Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Hola!

Hey, so nice to “see” you again. Where have I been? Well, we jetted off to Mexico for a fun-filled week of sun-kissed days, surrounded by good friends and warm sandy beaches. The Pacifico with lime flowed freely and each night began with a glorious sunset… of course I took a million pictures, so more on that to come. In the meantime, here's an outfit from just before our trip…

Little White Dress

Dress: Recent thrift gift, thanks Laura Jane!
Leather Leaf Hairclip: Made by Milla
Beaded Necklace: Gift from Nicole
Denim Jacket: Thrifted
Moccs: Violet Folklore

Beads and Bells

This cute little white dress, rescued from the dredges of the Goodwill bins by our thrift savvy friend Laura Jane, made for a perfect backdrop to show off this gorgeous and amazing beaded necklace that was given to me by the equally gorgeous and amazing Nicole back when we did our swap… the beading, the colors, the little bells that jingle cheerfully wherever I go… I adore this necklace!

So, we came home to some awfully dreary weather. Chilly, cloudy, rainy… a bit of a shock to the system after a straight week of tropical paradise conditions. Not to mention a week spent internet-free.

I’m slowly finding my way back to blogland (so behind... hoping to soon be commenting on a blog near you ;) and other business-as-usual. The good news is that the sun finally poked out from behind the clouds today and according to the powers that forecast, she’s supposedly gonna hang out for awhile, woohoo!

Now, in the spirit of catching up, before I start bombarding you with vacation photos, I have something fun to share...

Antique Freaks

I’m sure plenty of you recognize the bright smiling face with me here! Yup, I finally got to meet up with the gorgeous, hilarious, and super stylish to boot, Brigit!

If, during your internet travels, you haven’t come across her wonderful blog, Bonfire of My Vanity, I highly recommend dropping by… especially if you enjoy laughing out loud while being sartorially and otherwise inspired. Brigit is one of the most entertaining blog writers I know and most definitely the funniest!

Whistlestop Antiques

We met up for coffee in the Old Railroad Square historic section of downtown. Even though I’ve now had the pleasure of meeting several of my blog friends in person, and each and every time it ends up being a fun and relaxed experience, I still never fail to get all nervous beforehand.

Of course Brigit’s warm smile and totally down-to-earth personality put me at ease immediately and we proceeded to enjoy a lovely chat over coffee followed by me giving Brigit the grand tour of the nearby vintage, thrift, and antiques establishments.

Whistlestop Antiques, or “The Olden Days Store” as Clover refers to it, is housed in an old brick warehouse-sized building where 35 individual antiques dealers sell their wares. It’s the sort of place in which anyone who is a lover of old things can get lost wandering through the maze-like array of old-timey treasures for hours on end. Needless to say, Brigit was an instant fan of this place as were Milla and Charlie back when I gave them the tour.

Gem Gazing

Timberrrr!

We ogled antique silver and turquoise jewelry and sifted through boxes full of random old photos. If you look closely at the framed photo above, you can see the little dude up there chopping off the top of that giant tree, pretty wild!

Fairy

Chin Up

From one iconic Santa Rosa Vintage retailer to the next, we walked down the street and around the corner to Hot Couture Vintage, which has been around since the early 80’s. I can remember this place as a kid!

This shop has a vintage purity that I admire, having remained true it’s classic aesthetic over the years. They still draw the vintage line at the 70’s. No 80’s/90’s revival happening here.

Vintage Dress Heaven

Beautiful vintage dresses galore!

Brigit, the true bohemian babe that she is, was drawn to the embroidered Mexican frocks, like the little beauty she’s eyeing above. Speaking of bohemian style, I’d like to point out her awesome tie-dyed dress, and then draw your attention to that killer leather/woven bag she’s carrying, which was given to her by none other than our friend Milla the Magnificent.

I went crazy over that bag when first seeing on her blog and let me tell you, it’s even cooler in person. I pretty much couldn’t take my eyes off it and the fact that my own favorite woven bag had just begun unraveling to the point where it had to be retired and I had been on the lookout for a new one wasn’t helping.

Woven Bag

As it turns out, not only is Brigit fun to hang out and shop with, she’s also got amazing thrift luck! Earlier, as we hit up a couple of thrift shops, she came across this beautiful woven bag for four bucks and was kind and generous enough with the thrift love to hand it over to me!

I’m sure the look of longing in my eyes when I spotted her with it didn’t hurt my cause, and we joked that it was a diversionary tactic to keep me from attempting to steal her bag, haha.

Scarves
A little snippet of the wall of vintage scarves.

Browsing Brigit

Hot Couture Vintage
Hats, hats, and more hats :)

Me & Brigit

After a couple of hours of shopping and chatting, our parking permits were about to expire and it was almost time for me to go pick up Clover from pre-school, so before walking Brigit back to her car, I asked the lovely woman behind the counter to take a final picture of us together, which she happily did. Look at us all matchy matchy in our little faded denim jackets :)

We had actually tried to meet up this time last year when Brigit was in the area visiting her in-laws and attending an annual belly dance festival. It didn’t end up working out that time, so I’m glad we finally managed to get together. Having two adorable little boys of her own, it was nice for us both to get out for some kid-free time as well.

We’re hoping to hang out again during one of her future visits down this way, perhaps a play date will be in order for the kiddos, and possibly a road trip to Sacramento for some more blogger meet-up fun! Thanks so much for coming into town to hang out, Brigit, I had a wonderful time and it was so nice to finally meet you in person!

P.S. You can check out Brigit's account of our meet-up here. You'll get a better look at that awesome tie-dye dress and her humorous account of how she got lost on her way to the meet-up and tried to get directions from crazy people :)

18 comments:

Teeny said...

Oh, I love reading these blogger meetup accounts (especially when i'm particularly fond of the gals in question). that vintage store looks amazing Missa...I wish oh wish I had something like that near me! And you went to Mexico! Cannot wait to hear and see more about that. That is SO another dream destination of mine, ooh! Mebbe I can try and convince my hubs that Mexico is another great reason to visit your way. Btw that white dress is super sublime on you. So delicate. It is a little thrill that i get to be the first to comment here today!
xx

lasophia said...

Wow!!! Was this really in Santa Rosa? I might have to take a trip out there. I live close to Sacramento.

California Love,
Sophia

http://lasophialasophia.blogspot.com

Moon to Moon said...

Just found your blog via Bridget's. would love to go shopping with you guys xxxx Gabi

Cel said...

Mexico! Lucky! I love seeing when some of my favourite blog ladies meet up in person (even if it does desperately make me wish I had blog friends nearby). That antique place, omg, it looks and sounds like heaven, I wish I could go there.

Anonymous said...

welcome back! mexico, ooo la la! this june gloom is pretty awful...i feel complainey all day and then realize it's a case of seasonal confusion. where my summer at?

i love your account of your day. thrifting with friends who have magic luck is just about my favorite thing in the whole world. i read "bonfire" every once in a while and that girl has major sassy charm.

can't wait to hear about your trip!

anne said...

sounds like a fun afternoon. i imagine brigit being a load of laughs. her tye dye dress is cute, i'll have to go check out her post.

i have a bag, almost identical to the one you pictured, that i've been using for months. i love it and mine was 4 bucks as well! so sweet of her to hand it on over to you :D

can't wait to see your vacation photos!

bonfire of my vanity said...

i love all these pictures!!! and i'm so glad that i was able to hand over that bag. it was so great meeting you, and i can't wait to do it again and hopefully meet the great Clover. and yes, the soup kitchen...it was around there. haha!

Mrs. Habit said...

that bag is thrift GOLD. I'm super jealous, and now fully motivated to get out of my bathrobe today and start the thrift hoping for one similar.

The meet up looks like a perfectly casual date. Love that you gals unknowingly choose matching jackets :)

Heading over to read Brigtit's take on the day too. Have a good week.

moonshinejunkyard said...

you gals rock. so wish i coulda been there...next time FO SHO. i love your pale denim jackets together, oooh la la california girls! i remember that vintage shop in santa rosa, back then i thought i couldn't afford anything there, now i'd probably spend 200 bucks easy and just not buy groceries. funny how things change. or i just get better at being more compulsive over the years ;)

miss you, much love sister and SOOOOO looking forward to mexico posts. and by the way, we've got sunshine today, you too?! muah, my soul comes alive!

Andrea said...

So fun to get to meet friends from blogs in "real" life. Also, really super duper cute beaded necklace, its really lovely!

extinetion said...

Sounds like ya'll had so much fun!! I enjoyed reading about your experience and enjoyed the pictures!!

www.runwayrundown.com

Andrea said...

always nice to see you in blogland! glad you enjoyed mexico :)

Danielle's Blog said...

I love your denim jackets! Wish I could find a nice one at the thrift store that comes in my size. I usually go Salvation Army : )

www.mrschong.com

Porkchop Rules said...

I have a good friend in Santa Rosa I will have to check out that vintage store for sure! I saw your necklace and was going to say how awesome it was and then I read Nicole gave it to you...great swap.

Strawberry Freckleface said...

Love this outfit. The details are great. Awesome necklace, too!

strawberry freckleface

Milla said...

Okay, I've been waiting too long for the right moment to leave a reeeeallly long comment and boom! a week has gone by. WTF? Is time speeding up towards the end of time or what?

So much to love in this post, so many lessons. Lesson number 1: don't ever think that ol' Missakin has enough of those weird African bag things! Because she needs more! Good thing Brigit's there to save the day.

I freakin' love both of your outfits! The denim jackets are too cute for school and your pairing of mocs and a white dress and crazy colorful necklace rocks. And you know how much I love tie-dye! I love it! With a passion.

Funny brain-thing slip happened to me the first time I was looking at this post: my super slow internets only loaded some of the pictures and the one of those was the one of B leaning over the display case and I was like "oh that's me!". Uuummm...not. I wish it had been, I would have loved to have visited with you gals.

I'm sure Brigit is a blast and you, of course have a wicked sense of humor of your own so laughs were probably plenty.

Huuuug and kiss! And Mexico post soon please! Actually I'm just gonna go sneak peak the pics from facepoke. Good thing I lured you into it. Who needs this blog-thing anyway? (WE DO! WE DO!)

Nicky said...

HOW fun!!! Sounds like fun rumaging through treasures and meeting in person for the first time! :) I love the twinsie denim jackets! ;) Happy Thursday Missa

Grace said...

Beautiful outfit: you have a great sense of style. I will come back often for ispiration!