fleurs sur le mur

All I want to do anymore is poke through antique shops and estate sales looking for soft, worn in floral dresses, and dream of exploring old abandoned farmhouses. The only other thing on my mind has been travelin' North for permanent. I left some things behind on my last trip to St. Augustine that I can't stop thinking about, a stunning black woven 30s top and a pink silk 40s top with cloisonne buttons, a sage and cream striped hat box, a handful of pretty silk flower hats, and a pair of gloves (hermes!!). Does anyone else do that? I feel like I always leave something behind that I think about constantly until I go back and get it, or more likely, go back only to find that some other lucky person has already snatched it up. There were so many amazing dresses in that shop (where I bought that white 1930s wedding dress) but they were way, way out of my budget. So many long velvet 1930s gowns.


I'm planning to go back this weekend, waking up early to go to a few St. Augustine estate sales first, if there are any promising ones, and then heading to the Lightner museum antique shops where all those lovely things are hopefully still tucked away where I left them. I've never gone to estate sales out of town, but it's something I've been meaning to do for a while, and if I'm ever to get my wish of moving out of this no-good state (sorry, florida) I'd better start collecting up all the lovely old frocks I can and sticking them in my shop and saving up all the dollars that will hopefully come of them. I'm also planning a few trips for this Fall, hopefully NY to visit my cousin and maybe a few special other trips (more on those later), so moving towards working on my shop full time is something I need to start doing now-ish.


I've been staring longingly at photos of old crumbling interiors, decrepit structures, peeling floral wallpaper, broken floorboards, rusted doorknobs, abandoned brass bedframe skeletons. I'm so close to being closer to all of this, and it's getting harder to be patient.


from top: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 

dream dream dream.

I have plans that I haven't really mentioned much because they're maybe a bit silly. but I've been thinking about this a lot for the past year or so, and lately it's all I've been thinking about. I can't really sleep at night because I stay up wondering whether or not this will happen and how wonderful it will be if it does. It's no secret that I hate Florida, especially the weather and the lack of seasons, so it seems kind of silly to stay here, so a few months ago I declared this to be the last Summer I will ever spend in this state. I hope to move North, somewhere where the leaves change and snow falls and Summers are warm and lovely but not unbearable. I want to live in a big old farmhouse with hardwood floors, high ceilings and big windows with lots of light, a rickety front porch (maybe with a swing if I'm really being picky?). Where I can live and have lots of room for all of my old dresses to live until they're sent off to new homes. In a small town with strips of old brick buildings and rows of dusty little antique shops, little wooden general stores, maybe even an old movie theatre. maybe this doesn't exist? but if it does, I'll hopefully find it.

I've been researching places that might fit what I have in mind, maybe Georgia, although I'm not sure it's far enough north to escape the dreadfully hot Summers, maybe North Carolina or Pennsylvania, somewhere pretty like York. or maybe back to Maryland  where I grew up, and where my family lives, where my best friends are currently located while attending school. I really hope this works out, because I don't ask for much and it's all I want.


sources: design sponge , this blog , this blog, um...google? these photos have been saved on my computer for months/years even so sorry for the lack of direct links. :(

beach day.

I live less than five minutes from the beach, but I can honestly say I don't like going. It's too way hot here, and there's nothing appealing to me about laying on a towel in direct sunlight, sticky and hot and feeling like I'm about to die. I don't mind the beach so much if the weather is cool, and I'll occasionally go to the beach fully clothed just to walk in the sand for a bit, but it's been years and years and years since I actually put on a bathing suit to go to the beach. in the summer. But when my cousin visited, it was one of the things she wanted to do, so we did. The only reasonable time for two pale ghost girls to go the beach in the middle of June is eight o' clock at night, obviously. so that's what we did. 

40s style sunglasses - anthropologie

1950s bathing suit - ebay