Since you all seemed intrigued by the Midcentury BBQ we had, I thought I’d post just a few more pics of the crazy foods that people brought!

And then finally, this last photo just cracked me up…..we love vintage, but of course after all the clean up was finished, we had to pop back into this century for a little instagram break hah!

If you follow us on instagram (@missdottie and @galexina) then you know that this weekend we joined forces with all our Dames pals and held a super huge vintage blow out sale! We all went through our closets and collections and really weeded things out. The point was to make some moolah, but also to try to purge! These sales are so much fun, but TONS of work! We spent much of Saturday setting up and lemme tell you, Mercury Retrograde was really being particularly sneaky!!  We had clothing racks toppling and pricing gun disasters! Of course we just laughed through it all and then finally (finally!), hours later, we were able to step back and survey our little Pop-Up shop and friends, it looked SO GOOD! Over nine lovely ladies selling clothing in ALL sizes. Oh, it was so hard not to shop ourselves!! Prices were amazingly low with most things under $20. Of course a few fancy items (like this INSANE LEOPARD COAT!!) were pricier, but still really a great deal compared to Etsy/eBay!

Come Sunday we were all rarin’ to go for the sale….fingers crossed that we would have a great turn out. We remembered last minute that it was St. Patrick’s Day, so we all wore green to look a lil festive. Not like the place needed to get more festive—check out all this COLOR!!!

Our sweet friend Doe has been having a run of bad luck (her landlord informed her recently that she and her family had to move out of their house with barely any notice!) so it was a lucky day indeed when one of our pals showed up on St. Patrick’s day with a real four-leaf clover she had plucked out of the grass just that morning! An excellent start to the day…

(it looks like a three leafer in this pic, but I swear it was FOUR!)

Our fears were unfounded, as the place was insanely crowded (we held it at our Dame Rusty’s beautiful home!) and everyone who stopped by was so sooo nice. Of course we couldn’t resist doing a little shopping ourselves. At the end of the day we all made a tidy little sum….whoo hoo!

Have you ever done a clothing swap or a sale with girl friends?? It’s pretty fun!

Well, one of our dames is going for her MRS. degree!

And we can’t let Karen go gently into the night… Oh, no. We must celebrate.

And celebrate we did this past Sunday at Forbidden Island, one of the best Tiki bars in the Bay Area. And do you know what tiki bars do best?

And wouldn’t you know, Karen has amazing friends! Who all came to the event dressed in their finest vintage Tiki ensembles. Seriously, folks, there were some extraordinary ensembles.

As fabulous and fashionable as all the attendee were, these women were also awesome enough to do the ol’ toilet paper wedding dress game! (You can still see bits of the fabulous dresses peeking through the tp!)

Alix and I were on a team together, and we fashioned some serious bridal two-ply magic on our friend Stephanie.

Tee hee! I love this one of Alix pretending to weep with joy like any good mother of the bride.

And of course there was a cake. A wonderful Tiffany blue cake made by the amazing Lynn Peril, who has this terrific column in Bust Magazine and writes the best books! Clearly she could open a shop making cakes too—Tiffany blue, anyone?

But honestly, the thing that everyone at the party said, was that every single guest just delightful! Fun, happy, smart and sassy—and of course dressed to the nines.

Friends, these ladies know the power of COLOR!

Even though the bride-to-be had a strict “No stripper/ No penis” rule, somehow a couple of *ahem* members made their way past security…

The bride plans on decorating the hall with vintage honey comb paper bells, so someone took the liberty of bringing–gasp–honey comb paper penises! Eek! We couldn’t stop laughing at how, er, “jaunty” they looked.

Ah well, it just added to the hilarity of the party.

We danced the afternoon away with some sweet  music by not one, but two djs! DJ Moneypenny and DJ Johnny Bartlett. DJ Johnny is Lynn’s darling husband, who not only has amazing style, but a sweet record collection.  Needless to say, if it was an awesome song, it was played!

All in all, we both agreed it was one of the most excellent bridal showers we’ve ever attended.

Our friend, Moe summarized it best, ” I was so excited to talk to EVERYONE there because there not a dud in the bunch. It was, if I may be totally corny and sincere, kind of life-affirming. UP WITH PEOPLE!”

It was such a great mix of people— all brought together to celebrate one extraordinary woman we love madly! Three cheers for Karen!

We love you, Karen! XOXOXOX!!!!

Dear darling Peach-

How did this happen?  Somewhere along the line three became magical. You became magical. And now you are four. So I need to give you a little snapshot of where you are and what you do right now.

One evening right before bed, you brought me a card you made and put it on my bedside table. You said that if I missed you during the night, I could just look across at the card and see it and know that you loved me.

You are a tremendous artist who prefer your people to have very pointy teeth. But hearts on dresses Of course.

You are still a very big fan of orange, although pink and purple are making serious headway.

You are writing your ABCs and words quite nicely, although the letter K is still proving to be most troublesome.

You like sweets. A lot.

You, dear girl, still need  your nap, even though you fight it EVER SINGLE DAY and then pass out for one and a half hours.

Nothing delights you more than pretend play. I love watching you act out different stories with your dolls, animals, crayons or anything that happens to be around.

Although a good game of hide and seek is always appreciated. You always choose the same hiding spots and giggle to give yourself away. You like be found.

You’re negotiation skills are maddingly good. So good that I plan to send you in the next time we have to buy a car.

No one can make a better felt sandwich than you can!  Who wouldn’t care for a bite of a tuna salami cookie crepe sandwich?

I think you enjoy the tutus more than ballet class–just like your mama.

I love your love of old songs.  Nothing is dearer to me than hearing you sing, “Shoo fly pie and apple pan dowdy”. Or the songs you make up.

You love the idea of a board game, but enjoy playing with the pieces of the game more than actually playing the game.  You’ve served me many a pie made up of pieces from the Hi Ho Cherrio game…

And you are mine. Mine. Ours. And I love you to the moon and back and then some.  Happy birthday, sweet Peach!

And I hope you like your very very special present…I’ll share it all with you next week!

Back in the day, food was all about form and very little function. That is to say, it might not have tasted great, but it sure looked spectacular! Check out any vintage cook book from the 1950s or 1960s and you’ll be sure to read words like, LOAF! MOLD! LOG! RING! TOWER! CREAMED! And let us not forget ASPIC! (basically a savory version of gelatin—imagine clear jello with meat or vegetables inside. EEK!). Every year our fabulous friend Karen throws a Midcentury Supper Club party…a fun and festive potluck where the challenge is to select a recipe from a vintage cook book and bring it for all to enjoy. You know, stuff like this:

I had great plans to make a snowman cake, but uh….well. It just didn’t quite go as planned (the whole cake stuck to my sheet pan. Argh.) Instead, I brought a bottle of champagne. Alway festive in any decade!

Greg had a show that night so Wolfie was my official “date”. He agreed to get dressed up, and I pulled out a vintage shirt I had bought for him ages ago (when he was super little) and thought it just might fit him now. He put it on and was indignant, flapping his arms around, “Mama! These sleeves are awful! They are WAY too long!!!” I looked closer and realized they were french cuffs!! (who knew they made ’em that little??) So Wolfie got to wear his first pair of cuff links—and was feelin’ mighty cool about it.

But enough about us. Let’s get on with the show. I have to say it was a SPECTACULAR evening! {Wolfie was unimpressed by all the “weird” food and hung out in the kid’s room with his pals.} OK, so without further ado, may I present….the midcentury supper club, 2012 edition! Savory, sweet….there was something for ALL!

image: Fred Eagle

image: Fred Eagle

image: Fred Eagle

Yes, that’s my friend Doe with her edible PINK FLOCKED TREES on a brownie lot. LOVE!

The Studio 54 Gingerbread House (with real flashing floor) was another party favorite!

Dottie was there too, of course, although she couldn’t stay long because she & her fam had a 6am flight the next morning for Florida. I was impressed she made it AND looked so dang cute!

The sandwich loaf was surprisingly tasty! Layers of egg salad, ham and cucumber, all tucked in under a savory cream cheese “frosting”.

And finally……the most terrifying, er, I mean INTERESTING dish….the Santa Meatloaf. WOW.

Have you ever made anything from a vintage cookbook?? I recommend the cakes and the sandwich loaf. The jury is still out on the meaty santa….

It’s happening friends! After months of chatter with one another and encouragement from many friends, we are launching our very first blog class! There are lots of blog classes out there these days, but what we feel will make our class unique is that we are bringing our professional background into play. For those of you who don’t know, when we’re not blogging, Alix is an award-winning advertising creative director and Dottie is a successful Director of  PR. We have a unique perspective on blogging and allllll kinds of tips and tricks to help you take things to the next level! There will be two days to choose from (or you can take BOTH!):

DAY 1: PREPARE FOR LIFT OFF. Saturday, October 6, 2012 10am – 5pm

This class is geared towards the emerging blogger….someone who really feels like they are ready to take things to the next level.

DAY 2: FREQUENT FLIERS. Sunday, October 7, 2012 10am-5pm

This class is for the more experienced blogger who wants to push themelves further and would like to to know how to master PR.

It’s all going down in a small, intimate setting (the marvelous Teahouse Studios in Berkeley) and there will be boat loads of one-on-one time and personal review. Check out more class details here! We will also be featuring some special guest stars from one of the hottest social media sites and blogger networks around. Ooooh, mysterious!

Are you in the Bay Area? We’d love to meet you!

You can sign up for the class right here.