sweet babydoll

i've been so lucky -- i found five (five!!) adorable babydoll dresses whilst shopping this week. and i'm only keeping one of them! it's the one on the left below. i put it on for the shoot, but it just fit me too perfectly and i love the colors too much. the other four are going into the shop by the end of the weekend. they're great for these end-of-summer days. light and breezy with sandals or flats now, and super cute when it's boots-and-tights time!

you'll feel just like penny lane in almost famous. i think i'm going to put that in my queue and see what other inspiration penny can bestow upon me.

vintage home

i have been extra aware of home design lately. searching for inspiration and creating new spaces in my home has always been one of my favorite hobbies, but lately it's been one of the top five things i think about every day. my interest was first stoked by this post, then reignited by francesca's post today and the impending arrival of a house guest, which always makes me want to make my apartment look the best that it can.
of course, i love me some vintage home decor, and most of our furniture and art and tchotchkes are of the second-hand persuasion. i've tried to create some little vintage-only vignettes, but eventually i want the whole house to look like an antique store!

-- i've started a colored glass collection (probably because my mom is a glass collector and it reminds me of home), which i'm using to stash the knitting and art supplies.
-- my little plant stand came from a garage sale. i love it so! the little cutouts are actually little hearts! and i consider that plant vintage because, for some reason, that is the plant i picture in apartments that belonged to college girls in the seventies.
-- only that little corner is very vintage-y in my kitchen. we use the club pot as a bread box. i stole the glass containers from my mommy (who hopefully won't make me give them back once she reads this). and boyfriend installed little hooks to display my vintage coffee cup collection - no two are the same and yet they all go together!
-- the rest of those pictures are from the bathroom - the one room in the house that is the most vintage, but then gets marred by ugly modern toilets and such! that floral crewelwork is probably my favorite wall hanging. someday i hope to have a hallway lined with such lovelies. this club pot used to be a planter until i killed the plant, so now it holds our extra change. the telephone conductors are another tribute to my mom's style. she used to have a much larger collection with all shapes and sizes.

my ultimate inspiration for whole-house-beautiness is the lovely miss francesca. since i've been reading her blog, the snapshots from her rooms have just floored me with their perfection. every little bit of her space is a step back in time and exudes her delicate style. go here to see the cutest video tour of her lovely home. see if you don't want to just move right in, or at least chuck everything you own and start over.
i've never been a fan of collections - i am generally of the belief that they are a waste of space and money - but i think i may have changed my mind without meaning to. i've just realized that i have four or five mini collections displayed in this very post (not to mention the 'collection' of clothes and shoes strewn all about the room i am sitting in). actually, i think the things i like the most from all these photos are the collections. they are little bits that tell a little more about the person that chose them, be they glass pieces, or barcello pillows (like the awesome ones below), or old photographs.
well, i've rambled on long enough...look at the pretty pictures!

left: old domino article spotted on the english muse. right: found here on flickr

pretty things

i am loving the colors and prints in these pretty pretty pics. i've been scrolling up and down, looking at all these pictures together, trying to think of a way to explain why i picked them all and what they have in common, but all i can think is to keep scrolling up and down because by the time i get to the last pic, i miss looking at the first pic, and vice versa.
enjoy, but try not to get stuck!

from the stylish wanderer

two beautiful photos from the painfully hip design collective's latest photoshoot. the first pic was taken in my local foreign goods bazaar, a place where i could (and do) spend hours looking around. the second pic may as well have been taken in my bedroom. the difference is i've got everything but the green walls and gorgeous dress, and my grey cat is cuter.

the most perfect outfit post i've seen all week, from one of my newer blog-reads cazimi. that tangerine cardigan looks extra sweet in front of those pretty blue flowers.

a photo from the glamourai's cover story in the new style sample magazine. the free online mag is for and about fashion bloggers so check it out! doesn't the glamourai look more like a porcelain doll than a real live girl?

1974 christian dior ad in l'officiel via tfs. the best news all day: french publisher jalou (l'officiel, jalouse, muteen) has archived all issues of their magazines for free here. good luck ever getting anything done again.

skunked again

have i mentioned how frustrating it is to be mere minutes behind a fellow vintage finder and to know that they just got everything that you would have picked had you just been there a little sooner?
when i got to the wall of dresses at my favorite secret shopping spot yesterday, i spotted a girl dressed head to toe in great vintage style working her way down the rack with an arm full of goodies. shopping today, i was just in time to see a team of vintage shoppers going through their full shopping cart of perfect 40s, 50s, and 70s pieces. i sped out of of that shopping center hoping to beat them to the next shop (which actually ended up working out quite well for me).
i read something the other day written in response to a complaint about the number of pickers out there that basically says, 'chill out - there's plenty to go around.' i'm trying to keep that in mind, remembering all the great scores i've made, while also vowing to start my days a little earlier so that i will be the one with the shopping cart full of lovely next time.
in the meantime, i'm starting to think that maybe i should just make my own vintage clothes. if i use vintage patterns, fabrics, and notions, i can have an unlimited supply of 50s blouses, 70s sundresses, and mod mini dresses.
here's what i wish i had found this morning, and if i can get my act together, what i could make for myself!

pattern from little yellow cottage

pattern from girl geek goodness

i want those shoes too! pattern here

pattern from my new favorite pattern shop zip zap kap

dress already sold by ramona west, but dying to be duplicated!

handmade dress at becky drolan, yum

insta-stalker

i am smitten.
i found this adorable top from redemption vintage on etsy, 'heart'ed it, and then i kept seeing it listed in everybody else's favorites page. not only is the sweater super cute, the picture is just so great too -- love her bangs, her pose, and those perfect little shorts.

then i checked out her blog - a kind of love - how cute is that? that's where i found out that this etsy gal also has the knack for finding home design pictures that send my heart aflutter.



then she has to go and have precious little outfits posted. girl-crush initiated. go there now.

what better way to wait

while i am waiting for my steamer to heat up so i can prepare for the photoshoot today, and waiting for the postman to deliver my new shoes so i can wear them in the photoshoot today, i thought i would share some of the amazing photographs i just found.
i probably should have saved them and used them in separate posts with relevant words to go with them, but they are just so pretty, i think they speak for themselves.















all photos taken from the 50s to the 70s by richard avedon and frank horvat. did you notice some familiar faces? there's verushka, twiggy, and audrey hepburn in there!

how to rock a maxi dress

the beauties behind violet folklore are blowing my mind. they reconstructed this maxi dress into a magical masterpiece!
it's been bothering me that so many maxis are being chopped into minis (although i can't really talk because i'm doing it too) -- what happens next year when we want floor length again? this way, you can play with the dress a little and have it short this year, then let the seams out and have it long again later!





i'm cooing over here.

click here for the listing.

new antler!

the new issue of antler mag is available now -- issues come out the 15th of every month and i look forward to it like something you look forward to a whole bunch. my favorites this time are the illustrations of brett manning, the photography from ginger lilly tea, the adorable typhaine (cookies), and the article reiterating why annie hall will never get old.
ahhhh, inspiration...

on being jealous

the very same day i decided that i now worship camille bidault-waddington (yes, worship), i finally cracked open the new issue of lula and who do you suppose was the star of her very own editorial?!

photos via the fashion spot

more proof that camille knows style, and lula knows everything.