service & devotion

Sunday was such a surprising day ! .. It started off with a shower and soy latte (duh) and then off to a bridal shower honoring my friend Beth. I live in a pretty tight knit part of Houston called Montrose- (aka The Bubble) . The Bridal shower was fun because it was a bunch of ladies that I have known for years and normally we only see each other at the neighborhood watering hole… But on a Sunday morning all gussied up, we saw a different side of one another and it was really nice.

After a few gallons of champagne and orange juice later (actually not for me- as I am on the antibiotics.. ugh) Two ladies that I have known for years decided that we should go thrift store shopping together! YAY! My favorite activity now combined with friends!

Normally the thrift is my escape- from the to do lists sitting around the house- from the boyfriend, from the pesky kitties, from the chores, from the phone (I normally turn it off). I zone out in a thrift store and let my eyes and arms become fashion honing devices! (and sometimes I sing along OUTLOUD in public to the oldies station that plays ubiquitously at every store..)

But Sunday was special! Mai, Lauren & I got stoopid and acted like 6th graders trying on clothes and snappin’ pics!

Embarrassing but true: here’s how we got into TROUBLE.

So what exactly did we buy? Ummm. I got a beret and two fun fall dresses- destined to be washed and hemmed immediately! Mai and Lauren were both on the hunt for leather vests and they both found PERFECT black leather vests. Lauren decided that the hand knit turban was worthy of her upcoming relocation to New York and Mai decided that the cop hat was integral for her Halloween outfit.The Smokey the Bear hat had to come home too, and was immediately gifted to Robin who missed out on the trip by graciously taking her hungover birthday girl coworker’s happy hour shift. She loved it!

An unexpected, silly and hilarious thrifting day! Laughing that hard for so long was so good for the spirit! I love staying young and silly! I don’t want to grow up. Oh yeah, and I renamed Value Village – Vagina Village. I have no idea why. But henceforth…. ya know.

Holy Mistress of the Dark. Coooomeee to me Disco spook wear. I am SO enamoured with this dress.

I just need to whip up a fabulous dry ice cocktails, add black spiked heels, a little kohl, a little moood music and Presto Chango-

HALOWEEN PARTY DONE.

And then I can wear it all the time the rest of the year.

f.u.n.

Here.

Re-reading through my prior blog postings it is clear that I have a LOT of interests… I have yet to touch on my love of vintage jewelry- some of my interests are silver modernist, victorian, my collection of Susan jewelry (including 8 pre-engraved ID bracelets), enamelware, weird spoon rings, turquoise, quirky charms, big rings, collecting bangles from all over the world (I have on 18 as I type), scrimshaw and bone – umm- I could go on?

I change up my jewelry all the time. Curating the layers of necklaces, earrings, rings and bracelets is a beautiful puzzle. I like subtleties in texture, color, materials, I tend to wear a good bit- But as a friend of mine recently commented ” you wear a lot- but it’s never too much”- I think it was a great complement!

To be vague- I am trying to determine what type of precious ring I may want to wear on a daily basis as aaaa.ahhh.ummm.committment.type.of.ring. Not that I know when that will happen- but two of my besties have requested that they be prior-ly informed if they get called into action.

Whatever my third-finger-on-the-left-hand ring may be, I know it has to be antique/vintage and untraditional. . One of my favorite online jewelry sites is Lang Antiques and Estate Jewelry. A lot of the jewelry is VERRRY expensive- which is fun to look at- but not so realistic. However- Lang does have some beautiful and unique pieces from many eras for every budget. Here are some intriguing baubles that have sparked my matrimonial imagination…

Clockwise: Victorian Saphire , Victorian Lapis and Diamond, Victorian Snake, Jade and Diamond

Clockwise; Chalcedony & Green Gold ,  Turquoise and Diamonds, Victorian Turquoise and Garnet, Renaissance Revival Amethyst Ring

One more beaut:

Geometric 80′s Fun!

And one last doll that absolutely overwhelmed me… stunning… but costs as much as a fully loaded corolla

Vintage Rough Diamond Ring

lapis? chalcedony? victorian snakes ( BTW- apparently writhing double snakes signify eternal love)? What is my forever love style of ring for this gal whose jewelry M.O. is daily change? I guess this is why most gals have classic diamonds- but I don’t think that is me either. Advice? Opinions?

My friends’ are having a baby and I decided to help with the nursery decorating. They live in a superb four-plex in West University, for the first year or so that they lived there they had an elderly neighbor named Mrs. T who resided in the apartment building for the last 40(?) years. I never met her, but I heard lots of stories about her fabulous wardrobe, her stories and her interesting antics which after a while, started started crossing the line from humorous dementia to a not-so-funny situation. Her family eventually intervened and took her to a new home and in the process-  cleaned out her apartment and lifelong possessions via a dumpster parked in the driveway. As sad as the situation became, we all kinda scored from the clean out of Mrs. T’s belongings.  An awesome breakfast set that lives on my patio, a stair stool (you know the vintage vinyl and chrome kitchen bar stool -jobbie that turn into a step stool), some clothes and also- a bag of vintage scrap fabric. I had no idea what to make with any of it- a quilt (I don’t quilt), Wha?

Results?

FLAGS! I combined Mrs. T’s vintage fabrics with some scraps from all the thrifted skirts I buy and chop and hem. Then I sewed it up with some wonder under, some pinked edges, some francophilian type ribbon and a zig zag detail. I prolly went WAY overboard with the heavy duty construction technique, but I wanted them little flaggies to have a little but of substance to them. (Maybe the unborn baby Tess will take them to college and hang them in her dorm room?)

In addition,  I recently found this awesome vintage print on wood at an estate sale for $8. So fun!

I had extra triangles that I started playing with- and I then constructed a big flower to Festoon something with…

I  impressed myself with this creation!

I hope to take some pictures of the whole shebang when Mrs. Getman starts to decorate! She has marvelous taste- and does a lot of DIY furniture work. I am sure her Nursery is going to be splendid!

OR Sliced onions.

Brett’s Amazing 87 year old spitfire grandma Naomi is like lightening in Channel flats. She has her own facebook, spends $100 every week getting a particular  glitter process done on her nails, subscribes to Vogue Italia, is a magnificent, precision seamstress, has Neimans on speed dial… You get the picture? Basically exactly who I want to be when I am 87.(Oh yeah -and she recently a two time cancer survivor IN ONE YEAR)

She knows that me and the Mister like to cook and I mentioned how I always have Brett cut the onions for our meals because I start crying.

Prrrresstttooo! Problem solved. One day these appeared on my doorstep: my new awesome baby pink ONION GOGGLES!

Mister B. refused to pose in them while chopping shallots..

I decided to go for it!

I look mildly insane.. but FYI: the instructional card says that wearing protective eyewear is the only way to keep the onions fumes from making you tear up OR  wearing contact lenses! No wonder Brett never gets overwhelmed by the scent-fumes like me! Mystery solved!

Knowing me I will only ever wear them if my in-house onion chopper is away! Thanks again Grandma Naomi!

I am an incredibly lucky girl! My wonderful boyfriend Brett came back from his three week European tour in Prague, Berlin and Oslo just in time for my 32nd birthday. He must’ve missed me- because I got showered with gifts!

Besides a great David Cerny exhibit book, and a rad little vintage silver bangle to add to my collection- I was also bestowed a great little vintage print (I *think* it’s a lithograph) by an indecipherable Czech artist dated from the year I was born!

I knew that I had another gift coming (like what he had already given me on Wednesday  wasn’t enough?)- and yesterday morning after a lovely brunch with the Getmans, I was surprised by this big cardboard package (that he surreptitiously hadsent to their house!!)

I wasn’t allowed to see the top side of the package- I had to open it without eye-ing this tell-tale (awesome) shipping label…

I was thoroughly surprised and  excited to discover this amazing signed Charley Harper screen-print called “Frog eat Frog”

I am working on framing this bad-boy and finding the perfect spot for it in our home! I have wanted a Charley Harper for about a million years and I am so happy and thankful that it was my sweet boyfriend who selected it and gave it to me!

We have a little family of frogs that sit on our front door stoop every night eating our pesky skeeters. I wonder if it was thems who inspired this selection? I’ll have to ask… *sigh* so excited about new art in our house…