A Big vintage stock purchase and getting ready for vacation (maybe)

My hydrangeas are looking super pretty! The heads are blooming and getting bigger. I can't wait until the bushes are really big in a few years, and totally loaded with flowers. I love the different shading in the flowers.

Today I went through a great load of vintage. Thank goodness none of the dresses were my size, otherwise I'd have about 20 dresses getting ready to jump into my closet. They're my favorite type of dresses to buy for resale (and for myself) - pretty cotton print 1940-50s day dresses. This lot of dresses are plus sized - which is so hard to get. Going by the vintage sizes that I saw in some of the dresses, most are probably 42 to 48 inch bust. There are also a few rayon slips and nightgowns in the same sizes, a few are even unworn.
Below are some really quick, horrible photos of today's buy. XL dresses never look good just drooping on a hanger, but I wanted to show a sampling of the prints, and a few pieces of the lingerie.


There were also about 15 of those 1960s sleeveless Summer house-shift dresses, with either buttons or zippers down the front, also in XL sizes - they are in the wash right now.

One surprise was a Ceil Chapman dress - no, no, no, that one is not a plus size, sorry. Shown on the left here, it has a strappy beaded bodice with peach silk satin skirt.
In all, I got over 300 pieces (including 70 dresses which about 50 of those are XL sizes) The pieces include clothing, lingerie, hats, purses, aprons (yeah! I was getting low on those) some textiles, scarves and 30 little girl's dresses from the 1950s.
So, now you're wondering, 'what did she keep for herself?' I had to pry a few of those dresses out of my hands, convincing myself that there was no way I could cut them down to fit me. But below you will see my booty - first are two pieces of cotton fabrics (future dresses for me) and then a pretty white and gold straw purse with beads and flowers.



Next is a pale green taffeta curtain/valance with painted flowers. A set of two, perfect for the two windows in my bedroom! Next is a super cute older gauze curtain set with flocked green dots and flower pots. But, cute as they are, I'll probably never get any use out of them. They are too discolored to hang, and if I were to try to soak them, the green flocking would come right off. It's a tragedy.





So, I am planning to try to go on a 'vacation' next week. But luckily my 'vacation' spot is only 20 minutes away! I'll take a few hours here and there to run back home and check my emails, fill orders and ship out some packages during my alleged 'vacation'. I just cannot be totally away from my business for too many days. I worry and I'm conscientious about customer service and keeping things up to date. No one else can do it for me. Plus, my business is fun. The vacation is just nice to have time to myself, and to be in my favorite place. Here's where I'll be - a little seashore efficiency that started out as a little boathouse and was later converted to livingspace with a kitchen, sleep-in livingroom and bathroom. It has new siding and roofing, which make it look even more cottage-y. A friend said it looked like a little cottage in the woods that you would expect a fairy or pixie to live in. No, just me! I bought flower boxes which my Dad hung on the windows, and they look really cute, along with my hydrangeas and little garden below. I have one of those clear plastic birdfeeders hanging on the kitchen window, and I can see the little birds eating seeds while I'm eating my breakfast. There's a waiting line for the birds to get on that feeder!
There is so much planning and work to do to get ready to go on vacation. And now I've got a load of fresh vintage on my mind too! So back to my laundry and typing for the next website update, which will return on July 9th (after the vacation)

Waiting for flowers to bloom and some sewing for me

I can't wait for my hydrangeas to bloom this year! Two of the bushes that I planted a few years ago had a ton of flowers on them last year. A third bush had no flowers at all for some reason. Now this year, all three of them are full with ready to bloom heads, about 20 on each! On the left here is a photo with the first head starting to bloom. I can't wait to get there this weekend to see how they are opening. Two bushes are purple and I think the third (the one that didn't bloom last year) has pink flowers. I love hydrangeas, especially at the Shore. Last year I dried a few heads and pressed some of the flowers in books. I'm lucky the bushes are growing at all after be trampled by roofers this Spring. Today I think I'm going to run down to Home Depot, because I want to get some window flower boxes to put on the cottage.

Last Saturday I set aside some time to do some sewing for myself. I made a dress from the cool 1940s blue Bemberg rayon that I bought at a local antique shop several months ago (5 yards for $10) and the pattern came from ebay. The fabric is soft and cool, perfect for Summer. The top I made from some fabric that came from my Grandmother. I don't know how old the fabric is, but it does have an older washed-out kind of look, which I really liked. I made the outline shape by copying another blouse that I had. The fabric was a small piece, so I ended up with a seam down the middle. I trimmed the seam with pink piping to make the seam a little better looking. I added the green ribbon to the waist to give it a little more shape too.

Shoes for me, Doggie in the Sun, Skinkasaurus-Rex and a mini gore-fest

Hey, check it out, I got lucky with 3 more pairs of 1940s shoes purchased off of ebay! I've been buying them 1-by-1 from the same seller, but the prices have been really good and so far all but one pair have fit me (that pair didn't fit because of my wrongful wishful thinking, not the seller's fault) The latest pairs are identical black and red pairs with low heels, which I think are great because I'm not really a high heel gal and I prefer low heels in the Summer. The second pair are an irresistable green in a faux reptile texture, still a modest heel too.




Soaking up the sunshine - First, we have the mighty 'Skinkasaurus Rex' who is actually quite a little guy, under 4 inches long. Click on the picture and check out his amazing bright blue tail. I don't know why they like laying in the sun up there on that wicker table in the sunporch, but there's a skink up there nearly every afternoon. The second bathing beauty is of course 'Chubbasaurus Boris' who loves to stretch out on the deck or out in the driveway or in the dustiest-dirty-dirt that he can find. He lays there until he can't stand the heat anymore, and after pouting and puffing, he rrrrrruns inside and lays down in the cool, dark bathroom tile floor.



Remember the Vintage Clothing themed altered book round-robin that I was part of last year? Well, a few gals from that group started another round robin. This one is not vintage clothing related and everyone made up their own book theme. My book is Mermaids. The first book that I worked on had a theme of Nightmares. Now, I thought about doing a page on my own recurring nightmares - being back in school or at my previous job and not know my class/work schedule, rats, falling, or having to go to the bathroom and the bathroom being either not private, or overflowing. But those aren't really scary nightmares (except for rats) I think those are just reflections of my own mental 'blips'. So, one morning after having a migraine, I thought, 'Scary Movies' and that was the theme for my spread in the Nightmare book -


I really had fun (what does that say about me?) painting the palms of my hands red and making the bloody handprints. I felt like a kid. Did anyone else ever do this when they were a kids - I used to put glue on the palms of my hands, let it dry and then peel it off. You never did that for fun? No, I guess normal kids didn't do that!
I thought the Freddie slasher marks were kind of fun too. 'Was that the boogie man' was what Jamie Lee Curtis said at the end of Halloween.


Neti Pot - Does anyone have experience with using a Neti Pot? It was recommended to me to try, because of my sinus problems. I've been using it a week now, and I like it. It's kind of strange to use (you use the pot to rinse water into one side of your nose and it runs out the other side of your nose) I imagine it should work well on getting rid of congestion and allergens that get up your nose (especially out here in the woods where the pollen is insane) But I also get sinus/headache troubles from the weather too, and I don't think Neti will help with that. But if it really works, and it cuts down on half of my troubles, I'll be very, very glad. If you have any experience or tips on using the Neti pot, please let me know.

She must have loved Leopard Print Vanity Fair

This week I bought a load of vintage that included about 60 pieces of lingerie, 30 purses and some shorts and Summer blouses (I'm working on the blouses and shorts today for Monday's update) I love getting alot of clothing from a house, and then trying to figure out what type of lady the former wearer was, based on the style of clothing from her house. Now, I'm very curious about this gal, who had 6 pieces of the famous leopard print Vanity Fair lingerie. I may get 1 or 2 leopard prints from one house, but 6 pieces, grrrrrr! The pieces include a short slip, a body suit, a long sleeved piece that was either a shortie nightie or the top to pajamas, a spandex long sleeved hot pants bodysuit, a half slip and panties.



A Vintage friend sent me this link - The travels and adventures of a handmade dress - an interesting story about a dress that was made in 1935, and it's journey. That's what I love about vintage clothing and the people who preserve and pass it on.



Hey, meet our new neighbor! A real spunky cutey. I don't know yet if it's a boy or girl, or when he/she was born.

And here is a view up our driveway, which is now lined on both sides with beautiful laurel flowers. We missed the laurel the first year we moved here, and there were no blooms last year, but this year there are tons of flowers. We're way back in the woods and surrounded by huge 10ft wild laurel bushes, so it's really pretty. We took a bunch of photos of them, and I sat in the rumble seat of my Dad's old car taking videos of the flowers as he drove up and down the driveway.

I went food shopping on Thursday and I was down in the depths of the 'personal feminine items and overpriced beauty care items' aisle, looking for Noxema. My huge old jar finally ran out down at the shore (love it in the Summer for sunburn) and I was having a hard time finding it because - when did Noxema change the look of their labels? It took me awhile to spot it, I like the old label. Anyway, a lady was walking past the pads and tampons behind me, and she said outloud 'I'm so glad that I don't need to buy those anymore, hallelujah for menopause' I couldn't help but giggle, she was obviously very happy about it since she felt the need to proclaim her freedom out loud in a store.