Shopping can in fact cure the winter blues

I'm so excited about the 1960s turquoise sofa I just bought. it took three weeks to pay it off and get it delivered to my house and it's just unbelievable. Obviously i like vintage things and I am renovating and decorating a house but I haven't been this excited about anything so far. I love this sofa so much I cried when I saw it. I just HAD to have it. I posted about the work I've done to the living room here and as you can see i really needed to replace my old sofa (also from the 60s but in poor condition and no personality).


I've also done a little thrift shopping to build up my winter wardrobe. The pics aren't too good but the sofa is really the star anyway. I bought two winter skirt. The first is a brown and red wool plaid, soft not itchy. This one is special to me because it still had the price tags on it and I enjoy getting a $108 skirt for three bucks. I also got a fine grain corduroy black skirt. it's high waisted like a pencil skirt but flairs out a bit. Very figure flattering.

I also bought two blue sweaters and a handbag. The sweaters are a similar color but I bet you can guess by now that blue is my favorite color. The first is paler and form fitting with a deep v neck. the second is a darker smurf blue, looser in fit and fuzzy. I'll take better pics of the purse so you can see the details but it's beaded with large (not seed) beads and has a handle meant to mimic bone (ivory?).

I haven't done any new purchase blogs in a while because I felt they were kinda braggy despite the positive response I got. I don't know. I like seeing what other girls are buying and loving so why not? so maybe I'll do these again more often.

Winter wishlist update: I haven't forgotten my list. I almost found several things from it at the same thrift store I bought the skirts and sweaters from but had numerous and varied sizing issues. Perfect shearing jacket=waaaaay too big. Perfect cream cable knit turtleneck= neck hole unbelievable small. i dont have a big head but couldn't get it through. Velvet trousers=I couldn't belive I found velvet pants in a trouser cut instead of velour track pants but i did it! They were more of a taupe than a black and had piping rather than tuxedo stripes thereby rendering them more eccentric posh British lady than rock and roll but i totally would have bought them if it weren't for the pronounced muffin top they gave me. I also found the lightweight suede skirt I was after but alas it was also much too big. But I'm more hopeful than ever of finding at least some of my list since I did see that the things I want exist in real life.

So what have you been buying lately?

This old house. Part 2

Some months ago, I posted about the renovations I've been making on the house I bought last December. I can't believe it's almost a year already! We've done so much yet have so much more to go.

Sometimes I get down and feel like we aren't making enough progress or that I'll be living in a house with quite a few eye sores forever. So I went through some old pictures from when we first started out last year and it really blew me away how much progress we really have gotten done. Especially since everything was done with our own two very amateurish hands. (with a little help from our friends).

So today I thought I'd share the work we've done on out dining room. You can find the report on the living room here.

We have little need for a formal dining room. There's just the two of us and we rarely have dinner parties. We like to eat in front of the tv. Perhaps not classy but true nonetheless. So we decided to make it more of a bar for friends to hang out in and where we could curl up to watch movies or play wii.

Here's the before.



Nasty. We had to tear out the carpet and scrape off several layers of paint and wallpaper. Looking back at this, I can't believe we bought this mess!


This sofa was left behind and I really fell in love with it. There's a matching chair but in poor condition so we have it in the computer room for now. No, I'm not sitting in it as I type. You may recognize it from blog posts.



This mantle area has appeared on posts before too. The fireplace was already sealed over so we just painted it and blocked it. Kinda yucky but it's livable. We don't have a coffee table in here so it's nice to have a little table to stack magazines or to sit your drink.

Speaking of which, here is the little built in cabinet used for barware and a 1950s cabinet that houses the liquor and extra glasses, etc. I just got this piece. The flower prints to the right are from the 60s. Just assume most things in the room are vintage. Ha Ha.

Mid century light fixture. I love bendy wood. I would like to get a floor lamp in here too. The light is on a dimmer for ambiance but we could use some brightness sometimes too.

Dinette set in the corner. Rarely used but adorable.


These are framed prints we bought along on the Seine during trips to Paris. They are alcohol advertisements and are hung above the sofa.

Not shown: Video game consoles and flat screen tv hung on wall opposite sofa. We still have a little patching to do from when we couldn't determine how high the tv should be. So no photo.

etsy furniture finds

Killing time on etsy today, I decided to post a few pics of some cool vintage furniture. Enjoy sans my annoying commentary.

Elements- part one

As I've mentioned here before, I work part time at a vintage clothing/decor shop in my neighborhood. It's where I get most of my vintage clothing/ accessories and my house is mostly furnished/decorated with things I got in the shop. Since I mention it so much I thought I'd post some pics so you can get an idea of how i spend a few hours of my life.



There is quite an abundance of kitchenwares: here is a sampling. Of course, the stock is almost completely different since I took these pictures last month. And that is part of what makes these places so fun.



Here's a good overall view of one of the rooms. The store takes up two floors, as big as a house, really. Everything is all thrown about here and there so you have to take your time and look at everything.



Here's a little corner near the front windows. This shop always has cute vintage furniture, in still quite good quality, at very cheap. Which is why I shopped here many many times before I worked here.




Really a bit of everything; including old makeup and beauty tools. Disclaimer:Yes of course I work here but the store hasn't even a website so there's no way I'm profiting from you looking at these pics. I guess I just like showing off the happy parts of my life.



An old sewing machine and vintage patterns/linens. If you're a clever girl (or boy...) you'll have noticed I haven't shown any clothing pics. Well, of course, i need you coming back for more...


Well, here's a peak at some baby clothes! They do seem to distract attention from the rows of barware. Stay tuned kiddos, the clothing pics will be posted soon enough. And do be a dear and forgive this lazy post. We can't all be stars!

This old house

As I guess I may have mentioned, I'm renovating an old house I bought in December and moved into in, uh, March? We got in pretty livable before we had to move in but it stills needs tons of work. The problem was, is, that it didn't look too bad when we bought it but every time we attempted to right one wrong, another even worse made an appearance. This house is very old. Which I love, it just desperately needs some TLC. It was built in 1900 as part of a housing development for workers along the Allegheny River. Since the corporation built it itself, there is no deed information on it that far back but I'm really interested in finding more on the history of this house.

It was eventually converted to tenement living for poor people during the Great Depression. It got a little updated. No more gas lighting! The grandfather of the man I bought it from acquired it in the 40s. His son, the owner living there until he , well, died, moved into the two room attic when he got married and had a little apartment there. When they had a son, the heir from whom I bought the place, they made a room for him in the kitchen and built an addition to the house to make a new kitchen. This spare bedroom still has a vintage sink in it. The incredible thing about this house is that it doesn't and never had a Pittsburgh Toilet. Look it up if you don't know what that is.

Anyway, i love this house and it's many old details. I love that it has updated plumbing and electrical most of all. But I have been very lazy the last few months about fixing her up. But ever since I saw the old interiors in Public Enemies last weekend, I've kinda gotten a second wind and I really want to get back to work and make this place a real home.

So here are some pictures of the living room. The most finished room in the house I guess, though it still has a way to go.



This is the only "before" picture I have after work had already started. Butas you can see it was dark and dirty and yucky.



This is the front window with my 1960s sofa. I have a tapestry from Urban Outfitters thrown over it because it could use a reupholstering. It's a bit sloppy because the cat sleeps there and jumps up and down to the window. I still haven't even bothered to a hang a curtain rod and curtains. But you can't really see in from the street. I hope.



This is my mantle. You may remember it from my flapper post. I actually just cropped myself out of it for this post. The workings have been removed and capped off but I could return it to its former state if I felt like it. The poppies oil painting was done by my teenage sister in law. I can't decide if I should hang it or let it just rest where it is.



This is an old Ikea shelf with a collection of mostly color coordinated items both old and new. I plan to add some stuff, take some stuff away but in the meantime it's a nice colorful place to display my finds.



This is something else you might recognize from one of my daily wear posts. These striped walls are my favorite part of this room! Not wallpaper. I painted this and I'm very proud of myself since I'm so unartistic. This is where I play my David Bowie and Blondie records.



These are my 1950s chairs that I got from the vintage shop I work at sometimes. I get the most amazing things there. My house is almost entirely decorated with vintage from work and Ikea. Yard sales and thrift stores make up the rest. So I guess I need to get back to work so I can have some more rooms to show off a little. I'm running out of good places to take pictures and I wouldn't mind having people over more often. I'm determined to make good use of this weekend! I'll keep you updated on my progress.