• Millenry flowers – vintage store in Seattle from my trip last week
• Wooden earrings with Damask print – gift from my sister
• 1920s black necklace
• 1950s lace dress with rhinestone buttons – Buffalo Exchange, Austin, Texas
• Green belt – Decades Vintage Co, PDX
• Violet Stockings
• Violet Socks
• White t strap shoes – Dollhouse

What a find with this dress! It incorporates all of my favorite vintage details:
LACE!
CREAM!
NIPPED IN WAIST!
RHINESTONES!
All for $17… thank you friendly neighborhood Buffalo Exchange. I literally work around the corner from the store so I go frequently on my lunch breaks and I would say that I find about 3-4 stellar dresses per month. So, that’s about thirty six dresses per year… which, looking through my flickr for verification, is about right!

I used to wear lots of rings every single day but in the past five years I’ve shed daily jewelry in favor of larger, silly pieces. The Mint Green Cameo is from Uncommon Objects, in Austin and the giant ring with Valentine script (“To the one I love”) is from the Betsey Johnson store in Seattle. I had to keep taking them off today to use scissors!
I love these garters. I got these stockings for Christmas but they are too short for my long legs so I snipped them off and now I just roll them down and secure them with the garters. Instant fix!

“There’s pansies, that’s for thoughts”
I’ve been on a real violet/purple kick as of late. I can’t tell if these are violets or pansies? I think they are pansies.

• Red Beret – Nobody’s Baby, Eugene, OR
• Deco-y Earrings – URBN
• Vintage White Coat – SVdP, Eugene, OR
• Red Leather Gloves – Estate Sale
• Gold Bee Brooch
• Reproduction Teal dress with lace overlay – Buffalo Exchange
• Teal Knit Sweater Tights – URBN
• Red Socks (underneath)
• Red shiny flats
• Seuss, The Dog wears a red sweater

Tetsie and I went on a long, meandering walk with her dog, a half poodle named Seuss. My daily outfit photo was taken about five hours later than I normally take it, hence the sunshine and shadow!
Tetsie finds a swing in front of a wonderful 1920s bungalow in Hyde Park.
Guess who else lives in Austin? These birds! Are they pheasant? Some kind of chicken? This city girl doesn’t know!
We also saw wild green parrots who have built quite a substantial nest in the spotlight beams above the intramural fields. It’s said that someone let some domesticated birds go a few years ago and they’ve mated and build a little colony. Maybe Texas is similar to their native climate? It was really sweet to hear them peeping and chirping high above our heads while the sun was setting.

• Black metal lace earrings
• 1950s (?) Vintage black dress – Nobody’s Baby, Eugene, OR
• White socks from sockdreams.com
• Pointy shoes (traded with Belleweather)

I think this s probably one of the most perfect little black dresses I’ve ever found. It was only $22 to boot!

• Black Damask earrings – Urbn
• 1950s Jade/Green dress – Big Bertha’s, Austin, TX
• Green Cameo Ring – Uncommon Objects, Austin, Texas
• Black socks/Leggings (I wear these everyday to ride my bike in the cold)
• Black flats (Also, for bike riding)
• PS I was also wearing a coat through most of today but I went out in the cold for this shoot.

This is a cameo ring I got at Uncommon Objects a few weeks ago. I’ve been searching for the perfect nail polish to match! Too teal? Too green? Too expensive (it’s up to $140 on ebay)? I finally settled on a matte color from OPI called Gargantuan Green Grape. Here is my fake senior portrait…
My pin curls have been multiplying. I’ve been setting my normal forehead one and it transforms into two or three by the end of the morning. After seeing Fantastic Mr. Fox yesterday, I bought two holiday dresses: one in green and one in red. This green one has big fat pleats and a cute little tie around on the neck.

I’m done with school! I’m done with school!
Well, at least until January…

• 1930s Felt Hat – Merrimac, from Alexandra’s in PDX
• Hello Kitty holding an umbrella earrings – made by me from cell phone charms
• 1950s? coral coat – Buffalo Exchange (I changed out the buttons)
• 1940s blouse – http://www.etsy.com/shop/13bees
• Black sweater from Express – circa 1998
• 1960s slinky black dress
• Coral socks – American Apparel
• Pointy Black shoes – traded with Tetsie for these

I have been car free for 2 years this January. When I moved from Oregon to Texas I sold my car to my best friend and shipped my 1970s yellow Raleigh down with me. This spring, I sold my Raleigh and got a sweet road bike that is zippy and really comfortable to ride for miles and miles. I have her outfitted with a top tube rack from etsy (it reads “Quite Contrary” and is much more faded after sitting in the Texas summer sun) and back baskets for carrying my backpack and groceries.
Raleigh Sprite 27 – early 1970s Road Stripe Yellow with original fenders and chain guard.

I love these Comet Ride Bike Accessories and wished they matched my bike better!

I have a high level of anxiety when I drive or ride in cars and I prefer to take the bus or ride my bike when I can.  My only concern has been being seen by other cars, but I also want to not feel like a total dork. Most of the safety do-dads out there are glowing safety vests and clunky helmets. I bought this coat so I could be better seen while riding my bike. When I first thought up a plan to have a day-glo coat, I thought I would have to hire someone to remake a coat from a vintage pattern. However, I snagged this coat for a measly $24 at Buffalo Exchange. When I got it, it was a bit too big and had other problems.Hideous orange buttons lined a double row down the front, so I cut them off and replaced them with black buttons. I also moved the buttons so that the coat is at least a size smaller.

There is the most adorable reflective lace with little bicycles on it that I may get to sew on the hem of the coat.

This week I finished most of my finals, including a 15 page paper on the “Effects of Differentiated Curriculum on Gifted and Talented Students in Inclusive Classrooms” so I bought myself a blouse/skirt=dress from 13Bees on etsy. Unfortunately, I’ll have to wait to fit into the skirt for a few weeks

• Tiny peach bow – gift from Grace
• Black beret- found on a fence post in Ann Arbor, MI a few weekends ago
• Black sweater that I’ve had for ages (literally since 1998) that is from Express
• Long black beaded necklace
• 1950s sweet potato colored dress
• Black socks
• Black platforms – Melissa, from my trip to Brazil this summer

I love this dress and I think I’ve worn it everyday since I got it last week. It’s the color of a sweet potato! I have my left hand painted with a peach/orange nail polish, but my other hand isn’t painted. My bicycle is broken so I clomped to work in my platforms and painted my nails while I walked. I love these shoes! They remind me of animal hooves and they are very sturdy an waterproof. Plus, there is something about Melissa shoes that smell like plastic vanilla!

This pose is called “The Debutante Slouch”

• Two giant flowers affixed to hair combs
• Baby’s Breath
• Turquoise ribbon
• Pink scalloped sweater – Anthropologie
• Turquoise/White vintage dress – New Bohemia, ATX
• Pink socks
• Black pointy shoes

Today was Pride, Prejudice and Zombies day at work, and since I’m a very poor zombie, I decided to go for Dia de los Muertos instead. A few weeks ago in preparation for Gadjo Disko! I bought two huge carnation pom pon flowers at the craft store. I had no idea what I was going to do with them, only that I wanted to wear them as a headpiece somehow some day. I bought some plastic hair combs and snapped off a tine. I squeezed the stem of the flower through the broken tine area and set it with strong glue overnight.
This morning while I was doing my makeup I listened to the soundtrack for Candyman and Hocus Pocus, specifically putting “I put a spell on you” on repeat several times.

Here was my makeup for Dia de Los Muertos in 2008. I was really excited to move to Texas because I always loved Day of the Dead imagery but I never ever lived in a place that celebrated it. The first thing I ever bought was a little skeleton mermaid in San Francisco wayyyy back in 1999 during my first visit to the city. I had no idea what she was, only that I thought she was precious and that I needed her right then! There are whole shops and museums this time of year in Austin devoted to Day of the Dead celebrations. Last year I saw the giant crowd of zombies dancing all together to Thriller in unison in the Day of the Dead parade.

Last night I went out dancing and couldn’t be bothered to dress up too fancy today.

• Yellow ribbon as headband
• Cherry Red nailpolish
• 1950s picnic yellow/blue/teal plaid dress – bought from Roxanne several years ago
• Yellow peeptoe heels – Buffalo Exchange

• 1950s navy blue tilt hat with velvet ribbon – from a junk store in Tonitown, Arkansas
• Dove earrings
• Vintage lace collar – bought from a boy who came into my toy store with a suitcase of goodies
• 1950s navy dress – I can’t even remember… I’ve had this dress for so long. I think I got it in northwest Arkansas
• Vintage sheer gloves with flower embroidery
• Remix vintage heels – Trashy Diva in NOLA

Today I got a lot of comments that I looked like a doll or like a mannequin. I suppose I have a knack for standing uncommonly still, and today I was letting myself just stare off into space while thinking of how to construct my Gadjo Disko/Halloween costume: deer antler headpiece! I have been mistaken for a mannequin in places where you usually don’t find mannequins… like the grocery store!

Here I am two years ago when I lived in Portland, Oregon. I worked part time as a living mannequin for a vintage store downtown. I posed in the window displays. When people made eye contact with me, I winked at them!

I also posed out on the sidewalk with an armless authentic. I held a dish of candy and whispered Enjoy when people took a piece. One woman yelled the loudest I’ve ever heard in real life. It was like a horror movie scream. Her friends laughed at her. The store was very close to a homeless shelter and a lot of street people would approach me and pull on my fingers to see if I was real! Oh, and people would also tip me!

* White ribbon in hair
* 1950s? navy/white vintage dress with sheer front panel – Nobody’s Baby, Eugene, Oregon
* Mary Jane High Heels – Target

Today’s outfit was rather plain to write about (bow, dress, heels) but I think the color and pattern of this dress is so striking that it doesn’t need to be overpowered with a lot of accessories. Once again, I am matching navy blue and black together! Did you know that most vintage dresses are either black or navy? I learned this from John when I worked in Portland at Decade’s Vintage. I didn’t believe him at first, but then I went to my own closet and examined all of my dresses. I rearranged my closet in ROYGBIV style and sure enough, there were more dresses in the “BIV” part of the  spectrum. I’ve tried since then to make a conscientious choice not to buy navy blue, and I think I feel as if I have more variety because of it. I still have not found suitable navy shoes that are vegan friendly.
This weekend in Austin, Texas was Austin City Limits, so there were a lot of great shows. I saw !!! at Emo’s on Friday. I have been seeing them live since 2002 when they played my small hometown in Arkansas and I’ve managed to see them in almost every major city I’ve ever been to! Friday night was a good show, save for all of the beer that got poured all over my shoes in the crowd.
Yesterday at work I saw Jack White in my store and I had a really funny moment of greeting him really enthusiastically like I would any other customer and then suddenly realizing who he was and then kind of freezing up! He kind of did a double take when he saw me, and I think it might be because I have really similar coloring to his wife, the lovely Karen Elson! I spent the rest of the day arguing with my co-worker about Loretta Lynn’s Van Lear Rose. I loved it, but I like all Loretta Lynn.

I would do this, except I wouldn’t put lipstick on my eyebrows.

Yours till the kitchen sinks,

Amelia