Holiday Round Up Part 3 : Oh! Canada

So after the whirlwind of touring and shopping, I got on a plane and flew 5 hours to Toronto to visit my brother Matty for a week.  He's lived in Canada for about 8 years now, and while he was in Australia earlier this year, I took the opportunity to visit him and his girlfriend Holly since I was so close.  Matty's good mate Nate also arrived the same day as me - he's moved over there to live and work with Matty.  I've known Nate for ages too so it was great fun for the four of us to hang out.

My first day in Canada we did the touristy thing and went to Niagara Falls.

Insert obilgatory touristy photo here.

Now as far as I'm concerned, there are two things they don't tell you about Niagara Falls:

1. The sound : all that water rushing over the edge (just under 2,000 cubic metres per second!!!) makes one hell of a noise... and spray!  Standing where I was is enough to get your hair and skin and clothes damp.
2. The cold air : The water rushing down causes all this freezing air to rush up, so the closer you get to the edge the colder it is.  That combined with all the moisture in the air makes it like a natural air conditioning system.  It would be a brilliant place to visit in the middle of summer.

Here is another thing that I found very difficult to comprehend (but people in most other countries won't get).  Look at this river:

The land on the left side of the river is Canada, and the land on the right side of the river is America!

(see - most of you are going "so what!")

You see, when you are in Australia, any land that you see is Australia.  So the whole idea that different countries are separated by a small body of water (or nothing at all) is totally foreign to me.  Clearly, I need to travel more!!

The next place we visited was the lovely little town of Niagara-on-the-Lake, gorgeous quaint buildings and streets lined in tulips.  I loved it!

We stopped in at a pub and had a beer.  The pub was called the Angel Inn and its OLD (by Australian standards).  It was first established in 1789 but was rebuilt in its present form in 1816 soon after the War of 1812 between the British and the Americans came to an end.  Its a fabulous atmospheric olde-english style pub.

Holly and Matty

The next day Holly's parents had a big family barbeque to welcome Nate and I - what a lovely thing to do!  It was a great afternoon meeting Holly's very large family - lots of fun!

Believe it or not, this selfie is the only photo of Matty and me on my camera...

Matty may have been a bit hung over the next day...

After Matty recovered somewhat from his hangover, he took me to the construction site where he is working, which means I had to wear flat shoes with my toes in!

Still cute!

They are tearing down this house...

Yes, this $32 million dollar, lakeside mansion is being torn down (!!!) and in its place will go some lovely looking condos (which Matty is building) which, when finished, will be worth $55 million.  The dollars involved with this project just make my head swim really...  But it is an amazing location right on the water and I'm pretty jealous that Matty gets to work there every day for the next few years.

Here is me in the 100+ year old boat shed that I hope is not getting torn down...

After such a whirlwind tour in LA it was really lovely to just relax in a family home and do things like watch tv, and chat, and walk the dogs, paint my nails.  So I did a fair bit of that.

One day when Matty was at work, Holly's mum Lorraine, and Holly and her sister Lucy and I went on a trip to Kensington Markets in Toronto.

I managed to only buy two more dresses!  Both lovely 1950s deadstock - one shirtwaister and one sun dress:

I love the pockets on the sun dress!!!

We also visited the lovely little lakeside town of Grimsby Beach - specifically to see the painted houses:

Love love love!!!!

By the way, has anyone ever eaten a deep fried pickle???

These things are so amazingly delicious, I want to have a go at making them!  Mind you, I might be the only one eating them because every time I've mentioned them to anyone they look at me like I'm strange...

Anyway, after a lovely 6 day visit it was time to start the journey home.  I packed my bags, and with the help of Matty and Nate (who convinced me they were under-weight) I headed to the airport with confidence.

Thank goodness there are such things as airport luggage trolleys!

So after a 5 hour flight I was back in LAX... for a 7 hour wait.  Sigh!  So I settled in with a good book.

It was good actually - I recommend it.  Where did you go Bernadette by Maria Semple, available here and lots of other places too I'm sure.

And then I settled in for the 14 hour plane flight home, which (with the help of some tablets) I managed to sleep through half of!  Hooray!!

I must say it was so lovely to see my husband, and Miss Stella, and to be back home!  I threw myself into unpacking my suitcases and photographing all my new things and before I knew it, it was time to head out for our usual Friday night cocktails!

Yes, somehow, even though my flight landed at 6.15am, and I'd been awake for god knows how long, I was still up and out for a good time at 9pm that night. 

And thats it.  Thats the story of my fabulous overseas holiday!  I really hope you've all enjoyed reading these three posts!  I've really enjoyed sharing them with you.  Its actually been lovely to relive everything going through the photos and now I have a good written record for the future!

As a thank you to you all for being patient with me while I went on holidays, I've decided to have a little Thankyou Giveaway!  Those of you that follow my Facebook page will already know what it is, but for everyone else I'll be showing you what I'm giving away and how you can win later on this week!!

Beccie
xxx

Holiday Round Up Part 2 : SHOPPING!!!

Well the whole point of this part of the trip was to shop - and boy did we shop!

SHOPPING DAY ONE : SANTA MONICA
It was probably planned this way, but the Santa Monica Vintage Expo was on while we were in LA!  This is an expo with over 80 stallholders that happens 5 times a year and it was FABULOUS!

This is our group after shopping up a storm

Oh, and Dita Von Teese was there!  She shops there all the time apparently.  There was this one divine and unusual bag she was looking at, and had she declined to buy it I would have been in there like a shot.  Unfortunately she bought it... damn!  Anyway, she is so glamorous she made me feel like a fat frumpy cow when I stood next to her!

Its hard to pick my two favourite purchases from the Expo, but I somehow decided on these:

 

Lilac is my favourite colour, and I found three lilac dresses!  This one is a lovely shirtwaister with embroidery down the front.  And its deadstock, so never worn and with its original tags.

 This piano shawl from the 20s is divine - such beautiful embroidery!  In near perfect condition too - just a bit of fading on the fringing, but no-ones going to notice that!

After the Expo we headed for the outdoor mall in Santa Monica and had a bit of a wander around and some lunch.  I also topped up my makeup supply at Sephora.

Some of the ladies had margaritas the size of their heads!

That night we headed back to the Los Angeles Theatre for the screening of La Dolce Vita.  It was really different (and wonderful) to see the theatre so full of music and people.

As mentioned yesterday, La Dolce Vita would have to be the must confusing, plot lacking movie of all time.  I had no idea but it goes for three hours!  I gave up after 2 hours and 40 minutes!  It was worth it to see this dress in motion though...

So many floaty layers and such magnificent construction to keep Anita Ekberg's voluptuous curves contained!

SHOPPING DAY TWO : BURBANK
This day started out with a visit to the Melrose Flea Market out in the sunshine!  So many amazing pieces of furniture we could have easily filled a shipping container!  I didn't buy any furniture, but I did buy this:

First up, I apologise to those of you who don't like fur.

Meet Angelo - the fox fur so magnificent that we all decided he needed a name.  He is DIVINE! and in such amazing condition.  I've been an admirer of fox fur stoles in the past so this purchase was a no brainer for me.

After the market we headed to West Magnolia Boulevard, where I made a beeline for Pinup Girl Boutique.

Now this was the shop I was most excited about visiting out of the whole tour, so I bought a fair bit.  I love Pinup Girl Clothing's designs, and the fabrics that they use, and their construction methods.  They are my style and they fit me so well.

After a great day of shopping we headed back to the hotel to get ready for our visit to the Queen Mary.  Yes, the ship.  It is now permanently moored at Long Beach and part of it has been turned into a hotel.  We got glammed up and traveled to Long Beach in our stretch limo for our tour of the ship.

This is me reflected in the mirror in the bedroom of Winston Churchill's suite.  And yes, he did stay in this room when on board the ship during WWII.

SHOPPING DAY THREE : LONG BEACH

This was probably my favourite area to shop in - the shops had a real sense of community.  Each of the shopkeepers knew each other and would pop in and out of each other's stores for whatever reason.  It was really friendly.

After the previous two days I really needed to stop spending so much!!  I did a good job curtailing my spending and only purchased a few things, my favourite of which is this:

 Its not 1950s, but its a lovely light cotton shirt in really pretty colours - and it was cheap as!

And thankfully we had an early night, which was great because I was exhausted... all the shopping and late nights out was taking its toll on me!  I'm such a nanna!

SHOPPING DAY FOUR : HOLLYWOOD

We started out with a private appointment at Shareen Vintage - the vintage store with its own reality TV show!

Shareen Vintage is basically a warehouse filled with racks of clothing, and there are no boys allowed.  This is because there are no changing rooms, so if you want to try something on you just do it, wherever you are.  However, there is always someone hovering to help you into and out of the clothing.  The store has a section called 'design pieces' because they either need repairs or are stained and this is where we mostly shopped.  The rest of the stock was either too modern for us, refashioned, or Shareen's own collection.

I unfortunately can't show you a photo of my favourite purchase from this day because it hasn't arrived yet!  Its one of the things I had to post home because I was worried about the weight of my suitcases!  It is a floor length black silk velvet coat.  The lining needs some work (stains and split seams) and its missing some buttons, but I think its PERFECT for a winter dressing gown!

After Shareen Vintage we went to a few other stores, and I found this fellow:

Yes, this stuffed peacock on a tree can be yours for $2,500!

No rest for the wicked - it was back out to Joe's Bar and Grill for a night of dancing. 

But on the way we had a private appointment at the Besame store! What a wonderful opportunity to have the products shown to us by the person who created them!  They were also selling some of Gabriela's collection of vintage hats just as an added sweetner.

I should have bought this one, but I didn't... bought a different one...

But back to the dancing...thankfully for the non-dancers amongst us, they hold basic swing dancing lessons before the band starts.  However, the newbies were quickly shamed back to their seats when the more practiced took over the floor!

And hey, we met this guy, who is the voice of Donald Duck!

See that guy, waaaaaaay back there???

SHOPPING DAY FIVE : LA BREA AVENUE

I never thought I would admit to this EVER but I was pretty over shopping at this point!  However, we did visit the What Katie Did store, which got me pretty excited!  I bought quite a bit of lingerie and hosiery!!

We also visited the Remix Shoes store where I made a new friend!

 This is Earl.

I am apparently I am special because he doesn't crawl onto the laps of many people.  Can you tell I'm missing Miss Stella super bad at this point???

And this was our last day of the tour, it was over... sad face!  To celebrate we took our limo (again!) to Musso and Frank's Grill - established in 1919, and I swear that some of the waiters have been working there since then!

But seriously, this place is a Hollywood institution, owned by the same family since 1927 and frequented by such icons as Greta Garbo, Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Steve McQueen, and Rita Hayworth.  The menu hasn't changed much in its life, and nor has the cocktail list, or the furniture, which dates back to 1934.

I originally had a different outfit on, but it was requested that Angelo make another appearance, so instead I wore this:

Excuse the creepy red eye that makes me look like I'm possessed...

We had a great time - and WE felt like the celebrities!  A lot of people wanted to talk to us and have their photos taken with us, and one lovely gentleman even sent two bottles of G.H Mumm french champagne to our table!!!

I only have one more photo to share with you from this portion of the trip, and that is this one:

This bag has served me well on several overseas trips, and I was sad to say goodbye to it.  I really hope that someone on staff in the hotel took it home....

The next, and final, instalment will be my adventures in Canada!

Beccie
xxx

Holiday Round-up Part One : The Sites of LA

I'm back from my holiday, and wow did I have a fantastic time!  This post is the first of three showing you just how much of a good time I had.  This post is going to concentrate on my first few of days in Los Angeles when we toured the city, saw somethings, and had a few nights out, before we started shopping in earnest.

I'm not sure how many of you have ever been on a long-haul flight... its not fun.  The flight from Australia to LA was 13 hours.  We left around the middle of the day, and arrived at 7am in the morning, and of course we couldn't check into our hotel until 2pm...  so on very little sleep, we headed to the Hollywood Max Factor Museum.  Now this museum has the most extensive collection of Hollywood memorabilia in the world, from back-in-the-day to current, and its in the building where Max Factor had his beauty parlour.

This was one of many walls covered with photos of stars from Hollywood's heyday.

 This is the Marilyn Monroe room, and its where she was transformed into the 

platinum blonde we know today

There was a large Mae West display (love her!) and this is one of the dresses.

Isn't it faaaaaabulous!!!

When I couldn't stand any longer I ventured next door to where we were having lunch - Mel's Diner

I was so exhausted by this point that I can't remember what I ate, but it was good!  Then the bus picked us up and took us back to our hotel, the Millenium Biltmore, so we could check in.  This meant I got a good 30 minutes of sleep on the bus! ha!  After checking-in to my room, I went wandering in the city with a few girls, just to get the lay of the land and see what was about.  That night was a quiet one - but it did involve a few cocktails!

Our first proper, non-jetlagged day was to be spent in the company of architectural historian Laura Messino.  Laura runs architectural tours of Los Angeles and I highly recommend doing one if you ever travel to the city!

Laura showed us some of the fabulous art-deco buildings in LA and we made a few stops, the most incredible of which was a tour of the Los Angeles Theatre.  Now, I'm told that they don't let tour groups into this theatre, so we were SO LUCKY to get inside this building.  And oh my goodness what an experience!

The external of the building

The Los Angeles Theatre was the last movie palace built in 1931 in downtown LA, and the most ornate.  It was designed by S. Charles Lee in a French Baroque style.

This lobby soars for 6 stories!

The construction cost was $1.5 million, making it the most expensive theatre built up to that time on a per seat basis.  And what I truly find difficult to believe is that it only took 6 months to build....6 MONTHS!!!

We were all completely blown away the minute we walked into the lobby... and I really hope you can see why.  Visiting this building was the highlight of the tour for me.  Nothing was able to surpass it.  Later on in the week we returned to the theatre for a sold-out screening of La Dolce Vita (which, in my opinion, is the longest film ever made with no discernable plot), I was so thankful that we'd been able to experience the theatre with just us in it, so we could truly see it and marvel at how glorious it is.

The theatre, which hosted the premier gala screening of Charlie Chaplin's City Lights on its opening night, continued to operate until the 1990s, when it closed due to poor attendance.  There was a push to tear the theatre down and turn it into apartments, but thankfully this never happened.

This was a lounge room in the theatre's heyday, and tables and chairs were set out on this floor, and to the left is the mens room, to the right the ladies room and child-care room, and behind where I was standing is the refreshments room.

Believe it or not, in the 1990s kids would come down here and play soccer.  Soccer.  I am appalled at the complete disrespect for the beauty of this building!  Thankfully ALL the glass survived the flying balls. 

Can I just say that this building has one of the loveliest ladies rooms I have ever seen.  Look at this!  All these mirrors and candelabras - it was the same behind where I was standing.  Incredible!

Unfortunately, we had to leave the building and move on with the tour.  Next stop Union Station!

Unfortunatley I didn't get any photos of the outside - but its a magnificent example of art deco architecture!!!  It was built in 1939 and one of the most fascinating things about it (I think) is that they demolished Chinatown to build the station.  Could you imagine the outcry if they did that kind of thing now???

I just loved these chairs!

From there we drove through the suburb of Angelino Heights on our way to the Griffith Observatory.  Angelino Heights is just outside of the city of LA and it is FILLED with gorgeous victorian-era homes.  I WANT TO LIVE THERE!!!!

This one - fully restored and on a massive corner block - sold for $2 million two 
years ago.  Using Australian real estate prices as a guide, THATS NOTHING!!!! 

I'll take the one on the right - who wants to live next door???

All us girls with the Hollywood sign in the background

There is something about white buildings and blue sky...

That night was our first night out, at The Edison in downtown LA.  A fabulous bar, underground, with old silent films playing on big screens.  I loved it!  Given this was our first night out, some of the girls revealed themselves to be not so quiet as first thought!!!

One of the bar staff came over and told me that he loved pinups, and showed me

the pinup girl tattooed on his leg... so of course I took a photo of her!

Day three was a free day, where I and a couple of other girls, hit the fashion district.  As well as clothes and shoes, there are fabric stores, and luggage stores.  I spent my time wisely!

I have been wanting leopard print suitcases for a while, and this set of three fit
 the bill!  Getting them home on the bus was a challenge - thank goodness 
they are on wheels!!!

 The fabric that was for sale was mostly evening-wear type fabrics, which was a bit disappointing, but I did purchase these ones:

Top left : nylon sheer embroidered with little blue flowers and sequins - $7/yd

Top right : nylon sheer embroidered with lilac swirled braid - $3/yd

Bottom left : black and lilac cotton poly plaid - $2/yd

Bottom right : blue satin with embossed silver dots - $2/yd

Our third night was spent at the Cicada Club.  This building was originally built as a top-of-the-line habadashery store in 1928 and has been transformed into a 1920s style nightclub - and boy did we have a grand time!  We listened to an amazing band - The Wiseguys Big Band Machine  - and the crooning lead singer was hot stuff!

This was very early in the night - trust me, these guys got the dance floor pumping!

Thats it for this instalment - the next one will include shopping, and more nights out.  It was a punishing schedule - we crammed a lot in - but it was amazing fun!

Beccie

xxx