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.

shop update preview.

We had a bit more sun today, so I was finally able to photograph this weeks' shop dresses. All of the dresses shown (except the blue beaded one- I decided to keep that one for now!) will be in the shop this evening or tomorrow at the latest. If you have any questions about one of the dresses or would like to reserve something, you can contact me here.

I still haven't gotten around to putting my shelves up yet...I need to borrow a screwdriver (and maybe a ladder) but I think I'll have a little helper this weekend to assist with hanging shelves and picture frames and mirrors and all the pretty little things that make houses cozy, so expect house-progress updates next week!

my new little aloe plant and peace lily that are waiting for homes!

gloomy days

It's such a rainy, gloomy Sunday. There was supposed to be a shop update today but there's no light for picture taking so I suppose that will have to wait. I have about five or six nice 50s and 60s dresses that would be perfect for fancy Spring lunch dates... they'll be in the shop before the end of the week, if the sun ever comes out, but who is thinking of Spring lunch dates when the weather is so gloomy anyway?

 oh- I got a bed! I put it together last night and I think it looks quite nice. And I managed to grab some shelves so I can finally unpack my books! No more boxes cluttering up my floor! I also picked up a few plants that I though would be okay for kitties- a peace lily and a cute but tragic looking aloe succulent- but it turns out that peace lilies can be toxic to kittens so that one is either going waaay high up on a shelf, or out in the parlor of my building where my kittens never wander. I'm researching cat-safe plants that are also easy to care for so any suggestions are welcome! I have visions of greenhouse-living but am completely inept at anything more than an occasional watering when it comes to plants. 

I bought this edwardian blouse at the beginning of Summer last year but had to wait for the weather to cool down to wear it because it has long sleeves, and you also have to layer it under something because it's super cropped, too cropped for even my highest of shorts! And then I sort of forgot about it over the Fall/Winter season but I saw it hanging in my closet today among the other pale/cream/cottony/lacy blouses that make up over half my closet and thought it would be perfect for a gloomy day like today. The collar is pretty amazing. I'll take a big floppy scalloped embroidered edwardian collar over a regular collar any day! 

The sweater is 1950s and the color is some kind of slate/lilac/gray hybrid which actually makes it a pretty nice neutral. The high-waist sailor shorts are from forever 21 (womp womp, I know), I do not typically shop there but sometimes they're okay for cheapish basics and I had been looking for a pair of shorts like this for aaaages and these happened to be just what I was looking for and so cheap too!

The weather has once again been back and forth, this was taken on Tuesday when it was chilly but today was 85° and tomorrow is suppose to be colder again. It makes dressing a bit confusing, it's still technically 'Winter' but most days feel like Spring or even Summer, but you kind of just want to wear tights and cardigans up to a certain point, and then when it gets warm enough, move on to just floaty dresses and skirts, right? It's no fun going back and forth. I have to say, though, I'm a bit terrified about what this Summer will be like, considering the number of 80° days we've had so far in January and February. I foresee many 100° days and much complaining about sticky heat and humidity. The warmer days have actually been nice though. It's not humid yet so you can still walk around outside and not feel like you're suffocating. I've been walking downtown a few days a week, getting coffee and a cupcake or pastry and poking through all the little shops...antique shops and curiosity shops and such. I really need to get one of my bicycles fixed or get a new one because it's such a perfect area to take little bike rides, especially when the weather is so nice like it's been.

I still haven't really started decorating my apartment yet, I'm still looking for a couch I like and I gave up searching for the antique metal bed frame I had in mind...I found a few but they were either way out of my budget, or just not exactly what want...painted a weird color or something. My brother calls them 'scarlet fever beds' (nice), but I've wanted one for such a long time that I don't care one bit. I was walking around ikea the other day just to browse and maybe get some shelving and I stumbled upon a bed frame that's pretty much exactly what I wanted...not quite the same as an antique but in the same style and maybe it's better this way...I love old things but you kind of don't want to sleep where some other stranger has. The bed wouldn't fit in the car though so we borrowed a friend's truck and we're going back tomorrow to pick it up and maybe finally get a hold of that elusive shelving. My books need a place to go, I just don't feel like myself without my books at arm's reach. I hate having them still in boxes.

Another reason I held off on decorating, hanging things, etc, was because my downstairs neighbor moved out and I heard that that apartment was really cute..and there was mention of a fireplace. So I waited to start putting holes in the walls until I looked at the place, and it was super cute, but it's a studio and I didn't realize that so I decided to stay up here. I was kind of relieved not to have to move again even it it was just a staircase below, and now I can really get to the fun part... I started framing up all my old antique prints and book plates and making little diagrams of how I wanted the walls to look and what I wanted to go where...so now I just need a few big things and a lot of little things and I can start putting it all together. I've also been finding so so so many good things that I need to photograph...so maybe I'll actually get around to that soon.

mini shop update:

A little shop update- click the links at the bottom to go directly to the listings.

1 → vintage 1950s rhinestone necklace
2 → vintage 1950s tulip pin brooch
3 → vintage 1940s white sequin and beaded clutch
4 → vintage 1950s bird stick pin