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.


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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.

The Date Night Blues

This passed Saturday was a special weekend night, we had a baby sitter! Most of the times we get a sitter its on a monday night or something equally un-fun. To celebrate the Fella and I joined some friends for dinner and drinks. I love an excuse to dress up, so of course I went well over the top... Ha!

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Also Please take note at the misspelling of "crinoline" HAH

I don't even like the color blue, but I seem to be adopting it all over my wardrobe as of late. I paired the blue with some silver and gray which I feel played together nicely. I did end up wearing my hair up that night because my curls were falling out.

This weekend also marked the Portland Antique Expo, which I went to and bought an armload of frocks for my shop. What did I forget to bring to the expo? Oh you know, just my camera! What an excellent blogger I am...

I will post an update when Anne of Lulu's Vintage posts the snap she got of me at her booth.

Garlic Fries.

One of my favorite thing about the one day a week we get a baby sitter, is Happy Hour. When my husband gets off work at 3:00 we head to the water front and eat at a McMenamins, which are local bohemian, main-stream funky, brew pubs.
When you are as thrifty and poor as we, you only have dates during Happy Hour, but that is OK! I love being able to enjoy Garlic Fries for $1.00 and Hummus with Pita for $2.00. All of this, of course, with my favorite hat from my grammy, and a pint of good locally brewed beer.

I love Happy Hour! Where is your favorite spot to garner happy hour splendors?

Painting the Town

Saturday night I hit the town with my Fella. We went to the cinema, with some friends and their family. We may or may not have snuck in a bit of wine and had ourselves a wonderful time, acting like kids again! Don't worry, we stayed quite during the movie to please our surrounding neighbors.

I wore my favorite circle skirt, and my great grandmother's fur-collar cardigan. The crowning jewel on my outfit though, the rhinestone Henry Waters' heels from the 50s. I bought them last year at the Urban Eccentric, and they are my most favorite uncomfortable shoes to take out!

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We saw, Sherlock Holmes and as you can imagine we loved it! Very visually stimulating with a half decent plot. And if you can allow me the liberty of going all teenage girl on you.... Jude Law was simply dreamy, just dreamy.
I rather liked Rachel McAdams sinister role in the movie, and of course her dresses also! At this point I am sure you have all seen it any how, but I had a good time out of the house.
Alas, it is monday again and the holidays have all ended and I must return to the daily grind. Back again tomorrow friends!