Category Archives: Real Life

Real Life:: Tupperware ParTAY!

What do you get when you add plastic kitchen goods, a dozen ladies and ten bottles of champagne?

A hoot of a Tupperware party! (Oh, and I know what you WERE thinking, ahem!)

Last Saturday a bunch of wonderful ladies came over to my house for a Tupperware party. Yup.  Tupperware, and it was so much darn fun!  My gal pals showed up wearing their best vintage aprons and even gloves (thank you Miss Karen) and listened with delight about the miracles of plastic while sipping mimosa after bellini after vodka gimlet.  Oh, that was such a blast!

But that had to do with our wonderful Tupperware hostess, the completely fabulous Ms. Karen Finlay.  Now, you might recall Karen, who guest blogged here about her love of the musical Annie.  But this wonderful lady also sells Tupperware.  And her Tupperware team includes the creme de la creme of Tupperware sales people including such faaaabulous drag queens named Dixie Liongate, Aunt Barbara and Danny Pintauro from Who’s the Boss. (Note — Karen hasn’t met him, but she’s  sure he’s very nice!)

It is more of a comedy routine than a Tupperware spiel.  I swear, Karen should have a brick wall behind her–she is comedy gold! And I gotta say, I was totally impressed!  Tupperware products scored the best out of 30+ products in a Good Housekeeping microwave test and contain no BPA or phthalates.  Which makes this mama breathe a sigh of relief.

And it was so much fun to see the ladies. Like our girl Katie who brought a peach for the Peach! J’adore!

Speaking of the Peach, she had a great time too and sported an orange vintage apron to match her Crocs. She looked more like Mario Batali than Sally Draper–I love it!

Such fun for a Saturday afternoon! Have you ever attended a Tupperware party? Do you remember your Mom going to one or throwing one? Did you grow up with Tupperware?

OMG :: funny follow-up story to Renegade

Duuuuuude. Dottie totally reminded me that i forgot to tell you the funniest thing about our day at the Renegade Craft Fair. SO the place was PACKED. I mean, there is a fair amount of parking down at Fort Mason and every nook and cranny was filled. Dottie was my gracious driving buddy for the day (she does this a lot….and I so appreciate it!). So we are going around and around through the lot. No spaces. No where. Suddenly we end up behind this monster….and i mean MONSTER…..camper trailer deal. The thing was like 40 feet long. I sway-uh. It also had about 30 bikes on the back. Clearly this was some young family traveling cross country. In a tour bus. That could hold Bieber’s entourage. It also had the name “FLAIR!” emblazoned on the side.

Suddenly we ended up behind Flair as we cruised down the parking row. And then we saw it…. the elusive, lone parking space. “YES!!!!” Dottie hollered. We happily zipped forward to claim our prize, when we noticed FLAIR had stopped next to the space. And was suddenly kickin’ it in reverse.

“UM, Flair…..surely you don’t think you are going to fit in that little space??”
Dottie and I laughed. How funny! As if FLAIR could fit into the compact space. Flair wouldn’t dare.

Oh. But Flair did dare. And for the next 10 minutes scooted forwards and back trying to squeeeeeeze into that damn parking space. Flair nearly took off the side view mirrors of the car next to him. Flair ensured that whoever came to their car would never be able to open their doors. Flair also had a good 12 cars lined up behind him while he tried to squeeze into the space. At one point he stopped, as if he thought he had made it in the space, but was sticking out so far that no one could get past him. There were lots of groans and moans from all the cars around us. “Dude. You won’t fit.” and “Duuuuuuuuude! C’mon!” Dottie and I were trapped, watching Flair take our space.


{note how perilously close FLAIR is to that car on the left.}

Suddenly Flair gave up, pulled back and left. “YES!!!!” We happily swung into the wee parking space….only to find…FLAIR TRYING TO PULL IN FROM THE OTHER SIDE!!! The driver stuck his head out the window and shouted at us, “AW, C’MON!” Wait…..what? FLAIR? You calling US out? You who has blocked the entire parking lot in your gigantic TOUR BUS are trying to make us feel badly??  “I LEFT MY KID THERE!” We turned our heads to where he was pointing and spy a small boy was standing awkwardly to the side of the space. CLASSY Flair! Classy! It soon became painfully obvious that FLAIR DIDN’T CARE!! We were so annoyed and while we could have been jerks, FLAIR is not our middle name. So we simply pulled back out of the space and drove off in a huff (as huffy as one can be in a car that is dwarfed by FLAIR). We both shook our heads and then just burst out laughing. The guy was lame, and sure we ended up parking 200 miles away, but we had a nice walk and the day was still grand.

And if you are ever in the position to be driving something as honkin’ as FLAIR, please, for the luva gawd….acknowledge to your fellow drivers that your crazy antics and behemoth mobile are causin’ a rude ruckus. A courtesy wave does wonders, friends!

The Renegade Craft Fair Hits San Francisco

A few weekends ago, Miss Dottie and I decided to head on down to the Renegade Craft Fair. It’s always at the most scenic location, Fort Mason. The joint was jumpin’ and we saw and met some really amazing folks (shout out to the most wonderful Robert Mahar! So great to finally meet in person!)!

Renegade is filled with all kinds of handmade goodness….silkscreened artwork on tees, beautiful felt floral hair clips, stuffed animals and dolls, art work, jewelery and much more. A lot of the work is playful and tongue-in-cheek. A little bit indie. A little bit kitschy. And a lot of lovely. Let’s look around!

I was quite taken with this cuckoo wolf clock from Black Forest Clockworks.

Another favorite were these globes, they were STUNNING I tell you. Vintage globes are all the rage, but I thought this fun spin on them was especially cool. Usually people futzing with vintage objects can kinda bum me out (“What?? Paint on a gorgeous vintage globe??? Sacrilege!”) but these were glorious. Artist Wendy Gold paints whimsical designs and even customized family trees on them and turns them into unique pieces of art. You can see more at ImagineNations.


Once of my fave things to scoop up are groovy tees for Wolfie and Greg. SO MANY great ones. I got Wolfie that little groovy fox down there. Rad tees from Gnome Enterprises.

These pins were really sweet—but mostly they made me want to find the vintage puzzle that they came from.

I say….doesn’t everyone need a monocle???? I reeeeally wish I had bought that, just so I could give people THE LOOK whenever I felt like it.

OK. This was so gross. We bought these little cupcakes before realizing they were called, like, poo-poo cupcakes. Yeah. That’s a marzipan fly on top. Not a big fan of that concept…. (But guess what? Close your eyes, and they were delicious!)

I tell ya, Big Foot really never gets old. Same goes for Chewbacca and Abominables. And a Chewy with a taco? Too good.

This is the adorable Lisa from Zelma Rose. Her “vintage inspired curiosities” are these really charming hand crafted pendants. Dottie loved the beautiful chalkboard lockets and sillouettes and I was quite taken by the constellations (hey, they didn’t used to call me Galexie Girl for nothing! I lerve of all things spacey!).


We ran into our sweet pal (and fellow Devil-Ette) Katie. She bought some really great felt hair doo dads from migration studios. Really lovely.



We had to take a break for some snackies and veggie corn dogs did the trick!

Then it was back to the show! I have to say I’m crazy about these suave animals from Ryan at Berkeley Illustration. I bought two prints for Wolfie’s room, the dapper Wolf and the mysterious Cheetah (because Wolfie recently informed that the cheetah is his “Top Favorite Animal”). They are very affordable and super cool.


Emily from The Black Apple was there and her display was as adorable as you would expect. Little vintage suitcases filled with goodies? Yes please.

I swear we don’t really own many “wolf” items (although I realize I just referenced THREE in this post alone) but this notebook was so cute I couldn’t resist!!

The lovely ladies at Goodbye Blue Monday had the sweetest dolls. Dottie almost bought one for the Peach…must remember come Christmas!

Best in Show for me was Fox and Owl. She makes these completely magical little stuffed animals that remind me of the vintage German Steiff animals I had growing up. They were SO sweet and wonderfully made. Just gorgeous. You must check them out!

So cute….

All in all it was a smashing day! If the Renegade is coming to a town near you, you should def check it out!

Psst, click here to read a quick a funny story about us trying to find parking at Renegade!

Real Life:: Dottie’s Yankee Doodle Weekend!

Oh lawdy, I’m tired!  But I had the best three day weekend for the Fourth. We decided to forgo travel this weekend and hunker down on the island. I LOVE a good family car trip or plane trip or (squee!) a train trip. But sometimes it’s nice to just hang out in your old stomping grounds and pump a little special into the mix.

Like making blueberry pancakes Saturday morning! I don’t know if it gets more special than that! CHOW has a wonderfully easy recipe that I have a feeling will work its way into my cooking repertoire very soon.

We also went on a “hike”  on Montclair Trail, which is perfect for the kiddos. Not too crowded and a beautiful easy shady walk. I can’t wait to go again. Brave Daddy heading the trail with Miss Peach picking up pieces of sloughed eucalyptus bark.

And we also snuck a little tag sale action into the mix. Our gal, glamorous authoress Lynn Peril (of Think Pink, College Girls and her latest book, Swimming in the Steno Pool) had a little tag sale which was choc-a-block with wonderfulness. She even had an original RECORD from the cast of ZOOM! But the best part was seeing Lynn and fellow Dame, Karen Finlay’s fabulous hats.

Why, yes that is faux netting made of straw and yes, that is a little lobster caught in the straw “net’ on Lynn’s hat. I know. Trust me, I know.

I also stopped by another tag sale a block away and scored some AMAZING finds. Like this terrific vintage floral suitcase and two darling floral vintage dresses which have both been added to the summer UFO project list because they just need minor little changes before they are fabulous. Oh, but they will be fabulous. Don’t doubt it for a moment, friends!

Sunday was rather hot for the Bay Area! So a morning bike ride to the beach was in order.  Me with my hat and the Peach with her toys. Sadly the tide was really out but the Peach had a blast chasing tiny tiny fishies in the tide pools.

And when the sun got too strong for our fair Peach, we hustled her into the little Crab Cove Nature Conservatory which was full of sweet facts and cool things to look at—like aquariums and a neato info about sharks and whales. I loved how they tried to create the feeling that you were in the bottom of the ocean by painting the walls and hanging things like this boat from the ceiling.

 

And there was also a bit of QT spent playing in that summer suburban classic—the sprinklers.

But the best was the local Fourth of July parade on Monday. What a hoot! And such great local flavor.

The Peach wore a little vintage red, white and blue number to cheer on everyone in the parade, which is always best watched from Daddy’s arms.

My favorite part was watching the oldest baton troupe in the U.S., The Pearlettes. I would have loved to be one, but I’d be too afraid of it hitting me in the head.

The weekend was a blast. We also went to BBQs, the local pool and I did bits of sewing and other little things. And danced to silly songs and marched around the backyard. And reading many many many books to the Peach.

Yup. The best part of the weekend was just being able to spend time with my sweetie and my favorite little Peach.

How was your Fourth of July weekend?