Would You??

I was just flipping through the new InStyle Magazine and saw a picture of Beyonce wearing these flats....



So I have to know....Would you wear them?? And if so, how??

Award!

NYC Island Girl was handing out blogger awards and she awarded me with the Versatile Blogger Award. Thank you so much!! I think the whole idea of blogger awards is great. It really makes you appreciate the support in the blogging world. Okay, so the rules of the award are:

**Thank the person who awarded you**
**Share seven things about you**
**Nominated new blogs for the award**
**Let the nominee know about the award**

So a huge THANK YOU to NYC Island Girl!

Here are Seven things about me:

1.) I am almost 7 months pregnant with a baby girl who loves kicking me with love.
2.) I love to sing.
3.) I wear an antique gold locket almost everyday with my parents pictures in it.
4.) I have a really, really intense family tree.
5.) I love watching bad reality TV.
6.) Lately, I really have an itch to move to Nashville.
7.) I have 11 tattoos including a (very embarrassing) four leaf clover, a cupcake, and a beautiful flamingo Audubon drawing.

Okay, now I must nominate some other blogs for this award. AGH! That is kinda tough, but exciting.

Katie from Skunkboy Creatures --- Love her style.
Blair from Wild and Precious --- She makes Nashville seem super enticing.
Micah & Brooke from Dorsey Life Happenings --- They are the CUTEST couple.
Samantha from Post Grad Hair Cut --- I always enjoy her posts.
Jacqueline from All Things Beautiful --- She always shares great things.

Alright, there you have it! Those are some of my favorite Versatile blogs that I read regularly.

Sunday Swoon (on Monday)

This week I am swooning over my recent entertainments. As I am beginning my third trimester I find myself lacking the energy I had during the second trimester. My back hurts if I stand for too long or even if I lay a certain way too long. I toss and turn so much at night trying to find that perfect position that my cat will no longer sleep with me because I accidentally kick him. As I am preparing for motherhood I have decided to indulge in some guilty pleasures....such as baking and eating too much, watching bad TV, and reading as many books as possible.

So here is what I am swooning over this week....


I got this book from the library on a Monday and finished it on Wednesday. I love reading detailed, intelligent, romantic, beautiful books, but I also love to indulge in funny, raunchy, and downright ridiculous books. Chelsea Handler writes the best of the latter descriptions. I can always count on her to make me laugh out loud in a silent room. However, his book isn't for everyone. My best friend admitted that she had a hard time getting through the first story which was about the first time Chelsea got "the feeling" (Read the book if you are curious...). But I highly recommend it to anyone who loves Chelsea Handler and lewd humor.


I am newly obsessed with 30 Rock and am working my way through every episode. I can't believe I didn't watch this show until now. Tina Fey is a genius, Alec Baldwin was born to play Jack Donaghy and I have grown to love Tracy Morgan. I am probably going to be a little sad when I am finished with all the episodes and might go through a withdrawal period.



However, by that point I will have Mad Men to look forward to each week. I can't wait for the new season to start (July 25!). I love everything about the show from the characters to the clothes they wear to the drinking at all hours of the day. If you don't watch this show you definitely should. I will gladly get together with you to watch every episode from season one. I've done it before and I'll do it again. I can't wait to see what unfold this season.

**Side note: If you watch both 30 Rock and Mad Men---isn't Jon Hamm amazing??


Christie DuPree is my newest music obsession. She is only 20 and has so much talent! I absolutely adore her voice and her music. She is on tour right now with another great band, Eisley. I wish they were coming through Columbus because I would definitely be there. You should definitely go listen to both Christie and Eisley and if they are coming to your town, you should probably go see them.



BAKING!!! I love, love, love baking and being pregnant has only made the love greater. I bake a batch of cookies at least once a week. I go through so many sticks of butter and so much flour it's kind of ridiculous. I like to try new recipes and see what works best. So far the best recipe I have found is for Big, Fat, Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies. And it's true, they are the best Big, Fat, Chewy Cookies. I have to stop myself from eating them all in one sitting.

Okay, Okay, that is all for now. You get the picture. I am swooning over laziness and cookies.

New Jewelry in My Shop!

After watching the traffic on My Etsy Shop I realized that the jewelry was getting the most views so I decided to add some more. I added a lot of my Vintage Brooches that have been lying around in my jewelry box collecting dust. Hopefully whoever buys them will let them see the light of day. Here are a few pictures but please go to the shop and take a look!!!

Support

Ever since I started blogging I have really thrived from the support of friends, family, and strangers. I love when someone tells me that they read my blog. It really inspires me to keep writing and find new and interesting things to share. I recently joined 20 Something Bloggers and have a few new followers because of it. One of those followers is NYC Island Gal, a blog about one girls journey to New York. She has been especially supportive and kind. Well now she is doing a great thing and asking all of her followers (she has a ton!) to join her in an effort to follow others blogs. You can see her post here. It's such a great idea and I really hope it works as planned. I would love to have more followers and you know how much I love reading new blogs. So please go check it out!!

Blog Love

I just wanted to share this amaaaazing blog I stumbled upon this past weekend. I read it for hours when I first found it and I have a legitimate friend crush on this lady. I want to e-mail her and ask her to go antique shopping with me when I come visit New York. Her blog is called An Apple A Day and basically follows her life and everyday findings. She also tells some pretty funny, sometimes sad, stories. Go check it out.


P.S. Sorry for the lack of posts and inspiration lately. This pregnancy seems to be catching up with me and I am ALWAYS tired. Like someone knocked me over the head tired and the heat doesn't help.

Where has the time gone??

Sorry for my recent absence, I seem to have lost track of time. I guess I have been doing a lot of daydreaming lately. Seriously, it is hard to keep my attention. I seem to just drift off into thoughts of other cities, life with baby, and antique decorating. Maybe this is a symptom of pregnancy??


Other than daydreaming my days have been filled with family, friends, cooking, reading, and selling my first thing in Etsy!!! It's a great feeling and I am so excited about it. My first customer is my wonderful Aunt Petra and I am so happy to have her support. As most artists or anyone selling something knows, your first customer is usually a family member and you can't take that kind of love and support fore granted.


Fathers day was spent with my sisters and our crazy dad whose only request was to "go cruisin' in the Mustang." We could hardly fit in that tiny car but we managed. So we listened to classic rock, ended up at a Jazz and Blues fest (where I indulged in deliciously bad for you food), and took a ride down memory lane.

I also finally bought and replanted some cilantro and basil and a hot pepper plant. I made some delicious salsa with fresh tomatoes, lots of onion, cilantro, lime juice, corn, and Serrano peppers. I must say it is the best salsa I have ever made. Next time I make it I plan on roasting most of the ingredients before cutting them up.


That's really all I've done lately. Like I said, I've been spending all my time daydreaming. I've been thinking a lot about lakes and camping and spending all my time outside. I wish I could just take off to a lake house and only pack a swimsuit and some light summer dresses. Shoes not required. I would sip lemonade or sweet tea all day. When I wasn't swimming I would be reading on a blanket under some trees. If there were a storm I would light some candles and sit on the porch, watching it pour around me. The house would be decorated with nothing but antiques. Every bed and couch would have a homemade quilt. Every dinner would be fresh. There would never be a closed window and definitely no curtains. Everyone I love would be invited as long as they didn't bring loud voices. Music was only allowed if you sang or played it yourself.


Okay, you get it. That is all I've been thinking about lately. If I close my eyes I can picture the house and lake perfectly. We all have those dream places. What is yours?

By the way, all the images I've shown today are by photographer Hotze Eisma. I stumbled upon the images on Bliss and they seem to sum up my thoughts lately.

Early Early

**image by Teri Lyn Fisher**

Recently I have been waking up at obscenely early hours and have not been able to fall back asleep. I blame this on the squirming baby girl inside me. She really likes to move at night and sleeping while pregnant can be complicated (there are weird rules). So more often than not I wake up at 5 AM due to a noise or a bathroom run and as soon as I lay back down I realize I am WIDE awake. I usually embrace it and flip on a lamp to read or open my laptop to do what I do best: look at blogs. I did the latter this morning and stumbled upon Elephantine.

I have known about the jewelry shop by the same name for awhile now due to many of the blogs I read. Rachel, the lady behind the jewelry and the blog is quite talented and has a great eye for all things beautiful, be it clothes, jewelry, photography...anything. I seriously spent all morning reading her blog and going back all the way to early last year. I learned that she has only been making jewelry for a short time. I never would have guessed! I really, really love how simple and stunning her pieces are.


I love subtle jewelry. I wish my style was bold enough to wear layers upon layers of bracelets and necklaces and multiple huge rings, but alas I have strict jewelry rules. I will not wear a necklace AND earrings, it is one or the other for me. Rings and bracelets must be simple, or I will only wear one. I know, boring right? My best friend Katie is the master at wearing lots and lots of jewelry and making it look effortless.

Anyways, there is one bracelet that I absolutely ADORE from Elephantine because it is so simple and it reminds me of those wish bracelets I posted about recently.

FINALLY!!

I have finally FINALLY! opened my Etsy shop to sell some of my Vintage finds. I originally wanted to focus on clothing but as I have been searching and organizing and taking photographs I find that it is not quite coming together. But in all that searching, organizing, and photographing I realize that I am most drawn to the scarves, jewelry, and clutches. So as of now that is the main focus of my shop. Vintage scarves are one of my favorite accessories so it makes sense that I want to share that with people.

I also decided to part with one of my vintage lockets. I haven't worn it in over a year so I figured there is someone else out there who will cherish it as much as I once did. As you can see, this is how I look at vintage things. It is truly something you have to have a passion for and really, really enjoy and respect.

Anyways, let me just say that this whole process (organizing and photographing) is not easy. I am exhausted after working it all day and I still feel as though the shop is only mediocre compared to how I want it to be. The photography part is the hardest. I love, love, love dramatic natural lighting and for some reason it is extremely hard to find in this house. So I decided to take my whole "studio" outside. I liked the idea until I took a lunch break and looked through the pictures and decided I hated everything! It just wasn't me. So I used a small landing on the top of my stairs, next to a window to photograph everything. I enjoy how the images look, but I still think they need some tweaking. It will get better as I go along. But I just had to get the shop open. So it isn't perfect and I still have a lot to figure out, but it's open for now.

Please go look at it and if you have any advice I would LOVE to hear it. Really, I could use some advice if you have it.

Here is the link to my shop: MY SHOP SHOP SHOP

And here are some photographs so you can get an idea of what I did today.

Love this...

...tattoo. Really, really love it and I love her blog, Here's lookin at me, kid.

**stumbled upon via My Life (as a Sugar Lander)

The Lonely Doll

As I have said before, I spend a lot of time at the library. I am always searching for new books and could spend hours reading back issues of many fashion magazines. On one of my recent trips I was looking at the "Staff Recommendations" and was instantly captivated by one of the covers. Yes, sometimes I totally judge a book by its cover, forgive me. The book is titled, The Secret Life of The Lonely Doll, The Search for Dare Wright. The summary explained that the book would dig deeper into the life of Dare Wright, the author of the famous childrens book, The Lonely Doll. Though I was not familiar with the book or the author I was strangely intrigued and added it to my pile of old Food & Wine magazines (I'm really trying to learn to cook).


That was on Saturday. I finished the book early this morning when I woke up and couldn't fall back asleep. I must recommend this book to anyone who loves to read biographies. It shares a story of a woman who left an impression on everyone she met for being mysterious, beautiful, and oddly childlike. She was someone who created her own reality from her fantasies. While the story mostly revolves around Dare, her mother plays a huge role throughout. I think the aspect I found most interesting was the Mother/Daughter relationship. It was very similar to the relationship of the Beales from Grey Gardens (If you are unfamiliar, please, PLEASE watch the documentary). As a soon to be mom of a baby girl I have to wonder what our relationship will be like and of course it makes me look at my own relationship with my mother. How close is too close?

So there you go, I have given you two recommendations, one a very telling biography, the other, a more telling documentary. Both explore odd relationships a mother and daughter can have.

Also, wasn't Dare beautiful?? And isn't Dare such an odd name? However, I find myself more and more drawn to it. (Don't worry, I won't name my baby Dare....but it might become a nickname...)

Can't Wait

The combination of her cute outfits and his smile makes my heart melt.

Sunday Swoon

I found myself watching a documentary last night on the great jazz singer Anita O'Day. She was a very unique woman with an amazing talent and an interesting life. Throughout her success she was addicted to heroin and openly discusses her experience in her autobiography High Times, Hard Times. She even goes as far as to credit the drug for some of her great performances. Here are a few videos I found so you can see just how great she is:



Not only did she have a beautiful voice but she was also one of the best scat ladies of her time. In this (poor quality) video you can hear just how great she is. This is a piece that was written for four saxophones and no vocals. The composer asked her to vocally be the lead sax. Amazing, right??



And one more just because I love this song:



And if you feel so inclined and have an extra hour on your hands here is a great Profile of Anita O'Day on NPR.





Another lady I am swooning over is a talented photographer and vocalist from Auckland, New Zealand, Chelsea Jade. I stumbled upon her beautiful blog, Willow Ships and listened to a sample of her sweet music. She has a solo project and a band named Teacups. If you like Tilly and the Wall, you'll love Teacups.


The last thing I am swooning over this weekend are these baby clothes my mom and I found while out at yard sales yesterday. I am loving the pink and yellow knits and I am really, really loving (and slightly jealous) of the little sleeping outfit that ties at the bottom. How comfy does it look???











Happy Sunday!

Baby!

If you read the wonderful blog A Cup Of Jo then you know all about Joanna's beautiful baby boy, Toby. But I just had to share this picture of him she posted today. I squealed a little bit when I saw it, it's just that adorable. It makes me want to hold my baby girl so bad.

Vintage Clothes and Blogs...

...are two of my favorite things. I already spend hours and hours blog hopping everyday and if I could, I would spend just as much time shopping for vintage clothes. Columbus has some amazing vintage shops that I could spend all day in. Some of the shops are a little pricey, but if you dig you can find the perfect bag or perfect dress for just the right price.
I found this beauty on Tuesday for a total of $3.00. I saw it weeks ago but told myself I didn't really need it. But as soon as I left I couldn't stop thinking about it. I figured it would be gone by now, but obviously it was meant to be because it was still in the same spot, waiting for me. And no, those are not my initials, but who cares?? I wear a locket everyday engraved with someone else's initials. It's what I do.

Anyways....yesterday I stumbled upon a few amazing blogs written by ladies who love vintage clothes as much as I do. I wish we could all meet up for lunch and raid each others closets (post pregnancy of course). So here is a little round up of those blogs.


Calivintage is a personal style blog by Erin from Oakland, California. I am so jealous of all her clothes and her posts make me want to move out west. I would love to live in that much sunshine. She has a way of putting together the most simple outfits and making them look perfect. Plus her pixie haircut is adorable. If I weren't trying to grow my hair out, I might consider going that short. OH!! And I absolutely love her tattoos.




Liebemarlene Vintage is another personal style blog by a Zooey Dashenal look-a-like, Rhiannon. She is sooo cute and looks amazing in little floral dresses. Imagine my surprise when I looked at her profile and saw that she is 29. I thought 21, tops. Her blog is full of great post about her personal style, her daily life, inspirations, and a lot more. She has an Ebay store, but as of now there is nothing in it. She also has a Tumblr where she shares random fashion images called Silent Sundays (and Saturdays). Plus, this girl is all over Lookbook.nu, as she should be.




And last but not least is Sally Jane Vintage . This is a blog to the great Etsy shop by the same name. The shop owner has a great eye for vintage dresses and I envy all of her finds. The blog isn't all about the clothes, the author sometimes shares snippets of her life as well as fashion inspirations. She also has quite a few personal style posts with some beautiful photographs.


So go and take a look at those blogs and hopefully you will be as inspired as I am.

My Guilty Pleasure

Right now these



are baking in my oven while I am watching The Bachelorette.

Yes, you can be jealous.

Loving...

....the photographs of Carl Kleiner and his photo Diary.

Sunday Swoon

I am awake very early this Sunday due to an active baby girl and a weird urge to clean. But before I clean I must have my morning (decaf) coffee and some internet time. Which brings me here to share with you what I have been swooning over lately.

First on the list: long vintage skirts. Due to this growing belly I have mostly been wearing skirts with a stretch waste band. I still refuse to buy Maternity clothes because I hate most everything I see or it's way out of my budget. So whenever I go out thrift store shopping (one of my favorite past times) I find a few skirts. I like them to hit either at or below the knee so that I have the option of wearing them below my little belly or above it. A few skirts even look great pulled all the way up as a strapless dress and cinched with a belt. I'll take a few pictures later in the day to give you a visual. Until then, here are a few vintage skirts I found on Etsy to give you an idea of what I am wearing...

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Second thing I am swooning over is a food blog I stumbled upon via All the Mountains. Sprouted Kitchen is a collaboration between a newly engaged couple, one who loves food and cooking and the other who is a very talented photographer. I fell in love with the photography first but I quickly fell in love with the healthy recipes too. They use mostly local, fresh ingredients to come up with delicious (looking) meals.

All images from Sprouted Kitchen

The third thing I am swooning over lately is a website my best friend Katie recently shared with me called Pintrest. It's basically a place where anyone can put together a thread of things they are loving by category. Many of the contributors are bloggers I read on a daily basis. You can share anything you find from Photographs to Food to Clothes to Interiors to Random Finds. It's a great site to visit when you need a little inspiration. Here is a little screen shot to give you an idea of the website:



Okay, I suppose that is all I will share this morning. I'll post later with pictures of some of the skirts and other things I find at the thrift store.

Happy Sunday!