Hardest secret I've had to keep...

I've been keeping this secret and have been wanting to share it with every one and anyone... it's been hard keeping it to myself & now I can finally shout it from the rooftop!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Vintage dress on ebay

Selling a 1950s dress on ebay if anyone is interested:

HERE

Plus sized, Full pleated skirt

2 year Wedding Anniversary =)

Last month my husband & I came upon our 2 yr wedding anniversary and although wedding anniversaries are supposedly a big thing to remember/celebrate... it's really not a big thing with us. We like to celebrate our 'day of meeting' as it has more significance to us... Ever since the day we met we've been inseperable!
But, we figured we might as well celebrate our wedding anni since it falls at the end of summer & we haven't gone on any vacations since our honeymoon. So0o we decided to take a lil weekend vacation to the LA area.

First we drove to Hollywood as Darin has never been to any of the touristy sites there. We started our day by checking out the Tim Burton exhibit at the LACMA (arts museum). It was awesome & I really wish we were allowed to take pictures inside! Then we walked the Walk of Fame, took a look at all the foot & hand prints at Grauman's Chinese Theater & then checked out the Hollywood museum at the Max Factor building. After all that walking in the heat we headed back to our hotel to hang out for a bit & then met up with Darin's brother for dinner. Unfortunately we didn't get to go out for drinks later on as we hit a ton of traffic when driving down the sunset strip & by the time we got back to our hotel room, it would have been pointless to even try to change & drive/cab back over to that area. Boo.

 Entrance to the Tim Burton exhibit

Look how massive my feet are compared to Rita Hayworth's! lol

 Vintage makeup! Max Factor's personal makeup kit

 

In the "Blondes Only" vanity room

This odd contraption was to figure out the imperfections on a models face & where to use corrective makeup

The "Beauty Calibration Machine"

"Red heads only" room.. I fit right in right? lol

There was also a couple random exhibits in the same building like Hannibal Lector's jail cell...

 A whole floor dedicated to Lucille Ball/the I Love Lucy show

Pee Wee Herman's bike!

I also spotted this dude walking down the street. Look at that mullet! At first I thought he was one of the crappy street performers/impersonators.. but nope... he was full blown redneck from the 80s. lol! I even caught him practicing his karate & nunchuck moves! haha!

The next day I think I was most excited for.. we drove to Long Beach to stay at the Queen Mary!

Before checking in though, we checked out "retro row" located on a street near downtown LB. It wasn't as great as I thought it'd be though. Retro row consists of a block or two with a bunch of thrift stores, an old theater & a couple of furniture stores specializing in midcentury modern pieces. I checked out a couple of the thrift stores.. but found nada. They were mostly full of hipsters & shit. Bah! 

After getting lunch we headed back to the Queen Mary, checked in.. (which was a mess in itself due to a misleading website & rude front desk staff) & then did some exploring.  Finding our room was a bit tricky.. the halls are SO long & there are so many hallways, connections, & stairs that look a like! The ship was pretty amazing. =)

 Stairwell from the lobby leading down to some rooms

Our room.. the portholes opened up too!

Loooong hallway

Darin running up some stairs

This use to be the area with shops that catered to First class only

 One of the ballrooms.. anyone who was someone performed in this ballroom. (Hmm are those Orbs on the haunted ship?)

 Elevators that no longer operate

 

 And I had to...

That was pretty much our trip. The next day we headed back home to our lil pup Oscar who was anxiously waiting for us at the inlaws house. =)

So ready to spend many more years with my hubby. <3

hair

I shaved a side of my head.
Oh well..
I like it and haven't regretted it since doing it back in May.
As a hairstylist, I tend to get bored with my hair 927349239427 times faster than the everyday client. I am constant need of change with my hair, and can never really stick to one "style".
Luckily, being a hairstylist, that means I can also come up with ways to rock my hairstyle even in ways others couldnt have thought could be done.
Shaved side + vintage hair??? yes.. I did it. And it's my modernized version. Go me.

My Brother...

Loves me.

I've gone through some tough shit within the past 2 weeks and although my brother and I aren't that close to each other and pretty much the only thing we share in common is our Mom & Dad... I know he has my back and will probably do anything for me. I am not happy with what has happened overall, but I AM glad to have seen that he DOES care, and I am reminded that he is not just someone I share a genetic code with, but he is, my BROTHER.

4.30.11 & Booze, broads & hotrods

Saturday was the usual day at work.. minus the fact that it was my "official last day of assisting" at the salon. Yay! lol. So for now on I will be full time Tues - Sat, "on the floor" or shall I say "behind the chair" taking clients of my own for cuts, color, styling & makeup! Go me!
After work I headed back home to get ready to go to Booze, Broads & Hotrods later in the evening. The hubby and I were going to have another couple come along with us, but unfortunately after waiting around a couple hrs for them, they decided on not going. Supposedly my friend's bf was feeling sick.. but I have a hunch they chose not to go as it's just not their scene. I really wish my husband & I had more friends that were into the whole rockabilly/psychobilly music, culture & scene. It's so hard to find others in this area that share those interests!
I'm taking friend applications now if interested! lol.

So I guess the whole time I was at work, Darin, my dear hubby had been working hard to get the '62 Comet working well enough to drive over to Brisbane where BB&H was being held. Yea.. he wasn't planning on showing it off, but insisted if we were going to go, we HAD to take the comet to complete the night. hah!
So here we are, on our way...

We were a bit confused when we got to Brisbane.. I dunno, maybe we just had something else in mind on the location for the 23 Club venue. I almost felt like it was off the beaten path... ya know, like it was near SF, but then kinda hidden towards the hills I guess. Reminded me of the Niles district here in Fremont. Kinda on the outskirts, not so popular old part of town of Fremont.

The venue ended up bein pretty neat.. but again, not what I was expecting as the last 2 booze broads & hotrods I had attended were at the Clarion Hotel in Millbrae.. which = more room for cars, vendors, dancing, & aimless wandering around. 

The music was good, people were nice.. my husband even scored a couple free drinks off some douchebag at the bar who just felt like giving out drinks. lol. 

I had a couple drinks myself.. of course I kept it classy though. I'm not one for stumbling around and making a fool of myself. Unfortunately for me, and many others.... drinking any sort of liquids while out at events makes for eventual bathroom breaks in the near future. I think that's when I started getting irritated with the whole place. For so many people attending this thing there was only 1 ladies room that I saw and it only had 2 bathroom stalls... which meant LONG lines. 

If there's one thing that drives me crazy when going to bars & lounges.. its lack of bathrooms!!

I was near pissing my pants while waiting in line & about to use the men's room cuz I had to go that bad. Fortunately nothing of that sort happened. I did get irritated when I noticed a couple of girls ahead of me deciding on having an amateur photo op in the bathroom and thus holding up the line even longer. Common, wtf.. pee, or drop your load & then get the fuck out. Be curtious to others about to pee their pants!!

After that 1st bathroom break, I kinda got an idea for what any other future bathroom breaks were going to be like and pretty much stopped my liquid intake. =( We stayed for awhile longer but after another bathroom stop I think my husband noticed my bathroom situation frustration and we ended up leaving. Kinda sucked to leave early, but at the same time I am able to say I enjoyed the time we DID spend there (minus the bathrooms lol).

I think had we had friends to join us we might have stayed longer.. but I think the combo of the crowding, lack of friends (that sounds so sad), & bathroom situation we were content with cutting the night short. 

We ended up going to In&Out for a super late dinner then going home & passing out. 

Even though the night wasn't GREAT, I still had fun. It's always nice to go to events like these where everyone else around you is just like you. It's fun being able to walk into a venue & feel like you just did a time warp. To know that the people around you like the same things you like.. to know you're not being judged because we look like we're from the "wrong era." =)

A Sunday kind of love...

This last Sunday I had the honor of doing an ex-coworker's hair & makeup for her wedding. I also got to do her Maid of Honor's h&mu as well which was fun as any time people I know ask me to do their hair & makeup for major events... it makes me feel wanted & needed. =) It makes me feel good to know that someone out there is really amazed and impressed wth my work.
Here are the 2 lovely ladies:

Tiffany (Maid of Honor), before

Tiffany, after

Alex (Bride), before

Alex (Bride), after

I had so much fun doing hair & makeup for these two ladies. A funny thing too, while I was doing my finishing touches on Alex, Tiffany asked her if she was going to cry at her wedding to which Alex replied no. Alex was so composed the whole time I was getting the two ready and wasn't nervous or scared at all. I told her I didnt cry during my ceremony, but walking down the aisle was the hardest part as that is when I really felt the tears coming on. I couldnt even look at my soon to be husband or the audience as all that, plus the song I had picked to walk down to got me going and I had to hold my head down to fight back the tears. Alex laughed and as we were talking she was so convinced that her fiance would be the one crying at the "alter". Yea... well... as a guest at her wedding, I can tell you, as soon as she walked out of those double doors, Alex was BAWLING as she was escorted down the aisle. It was cute, sad & happy all at the same time. Happy mostly, as you knew whilst watching her walk down that those were tears of happiness. You know.. tears of disbelief... as in she probably never though this day would come and it's finally happening and she's just so happy. Even through her vows you could hear Alex sob, which then got her fiance crying as well. It was really a happy time.

I was kicking myself later though as I had failed to bring my makeup kit with me to the wedding for touchups. I was so conviced Alex wasn't going to cry!! Luckily she took her professional photos BEFORe the ceremony and wasn't bothered by any wear she had put on her makeup.

At the wedding I also had the opportunity to see some of the other ex-coworkers of mine from Joseph Cozza salon. It was nice to catch up but an even better feeling getting complimented from them all about Alex's hair & makeup. I never really felt like many of the people I used to work with even cared about my talent. I felt like I was just another assistant trying to make her way in the beauty field. I was a little scared that they might have been thinking "SHE's doing Alex's hair and makeup? why HER?" But after all those compliments, my mind was at ease and almost like I had approval. (I dont know why I felt I needed anyone's approval)

What touched me even more was when the makeup artist from JoCo came up to me and told me I did a great job.. but that he KNEW I would do a great job when Alex first mentioned I would be doing her h&mu and didn't have a doubt in his mind that I couldn't do a job well done.

I wasn't close to the makeup artist, but I kind of looked up to him. He somewhat took me under his wing a bit while I was working at JoCo and gave me tips & tricks of the makeup trade & always told me he saw talent in me... that he knew I would go somehwere with my talent as long as I put my mind to it. So hearing that compliment from him at the wedding was like the cherry to my night. I could finally stop worrying about what everyone else was thinking and I for sure then KNEW I had done and achieved my best.

A great night & great experience to actually see my work in action.

=)



Faux-bob!

A week or 2 ago I decided to play around with my hair as I've been pretty much wearing the same couple hairdos lately and felt compelled to try something new.
So I set my hair in my little old lady sponge rollers, went to bed and the next morning combed my set into a finger-waved bob.
Voila!

I was wearing a cute feather headband that kind of resembled a fascinator but unfortunately you can't really tell from the photos. Looks more like I have major roots (which I actually did have & thus why I wore the headband! lol. but I promise they were covered by it!)

I wish I had taken a photo of my outfit as I thought it really went with the look I was going for. I wore some black trouser pants with a flowy/baggy tan colored top(a la 1920s look) and some cute oxford heels.

I alwasy have fun playin around with my look. =)

Bye bye couch...

I dont think I ever posted on here.. but a month or so ago I found yet another neat vintage couch on craigslist:

 It's a 5 piece sectional but one of the 1-seater sections needs to be repaired so we've been using just 4 pieces. It looks a lot like a kroehler couch.. but I haven't found any tags or stamps that verifies that for sure.
As much as I love the LOOK of it.. I think we're going to sell it. Its a bit uncomfy for my taste and I think it will eventually need to be reupholstered. At this moment I dont have the funds to recushion/reupholster so I think it would be better to sell it in hopes that another vintage furniture lover can give it the love it deserves. So up on craigslist it's going. =(

We also scored a set of coffee tables on CL...

2 side tables and one large coffee table.. all for $20! Neato. We'll be keeping these bad boys =)

I have a feeling we will NEVER be finished with moving into our place. I feel that we are constantly scouring craigslist, antique fairs & shops looking to add new things to our home. It could be seen as bad... but I guess it could be a nice change as well. I get tired of people, places & things SOOoo quickly.. that maybe this would be a good thing for me. A change of scenery.

I do hair!

I have failed to mention that I am now working at a pretty cool salon in Palo Alto. Got the job the first week of January & am now a Hair Stylist at True Salon!
Yay! Go me!
The cool thing is I didn't have to go through a whole multi-year long training program either! My boss had me bring in some models to demonstrate some haircuts for her & I pretty much proved to her I knew what I was doing. (Take that JoCo salon!) So now I am on the floor & trying to build my clientele.

I do have to have some training in haircolor though.. the previous salon I worked at I was trained 2 yrs in haircutting only (it was an "either/or" master haircut or color salon) and it's been awhile since I've done any hair coloring on clients since the previous salon before that one. So yea.. I'm doing some 1 on 1 training with my boss which is pretty neat & gettin my color education on!

I'm trying real hard to get the word out that I'm at this salon, so I'd really appreciate it if the word was passed on!

I'm available for haircuts, styling & makeup!

To book with me at TRUE SALON,

Call 650-329-9397 & ask for Vivian!

299 S. California Avenue

Palo Alto, Ca

Also, be sure to check out the Promotions page on my hair & makeup website for neat discounts!!

We found Lucille's older sister!...

Meet Joanie...

Our "new" 1962 Mercury Comet. =)

If you go back a few posts, I talked a bit about my "Lucille".. my old 1963 Mercury Comet and how I ended up giving her up. Ever since then, Darin & I have tried looking around for Comets but either never had the funds or never found the right ONE.

Fortunately Darin knows a whole lot more about cars now and has more experience as a mechanic now & felt it was time to start searching. He was actually thinking about getting a truck or a falcon ranchero but found this beauty on craigslist and I guess it was love at first sight with those two. lol.

It's kinda neat.. when Darin was attending Auto technician school he learned a lot on my old Lucille and now, he gets to utilize all that he's learned over the years into Joanie.

The car actually runs pretty well, of course it's got a few minor things to be worked on, but nothing Darin can't handle. The body is pretty straight and for now is a beigy golden color. Interior is alright, seats had been reupholstered recently but in a fabric (something we'll probably end up changing later on) and will do for now.

Kinda excited to have another Comet in our life =)

Let's try this again...

After Christmas , well, even the couple months before, I've been trying to get back on the get healthy wagon but haven't had much luck yet =(.
I thought I was eating healthier, and I for sure was working my ass off at the gym 5x a day.. but I guess it's just not enough for me.
So after christmas, I decided to start eating even MORE healthy and continue working my ass off at the gym & to see how that goes. It's been about a week since I've been REALLY watching what Im eating. It's a lil hard.. but I feel better about what I'm putting into my mouth.
I also want to get back into running. I usually do alternating fast/slow on the elliptical at the gym but it gets boring day in day out & have been wanting to change it up. Ive been trying out other cardio equipment.. stairs.. yea, fail. My knees are no good at it and I get so sweaty I feel like I have no grip in my hands and am afraid I'm just going to fall off one day. Stationary bike.. boring. I guess if I were to do a spin class it'd be effective, but yea.. I work out at diff times, so it wouldnt work out. Plus the seat hurts my butt.
I recently saw a program called the "couch to 5k" and thought I'd try it out. Its designed to slowly get you back into running, by doing intervals of running & walking that way it eases you in. You build endurance & speed & all that stuff. I used to run but then when I started working in SF, I had no time for it and when living in SF, I was lazy. =(
So today was my first day. I guess it consists of 9 weeks, 3x a week.. and today was the 1x. I was afraid at first. I kept thinking about my knees & how sometimes even walking up stairs they give out. I kept envisioning myself getting on the treadmill & flying off of it because of too much speed. I kept wondering if I was even going to be able to run/walk the whole 30minutes.
Yea, well, I did it.

 It was MUCH easier than I thought itd be. I almost felt it was a lil too easy. Run 30 seconds, walk 90 & repeat for 20minutes. I felt like I should have been running more than 30 seconds, and I did at first, but decided to just stick with the program. I didnt want to push myself into running on my own program & then finding out the next day or even later that my knees were killing me or I did something wrong. So yea.. it actually consisted of 28minutes, but I walked until I reached 2miles, which ended up being like 32 minutes. Even after that though, I still didnt feel like I worked out much, so I jumped on the elliptical & did my fast/slow intervals for another 30minutes and then weight lifted for 45minutes. Hopefully I'll stick the the c25k thing. It'd be nice to be able to run for a good about of time without stopping. Maybe changing up the cardio will do me some good.
I swear, if my new eating habits & cardio do not do anything for me then I am doomed & my life sucks. lol. I am doing a complete 180 with eating and pushing myself harder when exercising so I DESERVE some change in my freakin weight. argh! We'll see....

Christmas 2010

This year like usual, Darin & I started our Christmas eve by dropping by my Aunt Mary's house in Livermore to have dinner with my parents & my dads side of the family. Usually we kinda dread this get together as:
1) Crazy Aunt Michele... she's the aunt nobody really enjoys being around. She's the one whos usually the most opinionated and usually the drunk of the night.
2) the lame ornament exchange in which we bring an ornament to give to someone but no one ever puts effort into picking one out to gift & usually the ornament we get is super shitty and the one we give is never appreciated.
3) The Scott side is usually very opinionated & they like to gossip & Darin & I sometimes feel like we just dont fit in
and this year...
4) My super gringo side of the family decided on having a "mexican" themed dinner. So you can kinda guess how that goes when not one of the family members is even the slight bit of mexican.

So yea.. crazy aunt michele was her usual self. I didnt really speak much to her, and havent since she made a big stink about her invitation to my wedding which didnt include her boys & divorced husband & blew it waaaay out of proportion & harassed my family about it day in & day out (by the way, i never wanted to invite her.. my dad made me).
The mexican dinner was lame & not so great. Gringos making cultural food.. not a good idea, i think. I mean common, I can go to taco bell any day of the year but how often am I going to have a turkey/ham/cauliflower/etc feast??? Luckily, there was a margarita machine in the garage so pretty much all the cousins hung out there & drank ourselves to comfort.=)
Ornament exchange.. was actually alright this year. Beforehand I had sent a long email to my aunt suggesting that next year we quit the exchange because as I mentioned, no one ever puts any effort into their ornaments except for my aunt mary & my dad (who always makes intricate ones out of wood). Anyways, this year we drew names out of a hat and whoever's name we drew, we gave our ornament to them. So fortunately, I drew my aunt mary's name & got a cute lil snowman ornament & then my dad drew my name which was a relief since I knew for sure my ornament would go appreciated. This year I decided to make my ornament on the scroll saw my dad gave me and boy, that was time consuming. Here's the lil bad boy I made (its wood):

Soon after the ornament exchange Darin & I cut out. Next stop was his portuguese family get together in San Jose.
These get togethers usually aren't the best either, but a little more tolerable than mine. I can tell though, that it's kinda starting to die off. Everyone used to come bringing tons of appetizers & desserts and we'd all stuff ourselves, but its getting pretty effortless now. I think once Darin's grandmother passes, the get togethers will cease. No one really seems like they want to be there for family.. more like forced to be there for grandma. =( Sad. Oh well. I kept myself occupied by working on a buzz with the past margaritas & now wine. =) Nothing too action packed happened at this get together.

My outfit of the night:

Christmas day was pretty nice. Darin & I slept in & when we woke up, gathered around the tree & opened presents. This year's gift exchange between eachother was a bit on the light side since we made our big move & cuz my ass is unemployed. But.. of course, Darin always brightens things up.. and even though I wasn't really expecting much from him, he got me a cute top, some weightlifting gloves (yes!) and a vintage fur stole that I had been wanting for years. =) I got him a couple different shirts.

Darin showing off one of this shirts I got him

A gift tag on one of the gifts Darin gave me... yea, we have the nicest pet names for eachother. lol

Spooky waiting to see if Santa was coming to bring more gifts because apparently Oscar got more gifts that he did =( (we bought him something better the next day)

Darin & Oscar

Santa brought Oscar a stuffed toy "meal" that consisted of toy Turkey, corncob, muffin, baked potato & veggie rope

Later that evening we headed over to my parents house & had dinner with them & my Mom's side of the family. My mom's side is Peruvian, so there is always a lil peruvian influence to some of the foods. But yummy. We gave each of my parents an individual gift & then we also gave them an album of pictures from our wedding. A couple months earlier when I received my wedding album, I took it over to show my parents & they loved it, but my mom thought it was a copy for them.. unfortunately it wasnt & I felt bad. After inquiring about another album from our photorapher, the price was waaaay out of my range and fortunately my sister in law told me about snapfish.com & I was able to upload my pictures on the website & make an album & have it sent to me. It came out pretty well. Looked professional with the leather covers and images were great and for a mere fraction of the cost!

After dinner with my parents, we went to visit Darin's parents & brother who was up from L.A and stuck around for a bit. Darin ate a 2nd dinner with them but I was not about to stuff myself. I just dont understand over stuffing yourself with food when it comes to the holidays.
All in all, I guess this year was alright. Not as bad as I thought it would end up. =)



Darin & I on Christmas day, 2010