Vintagey Glittery Storagey Goodness!

I'm gonna be one of those old ladies with a bumper sticker that says "I brake for garage sales".  I know it already.  I stopped by an estate sale down the street on my way back from a consignment store (I know, I know, I have a problem).  The place had been the home of an artist (no surprise in the "artsy" neighborhood).  The previous homeowner having been an artist and an animal lover, the place was pretty ick.  I have to admit that I do understand that creativity trumps tidiness, since creativity happens when it happens and not necessarily when you need it to happen.  Still, sometimes you find diamonds in the rough among the dustbunnies and odors, or at least glittery plastic. I found sparkly stackable storage drawers, namely "Vue Chest" by the Pandora Company from the late 50s/early 60s.

And that's not quite half of 'em. Here's a newspaper ad from the late 50s for "Vue Chest":

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1346&dat=19591013&id=lG9OAAAAIBAJ&sjid=LvoDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6871,1876478 

After cleaning with a sponge and dish soap, they're sparklicious.  Anyone who has spent any time living in Houston knows that there's a special kind of dust here that has sort of a stickiness, so cleaning them was pretty gross, but now I have sparkly, shiny, storage drawers.  

I've Been Holding Out on You.

Not on purpose.  I've just been busy.  I've been finding pretty vintage gems, lots of them, all around town and in other nearby places.  Sometimes I find things that make me quit breathing for a minute, like kind of a thrift apnea, and this is one of those things...

 Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous.  I'll find any excuse to wear party dresses.  This baby needs a little love- there's some dry-rotted stitching that needs to be reseamed, and a split in the silk, but it's nothing my conservation and restoration training can't fix.  Just LOOK at all the polkadotty pleaty dupioni goodness!

I'm in love.  And as if the front wasn't cute enough, with it's wrapped bustline and pencil silhouette, the back will kill you.  There's a full skirt behind that B.  Technically, that makes it the skirt equivalent of a mullet.  Maybe I've just seen too many mullets lately.  It's like a bustle, 50s style.  That's better.

I'm mesmerized by how the pleating from the bust wraps around to the back, and the bow ties it together all so nicely (figuratively, not literally).  I plan on wearing this baby into the ground until it disintegrates on my body, and lifting the pattern from it sooner or later along the way.

So there's another little taste of what I've been finding, but there's more still.  I think next week might be lingerie week...  anyone down for some vintage lingerie deliciousness?

There's MORE, I Promise...

... I've just been really bad about getting on the internet.  I keep finding things, and finding myself busy with real life things and forgetting to get online and post them.  Sorry.  My natural tendencies are to be really reclusive and stay waaaaaay under the radar.  Everything to the contrary is a learned behavior.

So, I went to a local vintage market a couple of weekends back, surprisingly emerged empty-handed, stopped at a consignment shop or two on the way home, and found THIS...

So I immediately called my mancreature from the other side of the store (yes, with my phone- I wasn't going to leave it!) to come and bask in it's vintagey glow, table, chairs, leaf, and all.  I then sat down at it and wallowed in mental turmoil for about 30 minutes regarding whether I should buy it.  It was supercheap (if I told you how cheap, you would throw up), but I was still trying to override my other natural tendency- impulse shopping.  Would it fit in my place?, how to get it there, etc., etc., blahblahblah.  

Long story short, my precious mancreature and his dear ol' dad (and his big ol' truck) moved it into my place days later, and I've been rearranging and restyling ever since.  I actually had started that process prior to finding this gem- my brain messages must have been preparing me for it all along.

(insert sound of angels singing here)