Faux Vintage

You have never met a person more excited for the weekend than this girl, and this is an extra awesome weekend coming up because it's Amy's birthday and to celebrate the occasion, we're going camping at Indiana Dunes State Park! It's supposed to be really nice on Saturday and Sunday, and I can't wait to take pictures. We can't go to the main beach because Flash will be with us, but we did find a really outstanding quieter beach just a few miles away last year that we'll be returning to. I'm thinking about sneaking off to the main beach for a few crowd snapshots, but we'll see how motivated I actually feel after playing in the water and baking in the sun for a couple hours.

Meanwhile, I guess this is just a pretty major week for posting, but I had a couple fun shots laying around and I thought I'd share. Plus, it's Friday, no one wants to work and maybe you're here on my blog killing time, so we'll also have a little story time too. Eh?

I actually took this picture while I was shooting Kylie, because it really jumped out and grabbed me. I realized the other day when I was hanging out with Amy that it reminded me of something, and that is the infamous duck shirt.

When I was in college, I lived down the hall in the dorms from some girls who were super fun but also got into some shenanigans here and there. One night, they got a little on the drunk side (and by that I mean totally hammered) and stole this shirt off of someone's clothesline. It was one of those old school looking nature shirts with a couple of ducks in a marsh, sleeveless, and it looked like someone had modified it to make it more form fitting. While I didn't (and don't) approve of stealing clothing off someone's clothesline, there was no denying its awesomeness. The girls couldn't remember where they were when they took it, so there was also no giving it back. Just to be clear on that point.

So one day, I took my trash down to the trash room and there on top of the pile was the duck shirt. There was no way, NO WAY, I was letting this thing become garbage. I salvaged it and gave it a good home where it could be properly loved and worn.

Fast forward a couple years and I'm living in Indy and Amy is undoubtedly at my house looking for something fun to wear, most likely during Best Summer Ever, since we had all kinds of fun things to get dressed for that year, and she pulled out the duck shirt. It looked magnificent on her and I hadn't worn it in a couple years, so I told her to keep it. Because honestly, that seems to me at this point like the spirit of the duck shirt. Its happiness is meant to be shared.

So anyway, she came out wearing it again last weekend and I was so excited, and then I remembered this picture. Is there a point to this story? Not really. But it happened, and that's probably as valid a reason as any for sharing it with you. :)

I am more than a little in love with this picture, and at first glance you'd think it reminded me of my friends Lynn and Andy, which it does, but mostly, I just think this picture looks like friendship. And I didn't notice when I first wrote that last sentence, but the orange one even says "Buddy" on it, so that even more illustrates my point.

And this last one is a picture I took last weekend at RibFest up near Amy's house in Wrigleyville/Lakeview. I realized at this point that all my favorite pictures of things I take just out and about lately have a sweet vintagey feel. And who doesn't love vintage, by the way? I'm a very "more is more" kind of girl, and I like kitsch and retro and "charming". I always ooooh and aaaah at the appropriate places for modern design, clean lines, and minimalism, but in my heart, I'd always rather have a giant hot dog wrapped in an American flag and squirting itself with condiments sitting in my living room. Which may actually tell you all you need to know about me.

The other thing I really like about this picture is that it reminds me of the drive-in, which as we all know, I am in love with. Every drive-in I've ever been to has that old snack bar video with the hot dog doing flips and then jumping into the bun and I LOVE it. And if you need a reference point, it's playing behind Danny Zuko in Grease when he's singing that Oh Sandy song. I even have it as a piece of flair on my Facebook, so you know it's serious.

Alright, that does it for Photo Fun Day Friday! Hope everyone has a great weekend!