MargiDavid and Sound Magazine are hosting a benefit fashion show on March 29th at the Last Supper club. Drinks, music, fashion, burlesque performances and a bunch of awesome hair. Come join us! This event is sponsored by Sound magazine, Wella, Bumble and Bumble, Oribe, Southwest Airlines and many more. You can purchase tickets at brownpapertickets.com or at theMargidavid salon. PS the VIP will be awesome!

This is a fashion show featuring vintage boutiques in the Seattle area, so if you are a vintage and retro fashion lover...this is your show and not to be missed!!!

Lil'Paisleys will be teaming up with Lucky Vintage for the show, so come on down and check our wears out!

You can find info on Facebook or you can purchase tickets at Brownpapertickets.com

This show is this Sunday at Last Supper Club...doors are at 7....we hope to see you there!

 

Lil'Paisleys was honored to be selected to be featured in the Seattle Metropolitan Winter Fashion 2009 spread. The article was published in the Jan. 09 issue. (yah, I'm a little slow on posting this). It was called Winter Light and featured the tag line:

Invest in wearable statements, local gems, and vintage finds that'll put a shine on every season for years to come.

We are so happy to be in great company with other shops and designers such as Barneys New York, Tiffanys, Butter London, and more. Here are the pictures our jewelry were featred in. They are a little small and hard to see the details...so you can check out the online info from the magazines site here.

 

reworked vintage choker with amethyst rhinestones and amethyst and onyx beads

 

Vintage pewter bar pin with rhinestones (worn in hair)

 

Vintage multistone bracelet

Wow, it's been a while since I have had the chance to add to this Blog. This Holiday season was an especially stressful one for me. On Dec. 01 I came into the shop to find out that it had flooded due to a break in some old pipes bellow the toilet in the back room. It was a mess! The shop had to be packed up and the retail spaced completely emptied so the damaged areas could be removed and replaced. The shop was closed from Dec 01 to Dec 17 for the construction...right in the middle of the holiday season. I was able to open back up just in time for the biggest snow storm Seattle had seen in years. So it was a tough and stressful time for Lil'Paisleys...but we are looking forward to the New Year...and hopefully some better luck.

I do have a good bit of news regarding the wedding, which is fast approaching. Jen has finished the pattern for my dress. Yeah! She has decided to use the dress as part of her application to the Master's Degree program she is applying for.  As a result Jen needs some good pictures of the dress when it is completed, so I will get bridal portraits done. I never even thought about having some taken, but this came up and Jen made plans to have someone we now take the pics in his studio. How cool is that! The pics are scheduled for Jan 24...so hopefully I'll have pics to post shortly after that.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy New Years.

Cheers!

Lil'Paisley

As some of you may have heard, Bettie Page passed away on Thursday. She was 85. If you have ever been in my shop, you would know that Bettie was a favorite of mine. This picture was the cornerstone of my website for about 2 years.

 

She lived an interesting and complicated life...especially what happens after the movie The Notorious Bettie Page ends. From multiple marriages to mental institutions...her life got more complicated after she quite modeling.

Bettie had numerous nicknames like The Queen of Curves, Dark Angel, and Garbo of Bondage. And her work has inspired so many. From Ditta Von Teese to Katy Perry, they all have looks based on Bettie's. You see her influence all over todays media. I've even been accused of it myself.  Bettie had the ability to walk that thin line between wholesome and risque with ease... I think this is where a large part of her appeal comes from.

So it's with heavy heart that I bid Godspeed to Bettie. I know there will never be another.

I have been a big fan of Steampunk for quite a long time. I have always loved the way it blends of Victorian style technology and SciFi together. When I was young my Mom encouraged us to read and I fell in love with the writings of H. G. Wells. Even today I have a beautiful leather bound book containing some of his stories on my bookshelf, and I've read them again and again. That may explain one of the reasons I seem so drawn to the style.

Allot of people will ask...What is Steampunk??

Well I have found that the definition on Wikipedia seems to be the best:

Steampunk is a subgenre of fantasy and speculative fiction that came into prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. The term denotes works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used—usually the 19th century, and often set in Victorian era England—but with prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy, such as fictional technological inventions like those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, or real technological developments like the computer occurring at an earlier date. Other examples of steampunk contain alternate history-style presentations of "the path not taken" of such technology as dirigibles or analog computers; these frequently are presented in an idealized light, or a presumption of functionality.

Steampunk is often associated with cyberpunk and shares a similar fanbase and theme of rebellion, but developed as a separate movement (though both have considerable influence on each other). Apart from time period and level of technological development, the main difference between cyberpunk and steampunk is that steampunk settings usually tend to be less obviously dystopian than cyberpunk, or lack dystopian elements entirely.

Various modern utilitarian objects have been modded by individual craftpersons into a pseudo-Victorian mechanical "steampunk" style, and a number of visual and musical artists have been described as steampunk.

 

I have been admiring some of the jewelry and accessories I had seen worn at events like Wave Gothic Treffen, Clubs, etc. I finally decided to go ahead and produce my own collection of Steampunk pieces. All of the pieces are one of a kind and made from completely recycled materials...so they are all green and environmentally friendly.  The items will be up for sale on my website very shortly...so if you are interested in any check them out. I am also happy to produce any custom made pieces to order...so if you have an old broken watch and want to turn it into a unique piece, just contact me.

 

 

  I normally talk mostly about vintage jewelry and accessories on this blog, but I do have other collecting passions outside of the sparkly stuff. I also am a big fan of vintage Pyrex. Growing up my mom had a small collection of vintage Cinderella bowls. When ever we would go antiquing when I was a kid, my sister and I were instructed to keep our eyes out for sets of Cinderella bowls. To me the great thing was that we actually used them in my mother's kitchen. They didn't just sit on the shelf gathering dust.

In my travels through estate sales and auctions I've been able to pickup a few good Pyrex treasures. Until today the favorite piece I owned had been my Golden Scrolll Cinderella bowl from 1959. It was a promotional item and a little harder to find.

Well, I have had my eye on a certain casserole dish for a really long time, but it seemed to always be out of my budget. I have been really wanting the Moon Deco dish forever...but could not afford the high price. It seems to be one of the more collectible patterns and go far large amounts like this listing here.

I had even seem this catalog page on Flickr that shows the piece...and it is from the year I was born, which then made me want it even more. So I always kept my eye out.

Well, today I found the piece at a local estate sale in Ballard. It was in pretty good condition with no cracks or chips. I almost squealed in the house when I saw it and pratically ran over to it. It made my day.

Now I think I'm going to concentrate on finding the pieces from the Barbed Wire pattern. If I find enough pieces of that one...I might upgrade to it and let my Forest Fancies pieces go. We shall see.

You'll have to forgive the pictures I pulled off the web. I didn't have time to take the pics myself.

I am so excited to have been nominated in Evening Magazines best of Western Washington contest. We are up against some tough comptition...we have lost to Pretty Parlor before...so I am hoping with your help to win this time. So please vote for us:

Lil'Paisley Best of Western Washington

You can vote once per computer, so please pass along the link!

I just posted a highly collectable Coro Craft pin and earring set on EBay. The set is from the 1940s and is one of the most recognizable sets by Coro Craft. It was designed by Alfred Katz in 1943. Here is a copy of the design patent for the pin.

 

This set won't last long...so now is your chance to grab a real collectable.

I have been getting allot of requests lately about my vintage jewelry repair and restoration services. Many jewelry stores will only repair fine and estate jewelry...leaving those highly sentimental costume jewelry pieces broken at the bottom of the jewelry box. Those are exactly the pieces that I love to repair. It could be the piece that Grandma wore every Christmas that needs to be soldered or have rhinestones replaced...or the crystal necklace that your mom wore in her wedding that you need restrung so you can wear it in your wedding. I can take care of it all.

A list of available services and cost are available here.

This picture is an example of my restoration work. This is a bracelet and necklace from Sarah Coventry called Shimmering Stars from 1958. The bracelet on the left is in the 'as found' condition that I received the set in. The necklace on the right is an example of a piece fully restored. This picture is a good example of what can be done to pieces that you think are beyond hope. I have just completed the restoration on the bracelet and matching earrings on this set, so now all three pieces arefor sale in my shop. I'm hoping to have it up on the website soon...I just have to get a good pic.