Lily Pulitzer 1931-2013

Lily Pulitzer died yesterday. She was 81. Lily was a wealthy American who lived on the East Coast and became famous in the 1950s for her outrageously colourful frocks. After her old school friend Jackie Kennedy was photographed in one they went beserko.
You can read more about Lily here.
She eventually sold her company and Lily Pulitzer merchandise is still available. Vintage Lily Pulitzer frocks sell for a bomb. I think the Happiness Place in Paddington stocks new Lily Pulitzer bits and pieces?

This is Lily in her store in 1959. As the story goes, she ran a juice stand in her husband's orange grove. She designed the fabric so the juice didn't stain her dresses. I think this story sounds rather flawed. Why would a person who described having a budget as 'embarassing' have a juice stand? Anyway, whatever your motivation or inspiration, thanks Lily.

I love this photo of Lily with her two daughers.
Below is an original Lily Pulitzer advertisement.

Below are some of the newer Lily Pulitzer products with her trademark eye popping colour.

Excuse me. The shoes!

A Lily Pulitzer interior. You've got to love the palm trees. Very Florida.

This below is, I think, Lily Pulitzer inspired Prada, but correct me if I'm wrong. Please.

Old men, giant flamingos and retrenched Christmas fairies

Happy new year (albeit belated)! I absolutely did not mean for so much time to slip by between posts, not that I imagine many people were on the edge of their seats waiting for me to utter my next word. The universe was against me in everyway; unexpected disasters, Blogger issues, photo uploading problems, a misplaced camera cord, unreliable internet connections, and so on.
We had a busy end of year, as everyone does, and then my (soon to be) 82 year old father became incapacitated, then hospitalised. Hands up anyone who has experienced the joy of transitioning an elderly parent from their own home to a nursing home (although we're constantly battling to use other names for it).
For the past week he has been trialling a lovely 'ah hm' at Clayfield. It's beautiful, heritage listed, all meals are made from scratch on the premises, it has beautiful gardens, air conditioning, it's close to everything, it has lots of common areas and easy accessability of course.

But guess what! He hates it, it's full of old people! This ageing parent business isn't easy on anyone, least of all the baby of the family. Poor me. So now he's back off to his own house to battle along a bit longer, then I imagine we'll start the whole process again.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I finally managed to get my hands on some giant flamingos. My Era buddy has a pair which I've coveted and I now I have my very own. With the stuffed peacock and now the flamingos the living area has taken on a rather 'camp' tone, which I don't mind a bit.

I also got these two brass goblet-ty things at the Salvos, tarted them up with some white paint and popped in some succulents. Yes I know a monkey could have done it, but I was still chuffed with the result.

Here is some more of my handy work. I acquired these two cane chairs, also from the Salvos. Then I whipped out the Janome and made some new covers for them. It made for a highly productive Friday night, and as it turns out, they are the most comfortable chairs ever put on the face of the earth.

This is a bonsai Fig I found in my father's garden. He said it's about 30 or 40 years old. We love it. It also had a mate, but after Peaches jazzed it up with a swing and a slippery dip it strangely passed on to the big garden in the sky. Considering it had sat happily unattended in Dad's garden for a few years it was a rather insulting gesture to turn its toes up only weeks after coming to living with us. Good riddance I say.

The girls have taken to calling regular trees 'big bonsais', which I suppose technically they are.

While we're on the subject of show and tell, this was one of my Christmas presents. I squeezed myself into it and wore it on Christmas Day. It gave the effect of a giant Christmas fairy, who had somewhat let herself go.

The stonework out in the garden is now pretty much complete and is just waiting for its plants.

She's coming along the old girl, slowly but surely.

King of the bush

On the weekend we were working in the garden, and by that I mean as usual, my husband was working while I watched, when a kookaburra flew down and perched himself on the wheel barrow, right near us.
Some things are just naturally cheering, like fireworks, balloons and dumpy little kookaburras. They so deserve their grandiose title of King of the Bush. We're lucky to have them, and they're so patient with those annoying noisy miners.

My husband started to hand feed him worms, and we spent the next hour enjoying each other's company.

Everyone had a turn at feeding the little fellow. He was a delight.

Finally, Peaches charged past him a bit too quickly and he flew away.
I picked up this little vintage gem recently. Emerald green velvet, cocktail length - you can't go wrong!

A vintage fashion emergency

Frugal February had to go on hold this morning for a vintage fashion emergency. Miss Posh Poodle is clearing out her storage shed and she's selling everyting off for no more than $30 a piece.
My life literally depended on attending this sale. I say this because in the interests of living a long life, it's imperative that one maintains a hobby/passion, all my reading on longevity says so.
I can't remember how much I paid for any individual piece, but my pick is this pink frock. I think it was $10? Still, Teddy's so disappointed in me he can't look at me, or my frock.

I picked up this little Hello Kitty smock for Peaches, she's partial to HK. As Mim won't wear anything that's longer than mid-thigh, Í couldn't find anything for her.

I also had to bring this little mid-century glass dessert set home. We actually use things like this all the time. The bowls are usually just the right size for a portion that's not too big and not too small, and it was only $22. Someone in the store commented that it would be $45 at the Salvos, and they're right.

I found this nifty skirt, which has 'Cycle in Progress' appliqued around the bottom. My friend and I assumed that referred to bicyling, and I pictured myself quaintly riding through Woolcock Park on a pennyfarthing.

Unfortunately, and this is a very big 'unfortunately', when I took the skirt up to the counter the lady who served me told me she'd made the skirt. She went on to tell me that is was created for an art exhibition she'd had based on the menstrual cycle.
'Oh', I said. 'So, Cycle in Progress means....'.
'Yes'. She said cheerily, as though this was a bonus.