Weekend Snippets

Admire:
All of my admires this week have something in common, they include the color yellow. I love the brightness, the pop that yellow gives an outfit, but unfortunately it's not a friendly color on me. I think it could be because my skin has yellow undertones that competes with the use of it in an outfit. That's why many of the recent yellow additions to the shop are actually mine, I finally gave in and confessed it wasn't working. Check out all the yellows here.

But really, these three women below make yellow work in a way that I can't, and prove the versatility of the color!

Source: ashtreevintage.blogspot.com via Vint on Pinterest

Ashlee runs Ash Tree Vintage and also writes at the Ash Tree Vintage blog. I love the addition of yellow with the very graphic black and white shirt and the vintage basket purse is perfection.

Source: ashleyording.com via Vint on Pinterest

Ashely runs the lovely Fancy Fine shop and blog.  I'm incredibly jealous of this entire outfit particularly since, if I'm correct, this is a Marguerite Rubel coat. While yellow wouldn't look good on me, I recently sold one that was green that would have! What was I thinking? I love how sweetly simple this whole outfit is, and how it reminds me of Pushing Daisies.

Source: kittenhood.wordpress.com via Vint on Pinterest

 Daria of Kittenhood just about kills me in this outfit! I never would have thought to pair this dress and those tights together, but how much more perfect could they be!I also love the eclectic accessories. Leopard print belt: check. Adorable brown shoes: check. White clutch: check. **sigh**


Learn:
Find out how to make flavored Arnold Palmers over at A Beautiful Mess. It's my husband's favorite summertime/anytime drink so I'm sure I'll be trying some soon.

Read:
Catch up on your Rudolph Valentino lore and learn about his conflicts with his enemies.

Turn! Turn! Turn!: True Blood Season 5 Ep. 1

Yesterday I took a day off from the shop and lounged around finishing Season 4 of True Blood so I could start Season 5. Well, that wasn't the only reason. At 39 weeks pregnant I'm getting a bit exhausted.  While watching, though, I was quickly reminded why I fizzled out partway through the season last year. Oh, HBO, you could do so much better!

Last season I started off excited to see what Sookie's wardrobe mavens had in store for us.  I planned to write about it here because so much of it seemed vintage or vintage-inspired in previous seasons, but Sookie spent most of Season 4 naked or in t-shirts and tanks. Not exactly inspiring.

The first episode of this season also didn't yield anything fabulous in the way of the Sookie wardrobe department, but fortunately someone else has risen to the occasion. Thank goodness for Jessica! She wears a stunning red cape in the early scenes, but it's this dress that really stands out.

While rocking out to The Runaways' Cherry Bomb, Jessica wears this amazing late 80s/early 90s influenced body con dress. I don't have any currently stashed away in my shop or my own closet, so I immediately prowled around etsy looking for similar dresses. Not that I can wear one any time soon, but I know some of my lovely readers can!

1990s body con dress available at On the Prowl Vintage

1980s tie dye bandage dress available at Native Owl

1980s floral body con dress found at So Passe Vintage

A Hint of Vint: 4th of July version

The other day I met someone who, upon learning I sold vintage clothing, insisted that she was not "cool enough" to wear vintage. I think there's a block for a lot of people when they consider vintage clothes. While I love the ladies who dress completely in period vintage every day, I think that's the style that most think of when hearing the word "vintage" which can seem daunting and even distant from their own styling choices.

I've long loved vintage clothing, but my personal style is one that integrates pieces of vintage with modern clothing. It's not as hard as some may think and certainly not as hard as dressing up completely in vintage. Consider that so many styles that we're wearing are already vintage-inspired (see the latest Anthropologie line of fit and flare dresses) and it makes more sense.

In any case, that brief conversation has me resurrecting my occasional outfit idea posts.  This one is for the upcoming 4th of July. I'd wear either of these, but I'm guessing I'll be doing little celebrating this year and more spending time with the new baby (please please let her be here by then!).

Splendid top
$56 - stanwells.com

4th of July skirt / red white and blue skirt by VintConditionStyle
$24 - etsy.com

Steve madden shoes
$38 - amazon.com

LOFT woven belt
$40 - loft.com

Vintage 70s Dark Brown Cotton Wool Macrame Purse by Planetevintage
$15 - etsy.com

BB Dakota sheer top
$28 - shoptaintedkiss.com

Quiksilver jeans
$70 - quiksilver.com

Wet Seal t bar sandals
$17 - wetseal.com

red white blue blazer jacket / 1970s blazer by VintConditionStyle
$36 - etsy.com

Vintage Gold Purse Lamé Faux Diamond Mid Century by VeraVague
$20 - etsy.com

The Ones That Stayed

I love seeing sneak peaks into the closets of other vintage sellers. What do they keep for themselves? I often find myself asking. I also frequently get comments from friends, acquaintances, and strangers about what must live in my own closet. Unfortunately for me (or fortunately for my buyers) my own personal collection has dwindled instead of grown since I became a seller. Twice a  year I clean out my closet and many of my personal finds end up in the shop like these ones here or here.  And when I do find something in my size now I often list it rather than keeping it for myself.  What I do tend to keep is vintage that's too damaged for me to feel comfortable listing in my shop but these lovelies  sit around in piles waiting for the repairs necessary to make them functionally wearable.

Recently, Maria of Adelaide's Homesewn shared a gorgeous dressing gown that she couldn't stand to part with which inspired me to share a few things from my closet. You see, at some point around 30 weeks I had a pregnancy-induced meltdown in which I wanted to burn every Liz Lang maternity tank in my closet, but alas I would have no clothes that fit me if I did that. I missed my vintage desperately so I consoled myself with shopping for some post-maternity clothes.  I decided to treat myself!

Now the tricky part of this whole treating myself endeavor is that I have no clue if or when I'll actually be able to wear any of these lovelies. Who can predict how pregnancy will change the shape and design of your body? But hopefully sooner rather than later these will appear on me and in some outfit posts. Fingers crossed, y'all.

Don't tell the other finds, but this one is my favorite. Hello, 1960s gorgeousness! Those colors, that pattern, the cut! It measures a bit larger than my old size, so maybe!

This is a Swirl dress which were these awesome wrap dresses which were typically used as house dresses. Swirls tend to be very popular now and you can tell why! They tend to have lovely prints and are easy to wear. Since it's adjustable (it closes with the belt) I'm guessing this one will be a win!

 

This lovely dress is by Jeanette Alexander. I love the print! And the cut of the dress! But I'm not sure if this will work since this cut has never been really flattering on me before. Having slightly wider hips is always a bit awkward with these.

 My husband cringed when he saw this and told me it looked "too vintage." Whatever. It's stunning. It's one of the few reasons I won't mind when it becomes bitterly cold here for 8 months of the year.

 

And finally, this 1970s wrap skirt. Wrap = flexible fit right?  One of my favorite things about this skirt, you know beyond the obvious, is that someone added little pieces of velcro down the front. Clearly at some point this skirt was responsible for an embarrassing wardrobe malfunction.

From the Farm: Week 1

When my dad was alive and I lived in Arizona, he would ship me tomatoes from his garden because I said the ones at the grocery store tasted like chemicals. He had it timed just right so that when I opened the box they were just ready to be eaten. When I moved back to New York, he helped me set up portable planters since there's barely any sunlight in my backyard and we made plans to put in more when we could. But that all changed. I didn't grow anything last year. I didn't grow anything this year. Eventually, I know I'll make my way back there, but until I do, I want to think about and obtain food in a way that certainly does not happen at my nearest chain grocery store.

We joined a CSA this year. If you don't know already, CSA is community supported agriculture. We, along with many others, pay a local farmer in advance for a portion of their farm's vegetable yield. Some years will be plentiful and some years won't, but you commit to supporting the farmer and their work no matter what. I selected the CSA I did partially because they accept SNAP benefits. SNAP is the official name for what we understand as food stamps. In case you're wondering, we're not SNAP recipients, but my husband's mother once was and my grandmother was as well. It means a lot to me that our CSA has taken the steps necessary to make fresh, local produce available in our area to low-income residents who are trying to eat healthfully.

Anyway, I could go on and on about this, but the above photo shows our first week's haul. We had mounds of fresh salad mix, radishes (which my mom ran off with), kale, beets and beet greens, strawberries, onions, and snow peas (which are currently my husband's snack of choice).

We also met some amazing neighbors recently who kindly gifted us with these this week:

There's nothing quite like fresh eggs and these were beyond compare. These are Americana eggs known for their pastel prettiness. My husband ate the more colorful ones before I could snap a picture but rest assured there were some blues and greens in there.

And all of this became this:

My breakfast of oatmeal, fresh strawberries, and bananas. Yum!

Grilled steak salad with roasted tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, grilled onions, with a basil dressing.

And my first attempt at a roasted beet and beet green gratin taken from this recipe here which utilized those gorgeous eggs as well. Ours needs some fine tuning still and it's not as colorful as the one at the link since I only grabbed orange beets this past week.


All this and I still have to make kale chips! 

Week 38

Right now, right this very minute as I write this, I'm 38 weeks and 3 days pregnant. The day additions, those fragments of time that seemed so meaningless in the calculation of pregnancy, now feel heavy and weighted. There's only 11 days left until my due date, and yet that feels so very far from now. Yet I want to make it there, I want to have this baby on my father's birthday.

I've fallen silent on this blog, which happens any time I need to turn inward and take care of myself. The shop was pretty quiet with updates as well in the last few months as I took that space to look after my students, those bravely quiet ones who are trying to sort it all out. But now I'm slowly making my way back. The store is filling up with stock, this blog post is being written, and somewhere poetry is finding its way to the page as well.

Pregnancy has not been a comfortable fit for me. I don't like being pregnant and I don't like many of the "typical" aspects of pregnancy that most people tell women they should enjoy. Unfortunately, expressing any displeasure with pregnancy as a whole reads to many as a sign of "bad mothering." You'll be a "bad mother" if you don't like feeling your baby move.  You'll be a "bad mother" if you don't gush about pregnancy.  The burden we place on women to experience pregnancy and parenting a certain way is limiting and damaging.  This, along with the physical discomforts of pregnancy, is what I've been struggling with personally in this space of silence I've created.

I'll probably write more on this, either here or elsewhere, and build tiny poems dedicated to what this feels like. But none to fear, this blog is intended to explore vintage clothing and integrating it into your life and it will continue to do so directly or tangentially.  Tomorrow, expect to see a post about our support of a local CSA or as some call it a farm share. I'll be driving out weekly to collect fresh vegetables and plan on documenting it here because I see its connection to participating in sustainability.