Miss Tiki Oasis 2016??? Let's do it!

Last year Jim and I attended Tiki Oasis in San Diego, CA for the first time.  It is a great event full of Tiki devotees who come together for three days of bands, pool and room parties, and fantastic cocktails!  

This year I've decided to represent the 40+ crowd by running for Miss Tiki Oasis!  That's right...watch out young ones...this is how 40+ looks fabulous!

With the help of my girlfriend, Missy (The Technicolor Cutie), we go together in Venice Beach to get my full on Tiki Pin Up look.  Missy  is a fantastic hairdresser who also does makeup and photography!  We had a fun girls weekend at the Ritz Carlton, Marina Del Rey, and ended up with these fabulous photos! 

If you haven't already, please visit the Miss Tiki Oasis voting page and cast a vote!  You can vote once a day from July 12th through the 17th!  Here is hoping I make it to the Top 10!!

It's Tiki Oasis Time!!!

This past weekend, Jim and I attended our first Tiki Oasis in San Diego, CA.  We are officially no longer TikiO virgins!

This event takes place at the Crown Plaza on Hotel Circle every August.  It is a four day event full of bands, symposiums, pool time, and, of course, room parties!

Thursday night starts out at the Bali Hai on Shutter Island.  Though a bit of a cue to get in, the festivities started out with the very strong Bali Hai Mai Tai and a couple of fantastic bands.  Project Pimento had us grooving to some James Bond style tunes followed by the fabulous Tikiyaki Orchestra!

We kicked Day 2 off with the Atomic Bartending symposium, hosted by Ram Udwin of Boy Drinks World.  I've learned of a new favorite...Rose Syrup!  This mixed with a bit of habanero extract and your hard liquor of choice is quite tasty!

Pool time included a fashion show from The Oblong Box Shop, one of my favorite online stores, as well as the Miss Tiki Oasis finalists swimsuit parade.

In the afternoon we enjoyed the Sip 'n' Shop where we picked up a couple of items to take home with us.

After the bands wrapped up on the main stage, the first round of room parties began!

One of my favorite rooms included the sound stylings of The Hula Girls.  Each room had their own drink concoctions with lovely people happy to share one with you! 

One good tip: bring a bunch of small bills to tip your bartender at the room parties.  These drinks are free after all!

When the clock struck midnight...we headed on over to the Lagoon Room for Midnight Burlesque.

Here is one of my favorites, Dolores Daiquiri from Australia.  What she does with a foam watermelon!

After some much needed sleep, we were up and ready for Day 3!

We started off with a symposium by one of our favorite You Tube stars, The Velveteen Lounge Kitcsh-en! Kelly and Paul shared a fun video on space party travel and shared a special cocktail and cosmic food snack.  If you haven't seen their videos, check their YouTube channel out.  

The day continued with a Space Aged Costume Contest, a bit of music by The Neptunas, and a few drinks by the pool.  

 

That night, Man or Astroman were the headliners.  Their music wasn't our taste, so we meandered into the hotel lobby for a few more cocktails.  While we were there, we had a nice chat with Claire from Glory Days Magazine.  She and I had met a couple of weeks earlier at the Enchanted Tiki Room in Disneyland.  There are so many great people at TikiO!

Saturday night we met up with Missy, the Technicolor Cutie.  We had a lot of fun going from room party to room party.  It is always fun to get to know your Instagram friends a bit more! 

One of our favorite parties was the Lost In Space room.  The decorations were amazing and the Tikiyaki Orchestra was in full swing!  We were having so much fun, we were out until 2:30 a.m.! 

To wrap up our weekend, we spent Sunday morning with the incredible Charles Phoenix!  His Vintage Slide Show covered Americas obsession with the Space Age.  As always, he was hilarious.  

As we had a few final hours to relax by the pool, we realized how awesome the entire event had been. We made new friends and can't wait to come back next year!

Pin Up Parade at Disneyland!

 On Sunday, April 26th, Jim and I attended our first Pin Up Parade at Disneyland.  This event is hosted by Pin Up Girl Clothing and is held twice a year.  

On top of the retro fun, it was a celebration of Mary Blair, one of the first female artists and animators for Disney.  Mary Blair worked on such Disney classics as Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, and helped create the designs for Its a Small World.  Pin Up Girl Clothing has done a limited edition line of clothing based on some of Blair's artistic prints.  These include the Lips and Roses, Train Border, and Cats print.  

The super great gals at Pin Up Girl Boutique even had fun goodie bags for us that included Mary Blair pins!

Throughout the day at Disneyland, hundreds of girls in their fabulous retro garb, mingled around the park.  Guests of Disneyland were so curious as to what was going on and were so excited to be in for such a treat of beautiful gals, fabulous hair, and stunning outfits!  We had our picture taken a few times from guests who just found the whole event amazing!

Doris and Micheline from Pin Up Girl Clothing hosted trivia twice during the day.  I couldn't believe how many people would show up at the Trivia spots! The questions, however, were super hard.  We should have studied up on our Mary Blair history!  At our first stop, we ran into Missy, the Technicolor Cutie, who is always so much fun and a great person to follow on Instagram.  She was wearing the Queen of Hearts Jenny Skirt from Pin Up Girl Clothing.  I absolutely loved it and it is added to my must have list!

Technicolor Cutie on the Left

Trivia at the Haunted Mansion

Jim and I had a great time on all the retro rides, including the Jungle Cruise and Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.  We ate our way around the park!  This included a stop at the Little Red Wagon for the famous hand dipped corn dogs!  

The too large, but awesome, Monte Cristo!

In the end, it was an all around fantastic day!  We were at the park form 8 a.m. until after 11 pm.!  We can't wait to visit the happiest place on earth again in the fall for Dapper Day!

VLV18...What we did and What we saw!

Hi All!

With so many people asking and wondering how our first trip to Viva was, I thought I'd take this time to share some pics and highlights of everything we did.

We arrived on Wednesday afternoon.  VLV doesn't start until Thursday afternoon, but it was great to get there early to be able to do a few more Vegas-y things while we were there.

In Vegas the restaurant scene is ridiculous!  There are more celebrity chefs in one place than on a season on Top Chef!  With so many to choose from, we took the opportunity to eat at Sage.

This restaurant is from critically acclaimed chef, Shawn MClain, who also has Green Zebra in Chicago, which was always a favorite.  Sage is located at the Aria hotel.  

The Aria is one of the most well designed hotel/casinos I have ever seen!  In fact, it even has aroma-fusion throughout the space! Check out these interior images if you have a chance.  I mean, just look at these origami birds in the lobby!

After dinner, we headed to famed Frankie's Tiki Room!

With crazy drinks...yes, I had the Bearded Clam, and amazing tiki-chic interior, Jim and I had an awesome time!  I even got to meet two of my favorite blogger/vloggers, Technicolor Cutie and A Vintage Vanity!

Thursday and Friday flew by!  We spent time listening to some amazing bands, shopping, and hanging out at the bowling alley.  They have 70 lanes in the Orleans!

One of the highlights was the Charles Phoenix Vintage Slide Show! "Who" you may ask?  Well, we said the same thing when some new friends from Holland and British Columbia recommended this show to us.  It was hysterical, historical, and so clever! If he is coming to your town...don't walk...run to get tickets!  We had a chance to chat with him at the car show and grabbed a pic.

After a night of Burlesque, we headed to bed early to be set for the VLV Car Show and Pool Party on Saturday. 

         Loved all of the cars!
 






               
Marilyn is awesome!

Somehow, we were able to grab seats at the Pool Party that afternoon.  It was a beautiful day with some great people watching and outstanding surf rock! 

That night was a long one, but our last, so we wanted to finish strong!  

The Burlesque competition, the Legends of Rockabilly, and some shopping!

I even found out that Miss Victory Violet, who I follow on Instagram and voted for, won the 

Miss Viva Las Vegas 18 Pin Up competition! 

We wrapped the next morning with some final sale shopping and one last stop at the pool before we headed to our flight back to San Francisco.  

We had such a great time at the event with my folks who drove down from Phoenix to join us.

Can't wait for next year!!!

Viva Virgins No More!

Jim and I just got back from our very fist Viva Las Vegas!  The cars, the clothes, the hair, the music...so amazing.  It made me so happy to be in place where people put an effort into their style and look, while having confidence and comfort in their own skin. While there, I even got to meet some of my You Tube and Instagram favorites. Everyone was so nice and we met lots of great people from all over the world.  Can you believe I'm already planning for next year??? 

Looking for Retro Hair Tutorials?

You Tube Channels for the Vintage Hairstyle Lover

I'm asked all the time, how did your hair like that?  The answer...I'm a vintage hair video addict!  So, I thought I'd share a few of my favorite channels that I subscribe to along with a favorite video from them.  

One of the first gals I found was The Glamorous Housewife.  A forty something year old from Southern California that shows there is no reason to be sloppy and boring in our day to day lives when one can be glamorous!  

Here is one of my favorites where Bethany shows how to use some fake hair to make a super simple, elegant, up-do.  

Cherry Dollface is a famous pin-up model in her own rite.  She is a spokesmodel for Steady Clothing, collaborated in a Betty Bomber makeup line, and has an awesome personality and fantastic red hair!  

Cherry Dollface has videos on retro looks from the 20s-60s.  Here is one of my favorites on victory rolls. 

 

Finally, one of my newest favorites that I discovered in the last month, Lisa Freemont Street.  This Southern Belle has four children if you can believe it!  Ashley, yep...her name isn't Lisa, not only has fantastic hair tutorials, but she also does great product reviews.  

Here is one of my favorites to get that Lucille Ball look.   

Here is a link to one of my other favorites from Ashley on a simple day to night look inspired by Doris Day. 

Hope you all enjoy and stay tuned for a few videos of my own!

My love of Tiki Bars!

Tiny Umbrellas & Hawaiian Kitsch, Oh how I love thee...

Yes, that's right, I openly admit I am always on the hunt for a great tiki bar.

The seashells, tiki god masks, and beautifully adorned rum cocktails remind me of another time when people dressed up to go out for drinks.

The tiki bar started in the 1930s in Los Angeles at Don the Beachcomber.  With the Tonga Room, Trader Vic's, and others following, the tiki culture really took off after as veterans returned from WWII.  

The Tonga Room, San Francisco

The trend continued for about another 30 years before it died out. But then...there was a big resurgence in the 1990s and, to my enjoyment, in the last several years.   

Here are a few of my favorite bars!

Trader Vics, Palo Alto

Don the Beachcomber, Los Angeles

Three Dots and a Dash, Chicago

Tiki Ti, Los Angeles

Nothing better than sharing a tiki bowl with your sis!

Should you want to partake in a little tiki on the home front, tiki products are available on sites from Etsy to Ebay.  Should you need something to wear to your next tiki party, check out these dresses by Bernie Dexter and Pinup Girl Clothing.

 

Bernie Dexter

Pinup Girl Clothing