walking liberty / DIY

it started with the penny necklaces that I've been making. then I was searching the Internet for interesting US coins. then I purchased two silver half dollar coins from the 1940s with the intent to turn them into jewelry.

I'm fine with punching holes into squished pennies since the law is on my side when it comes to penny distraction via souvenir machines. somehow it seems incredibly sad to punch holes into vintage silver half dollars for the sake of jewelry making. I scoured the Internet and ordered this sterling silver coin bezel. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

the last photo: the penny necklace ice been wearing for weeks with my newly made half dollar necklace

vintage haul / 140 Jordan Ave

I'm buried in new-to-me treasures and my computer is throwing temper tantrums so I've been Internet quiet. my apologies. I'm going to buy a new computer today so there will soon be more vintage haul updates and treasures will be added to my shop in the next few weeks

today's haul was an awesome English silver plated cigar ashtray (?). I love it. I filled it with the pre-1982 pennies that I use in penny souvenir machines and then transform into necklace pendants.

adventure / Ashland trip

window in Ashland
mount Shasta
vintage haul: lucite paperweight, cobalt blue glass knobs, receipt skewer
Annah swinging
flowers and red knots
glowing patch of flowery weeds

snippets

urban art on an advertisement
SF street
SF wall
jewelry making morning

polaroid colorpack / DIY

it is possible that I see the world as a patchwork quilt of tiny photos.

I take so many digital photos that it becomes a project to sort through them all, decide which ones to print, crop, etc, and send them to be printed. my new-to-me Polaroid Colorpack II Land Camera makes instant tiny photos possible -- and they're beautiful -- and I can hold them -- and there's no cropping, centering, editing, blah.

I purchased my colorpack camera on Etsy from ForgottenCharm. they're also available on eBay but I much prefer "finding" vintage treasures on Etsy

but what about film? color and black and white film are both available.
color film: Fuji FP-100C
black and white film: Fuji FP 3000-B

I'm from the digital age. how the hell do I use this thing? you watch this video

what am I supposed to take photos of? check out these colorpack photos the gals at the Weaver House have taken here

my first Colorpack experience was a failure. I bought the camera. I purchased the film. I watched the video. every exposure came out completely black. It turns out that my camera was busted (the shutter wasn't opening in natural light)

the trouble shooting steps I tried first were:

(1) make sure the camera was set to '75' 

(2) I changed the batteries and made sure they were loaded properly 

(3) I yelled at my camera and made sad faces.

above: my camera // below: view from my roof

vintage haul / 251 Hill St

Dad / estate sale buddy taken with my Polaroid colorpack
table of assorted garage items
letter albums
vintage jewelry
vintage advertisement

life stuff / Oregon twice

I haven't been to Oregon since I was 8-ish and now I'm planning two Oregon trips over the next month and a half.

my dad took 8-ish year old me and 4-ish year old sister there for my cousin's wedding. my sister dressed appropriately and I insisted that I wear a black velvet dress, black tights, black shoes. my parents were already separated but my mom weighed in that funeral attire might be frowned upon. there was no stopping me, I wore black. it was hot.

I remember snippets. sleeping on a carpeted floor, or at least near one? so much driving. there was a mountain? yes, there was a mountain. and I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach when we rounded the corner into a parking lot and in front of me was a church. I wondered if that meant that I was religious. if my cousin was getting married in a church, and my cousin and I were family, I must be religious. my eight-ish year old brain didn't know where to file this. 

my sister and her more-magical-than-unicorns little girl are living in Oregon in a not so convenient part of the state if you're someone who prefers short flights to long drives. I fiercely resist driving. I only offer to drive when I am the only driver and if I don't do it there will be a volcano that will destroy everything, and babies will turn into zombies, and flowers won't exist so I'd better drive, or else. I've yet to visit them.

little mommy and I are planning a trip to Oregon in her little red car next weekend. next month J and I are flying to Portland-ish, OR to attend an amazing celebration of love. Oregon twice.

what I wore / boho bag lady

blazer: h&m
tunic: vintage wool with embroidered flowers (this came from the estate sale of a drag queen -- seriously). I scoured the internet and couldn't find anything identical it is pretty similar to this one
purse: vintage tooled leather that I bought on eBay years ago -- like this one
boots: vintage leather riding boots like these
sunglasses: target
carry-all bag: handmade by little mommy... more on these awesome bags soon
earrings: handmade 14k gold filled hammered hoops like these in my shop

fit guide

the 1950s dress from a former post was an Internet purchase I made using my personal rules for buying vintage clothes over the web. it occurred to me that maybe these silly rules will be helpful to someone else. after all, I used these rules to successfully purchase at least a dozen vintage Pendleton shirts like this one for J

silly but useful measurement rules: yes, you'll need a measuring tape or a piece of string that you can measure with a ruler

1. ask questions if you're unsure of the item's condition or measurements. people are usually pretty friendly if you approach them nicely. and, who knows, you might make an internet friend.

2. I compare garment measurements to a similar garment that I own and love. i.e. compare dress measurements of the 1950s dress to dress measurements for my favorite dress with a similar cut/style.

Some measurements are given when the garment was on a mannequin and others are of the garment lying flat ... boring but important difference. garments measured lying flat require doubling the measurement for: the waist, bust, sleeve opening, hips

shirt/jacket: shoulder (seam to seam), bust (armpit to armpit), length (top of shoulder to bottom of shirt), and sleeve length (armpit to end of sleeve)
dress: shoulder (seam to seam if there are shoulder seams), bust (armpit to armpit), torso (top of shoulder to waist seam), waist, hips, sleeve opening, length -- I also care about how the dress fastens: buttons? zipper?
skirt: waist, hips, and length. I like it when skirts fit around my natural waist (the narrowest part of my torso) and fall to just beneath my knee. and how does it fasten: wrap around? buttons? zipper?
blouse: shoulders (seam to seam if there are shoulder seams), bust (armpit to armpit), length, sleeve length, sleeve opening
pants: I'll be totally honest, I'm not brave enough to buy vintage pants over the internet. I can hardly find pants that fit semi decently when I'm actually trying them on
shoes: width across the widest point of the toe, the length from heel to toe
boots: width across the widest point of the toe, the length from heel to toe, circumference of the boot opening

walk

window self portrait
pink and green / cute window
blue wall with door / the backside of U Save plumbing

vintage treasure / 1950s dress

local treasure hunters have agreed with me that there seems to be a bay area shortage of adorable 1950s dresses. I've heard that many of them migrated to southern California for the film industry

I just purchased this adorable cream colored dress with tiny yellow flowers over the internet. reminds me of this dress

post-gym fog

I have a really hard time motivating myself to work up a sweat. I'm not the cute kind of tiny workout girl -- I'm the bright red, huffing, puffing, sweaty kind. I tell myself that maybe there will be something photo worthy to/from my sweaty destination and magically I'm headed out my front door. Here's today's post-gym photo

walk

stripped stairs
rose bush planter in the middle of the sidewalk
purple house
tiny triangle garland

a room in transition

J mentioned casually that the two piece ikea wardrobe I had been using as a closet and storage space was starting to disintegrate. Yesterday I emptied the giant standing closets and last night we broke them down. And then carried them out of our third story apartment one piece at a time. Call it cardio.

J's a plumber with crafty skills so we dreamed up the perfect new handmade design for our space. Hopefully the project will come together this weekend and photos will follow. Until then he and I will shout 'empty space' each time we look at the blank wall

Etsy crush / salvaged creations

Little Mommy and I are in love with an internet friend, Scarlett.

we send silver plated flatware to Texas and magically it turns into beautiful jewelry. there's also plenty of pre-made jewelry in each of her two shops.

photos are of recent commissioned pieces

salvaged creations
misguided good girls

walk / garage envy