new finds

Lately I've only been posting about food, and mostly (or exclusively) Meatless Monday posts.  So, I thought I'd share some of the rad things I've picked up in various locales as of late.  The dress I found at a great little vintage shop on a recent trip to Portland, Oregon (can't remember the name, but it was on Mississippi).  I wore it to me and Matt's fourth wedding anniversary dinner.

60s wiggle dress, $25 

American Tourist "Tiara" suitcase, $15

I got the perfect travel accessory at a little antique store in Dickeyville, Wisconsin, home of this place:

 Dickeyville Grotto

Luckily, the church adjacent to the grotto had a garage sale!  I grabbed this super cute sewing box (the chimney is a pin cushion!) and also a coat, but it's way too hot right now to even look at a wool coat.  

 sewing box, $0.50

Matt and I also had a very successful trip to our favorite local consignment shop a few weeks back and got the following items:

 metal cabinet, $25

 set of 6 coasters, $2

vintage fan--watch your fingers!

the desires of my heart

photo from Little Rascal

The ladies at Little Rascal and Freelancer's Fashionblog have given me Ladderax fever. Ladderax is a British-manufactured mid-century shelving system, named for the metal or wood "ladders" that make up the sides of the shelves. Then a combination of shelves and/or desks and storage units can be attached.

photo from Freelancer's Fashionblog

photo from Little Rascal

It is gorgeous but quite difficult and expensive to find in the states. I'm afraid that obtaining the shelving for myself will remain a dream for the time being. If you happen to have a tip for where to find Ladderax in the US, I would be very much appreciative.

photo from Little Rascal

Ladderax aside, these girls have adorable homes. I'm crazy for the rug in this photo. And the curtains. Chair too. Also, I've had an eye out for a pretty vintage globe like in the Freelancer's photo. I want so much. Sigh.

our walls

Today Matt picked up my other birthday present--he bought me a Charley Harper lithograph and my mother-in-law had it framed for me. I've been leaving the area above our couch open for just the right print and I'm sure this mid-century nature illustration is it.

Vigilant Vireos by Charley Harper

While I'm posting wall hangings, I thought I'd include some pieces we've put up in the last six months around the house.

Our Living Room


It's so lovely to have our friends' artwork hanging in our home. One of the first pieces from a friend was this bright screen print by Kansas friend Justin Marable. How nice of the Marables to give us this piece before we moved north.


Our Kitchen

In May we picked up this piece from our friend Sarah's fantastic senior art show. It is a piece of handmade paper colored with Iowa soil and grass seed placed within the paper to create words. She watered and cultivated each of her pieces and luckily our grass dried with the pretty green color intact.

"dwell" from Sarah Henson

I picked up this beast of a kitchen gadget at our favorite local consignment store. It only holds plastic wrap and some ancient wax paper right now because it's proving difficult to find foil and paper towels that fit. I still think it's great.



Our Dining Room

A small collection of sketches done by comic artists at Comic Con '07.

clockwise from top: sketches by Sammy Harkham, Souther Salazar, Jordan Crane, and Anders Nilsen

Jordan Crane postcard

I did not include several other dining room hangings--it definitely has the most heavily-laden walls in the house.

Our little house is really feeling like a home.

august

All of a sudden the backyard and the CSA box have gone from mostly green to vibrantly colorful and rich. A white lily even popped up out of a flower bed like a weed.

summer/winter

Tonight we took advantage of Madison Restaurant Week and had dinner at fresco for a great price (I'll post pictures of the meal later). When we left, I had Matt snap a picture not unlike one he took of me on Valentine's Day, the first time we went to fresco. They are both on the steps from fresco to the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art.

7/26/09
navy shirt-dress, Forever 21
belt, shoes, and feather pin, thrifted
bag, Etsy
(click photo to enlarge)

2/13/09

Today's outfit included a lot of new summery thrifting finds, which I will share here as well.

shoes and belt (same from photo above), thrifted, $2.65 and $0.99 respectively
pleated wool skirt, Good Style Shop, $5

tassel necklace, Good Style Shop, $10
leaf necklace, thrifted, $1.99
feather pin (same from photo above), thrifted, $1.99

Also, here are a few snippets of wintery finds that I picked up for a good price. Yes, that is a fur collar you see, but I don't feel so bad since it's second-hand. The coat is also in pristine condition, so it was hard to resist. Then, below is the interesting collar and scarf of a gorgeous, albeit slightly smelly and holey, 60's Italian virgin wool dress. It fits like a dream, so there's a lot of potential to be had--once I sort out the stink and the holes.

3/4-length coat, thrifted, $14

wool dress, thrifted, $6

Finally, possibly the best find lately, a set of iced tea spoons from the great Atomic Interiors in Madison. I know iced tea spoons seem like an unnecessary purchase, but I really do love my iced tea. Plus, these are amazing.

"Ebony Elegance" Iced Tea Spoons

summer shopping trip

Matt and I spent a fun afternoon browsing through the three-story Columbus Antique Mall. It was a bit overwhelming, especially since we had just over an hour. They had eight separate rooms of booths, plus a second floor, and a third floor full of just furniture.

There were enough shelves of china and glass (my weakness) to fill several houses. It was probably good that we didn't have much time to look, because I'm sure I would have found many things to my liking.



You could find just about everything imaginable, including this stuffed chicken and a (very necessary) "Beatnick [sic] Cigarette Holder".

silver and gold

doorknob in our house

on the stairs in the Madison MOCA

yellow carrots in thrifted bowl

window in our dining room

curried red lentil stew

It's been a long time since I've posted because I've been so busy with work and company visiting.
These are some photos I've been accruing over the past weeks.

(all photos taken by myself except #2 and #4 by Matt)

a productive weekend...

I finally took care of a project that had been waiting around for a few months. I took several of our old t-shirts that didn't fit or that we just don't wear and made them into reusable sacks. They're great because they crumple up to fit in a purse or glovebox, so now we'll always have one on hand when we stop for groceries. Here's how to make them:

Cut the sleeves off the shirt and trim around the collar to make thinnish straps and a deeper hole for the top of the bag.


Turn the shirt inside-out. Line up the seams along the bottom of the shirt and put in a few straight pins. Sew along the bottom, following the existing seam. I used a zig zag stitch for extra durability.



Be sure to backstitch over the ends to make sure they're secure. I also trimmed each corner at an angle like so.


If you like your bag to have square corners, turn it right-side-out and you're done!


I left the corners square on the smaller bags, but for the larger shirts, I preferred to add diagonal corners. If you'd like to do that, just stitch across the bottom corner at an angle you like, backstitching at the beginning and end. Then trim off the extra fabric.


Once I trimmed the first edge, I lined up the two corners and pinned the 2nd edge to match the angle on the 1st edge. Then I stitched and trimmed it in the same way.


And...here's what you get!


Besides making about 10 bags, I also watched "Blade Runner" and discovered a movie I hadn't yet seen starring my favorite mid-century singer/dancer, Gene Kelly.


He's such an athletic and talented dancer. I mean, when the guy's tap dancing in roller skates, how can you help but smile?


I wrapped up my weekend by making some yummy burgers for lunch today: ground bison with red onion, garlic, and rosemary, topped with feta and caramelized shallots. Waffle fries and my favorite, peppermint iced tea, on the side.

Back to work tomorrow...