"The Cheap Shop"

On Thanksgiving, one thing I have to be thankful for is all my amazing finds at the Salvation Army and other thrift shops.  Here's a fashion show of the latest.  Makes shopping retail look...redundant, doesn't it?

"We have been to the cheap Shop, & very cheap we found it." - Jane Austen, 11 June 1799

Jones New York black velvet jacket ($8)

 

 Jones New York 100% wool coat ($25)

Anne Klein trench coat ($25) and purple scarf ($4)

 Namaste!  Beautiful shawl made out of sari material ($10)

Ralph Lauren Polo jacket, 100% cashmere ($6)

Black velvet shawl ($10)

Martial hates posing

 

Green and blue Venetian glass pitcher ($12)

Blue and white Italian bowl ($12)

Detail of antique Chinese porcelain lamp ($25)

Collection of pins (mostly cats) on Chinese silk

The three chairs await refurbishing. Left will be in black silk, center red silk, brocade as is.

And three cats will sit on them.

"I am sorry to tell you that I am getting very extravagant, and spending all my money, and, what is worse for you, I have been spending yours too." - Jane Austen, 20 April 1811



Chairs to Mend

Chairs to mend, old chairs to mend

Rush or cane bottom, old chairs to mend

Mackerel, new mackerel.

Old rags, any old rags

Take money for your old rags

Hare skins or rabbit skins!

- Old English song (as sung by Senior Chorus, High School of Music and Art, 1963)

It all began when I bought a pair of old chairs at the Salvation Army, $20 each.  I liked them.  They looked, when googled, like something called "choir chairs," but later a knowledgeable friend identified them as Eastlake chairs, a kind of Victorian/Edwardian, pre-Craftsman sort of design invented by one Charles Eastlake, and mostly made between 1880 and 1920.  Here they are in their natural state: 

And here is the antique red Chinese silk I planned to cover them in:

The cats approved, and all seemed well - until the cleaning woman "accidentally" threw one out!  (Chair, not cat.)  You may well wonder how she could accidentally throw out a chair, but it was sitting in the front hall, and she always thinks things left there want to be taken out.  (She speaks no English, but for the purposes of this story you need only know that she will retain her job, but throw out no more chairs.)

Wanting to restore what was lost, I hunted on eBay, and found some 96 Eastlake chairs, average price $350 for a pair.  Yes, well.  There was only one listing for really affordable ones - two Eastlake chairs, $39 and $29, out in someplace called Agua Dulce in the Santa Clarita Valley.  The people would not ship them, they had to be picked up.  So I inquired if they'd sell them both for $40, if I drove out there.  Yes, they would.  So I drove...and drove...fifty miles each way for the chairs!  But it was an adventure, I wanted an outing, and I wanted to see what life was like in one of those little canyon towns you usually speed by, unseen.

Agua Dulce is on Highway 14 on the way to Mammoth, so I'd passed the turnoff and knew where it was; and I knew that in these dry foothills there are canyons of old California beauty.  I'd seen one when visiting the set of The Jane Austen Book Club, which was filmed on the old Disney ranch in Placerita Canyon where Spin and Marty was filmed in the 1950s.  Beautiful golden hills.  So I was intrigued to visit this little foothills town.  It's a peculiar California mixture...ranches, vineyards, horses, movie sets, rich people, poor people.
 
The ones I was visiting were on the poor end.  They lived up a borderline non-negotiable, incredibly narrow, winding, heavily pitted, steep dirt road with a sheer mountain drop on one side, and when I got there they mentioned that hardly anybody is willing to drive up that road.  But I'm used to mountain driving from all our Sierra hiking trips, it looked safe enough, being dry; and I drive a sturdy SUV 4Runner truck.  These people, an older Hispanic couple (well...probably my age, but having had a hard life), lived in a kind of shack, or possibly something that was once a camper, amongst a heap of antique junk, but they had a beautiful valley landscape spread out below them.  They lived with their profoundly mentally handicapped son, and explained that they were on a small fixed income and "eBay keeps us going."  They used to have an antiques store, but with bad times people stopped buying.  I felt bad for having bargained with them, but my mind was primarily on getting back down that road alive (Paul seemed to fear I might be eaten by some Santa Clarita Valley Sawney Bean).

This isn't their place, but it's sort of what things looked like around there.  The chairs were good, better than I'd thought from the eBay pictures (they said that years ago they could have sold them for a lot more, but that dirt road must inevitably bar the madding crowd), so I put them in the SUV and started to drive home.  Just then the heavens opened!  I got down like a jackrabbit before the dirt road could turn muddy, or worse, drown me in a flash flood.  And drove home to L.A., where I then had to drive my reading group friends to the elegant Samuel Johnson dinner at the Huntington Library in San Marino.  Quite a contrast, and another 75 miles on top of the 100 I'd just done; but it was an interesting day.  And I have my chairs!  I think I'll put black silk Chinese fabric on the smaller, white velvet chair, but I'll keep the brocade one as it is.  I kind of like the brocade...

Brocade, detail

Wood carving, detail

Smaller chair, detail

The approval of Pindar

Last Pictures from Portland

Sadly, my pictures of the costume ball aren't the best; the low lighting made many blurry, but it's no matter, you'll see many from better photographers.  Here's a selection of mine, though.

This one of Carol Medine Moss and Elaine Bander is rather charming.

Jerry Vetowich, Nili Olay, and Syrie James

Maskless me, and Lee Ridgeway

Shady ladies

A gentleman who asked to be photographed with me...

Jane Austen and sea monster

The dance

Laurie Viera Rigler, Carla Washburn, Marsha Huff

With Christy Somers of the Janeites list

Sunday morning, the conference closed with the traditional brunch, and a panel entitled "Dispute without Mayhem," in which Joan Ray, Philip Williams, and I, refereed by Kimberly Brangwen, attempted to conjure up witty arguments about Northanger Abbey.  I was a bit nervous, not being one who can think on my feet (I used to need a pen, now need a computer), but it seemed to Do.

The panel:  Kimberly Brangwin, me, Joan Ray, Bill Phillips

Afterwards, my friends Kay and Lindley (from the Piffle list), picked me up at the hotel and took me to Kay's Beaverton home.  We had lunch at a family restaurant called Elmer's, where I had wild salmon and chips, with really excellent fresh salmon.  I enjoyed meeting Kay's six delightful cats, and we went for a walk to the beaver dam behind her house.  I am afraid I was really too tired (can't imagine why!) to be very good company, but it was lovely seeing these good friends...and then I flew home to such a rapturous welcome from Peter, Paul, and the three cats, that I don't know why I ever go away.  Here are a few pictures from the Beaverton visit, to round off my journal.

The morning after.

One of Kay's cats sitting on a camel saddle

Kay and her shy tortoiseshell cat

Kay and Lindley near the beaver dam

And that's Portland, folks!

Posting from Portland: Day 3

The greatest costume AGM ever!

Juliet McMaster and me (yes that's me!)

Had a horrible night, no sleep, tossing and turning with repining at not being as successful a writer as Stephanie, Syrie, and Laurie. But lo! a new day brings new feelings, and a cappuccino works miracles, as does a little top-up of a nap.  Got to the conference late, just in time to hear Juliet's beautiful talk, rich with her learning and love of Austen. From there it was straight to another excellent talk, Gillian Dow of Chawton House Library spoke on the French Gothic novels and what Jane Austen was satirizing in Northanger Abbey.  I'll summarize it elsewhere later, but she has a real gift for being able to present and synthesize complicated information in the most lucid, delightful, stimulating way.  Sailing on the wings of these talks I met up with Ellen, Isabel and Jane, and we found our way to the South Park seafood restaurant, for the lunch I organized of "online friends."  It's always enormous fun to be face to face with your favorite e-mail correspondents!  We sat in a lovely room at adjacent tables, ate good seafood, and I can't tell you what a jolly time "we 17" had! 

Me and Erika from the Dove Grey Books list, with her lovely son Kai

 Titans of the Janeites list, together at last!  Ellen, Arnie and me

Back at the conference, I split two talks, and heard half a presentation about Gothic architecture, and half a presentation about the cultivation of pineapples in Northanger Abbey.

A talk about pineapples in Northanger Abbey

After these talks, I had a meeting with the three others on the panel for tomorrow, Joan Ray, Kimberly Brangwin, William Phillips - all so funny, it will hardly matter if I can't rise to the occasion!  Then Ellen and Isobel and I took a cab to Powells, for a happy booky hour (I bought a biography of Lydia Lopakova, Keynes's Bloomsbury ballerina wife, and a Powells t-shirt), and some cappucino.  Then we had a brisk walk back to the hotel to change for the Banquet and Bal Masque.

To be continued tomorrow, with a costume extravaganza!

Posting from Portland: Day 2

Anthology Authors Late at Night

Late night meeting of authors who all have stories in Random House's forthcoming anthology of Jane-related fiction.  Left to right:  me, Laurie Viera Rigler, editor Laurel Ann Nattress, Maggie Sullivan, Stephanie Barron, Syrie James.  But that's starting the story of this event-packed day at the end.  The day properly began with a visit to Voodoo Doughnuts.

Jane at Voodoo Doughnuts

 Having been told on all sides that Voodoo Doughnuts were an important Portland experience, Jane and I walked to this iconic little shop (the neighborhood was somewhat seedy area, but the doughnuts were glazed) and gamely waited on a long line. 

A line for doughnuts

Worth the wait

"Keep Portland Weird"?  I can do that...

Then on to the conference.  It began with a delightful panel organized by Maggie Sullivan, "Team Tilney Explains it All."  Below, a very well-spoken, polished, confident Mr. Tilney taking his bow. 

Mr. Tilney's impassioned speech

 

A large crowd of Janeites

After Team Tilney, Stephanie Barron, the popular mystery writer, was plenary speaker, addressing an enthusiastic crowd of over 600.  Breakout sessions followed.

With Ellen Moody

I introduced my long-time friend Ellen Moody at her talk, "People that Marry can never Part:  Real and Romantic Gothicism in Northanger Abbey."  (That's her daughter Isobel in the background.)  After that I attended Miriam Rheingold Fuller's talk on the Domestic Gothic.  During the lunch hour we did a lot:  went to the Portland Library to see an exhibit of early 18th century books and Gilray prints, with a stop at a very up-market Goodwill! (Took some cute pictures there, but they don't seem to upload...so try again later.)  Lunch was outstanding, at a Lebanese restaurant, Habiba.

Found the thrift shop picture...

Exhibit at Portland Library

Highly recommended Habiba

Dancers at the Portland Art Museum

Next was an exhibition of country dancing at the Portland Art Museum, and we nipped into the museum itself for a glimpse at the European and American paintings.  Here are a few things that caught my eye.

Interesting looking American man, @1900

 

Poor French family, @1850

Roman and middle eastern glass

An early Frangonard

A late, ideal Boucher

Last but not least was the late evening get together of my fellow Austen anthology authors, at which the literary gossip was so delicious and high powered, my lips must be sealed.  (Well, they are anyway, because I'm now sleeping, exhausted after such a busy day!)