hot toddie season

Hot Toddie Season, dare I say you approach too slowly?

My annual injury has occurred, this time in the United States (rather than in China... or France...)!

I'm quite alright.
My first set of stitches, so I feel like I've finally reached adulthood in a way.

I'm still mushroom hunting with my students.

And I wore this jersey H&M Suzhou dress with my grandmother's Liz Clairborn cardigan. On my sore little feet, flats that have been spiced up with some vintage shoe accents. Like so:

If you were wondering, yes, my cane is leopard print.

Now to snuggle up with hot toddies and a warm critter and let the healing continue. 

Lacy Little Evening Gem

Look at this adorable teacup lady in her sheer lace blouse and granny shorts and stocking feet! This is Ramona, the voice and face of Nite Jewel.  And this is how she pranced around the stage with her hair everywhere, making us all nod our heads to her ethereal poppy electronic beats and kinda reminding me of Madonna but a little sweeter. She was even sweet enough to indulge me to take a quick pic of her outfit. Her top is from Edith and Daha in NYC and her shorts are from American Rag. I like how she layers the former over a plain black bra; chic and precious. And all vintagely green! It was girl crush at first sight <3

Check out this surreal and awesome video for her song One Second of Love, complete with a creepy sister-wife choreographed dance and drunken housewife orgy. 

One Second of Love by Nite Jewel from Secretly Jag on Vimeo.

summer greenery

Happy Earth Week! Or so we've named it in the elementary school class I teach in. As the kiddos learn all about being greener, I find my awareness of my own global impact growing as well.  When struck with the urge for a little retail therapy, I resisted the siren call of the local H&M and visited my favorite thrift store (Last Chance) instead.

And the green gods rewarded me! I came away with an American Apparel dress and a tribal print tapestry purse. Therapy session complete. And it cost me less than $10! 

Wearing:
American Apparel dress from Last Chance
DIY cropped shirt
Anne Taylor Loft flip flops
Bike shorts (underneath) from China

This outfit was perfect for throwing on to do work around the house and run errands between painting sessions; I'm painting another apartment! You can see the evidence on my legs. I must be a glutton for punishment ;)

I urge you to celebrate Earth Week with us, and may the green gods reward you, too!

tooth ache teacher

Is this sweater with the little doll stamps slightly too precious? I asked myself this question before shrugging and pulling it on anyway. I don't typically wear clothing with graphics, especially overly saccarine ones that might increase the youthfulness of my appearance... I need no help looking ten years younger. But some mornings, sweet little doll sweaters are the only thing that will do!

Wearing:
Vintage doll-stamped sweatshirt from Clothing Warehouse Warehouse
Blouse underneath from a free clothes pile in college
Blue corduroys frommmmm... H&M??
Outdoorables by Daniel Green vintage ankle boots
Antique socks from Dodie's Antiques in Sylva, NC

sun dance

Wearing:
Vintage swimsuit from Kudzu Antiques
Oversize cardigan stolen from mama
Vintage scarf
Anne Taylor Loft outlet flip flops
Vintage Tennessee Aquarium canvas tote uncovered in parents' attic.

I call it a dance because I balanced my camera, set the timer, then pranced into the frame for a quick shot before retreating back into the safety of shade again. As you probably know, I prefer to stay more covered up under the UV rays, but I just had to show off my vintage swimsuit! I got it at Kudzu Antiques in Atlanta for pretty cheap (I think around $10); the cheapness was probably due to the strange bra-shell. It's got a firm lining that's a bit puckered and wrinkled with age, but that kind of thing doesn't really bother me. It's got plenty of peach-toned preciousness to outweigh the flaws. Maybe next summer I'll treat myself to an Esther Williams original.

P.S. I know for a woman who claims to shun flip flops on principal, I've been wearing these Anne Taylor Loft ones a lot lately. What can I say? I dig the bows, and December in Florida changes a person. Perhaps the sun has gone to my head :)

Stay warm, lovelies! 

I Spy 90s Navajo Print Gold

Don't judge me, but I've been rewatching the cheesy soapy glory that is Boy Meets World. Not even cute childhood BMW, but the later high school years wrought with all its delicious drama and corny humor. I do this for a number of reasons. The catharsis of heaving all those pent up sighs, mourning never having a love as pure as Cory and Topanga's, sure. But just as importantly is the super fun 90's fashion spotting. Like so:

Here's Angela from Boy Meets World (1997) wearing a sweet Navajo print fleece hoodie. Since I can't marry my preschool sweetheart, now my only wish is this thing will turn up during my next thrift store visit! Do you have any guilty pleasures in TV land?

the dress that wore itself

During the rush of the wedding weekend, I had no time to go back to my apartment for a change of clothes before the day-after brunch; (if you're wondering whether all my family does is eat and drink and make merry, the answer is yes).

Luckily I have some of my old vintage dresses still stashed away at my parents' house. I don't wear these 50s silhouettes as much as I used to a few years ago, but every now and then, it's just what the doctor ordered. This extremely light cotton dress was always one of my favorites, found in a vintage store in Cincinnati. I threw it on along with my new favorite wedges and voila. Instant brunch-wear. 

Wearing:
50s shirtwaist dress
Wedges from Underground Atlanta

Do you like my monogramed tote? It was our bridesmaid gift from my sister and I am obsessed with it. The pockets on the front and back make it exquisitely perfect. You can also see the charm I won at the previous day's brunch being worn as a bracelet. It's fun to match the decor when you can!

the heidi

Made my first attempt at a hairstyle I've been fawning all over since last summer: The romantic, chic, playful, sweet, perfect Heidi braid. My hair isn't as long as would be ideal, but with the help of these two youtube tutorials (the second by fellow blogger Aya of Strawberry Koi), I managed it.

This one is really good and makes a super pretty braid, but my hair wasn't quite long enough to start the braid low and close to the nape of the neck like she directs. Tips I did take: Braiding a bit more loose and messy, using your fingers to loosen up the hair at the scalp, using your finger as a braid-folding tool, pinning down the puffy bit behind the ear when done. (I actually just discovered she has a pretty amazing blog, too, which I intend to follow here).





This video by Aya is also really good, especially if you have shorter hair. She shows you how to start the braid closer to your ear and gives good tips on the best types of bobby pins.



It took me about 4 tries and 45 minutes to get a heidi braid I am satisfied with, combining wisdom from both of these ladies' generous gift of youtube knowledge. I want to know... how did anyone ever learn to do anything before internet?? Wish I had better pics to share of my final product. Commence Photo Booth parade!

Meet me by the tracks, love

As my departure date for my year in China approaches, I am forced into the loathsome task of sorting through my (considerable) clothing collection and downsizing. I can't stand it!!! I am something like a clothes hoarder, and the idea of leaving any of my darlings feels like betrayal. Luckily, I had my beautiful talented photographer friend, Susan Mucino, to make the task a little more fun. We got together some of my favorite vintage pieces from my personal collection and had a little photo-shoot. I found it kind of therapeutic to immortalize these pieces in photographic form although I'll have to say goodbye to them for a year. Here is just one of the dresses we shot, and I will be the first to say I am DEFINITELY not a model, but Susan's skill produced some lovely pictures nonetheless.

This series of pictures is kind of whimsically romantic to me; I think it's a shy girl who goes alone by the train tracks every afternoon to read romance novels and dream about her love. She knows he takes the commute on the train behind her, so she wears the red dress, wishing he'd look out the window at just the right moment and see her as a streak of red.

Vintage 80s oversized shirt dress

Flats from Target
Clutch: hand altered from an old one by me!

When Vintage Gets Personal: Joyce's Highschool Sweater

What really excites me about antiques and vintage clothing is the way they make me feel connected to the past. When I put on a wacky 80s prom dress, I think about the girl who picked it out 30 years ago and what her prom was like, who her date was, if she lost her virginity that night... Old hand mirrors and dolls from the turn of the century make me think of life as a little girl back then. Was it her favorite doll? What did she name it? What did she grow up to be and when did the doll pass from her possession? Usually the answers to these questions are left up to the imagination, but in some special cases an imprint of the individual is left behind. I love finding a book with a ticket stub in it or a personal note written on the inside cover.

I enjoy rooting through the boxes of old photographs in antique stores too, and on some level I feel sorry for the people in those pictures. I feel like they are lost in a way, with no record of who they were, where they were being photographed, or why their pictures are in this bin and not in a descendant's photo album somewhere. I also wonder: Will pictures of me someday end up in an unmarked box like this to either be thrown away or taken home by some stranger? As you can tell by the layout of my blog, I really cherish old photographs of my family. I hope when I'm gone, someone will cherish my photographs and the stories passed down about me.

Now get ready for the crazy part: I truly feel compelled to "rescue" these kinds of items from their unwanted anonymity. It depresses me to think that things that were once loved can end up forgotten and detached from their past. Like this box!

I found it at a thrift store outside Atlanta. When I opened it and saw the note on the inside, I absolutely had to adopt it.



Poor Patty! What could have happened that this personalized gift from 1984 would end up on a junk shelf in 2009? Did Patty and her sister have a falling out? Did her sister die and the box got tossed out after the estate sale? Either way, you kind of have to laugh at the irony of finding a box inscribed "sisters forever" in an anonymous Value Village.



These Laura mugs are also from a thrift store. There is a small copyright dating them at 1976 and they look it! I like imagining Laura as a hip flower child, sipping tea form her psychedelic mugs in some kitschy, colorful apartment.



And then there's Joyce. I found her sweater in an antique store in NC and immediately had to snatch it up for the shop. When I was cleaning and examining it later, I noticed her little name tag pinned to the inside.



She also sewed up the sides to make a more snug fit. I was going to remove her not-so-professional alterations, but for some reason I just can't! More of my superstitious weirdness, but I feel like when I found the sweater, I found a piece of Joyce. To me, this little letterman sweater contains an imprint of a 1960s southern high school cheerleader, who smoked cigarettes behind the bleachers and kissed boys in backseats, and checked her hair in her compact mirror and ditched class with her friends. I'm responsible for her now and removing her name tag and alterations would somehow make her vanish completely! Is that crazy? Either way, I think she was a fun girl because I get this fun vibe whenever I put on her shirt.



I really do feel like used clothing has a story to tell and deserves to be loved and remembered. Maybe that's why I'm so sentimental about the things I sell on etsy. Maybe this is creepy, but I always ask the buyers to send in a picture of themselves wearing the garment. Consider it like an adoption follow-up; I want proof that the relocated item has found a happy loving home across the country. It gives me tremendous piece of mind! I was so elated when one of my buyers actually did send a picture of herself in the dress she bought. Thank you, Heather!! (Psst. She also has a cute inexpensive etsy shop!)