That Vintage Girl

During a recent visit to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) , I viewed their collection of 19th century French Impressionism art that included masterworks from revolutionary artists like Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, and Edgar Degas.  Their curated collection captured a pivotal moment in art history when painters abandoned studios for en plein air painting - a practice of painting outdoors that was made possible by the invention of premade paint tubes.  To capture the shifting shades of natural light, they used a palette of bright hues. By stepping outside the studio, these painters captured fleeting moments in time. Rather than focusing on historical or mythological themes, Impressionistic painters captured the beauty of daily life: summer sunlight filtering through trees, the rhythmic dance of water lilies, the bustling crowds of Parisian boulevards, or the smoky haze of train stations.   Visiting the museum offered a quiet passage through time, where t...

Baking lemon cookies fills the kitchen with aromatic citrus scents of sunny days, making them the ultimate cheerful treat for summer.  Ingredients 2 cups flour 3/4 cups sugar 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/4 cup vegetable oil 1 egg 2 teaspoons vanilla 1/4 cup milk 1/4 cup lemon juice  Making & Baking Combine the flour and baking powder in a separate bowl. Mix the sugar, egg, vegetable oil, vanilla, milk, and lemon juice in a separate bowl.  Add the flour mixture to the batter and mix until fully combined. Drop tablespoon size cookie dough onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degree Fahrenheit  Makes 24 cookies

 My latest vintage finds are prized mid-century gems ~ 1960s Enid Collins jeweled handbags.  These vintage handbags are beautiful treasures that look like wearable art.  They were made with wood bases and heavy canvas that were artfully adorned with sparkling mosaics made from rhinestones and gems.  Genuine Enid Collins handbags feature a styled "ec" initial on the exterior and the "Collins of Texas" logo inside.  To add a fanciful touch, some bags were inscribed with a theme name that represented the handbag's mosaic design, such a "Jewel garden". The history of the Collins of Texas handbags started on a ranch in Medina, Texas during the 1940s.  To help support her family, Enid Collins started making handbags.  A designer friend told her to show samples of the bags to Neiman Marcus, which launched a national craze.  By the 1960s, the Collins of Texas handbags were stocked in high-end boutiques and department stores across the United States. ...