I've been pretty quiet lately and have not had a chance to post a good entry. The summer has been pretty busy and sadly the summer is coming to an end soon. I'm working on a few projects, one of them is a major remodeling of my website, finally!! To do so I've had to go back and search through piles of art and photography and updating them to better resolutions to live up to the standards of today's new web technology. Have I mentioned how far and amazing website technology has come! I feel like my website is eating dust with my self made 1990's format. Hopefully, next time I post, it will be with my newly revamped web home! Hope you are all having a great summer so far.....xo
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After 7 months, the book I have patiently anticipated to get my hands on since Christmas finally arrived, Beyond the Dark Veil. The book is an incredible collection of Victorian Post Mortem and Mourning photography put together by the folks at the Thanatos Archive. It is a beautifully haunting book rich with incredible illustrations and history regarding the long forgotten custom of post mortem. The book is brilliantly arranged in a black leather cover with gold foil on the edge of every page. As a photographer I collect vintage photographs, tintypes, and daguerreotypes. I also love the history of the Victorian era especially when it relates to post mortem traditions, so for me, what could be more perfect than this book. For all the photography geeks out there, Beyond the Dark Veil also includes a glossary of 19th century photography terms. In an era before modern medicine, death was a very common thing in everyday life. The tradition of post mortem and it's photography is not macabre at all but a beautiful sentiment of love and a way to celebrate the life of a loved one. I can't imagine how hard life must have been without the use of modern medicine.
For more information I have included links below: The Thanatos Archive Book Review by Wink Last Gasp Publishing Company I had the amazing pleasure of shooting alongside one of today's top concert photographers, Jared Polin. It was a blast at the Radio 104.5 show last week. A big thank you to I Heart Media and A silent Film.
The Reading WWII Weekend is two weeks away. Our family is part of the event and we will be there all weekend. Stop by our camp and check out our presentation, kids love it and I would gladly give you a tour of the entire site. For all the ladies, there is a flea market area with vendors selling all sorts of pinup style dresses and accessories . You can find our camp on the map next to the red arrow. We are right across from the French Village by our Canadian and Scottish friends. Prepare to go back in time 70 years as you hear 40's music all day long and people dressed in authentic 40s clothing. Also, don't forget to purchase your ticket for Saturday night's 40's dance in the plane hangar and dress to impress, 40s style. See you there!! For more info visit the MAAM site here.
The quality fit of a 40's vintage dress is impeccable. I have a harder time shopping in regular stores today than I do at any vintage store. You would think that at 100 lbs. I would be able to fit into anything, haha.........NO!!! Dresses today are manufactured so poorly that you start to believe there is something wrong with your body when in reality it is not your body but the poor quality of todays mass produced crap.
.......Today I was lucky to find this rayon 1940's classic beauty from my top secret vintage source which fits the way all dresses should fit today. This amazing vintage dress is not a wrap dress but it transforms to about 2 different sizes. Imagine wearing a size 4 and gaining a bit of weight to where you need a size six and still be able to wear the same dress and still have it look amazing on you without the need to do any work on the dress. This is the beauty of a 40s WWII era dress made with efficiency and conservation in mind. The dress has 3 buttons where you can adjust the waist size and then wrap the ruffled pleat around your waist. I cant wait to wear this dress to the Reading WWII event in two weeks with a large black brimmed hat, gloves and red shoes. I must say wearing a 70 year old dress of this superb quality does make me a bit nervous. The best part now is researching to see if I can find this exact dress in old 40's catalogs. Click on images to enlarge. Four more tintypes to add to my collection from our weekend trip to Gettysburg. I LOVE Gettysburg, the history and the Victorian era draws me in a couple of times a year. The photograph of the woman has an uncanny resemblance to Belle Boyd, wishful thinking : )
On April 30th come meet Dr. Judy Shaw, author of the beautifully illustrated book "The Raritan River, Our Landscape, Our Legacy" at the Raritan Library. She will be having a book talk and book signing at 6:30 pm. Some of the photographers will also be in attendance. Registration is required. See you there!
More info here. This spring my brand, Dear Sister Vintage, has three new fragrances:
Red Corset: Musky and Floral, this ultra vixen scent is inspired by early burlesque dancers of the 1800's. It kicks off with a sweet vanilla and sensual floral scent and finishes off with teasing notes of musk. Tintype: Make a lasting impression with this spicy and unisex perfume. Tintype has hints of exotic spices, and cedar. Let your senses explore this timeless, and mysterious fragrance. Temperance: Fall in love with this floral and feminine scent. Temperance has pretty notes of honeysuckle, and Jasmine. This fragrance will bring you back to those bygone summer days filled with crushes and flings. For more information visit dearsistervintage.com Way back in the early vintage years of the 90's my sister and I, me a teenager at the time, were big Sandman comic freaks. Who didn't love the Endless back in the days of the underground cult following. Me sporting green hair, dressed in Doc Martens, long black dresses pretending to be as cool as Death. Travel back to our present and Neil is still going strong as an amazing author, I no longer have green hair, or dress all in black, life has forced me to become an adult but I am still sporting my Doc Martens on photo shoots. The biggest most important difference now is that I have become the mother of a beautiful 9 year old son, Simon.
Four years ago my son was diagnosed with Autism, PDDNOS to be exact. PDDNOS stands for Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified. Wow, what a mouthful of fancy nonsense to describe a child as being "different". As you've probably read my story a few years ago when I decided to come to light with my son's diagnosis, of course my world came tumbling down. Out of three boys in our family, Simon is the second of our boys to be diagnosed with Autism. My amazing stepson, now 20, was diagnosed when he was a toddler. Who would have believed we would hit the Autism lottery not once, but twice! Luckily for my husband and I we were already well educated in the field of Autism with our oldest son's diagnosis. After all, second time is a charm right (insert sarcasm). My son Simon is an extremely intelligent child, emotionally advanced for his age. I'm not just saying that because he is my son but because I know he is "different" and he has the most amazing heart of gold. I speak to my son like I'm speaking to someone my age, he is knowledgeable and wise beyond his years. In a lot of ways he acts like my father. He tells me to behave, sticks soap in my mouth when the occasional curse word slips out, and he does NOT like green hair, or punk hair, or any other type of funky colored hair. Believe me, I tried giving him green hair one day and I got an earful from him. I guess my early rebellious years of having crazy hair did not pass down his gene pool. One thing however is his love an admiration of Neil Gaiman books and I could not be anymore happier. Yay, he did pick up a little bit of mom's edgy side!! About four months ago I picked up the Graveyard Book for him. I realized that books for his age level were not substantial enough for him. He is an advanced child so I figured, hey why not some Neil Gaiman stories. From then on he has been reading nothing but Neil Gaiman books for his school's reading log which he has to do every single day. Fortunately the Milk, Odd and the Frost Giants, The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains, Stardust, and Ocean at the End of the Lane have been his reading diet for the last 4 months. Yes, I sometimes cringe when I get emails from his teachers in fear that they will tell me the books are not suitable for his age level but thus far I have received no such notices. I did however have my parent teacher conferences last week. Because my son is categorized as Autistic in his school, the parent/teacher conferences are even more important. This last conference I was delighted to learn that the teachers have been impressed with Simon's writing skills and said that within the last four months they do not know what has happened to him because his writing has become abstract, he is thinking outside the box, and they even used his story as an example on how to compose a well written story for the controversial PARCC testing. Within the last four months the teachers said something has clicked inside his brain where he has become expressive through his writing and they are impressed and pleased to see him come out of his shell. Of course in my head the first thing that came to mind during the conference was "Yeah, thank you Neil". That night I drove back home in tears sitting next to my husband. I was so proud of my boy. I am glad to see him not afraid to express his feelings through writing as he has so many beautiful feelings in his heart that many times he is too shy to express. He is becoming quite the little author, a bookworm who spends hours reading novels and I have Mr. Gaiman to thank for his progress. Who would have known that passing on the magic I experienced as a teenager reading Sandman comics would pass on to my son years later reading Neil Gaiman novels. Thank you Neil, from the bottom of my heart. - For more information on Neil Gaiman please visit his website at: www.neilgaiman.com If you are a parent looking for a guide to Neil Gaiman books for children check out www.mousecircus.com, the official Neil Gaiman website for young readers. ** Neil Gaiman is the author of more than 20, #1 New York Times best selling books. He is the recipient of many literary awards, writer of some of the best Doctor Who episodes, and for me, the dear and beloved creator of the Endless, the amazing Sandman comics. When I was in high school I always wanted to be a fashion designer and have a collection shown in fashion week. Never in my wildest dreams would I ever guess that I would make it into fashion week not as a designer but a photographer. After all, I went to school for fashion design and not photography, I taught myself photography as a hobby. Fate works in mysterious ways sometimes :) Here are some of my pics. from the fashion week circuit this February.
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AuthorPlain and simple, I'm painfully the artsy type. I like to keep my mind occupied because it keeps me out of trouble. I love art, photography, music and the 1940's. Between art exhibits, photography projects, design work, developing and promoting my new upcoming line the "LuvSicks", dressing up in early 40's vintage clothing for WWII living history events and endlessly researching the 40's home front and women's fashion to help educate the audience, and dusting off my drum sticks once in a while, I am endlessly busy. In a nutshell I draw silly pictures, shoot pictures, and play dress-up. In a nutshell I guess I never grew up. In a nutshell I guess I'm just a nut! Archives
August 2015
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