my old clothes: priceless edition

as promised, what seems like 16 years ago, i'm addicted to vintage t-shirts and am going to share some of my favorites here.

we'll start with my most blockbuster of heavy hitters - my parents' college t-shirts. i don't wear these, but i could.

first off here is my mom's souvenir from the University of Rhode Island SAE Spring Weekend 1970.



it's a beautiful faded red-orange color.




awesome contrast stitching seams




sweet v-neck style




ooooold sportswear label

best part is it's a nightshirt! pretty bold that the fraternity t-shirt giveaway is a NIGHTshirt. gotta love the 70's!

(my dad was not an SAE. i'm not asking too many questions about how she got this one. just loving it.)

the other most prized t-shirt in my collection is this one of my dad's also from URI, circa 1968.

extremely faded navy blue




distressed, but hanging in there




check out that 60's vintage champion runner tag




air conditioning vents on back

these shirts are not for sale, nor will they ever be for sale. you know what, if somebody wants to send me $1 Million for them ($2M for both), i would part with them. other than that, forget it. 

this concludes the priceless edition of 'my old clothes.'  stay tuned for more of my favorites, ones that i actually wear, sometime in the near future. 

daily sugarhoney: sugarshots

sugarhoney passed her first checkup this morning with flying colors.

she got two big shots in her scruff and did not even flinch.

she weighs 16 lbs.

she met two giant pit bulls who really wanted to play with her in the waiting room and was calm and cool as a cucumber.

she is the mellowest, laziest puppy i could ever imagine.

Sugarhoney the Daily Puppy

look who made cover of the daily puppy today!

go over there and give her 11 puppy biscuits!

i put 20 photos in her album, and it seems to me that they picked 9 of my least favorite to feature. maybe the editors were drunk, or maybe it's a random generator.

anyway, here are some pictures i wish they had picked!


sugarhoney tennis ball


sugarhoney down the stairs


leaping sugarhoney


sugarhoney lies down when she eats


pouncey, sugarhoney, and eli - family portrait

ah well, i am very grateful she is featured at all - and next time on the daily puppy i will know to only upload the pictures that i want them to use!

here's the link again to give her biscuits: sugarhoney the labrador retriever

WTF Wednesday - 3.0

And just like that, it's WTF Wednesday again - time to look at some bizarre things and wonder.

First we have an interesting "get rich from home" scheme that is better than herbalife:

Raising earthworms for profit!  A multi-million dollar market. published in 1959, this book will show you how to grow a 4 pound parsnip and a 6 pound carrot.

Next we have a member of the species jackass americanus. Girls? Not even Asian women? Girls? Honk if you're a racist misogynist!

Last but not least, speaking of jackasses, no garden is complete without a burro garden planter - lifelike features with a saddlebag planter!

For only 5 books of S&H green stamps in 1975, this burro could've been yours. I like his spiked feet. 

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

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!