Lacey Winged

Have you ever found the perfect dress for the occasion, only the occasion had yet to present itself? That’s kind of how I feel about this dress… an enchanted garden party perhaps? I found it at the Goodwill for $6.99 while thrifting in Sebastopol on Monday. The label is Candi Jones California, apparently a Gunne Sax knock-off label of the seventies.

I wore it at home for awhile yesterday and took some pics to show you guys. This dress makes me feel like I’ve just stepped out of a fairy tale. The lovely muted colors, the smocking, the lace, the empire waist… so many wonderful details… and the sleeves, those magical fluttery sleeves make me think of delicate butterfly wings!

Unfortunately, there were no enchanted garden parties on the agenda, in fact, after I finished prancing around looking all Princess Bride, I spent the day mundanely getting things done around the house. As it turns out, butterfly sleeves have a tendency to get in the way while doing dishes, and floor-length anything, not so great for putzing around in a chicken coop where the ground is covered with, well you get the idea. Needless to say, more practical outfit choices had to be made.

On a different note, much to Clover’s delight, our plums have finally ripened and she’s been happily going to town on them, juicy purple smiles abound! Also cause for smiles, a new batch of ah-doooorable thrifted hand-me-down dresses from her cousin, this being one of them:

Um, I guess you could say the zucchini in our garden has been getting a wee bit out of control lately. Here Clover is showing off our biggest one yet. We were doing pretty well for awhile… shredded zucchini in scrambled eggs, stuffed zucchini, sautéed zucchini, zucchini spice bars… then we sort of fell off the zucchini wagon.

Last night I climbed right back on though and made a delicious dinner of sautéed veggies on herb couscous featuring green beans, fresh thyme, parsley, and mint (and zucchini of course!), from our very own garden.

Followed by zucchini chocolate chip cupcakes with goat cheese frosting for dessert, sooooo good! I need to thank Chloë for posting this recipe for the cupcakes on her new blog which I am very much enjoying. I switched out the nuts for chocolate chips, I have a tendency to do that with my baked goods… chocolate chip banana bread anyone?

If you too have zucchini coming out your ears at the moment (and even if you don’t), I highly recommend them, and I have to say, the combination of the chocolate chips with the goat cheese frosting is AMAZING so try it. Happy baking :)

Rivertown Revival

Last Saturday, Lucas, Clover, and I headed to the nearby town of Petaluma to check out their first annual Rivertown Revival, a free-to-the-public arts-based community festival intended to celebrate local artists and the historical significance of Petaluma as a river town.

A “turn-of-the-century nautical theme, with a playful carnival kind of feel” was the aesthetic du jour, and the event took place on the McNear Peninsula, home to the 100-year-old Ghirardelli barn with views of the surrounding industrial area.

In addition to local art, live music, food and drink, as well as various sideshow type entertainment, the highlight of the event was to be a man-powered art-boat race and parade. However, not realizing that the boat stuff was only going on for an hour and a half of the all-day festival, we unfortunately totally missed it, arriving just after it had finished. Bummer.

As for some of the sights we did see…

Caught a glimpse of a few of the boats still cruising around, including the one above.

Vintage garb and parasols a’plenty.

Strange metallic creatures. I recalled this guy riding his mechanical scarab(?) at last year’s Handcar Regatta.

A wonderfully witchy woman with flasks for sale.

Gorgeous gals in gingham.

The sun-kissed river and a rainbow of ribbons floating in the breeze.

Folks kickin’ up some dust on the dance floor. These two tore it up, they were AMAZING to watch.

On this sunny day with little shade to be found, parasols were as much about function as fashion.

Little girls in vintage frocks with straw hats.

Big girls in vintage frocks with straw hats. A couple of familiar Santa Rosa faces, Theresa and Sally, looking super lovely and stylish, as per usual :)

Lucas chatting it up with Brian and Sally. By this time, my poor guy was really wishing he had worn a hat like everyone else, or at least remembered to bring his parasol ;)

I think Sally’s white dress with the beautiful red embroidery might just be one of the most perfect vintage dresses ever to exist! I swoon.

And what better way to end than with one of Clover’s radiant smiles, right? I tell ya, if we could find a way to harness the energy of a happy Clover smile, a small village could probably be powered in the process. The kid’s got quite a grin :D

Granted it was a first attempt at a festival that I’d say has huge potential to turn into something pretty awesome, I’ve gotta admit that it felt a lot like a watered-down (pun intended) version our own town’s upcoming Handcar Regatta, with man-powered boats on the river rather than man-powered railcars on the tracks.

I thought they could have gone a little further than “less steam punk, more Tom Sawyer” as an aesthetic to distinguish themselves. Just my two cents. Now, having said that, it was indeed a lovely day! (We just finished watching Season 7 of Curb Your Enthusiasm, most hilarious season ever, but I digress…)

The whole thing did however, get me pretty, pretty, pretty,...pretty excited (ok, enough with the Curb references) for Sunday September 26th. If you’re anywhere in the vicinity, I highly recommend a trip to Santa Rosa to witness and take part in the raucous free-to-the-public spectacle that is The Great West End & Railroad Square Handcar Regatta & Exposition of Mechanical and Artistic Wonders.

I’ve got a super fun little old timey, circus-y, vintage dress that has been very patiently sitting in my closet SINCE FALL just waiting for said occasion to ROLL around!

Party Pics and Meet the Chicks

Clover and I had a fun day on Sunday at a birthday party in Howarth Park. A boy from her preschool turned four and all the kids got bracelets for unlimited access to the attractions.

Our day involved carousel rides, train rides, playing at the playground, eating chocolate cupcakes, watching/wincing through the mesh as my little girl braved the wild free-for-all that is the jumpy house, and her first real pony ride atop a gallant little steed called midnight. As you can see from the pics, cupcake face had a total blast.

Nothing new as far as the 100% thrifted outfit is concerned, but doesn’t Clover look adorable in the hand-made felt flower headband I received awhile back in a giveaway package from Andrea :D

We also went to this event on Saturday, but I still need to go through the way too many photos I took before I get a post together on that. For now, here’s a little chicken update:


After taking some outfit shots, I popped into the chicken coop with my camera to get some photos. They’ve been growing soooo fast! Not yet full-grown, but looking more like small chickens than big chicks at this point. They’re now happily living outside in their coop full-time.

I’ve discovered that chickens are harder to photograph than you might think. They’re all about fast jerky movements right when you go to snap a shot and the more chickens in the shot the more jerky movements to deal with! Trying to take a one handed photo of yourself holding a chicken adds a whole new layer of difficulty, but I did manage a couple :)

We haven’t totally settled on names yet, but I’ve tentatively given them each a different herbal moniker to go by. This one is our little sweetheart Chicory, the smallest and most easy going of the bunch, she’s usually more up for being handled than the others.

They’re all pretty good-natured though. We chose breeds with characteristics that would make good pets as well as be decent egg producers. Chicory seems to me especially “cuddly” for a chicken though. She’s a Speckled Sussex as is the larger and considerably more comb and wattle-endowed Sassafras, below.

Actually, even though there hasn’t been any official crowing yet, we’re pretty sure we’ve got ourselves a rooster here. They sex the chicks at birth, but apparently it’s not foolproof and a small percentage do turn out to be roosters.

Sadly, we can’t keep a rooster, so Sassafras will most likely soon be returning to the feedstore where they buy them back to resell. The name was chosen early on, due to a “sassy” personality, which as it turns out, is probably just rooster-y. I wish we could keep him around though, he’s a gorgeous bird and super friendly and curious with us.

Last but not least, these gals are our lovely Silver-laced Wyandottes and they‘re very much a pair. I’ve been calling them Hazel and Nettle (a little herbal play on Hansel and Gretel, though luckily they appear to both be female as expected).

These days, it’s getting increasingly difficult to distinguish Hazel from Nettle. They’re looking more and more alike as they mature and their temperaments are so very similar too. This breed is particularly striking when full grown, so I‘m looking forward to seeing them eventually transform into this.

We're finding the chickens totally fun to have around. I love just watching them and how they interact, getting to know each one, and we’re REALLY looking forward to about four months from now when the eggs should start flowing, woohoo!

Shorts Season

Sunday's 100% thrifted outfit, featuring a pair of highwaisted vintage patchwork shorts I picked up for two bucks at the Welfare League Thrift. I've had them for like a month now, but yesterday was my first time wearing them out. They’re made of actual patched together pieces of super soft cotton. Now, if only I had a quilt to match!

I found the little florally-painted ceramic bead necklace on the same thrift outing and I believe it was a two-dollar find as well.

The vintage beaded blouse with little pearl buttons was recently given to me by my mom. It was a flea market find that ended up not fitting her, so lucky me!

Speaking of flea market finds, check out my new vintage sunnies ($3). I have trouble finding sunglasses that I like on me, but I’m diggin’ these ones right now :)

Shorts outfits have been piling up in my inspiration folder (mostly from various street style blogs). I’d been kind of stuck as to how to work my patchwork shorts into an outfit, that is until I came across this look recently which reminded me of the shorts and gave me a shot of inspiration (as you can see, I was inspired by her hair too ;)

Some other looks that inspired the outfit:

Leather belt, white blouse.

Sheer white blouse/black undergarment. That hair! This has to be the same girl.

Sunnies!

Later in the day, the little black flats I was wearing got uncomfortable (still breaking those in) so I switched to my brown leather lace-ups ala this adorable lady (love her floral shorts too).

We set off on a walk to the park to hang out on the sunny lawn, sip cold beers, and catch some free live music with friends and family. Did a little dancing too. I just love watching Clover dance at outdoor concerts, she is the cutest little dancer!

It was a really fun way to end the weekend. Hope you had some fun times this weekend too :D

[Inspiration image sources: 1,2,3,4,5]

Someone told me there's a girl out there, with love in her eyes and flowers in her hair.

[Image Sources: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15]