heavy metal [accessories]

well out of six days spent last week at the shop, i managed to snap outfits on three days. that's a really really good batting average in baseball.

wednesday: remember that post on brutalism? vintage purse by dom carvalhu, along with cuffs by ernandes and gather jewelry

thursday: the vintage dolman sleeve top was one of my finds at the white elephant sale; cowl is by good night, day and skirt is by threadsforthought

sunday: i wore the same sparkly pants that i'd worn with their matching top (also from the white elephant) to the hooded cape show on friday night; while i was finishing up my capes in the past couple weeks, i also made the blue tee for myself

her name is zelda

this photo is borrowed from stylelikeu 's visit with zelda last year when she was 94 years old/young. zelda made her mark with both her fierce sense of style as well as her tenacious campaigning for women's rights. zelda passed away last week --rather famously-- while sitting front row at a show during new york fashion week.

scissors and string, soon it will be spring

my partner kara--that means business partner ;) (k&k understand...) --gifted me these amazing vintage platforms

last saturday at the shop. i couldn't make it to missa's birthday extravaganza, but i dressed sparkly in observance

our girl kerry was snapped for a local street style column!

kara and i have been working on capes to be shown at the hooded cape show on friday. here's just a wee little peek at one of mine:

the title of this post comes from this song:

my fuzzy neighbors

source

pbs.org is a wealth of good shows. it is terrible for time management.
did anyone get a chance to watch raccoon nation?

bells & whistles (fairies wear boots, part deux)

and so i have done it. i pulled the rest of my boots out to share (excepting rain boots, hiking boots, and a couple other stragglers). the size of my boot collection is a bit absurd, so please (really, please!) keep in mind that i am halfway to old at this point and have been shopping vintage for two decades...i did not buy all these in the last year since boho became the new black ;)

brownie troop: all in distressed vintage browns...but their details make them different! the button-ups on the left are by sbicca while the makers of the other two pairs are illegible and remain a mystery

more borts: my other two pairs of bort carletons. the honey colored stitched ones are the same style as a pair that my mom had back in the day

peanut butter & jelly: vintage grape jelly suede boots by clarks of england and tan lace-ups by mystery maker. through the years i have had the exact style lace-ups in both purple suede and black leather, but due to either momentary insanity or poverty, parted with them

black lace: not sure who made the lace-ups on left and right, but the center pair are vintage sbicca (sbicca and bort carleton are recurring characters in my closet...)

shorties: the only contemporary bits among this batch. platforms are by madison harding, brownies by frye (again, made in china--wtf--but at least i got them second hand), and studded flats by tapeet

while i was photographing our recycling fairie made an appearance, also wearing boots

sunday fun day

when we lived in berkeley, i remember seeing the signs going up to advertise the annual white elephant sale...but i never went. this year, i finally did it. at the suggestion of mary at terrallectualism, i made it happen.

i didn't take any photos inside, there were just too many people and way too much stimulation. outside door #3 looks so calm, but don't be fooled. after reading online reviews, this newbie decided to go it alone-- hitting the preview sale hoping for a slightly smaller crowd--and sent my husband and kids on their own adventure for a couple hours. in retrospect, though my kids would have enjoyed looking at stuff and are well accustomed to pushy estate sale and thrift store crowds, i think a solo trip was the right choice. the sale is split up into departments, and items must be purchased from each one separately. first thing in the morning the shopping and buying went pretty smoothly, but as more people arrived and were ready for checkout, long lines developed. and you know how kids love lines ;)

once i was done i found a chair outside and used one of my trash bags full of vintage as an ottoman while i waited for my family to come pick me up. i bought a lot. perhaps too much. i bought for c&c, my etsy shop, me. i rationalize it all by reminding myself that i will make my money back, and that in the meantime my investment dollars will benefit the oakland museum of california. [a note about prices: i mostly stuck to the vintage racks in the women's clothing dept. while there were a few deals, most things were priced as they would be at a reasonably priced vintage shop. e.g. everything from a 70s sundress for $12 to a deco era dress for a couple hundred. a surprisingly lovely selection made for great shopping, but it ain't 99 cent day at the salvation army.] photos of my loot!? ha, that will have to wait as i am still trying to dig out from under it...

my husband and kids hit the adventure playground in berkeley as part of their non-elephant sunday adventure. i've blogged about it before, but it's worth another mention. if you have kids that are around 6 years and older, it is a terrific [free!] place to visit.

zip lines = fun

my kids made a friend who painted and later raced cars with them.

one of a couple of paintings my daughter added to the playground.

hope everyone had a winning sunday.

Fairies Wear Boots

a while back kerry and i were talking about those times when you don't feel like you have anything at all to blog about. she suggested that during those less inspired moments i do little posts about stuff from my closet. so here's one.
i decided to start with boots, if for no other reason than it gave me a reason to post the black sabbath video at the end of the post....and because i have a lot of boots. and with regard to the latter reason, i needed to narrow and decided to focus on my simple solid color (read: boring) boots this time around...

repeat after me: bort carleton. this american brand was creating amazing stacked heel leather boots in the 60s and 70s that rival, or perhaps surpass, the quality of frye boots. these are my everyday boots. when the ones on the right started to split and required a second resoling, i hunted down the pair on the left to replace them....but i still wear the older beat-up pair more often, and will probably continue to do so until my cobbler says there's nothing more he can do to fix them.

these are the tall girls, the ones that cover up ugly knee caps: 80s black suede, brown leather contemporary fryes (blech, love the boots but hate that they now produce their classic american boots in china), and 60s buff suede.

best in show: 70s sbicca platforms. need i say more?

i, along with you and you and you, am drooling over maison martin's new carpet ankle boots. if there's any way i could manage add them to my little boot army, i would...though i would probably feature them in my post about my boots that have fun details, presumably to be called "bells and whistles" or something like that....