300 Followers Give Away!!!

Finally!Once again better late than never but hopefully you guys find this worth the wait.Let me thank everyone for taking an interest in my blog it is greatly appreciated and its been a lot of fun.If you've been following me since the start you know that I didn't require you to do much to enter.This time I'm going to do it a little differently if you don't mind.

To enter of course all you have to do is first off be a follower of my blog(international follwers yes no worries you are also open to the giveaway!) but this time around when you leave me a comment to let me know you're in and include your email I also want you to tell me what your favorite thing is in my Etsy shop AND this time around I'd like you to spread the word about my give away on your own blog.See?Not the hard.

Up for you lovely followers is a vintage Thomas of Medway hat,vintage leaf hankie,vintage orange bakelite spacer bracelet,vintage white lucite clamper bracelet,vintage Corde purse and even though its not vintage it has a fun vintage look to it a petal cap by Bobbi Dain.



some better close up shots:









I will pick the winner on Oct.1st to give everyone a few days to enter.Good luck!

Whichever Way the Wind Blows....

The last few days have been a mix of good news and bad news.Good news is I've gotten a few things together for my 300 followers give away so expect that soon!Bad news is after the job my hubby had in Alaska fell through he was unable to find work again.As gracious as our friends have been letting him stay with them, with no work on the horizon,a dwindling bank account and 4 months away from each he decided it was time to throw in the towel.Great news is we'll be together again soon at least!But the bad news is its here where I don't want to be and where jobs are hard to come by too.

What does the future hold for my family?I can't say.I don't know where exactly it will be other than not here as I don't care for southern California.Our goal for now is to just make the best of the situation,save money and go from there.

I had some time to process the news and I'll admit yesterday I was pretty blue but sitting around sulking about things you have no control over doesn't do any good.Instead I took the kids for a walk to hunt for lizards.That mission failed but Heidi was equally thrilled over finding a patch of mushrooms and moss growing under a heavily shaded tree.






After parking the stroller in the driveway we weren't quiet ready to go in the house and decided art time was in order.It is hard to stay too upset about anything when you have chalk in your hand doodling stars,hearts and stick figures galore.Pretty therapeutic actually!




Ollie decided to join in the fun by dragging the box of chalk around the driveway and that my pants made for a lovely canvas too.

Various Shades of Green...

Since I'm trying to get to Alaska asap I thought it'd help if I kicked up the sales posts a notch.Just a few great green things in my shop right now,enjoy!

green floral dress with rhinestone buttons:



late 60's Red Cross shoes size 5:

70's nylon blouse:


60's shift dress:


light green heels size 8:


plaid apron:


mint green onsie (awwww look how little Wayland was here!):
Lefton Cabbage Cutie condiment jar:

Itchy Finds and A Give Away Question...

Productive week in my neck of the woods.Decluttered more of my dads kitchen (goodbye numerous Jello boxes that went bad in 1998),managed to pay off a credit card (woohoo!) sat and thought about what exactly I need to do to get where I want (which is to be in Alaska with my husband and not here).Also realized we have 3 short months...97 days...till the Yule Tide season,frightening yes?I think so.It also puts a time frame on what I need to do to get things in order so I can spend Yule with my family together again.

In thrifting news I scored myself this eggplant purple vintage wool beret.I love berets but to be more specific I love angora berets.I have a red and a pink one and its like a fluffy little cloud decided to snuggle on my head for a nap.Wool,not so much but its only a little itchy at first so I can handle it.


And just so no one thinks I forgot I started to plan a 300 follower give away when I was in the 290's and here I am at 317 followers and I still haven't done one,boo and hiss to me I know.I wanted to throw together a few things for the give away but all I've come up with thus far is a vintage Corde purse and it occurred to me "hey,maybe you should ask you followers!" So.....what would you guys like to see in a give away?We have to keep it universal which means clothes and shoes are unfortunately out but things like accessories,makeup,hats and jewelry are fair game,c'mon tell me and I can whip together this giveaway before I find myself at 400!

I Heart Hearts....

I have a slight obsession with collecting heart and key jewelry...or just hearts in general really.This is the newest addition to my collection,a metal dangle brooch painted red.Dana over at Our Mint Chocolate Ranch has a bakelite heart necklace I'd probably stab your mom to get....ok not REALLY but it is pretty glorious and I feel compelled to tell her every time I spot her wearing it.One day my hunt for hearts will lead me to one of my own,till then I'm not complaining because this brooch is pretty awesome.

Winter Hats...

No secret that I love hats.With winter approaching I figured the kiddies and I would need some "new" ones.Once we get to Alaska we'll be getting lots of use out of them.Yes,style and purpose its a great thing.I say this because in southern California we don't get real weather.We get sun,cloudy and rain and everyone loses their mind when it falls below 68 and swears it freezing,ha!If you do see someone wearing a winter hat its usually a hipster and sorry when its hot and you're wearing a Elmer Fudd hat I can't help but cock my head at you like a confused puppy.I like my 4 seasons and can't wait to get somewhere that has them again.

I found all our hats on Etsy for great prices.Here is the one I got for myself:


Here is the one I got for my darling daughter:

and last but not least here is the hat I got for my oh so charming hat (and holy cow isn't this little boy adorable?!):

The great thing about vintage for children is you can usually find it insanely cheap.Its such a pleasure to get high quality items so affordable at great prices.It is sadly an overlooked market.I see so much little kids clothing that just doesn't look like a little kid should be wearing it.Kids are only kids for such a small fraction of time that I hate to see them pushed any faster than they need to be.

Stores like Ambercrombie making little girls thongs and things of that nature truly disgust me.I would never shop there to begin with because just walking by that store gives me a horrid headache because of the gross overuse of perfume but that kind of stuff just further assures me to NOT to business with them.

I get nonstop compliments on my children when they're in vintage and what mother doesn't LOVE to hear people gush about how cute her kids are?Not one that I can think of.I am eager to get the hats in the mail and have some blog posts of the kids and I in our hats with a winter wonderland background in a few months!Well,I'm hoping a few months anyway.I am missing my husband terribly and am eager to be together again.


Today I also wanted to quickly say that my heart goes out to my fellow Americans as we come upon the anniversary of a tragic day in American history.I covered my feelings on this last year so I don't feel I need to repeat myself again.For those gone know that you are not forgotten,we will never forget.

Snail Trees....

If you've followed my blog for a bit you'll note I walk around a lot.Today was no exception and today my outing with the kiddies brought adventures in snail trees.I tried to get my dad out of the house today because a little vitamin D does a body good and some psychical effort wouldn't hurt him either.He only made it to the end of the block before he threw in the towel and rolled himself back home but the kids and I were just getting started.It was 3pm so nice and sunny,cool ocean breeze but the peak hours of the day were gone so out the window went the fear of our fair skinned selves being burned.

I've been able to wear dresses a lot more as my waist starts to VERY slowly slim down from having Wayland over a year ago but today I slummed it and wore jeans because...well,honestly because the kids didn't let me get a shower in so I didn't get to shave.I have to tell you when you go about a week or longer not wearing jeans you realize how horridly uncomfortable they are!


The plus side is I remember to grab my "new" sunglasses I picked up from that antique mall that had gone out of business.I'll take better photos of them in a future blog so you can appreciate the rhinestone detail to them.


The darker spots of the tree are where Heidi decided to start removing the snails.I'm not sure what about this tree the found so appealing but they did.




We ended up at 7-11,I remember we needed milk so it worked out and Heidi got her candy fix.I also noticed for a mere $2.99 they had a western ranger toy set filled with a air pump shotgun that shot those plastic darts out of,you know the kind that stick to glass or the television as we delightfully discovered.That little investment kept us entertained until the kids bedtime.I'm sure some would frown on the notion of letting my kids play with toy guns but hey its never too early to prepare them for the zombie apocalypse.Just something to think about.

A Fool for Stools...

Stool,ottoman,whatever you want to call it this is now mine and it was free.I've tried to salvage some things here and there from the flooding in the basement.This was one of them.Again my inner Spaniard came out.I saw it,I wanted it,I claimed it as my own and not a soul argued with me over it so to Alaska this will be going too when the time comes.

I wish I has taken a before shot of it as you would have never guess it was a cream color.One of those things I thought about as I was in the middle of scrubbing it down with Simple Green but I was in cleaning mode and you DON'T interrupt cleaning mode!