Burnside Delight – lille boutique

I had an unexpected afternoon off from work, and decided to check out lille boutique on lower Burnside. The weather here varies this time of year from sunny (but not very warm) to chilly and rainy. It’s too cold to go barelegged when I wear a skirt but I’m sick of black tights, so I decided to look for cream or beige tights.

The lower Burnside area has some wonderful little shops that I’d love to spend more time in – Bombshell Vintage, Modo, and Hippo Hardware all looked intriguing. It was odd that a number of the stores weren’t open when I walked down Burnside but that meant I had more time to explore lille.

This was my first visit and I’m so glad I took the time to stop by. The store is well lit and decorated with wonderful antiques including two great old sofas to rest on, beautiful vintage compacts, pretty old chairs in the fitting room, and silk taps pants from the 1930s. The adorable little animal prints on the wall made me smile.

The salesclerk was helpful and friendly but not at all pushy. She didn’t follow me around but she was ready to assist when I had a question or needed a different size.

My mission was a pair of tights – they had a small, interesting selection of nice quality tights and stockings. I found two pairs of cream colored Capezio crocheted tights with different weaves. They’re strong, cute, work appropriate, and weren’t atrociously expensive. They also sell hosiery by Wolford, Look from London, and Gerbe.

I was enchanted by the pretty lingerie – silks, beautiful lace, and lovely colors, including a bright orange set I tried on. It was beautiful and flattering…but not within my budget. But I did find a new brand (to me), Eberjey – comfortable, flattering, practical and affordable. The store has a nice range from Stella McCartney and Hanro to Eberjey. They also have a great sale rack that the salesclerk pointed out to me.

They have shoes including Remix Vintage and Chie Mihara. Beautiful, but not my focus this day. They also sell some amazing scented candles – not the stinky ones that overwhelm your nostrils but a gentler fragrance that actually doesn’t fill up the store. The lavender one was lovely.

I really enjoyed my experience here – it’s so nice to shop locally and get friendly, personal attention. The shop’s feminine charm completely drew me in. It’s the antithesis of Victoria’s Secret – an inviting feminine space with quality lingerie and great service. Go and support our local economy!

lille boutique
1007 E Burnside
Portland, OR

They also have a store downtown:
lille trousseau
1124 SW Alder
Portland, OR

Dining Adventure – Tasting East

9 Flavor Chicken – photo by Tasting East

Ms. A and I had our most recent dining adventure at Tasting East, or TE, as the sign outside says. It’s located in the Paramount Hotel in the space Dragonfish used to be in – the restaurant on one side of the lobby and the bar on the other.

The drink menu was interesting – we were torn between the Rising Sun Mojito, which had raspberry vodka, a few crushed berries, sake, and mint, and the Feng Shui Me, which has sujo (Korean spirit), basil, cucumber, and elderflower liqueur. The Rising Sun won out – it was refreshing and not too sweet.

The restaurant focuses on small plates for sharing, similar to a tapas bar. The food is Asian influenced, including Korean, Japanese, Chinese, and Thai and ranges from street cart specialties to “haute cuisine.”

Our server was helpful, attentive, and knowledgeable. We started with two protein plates and a bowl of rice. The 9 Spice Chicken was really good – we ordered it mild and it had just the right amount of “bite” for us. There are bowls full of chili oil on the table so you can add as much spice as you want. We also ordered the Stir Fry Ginger Vegetable with beef; I thought it was pretty bland and I didn’t taste much ginger. We weren’t quite sated so we ordered the Shanghai Egg Fried Rice with pork, which was tasty.

The decor is modern with really neat paper lanterns made by a local gallery, HiiH Gallery. It was a little noisy but not unbearably so. We’ll definitely go back!

909 SW Park Ave.
Portland, Oregon
(503) 243-5991

Italian Cinema – I Vitelloni

Watching old foreign films is one of my favorite pastimes and over the past few years I’ve been trying to catch up on all those I missed.

Federico Fellini’s 1953 film, I Vitelloni, is one of my favorite films. Set in a small beach town in post-war Italy, it follows the lives of five young men who are a bit adrift, trying to figure out what to do with their lives. I think of this as the original Slacker movie – unmotivated guys of a certain age who’d rather not get, nor keep, a job. They drink, seduce women, and enjoy their idle life.

The movie has some really funny scenes, including a wild costume party, a snotty teenager getting his richly deserved comeuppance, a mama’s boy who admonishes his sister not to make their mama cry, and an old school Italian papa berating his wayward son.

This is one of the few movies I actually own. You can see a trailer at the Criterion Collection.

Photographer Eugène Atget

Eugène Atget was a French photographer who worked from the late 1800s until his death in 1927. He took thousands of photographs of Paris during his work life, many of which he sold to the National Library, historical societies, and governmental entities. His photographs of architecture and buildings show a glimspe of old Paris that disappeared soon after. He lived in the Montparnasse area of Paris near other artists; Man Ray “discovered” Atget in the early 1920s and published some of his photos in La Révolution surréaliste journal. Ray’s assistant, photographer Berenice Abbott, bought many of Atget’s photographs after he died and published them, exposing them to a much wider audience.

I like the shadows and contrast in his photos, and the eerie blurriness from long exposures. His photos of staircases and doorknockers are great, and his photos of Paris always make me daydream of my favorite city.

Marchand de vin, 1910/1911

Photo courtesy Bibliothèque nationale de France

Corsets, 1912

Photo courtesy Bibliothèque nationale de France

Les Halles, 1910/1911

Photo courtesy Bibliothèque nationale de France

Bitumiers (asphalt layers), 1899/1900

Photo courtesy National Gallery of Art

References:

Atget’s Paris, edited by Hans Christian Admas; Essays by Andreas Krase. Published by Taschen, 2001.

Bibliothèque nationale de France Collections

Berenice Abbott from The Jewish Museum

Atget: The Art of Documentary Photography from the National Gallery of Art

Children’s Books – Part 1

A woman in my Toastmasters group is expecting her first baby later in the year, and she asked us what our favorite books were as children. She grew up in Germany, and hadn’t read Dr. Seuss and some of the other books we typically read as children here in the States.

This is a short list of books that were either read to me by my parents, or that I read to my son when he was little. I’d love to hear what your favorites were!

Dr. Seuss books

Dr. Seuss’ books have been popular since the late 1950s. When I was little, I liked Hop on Pop,Green Eggs and Ham, and Ten Apples Up on Top the best. The cadence of his rhymes and his fantastic drawings are great fun. My son’s favorite was The Foot Book; I must have read this to him a few HUNDRED times. He would immediately notice if I skipped a word. He also liked The Cat in The Hat.

Goops and How To Be Them by Gellett Burgess. I have happy memories of my father reading this book to me as a child. The author teaches good manners to children using funny rhymes and cartoons. Here’s a snippet from Project Gutenberg:

Table Manners I
The Goops they lick their fingers,
And the Goops they lick their knives;
They spill their broth on the tablecloth—
Oh, they lead disgusting lives!
The Goops they talk while eating,
And loud and fast they chew;
And that is why I’m glad that I
Am not a Goop—are you?

The Poky Little Puppy, by Janette Sebring Lowrey
This is a story about a puppy and his siblings, and the mischief the siblings get into. I remember my mother reading this to me.

Mike Mulligan and His Steamshovel by Virgina Lee Burton
Mike and his steamshovel, MaryAnn, compete against modern technology. This was written in 1939 so the technology isn’t very new any more.

Curious George by H. A. and Margret Rey
Curious George gets into all kinds of mischief because of his curious nature. He is rescued by the man in the yellow hat. There are a number of books about Curious George; my son enjoyed them.

The Owl and The Pussy-Cat
I had a book as a child with a number of poems in it but I can’t recall the title. One of my favorite poems was in that book, The Owl and The Pussy-Cat, by Edward Lear. The Poetry Foundation has it posted on their website:

I
The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea
In a beautiful pea-green boat,
They took some honey, and plenty of money,
Wrapped up in a five-pound note.
The Owl looked up to the stars above,
And sang to a small guitar,
“O lovely Pussy! O Pussy, my love,
What a beautiful Pussy you are,
You are,
You are!
What a beautiful Pussy you are!”

II
Pussy said to the Owl, “You elegant fowl!
How charmingly sweet you sing!
O let us be married! too long we have tarried:
But what shall we do for a ring?”
They sailed away, for a year and a day,
To the land where the Bong-Tree grows
And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood
With a ring at the end of his nose,
His nose,
His nose,
With a ring at the end of his nose.

III
“Dear Pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling
Your ring?” Said the Piggy, “I will.”
So they took it away, and were married next day
By the Turkey who lives on the hill.
They dined on mince, and slices of quince,
Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
They danced by the light of the moon,
The moon,
The moon,
They danced by the light of the moon.
Source: The Random House Book of Poetry for Children (1983)

Next post, I’ll write about the books I enjoyed reading by myself as a kid. What were yours?

Reptilian Rhapsody

My friend Colleen’s sister read my post about their father’s beautiful crocodile attache case and realized how much I appreciate old vintage treasures. She surprised me by sending me a lovely lizard bag and a beaded evening purse from her collection. I was so touched!

The Classic Lizard Bag

Molly sent me this lovely lizard handbag made by Palizzio, Very New York. I believe it was made in the 1950s or 1960s – very Mad Men. It’s a classic handbag with a brass clasp and hardware, and a cream colored lining with the company name stamped inside. The warm cognac color is darker than my photos but I couldn’t quite get the texture AND color just right in the same picture. I can’t wait to use it!

The Barrel Bag

I found this bag at Xtabay Vintage. The thing that attracted me to this handbag was its shape, first of all, and the texture of the lizard skin. The barrel shape and brass fittings are unusual, and seems quintessentially 1950s glamour. It actually had a little plastic calendar in it dated 1959. I imagine this had been hidden away in someone’s closet for many years.

The inside of the bag is lined in leather, and has three little pockets inside, with the original mirror tucked in one, and a comb in another. It’d be a perfect make-up bag if I traveled that way.

Lucky me – I have wonderful friends in my life! Thank you Molly and Colleen!