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!

happy birthday, nachodoggy!

whew! donde estan los dias? (very roughly - where did the days go?)

today nachodoggy turns a ripe 11. he is still hopped up on steroids and feeling GREAT! his allergies are gone and he can enjoy jumping around the yard with his fluffycups flying.

today he will have (part of) a rotisserie chicken in celebration.  not too much or he frows up.

happy birthday sweet little sugardoggy! 

happy mother's day

from pouncey in a flower field!

kids art 3d printing spring pretzel

last week 2 nephews, my brother & sister in law stopped here amidst a 2 day road trip for a total of 14 hours and during the entirety those 14 hours it rained steadily and was under 50 degrees. it was great to see them nonetheless and they will have to come back and enjoy the outdoors soon. 

here is our ever-expanding gallery of kids' art and vintage cross stitch. if any of your kids want to be featured, please send away!

my friend who works for makerbot sent me a sweet box full of 3-D printed with "a corn based eco-safe bio plastic." 

we have labrador stoppers of many shapes, stretchy fun bangle bracelets, a hot pink unicorn cat, a dunny, and fantastic dog butt hooks in green and  -

nacho! already hung nacho butt for keys. phuckyeah!

 spring has really sprung around here. everything is changing like crazy. it's neon.

he sees cows

on thursday i found this heathered gray vintage 80's sweatshirt with an airbrushed picture of "Pretzel" the beautiful long haired long tongued dachshund dog. 

Supermama of Supermama vintage alerted me to the "mamie ringer t-shirt" on ebay. they're asking $5000 for it. i would be happy with 1/100th that.  "Pretzel" will be posted this week. 

 blisstexas bought this fun fiesta san antonio shirt from shv and posted a few pictures from the actual festival this weekend. it is awesome to see a shirt get a great new life! 

we have plants in the garden, and in pots on the deck. ferociously friendly nachos on steroids still. todos buenos!