VLV Countdown:Dance Practice!

Dance practice is something that is included in my to-do list every year before Viva Las Vegas. Whether you are a seasoned dancer, are just learning, or somewhere in between (like me),  you could probably benefit from some dance practice prior to VLV. Even though I dance a bit every weekend, I still need to practice in the shoes I will be wearing at night, in order to get my calf's in tip top shape. I also try and learn a few new moves, or work out kinks in old ones. I have been dancing for only two years now, but it makes events like VLV a lot more enjoyable, so I recommend everyone learn. Zack and I took the lessons at VLV with Sophia Wolff, and we picked it up a lot faster then we thought we would. If you do not know how to dance, it is not too late to learn prior to VLV, and I can guarantee you wont regret it.

So, for the basics. As DJ Bill Smoker would say..."In rock and roll, you got your three basic dances-The Bop, The Jive and the Stroll". Each type of dance has its own type of song to do it to. For example, you can't stroll to a bopper, or bop to a jiver (most of the time), or jive to a stroller. If you know the music well, you can distinguish the difference pretty fast. But for reference, I have included a few songs for each type of dance.

Lets start with The Bop!

Bopping is a solo dance, done free form. Some people say bopping has its roots in hillbilly, others say Rock and Roll, and some say Rhythm and Blues. Either way, you will want to find your own style of bopping, because most songs the DJs play at VLV will be boppers, So learn to love it! Everyone does it differently, so really there is no wrong or right way to do it. Some people do a lot of hopping, some people look like they are having seizures, and some people just look like they are doing a zombie walk. The main thing is that you "bop" on the off beats. Ideally the whole dance floor will bop at the same pace.  Just try and feel the music and have fun with it. Also, a drink or two helps....a lot.

A few of my fav bopping songs:

Jungle Rock
One Hand Loose
Big River Remix
I'm Comin' Home
Bo Bo Ska Diddle Daddle
These are pretty easy to pick out the bop-bop-bop-bop part :)

Do a search on YouTube, and you will find a ton of bopping videos. Here are a few:





This is a persons take on The Bop:



However, this is NOT the bop. Please do not try and do this. I cannot be held responsible if you do this and get laughed at. Refrain from doing anything called a "funky walk" or "raise the roof".



Next, The Jive

The Jive I am talking about is the Rockabilly Jive, not the jive they do in ballroom dancing and on Dancing With The Stars. The Rockabilly Jive is the most common partner dancing in rockabilly, even over swing. Some people call it the herkey-jerkey, but those are just the swing kids. The Jive is pretty basic, done on a one-two-turn-return, one-two-turn-return, one-two-turn-return count. You can keep it basic or add in a ton of fun schnazzy moves. One you learn your part, you can dance with just about anyone. It is a great way to meet new people at a big event like Viva!

Some good Jiver songs:

Little Lil
High School Caesar
Rock-A-Bayou Baby
Dance Franny Dance
Ain't That Lovin' You Baby
Hep Cat
Dry Run

Here are some instructional videos from Kav:






Raul - doing the best jiving ever. Yeah, he won the contest! I think that is little Frannie back there too.



Jiving Saturday night at least years VLV. I am in this video, but don't try and find me, because I am dancing like crap.



Last but not least, The Stroll!

The Stroll is the only dance out of the three that is generally ladies only. It is a sort of girlie line dance. It keeps repeating, so once you learn the basics, you can do it in your sleep. Out of the three, this is the easiest one to learn, and you can learn by yourself at home. Basically, the girls go out and strut their stuff while the boys sit out on the side lines oggling and taking pics. I know it sounds lame, but when you add in alcohol, it is a hoot! Just remember to try and smile ladies, because some girls look absolutely miserable out there! Also, try and look like you are dancing, not just walking around.

My fav strolling songs:

Romeo's Teacher
Tallahassee Lassie
Lover's Curse
Rattlesnake Daddy
Bird Doggin'

Strolling lessons at VLV:



Advanced version, but soooooo amazing!!!



I am in this one strolling at Rhythm Rocker Weekend:



If you get to Viva and still have no idea how to dance, Sophia Wolff has Bopping, Jiving and Strolling lessons for beginners and advanced. You can learn there, then buy her DVDs to take home to continue your practice. Thats what I did! I am not the best dancer out there for sure, but I have fun with it, and thats all that matters.

So there you have it - all a VLV first timer needs to know to dance up at storm at Viva! Just remember to have fun and enjoy the music!

This Weekends Vintage Finds

This weekend I went to my local dealers to get my fix-of vintage that is! I got my tax return this week, and decided to go to the local antique mall and 4th St in Long Beach to spend some serious money. First we went to Nick's shop Sneaky Tiki, and dropped a pretty penny there. Nick approves:

There he is ringing up my purchases: a 40s two piece yellow novelty print sun suit and a pink and purple rose print dress.

Here is the dress. It has pretty cut outs around the neck, with rhinestone details. I can't show you the sun suit in detail because it is a VLV outfit, so you just have to wait to see it!

Zack got a short sleeve atomic print shirt, a gabardine shirt, and a reversible ricky jacket.  

Here is a shot of some nice shoes and purses in his shop.

Some cool lamps, tiki mugs and atomic shirt.

Here is some Heywood Wakefield stuff in The Vintage Collective. 

Some cool lamps. 

We went to Big Ed's in Liberty and bought some new CDs: High School Caezar on Buffalo Bop, Carlos and The Banditos, Let's Go Rockabilly compilation, and a Best of Starday records compilation. They are pretty amazing. 

I also got these vintage pink metal corner shelves in Long Beach at this cute little antique shop. I love them! I am obsessed with metal shelves.

Then we went to Remix and got some new shoes!

They have a nice window display.

I love these green wedges, so comfy, and such a fun color!

I have been wanting these brown crock wedges since last VLV, but Remix is so expensive that I had to wait for my tax refund to get them. I am planning on wearing them with my shaheen dress and playsuit this year at viva. 

Then I went to the local antique mall and got some new stuff for the house. 

a girlie hamper

a vintage ice bucket and a 6 shot liquor dispenser for our "future bar"

a vintage shelf for the kitchen

Zachary needed a night stand for his side of the bed, so I broke down and bought him this one. It matches our bed. The bedroom is not too exciting, very traditional, but it will do until we can afford a Heywake bedroom set.

This vintage Sunbeam standing mixer was gifted to us this weekend. I love it, it works great, and I can sure use it for my baking!

Then we went to Sandra and Sugarballs' house, and bought some stuff from Sandra's Etsy shop:

This lucite jewelery box. I needed it to hold my earrings.

Cute mini Polynesian paintings in carved frames

Wooden shelves

a green pillow, Gravy loves it!

Record holders, for our "future records" and "future record cabinet"

a pretty pink and gold lamp. I had this shade laying around, also from Sandra, and they seem to work together just fine!

Siamese kitty lamp with green jewel eyes

Also, we got a new pair of Heywood Wakefield end tables on craigslist!

Aren't they beautiful???

And to round it out I got this carved bangle on ebay, and another carved bakelite one in green (smaller), but that one hasn't gotten here yet.

I think I am just about shopped out now.....maybe.

XOXO

Dollie

Home Update

 We are placing the finishing touches on our house before we have our housewarming party, so I thought I would give you an update on what we have been doing.

I got this china cabinet on Craigslist for $40, and painted it to match our kitchen. 

I unpacked the last boxes-China! I have so much china, this is not even all of it! 

All done. What do you think?

We also planted our garden in the front yard:

Added a rose bush here

one here too

Bench

Our stepping stone path and lots of pretty flowers

bougainvillea, butter cups, and poppies 

tulips, poppies, and lots of bulbs planted under there. 

The spoils from my garden! They smell beautiful!

When I was gardening last weekend, I heard a clipity-clop, clipity-clop, and knew it was horses! I love seeing horses come by my house, so I knew I had to get the camera and take a pic. This is the benefit of living in a "rustic" part of LA County! 

XOXO

Dollie

VLV Countdown: 63 Days to go!

 There is only 63 days until I leave for VLV, so I thought it would be a good time to get my promotional material printed. I ran out of my last printing of buisness cards, so I had some new ones made up, this time for my blog! Not only will they be handy to give to people I just met that I don't want to lose contact with, but they will also serve as advertisements for my little space in blogland. What do you think?

Front

Back

While I was at it, I decided to get a shirt made for myself. I thought it would be cute to wear around town. Sometime in the future I want to get a few really cute ones printed up for a giveaway. Would you gals like that? But for now, VistaPrint had a sale on one tee, so I got this one made for only $8!

I am almost ready for VLV! If you see me, make sure to flag me down and get one of my new cards!

XOXO

Dollie

Retro Renovation Realities

I wanted to update you all on my status of my current retro renovation. The good news is that we finished painting, finally. Every nook and cranny is covered in mid-century colored goodness, and all of the modern neutrals are out! We did a fantastic “Holiday Turquoise” in the hallway, and the hall closet door we did white with an “Apple Blossom” pink diamond and changed the handle to chrome pull with star back plate from Rejuvenation. We did a slightly more subdued color, “Plymouth Green”, in the bedroom. We also got some amazing gold diamond wall hangings to put beside the bed, but I forgot to photograph them for you.

So, that is about where the good news ends and the reality kicks in. When we moved in to the house, the bathroom was just remodeled in 2008, with new tile, new toilet, and a new vanity. The only thing original was the bathtub. We had initially planned to paint the vanity and walls pink, and install new hardware, towel rack, toilet paper holder, and shower curtain. We had bought all of the stuff, and were prepared to give it a facelift the following weekend. But, before we could do it, my sister through a wrench in our plans. My sister got us a pink 50s toilet and sink as a housewarming gift. Well, at first I was ecstatic. I knew the pink would fit much better into our décor then the modern white toilet and sink would. Although, it would mean that we have to do a major overhaul of the bathroom that we were not planning for. It was a really loaded gift. We would have to pull out the old vanity, toilet, and flooring. We would have to have a professional install new flooring and get the pink toilet in. We would also have to open up the wall behind the sink to mount a brace to support the weight of the wall-mounted sink, then install the sink. We also had to find a way to take care of the beige stone tile around the tub. We got quotes from pro’s on how much it would cost to re-tile the floor, tub, and a back splash behind the toilet and sink, and it was way out of our price range at the moment. So, as much as we liked the pink toilet and sink, it was a major headache, so we ended up just putting them in storage for a few months.

When we finally found the right person to do the job, at the right price, and the right floor, then we went ahead with it. On January 15th we started demo on the bathroom. We pulled out the old vanity and opened up the wall behind it. That is the exact moment this turns into a horror story. When we opened up the wall we expected to find two studs and some pipes in between. But, in stead we found two studs, another random long board (looking like scrap wood) attached at the very top and very bottom of the right stud, another random chunk of scrap wood screwed into the left stud, and a whole mess of pipes, some functional, and some not. Now this job got interesting. We couldn’t just add the brace in between the two studs because all of these other pieces of wood were in the way. So, a few trips to Home Depot, a few tries, and a few hours later we decided that the only way to make it work is to completely cover the entire area in a huge piece of wood and huge metal brackets. Really, it was the only way. After we finished that we were pleased, and it was very solid. But, when we went to go patch it we realized that the metal brackets over the studs caused the new drywall patch to not lay flush with the old drywall. But, again, there was nothing we could do at that point, so we patched it the best we could and hoped that the sink would cover it.

Before

After

Then two days later we had the pro’s pull out the old toilet, put in the new Armstrong VCT, and the “new” pink toilet. The floor looks amazing, and we are so happy with it. We chose a black and white fleck, with a pink fleck “+” pattern in the middle of the floor, with a white tile with multi-colored flecks in the dead center. It’s really fun! Everything seamed to go well, until they left. Afterward we noticed that the door wont shut now because the floor was higher then it used to be. You can see how the bathroom door not shutting could be a problem. When we asked they said to use a circular saw to cut ¼ of an inch off of the bottom. We don’t have any sort of saw, so, at the moment we are just living with it.

new floor and new toilet

Then we had to install the wall mounted sink. That went better then we initially thought, until we got to the plumbing. The old sink is 1 ¼ inch pipe, and the drain is 1 ½ inches. After a little google research we found what we needed to solve that problem and we found the right assortment of shapes and sizes to make the new chrome pipes fit together with the PVC drain. We thought we were in the clear until we tested it and the seams were leaking, mostly at the base of the sink where the drain is. That part was attached to the sink, so replacing it was not an option. The only thing we could do was add yucky beige plumber’s putty all over it, and not fill the basin completely with water, or the pressure will build up and cause it to leak again. We were not sure if the sink would leak again, so we had to keep a bucket under it for about a week or so.
Once we had the toilet and sink in the bathroom, we noticed that they didn’t match. Uh oh! Yeah, the seller had two pink bathrooms, one purple-ish pink and one more like a peachy pink. We have the toilet from one bathroom, and the sink and toilet seat from another bathroom. Errrrrrrrr. I don’t know if he knew it at the time, but I know we sure didn’t know. If he did know, then that was a dirty trick. We picked them up at night and it was dimly lit in his garage. When we brought them home we put them straight into the storage shed out back, which has no lighting. By the time we noticed the color difference, they were already installed and it was too late to do anything about it. This was just the cherry on top of an already frustrating bathroom remodel.

Painting doll

After the flooring, toilet, and sink were in we finished up the painting. We painted the walls a vintage pink to match the toilet. Then I made a custom stencil to paint atomic stars around the top of the bathroom. The stencil was also a pain in the butt because it wanted to flair up at the edges, and the spray paint went everywhere. Basically I had to go in and fix everyone by hand. The cheapest quick fix to the tile around the tub was to use a water proof spray paint for tile. The spray paint is white, giving it a clean look. It worked really well and we are happy with it. Then we installed the new towel rack, toilet paper holder, all of our chalkware fish and a metal shelf. It is beautiful and we love it! It was a huge transformation for only a few hundred dollars.

Everything was hunky dory until we noticed the toilet leaking from the base. What a nightmare! When they put in the new floor, it made the closet flange drain lower then the floor level. To combat that issue, the pro’s stacked two wax rings on top of each other to prevent water leaking out of the bottom. It held for a week or so, then water started to flood out of the bottom any time we flushed the toilet. We stuck a towel around it until we could find a solution. Everyone we talked to said that two wax rings were the solution to this problem, but obviously that didn’t work. So, Zack pulled up the toilet again and added some sort of flange riser and a 40% larger wax ring. We thought that would work, but it only made the problem worse. Then he pulled up the toilet again and added a larger flange extender and larger wax ring, and that worked like a charm. No more leaking! Yay!

So, there it is……our very long retro renovation reality! It is not as easy as the TV shows make it out to be, at least not when you are doing it by yourself on a budget!

I want to show you the finished product, but you will have to wait until my "Virtual Housewarming Party" this March.....you are all invited!

XOXO
Dollie

Valentines with Dave and Deke!!!

Just when I thought Brunch Americana at The Redwood couldn't get any better, DJ Hillbilly Jeff goes and gets a dream line up like this: Dave and Deke Combo, Chris Sugarballs Sprauge and His 18 Wheelers, and The SideWynders!!!! This was a Valentines show, so I brought some cupcakes and ol'timey valenties and candies.

The first band up was The SideWynders, one of the best young bands in LA, and I am not just saying that because they are my friends. This show they had Captain Jeff (of the Chumbuckets) on lap steel, and Carlitos on washboard. 

The girls showing some leg! It was 75+ this weekend!

Alana and Stephanie dancing

I was on 18 Wheelers mustache duty. Its a hard job, but someone had to do it!

More shenanigans back stage. 

18 Wheelers were up next, and brought back some sweet ass 1970s gabs.

Lookin' good boys! 

Sugarballs

With Nicole, the cutest cowgirl this side of the Mississippi

Cute couple with my valentines. Sweet. 

Unkie Jay!

WARNING!!!! 

This is about the time in the night when we get crazy. Us rockabilly's know how to party, so if you are a square, you might want to stop reading at this point. 

Dave and Deke Combo is the best show you will ever see in your life. Period. 

Then Alana and I decided that TPing the band would be a good idea. So we nominated her to go get the TP. The girls bathroom was out, so she went into the boys bathroom to get some. God I love her. The band ate it up, and Deke stuck a lot of TP wayyyyyy too deep into his pants. Gotta love it! Then I got on Alana's back and rode her around the bar, swingin' my imaginary lasso. I know there are pics of that out there somewhere. 

Then Dave and Deke decided that they needed a woman to share in the middle of their very big overalls. Who else would do it but me? I am reigning Miss Hillbilly Dumplin' after all! To honor this amazing moment in history, I have attached the video. Enjoy!

This was really the best Brunch Americana yet!

XOXO

Dollie