Sunshine and Saltwaters

At the thrift store on Tuesday, not only did I find the most wonderful wooden 1930’s swivel chair for my desk ($20!), I also, to the delight of Clover and her cousin Lucia, came home with mini versions of my beloved Saltwater sandals!

I just happened to be wearing mine when I found them and returned home to find the girls playing together at the house. Both pairs were a perfect fit and they were SO excited that we all had matching sandals, it was pretty adorable.

I followed the girls into the backyard and snapped some photos while they played in the willow tree. They were too cute in their floral dresses and matching pigtails, and in other cute news…


Eep! Or should I say cheep? Say hellow to our four new feathered friends!

These lil' ladies (fingers crossed we don't have a rooster in the mix) are amazingly soft, fit right in the palm of your hand, are practically weightless, make the sweetest little "cheep cheeps", and will randomly fall asleep out of nowhere, alot, seemingly active then all of a sudden head slowly droops, eyes close… aaand napping, they do it standing up too, it‘s so funny to watch, like fuzzy little narcoleptic balls of cute they are. Needless to say, we are smitten :)

Quick Question

I wore the vintage clogs I thrifted last week out today. A friend and I took our little girls to the park. The good news is I really like 'em and they were way more comfortable and easy to walk in than I had imagined they’d be, until…


While trudging through the hot sand at the playground, I started to feel it spraying up behind me with each step, you know the way it does at the beach when you’re wearing flip flops, and looked down to find the back ends of the rubber layers on the bottoms of both clogs flapping about to my dismay :(

It looks like a pretty easy glue fix, but my question is whether anyone has advice on what sort of glue would be best for reattaching the rubber sole to the wooden platform. Is crazy glue not the best idea?

Happy weekend!

Trifecta!

Half-off day at the Salvation Army was good to me this week... REAL GOOD...

Round-toed brown leather ankle boots, on my wish list. ($4) I love the buckles!

Vintage 70’s leather clogs, wish list toppers (apparently I‘m not immune to clog mania), the brand is Skandals, they’re Sweedish! ($4)

And these (eep!) now THESE… I tell ya, had I been wearing socks, they would have been KNOCKED OFF! I’ve been pining for a pair of Salt Water sandals for years now, MANY years in fact. They weren’t even on my thrifting wish list because I honestly never thought I’d find a pair, let alone in practically pristine condition, my exact size AND the very color I wanted for a whopping $4!!!

Not to mention, just the other day I was admiring this adorable outfit and thinking to myself, I’ve really gotta get me a pair of Salt Waters this summer for reals. DONE! Now I’ve just gotta find the perfect pair of overalls to cut-off ;)

I wore the sandals for the first time yesterday with this 100% thrifted outfit. The vintage woven bag has the sweetest little yellow flowers on the front and was recently gifted to me by Lucas’ mom.

Oh, and as if all the amazing shoes weren’t enough, the thrift gods decided to throw down this perfect vintage grandpa cardigan (with suede elbow pads!) for $2.50. There’s a fancy lining under the cable knit and some old man must have really loved this sweater because there are actual holes worn into the elbows that were mended with yarn underneath the pads, not sure why that gets me so much, but it does.

We’re heading over to my mom’s place this afternoon for some early Mother’s Day celebrating with all my sisters and their families. A lovely weekend to all, especially all the mamas out there!

A' thriftin' I will go

It's been forever since I've done one of these posts, so I thought I'd share some recent finds:

Vintage cardi, $3.50, Hospice Thrift

Official Boy Scout shorts (ready for adventure), $1, Hospice Thrift

and vintage plaid scarf, $1, Welfare League Thrift

50's sheer pintuck blouse, $2, Hospice Thrift

The blouse had some button issues, but I was able to find these three floating around in a button bin and I think they'll make pretty decent replacements.

Ahoy! sweater top, $2.50, Salvation Army

Embroidered cropped denim jacket, $5.50, Salvation Army

Vintage deadstock Levi's high-waisted skirt, $1, Salvation Army

Crazy floral tee, .80, Friends of the Neighborhood Thrift

Shiny tri-tone lace-ups, $2.50, Salvation Army

Wine colored Liz Claiborne lace-ups, $2.50, Hospice Thrift

I do have one more find to share, but this one deserves a post all its own, so stay tuned!

Weekends and Pumpkins

lumpkin, originally uploaded by bee hives.

I love the ghostly quality of this image by bee hives on flickr. So perfect for Halloween. Speaking of which, we picked up pumpkins for carving at a local farmstand over the weekend.

I’d love to get my hands on some woodcarving tools and do some beautiful lacy cut-outs like these.

Unfortunately, my pumpkin carving skill level may be more along the lines of these little fellas!

We’ll see though. I did one of those carrot-nosed ones but added a mouth with a couple of teeth, he’s pretty cute. We decided to save the rest for later in the week though, so they don’t start to rot before Halloween. (Carved pumpkin images found here.)

In other weekend pumpkin news, we made the most utterly mouthwatering pumpkin pancakes, something which I had never tried before. I really can’t even describe how moist and amazingly good they were… so much better than a normal pancake and I am a fan of normal pancakes. With some butter and syrup, just heavenly I tell you. In fact I implore you to try them yourself, you will NOT be disappointed!

Super Yummy Pumpkin Pancakes
(Makes: About 8 pancakes; 2 to 3 servings)

1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tbsp firmly packed brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
1 ½ tsp pumpkin pie spice
¼ tsp salt
1 large egg
¾ cup milk
¾ cup canned pumpkin
¼ cup plain low-fat or nonfat yogurt
2 tbsp butter, melted

In a large bowl, stir together flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, and salt. In another bowl, mix egg, milk, pumpkin, yogurt, and butter until well blended. Stir egg mixture into flour mixture just until evenly moistened. Proceed with normal pancake making procedure :) ENJOY!

We walked downtown Saturday morning and I was so excited to find the latest issue of Lula at the bookstore. Spent many of my spare moments this weekend leafing through the pages and soaking in all the amazing style and beautiful imagery. The above photo is a favorite from the lovely Wander Bird editorial.

I had been feeling stumped about what to wear for Halloween this year, until Sunday morning that is, when I went to the Goodwill and found a vintage dress for $9.99 that just may be the best Halloween dress ever.

Above is just a sneak peek but think floor-length shimmery black and silver brocade that appears woven straight from the starry night sky with fluttery elbow-length bat wing sleeves! Now what to be... witch, dark sorceress, night sprite, space fairy, bat queen? Suggestions more than welcome!

Well, I guess you could say the Goodwill has been good to me! Earlier in the week I found these perfect black suede flat lace-up boots for $6.99 and they are so comfortable and such a perfect fit that I still can't believe my luck. A good pair of boots that fit well are for me one of the most exciting items to be found!

I'll try to work these beauties into an outfit post soon. Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Nautically Inclined

I wore this red dress a few days ago. Detailed with white buttons and piping, it's just one of several recent finds that could fall into the naval inspired vintage category ($6, Goodwill).



For another $6 on the same Goodwill trip, I also took home this amazing handmade number. Can you believe that print?! Anchors, stars, seahorses... are you kidding me?!?! It's actually a little big for me, but I am determined to make it work somehow. How could I not?

This pair of highwaisted navy with white polka dots shorts ($1) and vintage straw hat with navy ribbon ($3.50) were both acquired at the VNA Hospice Thrift.



Oh how I wish these items were mine!

Alas, they are toddler sized... lucky Clover! The vintage top (25 cents) and jeans (50 cents) were found separately at the Welfare League Thrift, a favorite place for finding kid's clothes. They seem to get a lot of vintage and, as you can see, they are practically giving the stuff away!

The Saltwaters are actually not toddler sized, and probably won't fit her for another 5 years or so, but they were only ONE DOLLAR and they're so classic, I couldn't resist. If only I could squeeze my own feet into them!

With all the red, white, and blue going on in this post, it's the perfect time to wish all those celebrating a Happy Fourth of July!

A bee in a sweater?

We have a friend who’s getting his MFA at Mills College in Oakland and we drove down on Saturday to check out the open art studios. This was the 100% thrifted outfit that I wore featuring my new red boots. I found them last week for $2.50 at the Salvos. I’ve never owned a pair of red boots before so I was pretty excited when I discovered they fit.

I’m loving this dress that I found there recently too. The bottom part is a high-waisted dark chambray skirt with pockets and the top part is just a plain white tank connected by a wide strip of black elastic in the middle. I’ve worn it several times now and I like how different tops can be layered over it for completely different looks. I’m sure you’ll be seeing it again.


The dreamcatcher pendant came off a thrifted keychain.

With Clover to keep track of, I didn’t get a chance to take many pictures while touring the open studios. She kept trying to run back to the refreshments table in the hall yelling “more blueberries! more blueberries!” That kid can put away blueberries like nobody’s business.


I did snap a few pictures in our friend Joey’s studio though. This one was my favorite.

Then we went to view the current exhibit being put on by the graduating students in the art museum. Lucas took Clover outside for a bit and I got a chance to wander through photographing to my heart’s content (all photos can be clicked for more detail):





These wacky haphazardly stacked hippie camper shells on matchbox cars were pretty cool and there were a bunch of neat found object wire sculptures.

My favorite was the room with the yellow crocheted branches and tree trunks that looked like they were growing through the walls and the floor.



Along one of the walls there were intricately crocheted seeds of all different shapes and sizes displayed under small bell jars, SO awesome.


This lil’ guy hung down from one of the tall trunks at about eye level. You couldn’t tell what it was without walking up to take a closer look… a bee in a sweater!!!