Thursday, April 22, 2010

A Rant With My Wine

I came here this morning to post cute pictures from my date with my husband... but instead, upon checking my email, found myself here needing to clarify.
I got a comment on an older post this morning, that I am sure was not meant to be harmful or rude, but it struck a chord with me.
The comment was basically saying I need to understand the difference between thrift store and "second hand shop" which has hand picked good things (yeah right! lol). I do fully understand the difference, and while I hit several second hand shops on the ONE day a week I have available to thrift, I also spend a great deal of time in the thrifts. I dig through garbage in the bins, I shift hanger and hanger in the chain thrift stores, often leaving with one item, most times nothing. I have spent hours outside estate sales waiting for the sign up sheet.
The point is, I know there is a difference and I don't want people to feel I have some cushy easy job where I go to "hand picked" stores only. I plainly type thrift, because I am not into sharing all of my shops with the world wide web. If you live in portland and can tell where we shop by our pictures, awesome! If you live here and don't know what shop I am in, well then.. its a thrift store. Its a junk store.. its second hand land. I do not feel I need to clarify which shop I am at in every single post, and I don't know that that would help my business at all.

I am not going ot pretend that Portland has thrift any better than anywhere else.. take a look at Etsy, 40% of the sellers on there are from portland. The competition is thick and its hard to find the goods, I am not about to tell them/anyone where to shop.


- - -

Ok, I am done. I don't mean to get upset, but I have had a long week of people making it seem like my job is easy. I have spent all week soaking, repairing, measuring, shipping, photographing.. all while my kids are running in and out of the rooms screaming and playing. My job is hard, and I work constantly. I don't find it fair for people to take it so lightly.

On a happy note, I did get a super cute dress for the shop the other day, but it fit me well. I then realized I needed to keep it! Husband took these breif shots before we sat down to dinner.

Anyway, back to vintage kittens, and rainbows, and happy thoughts. I love all my readers, and I love all my customers. I love my job. I am happy I am able to share so much with all of you.

28 comments:

Frankie's Wife said...

I love when we all leave happy, polite comments for each other...and you are adorable, so who cares what the nay-sayers say!

Miss Matilda said...

Wow! How terribly upsetting! Chin up Lady xx

ZombieHilary said...

Love the back of that dress. Bow me over!

TemperamentalBroad@blogspot.com said...

Even if your job were easy its nobodys business but yours. You do what you got to do to make money for your family and thats that. Keep it up!! Vintage loving gals love you because you help us find items that we never knew we needed ;-)

Michelle said...

Oh, sweetie, you do not need to justify anything to anyone. Please ignore the negative comments. This person obviously is not a daily reader of yours, otherwise they would know you work hard. I enjoy reading your posts, especially seeing the pretty dresses you find while going on shopping adventures...you don't need to tell anyone specific details about the shops you frequent...

Although, "a day in the life" post pertaining to you as a vintage clothing seller would be interesting...ie a messy workspace or something along those lines hehe (I liked the post about the bedroom you took over to photograph pieces).

Oh, but just keep doing what your doing, this blog is a very nice read. :-)

Love the color of the date night dress, too.

~Rubyredruca~ said...

Comments like that are few and far between-I'm sure! Maybe you have better luck than them at those places and they're bitter. Keep your chin up, you're doing a great job at what you do! :)

Kate said...

Oh, that is rubbish rubbish. On a positive note, your dress is gorgeous x

Lainie said...

Long time visitor, first time comment-you poor thing. I've noticed you get a bit of neg feedback sometimes and you seem to really take it to heart. You have no one to answer to but yourself! keep positive, and have a great rest of your week!

Jenny Cross said...

Girlie - you keep on doin what you are doin...You are amazing!! Love your blog and I appreciate all your hard work. Doll - your a total babe on top of it. Wow - that green dress is amazing! Love it!

Cee said...

So what?! Even if you did get everything from a "second hand shop" (where obviously your profits would be eaten into, as I assume prices would be more there if its pre-sorted for value!), you are still taking the time to photograph, measure, describe, list and ship it all out to the wider world. What makes one way of doing it SO MUCH BETTER than another?!

Honestly, I used the term interchangeably...thrift and secondhand. I would never have thought there was a difference, unless you mean a vintage store or consignment shop. Maybe we just don't have "second hand shops" up here.

Don't be offend by silly people. That's all they are; silly!

Anonymous said...

They are hella' jealous of your utter adorableness and popularity in blog land. You are completely dedicated to vintage, consistent, and always heartfelt and honest in your posts. Why would anyone give two shakes about where you find your treasure? I'm in Portland, I know how cut-throat it is here and I say find goods where ever the heck you can!!! I have zero idea of how you manage to do all that you do with 2 kiddo's. Keep doing what you do because it WORKS!!

Drea Carmen said...

It's such a shame when someone's carelessness can send you into a funk! And it's all semantics really - as someone who works at what is considered a thrift store, I know that technically we could be considered "second hand". But it really doesn't matter does it? If a place has a quality selection then it has a quality selection. Plus, isn't the fun of thrifting going out and doing the leg work, finding the treasure trove, yourself? Maybe I'm out of turn and ridiculous myself, but it's just so silly! I hope it didn't upset you for too long - this blog is just fantastic as it is!

Miss Lottie Lou said...

Ooooft what a meany! It's your business, nobody elses, it's nothing to do with them. Sigh some people.
On a happier note you look beautiful in the photos :)
Keep up the excellent work,
Lottie x

Anonymous said...

The dress is gorgeous, and the colour is stunning on you!

sarah said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
sarah said...

Selling vintage is hard work, and some people just don't think before they make comments like that - they don't realize how much work goes into it. Your shop is lovely and you have beautiful things. Where you find it is nobody's business but yours!

Oh, and your new dress is pretty! I love the green!

Kat said...

Hi - I have been reading your blog for a while but don't think I have ever commented. I'm not sure what it is lately but a lot of people have been getting rude comments on their blogs and I can't seem to understand why. Why do people feel the need to be rude to someone they do not even know and offend them for no reason. Taking the time to clean, mend and photograph items to sell in your etsy as well as then shipping them while looking after your children must be very stressful at times and for someone to come along and say your job is easy is just not fair. I hope you don't get anymore rude comments like this in the future.

ps. Love the new dress!

Pennington said...

Wow, that person is SO, SO wrong! A few years ago an ex of mine, and myself, tried to start selling vintage online. At the time we were both unemployed and we went into it whole heartedly and very business minded. After about 3 weeks of schlepping all around town (and out of town too!), going in and out of stores and estate sales, taking measurements, tailoring, researching brands and pricing, photographing, listing, answering buyers questions, packaging and finally sending items off we were exausted and started to HATE something we used to love. It was so hard! So, I get ya!

Pennington said...

P.S. Needless to say, we are no longer in that profession!

In The Heyday said...

Why do people find it ok to put down others on their own blogs? To me it is like being rude to someone while standing in their living room. Besides, where you go is your business (in more ways than one).
Sorry you have been upset. You are doing a wonderful job and I love reading and seeing what you are up to.
The green dress is lovely on you.

Dolly Cool Clare said...

There is always someone who wants to rain on your parade!
I imagine they are envious that you have a successful stay at home business! Being self employed is such hard work, but rewarding. Enjoy what you do and balls to the nay-sayers!

Kathy said...

I always think such comments are generated by envy. I can't imagine any other motivator for such negativity....go,girl, do what you do so well...

Anonymous said...

One thing that I have learned about blogging is there is always someone out there that wants to cause contriversy. You have to let it just roll off your back.


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Anonymous said...

I love looking at your pictures and trying to guess where you're at. It's fun. Honestly, I didn't even notice that you were from Portland until I was browsing your blog and saw the photo of you in front the the Hippo! Don't let that person get you down... you're doing awesome! Keep it up!

Treacle said...

I'm happy you share them with us too! Haters mean you must be doing something right. ;-)

Miss Cherry said...

That dress is adorable on you and the collor is lovely!

And thank you for the first part of the post, to mee being swedish it really helped me to understand the diference between thrist and seccondhand so now I understand when to use witch! Tanks!
<3 Nadja www.ensaligblandning.se

Bonita said...

Well, I will echo everyone else's comments here -- phooey on that person who left a nasty comment! Anybody can see you are a hard working lady -- they must have been jealous!

BTW, love the dress -- that is your color!

Anonymous said...

Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength. ~Eric Hoffer
I'm so glad you're a woman of strength.
elise

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