mirror giveaway

I made my 50th Etsy sale this morning! Not a gigantic milestone, but it made me pretty happy! In honor of that, I feel it's time to do another giveaway.


This sweet little mirror just expired from my Etsy shop, but I really want someone I like to own it! I would keep it for myself, but I don't really need another mirror!



It's adorable and still in the original package. Smells faintly of old perfume and the mirror has some lines on it that won't come off, but I think it's a little treasure!


If you're interested, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post. I will randomly choose a winner on Thursday, July 6th. Everyone (all around the world!) is free to enter.

all moved in!

I'm finally back online! A few of you may have noticed some comments on your blogs -- I'm really trying to catch up with everyone. It's going to take a while, though: I have over 200 unread items on my Google Reader. So please be patient with me, and don't think I've abandoned you!

Our new apartment is excellent. It's a huge mess right now, a maze of boxes and displaced furniture, but excellent all the same. We live right next to a cemetery, a grocery store, a delicious Thai food place and a thrift shop - I could probably stay within a 1 mile radius of this apartment for years and never get bored. And if I wanted to go outside of that 1 mile bubble, we're now about 15 miles south of Nashville ::: I can't tell you how happy I am to be in a small town without all that traffic! It's lovely.


My new favorite place is our balcony. It faces a bunch of trees, so it's very private and I imagine I will be taking a lot of photos out there! I also have a dream to one day sleep on the balcony, under the stars, but that will have to wait until we take care of a little wasp problem.


I even like the spider webs. Maybe I can train the spiders to help me get rid of the wasps. It's been raining all morning here and I'm just having the loveliest day. Since we live close to Robert's new job, he was able to come home for lunch. We spent most of that hour hunting for the SD card reader so I could upload these pictures from my camera. I've really been wanting to update here.


And this post wouldn't be complete without a donut picture. Even though we spent all day Saturday moving heavy furniture and getting overheated, Robert and I woke up around 5:30 on Sunday morning. We decided to have an adventure, so we made an early morning trip to our old apartment for a few more things and got donuts at Fox's Donut Den! Quite predictably, we became exhausted very early on Sunday. I think today is the first time in a while that I've felt well-rested and like my brain is back to normal!

I've just reopened my Etsy shop, but I probably won't be adding anything until I'm a bit more settled in. However, I suspect that soon enough I'll be finding treasures all over the place... I'm really excited about the vintage clothes I may find in this new town!

P.S.!!! Look what I found while catching up on blog-reading --- BABY SLOTH!

a brief pause

This week is going to be very busy for me, but I thought I'd pause for a minute to make a blog post! A couple of days ago I received a mysterious little package in the mail. It took me a few minutes to realize what it was.


It was a beautiful jewelry set that I won from a giveaway on Diana's blog! Diana is so generous with her giveaways...


A necklace, ring, and earrings! All from Swaydehead on Etsy. Everyone, please go ogle the pretty things there - she even makes miniature hats! Oh, I need one of those.

I wore the necklace to work yesterday and started receiving compliments immediately. Instant confidence! Thank you again, Diana and Teisha!

Anyhow, the reason I'm going to be so busy this week is that we're moving in 4 days. I'll be working every day until then, so I'm planning to put my Etsy shop on vacation mode this evening and pack up my computer... Too many distractions! Apologies in advance for not commenting on any blogs - I imagine I'll have a lot of catching up to do when I get back online! I hope everyone has a lovely week.

pleats and stripes

Image from Wikipedia

Yesterday while I was writing descriptions of items going into my Etsy shop, I had to do some research. I love the little bits of information I pick up when I'm trying to figure out what's going on with the structure of clothing! I wasn't aware of how many types of pleats there are until I saw this Wikipedia entry. The picture above was an example of knife pleats, but mostly I just fell in love with that outfit. If I had a blazer and a skirt like that, I could recreate that look right now - I have a striped shirt and some similar shoes.

I love old photos so much!

the return of vintage to my blog!

It has been a ridiculously long time since I last took photos for my Etsy shop. I FINALLY got around to doing some of that this morning. I think one of the [many] reasons that I've been procrastinating is that I thought I wanted to keep some of these things. Let me show you! [Note: you can click to enlarge the pictures.]


First off, this checkered dress. It's one of those homemade things I received from my mom so long ago. After I photographed it to go in the shop a while back, I decided it looked very cute on me. However, this morning I realized it's just a photo trick - in real life when I wear it, you can see that it's too big for me. So this one has to go!


And isn't this red belt adorable? My sister gave it to me during her visit here in June. Not intending to sell this... just wanted to finally show it off!


Now, onto this drop-waist dress that I ADORE! I've tried to make this work before. Trouble is, this dress is just way too big for me. The photo above is how I'd like it to fit. But honestly...


It just hangs on me like a potato sack. It's so sad! This dress is a size 12. I've considered trying to take it in a few inches, but seeing how this one was professionally made... and my seams would probably be very badly made... I just don't want to mess it up. This dress deserves better! So it must go to a loving home. Please, take it away!


Hmm. You know, I never gave much thought to this navy dress. I bought it at an estate sale a few months ago (and removed that hideous lace collar). Now that I'm really looking at it, though, I kind of like it. And it actually fits me, so maybe it's worthy of a second thought [meaning: I may store this one away for myself a while longer].


This belt didn't come with the dress, but I like it. Another estate sale find... possibly worth hanging onto? Maybe a bit longer.


Ah yes, the mushroom dress! I was really excited about this at first - who wouldn't be??? But like some of the things above, it's just a bit too big for me. Also, it has *one* belt loop right under the bust, which is the worst place I can think of for a belt. I think it's time for me to let this one go.


How about this sweater? I think it's rather adorable, but it's a bit bulky for my taste. And very warm, which doesn't appeal to me right now - I'd rather think about summer things.

My camera battery is tired, so I think I'm done with photos for the day. I'm going to try to make myself focus on listing as many of these things as possible in my Etsy shop. Give me a pat on the back! I've been out of my vintage habit for too long! However, I promise I'll be back with full force fairly soon!

blueberry buttermilk cake

You know what I like? I like it when I email Robert a link to a recipe and then, 2 days later, come home from work to find he's made it for me. You'd be surprised how often this happens. This week it was a recipe for raspberry buttermilk cake. I found the link to it from this blog post (in which cherries were used). Robert used blueberries! The cake is so fluffy and light and just the right amount of sweet!

Speaking of recipes and neat things found on blogs, this is the coolest idea I've ever seen for putting together a collection of recipes: using an old encyclopedia and gluing your favorite recipes in alphabetically! I'm thinking that I'll begin a similar project when I have a little more time on my hands-- except I think I'll just make neat pages for our favorite recipes and then put them in plastic pages in a binder. Cookbooks around here tend to get really messy.

faux tilt shift

As always, I turned in this week's assignment for Souvenir Foto on the last day. I'm such a bad student! This past week's assignment was to try either forced perspective or faux tilt shift. Both techniques are ways to make some really fun pictures where things look either really large or really small, or both at the same time. I took one of my pictures from Monday and used TiltShiftMaker to get the above effect. Try it out - it's pretty neat!

ribbons and rolls

Nothing too exciting going on over here, but I just wanted to share something cute!


I think most people reading this know of Jen from Pretty Little Pictures. But whether you do or not, you need to check out her new Etsy shop, Jenniferlauren! She's selling some really adorable dresses and skirts (like the one above). She sews them herself from vintage fabric. I wish I was that talented with a sewing machine! I believe she also takes custom orders.

I think one day soon I'm going to snap and go on an online shopping spree! I know so many talented people on Etsy who sell the best things - it's just a matter of time (and money)...


If you're craving something sweet, we just added a recipe for cinnamon rolls to the food blog! Go check out the recipe and pictures! I wish we still had some of these around the house - unfortunately they've been gone for a few days now. I miss you, cinnamon rolls! We will meet again one day.

expiring listings & pizza crust

I know I haven't been doing much with my Etsy shop lately, but there are a couple of neat items up for grabs which are going to expire either today or tomorrow. I'll be happy to keep these things for myself if they don't sell, but I thought I'd give everyone else a fair chance! If you like any of these things, head on over to the listings for full details.

an adorable children's book from 1949

this blouse

and this one!

Now! Moving on to other business...


We've just posted a recipe for Margherita Pizza (plus the basics of making a pizza crust) over at the hungry lemur! I'm experimenting with color/contrast on the in-kitchen photos, because they're usually so dimly lit. Let me know if you can tell a difference! Obviously, the vivid photos are all taken by a window - those always turn out fine. I love you, natural light!

a long journey

Our little car fiasco continued today (see the last post if you don't know what I'm talking about). This morning was ridiculous, and Robert has written a graceful blog post about it.

I'm really proud of him - he faced the city bus, chatted with some homeless people, and walked 2 miles to get our car. It was kind of a big deal and I think I'm married to a superhero.

We have the car back and it's driving smoothly. Here's hoping this little episode is over for now!

gloomy monday

Today started out fairly interesting, but it's not going at all as I'd planned. This morning I hopped out of bed extra early so I could take Robert to work. Actually, he was driving so I had the chance to take some pictures.

It's a really lovely drive! But today is so foggy.

Robert is all business.

A big red barn! An American barn!

Once Robert was safely at work, I took the car to be repaired - see this if you don't know why! For some reason we had the idea that this would just be a 1 day repair, and I was hoping to be able to pick Robert up from work this evening. Now I realize how silly that was. Of course, it's going to take 2 days. How inconvenient! I had to get a ride home from someone at the shop, and then we had to brainstorm about how Robert will get to and from work (15 miles away) this evening and tomorrow morning. Luckily we have a pretty good friend in the area who has agreed to bring him home to me tonight. Thank you, Chandrika! You will be rewarded!

So anyway, I'm home again and not feeling so great about the whole situation. But now you get to see an outfit post! Sort of. Here's the kind of thing I put on when I get up at 6:15 in the morning. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

Top: Etsy trade, Skirt: vintage from Etsy (via my sister)

And this is my Cinnamoroll apron - I bought it on Ebay a few years ago for absolutely no reason. I wear it every day when I'm doing the dishes; I'm a splashy dishwasher. Putting on a ridiculous apron can cheer you up 100%!

going through a t-shirt phase

I've been so bad about "fashion" lately! I don't think it really matters, but I'm sure you've all noticed a lack of outfit posts. That's because I haven't been on any thrifting adventures lately, and all I've been wearing is t-shirts and jeans. It's just the convenient thing to do! When I'm at work I never know what I'll be doing - yesterday I got to use a power drill.

Anyway, here's my newest t-shirt from woot. You really can't beat their deals - each day they have a new t-shirt that costs $10 (including shipping). Generally they're nerdy and for boys, but sometimes they're so cute! See my toaster shirt? I feel a little bad for the toast, but Mr. Toaster is so happy!

My thrifting and vintage posts should resume at the end of July, once we've relocated and I can justify hoarding old things again; right now I'm organizing and donating everything I can stand to part with! However, I did just get a dose of fashion inspiration by reading this interview with Diana of our.city.lights. I'm also constantly in awe of the simplistic style of Maria from Lucy & Diamonds. Maybe one day I'll accomplish the effortlessly classy look! But for now, I'll just be wearing t-shirts.

giant robot

Here's my photo for the latest assignment over at Souvenir Foto - we were supposed to get down low for a new perspective! I didn't get very creative with it; a robot is pretty much my go-to source for a likeable picture. Do you like robots as much as I do? This is one I gave Robert for Christmas last year.

I've been sort of out of it the last couple of days! Actually, things were going nicely until we got into a tiny car accident last night. Really, it was very tiny - we just got bumped into at a red light. Still, the hood of my car needs to be replaced. That's not fun! It should be all taken care of by Monday, but I'm sure you all know how annoying little accidents can be.

So today I haven't really felt like doing much - just craving comfort, lounging around and asking Robert to make cinnamon rolls! And he has obliged me. They're supposed to be for after dinner, but we started early so I could take photos of the process. He even let me mix up the cinnamon/sugar combination with my hands! And there's nothing I like more than sugar all over my hands.

I hope everyone else is having a good day! Robert's off for the holiday weekend (tomorrow is Independence Day), but I have to work tomorrow. I'll probably be scarce around here until everything is back to normal!