Sunday Sweets

Some sweet finds are making their way to the Rita Deco Shop........

Vintage Christmas trims. Old picnic baskets and dishes. Vintage coffee cans. Two nice redware teapots. A wonderful 1954 "vacation coloring book".

Round mid-century mirror with floral trim. Vintage postcards & foldouts. Several super-clean painted metal trays. Vintage American flags. Old yard & garden including assorted vintage sprinklers and spayers.

Original early 60's Barbie case. An assortment of super-clean vintage Barbie fashions and trims.

All old and original. Everything is at the Rita Deco Shop and ready to sell. Stop by for a closer look!

Friday Finds......

New arrivals to the shop include:
straw garden hats, watering cans and birdhouses.


Really old child's wicker chair. Metal 1950's child's typewriter. French floral buckets.
Original mid-century telephone in working condition.


1950's cat TV lamp made by Lane Co.

Old dress patterns (really nice ones!)

The vintage dishes keep pouring in......Fiesta, Harlequin, Riviera, Franciscan, and Early California. Lots to choose from and priced below book values!

Sam Adams, Michael Jackson, Lindsey Lohan.....

Sam Adams, Michael Jackson, Lindsey Lohan, Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, Anna Nicole Smith, that Governor with the Argentine mistress, summertime television programming, our current health care system, Mickey Rourke, Nick Nolte, Gary Busey, Heidi & Spencer......etc. etc. etc.


That's what I was thinking of when I purchased this book today.

Beech Street Gardens

I recently toured "Beech Street Gardens" in NE. Portland. It's a beautiful city garden and it's located right in my backyard! This green space is where my partner Steven spends most of his free time. The yard is large and filled with many interesting plants. We also have a greenhouse filled with cactus and various specimens that I have no clue on what they exactly are. But I do enjoy a nightly stroll through "Beech Street Gardens". The garden is open for tours.....just ask!

This last photo shows a party we had on Memorial Day. Several of these nice photos were taken by my sister-in-law Susy Spencer. She is the past President of the Aloha Garden Club (so she and Steven engage in much "plant talk" when they see each other!).

Third Thursday.......Hollywood District !!!

Thursday June 18th is "Third Thursday" in the Hollywood District. Stores and businesses will be open until 9pm. We will have live music, games, prizes, and special promotions. This is a FREE event and a nice chance to walk the neighborhood and see what's happening.

The Rita Deco shop will be open until 9pm and we will have giveaways and all of our cool stuff out on the sidewalk. We have lots of new arrivals and fabulous finds. Stop by for a visit!

1925 NE. 42nd #D - Portland / 503-253-5793

Back to business.......Sunday finds

Fueled by 7-UP and cough medicine, I decided to hit a few sales on Sunday. There actually was a fair amount of good stuff out there. Lot's of great 50's-60's household and kitchy clutter.

I scored several pieces of "Harlequin" - Homer Laughlin dinnerware, vintage games, neat mid-century plastic-cast vehicles, tin trays, vintage dress patterns, retro partyware, and paper stuff.

Vintage bird theme stencils for fabric projects, 60's Barbie, 1959 BBQ book, cookbooks, and postcard foldouts.

I also found a rare "Enid Collins of Texas" wood box purse. This one has the armadillo theme and is called "Night Raider". This item needs TLC.....but is fine for display. This purse would be a great restoration project. It's stable with 85% of it's paint. Funky, retro handbag!

Chicago wrap-up......

I will end the Chicago trip with a few misc. photos and stories. We managed to do some shopping while on vacation. The issue with Chicago antique and collectible stores......they are spread far and wide. It just didn't make sense to spend half a day finding one store. We did hit a few nice clothing shops (mainly the Munsingware Penguin Store) for items we can't get in PDX.

We did find this REALLY cute shop just a few blocks from our hotel. It's called P.O.S.H. and the website is: http://www.poshchicago.com/ . This lovely shop has wonderful European flea market finds. Restaurant china and hotel silver. Lots of cool tabletop and gift finds. The shop has a "French feel" but is not overdone (candles/scents) like some stores. I fell in love with several original old floral paintings that were found in Belgium flea markets. If I had an open wallet, I'd have bought 6-8 of them! Instead, I bought a cool Chicago tea towel and some misc. paper items.

This was a "hot" nightspot near our hotel. I liked the cute winking girl. This place was packed in the evenings. We never went there......maybe next time!

Below are a few photos taken directly north of our hotel. This is a historic property that has been turned into a private club. The entire home, yard, and buildings have been expertly restored. They even had an incredible 30's Cadillac limosine just sitting in the driveway. Very ritzy!

A final shot taken looking directly into "the Bean" in Millennium Park.

Peace Chicago! We hope to return soon.......

Chicago Museum of Science/Industry & Obama's Hood....

We ventured to the south side of Chicago on Monday. We visited the neighborhood of the Obama's. They lived within blocks of here and Barack was a teacher at the University of Chicago (seen in the next two photos). The area is quite compact and the University buildings are old and resemble "Harry Potter" movie scenes.

We had wanted to go see the Obama's house on Greenwood Avenue (only a few blocks away). But the Secret Service has the entire area within three streets of the house blocked off. I heard that if you try to sneek a photo from even blocks away......they are right on yer ass! So the photo below is compliments of google maps.

We went to the "Museum of Science and Industry". This huge attraction took about four hours to see. It was a traditional 'old-school' museum with full size airplanes, trains, submarines, cars, and farm equipment. They had funky retro exhibits like "hatching chicks" and "make your own plastic molded toy". Plus I enjoyed seeing the "Colleen Moore Dollhouse" - a spectacular 1930's fantasy dollhouse I had heard about since I was little. Yes.....there were TONS of children and it was noisy and busy. But we managed to make it on a free admission day....! Cool, we can use that money for a nice dinner!

This dress was made from led lights. It moved around to a music soundtrack. This would be a great Halloween costume!

Full size and real Boeing 727 airplane inside the museum's main building. It's just hanging there and flying parallel to the second floor! That was cool.......

This is the famous "Robie House". It's located adjacent to the University. It's probably the second most famous Frank Lloyd Wright building in Chicago (next to the home/studio). It's open for very limited tours and some of it is closed. We will wait a few years and maybe tour this property when the 10 year renovation is complete. It was still great to see it in person and take a few photos. Right after these photos were taken, we experienced a massive mid-west thunderstorm and 30 minute HARD rain shower. We packed it up after this and returned to the hotel.

94th Floor Observatory & Chicago eats....

Since our hotel was only a few blocks away from the John Hancock Building, we waited until a clear weather day to visit the 94th floor observatory. You buy your ticket and take "the quickest elevator ride" in America (0-94 floors in 45 seconds). The view is fabulous and gives you an excellent panorama of the buildings and geography of Chicago and it's suburbs.

This is looking in the direction of the downtown "loop" with the Trump tower and Sears tower in plain view. Keep in mind.....a 60 story building is small in this skyline.

Looking at the center of this photo, you see a swimming pool. Right next door is our hotel. It's the tall, skinny 16 floor Hotel Cass. It' s a midget compared to the other buildings in the area.

This is looking to the beaches, suburbs, and parks located north of the city's core business district. Wrigley Field, gay neighborhoods, shopping and restaurants, and upscale housing is located in this area.

Chicago is known for great restaurants. We sampled a few that were famous with the locals. This was "Pizzeria Uno" which featured traditional Chicago deep-dish pizza.

We ended up at this place after someone in a store told us the food was good. It was called "The Tilted Kilt" and is best described as "Hooters with a Scottish motif". The girls wore tiny kilts, skimpy blouses, and pushup bras. The food was indeed very good and you got a free side of boobs with every meal. This photo shows several waitresses entertaining three sailors from a nearby Naval Station. Everyone was so young and cute.

This is Maggiano's Little Italy. Located just a few blocks from our hotel. We had a wonderful sit-down Italian dinner here. Very traditional restaurant with a large menu. We sat on their side walk dining section. I normally don't like to sit on the street for dinner but this place was different. They had a large three foot wide planter box filled with shrubs and flowers that separated the sidewalk from the dining area. So you could see all the street activity but people were at least six feet away from you. The weather was great (no flying bugs) and the view of several skyscapers was amazing. Totally relaxing dinner in the heart of this bustling city.

This is the world's biggest McDonalds. I have to admit we did pick up a few snacks here. Open 24 hours....it's a good option at 2 a.m. after the bars. This is a "flagship" McDonalds store with two floors, a rooftop garden, escalators, museum, and fancy trims. The restaurant occupies an entire city block. It's busy day and night.......any hour or day of the week. CRAZY!

Next posts......Hyde Park, Obama, Science Museum.