1950's

I love the kitschiness of the 1950s and the way the people, especially women, were depicted. Everything seemed to be happy, happy. Maybe because they had all those cocktail parties and even cocktail hour when the 9 to 5 job was through each day. This was not the way in my home. The adults I was around did not do this. Maybe that's why I think it is kitschy. Anyway, I suspect that there was a lot of cocktail drinking going on to cope with the horrible girdles and bullet bras these poor women had to endure!!

This group of 1950's ephemera shown here is for sale at my Etsy shop. They are pieces that are off of or included with some 1950s record albums. I love the true kitsch of record album art. I have a lot of it [all different kinds] , so go over to my shop and get some... great to use in collage, scrapbooking, card making, altered art, mixed media, ATC's and whatever else you can dream up. Find it all under the sections heading "ephemera" over in my Abundant Curiosities Etsy.

This woman has one of those bullet bras on ~and I'm sure~ a girdle too! It helps her sing the high notes!!

Check this out over at my Etsy. (update: these buttons have sold! Thanks)I used an ad from a 1957 catalog to make a button card for these swell cone shaped large vintage buttons [they may be Bakelite, though I am not positive]. I just thought immediately of bullet bras when I looked at these buttons in a jumble of so-so and boring other buttons. A little naughty, I know. If this Etsy item is calling your name to open your 2008 wallet to buy something from the 1950's pocketbook era- you could separate these, the card and the buttons, and use them separately... or keep the button card I made just as it is and add to a collage, altered art item, mixed media or whatever. Super Kitsch!!

blue sky

[me at age 1]

I always thought my Mom was a great person behind a camera lens. I am imagining she must have been almost lying on her back to get this shot! I like the red against the blue sky and leafy trees. But what's up with those PLASTIC flowers?? She certainly had plenty enough real flowers around the yard to spare a few for a photo opportunity. Did I fancy these fake ones and she wanted to make it become a moment in time preserved forever? Whatever the case may be, she used me and my brothers for her subjects for lots of film. I am lucky to have my childhood so extensively documented. I often think my kids have early memories only because the photos give them those memories. They sometimes will explain an event to me and then I realize it is that they are just narrating a photo they have seen of themselves and have no real conscious brain memory of the event at the time it happened. But that's OK. Photos can hold magic.