seaside.

Every year when Spring and Summer roll around I crave all the nostalgic things that remind me of my childhood Summers, like kite-flying, carnival rides, and boardwalk arcades, but it's usually too hot here to do any of those things. We had a few strange days this week where the weather felt like early Autumn weather...sunny and warm but with a cool breeze during the day, and chilly and crisp at night, so I decided the boardwalk would be the perfect place to enjoy the uncharacteristic weather. 

I was really excited about wearing tights...tights are a rare sight after January or February, it gets too hot so quickly, so I wore my favorite polka dot tights paired with high-waisted sailor shorts (which I seem to be living in lately), a light blue blouse, vintage cat-eye sunglasses, and a pastel vintage scarf tied in a big floppy ridiculous bow in my hair. This outfit was inspired by candy shops, 1940s girls vacationing seaside, ice cream, all the pretty pastel colors of old fashioned boardwalks, and a tiny bit Lolita (it was old Vlad's birthday, after all).

I had to stop in here and get taffy of course. It reminded me of Candy Kitchen on the boardwalk in Ocean City...so nostalgic. I remember going in as a child and being overtaken by the sweet smells...all the pretty pastel taffy lining the walls and shiny, colorful rock candy in glistening bouquets...ohhhh I miss it so. I think some of my favorite color combinations as an adult are directly inspired by old fashioned candy shoppes.

We played some junky old arcade games that kept taking our coins, but we mostly just wanted tickets to trade for silly cheap arcade prizes. Isn't that the best part? We mostly picked out things that could double as cat toys- plastic leap frogs, striped spinning tops, miniature lizards, and some of those rubbery inverted domes that you turn inside out and they pop! up in the air. The cats loved those. I also got silly ridiculous things like a purple pinky ring with hearts and a plastic neon yellow gun on a hot pink keychain. I wanted one of those parachute things or a glider plane, but they didn't have either. Those are like, the main boardwalk prizes, right?

One of the main reason I wanted to go to the boardwalk was to take photobooth pictures, but even though the damn thing took my money and took four photos, a photo strip never popped out after waiting for fifteen minutes. I was given my money back, but still I was pretty disappointed. I took this weird funhouse mirror photo while I was waiting for 'the photo strip that never came.'

After the arcade we walked on the boardwalk a little...I really wanted to go on the ferris wheel (my favorite ride) but there were no other takers. It was really windy though, so it probably wouldn't have been the best time to ride anyway. We watched the go-carts and tilt-a-whirl for a little while and looked at the ocean and took some photos, then realized how much time had passed so we had to scurry to my car because the meter was definitely up. But not before getting some ice cream on the way out!

Such a perfect day. 

cat snaps / house peeks.

After looking in nearly every antique/used furniture shop in town, I pretty much gave up searching for a kitchen table... but when my downstairs neighbor was moving out I took a peek at that apartment to see if I liked it better and I noticed his kitchen table was the only thing not moved out, and it was exactly what I had been looking for. I asked him what he intended to do with it, if he was selling it, and he said it belonged to the building and had been there when he moved in, so I went right ahead and usurped it for my own apartment.

It's normally situated right under my front window, where there's lots of nice light to enjoy while drinking my coffee and eating blueberry scones and reading in the early afternoons, but the other day I tested it out on the opposite wall (where my elusive future yet-to-be-found settee will eventually go) and I quite liked it. It didn't stay for long, however, because Oliver and Gus were so excited to finally be able to reach all those frames they'd been so curious about, and they almost knocked one or two down. Oliver managed to grab that little dried pod/stem branch and pull it down, so I decided maybe it was best to move it back for now.

And here we have Oliver looking so fancy on the tabletop. The cats are normally not allowed on the table, and they're usually very good about it, but with the novelty of the new location they were extra curious so I let them hop up a time or two. (also, please excuse the mess that can be seen in my room. there were cat toys laying all over the floor that I couldn't be bothered to pick up for these photos).

I wore this dress on Easter but I only went to my mom's in it and no one saw me so I thought it'd be okay if wore it again a few days later. I bought it from one of those cheap mall shops about five to six thousand years ago when I was working at the mall, and I had never worn it all those years for some reason so I pulled it out on Easter and it seemed just right for the occasion. I was much cooler in this than in the 1920s dress and slip I wore last Easter. It seems the perfect warm weather dress so I can see myself wearing it a lot this Spring and Summer. The cream bow fascinator was a gift from my friend many many years ago, she bought it for me from an antique shop in Hawaii.

I found the pretty lace treasures hanging on my door at an estate sale a few weeks ago, the pink lace dress is 1950s and the ecru ruffle top is Edwardian. Both need a few mends and then they will be put right in the shop. The white one in the center is a big fluffy crinoline which I will be keeping for displaying clothes in shop photos. I have two others but neither is as full as this one and I've been searching for a new one for quite some time.

I hope you all had a nice Easter and have been enjoying this nice weather we've been having! (I'm just assuming here that we've all been having nice weather). I am still stalking craigslist for a new bike, which I'll hopefully find before the hot Summer rolls around.

dreamy light daze.

Some photos taken during a visit to Sugar Mill gardens last month. I hadn't been to the gardens in almost ten years and had almost forgotten they existed even though they're just a short drive from where I live. Basically, what is now acres of botanical gardens was once an old sugar mill built in the early 1800s. The ruins of the sugar mill are still there as well as huge life-sized sculptures of dinosaurs that were built in the 1940s when the ruins became a tourist attraction and the garden was a theme park called 'Bongoland'. The dinosaurs were one of the main reasons I wanted to go but they're mostly located far back on the paths and it was getting a little creepy in there with the hazy, dying light so we thought better of it. The weather was perfect this day and the light so beautiful, but the garden was closing so we had to leave after just a little while.

° ° °

I planned to go back but haven't gotten a chance yet... of course, now it's getting hotter and more humid so there will probably be too many mosquitoes to actually enjoy it. Oh- there is also a tiny little green 1850s cottage that is now a reference library- 'The gardener's library for reference and pleasure'. It was closed but I really wanted to go in there! I was trying to peek in the windows but it was so dim that I couldn't see a thing. I'm imagining a tiny room filled with dusty antique botanical books with beautiful flower plates... Hopefully we'll have some cooler days before the dreaded Summer weather begins so I can go back soon.