Saturday, April 28, 2012

Busy sunny day!!!!

Today another wake-up at 5a.m.... Flea Market time!!!!


It was not a so big flea market today probably because it's spring now and there are so much events on Sunday!!!


I found an incredible box full of vintage hats from the late 30's, early 40's and some dolls hats. Unfortunatly, this box was not well stored and all hats were in pretty bad condition... A few models were incredible!


Sylvain is always interested with vintage records but it's pretty rare in France to find good swing music, doo-wop and rock'n roll!!! In north east of France it's often german folklore.... 


I bought this pic-nic box from the 50's to keep cool our future summer outside meals!!! It made of steel and leather for the handle.


I found some vintage magazines and some other small things!


And after this flea market, we went to the thrift store whe I bought this mannequin a few month ago.... It's not a really good thrift store, sometime I can find one or two earrings pairs, absolutly no vintage clothes and everything is quite pricey!!!!


But today, some furnitures were waiting for us!!!! We have absolutly no room anymore at home for such items but they were SO FANTASTIC!!!!!!!


A full set, the table and the chairs will need a small restauration but I think they are worth this care!!!


We will need to find a place for this incredible find!


Moreover, after buying this set, we saw this plate in each piece of furniture!!! So exiting!!!! At home I check who was GERARD GUERMONPREZ and it was a french designer of the 50's... And now, my question was... "What is the true value of this set???????"
I found this estimation on internet only for one of these pieces!!! Wow!!!!!!!!!!!! It's far, far, far away from the price we paid....


And it was time for a BBQ party where I met a new friend.... MOKA!!!!


It has been the first sunny day since our US trip so we HAD to go out with one of our vintage car... Our spring is quite awful for the moment!


I wore on this beautiful spring day a 50's nylon dress...


and the 50's hat I bought here!!


My bag was bought at VLV car show this year.


You can see my secret on this picture, I need a pillow to drive my Chevy....





There is a lot of vintage industrial buildings like this one in our living area because there were so much oal and iron ore but now about all of them abandoned...



So it was a really busy day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Do you have a nice spring where you live ?
Do you like design furnitures or populuxe ?

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

LOS ANGELES by night

I forgot to write a post about our crazy nights in L.A. during our american trip....

 
Our first evening there was really full. We started with a doo-wop concert with Lil' Mo and the Dynaflos.



What an amazing group and the singer is so talented and friendly!
Let's listen to one of their tunes, my Junita by the Crest:


It was a great begining thanks to Peter and Astra from Danemark!!!!


 
We also went to Chit Chat Club in Downtown L.A.
It's a swing club in an beautiful ART DECO building.
It was the engagement party of our friend Robert that we have not seen for 4 years. What a pleasure to meet his fiancée Ashley!!!


We also met at this club a lot of nice people that we met again during our stay even in Viva!


We also went to Cicada Club where we already were 4 years ago.  
 
 
 
 
It was really more crowdy this time: a big band, some crooners and lovely tip tap 40's style ladies... what else to ask?


The dress code of this place is really unique: evening outfits or vintage clothes only! It was a pleasure to look at all these elegant people in this ART DECO decor so well preserved!


We had the great pleasure to meet and chat with Keely Smith, Louis Prima's partner and wife! This evening was for her.


What a lovely lady!!!!
 

 
We shared this nice evening with some new friends.


So easy to eat at 3a.m. in the USA!!!! A lot of restaurants are opened 24/24, hard to believe for us european people....


We also spent a nice evening at our friends Ashley and Robert's home. What a lovely 30's-40's furnished appartement! What a nice GE refrigerator from the 30s! Even their garage was interesting...
 
 
 
We enjoyed a huge mexican diner!!!!

 
With all these full evenings and nights... and days of course, I was so tired when we had to take the road to Vegas that I felt ill... I slept 16 hours non-stop.... and was ready for VIVA LAS VEGAS!!!!! To be continued....

Have you ever been to Chit Chat or Cicada Clubs in L.A.?


Monday, April 23, 2012

The NEON Museum

A lot of people told me that I had to visit the Neon Museum in Las Vegas.


This museum is not officially openned and you must take a appointment to visit it.


The Neon Museum was established as a non-profit organization in 1996 to collect and exhibit neon signs from the 30s to the 90s, the classic Las Vegas art form. Dedicated individuals from the private sector as well as corporate and government entities have worked tirelessly to promote the preservation of these national treasures. The Neon Museum’s mission is to collect, preserve, study and exhibit iconic Las Vegas neon signs for educational, historic, and cultural enrichment.

 

 
There are about 150 signs in their collection.
 

It's a guided tour because it can be dangerous due to rust and broken glass.

 
Our guid was really interresting because she told us about all the hidden stories behind all signs there.


We made this visit with our friends from Finland. You must recognized Sylvie from her blog 365 days vintage ! What a pleasure to share that with them!
 

 
All those signs are so big, it's hard to tell when they are in a top of a building, but laying on the ground...


They are so colorful that it's easy to make a lot of nice pictures!!!!


The site of the museum is not really big. I was hopping for a larger place.


This chineese girl is my favorite!!! And I wore the perfect chineese dress to match.... (dress just bought in L.A. a few days before)
 
 

Some signs are really famous and I saw some of them still hanging in 1997 for my first trip in Las Vegas. The city changed so much in just 15 years...


See the nice hawaian shirt bought in San Fransisco!!!


So it was a really pleasant visit but as I said I wished it to be bigger and see more of this part of American History.

Have you ever heard or visited this museum?
Do you think like me that these signs are a part of US history?