little red fox

vintage thrills

As I mentioned in my last post, I had great thrifting luck while we were in Virginia. My favorite place to go when we're there has been a shop called "Estate Specialists" in downtown Lynchburg. Essentially they buy up entire estates and then resell them for what I think are really reasonable prices. They have two separate locations right around the corner from each other and one of the two is basically a giant warehouse divided up into rooms that you wander through and seem to go on forever. Dreamy. And this visit was especially wonderful because I discovered two whole other floors that I had no idea were there!! I was blown away. One must be a hardcore digger to truly enjoy it because these two other floors are not heated (and it was cooooooold) and they are just huge rooms of what most people would just think of as junk. But not me :) It was a treasure hunters dream come true. I only had an hour or so, but next time, I'm setting aside a whole day to dig to my heart's content. I can only imagine what I might have left behind...but whatever it is I'm going back for it!

In one of the junk rooms I found this painting. I imagine it isn't for everyone, but for me--this is pure magic: fascinating, totally intriguing, beautiful, moody, slightly creepy and right up my alley.

Are they in church? A funeral? I don't know but the colors! The clothes and hair! The emotions! Oh, I just love it. One of my top finds of all time. It's a little chipped but I don't mind that. I like my things to look like they've lived. :)

I've been yearning for a stack of these for a long while. It's never been the right time--and frankly everytime I've found one or two they've been way out of my price range. But this time--we had our car and the price was right: $4 each.

Two of them are in pristine condition:

(That's the key clipped to the inside--I thought that was cute. I imagine a very conscientious former owner :)

I may have to actually use this one. Don't they make you want to hop on a train in your smartest two-piece skirt suit and have a martini?

Right now they are in our bedroom (where it is too dark to photograph) and will most likely be storage for belts, clutches, and some off-season items. But eventually, they'll be a surface for an old radio, maybe? Or my record player...who knows.

Bits of old lace and buttons...

I've also been hoping for old-fashioned champagne glasses for a long time. I really love champagne and while the flute-style is also pretty, these are so retro-fancy! This place had tons and tons of this style*--I had a hard time picking them out. I liked the idea of mismatching patterns, but they had larger sets of just simple, plainly-shaped ones that I was torn between. I ended up with four each of these two different etched designs. Very inexpensive and they're just glass (as opposed to crystal), but what a fun thing to break out at a party, I think. (Although for that matter, so is champagne :)

A set of 4 golden yellow dinner napkins (my favorite color right now), and 4 pomegranite-colored linen cocktail napkins. $1 each. Yay. Don't they go beautifully with my new tablecloth?

And last but not least--my new favorite wear-with-anything light beige cardigan. Belive it or not--I have been looking for a brownish cardigan for two years and just haven't found what I was looking for--until now. We stopped by a Goodwill-type store and that day all clothing was $1. I know. I also bought some high-waisted, pleated wool houndstooth pants that I'm thinking of turning into shorts, but we'll just have to see about that.

*what is the name of this style of champagne glass? Anybody know?

new shoes kinda

Over the weekend I (meaning Mr. Wood) dyed some of my shoes black that really needed it. It was a big weekend. I actually love having shoes of different colors but I turned around recently and saw that I had no black ones. As I was recovering from my terrifying realization, I knew my emergency situation demanded a pair of adorable vintage gloves and luckily I just happened to have a pair laying around...(I've been wearing them every day--I just love them).

From left to right we have thrifted platform FLATS which is kind of my dream shoe. They were navy--and I love navy!--and I thought I would've worn them like crazy but...I don't know, I didn't. The second ones were these and I LOVED them in brown but...again I just didn't wear them. Something about that particular brown, perhaps... And the third ones were actually made for me to wear on stage in "Accent On Youth" last year. I was thrilled I got to keep my shoes because that doesn't happen very often. These were navy and cream and I just knew I'd get more wear out of black and cream. Plus I got to use my beloved ivory and black ribbon...

I feel like I have 3 new pairs of shoes, and all for the $7 I spent on some dye. Neato!

Did I mention it was a quiet week?

Part of it is that I've been quietly nesting here in our little home the last couple of days. I never quite decorated our bedroom in the almost 2 years we've lived here. That is not like me. The room has some odd architectual features (which you'll see here shortly) that I wasn't sure how to deal with and I just avoided it, plus we didn't paint it and the white walls weren't speaking to me. But we rearranged it a couple of weeks ago and it fired me up! So today I made some beautiful pillows for the bed with some of the prettiest fabric I've ever seen. Pictures to follow. It's looking pretty cute, I must say and I find myself not wanting to leave even when it's clearly time to...but that's a quality I like in a bedroom :)

Also I just got these in the mail:

 

Can you tell what they are?

They're sponges! I had heard about these before so I finally remembered and found them in Zummi's etsy shop. It's the best idea ever. I've always thought sponges sitting around with all that old food and whatever it is sitting on it, then you re-use it, then it sits there--they're really pretty gross plus I hate buying them. They always feel wasteful. But these--you use them until you feel like it's time to wash them--pop them in the washer and voila! You need not throw yet another thing away. Love it. They're also made from organic yarns, so it's all perfectly eco-friendly. I think they'd make nice Christmas presents, too, by the way...

She also threw in these little face scrubbies because she felt like they were late in arriving. So sweet, but I was totally fine with the amount of time it took. She makes them to order, after all!

I'm excited to try these little guys...

In other news: We've got rock and roll visitors staying with us the next few days while they're on tour. I'm very excited to see them play Thursday night. And for you NYCers--it's at Webster Hall in Williamsburg at 7:30 so come out and hear some acoustical ear delights at a very decent hour...

Right now I'm off to a commercial audition then coming home and cooking for the girls (a new recipe I'm trying and if we love it, it'll be on this blog shortly) before we head out to see this--I don't know about you but I shall be laughing myself silly all night long. Have a wonderful day/night wherever you are....xo

a painted skirt tutorial/how-to

A while back I posted about a few items from Lucky magazine that I was taken with, and I haven't gotten over it. I have not moved on. It's still up on my bulletin board by my sewing machine. I see it 87 times a day. No matter that summer has long since past and it's now cold, rainy and gray (which I love, but still). The skirt (bottom center) especially kept popping back up in my head and wouldn't leave me alone. I knew I wouldn't find the exact skirt (for what I could afford anyway), so I thought I could try what I usually do: find something similar and make it myself.

So here's what I did:

A few weeks ago I found this skirt at a thrift store (hello $3.50!). My only requirements were that it be off-white, fit in the waist and have pleats--bingo! So last night I hemmed it to the right length and ironed out the pleats about 4 inches from the hem. I decided to make it a 2-inch stripe 2 inches up from the bottom.

Using my trusty 2-inch ruler (which I use about 16 times a day) and the tailor's crayon-thingy (what is that thing called again?), I marked the top and bottom of the stripe all the way around. Easy.

I happened to have this particular fabric paint around, which I think you can get pretty much anywhere:

When I tested how the paint behaved on a swatch (the left-over hem), it was a bit thicker and more difficult to paint on smoothly than I had anticipated. So, using regular old masking tape, I taped along the lines I had marked--on the top and bottom, all the way around--and painted inside the tape to get an even, straight line. Made it so much easier than just trying to free-hand-follow my drawn-on lines. (How the paint behaves will depend on the fabric you're painting, but you're guaranteed an even edge line when you tape off your design.)

I used a hair-dryer to dry each section I painted, dried it completely, then moved on to paint the next bit, then dried that, and so on all the way around, until it was complete. (The paint did bleed through so you will most likely need a piece of cardboard between the layers of fabric you're working on.) Then, just like when you paint the walls in a room, ripped off the tape to reveal a perfect black stripe with an even edge! So satisfying.

I had hemmed a pleated skirt once before and found the perfect tutorial right here, so I used it again to re-pleat the pleats-- and then wore it immediately feeling very self-proud and thrifty-smart :)

Also--Operation Italian Marie Claire (thank you, Jeffrey) was not completed. I went to buy it yesterday (wearing my lucky painted skirt, no less!) and I found it--but it was $30. I just don't think I can pay that much for a magazine. I'll have to settle for seeing the pictures here, I guess...ugh. They're so beautiful... But that's ok because I have the Circus book which was spun from baby angel hair and dipped in chocolate and gold flecks to keep me company until the end of time.

And so me and the skirt are going to be away for a few days--back to Mississippi for my mom's birthday. We're cooking some exciting new dishes so if they turn out (and they will! Let's be positive!), expect some pictures when I get back...have a wonderful weekend wherever you may be!

etsy love

Being a part of the etsy community is a really proud thing for me. It's such a wonderful idea and I feel so lucky it's there and I get to be one of the artists/people who are a part of it. And there are so many amazing etsy artists--I have to constantly restrain myself from buying a million things when I visit some of my favorite sellers, but every now and then--I'm not strong enough. Here are a couple of things I just couldn't resist...

The print set above is from the artist Sarah Blank who also has a blog I really enjoy. I was so taken with these prints. I especially loved that they both seem to be taking place on some mythical magical "stage." (Secret reminder: I'm an actress...) I've actually been working on a couple of drawings (more sketches at this point) that are framed out by stage curtains but these are so beautiful, I don't know if I'll even need to finish them since these are so beautiful.

I now need to find two mis-matched vintagey-looking frames...

And then this perfect little badge. It's by Julianna Swaney--who was one of the very first etsy shops and blogs I ever happened across and one of the ones that inspired me to try and do one myself. I just think this is remarkable. It's one of her lovely drawings (of which there are so, so many) turned into a gorgeous little piece of jewelry. Brilliant.

And goes so well with my outfit, don't you think?

(p.s.: That skirt is one I just thrifted and painted. The 'how-to' is coming tomorrow!)

OK I'm going to watch a BBC miniseries period drama and draw--which is the only acceptable activity on cold, rainy, gray days like this. Au revoir!

(fairly) quick skirt alteration and my first tutorial!

This was a thrifted skirt I bought sometime last year. It was one of those long, shapeless 80s things that just weren't flattering on anybody. But the corduroy fabric and the pattern appealed to me, plus it had pockets! So I bought and hemmed it into a mini. I wore it a few times last year but it still wasn't quite right. So this year--getting so excited about fall clothes--I dug up the remainder of the hem, and from it made the bow and now I feel like it's done. Maybe everything needs a bow :) 

Want to do it? Here's what you'll need:

• around 1/4 yd of fabric for the bow
• ruler
• needle and thread
• 2 snaps (or hook-and-eyes)
• scissors

Here's what I did (click on it to make it larger!):

 
(The pdf of these instsruction can be emailed to you if you need them!)

The long sash parts are just two 6 1/2" by 15" pieces sewn in half, sewn on one end, then hand-stitched to the skirt underneath the bottom of the bow. Also-- this bow 'technique' is the same I've used for the bow-ties I've been making, as well as big hair bows, just scaled down. Let me know if you want specific measurements.

On another note: I've been browsing etsy looking for new vintage patterns and I think I've found some real winners...very excited about that.

BUT FOR NOW-- I am off to get ready to go meet some girlfriends for a sangria happy hour--I already feel like it's the holiday weekend and it's Wednesday! I loooooove that feeling :) Technically, it is for us since we leave in the morning for a little cabin by a little river way up in the mountains of Virginia. There is no computer signal there so I'll be away for a few days. Have a great weekend wheresoever you are!

polka dots and stripes

I love this dress. A lot. I can't remember how I got there, but it's Jill Stuart. I often really love her designs but I never seem to look for her on-line or go to her shop in Soho anymore. I guess knowing it's so beyond my meager price range has something to do with it, but still. I saw this dress and just knew--I didn't really think I'd be able to make it but I had to try something--anything! Then I was pretend-shopping** at Modcloth and lo and behold--look what I found and can you imagine the screaming:

 

It's basically the same dress! This one probably isn't quite as nice as the Jill Stuart version, but it was only $50! And I'm sure the other was in the $500-$300 range. Silliness. I need to hem about 10" off of this one, but that's totally doable (today, in fact!) I'd like to tea-dye the cuff and collar to a nice off-white but I doubt the polyester (I know) will take the color. I'll try, though.

And to me (awkward segue alert), polka dots go hand-in-hand with stripes, meaning that I love them both equally and intensely. Here are some delicious stripey goodnesses I've been gathering as fall inspiration:

 

(This was on some person I didn't know but how cute? I'll be making a version of this for fall.)

 

 

The above images are from Orla Kiely who I swear I had never heard of until Sally Jane did a post about her/them/it. And it's now one of my all-time favorite labels. I'm going to do a whole separate post about this new line because it's my dream fall wardrobe. It's beautiful, cute, colorful, quirky, and interesting with a touch of orphan chic that is exactly to my taste. So that's coming next.

On another note--A VERY SERIOUS IMPORTANT NOTE THE IMPLICATIONS OF WHICH ARE WORLDWIDE--I am seriously considering dyeing my hair dark brown and cutting my bangs again (though I am currently in the 4th unsuccessful attempt of growing them out) so it would look like this (which has been my haircut for the past 3 or 4 years):

Obviously she is adorable and her hair probably grew out of her head in a color at least similar to that one, but here's the thing: I've never been anything but blonde in my entire life. My hair is naturally a dish-water kinda dark blonde blah color so I'd have to dye my eyebrows and eyelashes, which is fine. But am I crazy? Will it look horrible? Am I making too big of a deal out of it? Will it make me look a lot older? I'm actually kind of scared but I also feel like--you have to be risky and try things, because who knows? What if I absolutely love it? What if it totally feels like me? But then again, what if it looks like a wig. Anyway. Yikes! Thoughts?? Have any of you ever tried this? Could the results be disastrous?

Hope everyone is enjoying their Sunday! I'm actually going to the gym because I've been eating like I'm getting paid to clean my plate. I also have some art to show you that I am really happy with :)

(*pretend-shopping: a term I coined for the practice of going to my favorite on-line stores and pretending like I can buy anything I want and putting it all in my cart, imagining the perfect combination of items to make the most perfect wardrobe. I've spent hours doing this. I'm weird.)

fall adornments

Well, hello there! So sorry I was MIA for a bit. I was shooting an episode of "The Good Wife" last week (think it's going to be a really good show, by the way) and it ended up being pretty demanding time-wise. Man--filming an hour-long show is a brutal schedule. I got home at 4:30 am one morning, after having been there since 1 that afternoon. Crazy, I tell you. I was just a guest star but if you were the lead of a show like that--like Julianna Marguiles (who is so nice, by the way, as is Christine Baranski)--it must be tough to get the rest of your life squeezed in. I brought drawing and art supplies to set every day but never got to do anything except read a magazine--no time! I think I need to figure out how to blog from my phone--I actually missed it! I also missed making stuff so I got down to business today and made all those things you see above.

What are those and why did I make them? Well. Read on, and ye shall see...

I am so excited about clothes for fall--I'd be embarassed to tell you how much of my brain space is occupied by it. I've been thinking about and wanting a black bow-tie for awhile--probably since around this time--and for some reason it never occurred to me that I could just make one. So I finally got around to it--well, three 'its'--today. They were so easy! I used fabric I already had which happened to all be from hemmed skirts, funnily enough. As much as fabric scraps can clutter a space up, times like this I'm so happy I have them. I just made little rectangles, cinched them up in the middle and sewed these little pin backings on which I already had lying around (and by lying around I mean packed neatly in a small labeled box and stored in the section marked "jewelry supplies"):

 

The hat--also made from fabric left over from shortening a skirt--is a pattern from here. I wanted to try and make a beret using panels like this so you can have a bit more freedom with the fabric choices. And I don't knit. Probably never will. No interest. The hat is a tad shorter than I usually wear my hats, but still really cute. Look at this little detail:

That would be a covered button. Isn't that a great idea? I've already thought up about 75 different ways to snazz these up with different kinds of embellishments (and bedazzling is not one of them). Very excited about this. Never enough hats!

(**If you want to make either one of these and have any questions, email me or leave your question in the comments. I'm always happy to help!)

The best part is that the skirt also has a matching 40s-style little jacket, so I now have a matching skirt, jacket, beret and bow-tie. I can't imagine ever wearing them all at once, for Gods sake, but...never say never! I was partly inspired by this picture from somewhere on Flickr that I can't remember:

 

Cute, right? I would love to find a little collared sweater like that somewhere.

Well I promise not to be in absentia that long again. I have some recipes to share this week as well as some more head-wear things. I'm a maniac, I know.

Be well and as always--a big, hearty thank you for stopping by and leaving comments. It makes my day--no exaggeration.

thrifty alterations

I thrifted these pants a couple of weeks ago in a floral-print-gathering craze. I thought it was a nice print:

Obviously, the floral thing is all around this season, but who can afford the fancy ones? I definitely can't, so I got creative. These pants cost $4! I wouldn't wear them as is, but look what a little ingenuity can get you:

I also bought a pair of 80s floral shorts in what has to be the least-flattering length on anybody:

Went to town on them, and here's the results:

Pretty cute for $3!

saturday covets (early sunday morning)

This particular Saturday Covets is less what I want, and more what I am inspired by and want to try and make somehow. The shorts above I thrifted over Christmas in Virginia. I think they were $3.50 and about 6 inches longer. Why, you may be asking? Well, I was taken by these from A.P.C. months ago:

Obviously I love the version above, but I think I'll wear the gray more. I finally wore them going to dinner with some friends last night:

(All of the outfit is thrifted/gifted except the shoes, by the way.)

The outfit was inspired (not so subtely) by Sally Jane and is one of my MOST FAVORITE new fashion-y blogs. Here is the inspiration photo:

How cute is she?? Very. I happened upon her blog a few days ago and I'm so glad I did. She has an ebay shop where she sells her lovely curated vintage finds (the above red blouse is for sale right now). Her blog is such a wonderful and inspired place if you are a lover of vintage original clothes and a serious eye for style. As in:

Mouth-watering fashion and inspiration...I think I literally put my head in my hands and took a deep breath when i saw the outfit above. I needed a moment to pull myself together.

Another recent discovery is Francesca at The Snail and the Cyclops, and oh, such style of the shaking-head variety...witness:

I just want to hug her and thank her for posting her pictures. She is also terribly sweet and provides top-notch customer service (and speed-of-light shipping!). I have first-hand experience--she has an etsy shop from which I purchased a lovely frock. And Francesca, like Sally Jane, has such impeccable taste I really trust their curation. Very exciting! And in these crazy times, now more than ever, buying vintage/second-hand clothes just seems the real way to go. I know girls like these are really keeping me inspired.

This is the dress from Francesca's etsy shop 1385:

I love it. Really, really love it. Here's how cute it is up-close:

The little blue details make it, I think.

I mentioned her customer service--but her packaging! Look how it arrived:

Tied up with a sweet piece of vintage lace, thread spools, and--I couldn't even believe it--buttons! So sweet and pretty. And she tucked these little goodies inside:

A sense of humor and style--the divine combination :)

virginia really is for lovers

Hello there! We're back from my husband's beautiful home state of Virgina (part of it pictured above). It was wonderful, fabulous, etc but the big news is that I thrifted my you-know-whattie off.

That is something I really appreciate about Virginia (among other things). I really don't even bother to thrift here in Brooklyn/NYC. It feels like a lot of effort for a very picked-through (and even over-priced!) experience. However. Not so in Virginia. It feels like a pretty level playing field, thrift-wise. I did some major scoring. I can't show it all to you right now, but I found a load of dresses that got hemmed into minis--skirts and wool shorts too!--as well as some shirts and sweaters and also other dresses I will turn into fabric sources. Oh. So good. Missa and Amber and Sasha--yall have re-inspired my thrifting side and I'm so grateful and excited! Thank you!!

I've posted two of the dresses/outfits on my Flickr page so far and will be updating it as I wear them. But a new dress for $4 and a hem?? It's recession fashion!

Here's one I have to share:

This was a maternity dress from the 80s which I just hemmed (way) up. Can you tell from the picture that it's red and navy? And that my tights and little shoes are also navy?? That hat is one that I made and turned out to match almost exactly the red in the dress. Tres fun :)

Gratuitious dress/tights/combo shot:

I also--excitedly--received from my lovely mother-in-law an enamel/cast iron dutch oven, which shows what a good listener she is, among other things :) And I am proud to say, it works so so beautifully and I love it dearly. We got back yesterday and I've used it twice. TODAY. I made another batch of the tomato soup (you have to scroll down for the recipe)--definitely one of our new favorites--and then a white chicken chili that my mother-in-law had waiting on us when we got in before Christmas--and oh my goodness, yall. It is so. Delicious. And satisfying. It turns out it's a family recipe, too. So we are making that right now and I will post the recipe tomorrow. Just you wait.

Also--I have been asked (many times over which thrills me beyond measure) about the bow berets which had sold out in the shop and I am very happy to report that I have found a new fabric that I quite like and they will be up in the shop soon. Hopefully by this weekend. Check it:

I think it's pretty nice. Looks cute on, too:

(Sud--you like?)

I also got inspired to fancy up mine a bit:

And I love it on!:

I really love how this looks with the beads/buttons. I was trying to figure out a way to sell them like this in the shop, but the button assortment is so varied, you know? I was thinking of offering them with AND without the bead/button option....what do you think? Is it better plain or fancied up? I tend to be impractical on the business front, so I'd love some input.

Well the chili is about done, (smells divine!!!!) so I am going to photograph it and I'll be back tomorrow with this recipe. Seriously. Insanely good.

Can you believe it's almost 2009 by the way?? What a trip...