Desperately Seeking Blue

In an earlier post about my journey to San Fran, I mentioned that I found an awesome vintage shop and I bought two awesome vintage pieces. Please forgive the AWFUL photos...really, it pains my artistic soul that I don't have better photos to post for this, but it's really snowy and dark outside and the dress is wrinkled and I'm not in the mood to iron.

Ok.

The first dress is the one featured here. Made by a very popular San Fran designer it dates back to 1951. 

It's make by Nelly Gaffney and is in FLAWLESS condition. Just perfect for me and my complexion and for just under $100--truly a steal. Have you seen the prices at Anthropologie these days?

This is a delicate little nighty circa 1955 from Saks Fifth Avenue. I got it for $40.00. Which, in my mind, is less than what you would spend at Victoria Secret for something not quite as charming or delicate or finely detailed.

The neckline is what sold me. And the blue.

I found this little number while thrifting with one of my dear friends. We popped into Savers and found this dress in about five minutes. It was $7.99.

Seriously. Could my love affair with powder blue be indulged any better than this?!

What color are you pining for these days?

Legs. I like them.

I also love these looks from j.crew.

Carrie Saxl

Last Saturday I hit a local market right around Pier 1 in San Francisco. I was drawn to a small arts fair and especially to the booth of Carrie Saxl. Her jewelry is so beautiful, delicate, and amazing in real life (and in these photos!) She had a sale, and then she offered 20% off the sale price for pre-Holiday shopping. Needless to say, it was hard for me to keep my purchase price down. I wish I could have bought a necklace for ALL of my friends. I, however, selfishly bought myself an awesome creation. I couldn't find a photo of it, but I'll try and take one and post it later. It ROCKS!

I don't do much Christmas shopping. However, I would highly recommend this delicate treasures. I love meeting and supporting people who love what they do, work hard at doing it, and go home tired and happy.

Check out Carrie's website here.

Real Couture

There were many amazing moments that happened as I strolled San Fran's many piers on Saturday. I shot about 6 rolls of film and will have to wait a few weeks to get them back and post all my photos here. Yep. You heard right. Not a digital image in the bunch. I have gotten so used to shooting digital lately that I feel sloppy, like it doesn't matter if each shot counts because I'll just take another if I don't like it.

That's not how I become a better photographer.

So, I took my Nikon F100 and my 85mm lens I wanted to try out, and I shot film for about 8 hours straight.

Can't wait.

I also met the lady featured in this photo. She is FANTASTIC and owns this shop. It's all charity based and her store was vintage heaven. I bought a blue, 1950s Saks Fifth avenue nighty for about $60.00 (cheaper than Victoria Secret!) and--the best piece ever, a blue dress that I will feature here on the blog in a post all of it's own.

Joy circa 1966

Joy and her store will be featured in Harper's Bazaar next month. Look for her there. Although, to really recognize her you'll have to picture her with very large, very round, very black glasses, a cashmere sweater, sweat pants, old man boots, and a beehive hair style. At least, that's what she was wearing on Saturday when I met her.

She invited me back to San Fran to see a private showing of ALL her vintage pieces, a few Dior gowns in the $2,000 range, Oscar de la Renta and etc. If any of you want to join me for a piece of artistic heaven, let me know. I'll probably be going back in the Spring. You can read another cool piece about her (as well as see some of the great clothes that are donated to her)  here.

Joy featured with her favorite YSL dress

Move over Tiffany...

I've had many a grand adventure this summer, this year, this decade. In all of those grand adventures, small moments stand out almost more fragrantly than the big ones. One such small moment was wandering in SOHO last month and coming across the most delightful jewelry store. It was an oasis for those of us who love to don a good pair of original earrings.

I was hooked the moment I saw them, but then the prices made me gulp just a little bit. But then the earrings made me gulp a lot more. So, I decided, being unemployed as I was at the time, being frugal as I was trying to be at the time, and being very aware of my bank account balance, that I would buy a pair. That's logic.

Do you ever do that? Do you ever get to such a stressed out point that you lose all control and spend $80 on a pair of earrings to make everything ok for just a moment?

I do. And I did. And I don't regret it. Because now I am employed and now I have the earrings. I wish I had a photo of them with me now, but I don't. I'll put one up soon.

Apparently GAS Bijoux is the latest rage in NYC and Paris and sweeping the world with its elegance. Take a look, you WON'T be dispppointed...unless you are. Simple. Pretty.

A Room of One's Own

"Women have served all these centuries as looking-glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of a man at twice its natural size."
- Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own
"Without those forerunners, Jane Austen and the Brontes and George Eliot could no more have written than Shakespeare could have written without Marlowe, or Marlowe without Chaucer, or Chaucer without those forgotten poets who paved the ways and tamed the natural savagery of the tongue. For masterpieces are not single and solitary births; they are the outcome of many years of thinking in common, of thinking by the body of the people, so that the experience of the mass is behind the single voice."
- Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own
"I told you in the course of this paper that Shakespeare had a sister; but do not look for her in Sir Sidney Lee's life of the poet. She died young--alas, she never wrote a word. She lies buried where the omnibuses now stop, opposite the Elephant and Castle. Now my belief is that this poet who never wrote a word and was buried at the crossroads still lives. She lives in you and in me, and in many other women who are not here tonight, for they are washing up the dishes and putting the children to bed. But she lives; for great poets do not die; they are continuing presences; they need only the opportunity to walk among us in the flesh."
- Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own
When I was young and Mormon--all my girlfriends would giggle and plan their weddings and the number of babies they would have. I would smile and nod and join in, trying to believe it was what I wanted too.

Then, at night, I'd crawl into my bed and read Virginia Woolf under the covers..and promise that I'd never get married for getting married's sake, that I would never give my entire life to the raising of babies and losing myself (though the two do not have to go hand in hand), and that somehow, somehow, I would find a man who would let my dreams be just as important as his....

And that always, always--I'd have a room of my own.

Something Prettier...

I am currently debating about purchasing the necklace on the girl to your right. It's wistful, light, airy, pink, and perfectly pretty. But it's also a bit on the expensive side. What do you think? Timeless or Dated?

Splurge

Sometimes, even though you may just have splurged last month, you find something so perfectly you that you have to splurge again. I think that this is perfectly acceptable.

Something Happy...

The new volume of She & Him is out. It's good. It makes me happy. It makes me believe in Spring and sunshine and good lighting behind my silhouette at a picnic with a dashingly scruffy man playing the guitar. Yep..it makes me believe in all that...and in the power of the beauty of one white daisy.
I'm very unoriginal in my admiration for Zooey Deschanel. Every man loves her, even the gay ones, all the girls adore her...we're all channeling her somehow. In fact, I thought about her with my FINAL (and it just HAS to be) purchase from Anthro of a very, very, very chic blue dress.
I even have red shoes. How adorable will I be? As adorable as Zooey? Maybe if I purchase a tambourine too? Ah, yes.

Hot Spinster

I basically just bought this entire outfit. How could I resist? Every good spinster needs a quality cardigan. I learned that lesson way back when I was watching Marian sing in The Music Man. I decided today that my cardigan is going to be yellow, like my hair.

Now, if only I could learn a party trick like this girl. It might just secure my popularity in the new town that I'll be calling "home."

Something Green

Spring

Thoughts of Spring make me want to breathe in fresh flowers and read a book while sitting by the lake. To feel the sun warm my cherry-blossom cheeks and squint my eyes in the sun.

Thoughts of spring make me want to braid my hair like I did today so the breeze doesn't blow it in my eyes. To have my hair smell like sunshine and lavender.

And write pretty letters on vintage paper to send to my love ones far away.

And wear light clothes that make me feel like a woman...clothes that barely rest on my skin, clothes that feel like light wind and warmth and smell like lemon.

And eat fresh things that grow on local trees.

Then tie everything up with an easter-egg flavored bow.