beauties.

happy tuesday. here are a couple of cool cars i saw recently and was able to capture them without wrecking my own vehicle.

enjoy your day!

a quick note about vintage bicycles.

once again on the topic of bicycles ... i've discovered a cool bike shop near nashville called smoopy's vintage bicycles.

sounds like my kind of place. this is one of the beauties i saw listed that they have for sale.

here's another.

i may have to take a little drive to murfreesboro to check these out.

i'm on serious deadline today, so i've gotta dash. but soon i'll post what i'm working on - a 9/11 retrospective with an audio slide show. it's been a tough few weeks working on this project - a heartbreaking one for sure. but definitely worth it.

peace and love,
joan

wednesday wuvlies: vintage bikes.

copyright vanderbilt university/john russell

i am on the hunt for a vintage bike cruiser, huffy or schwinn. i prefer blue, as you well know. but could be swayed toward red.

this fall i hope to cruise around campus at lunchtime. wouldn't that be such a glorious fall thing to do?

here are a few lovelies i have seen around campus and around town.

remember this sweet thing that was abandoned for a whole two weeks, chained to this pole? i would have adopted it if i could. and believe me, i tried.

this seems to be the same bike a year later. it was fun to see my bike crush again. i thought it was gone forever.

now if only i had some wire cutters.

i saw this one in a store window. it's cute, but too fancy. i like old school.

now that's old school.

and here's the inspiration: my big brother circa 1970 on his cool red bike.

doesn't get any cooler.

what are you dreaming about today?

bits of my weekend vol. 59. and a giveaway!

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED.

granny, a.k.a., my mom, sent books.

oh how i love books.

especially vintage children's books. she and i bought these when i was in the heartland, and we decided they were too heavy to put in my suitcase.

i especially love children's books published in the 1960s, by authors like edith thatcher hurd and sid hoff ... books that smell like old paper ... books that still have the old library card in the pocket on the inside cover ... a library card that hasn't been stamped since 1976 ...

did i mention i love books?

the boy and i went to quiet church.

he insisted on dressing up.

it's kind of his thing right now.

he's already asked if he can wear his ties to kindergarten.

what a lovely, quiet place.

except when an almost-six-year-old eats cheezits during the homily.

we were a little early so decided to walk around the neighborhood.

look how brown my little bug is.

we stopped by the frist center, which wasn't open yet so we didn't go inside. but the boy declared the large balcony overlooking broadway the perfect place for his next birthday party.

genius.

we saw the "andy warthog" exhibit last weekend.

that's what the boy calls it.

then we meandered through the gorgeous union station hotel.

it used to be an old train station.

and it's so beautiful inside.

especially from above.

perhaps the perfect place for my next birthday party.

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED.
Don't forget that i'm giving away coffee from the fabulous buddy brew in tampa. leave me a comment here about why you love coffee and you'll be entered in the drawing.

if you have trouble commenting, friend me on facebook and leave the comment there!

PS the night market at nashville farmer's market with young jenny was fantastic. but i forgot my camera, so you'll just have to imagine the perfect night under the full moon: live music, gorgeous fruits and vegetables and a lively crowd. ironically, i didn't buy any produce. just organic homemade cookies that were terrific: a giant ginger snap cookie which i snarfed as soon as i got home, and a chocolate chili cookie that was out of this world.

i highly recommend this totally fun, cool and semi-hipster event. every month under the full moon, baby.

caribbean blue.

yes, it's a car and yes, it's blue.

but it's not vintage, it's new.

still, it caught my eye.

my friend tex and i ran into a nissan executive who was driving this pretty 2011 murano convertible.

only a limited number will be produced in this color, and they are being marketed to the coastal cities.

the color, he said, was caribbean blue.

i'm loving that.

the inside is huge.

and i love the light interior.

it's a two-door with a cloth top.

don't you just want to drive it to the beach?

note: nissan didn't provide me with any perks for posting this. but if they wanted to loan me one of these sweet babies for a couple of weeks, i wouldn't say no. just sayin'.

wednesday wuvlies: sweet rides

this week i saw some sweet little rides. many of them blue, of course.

some were really, really blue.

what could be more fun for a morning run for some macdo coffee?

except maybe this.

this baby is more my style.

ciao bella!

mint green. vintage.

'nuf said.

hello, old friend.

haven't seen this tangerine scooter in a while.

or is it apricot?

i can't decide.

nice to see you stella.

saw this vespa at trader joe's.

pretty cool.

and then there's this guy.

pretty ingenious if you ask me.

have you seen any sweet rides this week?

wednesday lovelies.

a few lovelies i saw this week.

a lovely dress, part 2

here's my aunt leona as a bridesmaid in my parents' wedding more than 50 years ago! she's wearing the vintage dress i'm planning to wear for a costume party later this month.

isn't it fabulous? and so well preserved!

my mom tells me at the time the dress was a little bit controversial among some, because it was both sleeveless (cap sleeve) and had a slight v-neck in the back.

racy!

a lovely dress.

I can't wait to dress up for a halloween party later this month.

i'm wearing my mom's vintage bridesmaid dress (more than 50 years old!) and my great grandmother's jewelry.

here's twinny modeling the dress back in july - i'll be adding another crinoline to make the skirt gigantic.

i also plan to have gigantic hair.

isn't playing dress-up fun?

turquoise beauty

you know how i am. when i see a gorgeous vintage car (especially a blue one), i've got to take a picture.

i saw this beauty pull in to a parking lot and i had to hop out and say hello.

turns out owner anthony is a sweet guy and let me take pictures of his ford galaxy 500xl.

fyi, this car is famous. it has been in multiple music videos and was driven around by delta burke in the title sequence of her short-lived nashville-based sitcom, delta.

thanks, anthony! i promise not to stalk you.

vintage finds

goodwill was bursting with vintage coats on saturday.

normally the boy and i just hit the toy section and the books, but i saw this gorgeous chocolate brown suede coat with a fox collar and had to have it.

twenty bucks.

yeah, baby.

i went back later and got this faux fur stole. my mad men party is going to be fabulous.

stay tuned!

granny camp: epilogue

recently i've become obsessed with vintage clothes and jewelry.

what luck to discover that my mom still has one of her bridesmaid dresses from her own wedding in the late 1950s.

here's my twinnie modeling it. isn't it grand?

one of my mom's bridesmaids returned it to her on her 50th wedding anniversary not long ago. wasn't that thoughtful?

can you believe she is letting me borrow it? if it were me, i don't know that i'd be that generous.

here's what it looked like back in 1958. gorgeous.

and speaking of generous, mom let her daughters borrow several beautiful pieces from our great-grandmother charlotte's vintage costume jewelry collection.

the broaches blew my mind.

what a stylish great-grandmother i had!

i'm so excited to play dress-up.

plans are under way for a vintage dress-up party. i'll keep you posted.

hugs to mom for sharing from this completely unexpected treasure trove.