the walls came crumbling down

i completely forgot to share with you all the antique sewing supplies that my aunt gave me a few weeks ago! i absolutely love the packaging, although many of the boxes are crumbling with age (hence the inspiration for the post title, lol)

i wish that i used patterns when i sew, many of these tools would be useful! for now they're sitting on the mountain of sewing junk i've collected, which leads me into something i've been thinking about for a while to put up here on the blog... and by that i mean regular posts about the things i collect besides vintage clothing; ie: hats, sewing machines, records...you name it, i most likely have two or more! i sound like a compulsive hoarder, but really i can't resist the history behind an object, and the superior craftsmanship of things from the past when compared to today!

i planned on doing a mini photo shoot with this outfit (the lilac handmade sundress from the salvation army in the previous post, and a piece of ribbon i used as a belt...i really want a bow tie belt!) but it rained...crap. so here's a haphazard shot of the dress/belt (really loving light blue-ish purple and red right now)

i also just totally revamped my wall above my desk/bed yesterday; ripping all of the old stuff that's been up for nearly three years and changing it up with some new stuff, plus these USB lights i got that are little stars, too cute

my cork board collection (here i go again) of things i find, from a robin's egg shell to pressed flowers in the bindings of my childhood fairy tale booksand here is my overstuffed bureau, with two new additions: the clock i got from goodwill (it has the best seafoam color on the back), and a real old princess telephone in yellow, from my aunt! i also have all the old hats from gettysburg, my all time favorite books (lolita, 1984, the jungle, etc...), troll dolls, a vintage train case (one of my first flea market buys, from when i was 10 or something), a metronome, a cameo wall hanging from my grandmother, and the other really old german phone from a while ago!

so much stuff, so little space! my problem is i buy things for my future home, planning ahead, lol

so this post was a mess, but i swear i'll get my crap together for the next one! i already have it planned out..but no telling, it's a surprise!

thrifting gold

right now i'm sitting in my room, listening to all my beatles albums on my record player after a long day of doing nothing, but i wanted to show you all my finds from yesterday! i finally made it to the salvation army, but only after spending wayyy too long shopping for football equipment for my brother. but i guess i deserved it; i drag him along to thrift too much, and it was payback time :)

i only had an hour to look around, and i was amazed at how much stuff i got that was actually quality and vintage!

tons of 50s, 60s, and even 70s stuff! i never have such luck, it was as if an old house was cleaned out and all the great clothes were just shipped to salvation army! the goods include, from the top, a sheer purple 70s dress, a 60s shift dress, two 50s house dresses, a 50s lavender sundress with white lace trim (swoon! so glad this one fit, i would have seriously cried), 50s/60s high waisted skirts, an 80s cream linen shirt (a lot like the pink 50s one from this post), and a stack of 30 old records (hence me listening to them right now, haha)

so i left with a huge bag of awesomeness, and all for like $40, which is what, a shirt at a store in the mall? too good, thrift stores, you are my goldmine

(my feet aren't two different sizes, i was lifting up my left foot a bit and it came out looking like i have a monster right foot and regular left! lol)

i also got a bunch of mail, including a package with these wonderful cut out 70s sandals from etsy, and a sweet postcard from one of my best friends, jen, who was in paris for nine days! she's such a world traveler, i would love to just drop my life and go off to europe with her! and she said that she visited some thrift stores while in the city...damn, parisian thrifting? that's what i call ECSTASY

for now, i'll live vicariously through her and her adorable handwriting, and save up for my own plane ticket to a foreign land...if i stop spending all my cash on clothes, that is!

bubbles and benetint

the other day i forgot to post this, so here is the summation of another beautiful day in photographs

kind of tried to do the whole chic parisian in stripes thing, but i don't have a really good quality striped shirt to pull it off! on the lookout for one now, lol

i wore the octopus leg earrings my mom gave me last christmas from octopus me on etsy, they're pretty cool up close! actual octopus legs are cast into earrings, i love them

shirt: thrifted; shoes: health food store; jeans: macy's?
and there are some new purchases to show off; bubbles that smell like strawberry ice cream, the big size benetint (i live on this stuff), and a very old, very heavy typewriter! when i have my own place, i plan on having multiple rooms with desks in each, and a typewriter on each desk, just in case i come up with an idea on the spot and must write it all out before i forget! i carry around post it notes for the time being, but there's nothing like the sound of typewriter keys...which reminds me of this poem, which my english teacher gave to us the last day of class on the last day of the year. i want to be able to sit at a desk in a light filled room and write poetry like this, maybe some day

The Writer

In her room at the prow of the house
Where light breaks, and the windows are tossed with linden,
My daughter is writing a story.

I pause in the stairwell, hearing
From her shut door a commotion of typewriter-keys
Like a chain hauled over a gunwale.

Young as she is, the stuff
Of her life is a great cargo, and some of it heavy:
I wish her a lucky passage.

But now it is she who pauses,
As if to reject my thought and its easy figure.
A stillness greatens, in which

The whole house seems to be thinking,
And then she is at it again with a bunched clamor
Of strokes, and again is silent.

I remember the dazed starling
Which was trapped in that very room, two years ago;
How we stole in, lifted a sash

And retreated, not to affright it;
And how for a helpless hour, through the crack of the door,
We watched the sleek, wild, dark

And iridescent creature
Batter against the brilliance, drop like a glove
To the hard floor, or the desk-top,

And wait then, humped and bloody,
For the wits to try it again; and how our spirits
Rose when, suddenly sure,

It lifted off from a chair-back,
Beating a smooth course for the right window
And clearing the sill of the world.

It is always a matter, my darling,
Of life or death, as I had forgotten. I wish
What I wished you before, but harder.

-Richard Wilbur

it's the vibes, man...

i am so exhausted; yesterday my brother, mother, and i spent 7 hours at the HUGE outdoor music festival, the gathering of the vibes! i had no idea what to expect because i've never been to anything quite like it, but ere's a rundown and picture representation of what went down!
*smelly people
*drunk people
*high people
*mud
*sweat
*good music
*good food (asian tofu, noodles, and rice, yum!)
*naked people (so many naked/ high girls, gah!)
*a dead body (no lie, someone died!)
*hippies...so many hippies
*unwashed drunk old men hitting on me...apparently i have "eyes like a husky" and the guy also asked me why i am so pale...umm, because i'm part irish?
*coming home smelling like a hippie (sooo gross, but so worth it)

ok, enough with the talking, heres some pics

the front gate hippie van! me looking a bit scruffy, haha
me and my little bro! squinty eyes = smoke and sun
right next to the stage
the aftermath, soooo much mud, smelled like a barn/bar/soooo icky
man in a weed costume, with the cops!! so freaking hilarious
a weird alice in wonderland type installment

awesome day, thanks so much mom for taking us, your the best hippie mother ever :)

new shoe debut

this is what i wore today, a day i spent at borders bookstore with a big stack of foreign magazines and a glass of iced mint tea. i bought two books, jude the obscure and far from the madding crowd, both by thomas hardy (one of my favorite writers)
dress and belt: thrifted many months ago

vintage barrette: a traveling antique clothing expo thing, pretty cool

chloe heels: ebay

sorry about the gloomy face, wasn't wearing any makeup for these (yikes!)
and here's a (poorly done) shot of a little garden gnome who watches over our little pet cemetery...

sounds creepier than it is, i swear!

since i can't have dogs or cats due to allergies, we've always had pet hamsters, and they are mostly all buried in my front yard, with the gnome as a guard!

...although there was an old woman whose house was on our property until it burned down while she was asleep cooking a thanksgiving turkey; spooky! we still find old shards of china in the yard, but if she is a ghost she must be a friendly one, because i feel quite safe and happy at my home :)

schoolgirl crush

i love summer and all, but now that the sticky humid weather is here i can't help but think of beautiful fall afternoons with hot tea, fall leaves, and relaxing on campus (maybe i'm swayed by the way harry potter movies always make school seem so awesome, as i just saw the latest installment. it was good but i liked the previous ones more, less confusing and teen-angsty)

maybe that's what drove me to make both of these buys- a white school uniform blouse (that is identical to my old school uniform, only mine was yellow) and a very fall rust colored vintage skirt. there were two other vintage skirts i left behind, one green in a heavy wool, very old, and a blue, but sadly both were very small, and i was low on cash so no impulse buys :(
as for shoes, i did manage to find two pairs of minnetonka moccasins! i had a pair of these when i was a toddler, and they're a totally cool fall-like find. and, for my most exciting win(at least for me)drum roll please...
a pair of chloe heels off of ebay!

i have my eye on another pair, but we'll see how high the auction goes...these were very cheap as far as chloes go, about as much as a new pair of heels from urban outfitters, and so far the other pair are low as well...i'm becoming addicted to ebay and all the great chloe shoes i seem to find! but if they're in my budget and miraculously my size, they are so mine

i also want to make a promise to start posting more regularly and less erratically, which will a)force me to actually wear something other than jeans and a t shirt every day, b) try a bit harder to put myself together for "photo shoots", and c) not leave any readers wondering if i fell into a black hole! i hate when bloggers don't update frequently, but i'm a big hypocrite! lets say that i pinky swear to post at least 3 times a week? if i get on a schedule of posting i'm sure to stick with it :)

through the looking glass

as promised, here's a little photo representation of the wonderful hats i found in gettysburg!
first off, a velvet and black net one that i adore! a bit funereal but in a good way

then there's this sweet off white headband type one, with chiffon flowers and a caged top. totally cool

then there's this plastic flower headband with net, also pretty cool! and all of these were less than $4 each!

and last but not least...a boater hat!

i know i'm super late on this bandwagon, but i've FINALLY acquired my own boater, and the best part is that it was handmade by the shop owner i bought it from and it was considerably cheaper than any vintage one i've come across! win win situation here.

in case you were wondering what i was wearing, here's a lopsided picture of the thrifted handmade dress, black belt, and putty t straps all from salvation army

p.s. don't these kinda look like a marc jacobs ad? i love poladroid, haha
and how does the new header look? better than the old one?
<3