>

Tag: Seattle Washington

Happy New Year! The Vintage Inn’s 2015 Year in Review

What a year this has been and how fast it has gone as well. I literally feel like I just started 2015 and now it’s coming to an end. Well the one thing I do know is that 2015 was a busy and fun year and I would love to share with you some of the adventures I got into with you. Here is my 2015 in review.

January: Every year I attend a big German Karneval (mardi gras) function called GAMGA in Las Vegas. It’s 2 days of costume parties, after parties and then a big Gala. It’s super fun and something I have been doing with my parents since I was a kid.

German Mardi Gras in United States

February: I was lucky to be able to attend the premier of the 1940s new Canadian TV show called ‘X Company‘. I have never been part of a premier and it was a cool experience and we even got to meet the host of the event and get our pictures taken with the cast and producers.

X Company TV Show Premier in Toronto

I attend a 1920s Speakeasy party at the famous and beautiful Palais Royale in Toronto.

1920s Speakeasy Party at Palais Royale Toronto

AND I traveled to Seattle, Washington for a long weekend to visit a good friends parents and see uber cool Seattle. I did a blog post all about it HERE.

Seattle Washington first starbucks
In front of the first Starbucks

March: I did nothing really blog post worthy. WHAT?? lol

April: VIVA Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend! I did several posts on that big adventure which can be found HERE.

Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend 18

May: Vintage Spectacular Dance with the GTA Swing Band. This was a super night of dancing, dressing up and great Big Band Music. The image below is some of the lovely ladies of TVS and the lead singer of the Band (she is soooo good).

vintage spectacular dance

I was very lucky to be part of a cool experience in May with a favorite Rockabilly band in Toronto called “The Millwinders“. Myself and few friends were filmed dancing in front of a green screen for use for future videos. Here are a couple of pictures from that day.

1950s vintage style
Credit: Kahlil Heslop

Lastly Toronto Lindy Hop (that I’m part of) put on a full weekend of Lindy hop, classes, history lessons and live music dances all weekend long called ‘Toronto World Lindy Hop Day’. I played host and it was such a good weekend 🙂

The images below are with 2 living legends in the Lindy Hop World. Chazz Young the son of one of the founders of Lindy Hop-Frankie Manning (and a talent as well) AND Dawn Hampton the Queen of the Cabaret and a little firecracker (her image is on the shirts we are wearing).

Dawn Hampton and Frankie Manning toronto lindy hop

Summer (June, July and August): I did a full blog post on all the events I attended (tiki party, UK Adventure, Horse race event plus much more), so check that out HERE.

hats and horseshoe event 2015 woodbine racetrack

September: Weekend visit to Havana, Cuba

This was not my first visit to Havana, but this was definitely the first time I visited areas outside of the Old part and it was fantastic. I still have to do a blog post on all the new things I saw but for now here is a collage of some of the highlights.

Havana Cuba

October: Halloween and a friend’s Wedding Reception Toga Party (yes a toga party). For Halloween the hubby and I went as Amazing Race Contestants. The outfits were big hits.

Amazing race costume idea

Toga Party!

toga party costume ideas

November: Swing Out To Victory’. Once again I helped my friend Dean with hosting duties as a third of the beautiful “Dominion Belles”.

Swing out to Victory-1940s vintage outfits
Credit: Kahlil Heslop

The throwing of the candies 🙂

Swing out to Victory-1940s vintage outfits
Credit: Kahlil Heslop

Here I am with 2 friends from the Toronto Vintage Society. Both created their outfits from scratch and Joy on the left, won the best dressed because she recreated the “Swing Time” outfit from the movie with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

Toronto Vintage Society Swing out To Victory

Opening of Toronto’s first ‘Shameful Tiki Room‘ (literally around the corner from my apartment). Now one of my local hangouts.

Opening of Shameful Tiki Room Toronto

The official Tiki mug for Shameful. Very Canadian with the Beaver 🙂

Shameful Tiki Room Toronto

I dj’d my first Rock N Roll social dance night for my friends 50s dance studio ‘Soda Pop Hop‘. Such a fun night!

Soda Pop Hop Social Dance Night. Rock N Roll dancing

December: Toronto Vintage Society annual Kitschmas Party. I played host once again at the party and it was another huge success. Here are the winners of the title of Kitschmas King and Queen. Make sure you check out the blog called “Flipsville” because she made these outfits!

Toronto Vintage Society Kitschmas Party

And that my friends is a general overview of my 2015 year. I hope you had a wonderful year and I wish all of you a Happy 2016! Thank you so much for reading my blog and commenting and just being wonderful readers, I love and appreciate each and everyone of you.

Liz 🙂

 

 

Vintage Inn Travels to Seattle, Washington

This past weekend was a long weekend in Ontario (yay Family Day!) and so my husband, a good friend and myself hopped on a plane to Seattle, Washington to spend the weekend sight-seeing, swing dancing and turns out getting to do some vintage shopping.

I did not take tons of photos that are nice enough to share on this blog (I need an actual camera, instead of continuing to torture you with my iphone photos lol), so I thought I would focus mostly on the cool vintage finds I stumbled upon.

First up, SOME photos from my trip that did turn out…

We visited Pike Place Market, walked past the famous Showbox theatre (see further down for more info on this landmark), saw a parking garage that looked like it was dipping right into the ground, had a view of the water on a warm day and stumbled upon a gorgeous walking area that reminded me of Paris.

Seattle Washington Pictures

I also saw the waterfront of beautiful Tacoma Washington, my very first Airstream dealership (gosh I wanted some) and stunning Art Deco Buildings.

Seattle and tacoma washington

Lastly before we move onto part 2 of my trip, I wanted to share the brief history of the Famous ShowBox theatre that I mentioned above.

Founded in 1939, The Showbox is one of the town’s few extant entertainment venues. It has provided local music fans a diverse offering of music over the decades. From the Jazz Age to the Grunge Era, the storied ballroom has featured shows by touring icons such as Duke Ellington, Muddy Waters and the Ramones — as well as those by homegrown talents ranging from burlesque queen Gypsy Rose Lee to grunge gods Pearl Jam. Although The Showbox has had its ups and downs in times past, today it remains active as a significant contributor to Seattle’s music scene, presenting more than 200 concerts per year to a diverse group of Seattle music lovers (Source).

Showbox Theatre Seattle Washington

Now during our sight-seeing I did come upon some vintage stores and ws able to do a wee bit of shopping (of course I did you say lol!).

Here is what I bought…

1950s Pillbox Vintage Hat with a small button on one end and larger one on the other..in mint condition from the most wonderful store (with the nicest staff) called “Bon Voyage Vintage“.

1950s Pillbox Vintage Hat-Marshall Field & Co Lemington

I only paid $12 for the hat and it has all its labels as you can see below (I just love when you know where it came from). I can’t wait to figure out some cute outfit to wear this with.

1950s Pillbox Vintage Hat-Marshall Field & Co Lemington

We then ended up in Tacoma, Washington which was this cute little town that had the best Antique/Vintage Stores all in one area.

Tacoma Washington
The Antique/Vintage Store Street

This is also where I cried (a lot) because I wish I had lived much closer so that I could have taken home so much of what I found that were priced so good!

But all was not lost as I did find some goodies that I could put in my luggage.  Like this adorable 1950s sheer vintage blouse that I got for $14 in a high-end vintage clothing store (like serving Champagne high-end, high-end). Score!

1950s Vintage Sheer Blouse

I then entered into a store that had the most amazing antique and vintage goodies (this is the store I cried in) with the best Mid-Century corner..ever! They had Tiki Bars, enough fiberglass lampshades to sink a battleship, art, teak tables etc. etc. etc. Every time I turned around there was another item that I was squealing over.

Like this stunning Shadow box (pictured below), that was too expensive for me and too large to take home but I loved it all the same.

1950s vintage shadow box

After I finished crying over all the mid-century items, we entered into the most packed store I have ever been in (like Hoarding packed). There was stuff literally everywhere and it was really hard to make sense of what these people possibly had, but thankfully my eagle eye friend and her mother managed to find a pile of vintage photos for me to browse thru and here is what I ended up taking home…….

Image # 1. This picture caught my eye because not only are all the outfits/hair fantastic but of the information on the back. It had all the students signatures and names and the year it was taken,1942 in California. Great time capsule!

Now do you see anything that catches your eye in the photo that seems a bit off for a photo taken in California in 1942?

How about the 2 girls wearing what looks like Lederhosen. I find this very interesting and was wondering if maybe it was a swiss school or something along those lines (because it would not have been German, I don’t think). Thoughts?

1940s vintage image of school children

Image # 2. My friend saw this image first and said “Liz she reminds me of you!” and I kind of think she does in a strange way and knew she had to come home with me. PLUS aren’t her glasses just the best?!

early 1950s black and white photo of a young girl

Image # 3. Well friends you know me and 1940s style and so of course I had to have this image of this gorgeous young woman from the 1940s to moon over like a crazy person. And what is that not to love? Her hair, dress, accessories are all perfect.

1940s Vintage Photo of a young woman

Image # 4. The below image from the 1950s caught my eye because I love that it looks like everyone is just having the best time at their fancy dress party. Don’t the young men look so handsome with their beautiful dates?

Hmmmm I wonder what kind of party it was?

1950s black and white party image of men and women

Image # 5. Party # 2 with the best dressed group of men and women around.

1950s photo of young men and women at a party

Image # 6: No caption needed but here I go anyways…AMAZING! GORGEOUS! STUNNING! Want every single dress in this picture! Eeek!! I can’t believe I own this photo now, and to be able to study every single dress and memorize every detail for ever and ever. Sigh……

1950s vintage image of women in fancy gowns

Image # 7. Lastly I believe this is a model shoot but I still loved it and needed to add it to my collection for I love a good vintage Pajama Party.

1940s/1950s Pajama Party vintage image

I will now leave you with a final photo from Seattle of my husband and I at the first Starbucks. This was like Christmas Day for my hubby as he is Starbucks # 1 fan and this was all he wanted to do when he got to Seattle. Bucket List item now checked off 🙂

Seattle Washington first Starbucks

Have you ever been to Seattle? If so what did you do on your trip? Do tell because I plan to go back as 3 days was not enough.

Liz 🙂