Butter & Buttermilk

For the most part, Dalena Vintage has been a place for me to talk about all things fashion related. Lately though, I've been thinking about changing it up a bit, incorporating more of my loves and giving it a rounder feel. After all, in the scheme of my life, vintage clothing is only a teeny tiny piece of who I am!

So this is a test. Just a test. Here we go...

Starting up your own shop isn't always all it's cracked up to be. It's freedom from the man. It's living on your own schedule. It's doing what you love. It's a limitless list of good things really. But it's also long hours, living on a tight budget, a perpetual lesson in stress manangement, ecetera.

This said, I've recently fallen out of the honeymoon phase and into a being-broke-is-no-fun-let's-get-this-thing-moving phase. I've learned quite a bit about stretching what I've got and simplifing my life. Over the past few months, it's been an interesting challenge to bring this mentality into the kitchen but I've managed and actually found it quite fun. Let's take last week's kitchen project, turning one simple ingredient into two useful products. Butter and buttermilk!

All you'll need is heavy cream, a mason jar, an extra container and strong arms.

1. Fill your mason jar about halfway with heavy cream. Close it up and start shaking!

2. After about 5 minutes, your cream will turn to whipping cream. Keep shaking you're halfway there.

3. The mixture will start to thicken and look like this.

4. Now the fun part, it's going to separate into two parts. The solid piece should be a slight yellow color, and yup, this is the butter. The liquid is fresh buttermilk.

Now you'll want to pour the buttermilk into your extra container. With cold hands, take the butter and squeeze out the excess buttermilk. Next rinse with cold water, folding a few times and voila! Fresh butter and buttermilk.

Stay tuned later this week for what to do with that buttermilk!

tea rose, stil de grain & old lace

Woken quite early by Miss Cami's cute little nose begging for food at my bedside, I jumped out of bed excited about the estate sale I had planned on going to this morning. Country roads. Check. Old barn. Check. Heaps of vintage clothing. Check.

Now maybe it's just me, but seeing a combination of the above in a single estate sale ad had me pretty darn fired up. Throw in a breakfast of homemade coffee cake and two cups of coffee, and you've got one wired gal.

I had a few stops to make along the way. At my first stop, I scored a 1940s/1950s tea rose slip made of the softest rayon and a most becoming 1960s wedding gown! Not too shabby I must say and all in about ten minutes time. Onward I was, out to the countryside just on north of Bellingham to said estate sale. The directions they had given were quite shady, but I wasn't hindered. I had confidence in the "well marked signs" they had bragged about.

Alas as soon as I headed off the highway, there were no signs to be found. What the devil. Driving and driving down back roads and country lanes, I stumbled on a few sales but definitely not the sale. The sale that claimed to be the sale of the year. In fact, at one garage sale I asked the woman holding it if she had any idea about this infamous barn sale to which she replied. "You know what, I don't. But there have been a few people who dropped by here looking for that same one! Good luck to ya." Well, after about an hour and half of driving I gave up and headed back to town. I ended up with a few good finds, but was definitely grumbling about the phantom sale.

Now why this ramble? Well, I have a plea to all those holding estate sales. If you're going to have a sale and aren't providing an exact address or contact information, please have the decency to let folks know if you decide to cancel it! That is all.

On the brighter side, several of these lovelies will up in the shop tonight. The rest will go up throughout the week. And of course, let me know if you have any questions!

colorized

If you haven't figured it out by now, I'm a huge fan of Shorpy, a blog soley dedicated to historic photos from the 1850s to 1950s. If you've never been over to the site I highly (I would have super italized this if I could) recommend having a look around over there!

Normally I'm keen on the black and white images, using my imagination to conjure up color into each photograph. However tonight, I'm drawn to the colorized photos. One of the things I find most interesting are the comments. Quite a few people talk about how horrible it to colorize photos. I must be honest, I don't know what the big deal is. It's not as if the original was colorized folks! I could understand the rants a bit more if that were the case, but it's not at all. Most of the complaints revolve around robbing the image of it's original beauty. Well again, they've got both images. If you so desire to see the colorized in it's original black and white, you can easily do so. Actually, I find it rather fun to check out the black and white, imagine it in color in my own little head, then get the chance to see someone else's take. What are your thoughts?









Now colorization drama aside, can you tell I'm dreaming of Summer? I know it's supposedly here but I'm not quite convinced. Until the sun tells me otherwise, I'm taking warmth and inspiration from each of these bathing beauties! One pieces galore and that last with the belt, just darling.

a little listing & relax time

After an unbelievably long and somewhat torturous day, all I can bring myself to do is edit a few photos and list these darling vintage pieces all from the 1960s and 1970s. I hope you like what you see! If my evening goes as planned, they will all be up in the shop by the end of the night.

sponsor dalena vintage

It's that time, I've finally taken in the plunge into sponsordom! Have a look at the Dalena Vintage sponsor page for details, or if you're interested in rates for the month of July just drop me a little email at Leslie@DalenaVintage.com. Ad space is limited so get a wiggle on it if you're looking for an affordable way to promote your shop or blog.

summer straw hats

Some days I get so terribly excited about my finds that I race home as quickly as can be just to share my delight with you. I'll run in the house, pet the puppy and dart back to my room for the camera. Today was definitely one of those days.

After a lovely morning of running errands, (indeed errand running can be pleasant!) I met up with a friend for a delicious breakfast for lunch over at the Deception Pass Cafe followed by a visit over to my friend's farm in Skagit. So close to Mt. Vernon, I had to stop by just one thrift store. Lo and behold, several summer straw hats were waiting for me, practically begging to be taken home. How could I refuse such a request? Done and done and off I was back home, hands filled with yummy leftovers, a pallet of starter plants from the farm and a few cute hats for the shop. Not a bad day.

Now a little more editing and you'll find these 1950s lovelies up in the shop!

I'm in deep admiration of the milliner who crafted these details. They couldn't be any sweeter.

kling summer 2010

Wandering through the delicious site that is the Dujour blog, I came across the Kling Summer 2010 collection and was instantly smitten. The muted tones, delicate nature of the photos and feminine frocks lured me entirely and left me longing for my girlfriends back home.

a sunny disposition

I'm desperate for a bright and cheery Summer day up here! The overcast skies, constant rain and chilly days are beginning to take a tole on my sunny disposition. In a cry for sunny weather, I photographed these hats today hoping they would take on function over form. And now, looking out my window, I'm catching the tiniest glimpse of blue sky through the clouds. Ah, finally an answer to my wishful thinking.

Oh and I almost forgot, these lovely hats will be up in the shop tonight so stop on by if you get the chance.

And on another side note...While trying to date these adorable hats I ran across the following ad from 1947 featuring Portis hats! The black beauty is a Beaver Blend Portis fedora for the record. I actually found another ad where it was featured but sadly couldn't save the image to my desktop. I love it when I come across vintage ads or photos featuring pieces in the shop. Do any of you vintage lovers do feel the same way?

buttercream frosting

These lovelies will up in the shop throughout the evening so be sure to have a look if you fancy anything! I'm in love with the 1960s buttercream day dress. If I kept the darling thing, I'd be sure to wear on at least one summer picnic. So if you're the gal destined for this dress, you must make me a promise. That you'll head out for a picnic, camera in hand dress on body, and snap a photo!

bits of love

This is how I feel.
A question mark here and a question mark there.
And how, may I ask, do you feel?



hiking through morning fog
(and stumbling upon hidden treasure)



drifting away on cloudy days
(and getting the bench all to yourself)



peeking out to islands and oceans
(with no one there to peek back)



burying myself in maps
(with the rumble of the tracks beneath me)



playing in fields of clover
(and clover graced faces)

milikin, amanda white, ikebana, maus, colour lover

in summer rain

Behold the fruit of yesterday's thrifting adventure! I wish I could say this 1970s Sea Lure swim suit will be nestling in with my the rest of my wardrobe for the summer. Sadly though, it's just too big for me so I'll be putting it in the shop later this evening. What I love about it other than it's adorable cut, is that it could easily be a summer playsuit. Slip on a pair of flats and you're off into the warmth of the day!

* 1970s Sea Lure swimsuit stolen from the shop
* Seashell pinkie ring straight from the beach!

the brox sisters

Lately I've found myself completely taken with images from the 1920s. I'll google random words that are related to the decade, click on images and sift through all the photos that come up. Some uninspiring. Others, well, too dreamy for words. Last night, I was all googled out and went over to the Shorpy website for a quick look. To my surprise I found several photos of the same three ladies. But who were they? I had no idea. There was a little caption reading "The Brox Sisters" but I had never heard of them. Intrigued, I did a little scouting and come to find these three beautifully dressed sisters were among the first artists to appear on Vitaphone sound shorts in the 1920s. The trio started out on Vaudeville in the 1920s and by the early 1930s were already broken up but had quite the time it seems performing with The Marx Brothers and a slew of other stars.





I'm smitten with those lacy nighties and the frizzy silent film bed head going on in the second photo. What about you?