Back to School

Monday was supposed to be the first day of school, but following the devastation of Irene, class was canceled. Sunday night we left home just before midnight as the river quickly began to rise.  It came up about a foot in an hour.  We were reasonably confident it wouldn't reach the house but we weren't certain we would be able to leave our driveway. We returned to the house in the morning to find that the river had risen up past the bridge.  Needless to say, we realize how fortunate we are to have our home and each other. 

But on campus, everything is back to normal. We're stepping quickly into the semester, so I thought I'd begin the school year by posting my first day outfit.

Outfit consists of:

Sweater: chocolate brown sweater by a.n.a. found at J.C. Penny

Top: abstract print tank by Petticoat Alley found at TJ Maxx

Belt: brown belt found at TJ Maxx

Skirt: 1980s cobalt blue skirt found at Goodwill

Shoes: brown platform sandals by Nine West found at Marshall's

Take 2

Before:

After:

So yesterday Alex of Vintage by Alex Keller weighed in on our new backdrop and confirmed my earlier suspicions: too shiny, too much pattern.  Not one to let grass grow beneath my feet, I began my mission right after getting out of bed this morning.

I decided, finally, to get rid of my white wall. I was thinking a nice neutral tan would be great. Most sellers opt for gray because it's such a chill background color and I was thinking I could differentiate myself by choosing another nice neutral. Um wrong.  You see here in our house we have a problem.  We call it the gray paint problem, but if you catch me on the right day I'll say the problem is my husband.  You see, he's nixed all colors in the warmer end of the spectrum.  No reds, oranges, yellows. Which leaves us with all the cool colors, of which there is a range, but we both prefer the ones with a heavy amount of gray undertones. The living room: a green gray.  The kitchen: a gray brown.  The bedroom: a gray green.  My husband's office: a gray blue.  In fact, the only rooms that we've painted and painted a different color include our entryway which is a deep purple blue and my office which is a darker tan.

So this morning I set out to find our paints. My first thought was to use our kitchen color, but I couldn't find it.  My second thought was to use my office color, but I couldn't find it.  My third thought was to use one of the Benjamin Moore quarts that we had, surely there must be some other color in there! Nope. They were all shades of gray.  I tested the paints that I did have and finally decided to go with the one in my husband's office Uncertain Gray by Sherwin Williams.  On the south side of the house, this color reads much more blue gray, but on the north side of the house where my work space it reads more of a steady gray.

There you have it, my new background. It won't stay this way for ever. I'm rearranging some space in the house and I'll be giving up this space, but for the foreseeable future the Vint Condition photos will be on an Uncertain Gray background.

New Family Member

 

Meet the latest member of the Vint Condition family, Eileen.  Eileen was found today at an auction, and after a pretty fierce bidding war in which I spent more than I anticipated, Eileen came home with me.  I think she actually would have gone for more, but she had a hideous rubbery head plopped on the top.  We got quite a few strange looks as we carried her to the car.

Eileen is a J. R. Bauman dress form. I've wanted one of these for awhile, and not just because Bauman and Bauman/Wolf dress forms are all the rage amongst etsy sellers. I wanted to use a vintage dress form since it fits with the whole concept of selling vintage clothes.  On a practical level. I also wanted to have a dress form that isn't white.  While Peggy (our other dress form) is a breeze to work with, Victorian whites and light colored clothing doesn't show up well against her.

 Speaking of things showing up, we're entertaining opinions about our new backdrop. I made a wallpaper backdrop out of, well, wallpaper and a window shade.  It's not perfect and if I had to do it again I wouldn't pick wallpaper with quite so much shine.  I'm on the fence about it thus far, but it does have the advantage of creating contrast.  What do you think?

A Pop-Up Shop!

A few weeks ago, I queried my friends and acquaintances on Facebook. I wanted to know if I rented a booth in an antique store if they would be more likely to shop from me than buy online.  They response was that they would.  They wanted to see the clothes in person.  While they're always welcome to stop by my home, I don't know if they always feel comfortable doing so alone.  A few days after that, I received an email asking if I had ever considered doing a trunk show or party with a select group of people who could peruse the vintage goods.  While I'm not ready to bring my selections out of the house, because that involves a lot of foresight in terms of display, I am ready to host my first ever pop up shop from my gorgeous front porch.

On September 24th and 25th, everyone is invited to shop Vint Condition in person. There will be a select collection of dresses, skirts, and accessories that I've been hoarding just for a moment like this.  I'll also have light refreshments available.  I would love for people to come and hang out rather than shop and rush off.

I wanted to do this specifically for the ladies of northern New York. We don't have a vintage clothing store in the area, and in fact I travel far and wide to round up the vintage I do have.  If this is a success, we'll keep doing it.  So if you're local, help out and spread the word.  The event is here on facebook, so share the event with your friends, post it on your own wall, and come join me in September for what should be a lovely time!

Disappearing Act

I didn't intend to fall off the earth, to stop blogging, or emailing, or talking for that matter.  This summer, though, I'm taking some time to myself to be quiet.  It's not that I haven't been busy, some days I wonder when the last time that I stayed home actually was, but when I am here I'm working on my writing and that takes the front seat in terms of time, energy, and head space.

Some of you know that I've been working on a collection of poems about missing women.  There's only so much I can do at a time before I feel like my nerves are raw.  When that happens, there's no room left for a bit to actually create  a beautiful piece that honors them.  At least that's my end goal, to create a poem that captures a moment or a piece of their essence. 

When I can't go near the poems or my stack of printouts detailing their cases, I work on nonfiction.  The outlook over there isn't much better since I've been writing about my dad and now a true crime piece. But still, I'm working, writing.

Now with the change of the seasons I'm shifting gears. I'm making plans for the shop, getting ready to head back to teach, and I'll be here again, maybe not as much and maybe slowly at first, but I'll be back.  I've missed you all.