clothes horse

hi all
garage sale girly reporting for duty
i stumbled upon the kind of garage sale this week that any clothes horse dreams about.
i was out & about on the prowl for great garage sales on friday.

I had an itinerary to follow for the day but decided to go off course a bit when i saw a sign that read "garage sale- antiques"
it looked like the standard fare at first but then i spotted a cardboard box sitting in the back corner of the garage with what looked like some great fabric poking out...but what was in that box was so much better than a box of fabric remnants
i pulled this little dress out of the box and i knew that i had found my pot o' gold
these are the types of dresses i had seen in the illustrations in the very first chapter books that had read when i was little.
The Happy Hollisters
On Cherry Street

(i highly recommend picking these books up if you are looking for a great summer read)

i loved this one.the colors are brilliant & bright.
ok time for the back story...

the gentleman that was having the garage sale noticed me diving through the box and told me that these were clothes from one of his friends and they were all things that the friend had when she was growing up. they were all made by her mother. some of them were even made from feed sacks. he couldn't understand why she was getting rid of them ...but i assured him that i would give them a good home!


want to play cowboys & indians??(i know not so pc of me)

if i could only squeeze into these little skirts


picnic anyone??? don't forget the mini me dress for any style savvy little gal. the mini me version was in tip top shape...something tells me it didn't get out much

this is a must have!!! a hooded cape


this screened piece hadn't been transformed into a garment yet but i got the feeling that it would have gone well with the hooded cape.


and of course i found a little something for myself. such a sweet little yellow,grey & lurex plaid dress. (the lurex was a bit itchy but like my mother alway says "you need to suffer to be beautiful")


the hubby said that I looked like i was ready for church!


and i could never pass on a purple dress!!what a find! i still can't believe they fit! there was someone years ago that had the same build as me. it's like these were custom made!!


night hope you have stylish dreams!

very bad habit

when you were little did you ever read the book caps for sale by Esphyr Slobodkina
i did & i think it stuck



well it seems lately if someone is selling them...




i am on top of it...
every sale has one (or a whole box) that is better than the last and lucky me...i was the only bidder on these lovelies


so i bought some MORE hats tonight at an auction...it was a wonderful humid evening in ohio

and hubby came along to lend me a hand with my hats...i picked up a few other things but nothing was quit as thrilling as the first score!!


we went inside the home to check out some furniture that was coming up for auction & i was confronted with my other bad habit...obsessing over cool wall paper...and yes i pulled out my camera (not the undercover camera phone) this time & started snapping.

cute

cuter


cutest


i kept telling the hubster that if we had bought this house we totally wouldn't have had to remove the wall paper

(too bad the house was already sold)


i found this little blip in Decorating a Better Homes & Gardens publication from summer 2009
about mod looking wall paper at http://www.seabrookwallpaper.com/
but BE SURE to look under the collection called ECO CHIC-very modern,graphic & bold prints . let's just say that not all of their collections are quite as modern looking as these


oh well i guess i will just have to live with my framed print in our hall way
i have another auction tomorrow afternoon...bet you can't wait to see what hats & wall paper photos i come back with

ta ta

ketchup

hi all...i know i have been slacking for a few days so i need to play ketchup
(hehe...i know that isn't right but i am making fun of myself currently. i am a horrible speller and i can honestly say that my proof reading skills are not really up to par)

but anyway...it was a full week.started out out a bit slow if it wasn't for my little bird friend. but later in the week i had some garage sales to attend and my in laws were coming for a visit so i kept busy.

on thursday morning while getting ready to do my rounds i heard a big thud upstairs...i decided to investigate...yup the bird luck had passed and some poor bird flew into our back door. the good news is that it just kinda knocked him unconscious for a bit & he eventually pulled himself together and flew away...thank god! i wasn't looking forward to having to scoop him up & bury him under the big pine tree in the back yard.

so the first garage sale of the week was a bit weak...so i decided to check out a big thrift store that i was passing on the way home and SCORE!!!

purses galore,cute fabric, trays....abundant cuteness.
on friday the estate sales were amazing!!

i got lost for about 20 minutes due to a detour and my horrible sense of direction...and kept saying under my breath this better be worth it...and it was

check out this adorable play house that was in the back yard. you know that the people that had a play house like this had to have some cute stuff!




this is a sample of of fabrics & vases i picked up they just felt really bright & refreshing.
I was very happy with my purchases and decided to stop into on of my favorite shops ,sobo style over in clintonville while i was in the neighbourhood to pick up a card for my dad for fathers day.
i always look forward to seeing what new treasures she has in her shop. you can check it out too on her website http://www.sobostyle.com/ or her blog http://www.sobostyle.blogspot.com/





I was soooo excited when i went in & the shop owner, katie recognized me as one of her blog followers.to top it off she had read my blog!!!i couldn't believe that someone other than my mother was reading my blog!!

you should stop by too and check out her amazing mix of vintage decor, repurposed vintage, furniture, and gift items etc.

then i had to go home and do some homework...aka.dusting & vacuuming (WORSE THAN MATH)

my in laws came to visit on saturday & my parents also joined us and we went to creekside jazz festival in gahanna, OH.

pretty iris i saw...it was such a beautiful color and i think the color might have been lost in translation in the photo

we had a lovely time and i gave everyone a preview of all of the product that i have been collecting. i really think this was everyone's favorite hehehe!

on sunday we went to a really great shop out in polaris. we had peered through the store front windows the night before on our way to dinner & knew that we had to go back the next day when it was open. it's called american furnishings and they have a mix of vintage & industrial vintage re purposed furnishings and new stickley furniture. http://www.americanfurnishings.com/


i was so impressed with the shop! the shop had a really great visual impact and clear concept. i also really loved that all of their items are made in ohio or their products are items that are found across middle america. things I LOVED...
this metal cabinet.so distressed so beautiful.it is one heavy duty piece


this bed made out pipes.


isn't the shape of this lamp great!
if you go to the website you should read the "about us". this company is pretty cool and it is local.
even if this really isn't your style it's pretty inspirational to look at their collection to see how that can make really beautiful things out of found objects from factories, farms etc..
and lastly i read this little book tonight...it is a bittersweet story about the author's life and it involves one of my favorite things clothes


i loved this book. the author takes you on a brief tour of clothes that she has had throughout her life and what memories they evoke. the author also illustrated this book. (such cute illustrations)

i bought it because i thought it was cool that there was someone else in the world that was able to tie many memories to an outfit that they were wearing.(does that make me superficial?) i was pleasantly surprised it was such a nice story.

if you would like to check it out it is called love,loss, and what I wore by Ilene Beckerman

night guys thanks for sticking with me...i know it was a long one
i was just trying to ketchup

final thought...
a gentleman asked me at one of the estate sales
Q:why do women haggle with prices & pay with exact change?

A:?????






one lil birdie perched by my doorstep

so guess what i found on monday when i was going to the mail box to post some bills sans stickers (practicing restraint)

a little friend hiding in one of my plants

he just kept sitting there and of course i had to snap some photos to show my hubby. i wasn't quite sure why he was sitting there so calmly letting me take photos but ok...
so i went back inside for a bit and kept thinking about the birdie and decided that maybe i should go check on him again

i opened the front door and he was standing right there on my door step...

so what do i do?slam the door and grab my camera.i think i scared him a little bit because when i came back he was making his way back to the spot under the plant
ok so he wasn't the prettiest bird but i really do think he was a baby...or a really old grandpa bird. but i will go with a baby that had fallen out of his nest (since i did see him being fed by another much larger more developed bird) i don't know if you can see he has fluffy baby feathers on his head. and he was having trouble walking...(kept falling down like babies do when they are learning to walk)and he totally had no clue how to use his wings.
so when hubby got home from work i was so excited to show him my pics!! since i had been following hoppy (that is what i named him) around like some crazed paparazzi i had a bit of a bond with the little guy.my hubby on the other hand didn't seem as excited as i was about our new friend...but then we noticed hoppy had made his way back to the doorstep. we peered at him through the window trying to walk/hop. he kept catching his feet in the little cracks in the wood & taking little spills. ha! now hubby was hooked on hoppy too!! we followed him around our front yard for a bit because christopher was going to mow the lawn and we wanted to know where he was and make sure he didn't get all chopped up
yeah i don't think he liked the lawn mower b/c he ditched our yard & went over to the neighbours house (maybe b/c the have much nicer grass)
so i haven't see hoppy since but i did enjoy having his company.

i was having some fun with photo shop yesterday and made this little number
i know a little scary...a la alfred hitchcock as my sister put it.

i guess i have had a birds on the brain a lot lately...as my best friend dawn pointed out
i think this was my first bird spotting...purchase
this is some really cool vintage fabric with a great abstract print...can you spot the birdie?
and then i followed it up with a purchase for myself on etsy.com

i loved the cute little illustration & how it was layered over the text
the packaging it came in was even cute!!
and i seem to keep adding to this bird bonanza...
they are all so tweet don't you think !
here is a page from www.anthropologie.com
they still seem to have birds on their brain too!! these are pretty cute but i think mine were a bit more affordable...