Places to Visit: Los Angeles - Flounce Vintage

I'd like to introduce you to my favorite vintage store on the West Coast - Flounce Vintage - and it happens to be nestled in Los Angeles's Echo Park (right next to a cafe that has really tasty mint lemonade!)

I first visited Flounce two summer's ago when I was in LA for Quicksilver's Traveling Shirt party and Jennifer was sweet enough to send a nice list of places to visit. Flounce was on the list and I fell in love the moment I walked in!



I always have an idolized idea of how places should be when usually they're nothing like what's floating around my brain. My skewed perception of Hollywood is one of these things. I always think back to old Hollywood - where the gals are sweet and wholesome (having just moved to California from a small hometown) .. Just trying to earn a buck and make it big in the pictures. They wear pretty dresses and have perfectly imperfect finger-wave bobs. They live in the chaotic apartment buildings with only one telephone belonging to a lady who's always in her bath robe and curlers... All the furniture is perfectly Art Deco and there's no shortage of pretty floral fabrics and nice sunlight coming through those lacey curtains.





The point to all of that rambling is.. Flounce is exactly what I think of when I think of Hollywood... Gorgeous flapper era frocks, pretty day dresses in pale colors and soft fabrics. Stunning evening wear. Floral needlepoint, and the best little ceramic animal knick-knack paddywacks to fill that 5th floor studio home away from home apartment.







Luckily they have an etsy shop - so those of us not living in the land of movie reels and super stars can grab a little piece of old Hollywood for ourselves!

Read More...

pups and plants

Well, this was a busy little week for me! Last Sunday we decided to adopt an old man West Highland Terrier named Westley from the SF SPCA. He's 8 years old and he's my new pal. He follows me around everywhere and he's as sweet as can be.

He's got some bad allergies and skin problems. He's currently on a strict diet and has anti-itch pills and medicated baths and ointment for infected bumps... awh, poor guy. We went to see a dermatologist on Thursday so hopefully he'll be feeling a lot better soon!



I have to say, working at home has also been a lot more awesome! I now have an etsy friend and someone to walk with me to the post office! And I've been getting out and about more ... exploring things in my neighborhood that I've never seen before... Like this nice pastel hobbit door..



And a nice peeley old church...



My favorite neighbors are moving this weekend and we also ended up with all their house plants! Which is lovely because finding some nice plants for our fire escape has been on my to-do list ... but, I never knew what to get or where to get 'em



While I was out watering/pruning yesterday Westley sat impatiently on the bed whining and trying to hop out there. He's got some separation anxiety... But, he was a pound pup after all, so I can't blame him!

Read More...

Mid-West dreamin

It's grey and rainy and pretty miserable out. I was just drinking a cup of hot chocolate - checking my google reader. No biggie. When I came upon the new posts from Liane, an amazing etsy seller who has a drool-inducing blog. And then I saw this post on heinrick ingenson and his AMAZING flickr stream. And I turned all sorts of crazy-batty-whacky-obsessive-excited!! And uhm, this is what my flickr favorites is looking like now...

Yes. That's an entire page....

Seriously. I want to hang out with this guy. Have him take me around for a day. Maybe steal a peeling piece of wallpaper or two. I'll pack a picnic lunch! Make sure there's plenty of empty memory cards and charged batteries!!! Please! Please! Pleaseeee!!!

Read More...

Feedsack Dresses

A while back I bought a slew of feedsack dresses from ebay. Some had their names scribbled into the necks, but most had holes where the names were snipped out. The first bunch of them made their way onto etsy here and there, finding homes with some really lovely gals. But, I still had 13 that needed their necks to be stitched up and their hems sewn. It's taken me a long time to get things all in order - but they're practically all ready to go off into the world! (I still have a few things to fix on three more dresses ...)

I've listed dresses 1-10 onto etsy so far and each one is coming to you wrapped in it's own sugar sack! There's florals, stripes, and dots to choose from!

Read More...

Back and Forth

I've been having a difficult time lately with selling clothing. It's the line between being a "collector" and a "dealer" ... I feel like I go in waves between feeling happy to look for dresses for other gals - to just wanting to find things and tuck them away until ... a brick and mortar store? ... I turn into a senile old lady?

Right now I'm leaning towards 'collector'. It's hard to be at the fleas and antique stores and feel guilty for keeping something when I know I should be selling it... So... I think maybe it's come time to think about a real job again. Who knows, especially the what - and where ... but, I think I'm ready to start looking!

The dress above was supposed to make its way to etsy today. It has these beautiful chiffon sleeves and it reminds me so much of New York City - and Lyell... The only thing ... it's a short one, so off to the shop, right? But as I was about to take measurements I realized I could let the hem down and all problems would be fixed. So now I feel 1 part happy that this dress can stay with me and 1 part guilty that I have yet another thing that's fallen into the trap that is my closet.

Read More...

Lomo adventures, pt. 10 - NYC

Today is my last day in Massachusetts... I thought being here for two weeks would mean plenty of time to do everything and see everyone but - there's so much left ... and the packing. Oohh I don't even want to think of the packing.

Here are some photos from a little two day jaunt to New York. Perfect weather. Perfect company. I was terrible about remembering to take photos though..

Read More...

April Second

I'm in New England for the next two weeks and the weather has been absolutely perfect! It's been so nice to hang out with family, and pups and to team up with Jeff and Alice yesterday. Exploring a pretty old barn outside of Boston and taking pictures of beautiful dresses (and bags!) that Alice found for me a few weeks back. The etsy listings are up, if you click the photos it'll take you right to the listings!

. . .

All the photos of me were taken by Jeff with his Contax - the others of the barn were taken with my lomo lc-a+. There's a lot more dresses to come, and hopefully more photos like this too!

Read More...