Giveaway: Shabby Apple, Oh la la!

Hello dears! I'm popping in for a quick minute to post about the giveaway I mentioned in my last checking-in post! The lovely people over at Shabby Apple contacted me about running a giveaway here, and since I have been eyeballing some of their lovely little frocks after seeing them on some other blogs, it seemed they would be perfect for my first giveaway! Shabby Apple is a lovely little site featuring some terribly adorable women's dresses and other delightful adornments (I can't wait for their apron section to fill to the brim!), so for this giveaway one lucky gal will be the winner of the OH LA LA dress (since my resistance to stripes is non-existent):


OH LA LA dress at Shabby Apple


Rules are as follows:
1.)1-3 entries per person.
2.) Take a visit over to shabbyapple.com and let me know what your favorite dress is or follow the shabbyapple blog and let me know in your comments on this post.
3.) Open to US residents only.
4.) All entries must be submitted by Sunday July 18th at 6pm.

A winner will be chosen at random next Sunday!

Summer Daze.

It's so hot. It's so hot and I can't stop talking or thinking about it, walking around sticking to everything I am in contact with.

Bit quiet around these parts, but soon we'll all be chirping up a storm! I have some outfits to share (went the film-route this time, but I still have to use up the roll!) and the blog's first giveaway coming up soon! In the meantime I've had a mini vacation from work, discovered more freckles and got an unfortunate sunburn.



But we'll be up and running again in no time!

All This Happiness on The Fashion Spot!

A little while ago I got an e-mail from Nika at The Fashion Spot about being featured! I was totally overjoyed and thrilled to bits--and a bit awed! I love The Fashion Spot, I'm so pleasantly surprised to be featured on there! You can check out the interview here, discussing how and why I started this funny little blog along with other tidbits! I'm pleased as punch (to drop another cliché) about it!

File Me Away.

I save outfits. Sometimes I spend ages thinking about what to wear (in general or with other things) when I ought to be thinking about pretty much anything else, before coming up with an outfit. Then I save it. Occasionally I write it down on a post-it note and wait. In the meantime I wear a lot of striped shirts and rolled jeans, lurking around my closet and waiting for the weather to ship-shape up and stop being a complete jerk.

For a while I stopped doing this. I decided that I would wear whatever I wanted whenever I wanted to wear it and wouldn't give two hoots about what anyone said. That went on for a while, but one does get tired of the wind up your skirt and snow in your boots (not to mention soggy hems and rain-flattened hair), until I relented and decided it was alright to wear a t-shirt sometimes. If I felt really down about it I could always wear something ridiculous on my head (a bow, something floral) to make up for it. I started filing outfits away again.


Dress from this post, one of two from a day's loot at Recycling Red Dresses

I mean, maybe it's because I' m hard on my clothes. All elbows ripping, hems pulled out, holes in strange places, not to mention drips, drops, and spills. What if each garment only has so many wears in it before the poor thing turns faded and sad, looses its shape, and becomes a dejected shade of its former loveliness and glory? If there are a finite number of wears to a dress, what is a girl to do? Especially with vintage, which has survived this long, but is usually a little bit older than anything else in the closet, and so while it can run with the best of them, doesn't it get a little bit winded a little bit faster? Am I wearing out my metaphors and queries here?

I do a lot of sitting around and waiting for the right hair day, occasion, or weather in order to wear an outfit. Sometimes, as is the blogger's dilemma I suppose, I wonder if it's worth wearing a cute outfit if there is no one to photograph it for me to post on here. I'm not saying I dress for the internet or anything but, maybe I do, just a little. I'm not really bothered by that, because I save my little outfits and new dresses anyway, whether someone sees them or not. There's a what if I don't do this dress/blouse/skirt/thingy justice with the rest of my outfit today feeling.

I almost saved this dress even longer. The first time you wear a dress that somehow meets your dreams is always laden with meaning and a bit of dread. It's never the first time you wear it again!

Then I decided I was being ridiculous and tossed it on for an afternoon, even though I had to tie the straps up in little knots because they were far too long and then switch my shoes since they rubbed and we walked up a hill in the heat. Still filing it though, for a more glorious wear.



Photos taken by John M.

Spotted Moth

Hello my dears!

I'm just popping in, amidst these rainy days and broken computers, to drop off a little treat! The nice folks at Spotted Moth have sent me a note offering a coupon code for my lovely readers! I'm partial to the golden noodle necklace (and the name of their Oh Barnacles! dress makes me chuckle), but they've got lots of pretty little dresses, jewels.

Spotted Moth is a stylish online store featuring unique clothing and accessories for women. Since launching in the spring of 2010, we have been very hands-on. Everything in our store is hand-made or hand-picked.

We make and sell the items that we, our friends and new friends (you!) would want to wear. You’ll find our catalog to be a mix of chic and sweet. We know (from experience) that staying stylish can sometimes be costly, so we make sure that our items are reasonably priced. (from the Spotted Moth site)

To get 15% off your order, use the coupon code HAPPINESS.
(Good till September 14th, one use per customer).

Two Prints.

After I hid this skirt, I thought about it almost every day before I went back and got it. I have the hardest time finding 50s-ish era skirts that are just the right waist size, and the pattern! Then I saw Sally Jane Vintage's post, with her gorgeous peacock skirt and simple white tank, and my need for the butterfly skirt became intensified. Normally I feel sort of strange copying other blogger's outfits--I know we're all about inspiration and influence, but occasionally I worry about outfit copyrights! Thankfully, SJV, along with everyone else I've run into out in the blog world, is quite lovely and my worries are surely unnecessary.



I ought to have taken a detail shot of this dress-it has matching cloth-covered buttons and a little peter pan collar! It's the one I grabbed instead of the skirt (at first). I wasn't sure about it when I saw it. It's not the kind of print I normally gravitate towards, which is appealing for its difference, but the cut was a bit more youthful than some of the vintage dresses I find so I couldn't leave it behind. It's sort of autumnal, but it's been cool enough lately that I wore it a few days ago and almost (almost, not quite) wished for fall. I envision wearing it with navy cardigans and tights and brown boots. Maybe a hat, for good measure.

The electric blue belt is my new belt-friend. I must prevent myself from wearing it with everything I own (except PJs).

(Photos taken by John M.)

Strategies of Acquisition.

Here's a quick peek at three new closet dwellers. It's so funny, I go weeks and weeks and find nothing I'm really excited about, and then all of the sudden luck piles up and kisses you on the nose, dropping vintage goodies into your lap (I can never decide if I think it's alright to change from 'I' to 'you' in my sentences, oh dear).

The first dress is spectacular for it's strange print, although I suspect that it's home-made and the hem is a bit dodgy. It's longer on one side, and I think in the back, than the other and the front, but somehow it doesn't look awful. It's such a strange print unlike anything I have (that is, not floral or gingham) that I had to scoop it up.

I found it at the same store where the stripes and dots dress is from. It was hanging at the door, and I knew that, barring it being too small, I would have it. It reminds me of loads of dresses on Etsy that I let go. I've been looking for a dress like this for ages--something with contrasting stripes or stripes and an alternate pattern--in black and white, and somehow luck was on my side.

The butterfly skirt in the middle and I met two or three weeks ago. I was buying a dress instead, and had to leave the skirt behind. I knew it was glorious, and out of fear someone else would love it too, I stashed it in a basket of vintage purses, way down at the bottom. Today I went back, praying and hoping it was still there, and after a few seconds of harried and panicked digging, pulled it out. I don't normally go around hiding things like some kind of manic squirrel in a dress, but I knew how versatile this would be and would have been fitful if someone else got their hands on it!

(The word strategies looks weirder and weirder the longer you look at it, till you go cross-eyed and it means nothing. What?!)

Also, thank you everyone for all your thoughtful comments on my last post! It's such an inspiring movie, and yet at the same time it's so complicated. I really appreciated all your comments and discussions, everyone is quite clever and lovely! It's so nice to meet kindred spirits on the internet <3

Summer Inspiration: The Virgin Suicides

I suppose it's a bit typical of a blogger like me to cite The Virgin Suicides as some kind of inspiration, but I try not to apologize for the movies or books that I like. Despite it's popularity it's quite a good movie—not that it's world-changing or the greatest movie of the decade—but it's thoughtful and (to use a word used too-often) entrancing at moments. The book is heartbreaking not so much for it's obvious subject (although it is), but in the painstaking assemblage of passages and phrases that so clearly evoke a mood or sensation that any of us who fancies themselves a kind of writer finds themselves hypnotized and a bit envious.


(via Trauma Ben)


(via Ruth & the Magic Mirror)

The movie came out in 2000, just as I was graduating middle school and heading to high school, and perhaps that's the cause of a summer preoccupation with it. At thirteen, fourteen looming, I remember reading and watching it but feeling a bit odd because of the darkness in it. But there was a dreamy focus, a drawling voice, images of hot summer days that now seem so close to my own teenage-summers (minus the tragedy and debauchery). It spawned, to be really pretentious and begin giving names to things, The Cult of the Virgin Suicides.


(via r9m)


(via Ruth & the Magic Mirror)

I don't mean this in the way that girls of a certain age started wearing white dresses and flinging themselves out of existence, but rather that there are droves of us who post pictures from it, watch it, quote it, try to be strange creatures lounging around summer and make our lives more like the aesthetic of the thing. I'm sure someone, somewhere writes an important paper about the horrible-ness of this kind of thing, but for the moment I try not to complicate it and funnel the dreamy scenes into my interpretation of summer.




Have we photosynthesized our breakfast today?



(last three images found here, by plus_minus at film_stills on Livejournal.)

The Flea Market Dress.

A few weekends ago we took a quick weekend jaunt to NYC, staying with a dear friend in Brooklyn, to see a show and traipse around spending far too much money. At first I hadn't planned on stopping anywhere in particular--Anthropologie was expected, since there aren't any near here, and it would be only feet away from the show's venue--before I realized that the Brooklyn Flea was a very real possibility. Months ago mom and I popped down to the city, but were too busy at the Met to head to any of the fleas.

We went early-ish, so vendors were still setting up when we arrived there, and though it was a bit smaller than it looks in pictures I had to keep myself from pawing through the nearest piles and rubbing my hot little hands together with glee.

Thankfully, I restrained myself and did not fork over my dollars for the first dress I had a crush on. We wandered and poked about, and I kept in mind a few dresses and blouses that seemed suitable, until we were gearing up to go and I chanced upon this beaut:



I told myself that I would know when the dress I wanted would pop up, I knew I was only going to buy one since prices were heftier than around home, and I wanted it to be a special dress. I wouldn't say this is the most spectacular little number ever--but it's pretty darn good. It's cotton, 40s-styled, floral, mismatched buttons, with little pleats in unexpected places. It's the kind of dress I know I'll probably throw on all summer when the days are hot and unbearable.



So many times I read blog posts from people who have lots of huge flea markets, and I get a little bit bummed. There are a few in my area--one quite close--but I haven't found them to be terribly lucrative for my funny sartorial whims, and some of the larger ones are quite a drive away (worth it, but ugh, getting up early to hop in the car for two hours). It was nice to hit a flea and leave with a hole in my pocket and a dress in my bag.

I finally wore the dress yesterday for an afternoon checking out a local vintage store open only in the evenings. It was heavenly, one of the best I've been to in my area, even though I had to leave the most delicious dress on the rack and save my pennies for car payments. Crossing my fingers and toes and praying that it's still there next week!

(And a sneak-peak at my new haircut!)

Pictures taken by John M.

Brand New Key.

Yesterday, in an effort to go places spontaneously more often, my boyfriend and I drove down to Woodstock. It was a nice mild day, although a few of my favorite shops have closed since we were there last, like Chez Grand'mere, and made my mood droop just the tiniest bit. Next time I want to take a trip to another nearby town and inspect an antique store I've heard rave review about, but this time we ate giant cheeseburgers and loads of tea, a few bars of soap that I have a very hard time not licking (it smells soo good!), and a My Little Pony Seahorse.



I grabbed this skirt on Friday from my favorite antique/vintage store on my weekly visit. I almost didn't see it--the pile of dresses I tried on over my clothes were all a bust--and I was ready to leave with just a sweet little blouse before I saw a crumpled pile of keys on navy blue sitting by the register. I ran to the back, slid it on over my jeans to make sure it fit my waist, and it was mine! All mine!

It is exactly the kind of thing I always hope to find. Something not too twee, but with a certain silhouette and something silly about it, like little keys. I ironed her right up and tossed her in the dryer for a quick fluff with lavender oil so I could wear it the next day without smelling musty.

Next week, even though we are going to NYC for a concert and to visit a lovely friend, I think I might grab the floor-length floral dress from that shop. I've been staring at it for years, it would require almost no mending, and is generally a dream. Hopefully no one else will fall in love with it before I get there, or it would be the most tragic of love stories for me.

Also, thank you to everyone who left me their links, and thank you to all of you lovely darlings who have linked to me! I'm so excited to read some new blogs <3 I think I've gotten everyone who left one, but I'll be checking still through the next week or so to make sure.

Pictures taken by John M.