summer days

One day last weekend, my mom came over to get lunch and walk around downtown a little and poke around in all the antique stores. We started to walk there and only got about half of a block before we decided it was just too hot to walk. So we took a few photos under the shade of a big oak tree and then made our way back to the car to drive. When we arrived at the little cafe where we planned to have lunch, it was closed, and then we realized it was Sunday and everything in the historic district was going to be closed. So we made other plans and started to walk back to the car.

There's this little tiny red, white, and blue building downtown that used to be an old hot dog stand/diner. It's so cute and quaint and has a row of carnival lights across the top and a tiny window for where the vendor would serve the patrons. It's one of my favorite buildings in town, and I've been wanting to take pictures of it for the longest time. It's been up for sale for so long with no takers so I was worried it'd be torn down soon...so since I finally had my camera we stopped here to snap a few photos on the way back to the car.

...and then this happened:

Not only will the building not be torn down, but apparently someone already bought it, and turned it into a little hair salon. This hilarious guy came out to see what we were doing and when he saw that we were taking photos of the building, he made us come in and take a tour. One of the other men working at the salon said he loved my outfit ('it's like so, vintage or something'), and demanded that I take a photo of it against his backdrop or he would be utterly offended. So I did.

I got this skirt in an ebay lot last Winter and had designated it a "Fall skirt' because of the colors and pattern, but I pulled it out of the back of my closet the other day and realized it would actually make a nice Summer skirt too. And then I realized that it would be the perfect thing to wear with my new antique top. 

Right then... it's really hot today so I'm going to go drink another cream soda with a fancy red and white striped straw and traipse around in a vintage bathing suit eating handfuls of berries and waving sparklers til the sun goes down. I hope you are all having a lovely holiday if you are in the US, and a lovely regular day if not!

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.

new year's eve.

I spent New Year's Eve dressing up in 1920s dresses and coats and jewelry and trying to pick out what I wanted to wear, my room was a mess of silk chiffon and velvet and beads, which is obviously the best kind of mess to have. I decided early in the day that I would spend the evening drinking out of fancy striped paper straws and lighting sparklers, listening to records and having a Buster Keaton marathon, so I wanted to sort of channel one of my favorites, Sybil Seely, but instead I ended up wearing something more Anita Page/Broadway Melody which was perfect because what better time to wear sequins and tap shoes than New Year's Eve? At midnight we lit sparklers and fireworks, but just the small kind that sort of make a fountain and crackle and then die out, which was lovely. 

This week will be frigid, so naturally I'm excited and trying to think of fun cold weather activities to do since this will probably be short lived. Maybe I'll take myself ice skating.

christmas parade day.

Every year we walk to my town's annual Christmas parade, which is mostly just good for being nostalgic about the holidays and also looking at old cars and dogs dressed in Santa costumes. The weather was really nice (but also unseasonable, and my attire is misleading since it was actually about 75°) and I brought along my new camera to take some photos of  wildflowers and Fall leaves, since we finally have a few of the latter scattered about. It's finally flea market weather, so this weekend I'm planning to go to the St John's flea, and then to St. Augustine for their annual Nights of Lights. Which basically is just when they cover the entire town in little white lights and put a big Christmas tree in the town square and have little carolers speckled throughout and jazz bands playing the Christmas classics. It's pretty magical. 

parade escapee

(sorry for the lack of actual parade photos, it literally was just pictures of old cars and dogs dressed in Santa costumes. and I don't think there'd be any interest in seeing any of that)

memorial day.

Memorial day this year consisted of cookouts and sparklers and cream soda and patchwork quilts and everything else good Summer holidays are supposed to include. 'Patriotic' holidays always make me really nostalgic, every fourth of july week of my childhood was spent in Ocean City, Md, a beach town made up of amusement parks, rows of hotels, a striped umbrella-covered beach, and a boardwalk filled with taffy shoppes, ferris wheels and carousels. Think of Atlantic city circa 1920s or the fictional town of Amity and that's Ocean City.

My entire family- aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents- would pack up their cars and make the three hour drive, where we all rented our own beach houses in the same little neighborhood. The week was spent riding carnival rides and playing arcade games on the boardwalk, eating cotton candy, watching fireworks over the bay, laying on blankets in the grass, swimming in the ocean, and eating strawberries until our little fingers were stained red. All the perfect things that make up childhood Summers.  I'll have to dig up some photos of those Summers, because that place really was magical! I heard it's kind of taken a bad turn over recent years, which makes me sad because I want that place to always be how I remember it. (or like this:)

easter.

Easter was pretty low-key this year, I spent the day at my mom's house with my family, my mom cooked on the grill and my brother and I sat around eating jellybeans and peeps and playing nintendo. I wore this little seafoam ghost of a dress, I've had it for several months and had been waiting for an excuse to wear it, so I decided I might as well throw it on for Easter since it's such a pretty pastel color and light enough for the hot weather we've been having. I ended up changing out of it after not too long, as it's super delicate and I'm not ready to retire it to hanging on my wall just yet. I was so nervous steaming it the night before because I didn't want to damage it and I know steam and olde fabrics are not always friends. The necklace I wore came from the estate of a woman named June Rose Gader who was a writer and major clotheshorse and travelled the world with her husband and owned a second home in France.

I took a bit of hair inspiration from Zooey Deschanel at the NY Times Wine Festival, but the weather sort of ruined/flattened it, which is strange because I have wavy hair and the humidity usually makes it look like this naturally. I already had blown it out that day and added the curls with an iron, so maybe next time I should just leave it wavy to start.

Overall it was a lovely day, I ate so much potato salad and so many deviled eggs and possibly some other mayonnaise-y based foods, and more jellybeans than anyone should ever be allowed to consume, but eating is the best part of holidays, after all. I hope everyone had a lovely holiday!

credit

seafoam 1920s flapper dress - greatest friend on etsy

cream 1920s flapper necklace - etsy

ring - antique store

new year.

these are sort of embarrassing and i can't believe i'm posting them, but they are the only photos i have of myself from new year's eve (standing on a toilet, no less) and i guess i don't mind that they're a bit silly, i think maybe they sum up my year pretty well. i took these before i made a grocery store run to grab some last minute NYE essentials, and i just wanted to be comfortable and a little bit cute.

pink knit 1960s sweater ∙ thrifted
 black suede 1940s heels ∙ ebay

1960s carpet bag ∙ dear golden

i actually spent new year's eve alone at home, drinking woodchuck and champagne and watching the rules of attraction and probably my favorite modern film of all time (among a few others), eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, and i wouldn't have had it any other way.

i don't make resolutions, but i do make lists. i'm constantly making them, i'm always jotting down things i would probably otherwise forget. but, there are two kinds of lists, the necessary lists that serve as reminders or dictate what is to be done, and then there is the fun kind. wishlists, pretty things you want to buy, fun things you want to do, places you want to go- and those are the best kind. here's my list for the new year, a little bit boring, but mostly fun, things that i'd like to do, eventually, one day, in the future, no pressure.

1. thrift out of town more. take day trips to far away towns and dig through shops to which i've never been and visit estate sales in places i've never seen.

2. take swing dancing lessons. again. when i was ten, my little friends and i went to a one-day swing dancing lesson, and it was amazingly fun, and somewhat easier than i imagined (the beginning stuff, at least). i think i'd enjoy it even more now.

3. take a train somewhere. anywhere.

4. finally watch boardwalk empire. who would have thought that my obsession with the 1920s and my infatuation with michael pitt could come wrapped up in one package that also includes steve buschemi and martin scorsese? i started to watch the first episode online but it cut off midway, but what i saw so far was amazing. which brings me to my next goal...

5. find more pieces from the 1920s. this has always been my favorite era, but i've found it so hard to come across garments/shoes/accessories from this era lately. my ultimate vintage-related goal for the year (aside from business things) is to begin building a pretty substantial collection of amazing 1920s pieces.

6. speaking of business related things, i really want to focus more energy on my shop this year. i had a good momentum going for a while, but got pretty discouraged around the holidays and kind of neglected it a bit. i have so many lovely pieces to list, so i'm planning to start having bigger updates, and getting some of my stock listed.

kind of awful photo of an amazing lavender 1930s dress that needs some tlc

7. i guess maybe i can squeeze in one resolution-type goal. i'm going to try to be less hard on myself in general, especially when it comes to things that aren't my fault, and things i have no control over. i know that was as vague as it could possibly be, but i think it certainly applies.

happy new year!!

also,

8. how could i forget to include my objective to obtain and master the banjo? my effort to acquire one via ebay has thus far been fruitless, but i'm not giving up! i WILL learn how to play before 2011 is over, and fulfill my dream of starting a jug band. (i'm serious.)

9. i don't have a number 9 but i hate even numbers so i'm sticking this here anyway. maybe i'll think of something else i left out and come back and fill this in with a proper goal.

xx