Kitschmas Cat Skirt-A Vintage Outfit Post (And Some New Holiday Sweaters)

I've written may  times before about how much I love seasonal and Holiday dressing.  It saddens me that Christmas dressing such a fun and stylish part of mid-century Holidays

has in the 21st century turned into an ugly sweater joke.  Personally I'll never be convinced that the right festive sweater, or dress, or skirt isn't perfectly lovely.  Which brings me to the subject of todays post.   My new Christmas skirt from my favorite vintage reproduction designers, Girl in a Whirl, with just the right mix of mid century holiday cheer and Christmas kitsch this is my dream Holiday skirt. 

 I have quite a few vintage, and vintage inspired, clothing items with dogs on them, including my pug and poodle skirt from Girl in A Whirl, but I'm a proud cat mom too and my vintage wardrobe was lacking feline elements.   Inspired by mid century cat themed Christmas illustrations:


  

and vintage Christmas circle skirts:

which where indeed a thing.   (In fact the inventor or the poodle skirt, Juli Lynne Charlot, actually got her start not with her famous canines, they came later, but with a Christmas themed skirt she fashioned for a Holiday party.) I asked Girl In A Whirl to make me a Christmas cat skirt.  I left the design up to her but asked that the cat be white, both because it would show up nicely on the green fabric of the skirt and because our youngest kitty spot is a lovely snow white shade:

Well as always she did a fabulous job and the skirt is just Christmas perfection.

Cute, festive, and delightfully kitschy.

I've been wearing it a lot this December and it is such a fun and festive outfit.

I paired the skirt with a red lurex wrap top from Freddies of Pinewood, red and green bakelite bangles and a sparkly novelty Holiday brooch from Luxulite:

Feeling you just cant have too much Christmas in an outfit I also added candy cane striped earrings from Luxulite and a Christmas Headband from Chatter Blossom, and oh red gloves too.

My apologies for the hideous backgrounds, my urban neighborhood might be dreary but hey at least my clothes are pretty.



Like all of my Girl In a Whirl skirts this one is really comfortable and easy to wear, its practical for biking and walking and with thick tights layered underneath keeps me warm.

 I'm not the only one with new Christmas clothes though, this Sunday we saw Star Wars: Rogue One, yes I cheated on Star Trek and yes I really loved the movie, it is by far my favorite Star Wars film.  After the movie we went to the Pet Valu and there last two  holiday sweaters where 50% off and the perfect size for  Fry and Tuvok.

Happy Holidays! 

PS-Poor Ping (black pug) has bronchitis again and any good thoughts are appreciated.

We Met Santa!

This weekend we met Santa!

Sadly he didn't arrive in a cool 1950s car.  He was at the Staten Island Pet Smart.

First we visited Grandpa in Bay Ridge

We didn't bring Bob because we know he is not too crazy about his Uncle Rocco, not pictured, a puggle.  After visiting Grandpa we drove through Staten Island to see the big guy, sadly the NJ pet smart has stopped having a live Santa and our local pet store that used to do photos closed.  So Pet Smart it was, and it was packed!  The line wrapped around the store and I was reminded of my favorite Christmas Story, Santa Land Diaries by David Sedaris, if you haven't read or listened to it you must!   Here is the link to the transcript and recording.

Anyway, I was relived we hadn't brought Bob because he would never have tolerated the line and there was a huge pet adoption event too, I was glad about that because we where able to make a donation.  The line was filled with cute dogs so it was fun.

My favorite was a tiny chihuahua puppy, you can barely see him on his mom's shoulder here:

I got to hold him and should have taken a photo then but I was seriously overwhelmed!  He was so tiny and cute.  He weighed 1.5 lbs and was 14 weeks old.  He made Tuvok look huge.  His mom said he should get to be between 3.5 and 4 lbs fully grown which is a healthy weight for a chihuahua, I've done research.  Why anyone on Earth would want an even smaller dog is beyond me but they do!  Someday I will have a chihuahua from a reputable Chihuahua club of America breeder.   

Anyway we finally reached the end of the line and there was Santa.  Santa was very nice but the photo elf was kind of rude.  

The pictures I too with my phone where better then the pet smart digital downloads and they didn't even give you a print out!  That really dissapointed me because I have all the old Santa photos with our past pets displayed in the house.  Here is a photo of our rescue pug Bingo form eight years ago.  We adopted him after moving to NJ.  He had cancer and was incontinent and had to use a stroller but he lived almost two years!  He was such a sweet old guy.

 I really wanted to be able to display Santa photos  of Weasley Fry and Tuvok on our mantle along with our old dogs.  Oh well. 

Happy Holidays!

Adventures in Vintage Hair Styling-Happy Birthday to The Queen of The Bob-Louise Brooks

November 14 will mark the 131st anniversary of the birth of one of the most stylish women of all time, Louise Brooks.  The queen of the bob, Louise was known not just for her brilliant acting, but her rebellious flapper spirit and her gorgeous, shiny Bob.

Louise's hair was so striking that she was known as "the girl in the black helmet." Perhaps, her look was a little too iconic because she never transitioned out of her flapper image and her film career evaporated in the 1930s.

Louise appeared in just 12   films, yet nearly 100 years later she remains one of the most recognizable stars of the silent era, particularly for the 1929 German film Pandora's Box.

Louise will never be my favorite silent female star, my heart forever belongs to Clara Bow, but I do adore her and I think that in the flapper hair contest she passes the finish line before the others even get out of the opening.  No one has ever looked as fabulous in a Bob as Louise did.  I'm no Louise Brooks, and I'm constantly changing my hair, but for the past 15 years I keep returning to one particular style, the close cropped Brook's style Bob. 

 

 While I'm no Louise, I really think this is my all time favorite hair style and for now at least I've decided to keep it.  Do you have a favorite iconic hair style?

On another note if you read this blog you know we have had some pet health problems this month, though thankfully none too serious yet.   First Fry had a biopsy (benign yeah!), then our cat Ernie had a seizure or cardiac arythmia attack we don't really know which, and now 13 year old Ping has bronchitis.  She started honking and coughing on Election night, perhaps sickened as I was by the turn of events, and I was really afraid that she had pneumonia.  Thankfully, it's just bronchitis, but respiratory issues are always serious in pugs, particularly older pugs, and we are a little concerned.  Thankfully, so far she seems to be coughing a bit less and responding to the antibiotics, but any well wishes are appreciated.

Sci Fi Saturday: Halloween Costumes from Star Trek's Mirror Universe

Every year I look forward to the Halloween season for many reasons: candy, classic horror movies, pumpkins, gorgeous weather etc, but maybe my favorite aspect of October is the opportunity to dress up my dogs (I'm not so sure they love it, but they love the treats that come along with the dressing up.) In the past they have been the Three Musketeers:

 flying monkeys from the Wizard of Oz:

and Teen Wolf Pug and Puggie Krueger

to name just a few.

This year I had no problem deciding on a costume theme.  As ever Star Trek fan knows it's our favorite franchises 50th anniversary.

So Star Trek costumes where a must, but I didn't just want plain old Star Trek uniforms for the dogs, being a crazy die hard trekkie I wanted something a little more special.  I decided I wanted the costumes to  be a tribute to one of my favorite episodes of the Original Series: Mirror, Mirror.

In this iconic episode the crew gets accidentally transported into an alternate universe, where everything is a bit different.  Instead of a peace loving ship of exploration, the Enterprise is a war ship and the Federation is working to take over the galaxy.  Characters who where friends are now mortal enemies and you move up the ranks by assassinating your superiors. So none of that is great,  BUT the uniforms in the Mirror universe are fab!  I'm in love with the gold lame

I decided it would be fun to dress Weasley, Fry, Ping and Mr. Tuvok up as Star Trek Mirror Universe characters.  (Note: Bob will have none of this costume nonsense.) Since I can't sew I turned to Deb of Pug Possessed to make the costumes and despite never having watched Star Trek she did an amazing job. Here posing alongside the Star Trek Book of Costumes are the pups in their stellar costumes:


Weasley, looking manly as Mirror Universe Captain Kirk:

Fry oozing intelligence as Mirror Universe Commander Spock:

seductive Ping as Mirror Universe Lieutenant  Uhura:

and finally,  Mr. Tuvok is dressed as a personal guard.  Personal guard's are the crewman in the episode who run around trying to stop their employer from being assassinated.  Perhaps part of Tuvok's confusion and discomfort in this costume stemmed from the fact that I didn't whether he was working for Weasley or Fry.  

The whole crew:

Aren't they adorable?  Deb did such a wonderful job on these costumes I just can't get over it.   The tragedy is that the pet Halloween event we usually attend was rained out and I have yet to find an alternative event in Jersey City.  We used to go to the party at our favorite pet store Canis Minor, but it's gone out of business.  So sadly the only place the pups have to wear these fabulous uniforms is in  our home!    I guess we will have to use the costumes again next year.   Live Long and Prosper!