Garage Shopping

I love digging through my mom's garage! She's a junkin' junkie and always has fun stuff in her garage. I always want to go shopping in there. Here are a few things that caught my eye today... buttons, fabric, books, old frames, and a run-down doll house that we're going to try to spruce up. Her garage is also home to some other really great things in her etsy shop, The Carriage Trade. 

Thrill of the Hunt

Yesterday I went junking with  my mom while Andrew took Lois to lunch with a friend of his.  I had a great time with my mom, and we scored some amazing things for her etsy shop.  It was sooo much fun.  Our hearts were all a-flutter with the thrill of the hunt!  Here are a few of my favorite things in her shop right now.  We took a ton of pictures yesterday of her merchandise, and she'll be listing a lot of things in the next few days, including some great quilt tops and some sterling silver.  Click here to head over and see what's in store. 

The Carriage Trade

My mom opened her own little shop on etsy. She's just added a few things so far, but I'm so excited that she opened her own shop that I wanted to go ahead and mention it. She'll be adding more later this week. Believe me, her garage is filled with treasures just waiting for a great home, like these items pictured here--good stuff, don't you think? (Every time I go home I want to go shopping in her garage!)


She had her first sale today! Congratulations, mom!! You can check out her shop here.

Giveaway Day! Your Pick

Today is giveaway day again! And today is a you pick it giveaway--anything from the clothes and shoes shop. This one's going to be the last giveaway for a while. Since we're moving later this summer, I'm starting to clean out what we don't need, including everything in my vintage etsy shops. I hope to start them up again once we get settled in London. So leave a comment here if you want to win something from my clothes shop. Also, I've marked everything 50% off (only in the clothes shop for now), so if you see anything you like, snatch it up for a deal of a price. You have until tomorrow, Tuesday, at noon pacific time to enter to win the giveaway. You can see what's in my shop here.

UPDATE: The winner is Amy of The Hip Homemaker! YAY! Thanks for playing. Hopefully I'll bring back giveaways from London in the future.

Party Hats and Dresses

It's been a while since I made any party hats. I got a little burned out and have hardly made any the last few months. A long time ago I wanted to make some things to match the hats like bibs and dresses. Last year, after an etsy seller requested I make a party hat to match a dress she made for a customer of hers, I knew it was time I started making my own. It took me a while to get motivated, but last week I finally got started and now I'm sewing like a mad woman! These dresses are really simple, but I still had trouble with a few things like the arm holes, and my machine kept wanting to eat the fabric. I almost threw my machine out the window and gave up, but I got the hang of it after a while. I love the little dresses I've made and have a pile of more fabrics cut and ready to sew. You'd think 10 people were sewing here all day if you looked at the mess I've made.

My favorites so far are the two sets pictured here. The first one I made using the quilt top I bought recently at the flea market, and the second one below I made using some great barkcloth my mom gave me a while back. I think I'll have to make Lois one from the quilt top, too. I just love all the cute prints on that quilt top.




More dress and hat sets coming soon, that is until I burn out again! If you know a baby girl with a birthday coming up, these are for sale in the party hat shop now. I have some more bibs for boys in the works, too.

Always and Never

Lauren of Dear Golden tagged me to list my always and nevers when it comes to home and decorating. Another fun game of tag started by Anabela of Fieldguided. If I have it right this time, the idea is to list 5 things that are always important to you in your interior design style and 5 things you'd never want to incorporate.

My always . . .
1. Family pictures. I like them on tables, dressers, or bookshelves, or on one wall together in one place, (usually not mixed with other artwork).
2. Plants and flowers. For plants my favorites are grape ivy and maidenhair ferns. Unfortunately, our cat tries to eat and play with, and subsequently throw up, any houseplants I bring home. She loves to nibble on flowers too, and seems to like knocking over vases as well.
3. Hardwood floors. I don't mind carpet in bedrooms so long as it's a neutral color, but in the main living spaces I like hardwood floors. I like cement or tile floors, too.
4. Flea market and thrift treasures. I like things that have a past life, which often show wear--surrounding myself with things that are chipped and broken make me happier than most things that are are shiny and new.
5. Repurposed things. I like to see things serve a purpose other than their intended purpose, like the metal cart in Lois' room that we use as a changing table and my new flower frog pen holders. We don't have a whole lot of repurposed pieces in our place. This is more of an always in theory for now.

My nevers . . . keep in mind, these are just my personal preferneces for my own living space.
1. Overhead lighting. I like overhead lighting if it's something like a chandelier on a dimmer, but not full blast. It's too harsh for me. I prefer lamps.
2. Open closet doors. I always keep closet doors shut. If our closet door is open when I get ready for bed, I have to shut it before I can sleep. It gives me the creeps to see them open! I don't know why. I think it has something to do with creepy clowns.
3. Plastic mini-blinds. I like bamboo or matchstick blinds.
4. Beds with one or two sad flat pillows. That sounds weird, doesn't it? I like lots of pillows.
5. Beds with no headboard or backdrop of some kind. I like all kinds of things behind beds--we have shutters, and I like mantels, stained glass, a window, or shelf as a bed backdrop.

Now I tag Michelle of Armas Design and Rebekah of Little Byrd Vintage. The cute brass Home Sweet Home is from Rebekah's etsy shop.

Giveaway Day!

It's giveaway day again, and this time it's a really great etched ship glass. I'm not sure what the intended purpose was for this glass. I think it would make a good snifter, but I don't know for sure if that was its original purpose. With the etched ship design, it makes a great candle holder, though.

I love little glasses like this because they can easily serve multiple purposes. This one would be great in a bathroom holding q-tips, cotton balls, bath salts, or just a tea light. It's going to be hard to part with this one! I found it recently while thrifting along with these other goodies below. More to come on the apothecary bottle (citrate magnesia bottle on the right)--that one is a keeper. The other two things you'll find in my etsy shop soon.

I think a little bryd is affecting my eyes while I'm out treasure hunting. I like her shop so much that what I've bought recently reminds me more of her shop than my own. Oh yes, and sorry for skipping the giveaway on the 15th earlier this month. I meant to tell you I was skipping it since we were out of town, but I forgot to mention it! You have until Tuesday at 12 noon pacific time to leave your comment for a chance to win the etched ship glass.

Update: And the winner is . . . Helen of the museum cupboard! Yay, Helen!

Feeling Blue

Recently I seem to be drawn to floral prints that incorporate lots of blue when I'm out hunting for my etsy shop. Yeah, that other etsy shop. I'm having a hard time keeping up myself! When I first saw the skirt below I thought the fabric would be great for a pillow, but the skirt is too cute as it is, especially with the side hip pockets, so I can't cut it up.

But my very favorite most recent thing for my etsy shop is this bathing suit top. The print is so fun. It would be perfect just paired up with some solid colored bottoms or shorts. If you see anything you like, scoop it up soon! We're headed to Atlanta on Sunday for a two week trip to go see our families. Can't wait!

Giveaway Day! Your Pick

For today's giveaway, I decided that you get to pick the prize! Any one thing under $25 can be yours--one bag, one piece of jewelry, one blouse, etc. Just leave a comment here by Saturday at 12 noon, and I'll announce the winner tomorrow later in the afternoon. Go ahead and see what you might want in my etsy vintage clothing shop. Here are just a few things I have listed now (just showing these as an example, but you can choose anything under $25). Yay!



It's after 12 and I've drawn the winner, and it's Debbie from Romancing The Bling!! YAY Debbie! By the way, Debbie makes really beautiful re-purposed jewelry, including pretty hair pins and hair combs--go check out her shop. Debbie, I'll be in touch to see what you'd like from my shop. Oh, and from now on, I'll announce the winner at the bottom of my giveaway posts.

Treasures Now In My Shop

So in my etsy shop I've listed just almost everything I got from the flea market this past Sunday, including this cute child's tea set above. My favorite thing, though, is already reserved for someone! It's this envelope letter holder below. It's metal and really rustic looking with its rugged paint job, but I love it. Someone sent me an email earlier today asking how I part with the good stuff. Well, the truth of it is we just don't have room. And I don't ever want Peter Walsh to show up at my place and look in the closets. Not only that, but I think if you're going to sell vintage things, you have to sell things you really like, otherwise your shop will look like a garage sale--just the cast off stuff you don't really want anyway, and people pick up on that. So I parted with the really cool letter holder (displayed with one of Katrine's cute tea time cards) and will part with more fun treasures soon.

What a Doll

I was hunting around trying to find more vintage Child Life magazines like the ones Lisa gave me a while back (she always gives me the coolest stuff, doesn't she?), and while I was looking I came across this cute paper doll page for sale on etsy. Right away it reminded me of Emily from the Black Apple and her cute fashion blog, Some Girls Wander. The little girl's hat, the way she's standing, her knee highs, the way her eyes are looking away, etc. As much as I love clothes and playing dress up, I feel like such a lazy slug, or a shlumpadinka as Oprah calls it, most days when I'm getting dressed to make my usual round of errands--get quarters for laundry (yes, we have to pay to use the machine in our building, which is really annoying), go to the post office, go to the grocery store, yadda, yadda (insert more boring stuff here), and sometimes pop into the thrift store (twinkle in my eye just thinking about it; it's the highlight of the errand running). So I often think of Emily when I'm getting dressed and feel inspired to reach for something besides the Levis I wear just about every day now. Rarely do I actually do it, but I still think about it. I guess when I don't want to play dress up for real I can still have fun playing dress up with Emily's own collection of paper dolls. I didn't even realize she created her own until after I saw the Child Life page. I think dress up is fun wether it's the real thing or on paper.

Flea Market Fun

Today I went to the Alemany flea market and had a great time! Or maybe I should call it the Ferragamo flea market. I must have seen about 30 pairs of vintage Ferragamos. The bin below had about 5 pairs (including that tan pair you see there with the classic Ferragamo logo shimmering inside). Unfortunately, my two favorites didn't have their mate. But there were plenty more to go around, and I got a few others. I used to think finding a great pair of Ferragamos was a rarity, but here in San Francisco, they seem to be everywhere.


Lots of vintage clothes today. The seashell pink silk jacket above is so cute and has little bows stitched on it. I've looked at this many times and it's always still here week after week. It has a few unfortunate stains on it so I have a feeling it might live on the rack for while.

More fun vintage shoes. The red wedge espadrilles are so cute, but one sole was coming off. And the little cream suede lace-ups on the top rack there are Ferragamos too. This vendor wanted a pretty penny for them, so I had to pass.

I did get a handful of really great bags, including the three above, which I'll list this week in my etsy shop. The foldover kisslock clutch is in great condition and so cute, the inital bag was calling my name (my initals are L M, which is the inverse of how it's printed, but that's okay, I still couldn't pass it up), and the woven basket bag was really cute too.

Above are some clothes from Ms. Ellie's space. She always has the best clothes. Her clothes are always in great condition and you really don't even have to pick through them to find great stuff. She had a really pretty 50s floral party dress beside her that I asked about. I wondered if maybe she was holding it for someone. She said it had a spot on it and she was going to take it home to have it dry cleaned to see if it would come out. She showed me the spot and I could hardly see it. I know she takes good care of these clothes. I bought the dress below from her and I love it! It fits me, but I bought it for my etsy shop, which is where it is now. (Update--it already sold! I guess I won't be keeping it for sure!)


Here I am trying it on and looking over at Andrew who said, "hey, you should keep that one!"

Now I have to rest. The flea market was so fun, but I'm tired!

Feeling Peachy

Lately I seem to be drawn to green, yellow and peachy-orange colors. I recently found some really pretty vintage clothes, including two great 50s dresses, the sweater below, and some cute children's clothes as well. As I was measuring them to list them in my etsy shop, I looked up and saw Stella next to the tulips and thought how pretty she looked there with the tulips, and how pretty she and the tulips looked next to the clothes I was listing. Then I noticed how many other green, yellow, and orangish things were around me in our apartment. I'm always drawn to red and green colors, but shades of yellow and orange, including peachy-salmon colors, seem to be taking over around here.