finally...an update!

well if today wasn't the most gorgeous day ever, i'll be darned. i was actually comfortable wearing shorts! in march! long live california.
maybe that is why i finally got my butt outside to take some pictures for the shop. i even listed these things already. i'm practically a bonafide vintage seller again. click on the pictures above to see their listings. or click right here in this spot to see the whole (tiny) shop.

you need to know...

...what katie wore.
you may have seen one of katie's outfits posted on painfully hip a couple weeks ago, but did you click through to learn more about this clever cutie?
katie and her man are on a quest to document what she actually wears every day for a year without ever repeating an outfit.
it's the simplest of blogs. joe takes katie's pictures and writes the comments. he seems to be completely enamored with katie's costume abilities and with good reason!
this is the ultimate inspiration for making use of one's whole closet (and sometimes one's boyfriend's closet too).


this one's my favorite so far. and i just found a vintage skirt like this in bright green and blue! yay!

vintage frye, oh my!

i don't know if i should even mention this, but yesterday i found a brand-new, never-worn pair of vintage frye campus boots for a ridiculously good deal. and it just so happens that they fit me. and are exactly what i've been dreaming of for many years now.
i feel pretty bad about keeping them as they are one of the best things i've found in a while. but i can't help it! i love them! and what good is it being a vintage collector if i don't wind up with a kick-ass collection of boots along the way?! (i also kept a pair of heeled zodiac boots last fall--oops.)

any comments on this idea for my new photo backdrop? i would definitely clean up the table a little, and i'm thinking about moving the chair and putting the table where it is. what do you think?

how to live in the past, well, the seventies

netflix calls it 'remarkable'. it is; but you could also call it creepy. i watched happiness last night, and today i had to make some screen shots of the wonderfully 70's home decor.





let's ignore for the moment the fact that i'm apparently terrible at making screen shots. i will get better. it's pretty fun. and then let's focus on these vintage finds.
there's the wrought iron curlicue globe lamps that blow ikea's paper version out of the water.
and then that amazing plaid wall hanging that is super easy to make -- just staple gun your favorite fabric tightly over an old canvas and voila!
my favorite part (and what made me decide i needed pictures from this movie) is the crocheted giraffe sitting in the classic wicker bookcase. i am now on a quest to find out how to make one. there are tons of ideas and patterns online, but two pages into the google search results and i still haven't found the right giraffe. when i do it will be true love.
the bottom picture i took mostly for the rad red chair, but i love the overall feeling of the room. clutter, wicker, plants, and macrame. it doesn't get much better. right?

an etsy tip

i've been noticing a pattern that might prove pretty useful to etsy sellers.
of course, i shamelessly stalk successful shops to try to figure out what they're doing that i'm not. and it seems to me that the trick has very much to do with listing lots and listing often. on most of the shops that have my dream sales of 3-7 items a day, the date the last item on the front page was listed is generally the same as the date the last item on the first page of sales was sold. make sense?
i've been watching this for a while, and it really seems to hold true. list an item, sell an item. right now the last item on my front page was listed december 29th. and the last item on my first sales page was sold january 1st. pathetic, i know. now all i have to do is list 20 items a day and i'll be one rich bitch! ha.

this is all i want

women's lib has gone straight out the window! this looks like absolute bliss to me right now.

wire basket for the fruit: check
coffee cups hanging by the window: check
cast iron pots on a tool board: oddly, already on my wishlist
with all the options women have, all the jobs and education i've had to prepare me to do anything i want, and my own business just waiting on me to get busy, why do i wish someone would pay me just to make the bed, do the dishes, and prepare a delicious, nutritious meal?

*photo stolen from mayalu's flickr photostream

shopping in delirium

i still feel like crap but i managed to drag myself out for the hunt today. and thank the lordy i did! i found armfuls of things i adore. and i hope that you will too.

from top left pic:

• cutest fitting cap sleeve crinkly dress with belt and amazing graphic print
• slouchy 80s short sleeve sweater in glorious plum coziness
• way-oversize men's cashmere sweater (which i'm almost definitely keeping)
• 70s cropped sweater vest
  
• the perfect pair of brown leather flats
• great gatsby pin-striped chambray shorts you would kill for
• a pristine pair of grandma shoes
• cutesy, artsy-fartsy, embroidered short sleeved sweater
• the most amazing 80s prom dress ever found - you can't even see the bubble hem!

all these things would look really good in my own closet. i will try not to let them stay there.

i dream of sandals

a bleubird vintage lovely

it's rainy and windy and i have a cold. oh, how i wish it were summer!
if it were, i'd be lookin' just like this cutie pie above here. this outfit was made for me.
i still love the over-sized shades. i will wear my old lady sunglasses until i actually am an old lady even if it means people will stop and stare at me and think, "how sad; she never let go of her youth."
cap sleeved blouses are my favorite - i don't know why they even bother to use any other kind of sleeve since perfection has already been discovered. (except maybe kimono sleeves. those are amazing as well.)
high-waisted a-line skirts take up about a third of my closet space right now; and this one would definitely fit in among the ranks.
and of course, i love the shoes...as evidenced by this picture of me wearing them last summer!


sigh, i love this dress. as much as i gravitate toward bright colors, i don't wear them often enough to make sense of keeping this dress from the shop. obviously, it has taken me a while to decide this - i took this picture in august and never bothered listing the dress. this is part of that large bundle of stuff i need to shoot this week.
which is why i am now going to bed (before 9 pm - !!!) so that i may be rested and actually, finally, get things done!

i love...

she's a girl pinnochio! i love this look mostly for her button-down skirt (always a fave) and the fact that the skirt is long and kind of frumpy. as much as i love short short skirts and long long legs, i don't want to see every single skirt get chopped in the name of this year's trends. we may actually want to wear knee-length again someday...this girl is already ahead of her time.

*this post is somewhat cheating on my previous vow to do more dirty work in search of original. the sartorialist is always a great place to start looking for inspiration. but i will find others. i promise.

oh.

i just came to a major realization.
if i keep reading more and more fashion blogs, and only fashion blogs, i am going to have nothing original to say to you!
it's time to work on my research skills and tell you something you don't already know.
more on that later.

and also, a thorough list for you of all these lovely other blogs i'm getting hooked on!

i wish i'd found...

on tuesday the vintage gods looked down on me and said, "welcome back to work."
followed by, "good luck sucker."
i drove 60 miles, spent two and a half hours thrifting, and came home with nothing. it wasn't the best outcome for my first day trying to get back in gear with the shop.
however, this doesn't mean i won't ever find anything good ever again. in fact, it probably means i'm getting better at deciding what not to buy.
while i was browsing through racks of boring, i dreamt of things i wished i would find. when i got home, i checked out the other vintage shops on etsy to assure myself there is still good vintage out there.
i wish i'd found this...
yes, those are carrots on this adorable, flirty, perfect summer dress. i'm jealous that honey bee vintage found it first, but i'm glad to know that things like this still exist. i could never have dreamed of loving a carrot-topped mini dress with as much passion as i do this one!

that wasn't so bad

well the afghan is almost done, i have almost finished watching every episode of beverly hills 90210 - how i got sucked into that one i don't even know - and sitting around doing nothing is starting to get a little boring.
i've been thrifting a bit and i'm excited to bust out the spring things i've been hoarding all winter. i'm working on yet another photo set so new pics might not happen for another week or so. i also joined a local estate sale email list for a company that always gets the most interesting houses in the best parts of town. so there should be lots of goodies coming our way.
right after this post, i'm starting a list of all the things i've been wanting to write about - so there may even be something interesting to read soon too!

thanks for the comments you've been leaving - it's nice to know people are reading! it inspires me to write more!