It’s Friday afternoon.  The sun is actually out.

We’re having dinner with good friends.

And a lovely baby shower (with go karting for the guys) awaits tomorrow.

Have a good weekend.

All pics by the boyfriend.  And no, the shower is not for me!

Like everyone else, Habitat has significant markdowns:

This includes one of my absolute favorites, Chie Mihara, with most of her designs marked as much as half off.  But the markdowns include other styles by Frye, BCBG and Joy Chen.

The fifth in the Time Life series documenting American history and culture through iconic photos.  This first shot is perhaps my favorite, the rompers, the pants, the hair–I just love it all.

Of course, the decade wasn’t all beach front strolls.  This shot of a shanty town (or Hooverville) may look familiar to those of you who know the Seattle skyline.

Two contrasting images that sum up the decade for me–a line of women supporting strikers and a shot from one of Busby Berkley’s extravagant musicals.

The book strives to show the middle ground as well, the two thirds of the country who were neither movie stars or migrant Okies.  This shot of a couple listening to the radio basically captures every element of antique malls that I love–the amazing, art Deco lampshades, the ornate, oversized radio, the layered collar of her gown, and of course her two-tone mary janes.  If I could recreate this whole shot in my apartment, I totally would.

Related reading:

1870-1900 :: 1900-1910 :: 1910-1920 :: 1920-1930

The remaining necklaces, with their pale colors, had to wait to be photographed–when I had the time, light and a better background to show them off.

The trefoils make another appearance.

& Juliet, which is one of those pieces resulting from beads I’ve had for ages, and now wonder why I didn’t pair them before now.

In the shop.

I stumbled upon Marcela Cardenas beautiful site via flickr.  A ridiculously talented artist and designer, I lost a good hour clicking from image to image.

From graphite on wood, to painting, to collage, the variety of her work is found not only in the medium but by style as well.

I think my favorite might be the life-like animals sporting Renaissance ruffs.  Dignified and unlikely all at once.

Be sure to check out her textile designs–I’m seriously wishing some of these were available.

Beads, courtesy of the always generous Shona.

They came earlier this week but the early sunsets mean photos had to wait until this weekend.  Receiving them gave me the motivation to further organize my scattered crafts and I realized I had my own bits and pieces to pass on.

When I was a more avid knitter, I acquired a lot of needles off ebay, most of which I haven’t touched in at least a year.  If you want them, just leave a comment and I’ll be in touch to put them in the mail to you.  Ashley and Lisa, I’ll have your needles in the mail by the end of the week!

My productivity this Sunday was cut in half due to the fact that my boyfriend surprised me with a night at the Monaco for our anniversary.  However, I did manage one small sewing project.

You’ll have to wait for more pictures since the recipient of this project reads (Into) the Fray and hasn’t yet gotten this!

Foot thong, toe flop, whatever.  It’s disgusting.

I didn’t know I was supposed to need some bizarre arrangement of elastics and fabric to dance barefoot.  For unmatched barefoot control.

My own double duty handbag.

Clearly my thing for purple has not gone away.

By Hobo International.  Can’t say I love the name of the brand, but I do love the bag.

I was waiting on the delivery of some chain to complete several necklaces that were otherwise finished.

When I was finally ready to photograph them, the sun finally came out and they all looked so pretty hanging off my hand I had to get a picture.

Olivia Copper.

And Saniyah.

The rest should be in the shop by the weekend.

I needed tissues a lot less than I thought today.

From stitchadoo :: dinosaur dry goods :: serendipity treasures

For I have shopped at a cheap knock off store.  Hey, I was raised Catholic and old habits die hard.  In any case, the first place I stopped after the boyfriend dropped me off downtown Portland was Forever 21.  I wanted to shop where he wouldn’t mind my going without him–and while they do have this shop in Seattle, it’s only located in malls up north that I never go to.

It made me laugh that of the 7 things I grabbed, four were gray.  Of all of this, I only got the tee in the very back.

I loved the drapey sleeve and the fabric didn’t make me feel like I was wearing plastic, which is the huge issue I tend to have with shops like F21, H&M & the like.  100% acrylic generally means the item feels awful–you add the poor construction and you know it won’t last long.

A quick reminder of why I don’t wear plaid.

You’ll have to picture this dress zipped up given the zipper didn’t work.

While it hasn’t been a mission, I’ve vaguely looked at long, jacket-style cardigans whenever I’ve gone shopping with the hopes that one might look flattering on me.  Given that I have hips and an ass, they rarely do.  This one, however, with it’s A-line shape & button closure that stops at the waist, was surprisingly cute.  The fabric felt fine and the content tag, hidden waaaaay down by the hem rather than at the neckline, said it was an acrylic mix.  I put it back…but after seeing a Michael Kors cardigan at Nordstrom Rack with the exact same content mix, I went back & got it.

I also visited quite a few indie boutiques and thrift shops while I was in Portland but a dead camera battery means there’s no documentation of it.  Wouldn’t it be sad to hit up such a quirky, crafty city and only visit Forever 21?

Our first night in Portland involved trying to find one restaurant in the Pearl District that wasn’t mobbed. 

Quite happily, we ended up at Paragon where I had 1 and a half Rose City Raindrops.

After which we went to Powell’s so I could pick up a few books.  Sadly, they didn’t have Philanthrocapitalism, which I was really dying to get after seeing the author speak.  However, I did pick up the following:

The first is for book club, the second is because he was so compelling when speaking at a work function, and the third is a long time resident on my wish list.

This time, our room at the Ace Hotel didn’t have a wonderful claw foot tub.  But this wonderful mural of silhouettes more than made up for it.

Hope you had a lovely weekend.

I bookmarked Snowhome after seeing Queen Marie feature their flighty clocks on Kingdom of Style.  Bookmarked and forgotten unfortunately.  A few spare moments to browse, however, had me grinning as I landed on these two clever scales.

We do not have a scale in our house and I don’t know that I would ever own one.  I gauge my weight by how well my clothes fit and how often I make it to the gym.  These scales, however, are too funny not to want–and I think weight gain might be more bearable if I thought of myself in terms of Oliver Twist (after more) or, more likely, Hulk Hogan.

We’re off to Portland for the weekend.  Barring wifi issues at the Ace, I’ll be posting–though my posts might be on bacon doughnuts rather than clothes or jewelry!

Happy Friday!

My love of capes knows no bounds (and has been much documented).  Finding this lovely, shawl collared version for half off was too much to resist.

You’ll see my boots are still getting a lot of wear–to the point that I might get them resoled at the end of the winter.

The cape was only available on Free People’s site (you better believe I looked elsewhere) but doesn’t seem to be there now.  It’s presence in my closet, along with my recent vintage find, means no coat shopping for the foreseeable future…perhaps unless I find another great cape.

My love of vintage images is admittedly insatiable so stumbling upon Girl Flapper pretty much made my night.

John Held Jr. is heavily featured in the Time Life Fabulous Century series so I was familiar with his work, but this site has a reserve of images I didn’t even know existed.

Prints not done by Held are equally wonderful.

Peruse at your own risk; you might lose a couple of hours like I did.

Paper n Stitch carries a variety of sellers I admire, but what really caught my eye among all of the great eye candy was this felt pillow:

By PLYtextiles, this wonderfully executes an idea I never got quite right from the start.  Maybe I’ll think about giving my pile of felt another look…

For a few weeks I’ve had handbags on the brain.  It’s not really something I need at all but the two I carry regularly are both going on at least a year and the desire for a change is taking hold.  Unlike shoes, where just about any pair is worthy of my attention, I’m extremely picky about what I carry around every day.

I’ve been drawn to the idea of a satchel crossed with a tote ever since I saw this bag on American Eagle’s web site.  But I just don’t do brown bags.

I started looking for a bag explicitly in this style and found a brand that seemed to specialize in it: Hype.  Unfortunately, even at a deep discount, their prices are generally far beyond what I’m willing to pay.

Here are some other, sometimes less expensive versions I found in my search–but ultimately passed up.

Clockwise from top, Kim White for $250, Gap for $49.50, and Mod Cloth for $34.99.

Little Thoughts had a post on a similar bag style a few weeks ago and Lisa laid out some fantastic tips when it comes to shopping for a handbag.

Later this week I’ll share the purchase I did make.

While I usually try to have only one or two representations of a certain bead in the shop at any one time, the white shell trefoils are going to be an exception.

I’ve had these labradorite drops for some time but never quite worked out how to incorporate them until now.  It took me two seconds to pair them with the white trefoils.

And an even easier decision to pair them with simple cable chain.

Both are in the shop.

Happy Sunday.

When I was single, I used to read the Missed Connections section of Craigslist for fun–& to see if anyone had ever missed me or anyone I knew.  Now that I’m attached & boring, Craigslist has mostly functioned as a way to get rid of furniture–and drool at cruisers.

Very Small Array broke down the missed connections by state in this wonderful, visual map.  W4M=Women for Men.

& this is Men for Women.  ‘Hooters’ in Texas is still making me laugh.

Via Metafilter.

I had to wait some time for these beads to arrive due to the weather that delayed mail for days.

But it was so worth the wait.  The white trefoils in shell will make gorgeous earrings or pendants and the red beads with their cinnabar look equally so.

Though I’m so ridiculously busy at the moment that making things has taken a back seat.  Thank God the weekend is only a day away.