All are available in my shop.

Spring, spring, spring. Have I mentioned that I love spring? Spring and fall are definitely my favorite seasons, although fall might have a bit of an edge because my birthday is in October! However, today (I actually wrote this yesterday, but didn’t get to post it- our anniversary is the 12th!) is a special day too! It is our wedding anniversary! dalas and I have been married for three years now. Go us!

We kept our outfits a secret from each other until we walked out at the ceremony. They matched! dalas rented a navy suit and wore a ribbon that said “I did it!” and I wore a vintage dress with a sailor collar and eyepatch, with black feathers in my hair.

We got married at our friend Jakob’s apartment in Tribeca and it was really awesome. You can read the outline of the ceremony that we planned here. It involved noisemakers, q&a session, and the making of a ceremonial sandwich! Definitely a very non-traditional wedding, and so so fun.

We both look pretty different now! dalas especially, who has crazy hair, a big beard, and wooden glasses. We met in a weird way, over the internet but without an internet relationship. It was kind of just a lucky thing that we met (I was going to NYC for a concert, he had moved there), and we spent one day together before I had to go back home to Vancouver, Canada. Within 2 weeks of my returning home we decided to get married. A month later he spent a week with me in Vancouver over Christmas, and then I moved to NYC the following February (Valentine’s day!) and we were married a month later. Yay! Three years!

How’s this for a wardrobe_remix: Wedding outfit!
-vintage lace sailor dress (it had long sleeves, and I cut them off and discovered some cute little netting puffs at the shoulders. My friend wore the sleeves on her legs as stockingss!): From a small vintage store in Brooklyn, NY. I can’t remember the name, but it was only $22! I think it was in Williamsburg.
-black slip underneath: Beacon’s Closet, Brooklyn
-Black fake bird wings & little lace leaf hairpiece: Made by me, supplies from a craft store in Brooklyn
-Lucky unicorn bracelet: Purchased at Value Village in Vancouver, BC
-Shoes with little buttons: Borrowed from my friend Claire
-Felt eyepatch: Made by me

I just got back from a bike ride to the library and there are blossoms all over the place! I have a cold, so I can’t really smell any of the nice flowers, but they sure do look nice.
A couple new drawings, both available in my etsy shop:

Yep, I finally have a cold. I have a few close calls over the past couple months where I felt like I was getting sick but managed to fight it off with awesome hippie remedies (namely garlic & ginger). Not this time! It hit me really quickly after coming home from a lunch outing to Vegetarian House, which is run by a cult! I spent the weekend hanging out on the couch, drawing a bit, watching my fill of model-related reality shows (I’m sad to say that I am still watching Top Model, and Make Me a Supermodel- both online), and drinking lots of ginger tea. Hopefully I can get myself out of bed early enough tomorrow to do some thrifting.

Oh! I did get something done this weekend, I forgot. I have new ebay auctions up!

My ebay auctions have a new look (not perfect, but I think it looks cleaner than the old version), I have lowered domestic shipping charges a bit, and as always I am happy to combine shipping & also to ship internationally. Yay! There are a lot of dresses, capes (including two fake fur ones, very cool), coats… I love the big yellow Lilli Ann coat, it’s so bright and cute. A couple years ago I sold two really neat Lilli Ann outfits. One of them included a matching coat, dress and slip. It was really nice.

I added the drawings to my shop, they are $25 each. One sold already, yay! I just read the Storque article on etsy about the results of their big survey. Really interesting! I was surprised by some of the results, like the fact that most etsy users (buyers and sellers, at least out of the 30,000 who took the survey) are around 10 years old than me. So many people use etsy! I’m totally proud to be an etsy seller, what an amazing thing!

Here are some new drawings! I guess they are inspired by fancy clothes & hair, prints on fabric… I feel like they are a more sprintimey version of the art I was doing in December. They still share a lot of characteristics, but I can’t help but move towards a brighter palette. I think I will put them up for sale in my etsy shop, unframed. They are 4×5, drawn on a light cardstock that was actually part of old 1970′s recipe cards (reuse it!). I am not sure how much to charge though, any suggestions? dalas thought around $20, they are original drawings but it’s not like anyone knows who I am, my art is not something that people are lining up to buy on etsy. If any of you art-sellers have any advice for me, that would be great! Oh, I don’t spend a LOT of time on the drawings (an important cost factor for crafters)… maybe half an hour? Sometimes the business side of things is tricky. Now, I need to order some more label printing tape! I keep forgetting!

Yesterday on my trip to the Goodwill bins I came across a big stack of old envelopes (with some cards & postcards mixed in) of letters from the 1940′s-50′s. Very cool! I love this kind of stuff. I would much rather read someone’s old diary or letters than a generalized history of a time. I have had so many dreams about coming across an empty city of cool old houses that I get to snoop around in. Since that will never come true, I take little bits and pieces like this where I can find them.

I have a plan for them! I am going to scan in all the envelopes and letters and put them up on my website. Since they are all in their original envelopes (which are interesting by themselves- some of them have notes like “open immediately!” written on them), I am imagining it like this: a big page of envelope scans, and then when you click on an envelope it will take you to a page of the scanned letter/card. The best part is that this is something totally within my html capabilities (which are so basic that I couldn’t even call it web design).

All stacked up!

I found a bunch of great things for ebay this week too, including two faux fur vintage capes! I also found several cute dresses and a bunch of spring/summery tops (even a couple for myself). It will be a good ebay batch this week!

I also wanted to mention that my friend Alice has been putting up a bunch of great photo prints on her etsy site. Not only is she funny and awesome, but her photos are very good too. You should buy her prints!

Hello, lonely diary. I have been going through a stage of extreme laziness, and I think (hope) that it is over. I am the kind of person whose current behaviour perpetuates more of the same, so if I am lazy for a couple days it is likely to turn into a couple of weeks. Luckily, it works the other way too, so when I am keeping busy I get a LOT done. We’ve been having some really great springtime weather in Portland (although it was finally rainy today), and it really made me feel awesome. So nice to see the sun! Today I spent a few hours working outside on garden preparations, which I will probably document more in my food blog, which I have been updating on a pretty regular basis.

I finally went thrifting on Wednesday for the first time in a while, and I found some good stuff! Several items are up in my vintage shop, and a few have sold already so head over there before they disappear! But first, peruse my new finds:

1. Matryoshka dolls! Only two were found in this set, and they are kind of busted up but still sweet.
2. A cute little figurine. She has a chip on the other side, but this is the kind of house where even chipped things get some love.
3. Green & gold address book: I love address books so much and I’m so glad I finally have an excuse to buy them. This one is already sold, but I hope to find more in the future!
4. Cards, postcards: I love finding unused cards, postcards & envelopes because I can send them out to friends! Envelopes are super useful for me because I sell a lot of paper packs, and colored envelopes can be pricey when they are new.

1. 1929 Little Orphan Annie book: Cute book, athough Annie is a little creepy because she doesn’t have eyeballs.
2. Houseplant book: I really want more plants in my home, so this book is perfect. It has really nice illustrations! So far I just have one jade plant in the kitchen.
3. Rocks & Minerals book: Lots of awesome illustrations and info!
4. Bird book: Really lovely images, birds will never get old.
5. 1930′s baby book: This book documents a baby named Donald. When I picked up the book a bunch of locks of hair tied with ribbons fell out. I didn’t keep them, because I couldn’t figure out what to do with them at the moment and they fell into a kind of dirty bin and it just seemed like I should leave them behind. Really interesting though!

1. Vera fabric napkins: These are so cute! There are four in the set. I have seen several Vera scarves before, but never napkins. Cool!
2. Wooden painted clock: This is broken and doesn’t have hands, but I really like the painting on it. It will probably go on my wooden art wall.
3. 1930′s cards: These were tucked inside the baby book, and they are so beautiful. You can’t tell in the photo, but they have shiny parts and really delicate illustrations. So cool!
4. Gold belt: I’ve been looking for one of these weird stretchy metal belts for a while, and I finally found one.

1. Pearlescent beaded purse: Really dainty, shiny and cute!
2. Navy leather bow purse: I love the asymmetrical bow on this one.
3. Tapestry purse: This one is so unique, I love it. It sold really quickly, and I’m not surprised!
4. Black clutch: Another cute 80′s bag!

1. Bright scarves: I like to make little co-ordinated collections of scarves for my etsy shop.
2. Navy & green scarves
3. Flower themed scarves
4. Orange, yellows, browns

And now, for something I’m going to call an ebay sneak preview! I always want to be able to photograph the clothes that I thrift for these updates, but they just don’t look right sitting flat on the floor. So, I’ve decided to take close-up shots of some of the interesting fabrics and details on the garments. I really love how they look!

This week I also got around to putting some things up on the wall behind our table in the kitchen. I found the big owl print at the Goodwill bins the other day, I think it’s so great! It is part of a calendar made up of big prints, and I also took home June, which is a kind of mod-looking image of Stonehenge! The little bird card is a Chinese (right?) flashcard, the fruit image is from the cover of a 1960′s children’s educational magazine called Knowledge, and the fake flowers are from a gift basket that we received from dalas’ family a couple years ago. Yay kitchen!

And in conclusion, a little sample of the food I’ve been making lately- this one is apricot, beet & cumin soup. Yum!

Oh, happy leap year!

New items up in my ebay store! These auctions will be ending on Sunday, Feb 17th at around 4pm Pacific Time. Check them out!

New items have been added to the shop! Definitely lots of neat treasures.

People always ask me how I can bear to sell the things that I find at thrift stores. There are several reasons that my heart doesn’t break every time something leaves my hands, and they are as follows (in no particular order):

1. Reselling thrifted items & my art is currently my only job and source of income. Between etsy & ebay, I am able to make as much money as I would be making at a regular job. I feel pretty lucky! I have had a bad track record with most of my jobs, so I would really like to continue being self-employed. I have found a way to make a living by doing the things that I love, and that is really cool. I want my businesses to be successful while also staying true to the things that I think are neat, the things that I care about. So, if I kept everything that I brought home, that would come to an end.

2. I have been thrifting for a very long time, since I was a little kid. Over the years I have learned to be picky when it comes to purchasing things for myself, because there is a point where you just have too much stuff. So, instead of keeping dresses that don’t quite fit me, or knick knacks that I don’t have shelf space for, I can pass them on to the right people who have the perfect place for them in their lives. As for clothing, I will keep pieces occasionally, but only if they fit me perfectly, are made with a fabric that I can wear all day, and strike me as something unique that I probably won’t find again. All three requirements MUST be met in order for it to earn a spot in my closet. I’m always a little sad when I find something really neat but it doesn’t quite fit, but it’s cool that it has another chance with someone else out there.

3. I get a lot of enjoyment out of thrifting- the discovery of neat things will never get old for me. I love finding something cool buried at the bottom of a bin at the Goodwill donation center, or a really awesome item that is right out in plain sight but no one has grabbed it yet for themselves. It’s fun for me to find things, buy them, bring them home, photograph them, and then send them off to new homes. It’s like having a rotating collection of items, a little vintage museum that keeps changing its exhibit. It probably seems like I don’t keep much compared to the volume of items that I bring home, but most people don’t shop for 20 or so things for themselves everyday, either.

Soon I will do a post of my favorite thrifted items!

It is a windy & rainy Tuesday and I don’t think I will be leaving the house today. I’m feeling kind of sick, and I have a lot of updating to do. I did manage to go thrifting with my friend Amelia yesterday morning, and we found lots of good things:

1. Scandanavian-style bird mug: It’s a trick! It was really made in Japan. Still incredibly cute, made in 1975. I really like old ceramics and stuff like this but I won’t be collecting it anytime soon. I don’t really have many shelves or cabinets, so storage would be too hard at this point.
2. Famous Fingerprints: This is a weird book with joke-fingerprint illustrations. Includes Twiggy, Ceasar, Hugh Hefner and more.
3. Fancy rose box: I’ve been looking for something like this to house my wisdom teeth! I have three (the 4th one broke), and I think it’s funny to keep your teeth in something so ornate.
4. Old scrapbook: I’m surprised at how many of these I’ve been finding! This one is blank, but looks like it was used a bit at some point. Totally neat.

1. Flower handbag: This reminds me of the floral needlepoint purses that are so popular right now. I love that the line between granny style and fashionable stuff is becoming smaller and smaller…
2. Granny Bag #2: Now with pockets!
3. Tooled leather rose bag: I was lucky with this one, some old dude had it and then threw it back! Yes! I scooped it up. There’s nothing wrong with it either, maybe he was just looking for forgotten money. It has lots of zippered compartments, pretty cool.
4. Mandolin Girl: I wish I had another purse to round out this set, but whatever. Mandolin girl will have to do! This is a big wooden piece, perfect for my wall of wooden art.

1. Vinyl bird blender cover: This is so cool! It was hard to photograph, but it’s a blender cozy made to look like a bird cage. The birds are escaping through an open door. I love this. Unfortunately I don’t have a blender, so it’ll be going in the shop soon (today?).
2. Spinning wheel cutting board: Another piece for the wood wall. This reminds me of a really dark Sleeping Beauty ON ICE (!!!) movie that we had on VHS when I was a kid. There was a scene where the witch queen was at the spinning wheel and all these shiny fabrics were being ripped out of the cabinets and thrown everywhere. Figure skating movies are weird.
3. Zodiac boots: These are some serious boots! Leather, wooden heels, little straps, paisley lining. Intense.
4. Paper heart doilies: Perfect for Valentines!

Vintage scarves galore! I think my favorites are the little green one with houses around the edges, and the pale pink Japanese garden/deer park one.

1. HUGE Dali scarf: I’ve had this for a couple years now and I keep forgetting about it! Scarves are easy to lose in your house. Finally, it will be going up in my vintage etsy shop soon. It’s so neat.
2. Polaroid Land Camera: For all your instant photo needs.
3 & 4. Slides! I always find empty slide holders, and finally I found some actual slides. Seriously, Zolton Szabo? Cool name, man. I’ve been adding these to paper packs.

I’m not really sure what these posters are for, but they are pretty amazing. I love how the changes in expressions are so subtle. Is it for learning to tell the difference between facial expressions? I really want to keep these, but am not sure where/how to display them.

5th grade class, 1969-70. Awesome photo! I think I have another school photo like this around somewhere, but I can’t seem to find it. I love the girl scout girls, and the girl in the green & glasses that’s making kind of a sour face.

I’m going to spend some time today updating my vintage shop, and I’ll post when I’m done so you can check stuff out. I’ve been updating my food blog lately too, which is fun. I like talking about food, making food, eating food, reading about food… nom nom nom. Lately dalas and I have been watching a lot of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia lately. It is a seriously funny show, and it reminds me a lot of Peep Show, Nighty Night (both British shows), where the characters are always making the absolute WRONG decisions, kind of like Larry David stuff as well. Time to make lunch!