gotye song Hearts a Mess is awesome as well. Jack White’s cover of the U2 song Love is Blindness is very moving. I love sad music.

By the way the movie posters are amazing! Fab art deco border. Wish I could get a real photo frame with that metal design. Stunning photography. Interesting these posters appear on imdb but I don’t see them on the official website! While the website has many good video clips it is lacking in the photo gallery area. So few pictures and rather small resolution. Also no downloadables like screensavers, desktops, icons or iphone backgrounds.

The movie also features some sparkling diamond jewelry provided by Tiffany & Co. Daisy wears a beautiful jeweled headpiece which you can own too. The $200,000 price tag is a little out of my range. It does detach into a brooch which is neat.

Mrs Wilson is the stunning redhead. And apart from Nick Carraway played by Tobey McGuire is one of the few characters I actually found to seem to be nice likable people.

Vintage Swim Cap

So a few months ago I found a retro swimming cap. It is purple with flower petals all over it! Made by J&J of California Long Beach. It is fabric but not quite spandex.

Ever since bathing suits and swimming became popular for ladies in the 1920s swim caps came into fashion as well. Some are rubber supposedly to keep hair from getting wet. Check out the 1960s versions below.

Look on etsy, ebay or sometimes modcloth to buy a vintage swimming cap of your own.

Not just another cupcake place…

Nothing Bundt Cakes

Who doesn’t love a good pun….sort of like Nothing But Cakes get it? Well in truth, they do sell more than just cakes. They have their version of a cupcake which is a tiny little bundt called a “bundtini”. They sell them by the dozen (I wish they would have half dozen). They also sell mini bundt cake called bundtlets which are like a huge cupcake that are $3.99, it says single serving but I think really its for two people.

I’d noticed a new cake bakery shop a few weeks ago across the parking lot from Panera, and I’m super glad I stopped in. They had free samples when I went in so I also got to try the pineapple flavored cake and the chocolate. Such delicious cakes! The shop is nicely decorated and they sell a little assortment of gifts and the staff was very friendly. They also sell full sized bundt cakes of course and mini-bundt cakes. I’ve tried the lemon and the red velvet. The cake is super moist but still light and fluffy. The frosting is really good too. Many cupcake places are mainly about the frosting and the cake is sort of an afterthought which is dry and flavorless. Here it is all about the cake! It tasted like heaven, topped with a dollop of buttercream.

Peach Bathrooms – aka Pink Bathroom’s cousin

Colorful bathrooms and kitchens came into fashion in the 1950s with the post war boom in housing. Pink bathrooms may be the most iconic with Mamie Eisenhower liking them. But Peach bathrooms were also popular in the 1950s and 1960s. Made of durable ceramic tile many were installed so well they are still around 50 years later and in great condition. Peach bathrooms look very similar to the pink bathrooms of the era and indeed many of the shades are very very close. The peach is slightly less feminine and a little more earthy. Often paired with tans and browns.

These are some selected retro bathrooms from searching trulia in OKC where I still have family living. Trulia.com has recently changed their search filters. It used to be a date range you could enter, now it appears when you click you can only get a single date plus the years after it 1960+. This isn’t too helpful if you don’t want to see all the new builds of the 1980s and 1990s, etc. You can however get around this by manually typing in your range 1900-1969.

These people liked their peach bathroom so much they continued the peach paint into most of the other rooms of the house. It is close enough to a tan sort of neutral that it works with most furniture style for prospective buyers but still appeals to those who want a bit of color rather than boring dingy white. The above are from 1032 SW 55th St. The ranch house was built in 1959 and features the original wood kitchen cabinets and what may be the original wall oven and separate stove top.

This pale peach and brown bathroom is located at 4005 NW 12th St.  Still have matching ceramic towel bar, toilet paper holder and counter  from when the house was buildt in 1955.

This darl peach or salmon pink bathroom with maroon brown trim is from 1332 NW 101st St. Buildt in 1960. It has diagonal on floor and counter and horizontal tile in the bathtub surround. Judging from the two towel colors you can see they likely had a hard time finding a color scheme that worked for them. I would have stayed with white, pink, peach or brown accessories. Aqua however is often paired with pink or peach in this vintage color schemes.

This dark peach salmon pink and tan bathroom is from 1345 SW 67th St. The sink, tub and toilet (minus the replacement seat) are original pale peachy tan. The floor has unfortunately been patched with a non-matching tan tile in a diagonal pattern. At least they didn’t rip it all up I suppose. Fixes for this would either be tile paint or find a matching tile and replace half of the floor. The walls are still perfect though and the counter top looks good. I would paint the wood base either white, peach or tan rather than dark wood. Nice chrome accents for the towel bars, in-wall toilet paper holder and faucet with neat round handles. This mid century ranch was buildt in 1957. Its second bathroom has what seems to be a retro free standing sink and toilet in white as well.