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....

happy birthday betty marie tallchief

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time travel

just back from a trip with my daughter's class. we visited the rosicrucian egyptian museum in san jose. anyone who knows me or has been reading this blog for a while knows i ate up the chance to see western north america's largest collection of egyptian artifacts. i took way too many photos, many of them of terrible quality, but pictures don't compare to seeing it all in person...so, go go go!

above, the mr. and mrs., akhenaten and nefertiti. below, mummies and coffins!

while out of town, we stayed at the hidden villa hostel in the foothills of the the santa cruz mountains. it was a wonderful place that i hope to visit again.

above, as day broke, we went for a before-breakfast hike. below, the common area of the hostel was well-stocked with games including a couple vintage goodies.

back in town and back to work, i wore a dress from milla's box of magic with a vintage sweater i recently thrifted (it was full of holes but i loved its shape and construction so much that i went at it with yarn to cover the holes so it could live on...).

the lovers, the dreamers, and me

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a while back i heard former(?) digger peter coyote narrating something, and thought, "coyote. what's his deal, anyway?" soon after i checked out sleeping where i fall from the library. while the book is listed as an autobiography--and it is--coyote writes as much or more about his friends' lives and their common efforts as his own, which translates to a nice chunk of california counterculture history. coyote's perspective on some of the cultural events of the 60s was much different from pieces you might usually read either romanticizing or vilifying the so-called hippie movement. the book seems to tie a cast of thousands--everyone from gary snyder to huey lewis--into an intimate community. i was most interested in his participation in the diggers and the free family, and gratefully, the book was very informative and candid on the topics.

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as sort of a companion piece to coyote's book, i watched the 2005 documentary "commune" about black bear ranch (the free family's northern-most compound). having just read coyote's book dealing with the family and its communal homes in such detail, the film seemed overly condensed and simplified (and left me with the nagging feeling that i had seen it before, though i have no idea of where or when?). still, seeing the old footage of the early days of black bear, along interviews with those so central to the movement all grown up, is fun and at times poignant.


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i also recently watched "saint misbehavin' " about wavy gravy. for many years, i wasn't sure what to make of mr. gravy. he would mc events that i attended and i wasn't sure if he was cool or what, he was just such a...clown. but later i read his book, Something Good for a Change: Random Notes on Peace Thru Living, and realized how much there is to this strange little human formerly known as hugh romney. the film gives you an abbreviated glimpse into what he's all about-- and that's goodness and a bit of magic.

and speaking of magic people, i received another surprise box from milla--this time for little old me :)

nettles and notes...the beautiful and inspiring postcards on which she wrote me a letter will remain on permanent exhibition:

the whole box was packed with goodies, and i was dismayed in retrospect to find that i didn't adequately photograph most things (holy moly, since when did we stop opening mail without a camera at hand?!). in any case, a couple of the items, took my breath away. i want it to rain and snow so bad....and yet these strangely warm afternoons may allow me to wear that gauzy bit of tunic right there....

but the vintage "organically grown" by arpeja sweater went to immediate use...

...with a pair of my funkiest--as in, most of all we want the funk-- 70s platforms