Outfit a Day Special Edition - VINTAGE WEEK!

Ok, so I’m having way more fun with this than I thought I would.  Last night I started trying to figure out what I had for the rest of the week that was vintage and wearable in a work environment and basically had a fashion show for myself and Molly where I tried on a whole bunch of 100% vintage outfits.  I was going to take pictures of my “outfit evolution”, but my face looked all busted due to face-ugliness and lack of makeup.  TOO BAD FOR YOU.

Anyways, it kind of forces you to use things that you don’t necessarily think of.  I started with this vintage floral Oscar de la Renta blouse, and tried on a few different skirts before realizing I had this vintage olive skirt which basically fits me like a sexy butt-glove.  Then I had fun trying to do some pattern mixing with the scarf.

HEEE HEE HEE it was so fun.  In conclusion: I am a boring loser who spends her Tuesday nights trying on clothing for her dog.

Outfit a Day Special Edition - VINTAGE WEEK!

OK so day two was challenging because I wanted to wear this high-necked silk top with poufy sleeves but it’s like, REALLY vintagey looking, like “bordering on looking weird” vintagey looking, like “I stepped out of an 80′s movie about business women” vintagey looking.  So I had to neutralize the vintageyness with something relatively innocuous… BUT it had to be vintage (due to self-imposed, aforementioned challenge).  Most of my vintage bottoms are skirts.  So – creme skirt seemed to work? 

I’m mostly worried because I’m about 5 pounds too lardy for this skirt and I *think* you can kind of see through it.  So far no one has informed me that they can see my panties, but it’s not even lunch yet.

Silk blouse is from Penny Arcade for $7.00, skirt is from Goodwill for about $3.00.  Necklace is from antique market, and shoes are not vintage because women in the past had Barbie feet and I do not.

Outfit a Day Special Edition - VINTAGE WEEK!

A discussion with Aidan over the weekend has prompted me to try a little harder with my outfits.  The outfit-creating lobe in my brain has been seriously under-utilized lately, mostly because I’m bored with life and it’s really easy to use that as an excuse to do everything badly.  That and all the humidity has made me feel pretty much like a turgid boiled sausage every day, and it’s really really not fun to dress a turgid boiled sausage.

SO, to shake things up I’m doing a special edition week of O.A.D. in which I basically try to wear pretty much 100% vintage to see how that shit turns out.  Will I look like a dirty hobo?  WILL I????  Tune in to find out.

Today – silk day dress was procured at Penny Arcade for $13.00 and my big chunky bracelets are all vintage from goodwill or antique markets.  Only non-vintage are my shoes (sorry but vintage pumps are only available in size 5.5 for some reason), and my belt.

This film, shot in 1958 on 8mm film, shows Parkdale at Queen and Jameson, literally feet from my house.  Many of the buildings are the same, but now, instead of well-dressed men and women walking arm-and-arm, you’ll find men in chicken-stained Affliction tank tops and junkies. Les balls. Things were so much cooler in the past.

Also, at the 6:20 ish mark, there is a chair in their living room that is basically an exact replica of two vintage armchairs I’ve refinished. ALSO, the bathroom has the exact same tiles as my bathroom. OLD THINGS!

For those of you who question my Internet omnipotence, observe.

In my obsessive search for a German Dirndl to wear for my Oktoberfest trip this fall, I discovered that when buying a Dirndl, you have three real options:

1. Buy a fetishist Dirndl costume made from flame-retardant plastic and feathers for $19.99 at the Stag Shop.
2. Buy a new authentic Dirndl online for $300 +; or
3. BE NATALIE AND BE AWESOME

Option 3 above is obviously the one I decided to go with.  I scoured craigslist for a few weeks waiting for my time to pounce on a vintage or used Dirndl, and my obsessiveness quickly paid off.

I managed to find an old German couple out in Mississauga selling TWO, count ‘em, TWO authentic German Dirndls in PERFECT condition.  I negotiated them down to $110.00 for both, kept one and gave one to one of the other girls in my Oktoberfest crew.

BLAP!

DOUBLE BLAP!

She’s a couple of sizes too big, but I’m a whiz with the ol’ sewing machine.  I’m also going to shorten it to be sluttier.

I celebrated my dominance over the world with a huge dinner composed exclusively of cheese, spicy meats, and salty things.

Incidentally, did you know that deviled eggs are fucking delicious?  I totally forgot they existed and now I eat about 25 a day.

Also, here is some cheese.

My buddy Tom pointed me over to these a while ago after he realized I had a strange/morbid/creepy fascination with mugshots and crime photos.  A site from Australia posted a bunch of police pics a little while ago, and they are beautiful/creepy/fascinating all at once.  ANYWAYS.  Happy creepy Friday!

My hydrangeas are all like “hey.”  And I’m all like “hey. I’m going to cut you up and put you in my toilet room.”

I made some homemade gazpacho this weekend.  It’s fascinating how you can give something a fancy name, and people forget that it’s basically ragu tomato sauce with some cucumbers in it.  I added a parsley sprig, due to my extreme fanciness.

This was my dinner last night.  That little block of cheese was $12.00.  I ate it in about 3 minutes and 20 seconds.  It was totally worth it.

So Levi’s is finally re-issuing its High Rise Skinny… BUT, it’s not re-issuing its High Rise “Demi Curve” Skinny.  That “Demi Curve” is Levi’s-speak for “Chick with Hips like Shakira”, so I totally need them.  Serious dilemma… unless you are me and you have basically full control of the Earth due to your power over the Internet… because then you can find discontinued items like obscure jean-cuts in your size for half price and have them sent to you within days.

I have a feeling there is some kind of wasp’s nest hiding out on my deck.  I anticipate an epic, Lord of the Rings-esque battle between human (me) and insect (this guy) in the coming weeks.  Stay tuned.

Beers with friends > beers alone.

Diet Cherry Vanilla Coke < Diet Coke.

Finally, went to the Junction Flea this weekend.  Micah our pal from Russet and Empire, along with some other go-getters in the hood put this thing together at the beginning of the summer and it is pretty much blowing up.  Pam and I might try to do a Shoebox table there next time if we can get our shit together. 

FYI it was BLOODY HOT.  I immediately regretted bringing Molly, because I basically tortured her in the sun and heat for two hours for the selfish purpose of searching for like, old “vintagey-looking crates” to add to my already massive collection of “vintagey-looking crates” to complete my “vintagey-looking vignette” of “vintagey-looking stuff”.  I am a horrible mother.

Good news is I FIN-A-LLY got a tan on my pasty ass.  Not literally my ass.  I hate to say this because of all the bad things that come with sun exposure, but I look A BAJILLION TIMES BETTER with a tan. 

Anyways.  End communication.

Preface: In case you didn’t see in my last post, I went mental with the camera this weekend.  Prepare yourselves.

Since the wedding wasn’t due to start until around 3:00 pm, a crew of us decided to take a drive in the country and visit “Lake on the Mountain”, this lake that is on a mountain.

It sound mega-nerdly, but it was actually really weird to look one way and see a lake at ground level, then look another way and see a several hundred foot drop.  Then you start asking yourself all these questions like “How did the lake form?” “Is there a body of water that feeds it from BELOW???”  “Where did all the fish come from???”  SCIENCE!

So that took about five minutes then we decided to try and find this antiques store that we passed on the way in called “Dead People’s Stuff”, which sounded/looked awesome. 

We FOUND it!

Lots of cool stuff at actually REALLY good prices… but then I realized that I actually need no stuff right now.  Not even dead peoples’ stuff, which makes the stuff significantly cooler/more desirable.

So that took about five minutes and we were all like “LET’S GO DRINK!”.  So we found a patio on the “water” (read: swamp), and let our worries drown away in pints of cider.

Alright.  Enough of that.  Let’s get to the wedding.  T & A managed to find this AMAZING location that was a big old barn with a long back lawn, complete with a small covered outdoor tin-roofed wood structure with like, ivy growing all over it.  The ceremony took place in the tin-roofed thingie.  So simple and SO BEAUTIFUL.

FLARE!

 
Oh just some ADORABLE bunting here at the altar.

Alright, let’s cycle through some of my ONE MILLION pictures of the ceremony…

 
 HOLY MAKE ME CRY with your cuteness you two.

Alright, on to the reception, which was literally 50 feet up a beautiful lawn into a big old rustic barn.  But first champagne on the lawn in the beautiful weather.  Like, jesus crack-balls christ it was beautiful.

AND THEN THIS.

WHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?

Here is the only picture of me.  I had these grand ambitions of putting my hair up in these complex and bohemian-esque braids, but then due to laziness/drunkenness/lack of mirror space in B&B bathroom, I decided to go “au naturel”… which in retrospect meant looking like a cocker-spaniel all night. I’m sure that the INTENSE SUN on my hair made it look a bit more freakishly frizzy than it actually was, but still.  NEVER AGAIN.

Thank god I liked my dress, which was this rust-colour that I am currently obsessed with.  RUST-COLOUR!!!!!  Best.

Oh, and introducing the drunkest people of the evening, preparing for their evening of extreme drunkenness. 

So, I got a little emotional and went up to Amanda on the dance floor and was all like “MEEEEEEEEEH AMANDA THIS IS SO BEAUTIFUL (SOB) I’M SO HAPPY FOR YOU (SOB), YOU LOOK SO BEAUTIFUL (SOB), HOW DID YOU PLAN ALL THIS FROM ENGLAND (SOB) HOW DID YOU FIND THIS AMAZING PLACE (SOB)?”

And her totally amazing answer was “I googled “Ontario Barn Wedding.”   Coolest, most laid-back bride ever.

Thank you thank you thank you to everyone who made it out on Saturday to our first sale of the season.  It was MAD BUMPIN’ all day long.  Like seriously, it didn’t slow down all day.  I ran in and out of the house all day long like a crazy person.  My thigh muscles got so overworked that they felt like sloppy linguinis the next morning.

THANK GOODNESS for Franc, who was our new vintage sale helper this time.  I mean, while we were running around helping peeps and making mad roll, he made us this lunch from SCRATCH:

He breaded and fried the fish and made that amazing potato salad with herbs and chopped spicy meats.  JESUS CRACK-BALLS CHRIST.

Incidentally, while we were prepping the night before, he also made us seared tuna with sesame and cilantro and a chop salad.  DOUBLE JESUS CRACK-BALLS.

Also, here is a picture of my cute dog sitting in the bargain bin while we set up that night.  Just saying.

Adorable.

Even more adorable.

Anyhoo, like I said, it was pandemonium.  People bought tons of stuff – and at least 3 people actually walked out of the sale WEARING their new purchases.  Like this girl, who managed to put together a snappy outfit from 100% Shoebox Vintage (including the belt and shoes):

And THEN Amanda brought over her 9-week-old fuzzy puppy.  Brain aneurysms were consequently experienced.

Stay tuned for more sales throughout the summer!

It’s MAY.  You know what that means.

Time for our SUPER HUGE MEGA RIDICULOUS Spring Sale at Shoebox Vintage.  Why is it so retina-meltingly awesome?  Because it’s been months and months since our last sale, so we’ve had the chance to amass a veritable clothing-mountain of choices for your frugal shopping needs.

How much stuff?  Well, let’s put it this way… Pam and I had this one conversation, where we both admitted we were scared and disgusted with ourselves when we realized how much stuff we had to sell.  It was one of those quiet moments… like when you realize that you are in way over your head… and your clothing mountain threatens to consume you.

So that means we are ready to MAKE THE DEALS!

Here are the details:

When: Saturday May 5th, 2012
Time: 10 am – 4 pm
Location: 102 Bellwoods Ave
What: Vintage and pre-owned clothes, silly.  See below for pics and details.
Who: YOU, OF COURSE

CASH ONLY.

Ok, so what kinds of things will we be selling??

• Vintage clothing hand-picked from the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s, including Pendleton, Levi’s, Missoni, Betsey Johnson, Lee, Frye, Doc Martens, Wrangler, Lee… SOOOOOOOOO MUCH STUFF!
• High quality, BARELY USED pre-owned clothing from brands like Marc Jacobs, Michael Kors, Banana Republic, Ralph Lauren, Club Monaco, Bench, Aritzia, J Crew…. WHAAAT???? I KNOW.
• Skirts! Pants! Denim! Summer Dresses! Boots! Sandals! Shoes! Purses! Spring Jackets! Blazers! Leather! Accessories!
• There will be some men’s items, too!

Also… just so you know… usually a whole bunch of super-cute dogs show up.

Some of MY personal favorite items in this sale, you ask????????????????

• Virtually brand new women’s SANDRO PARIS rust-brown suede biker jacket with studs
• Vintage women’s crested Ralph Lauren navy blazer with anchor buttons
• Beautiful vintage polka-dot maxi skirt in navy
• Black pebbled leather FRYE cowboy-style boots with a stacked heel

YES.  All of these things are for sale.  YES.  You will love them.  YES.  These are just four of the HUNDREDS of items we will be selling.

Sarah says “Come to the sale and be all gorgeous and carefree like me!”

(note: she probably isn’t saying that right now, but imagine she is.)