Adventures in being me

When the luck of the Irish meets Murphy's law, you get something like me.

I had a pretty nice morning today, and was looking forward to attending the wedding of a sweet family friend.  When it was time to go I was ready.  Had my pretty vintage dress on, had my hair wrangled into a nice 'do, makeup on, card written out, gift in a spiffy bag with pretty tissue paper, new stockings, super cute shoes and vintage bag with my camera tucked inside, and I was on schedule to get there in time to get to a seat without awkward timing issues or anything.  And then...  my keys were MIA.

Gone!  I looked everywhere.  Then I looked everywhere again.  Then I pulled up the couch cushions and looked under the furniture and my hair all fell down and i started to sweat and I was getting my probably 50 year old dress dusty, and by then I was already late for the wedding and my keys were still nowhere in sight.  So I said screw it.  I tossed my cute shoes in my raggedy old everyday bag, put some slightly more comfy ones on, grabbed my spare house key, both bags, and the big shiny silver gift bag and marched outside and up the street to Chippewa to the bus stop.  I was determined to get there.  I dug enough change out to pay for a ticket with a transfer for the Grand bus, but so far the bus was nowhere in sight.  So I walked up to the next stop, and then the next, before finally the bus came.  Did I mention it was threatening to rain at this point?  But the bus came before the rain started, and I got on and rode toward Grand, thinking I might get there before the end of the wedding.  Then the bus driver stopped.  I guess he was ahead of schedule, so we sat for 10 minutes or so between Gravois and Grand.  Just enough time that by the time we got to Grand, the Grand bus had passed by already.  So I waited.  For a good long time.  And the rain started (thank you God for a shelter at that bus stop!).  A lady sitting on the bench commented on my gift bag, and I told her I was late for a wedding, and feeling like a bit of a mess today.  And she said yeah, we're all a bit of a mess aren't we? And then she very kindly pointed out my stockings.  Which, by the way, were the most expensive part of my outfit today.  And were snagged all the way up the back.  Already.  And just as we saw the bus coming up the block, my phone rang. My Mom calling.  Where are you??  The wedding's over.

Sigh.

So she and my Dad drove down and picked me up from the bus stop.  They have a spare of my car key at their house, and the reception wasn't until 6:30, so we headed their way.  The rain was really coming down by then, and we decided to get a bite to eat at Psghetti's in Glendale, which involved getting kinda wet getting in there, with one broken umbrella from my parents' backseat for all 3 of us.  And it poured and lightening crashed and the whole bit, but I was hungry after my ordeal, and the food there is So Good, and we had a laugh as I told my folks about my day up to that point.  And also we watched a very wet but clearly happy dog lope up and then back down the side of Manchester Road, pursued first by his (presumably) owner, and then by a slow-rolling police car with it's lights on, which seemed to be trying to make sure the dog didn't run into the street.  During a lull in the rain we made a slow dash for the car and went back to their house where I retrieved my spare key and collapsed on their couch and watched last week's episode of Project Runway.  Mom and I ran to Walgreen's, again in the rain, to buy new stockings, something to re-wrangle my hair with, and two new umbrellas, and by the time we got back to their house, the rain had mostly stopped and I was able to go outside and marvel at their gorgeous cherry trees, which if it rains any more tonight, will probably be bare by morning, but were still gorgeous at the time, especially against the stormy skies and new green sprouting everywhere!  So allow me to share with you some of my favorite shots:

After that I made a halfhearted attempt to re-wrangle the hair (involving about 30 seconds and a clip, and it showed), but still, I had the pretty dress, so:

We went to the reception, and the bride was as beautiful as I knew she would be, the people were as warm and funny and genuine as they always are, and the food was even more Yum than lunch had been.  I brought my camera, but here's all I got in the dim light of the reception hall:

The favors were little green St Patrick's Day chocolate coins.
The back said "Let the Shenanigans Begin".  Perfect!

And here's another self-portrait to show off the dress/shoes/bag one more time before I call it a night:

Here's hoping you all avoided Murphy and enjoyed the luck o' the Irish today!

May the road rise up to meet you...

Hello my lovlies!  It's 12:06 AM here in St. Louis, and that means it's St Patrick's Day, the day when everyone's a little bit Irish!

It just so happens that I will be attending, in just over 12 hours, the wedding of two young people of Irish descent here in our fair city, and as the luck of the Irish or the fair blessing of St Patrick himself would have it, I found a  sweet little vintage something to tuck in with their gift to bring them luck in their new life together:

A pretty little brass shamrock paperweight

It's a little bigger than palm-of-your-hand sized, and on back it has the famous Irish blessing:

May the road rise up to meet you.

May the wind be always at your back.

May the sun shine warm upon your face;

the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again,

may God hold you in the palm of His hand.

It's a pretty little paperweight and a beautiful blessing and I hope it brings good luck and long life to the Cronin/Sullivan family!

As for me, I am super excited you guys:  I am going to wear a real vintage dress to the wedding.  I know, you're thinking that's not nearly as big a deal as I'm making it, but hear me out:

1.  I very rarely have an event to really dress up for.
2. I am a super cheapskate, and therefore do not go to real vintage shops, but instead comb estate sale (after the real dealers have come and gone - I don't get up early), thrift stores, and Donnaland at the Lemp Brewery two weeks ago.
3. I am not a particularly small person.  Most people back in the day were smaller than me, therefore there is not much in the way of vintage that fits me and is also not hideous and is also just laying around a thrift store at a reasonable price without having been already snapped up.  So far in my life, this one dress is it.

So to me, it's like the stars have aligned!  I have to get some stockings in the morning still, and find the plain black cardigan I know I have around here somewhere, but I have a couple of vintage shoe and bag choices, and this:

Black lace, rhinestone-studded shift dress - that fits me!

Can you see the way the rhinestones are mounted?  It's beautifully done.

And the price.  That's right kids - $3.99.  See the nice old metal zipper, too?

I think I may be more proud of this dress than I am my college diploma.  For one thing, I know where the dress is!  Also, I got a much better deal on it.

 

A second bit of Tuesday kitsch and some "old" stuff I found in the corner (ahem - hoarder!)

Last night I showed you guys Timmy, from my quick thrift stop-in that day.  Here's another fine bit of retro kitsch some misguided soul chose to get rid of, and I, seeing it's intrinsic awesomeness, rescued from the cold lonely shelves of the thrift store:

The thing I like best is knowing that somebody Made this.

I also picked up a super cool old pillowcase, and a little daisified lotus bowl:

The little bowl is a bit bold all by itself, but
it's almost a wallflower compared to that print!

And while snapping the above snaps, I noticed a bag sitting in the corner and found a couple of treasures I picked up awhile back and promptly forgot about!  

Handy Hannah hair dryer - and it still works!

This one fascinates me with it's machine-age chrome and it's early version of an ergonomic handle.  It's even got a hot and cold setting and a little slider to let you increase or decrease the amount of heat by opening or partially closing the vent holes.  Pretty impressive for something so obviously old. The smaller print around the circle there indicates that it was manufactured by the Standard Products Corp of Whitman, Mass.  These  were very well made machines, because there are lots of them still floating around out there, mostly for sale on Etsy and Ebay.  Some of the listings claim it's as old as the 40s, and the Handy Hannah name was not exclusive to hair dryers.  Apparently the same company made other "Handy" machines for ladies of the mid-century.  But I'll let you go look that up for yourself.

This next one is even more special:

Gorgeous gray-blue beaded cardigan

Tag reads Made in Scotland Expressly for Peck & Peck  and below that, Braemar, which I happen to know  (now that Wikipedia told me so) is a village in Aberdeenshire, Scotland that hosts annual Highland Games.  Wikipedia also tells me that Peck &Peck was a venerable name in fashion on 5th Avenue in New York going back to the 1880s, and it died out after it was bought out in the 1970s, so this is a real-deal mid-century beaded cashmere cardigan.  The beads are heavy and white with tiny, ever-so-tasteful rhinestones inside the U shapes of the swooshes.  Not a single bead or rhinestone seems to be missing, it's soft as clouds and it still smells like some delicate perfumed powder or other.  I would consider it a size small, probably.  If anybody is interested (in this or anything else I post here), let me know.  Otherwise, it's going in the shop on Monday or Tuesday.   

And on that note of elegant sophistication, I bid you all good night!

Hooray for alley chair, and some other stuff. Also, my new friend Timmy.

Hi, my name is Kim, and I'm an alley picker.

They say the first step is admitting it, but I have to say, I have no plans to quit.  I mentioned in my last post that I am on the lookout for a tall, skinny shelf - something around 5' tall and narrow, maybe 18" wide.  I am keeping my eyes peeled at the thrift stores, but I am also checking the alleys of my fair city, in hopes of coming across a free one, like the shelf already resident in my booth, which you may recall seeing covered in snow and ice the morning I moved everything in there for the first time:

Alley shelf #1

Once I signed the rental agreement on my booth, I had about 3 weeks before it was time to move things in, and I really badly needed some shelving upon which to display my wares.  So of course, rather than buy any, I just started taking alleys instead of streets when driving around the city, and soon I was wedging the above slightly swaybacked non-beauty into Chester's backseat.  I didn't have anywhere to store it and my opening day was still over a week away, so it sat exposed to the elements a bit longer in my backyard - hence the coat of snow on Booth-Day morning.  

Anyway, I've started cruising the alleys once again, in search of another shelf so that I can fit more vintage goodness into my booth.  Today, I made a nice score, although not of the tall-skinny-shelf variety (more phone shots today, forgot my camera):

Cool old captain's chair.

Check it out!  A perfectly good, sturdy, well-designed chair.  The (admittedly boring) upholstery is in perfect condition too.  Currently it's residing on friends' porch, because I had to vacate Chester's back seat in order to pick up/take home people.  I have offered it to the friends if they want it.  If they don't, I'll try out one of the wood-spiffer-uppers I've heard about on the bloggernets and pop it in the booth and see what happens.  Suggestions on the best wood-spiffer-uppers? Would be appreciated!

Also, I spent some time in the booth this morning, and was happy to find another nifty bit of goodness had sold:

The awesome vintage radio has found a new home!
Congrats, new owner of stylin' little radio!

I had quite a bit of stuff to add, and found that had sold, so I did some rearranging. I moved a set of Southern Comfort glasses up to the top shelf, moved the Autumn Harvest Pyrex bowl down where they had been, rearranged a few more things and added the brass mirror and funny little elephant I mentioned yesterday:

Rotten quality due to the phone-shot nature but the mirror and elephant are there!

I also added another men's cardigan - this one with stripes of mustard and gold, 4 more men's hats, some ladies' blouses, and these guys:

The blue decoupaged Marie-Antoinette and Louis are in the house!

I also added (and completely failed to photograph) 11 pieces of Sabin China SAB76 pattern, which looks like this (thanks Replacements Ltd, for the ID and for the picture):

I have 2 plates, 6 cups, one oval platter, a creamer and a
small gravy boat or another big creamer - not sure which.
Most have some crazing, one plate has some discoloration.

After that and before spending a nice evening singing with people I love and enjoying the backyard breezes and view of Jupiter and Venus hanging out in the Western sky tonight, I made a stop at St. Vincent de Paul in search of the elusive tall skinny shelf.  Still no joy on that front, but I did find a new, super-kitschy little friend:

Hint, the red dot is not a button.  It's a stopper.

I've decided to call him Timmy.  He looks like he's from the 60s maybe, and he's plastic. I wasn't sure what the deal with him was at first, and I kept trying to push the little red button, but it turns out it's not a button. Once I figured out it was a stopper, I got it.  The square base is a reservoir you fill with water, and Timmy, well, he's kind of a rude little squirt.  We had lots of fun surprising people with him this evening, and he will be in the shop next week if you would like him for your vintage toy or novelty collection, or if you just think he's as goofy as I do.  My childhood and young adult selves would both have been too mature to be entertained by my friend Timmy here, but I've grown down a lot since then.  Also, you have to give it to him, the squirt-mechanism still works fine after at least 40 years; that's impressive.

And on that note, I wish you all a lovely evening, and a lovelier tomorrow.  Good night!

Long on work, short on thrifting

It's been a long past week, my friends!  I worked close to 55 hours between Wednesday and Saturday, fifteen and a half of those hours being on Saturday, after which Daylight Savings cruelly shortened the not-working time on me.  I did actually got a smidgen of thrifting in today.  I was spending time with my folks and we dropped some things off at the Goodwill near their house, and my mom and I ran in to see if they had any tall, skinny shelves that might fit in one area of my booth that really could be put to better use.  No joy on the shelf front, but I did find:

A nice old velvety-soft men's fedora, 

A pretty brass two-sided makeup mirror 

And a cute, kitschy little ceramic elephant planter with a wood-grain finish (not yellow, alas!).  

I just got home, however, and did not bother to bring these items in from the car, so no photos for you (maybe tomorrow).  

And now I feel like the Soup Nazi of thrifting pictures.  So to make up for it, I will tell you one exciting thing!  When I stopped by the booth Sunday with friends, I was giddy to find that I had finally actually sold an article of clothing.  Yay me!

Which article is that, you ask?  Did I finally break the gender barrier and sell some vintage women's item?  Oh no, my friends.  That is not the case.  What I did sell, was this:

Iust the uber-funky gray and
black zipper sweater, not the
hat with the jaunty green feather.

And another very thrifty thing I can share with you all is the totally free way we spent our early evening (forgive the picture quality, I didn't have my camera with me and had to settle for trying to capture the pretty on my phone):

Walker Pond at dusk.

My Pop did a bit of fishing and chatting with a new fishing buddy he's run into there once before, while I took a stroll with my Mom around the lake.  The weather was exquisite, the bats were feasting on early mosquitoes (go bats!), and Dad caught 4 fish.  Bliss, without spending a dime.  Me and Daylight Savings made friends again, after an evening as beautiful as this.

And while this post hardly merits it, I'm linking up with Apron Thrift Girl's Thrift Share Monday again (because it's Monday for 3 more minutes!).

Guess who has two thumbs and Actually Made a Profit?

You guessed it!:

This girl again!

I am so excited, you guys!  I stopped by Kenrick Antique Mall yesterday to pay March's rent on booth 78 and get my check/info for last month and find out what all I sold.  Now, I didn't have anything available for sale until the 13th, so I'm feeling kinda spiffy at this point, because: I sold 15 items, for a total of $113.50!  Of course, my pro-rated February rent was $79.00, plus the mall's commission and the 3% per item I lost if the customer payed with plastic took off another $12.84, which leaves $21.66.  Minus what I paid for the items in question (I had to guestimate on some because of my extremely poor organizational/planning skills), I would say I made at least five bucks!

Celebratory fireworks - Wahoo!

Perhaps I'm crazy to celebrate making five dollars in the course of two and a half weeks, but here's my reasoning:

1.  When I was pondering giving this a try, I chose to consider it an educational opportunity and, expecting to lose money, at least initially, told myself that it would be like paying for a class in reselling vintage goodies.

2.  I'm already starting to learn from it.  I have a list of 15 items that sold right off the bat.  I have already sold 2 of the 3 men's hats that I started out with in the booth.  That wasn't something I originally expected to be a big seller, so now I will be looking out for more.
3.  I also told myself that if I lost money consistently for 3 months, the experiment would be over.  So this at least means I get to keep trying.

4.  It's $5 for doing something I actually enjoy.  Hundreds or thousands made doing something you tolerate in order to pay the bills is useful, but occasionally depressing.  Ten bucks made doing something that I love doing, while it won't pay the bills, at least makes me feel justified to continue doing this very fun thing.

So yay me!

The booty from the Lemp Adventure

You guys?  I have a confession to make.  I am starting to have a touch of buyer's remorse for a few of the items I picked up on my Lemp Brewery/Donnaland adventure.  Don't get me wrong, I had an utter blast and wouldn't have missed it for anything, but I overspent, considering that of all the items I have sold in my booth (more on that tomorrow), not one of them has been an article of women's clothing.  So, while I said it before and broke it almost immediately because of the Donnaland opportunity, I am now going on record as stating: 

I will not be buying another article of women's vintage clothing until I have sold at absolute minimum 15 articles of women's vintage clothing.  

If you see me considering it, slap my hand, ok?  Thanks!

But, as promised, here are pics of some of the items I did pick up from that vast warehouse this weekend:

Look at all the Spring-tastic prints!

Big-but-not-too-big collar, and manly-but-not-too-manly print.

 And check out all these pretty, girly, Springtime colors and florals:

I have a hard time regretting them too much, even if none of them are really high-end items.  They're all sweet as can be, and I adore the brown floral tie-neck blouse.

Linking up to Apron Thrift Girl for Thrift Share Monday again!