Post Stoop-Sale and warm thank you's!

I just want to say thank you to everyone who came and bought things today! And I also want to say that there's a pile of things that didn't sell sitting by the side of our house ... so, come one come all!

Here are some photos from our day!

This is me! I found two aprons amidst the junk I was selling that I thought matched my dress quite nicely. I wore the brown one the first part of the day and switched over to the green for the rest of the afternoon. I decided to keep both.





And my favorite part of the day was this really, really amazing dog. Named Beatrice I think? She was so sweet I want to take her to SF with me!



This is a picture of a picture that someone took with a polaroid camera I was selling. She bought the camera and left the picture!



Just so you know, I've marked a lot of stuff down in my etsy shop - things need to be outta there by Friday - and as the week progresses I'll be marking things down more and more..! so, if you wanna haggle on anything, that's totally fine! (although the romper and penguin dress prices I can't budge on)

yay! happy sunday!

Read More...

3 Days

It's quarter to 10 in the morning' and I have to admit I'm still in bed and feeling so, so guilty about it. I have a scary long to do list today, but instead of chipping away at it I'm looking around my almost empty room and realizing I have only 3 days left in this house I've lived in for 3 years. A really important 3 years.



Please don't get me wrong. I'm excited for San Francisco... but there's certain things about this house I'm going to miss that just can't be replaced. Like my next door neighbor's flower garden, and their friendly orange cat Ella who meows at any sign of people walking by and does flips if you happen to stop and pet her. And I'll miss being able to hang all my old dresses on Alice's porch to dry in the sun after a handwashing. And being able to run downstairs and talk to Alice whenever I want, and hearing her knock on my door to come in and chat whenever she wants. And all those silly little things you might take for granted when you live just a staircase above your best friend.

Read More...

Hi.

I'm still here. Just outside the city. My dresses have found their way into cardboard boxes. My shoes are stuffed with newspapers and tucked into one another. The wooden floorboards are covered with all those strange little things that keep our lives moving, but don't belong in the same containers as the kitchen plates or bed linens.

I don't know where my cell phone went. And I'm sick of having to wash my hands to clean off the newspaper ink from my fingertips. Yep, it's safe to say that I've had enough of packing, and I'm nowhere finished. Now if only I could get good at magic tricks, one good disappearing act is all I need!

Read More...

Standard Series

Sometimes you meet crabby old men at the flea market who have outlandish prices on things ... why, you might ask them "because it's old" ... yes, I can clearly see it's old by the stains and holes in it - but... come onnn.

But, sometimes people are pleasant and even though they know they have gems - things are priced to move. I met a really great guy at the fleas yesterday. He had a beautiful dress form he knew he could have asked more for, but wanted a measly $45 ... I should have bought it on principle because the price was so whacky - but instead I bought a really beautiful series of old photographs from him.

So, we'll start of with my favorites! A beautiful bunch of faded daisies...



. . .

The text on the bottom of this didn't come out too well in pictures but it says 'Atlantic City Seashore Bell (e) s (w) Ringing Wet



. . .

This one cracks me up - The Sorrows of July Fifth



. . .

This is exactly where I'd like to be RIGHT now!



. . .

This one also has a witty title "Your trouble will be, Little Ones"



(loooving those stripey socks too!)

. . .

This one I'm not so sure about - I'm holding the picture right up to my nose and all I can make out is a couple of Gibson Girl hair do's, you can make up your own scenario!



. . .

Someone got crazy here with a pencil - but this one is aptly titled, The Note That Never Came.



. . .

And here we start on the more scandalous of the bunch, a dopey eyed gal enjoying "A Quiet Smoke"



. . .



. . .



. . .

And lastly, The Temptation of St. Anthony.



. . .

... I also added a set of 6 hand-colored ones to my etsy shop, if anyone might be interested!

Read More...

button, button - who's got the button?

ME! Thats who!
Last weekend Alice and I tried our luck at the Welfleet drive in movie theater flea market. Interesting place. Certainly an interesting place. It's mostly newer junk, but I can't hate on it because I did come home with a good arm load of junk...

But - picture this conversation...
Me: Man, I wish I could find some old dead stock button cards
Alice: Yea, that'd be really nice
..... and then 30 seconds after the words left my mouth - the table we looked at had three huge bowls full of them! And $.25 a card, Amazing! Now if only all the things I wished for would come true like that!

The last set are my favorite - annnd from the 1930's ... so. amazing.

And look - those wallpaper drawers are coming in so handy!!

Read More...

The Emerald Necklace

Time is moving so, so quickly!!! I'm moving out of my apartment in two weeks and moving to California in three!!! Ah!!!!!! I don't even want to update you on my packing progress ... I think I have a total of 4 boxes packed (gulp) but, maybe there will be some all-nighters to come. All-nighters and day trips, cuz no way am I missing out on summertime in New England. Yesterday I was hoping to visit New Hampshire with Jeff but instead we got cupcakes and bubble tea and hung around some little spot in Brookline (I really love living near the The Emerald Necklace, exploring is always the perfect go-to on uncertain summer days)

This is a little outfit I hope to wear to the Woodstock Fair (northern Connecticut, not New York) which is one of my childhood's summer staples. Typical county fair type stuff. Biggest pumpkin contests, fried food, and carnival rides. There's something about a colorful striped skirt that yells ferris wheel and cotton candy, oh and that zebra gum too!



Anyway, enough chatter. I have so much sewing and packing and sewing to do it's unreal. More to come though - I just realized I'm already two blog posts behind what I have pictures for!

Read More...

To keep, or not to keep? (to keep!!)

Last night I got home from the most wonderful little weekend trip to the cape with Alice. We ended up driving to Provincetown yesterday to visit that amazing army navy store that I remember from my childhood as being a little dream world of hanging helm wheels and fishing nets. I did pick up a slew of pretty linen kitchen towels and a WWII apothecary bottle, but these treasures aren't the point of this post!!

I found this pretty pink floral 1940's romper that made my jaw almost disconnect from my head when I saw it. Perfect condition and in a smaller size! Thank you gods of summer, thank you-thank you!! I tried it on at the store - decided it was perfect, and put it on as soon as we got back to Alice's grandparent's house. Walking around our room I realized that I was just a bit too long for the thing. But, it worked fine enough and I thought maybe I could lower the back seam a bit and it'd be fine. Well, I looked at it briefly today, I don't think I have much room to work... So, Jeff spent the afternoon with me and I made him take some nice photos so I could sell it on etsy. But, now - looking at the photos I feel like I neeeed to make do somehow! Maybe it's not even that bad to begin with. And surely a pair of tights would even out the scandalousness ?



Well, I think for now I'm going to hold onto it ... really take a good investigative look at the thing and decide on matters later. No rushed decisions when it comes to 1940's puffed sleeve rompies. No, none whatsoever.



** UPDATE: I couldn't wait to investigate after writing this post and I realized I could let the back seam out with no trouble and although it's not a perfect fit, it 'aint bad! Keeping it I surely am!!

Read More...

Summer Hats

Good summer hats are hard to find. Ones where you can actually step out of the house and not feel like a goofball or like you're wearing a costume.... I think I found myself a nice one at Cafe Society last week. A pretty little floppy straw hat from the 40's and I can't wait to wear it at the Cape this weekend! (it'd be a teeny bit better if it were brown instead of burgundy, but you can't be picky about these things!!)

In the mean time, I wore it out for a little movie date at the Coolidge with best twin mouse friend Jeff. Here we are loitering around near a church on some mysterious road in Brookline.



Sometimes when I get dressed I feel like a 60's girl dressing up in her mom's old clothes. I think yesterday was a particularly good example of that.

Read More...

Jean Painlevé

If you're not familiar with the work of Jean Painlevé, well - you're missing out! He stole my heart officially after reading Science is Fiction ... (his wife helped build a lot of the camera equipment .. what a team!!!) which prompted me to purchase the British Film Institute's release of his films, but converting ones computer back and forth to watch international dvd's is only a three time thing. So, thank heavens the folks at Criterion put out a two disc release recently!! I bought it for myself and I keep it in my computer at all times, you know - just in case.

Now, go! Run! Get yourself a copy!!! I promise it's worth every single penny!!!

PS They used to make seahorse jewelry which was sold in Parisian department stores back in the 30s ... can I just say finding a piece would be the find of all finds?!?!

PPS This may seem somewhat random of a post, but - I was wrapping some packages and listening to the Yo La Tengo score they did for some of his films - and then I realized I better share !!! Appropriately enough - "The Sea Horse" song is my favorite!

Read More...

Tom Sawyer Champs

Funny little items I've been buying for myself lately. I think I could safely sum up my recent purchases as 'things a 6 year old boy might have/hoard under floor boards'

And here we have the whole lot of it together. In good 'ol summer vacation fashion, it makes me want to go out and throw water balloons or play a prank on one of my neighbors.



.... Lets see - there's an abacus from Cafe Society, noise makers/kat kazoos, bow ties, a goldfish that hangs on the wall, and a book quite appropriately titled "Try and Stop Me"

. . .









Now, if I could just get interested in wiffle ball, I could have quite the pep team!

. . .

Oh! And this little canister! I've actually had it for about 3 years now. But, it's so funny to me. First because - I am not a saver of pennies - however, I am a saver of junk - and so was this little guy!



Some of my favorite of his findings/hoardings...



Yes, that's actually a tooth-pick. And who doesn't need their very own on/off switch!? ...I know I have an old toy pistol somewhere around the house .... all I'm missing are the metal jacks and marbles to leave around the living room for my roommates to slip on!

Read More...

A B C D E F G

A few months ago I hit the jackpot of finds at my grandmother's house. Actually, that's not true - my dad did. But, before I explain I have to give a bit of a back story...

Maybe three summers ago I was at my grandmother's house, rummaging around in her concrete block garage that's been stuffed full of things from my mom's parents home and also keeps all the old workings of my grandfather's work shop (he was a mechanic for the Underwood typewriter company) ... can we just say that this garage is like, the mecca of all things amazing? I don't even know 3/4 of what's in there because you totally can't even get around (boxes and boxes and boxes) but, from what I've climbed over, I know it's good! I've pulled my mum's 1960s era Raleigh Robin Hood Cruiser out of here ... dream bike, just like no big deal sitting in the garage...

ANYWAY - I found this old cigar box of metal letters. A really dark metal, almost resembling lead ... they had little holes at the ends so you could nail them into a wall and I thought - oh how perfect to put these on a nice blank wall! Welll, my grandmother didn't part with things easily and she would not let me take them because they belonged to my grandfather and that was that. So, she hid them. Yes. She hid the damn things and I've been wracking my brain as to where she stashed those stupid letters and I think I'm going to give up soon. I've asked everyone in my family to keep their eyes peeled for a 'box of letters' and my dad thought he'd found them. Well, not quite - but maybe this is even better!!!

I love my grandfather's permanent marker writings on each of the letters, and I love that there's a beautiful little tray with rows to keep the letters in place that I know he must have made for their safe keeping...





I very lovingly cleaned them up a month ago and sort of forgot about them until Wednesday afternoon. Then I got crazy, stamping this - stamping that.... too bad I'm missing the 3 ... 1385 hang tags and business cards were going to be in the works until my plan was foiled (it's okay though, i just found a similar set on etsy that's going to work to replace the three seamlessly!)

So, instead of focusing on business branding - I've been trying to whittle down my paper collection and add a little somethin' else to 1385 wrappings ... some of these have been delivered, some are on their way - and I can't wait to stamp some more!













I've also been making good use of all the road maps, astrological charts, and blue prints that I found at my grandmother's house last week. Thank god for my grandmother, the best of the pack rats.

Read More...