hola sugarhoney!

well that was quick!

there was a retriever-sized hole blasted into our hearts last week, and we stuffed it with a puppy. i have always said that the only cure for the dead dog blues is puppy shopping, and this weekend i put my money where my mouth is.

like the griswold's pilgrimage to see a moose, on friday we took a pilgrimage 7 hours in each direction to ohio to see a puppy.

I-75 north

kevin grew up with a black lab female - night - and he really wanted another one of those. i grew up with crappy rabbits and really just wanted another lab - any gender any color.

after some sleuthing, we found her online, decided we are crazy but who cares, and set off to bring her home. 

she is black, she is 8 weeks old, and she is bred to be mellow. her mother, princess, looks just like nacho with teats. her father, bear, is a sweet, calm, waggily boy.  we met them both and wanted to take them home with us, too. awesome dogs.

sugarhoney and her mama princess

the clincher was she was born on june 6 - nachodoggy's exact birthday! i mean really.

sugarhoney in the heartland

here we are at a truckstop where she had a drink out of nacho's fiesta bowl.



for all 7 hours, she slept quietly on my foot. at this point, she almost had her name changed to slippers.



when we got home, the introduction went well, and pouncey and eli were cordial, though not yet snuggly.  pouncey finds this exciting.



i am not sure if she is a dog, or a bear cub. what kind of animal is this?



she was not afraid of the river, and jumped in the middle of the rapids. and sunk! kevin was right there, and she scrambled to the side just fine. 



it has only been 2 days, but we are head over heels for this pup. we have a long way to go with house training, crate training, and chewing, but we can already tell she is calm and smart and she has a heart of gold!



nothing could ever replace nachodoggy, but it feels like some sweetness and light has returned to the house and harmonious balance is restored. aaaaahhhh!

with a name like sugarhoney, she has to be sweet

WTF Wednesday - friday edition

moving right along, because there's nothing nacho liked more than something that makes ya go hmmmmmm.... here is week 2 of WTF wednesday (or friday) -  that day reserved for scratching your head at the wide variety of whackadoo things human beings have created.

 you really don't see enough golf ball crafts these days.

did you know vanna white has a series of barbie dolls in her likeness from the 1990's? vanna gold, vanna silver, and vanna platinum. would you like to buy a vowel?

am i seeing this right? par 6? 747 yards? are we on mars?

this one is not man-made, yet still elicits a WTF response. a giant limb wishboned itself on another limb. widow maker to the max.

here we have a lovely wall hanging - somebody took a picture of a lamb in a thicket, printed it out in poster size and had it professionally framed. 

in more WTF news, we're looking for puppies and may be following the nacho trail of tears to ohio this weekend to pick one up.  crazy? yes. completely. but hell, we never claimed sanity.

WTF?

as with all wtf wednesdays, there are no answers, only questions leading to more questions.

for more vintage wtf wonders (for sale), click here: vintage wtf

buenos noches, nacho

with a heavy heart i report that sweet nachodoggy's kidneys failed yesterday and he had to be put to sleep.

he wagged his tail til the very end. 

i will desperately miss seeing this face full of fluffycups but putting aside my selfish grief, i am comforted by knowing he will never be itchy again. 

there's not much more to say about his gentle sweet disposition that i didn't already say last year here: happy 10th birthday NACHO! 

he was an angel on earth and now he is a real angel.  

rest in peace, sweet dog.

holden dog portrait by teylor smith

a couple months ago i invited any budding artists to send pictures for our handmade/kids art gallery in the dog's room.

i heard rumblings via kid D that her daughter teylor was working on a painting, and what color was holden's old collar?

last week the anticipation grew via this mysterious instagram:

"We must have looked at one thousand images before she found one she felt like she could draw. She then practiced, and practiced and practiced. Tonight she finished Holden. This is your sneak peek."

look! it's little holdie feet! keep in mind that teylor is 6 years old. 6. Six. not even 7 yet.

and then it arrived! straight from oklahoma - behold!  the finished portrait of holden as a puppy!

how freakin adorable is this? she really captured his eager to please personality.

 

eli wants to get a closer sniff. 


 

all the dogs are very impressed and only slightly jealous. i am going to get a frame this week and hang it in a most honored and highly visible spot in the gallery.

thank you teylor! bravo! keep up the good work - you have real talent & your painting brings us so much joy!

WTF wednesday

welcome to your first ever installment of WTF wednesday!

that day reserved for scratching your head at the wide variety of whackadoo things human beings have created.

i come across some weird, bizarre, crazy shit in my travels as a vintage hound, and will share some of them here.

 

here is a charming 70's cross stitch wall hanging. meant for a children's bathroom. why is the boy holding a sling shot. no really, WHY?

who wants to boogie board on a confederate flag? how about a confederate flag with a pitbull in a chain collar? sometimes i'd like to kick america in the jimmy.

 here's a sweet and loving 70's wooden plaque from bryson city, NC. the only non-vice expense in his budget is dog food.  (kevin hung this one up at his law office - asheville bankruptcy lawyer.)

even the handi-men in hawaii wear aloha shirts.  

we went to look at our 'dream house' on town mountain. the internet said it had a pool. the location was perfect. the view divine.

the house had been completely washed away by water. sad trombone.

as with all wtf wednesdays, there are no answers, only questions leading to more questions.

for more vintage wtf wonders (for sale), click here: vintage wtf

happy birthday, MOM

happy birthday to my wonderful, funny, beautiful MOM!



she looks pretty nice, but since graduation she has taken no prisoners at the bridge table or on the golf course.

my vintage t-shirt addiction

i was born in 1976, the heydey of the t-shirt.

in those days, t-shirts were soft, made in the USA, and the graphics were hand-drawn, bold and colorful.

5th birthday party in an apple schnapps t-shirt

my grandfather, flops, was a liquor salesman in providence, rhode island. he would get boxes of booze-related promotional giveaways to pass on to bar owners. he passed a lot of those t-shirts onto my brother and me. lucky!

poured in the USA boss berry schnapps raglan tee

 our nightshirts were schnapps t-shirts.

happy birthday yukon jack whiskey

we wore a "pott & coke" shirt until it disintegrated. (pott is a brand of rum) (we were 5 years old)

one of my first t-shirt memories is this cruzan rum shirt. so simple! so soft! so beautiful! we also had the matching beach towel.

a good 3/4 of my wardrobe is now and has always been designed for men or boys. i don't like being 'dressed up' and value comfort and texture over everything.

10 years old in a men's surfers alliance t-shirt

i continued loving t-shirts as i got older. i got them as souvenirs. i started going thrifting in high school looking for old t-shirts.

budweiser ringer and a bichon

over the years, i have amassed a closetful of about 100 soft, thin vintage t-shirts that i wear every day. i still have and wear a handful of the original t-shirts flops gave to us in the 80's. yukon jack is a clear winner.

in the coming months, i will highlight a few of my favorites here.  stay tuned!

just the hits

we had 3 row dead fuckin center seats for beck.

downtown at the thomas wolfe auditorium last saturday night.

we were 15 feet away from the guy. he was doing high kicks and moon walking. knee slides like marty mcfly in back to the future. the fly on his black jeans was halfway down. his tips are frosted. he is tiny. but the dude has moves! kind of prince-like in his dance style. it was a fantastic high energy show, and the seats were unbelievable. no xenu sightings.

went to a very different show this saturday night. chris smither at the grey eagle. sit down show. started at 8. walkers in the front row.

he is a fantastic storyteller and guitar player, and the show was full and happy.

our garden overfloweth with yellow cherry tomatoes. i don't know why they are yellow. they taste red. there are 10 new ones every day.

pouncey is still suckin on pillas.

how can you tell if a bear's been in your tree?

claw marks on the trunk!

what they're after:

reminds me of the old joke: how can you tell if an elephant's been in your refrigerator? there are footprints in the jello.

pouncey is curious. about bears and cherries. and cameras.

SHV at HSMF

High Sierra Music Festival jammed on this past weekend in California.

I was not there, but a slew of Skippy Haha Vintage shirts made the trip.

Behold members of ALO and Tea Leaf Green happily sporting SHV torso shields on stage.

photo by Wally Meerschaert

(L to R) Josh Clark in Lynyrd Skynyrd t-shirt, Bo Carper in vintage western, Trevor Garrod in embroidered 70's western, Steve Adams in Hot Tub t-shirt, and Dan Lebowitz in picnic gingham button down.

Viva rock!  Festivaaaaaaal!

july 4th in the 50th state

aloha!



it may not be the most popular time of year to visit maui, but the weather was tropical, everything was in bloom, and the trees served as flower girls.




our first stop was hana. the road to hana was slow, twisted, and dripping with scenic splendor.



the lava flowed down to the sea where it was beat back by the wind.



we got up early and hiked through bamboo forests to gigantic waterfalls at haleakala national park. 

we were the first ones there!



next stop - lahaina. hey - i have seen this view on t-shirts before!



kevin played (really really well...like 400 yard drives...draining 30 footers...) golf at the plantation course at kapalua. 



we saw unnecessary fountains under basement stairwells. 



we spent the last few days with fambly from denver in the bustling hippie town of paia. 

  

catching waves, watching turtles, looking for sharks, eating like kings, playing with the keiki.



it was a great trip, worth the looooooooong haul to and fro. hang loose!