Etiquette for the Working Girl

And now, time for...

"Everyday Etiquette"

This week's etiquette lesson comes to us from the chapter entitled:

Let's join our lesson, already in progress...

I am a personal secretary for a major executive of my firm. When my phone rings should I say, "Miss Brown speaking" or should I say, "Mr. Carstair's office, Miss Brown speaking" or just "Mr. Carstair's office." -M.J.B. Flemington, New Jersey

You say "Mr. Carstair's office," and add, if you wish, "Miss Brown speaking."

-Hey Miss Brown, you just missed 5 phone calls while writing this letter asking how you should answer the phone. You're fired.

-Horshack would never have this problem: "Hello, Mr. Carstair-r-r's office!"

And that concludes another lesson in "Everyday Etiquette". Please tune in next week when we will learn what our calling cards should read when we're divorced and the ex dies. dum dum DUM!

**Questions and Answers from "Everday Etiquette: Answers to Today's Etiquette Questions" by Amy Vanderbilt, 1952-1956. Snark responses from "Maggi", 2010**

**Please note, all snark implied is just that, snarkiness. Please answer all phones correctly or we will descend into chaos...**

Ebay, Schmebay Strikes Back

Hey y'all!

First of all, I have to thank you for your support and sweet comments on my last post about the Ebay Dress of Disappointment. I'm happy to report that the story has a happy ending! Huzzah! :D

The seller responded to my e-mail, fortunately she was super cool about everything. She offered me a full refund and a shipping label to return the dress. Quite frankly, I wanted to keep the dress since I felt a lot of the problems were somewhat fixable so I counter offered to keep the dress in return for a partial refund. She agreed, I got part of my money back, bada bing bada boom (I'm saying that a lot lately...) and we're good. :)

I spent the morning washing and pressing the dress (it had that lovely Vintage Musk smell to it big time) and then mended the holes along the seams. (Go me!)

And here's what the fuss was all about:

As you can see, the measurements listed were off as well. I'm a little bit of a Chesty LaRue but no way the chest measurements were as big as what the listing said they were. No worries, I'm currently exercising and all that healthy what not so it should fit a little better soon. :)

The dress screams, "Ethel Mertz Lives!" I think. Lucy may be the icon but it's Ethel's wardrobe that I look for (and can halfway afford most of the time). lol Fun!

Thanks again for your advice and virtual shoulders to cry on, I so appreciate it!

Happy Friday everyone! Any fun vintage plans this weekend?

Ebay, Schmebay

Hey y'all!

Okay, so I count myself as a halfway decent vintage shopper. I don't (well I try not to) shop stupid outside of my budget and most of time I stick to the "Second Time Mine" rule where if something is still at the store next time I go and I can afford it, it's mine.

Anyhoo, all this to say that the other day I bid on a 50s dress on Ebay when I shouldn't have...I mean we had the money but I didn't need to be spending it, know what I mean? So I prayed and prayed that someone would outbid me, of course no one did and the dress was mine. Blerg. (I got it for a good price but still...)

But no worries, I paid for it right after winning it, apologized to the husband and learned my lesson of "No Bidding on Ebay If You Don't Need to be Spending Money, Stupid". So the dress arrives today and I felt like I was living a page from 1950's Atomic Ranch House's Ebay book (bad chapter, not the awesome pink appliances good one). Let's see if I can explain this in a way that makes sense and doesn't take up 10 pages...

Okay so I don't buy from Ebay often. I know it's like a great source for cheap vintage stuff but all told I've probably bought 5 things on Ebay during my years of being signed up over there. No particular reason, I just don't. I also don't dig confrontation although since getting older I've gotten better about that. But at any rate, whenever I've had a problem with Ebay or Etsy or wherever, I calmly and sweetly contact the person, get it dealt with, move on.

SO ANYWAY - This dress I bought was listed as having a couple of rust stains (which were pointed out in the listing) and no holes - otherwise fine condition. I get the dress today and the Priority envelope it had been sent in was almost all the way opened. (The tissue paper they wrapped the dress in got stuck to the sticky on the envelope so it never closed.) How in the world this dress got to me without damage or coming out of that envelope, I've no idea.

But the dress is fine so whatever. Then looking at the dress, I discover that there are indeed holes in the dress, specifically 3 where the seams are coming apart. But I figure, well I can sew that up. So I very kindly e-mail the seller to let them know that if they use those envelopes again, they may need to be taped just in case and the ad said no holes but I found some in the seaming.

Okay fine, e-mail sent - very sweetly I might add. Then as I was getting ready to launder the dress, I find an actual hole in the skirt which got me thinking that the seller didn't really look the dress over very well since I found this hole and the others pretty quickly and the ad said the dress was "free of holes". So I took a picture of that as well (I had sent a picture of the other holes for the first e-mail) and sent a second e-mail. (Plus, I realized later that the bust size was also misrepresented but at that point, whatever - that's the least of my problems here).

That was this morning and now I'm just waiting on a response from the seller. I'm not mad or anything actually, I'm just not sure what to expect since I'm not a frequent ebay-er nor immediate yeller at people for stuff. lol I'm also not sure why I'm blogging about it either except that I feel like in this virtual vintage world we live in, I guess I need a little hug and an "everything will work out". LOL Especially since I already feel like a moron for buying it in the first place...stupid poetic justice...

Any thoughts or opinions from the Ebay Masters out there?

But so this post isn't a total loss, here's a picture of some cups I found at a thrift store a month or so back:

AND on a super happy fun note, Vintage Christine from I'm Not Old, I'm Vintage is having a 100 Followers Giveaway so go check that out! :D

I hope you're having a great day! :)

Kitchen Kollection

Hey y'all!

Just wanted to share a few new finds with you on this fine Saturday...

I found another chopper! This one is burgundy-ish and has the plastic thingie-do at the bottom to protect the glass:

My mom gave me this steamer out of her collection:

She also gave me this Trav-L-Bar she found a while back:



*Speaking of collections, my mom has the best collection of hats. I've got to remember to take pictures of them to show you.* I found this syrup...uh...container? Pitcher? I'm drawing a complete blank on what this is called and I'm too lazy to Google whatever. :P Anyhoo, it's heavy duty glass and metal, this thing is going to last forever.

I looooooove this popper! It looks brand new, it has a little instruction booklet and the power cord looks like it's never even been plugged in:

Of course part of the reason I bought it is for the groovy picture on the front:

What can I say? I'm a pushover for illustrations. :P So that's it for now! I have been wanting to do an outfit post but the weather has been yuck lately so since I've started vlogging, I may just do a video instead. :D

Have a great weekend y'all! Do you have any vintage type plans?

Etiquette for Dead People

And now, time for...

"Everyday Etiquette"

This week's etiquette lesson comes to us from the chapter entitled:

Let's join our lesson, already in progress...

I recently received a printed acknowledgment card for flowers which I had sent to the funeral of a friend. Are these printed acknowledgments replacing the handwritten note? -F.L.M., Memphis Tennessee

Morticians usually supply as part of their service printed acknowledgment cards to be sent out by the family. These should not be used instead of a handwritten note, however brief, although the use of engraved cards for large public funerals, where thousands of letters and floral offerings are received, is quite understandable.

-Okay, first of all, if you're my "friend" and you send flowers rather than actually show up at my funeral, you can hand write your own darn "acknowledgment". At least you're not dead like me you ungrateful wretch.

-Second, I'm pretty sure that unless you're the Queen, receiving "thousands of letters and floral offerings" at your funeral is a little bit of a reach. Although if getting that much means my family is off the hook from hand writing notes at a time of mourning then I'm going to start making more friends.

-Lastly, excuuuuuuuuuse meeeeeeee for not taking time out of mourning my dead family member to hand write your snotty self a stupid thank you note. Just be glad I didn't send a mass e-mail or text message. In your face, old school!

And that concludes another lesson in "Everyday Etiquette". Please tune in next week when we will learn how to answer the phone when we are the secretary of a major executive. dum dum DUM!

**Questions and Answers from "Everday Etiquette: Answers to Today's Etiquette Questions" by Amy Vanderbilt, 1952-1956. Snark responses from "Maggi", 2010**

**Please note, all snark implied is just that, snarkiness. Please hand write all thank you notes or we'll all be struck down and thrown into the pit of despair...**

A Swap, A Sale and Pink Lace

Hi everyone!

**Thanks for all of your input and opinions on my last post! I appreciate it so much!**

I participated in Rice Babies Vintage Love Exchange swap and was paired with the lovely LaLa of Simplest Form of an Elle. I had such fun putting together a package for her which you can see on her blog and today I got this fabulous package from her:


So many cute things! Thank you LaLa!!!!!

Okay, remember last week when I said I went to the best yard sale ever? Well, I wasn't kidding. My most favorite vintage place to shop ever is Kitsch-y Cool Vintage and I just happened to run into the owner a couple of weeks ago while shopping there. She is super groovy and told me that she was going to have a yard sale to get rid of some stock and would I want her to e-mail me to let me know when it would be? Hmm, let me think...YES PLEASE!

So that happened last week and she let me take a couple of pics (before I ransacked the place of course, lol):



I actually only took these two pics of everything, she actually had a ton more for sale. Here's what I got:



My first Enid Collins bag! It's missing some gems but I'm hoping I can track some down to fix it up. I paid (*drum roll*) $1.00 for it.

I eagerly flashed through the clothes racks she had and was lucky enough to find one shirt and four dresses, all of which fit me - awesome! So may I present my very first outfit pic, this is one of the dresses I got there (for $1.00!!!). It's a handmade dress, pink lace and it fits me perfectly - even the length is perfect! (most dresses I find go almost to my ankles, they all need to be hemmed. lol)

I'll post the others too at some point. Thanks for tagging along with me to the yard sale! :) Have a great day!

The Seventies Are Alive and Well...And In My Kitchen

Hi everyone!

First things first, the ever fabulous Mary of Welcome to DeluxeVille is having an AWESOME giveaway to celebrate her 400th follower. I'm only telling you this so that you don't visit her blog and enter because the prize is so drool-worthy, so incredibly wonderful that I'm going to be immensely selfish and not send you over there to enter the giveaway. Unless of course you wish to enter and will send me the prize if you win, then by all means click here to enter. ;)

In other news, not much to show you today. I went to a rockin' yard sale on Friday but am still taking pics of the dresses I bought so that will have to wait for another time. Just the two things today: a tea kettle and food chopper that I'm pretty sure are 70s-ish (maybe late 60s at the earliest I'm thinking, correct me if I'm wrong!) that I got at a thrift store last week. Cute, eh? I also got a sweet 70s house dress and top but haven't taken pics yet, will add that soon! :D


Speaking of dresses: One of the dresses I bought on Friday is 100% acetate and really "streak faded". I think the only way I'll be able to wear it is to dye it, possibly black will be my only option. Anyone out there have experience doing this with vintage pieces? Y'all know I hate hate hate altering anything that's in good condition but the fading on the dress is quite noticeable unfortunately. Any tips are greatly appreciated! :D

Welcome new followers and thank you to all of my readers, I so appreciate you taking the time to come by and say hello! :)

If Youre In Doubt About Angels Being Real...

I can remember being a kid and getting stuck at my mom's answering service when I was sick or school was on vacation or whatever. There was never anything to do...except between the hours of 8:00 and 9:00 in the morning. That glorious hour will forever be burned into my brain as giving me the gift of reruns with two shows: Inspector Gadget and Gidget.



Now some people will argue that the only "Gidget" is Sandra Dee (I'm pretty sure no one will argue a case for Deborah Walley or Cindy Carol) and alright, I'll buy that BUT for me it will always be Sally Field. I think maybe it was that she had brown hair like me, was short like me and was always getting into fun crazy shenanigans at school (which by the way NEVER happened to me in school, all I got was teased and bullied, thanks a lot unrealistic school expectations given to me by television for jerks).

(Gidget game from eCrater.com)

Anyhoo, I loved this show and through the power of Netflix decided to give them another viewing and this is still the cutest little 'ole show you ever did see. Not even 1986's "The New Gidget" can dampen my enthusiasm for this character. (And yes, I watched that show...What was I thinking? *face palm*)



Of course, now I'm not so starry eyed and dreaming of a magical high school experience but instead through rewatching this show I have discovered what a tool Moondoggie was (in the show and in the movies, have you noticed? Whatta jerk!) and wondered how I can recreate Sally Field's hairstyles and outfits for myself. I also still kind of wish people would call me Gidget. :P

From Gidget Minisodes on You Tube, here's "Gidget's Career":



So here's to harmless bright sunny fun on television!

Do you have any television favorites?

The Library That Hollywood Built Part 2

Some of you that have been around for a while will remember my post The Library That Hollywood Built back in December of 2009. In that post I explained my love of biographies/autobiographies of "Golden Era" stars and celebrities. For most, there's a particular mystery about them since back then we didn't have the internet, TMZ or Inside Edition to tell us up to the minute scandal "news".

But I won't go into all again, let's just talk about the second half of the books I've read so far. Admittedly, it's been a while since I've read these so pardon my virtual "ums" and "uhs" as I try to get my brain to remember everything. :P

Books Completed As Of 05/06/2010

'Tis Herself: An Autobiography by Maureen O'Hara

I think I most remember Maureen O'Hara from Disney's "The Parent Trap" and the first time I saw it as a kid I thought she was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. That glorious red hair and Amazon physique made me wish I was 10 feet taller so I could look like her. She worked hard in Hollywood and didn't take crap from anyone, including Walt Disney.

Promised top billing for The Parent Trap and instead bumped for the new to the scene Hayley Mills, O'Hara fought Disney to make him fulfill their original agreement. The story goes that as Disney lay sick in the hospital, he called Maureen O'Hara "That Bitch".

The most interesting part of this book is learning more about her (platonic) relationship with John Ford, a director on a number of her films. Most interestingly, the relationship with Ford seemed more bizarre and abusive than the one with her alcoholic 2nd husband. This is a great book to read for inside information on Hollywood and how one survives it. I found her writing style and kick butt attitude enjoyable to read although parts of this book were truly heartbreaking.

The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography by Sidney Poitier

If you're looking for Poitier's story of his Hollywood experience, this is not the book to get. I should say that I love Sidney Poitier. "To Sir, With Love" is a favorite of mine and I think his acting ability is off the charts. Although this book does discuss some of his experiences in Hollywood, it's mainly what the title says it is: A Spiritual Autobiography. He talks about work ethic, determination, extreme poverty during his childhood (among other things) and quite frankly while reading it, I felt like a lazy slug that's never worked for anything a day in her life. LOL That being said, this is an excellent book. But I would not consider it "light reading". :D

Sunshine and Shadow by Mary Pickford

I have to admit that before reading this book, I knew zero about Mary Pickford. I knew her name, the era in which she worked and that was about it. Her autobiography was an absolute delight to read. This was my first experience reading about life in the movies when they were still silent and I was absolutely enchanted the entire time. Her story of getting into the movies, supporting her family in desperate times, her eventual marriage to Douglas Fairbanks, their life as a Hollywood power couple and her dealings with Chaplin is a fascinating one.

Ava: My Story by Ava Gardner

Two words come to mind when I think about Ava Gardner's autobiography. The first one is "potty" and the second one is "mouth". Holy smokes, this woman loved to cuss and does it a lot in this book. A fellow North Carolina gal, she moved up from poverty to become one of the most beautiful and sought after women in Hollywood. (Just like me! Okay, maybe not.) She discusses in great detail of how she was NOT romantically involved with Howard Hughes, despite all of the stories and opinions to the contrary. Overall I felt for her what I felt for Vivien Leigh: extreme sadness.

Jane Russell: My Path & Detours: An Autobiography by Jane Russell

Going from Ava "F Word" Gardner to Jane Russell's autobiography was like night and day. You would think that Jane Russell would be just as hard nails as Gardner was and in some ways she was but from this book I discovered something I never knew about Russell: she was deeply religious. Most of her autobiography is about her relationship with God although what I found most interesting were her dealings with Marilyn Monroe.

Most of what you hear about Monroe was that she was always late, never knew her lines, etc and so forth. According to Jane Russell who worked with her on "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes", Monroe was only late to the set one time. When Russell went to investigate, she discovered that Monroe had actually arrived on the set early but was in her trailer, too nervous to come out. So Jane Russell solved the issue by going by Marilyn Monroe's trailer every morning and saying, "Come on, let's go!" and Monroe was never late again.

And with that, we're all caught up! :D I had started Desi Arnaz's autobiography but have gotten sidetracked by "The Times We Had: Life With William Randolph Hearst" by Marion Davies which I'll tell you right now, if you're into the 20s/30s, you've got to read this book.

Thanks for taking a peek into my Golden Era Library! :D What are you reading?

Etiquette for the Single Plus One

And now, time for...

"Everyday Etiquette"

This week's etiquette lesson comes to us from the chapter entitled:

Let's join our lesson, already in progress...

My husband and I are invited to an out-of-town wedding, but he will be unable to go. Would it be correct for my son, a college freshman in school near the city where the wedding will take place, to meet me and go as my escort? -Mrs. W.J.M., Berwyn, Illinois

Yes.

-Geez Amy, don't hurt yourself giving out all this advice.

-I bet it took this lady 3 days to write this letter, just to have Amy answer in about 15 seconds.

-I wonder how excited her son was to leave his first college experience for a weekend of wedding fun with his mom and her friends.

And that concludes another lesson in "Everyday Etiquette". Please tune in next week when we will learn what to do when we receive dreaded printed instead of handwritten thank you card. dum dum DUM!

**Questions and Answers from "Everday Etiquette: Answers to Today's Etiquette Questions" by Amy Vanderbilt, 1952-1956**