Get all liquored up and go to the peach tree dance

How do you know what is real? Do you trust your head (so, what your eyes and ears tell you) or your gut (what your instincts tell you)? And if you trust your gut, what informs the gut? Intuition? Past experiences? Suppressed memories? If you trust your head, how do you know your senses are perceiving things as they really are? You don't have to answer. I am mostly asking myself these questions to know more about how I come to conclusions about the world. I believe both systems are flawed slightly. You can never know if what you hear is biased or even true. Visuals can be faked or altered. I personally usually trust my gut more than my head and feel out what I believe rather than think it out, and it can sometimes lead to trouble. Or crazy assumptions.  Or really good decisions, I guess depending on a bunch of physical variables (if I have had enough sleep, proper hydration, yoga, etc.)  I have really been examining how I perceive the world and life lately. I have been realizing that even if I HAVE ALWAYS trusted my instincts, I have been wrong before. A safety net of logic should act as insurance before assuming anything. In fact, The Four Agreements say that we should never assume anything anyway. Better to ask questions to gain clarity. The problem is you can ask questions, get your answers and your gut could tell you that the person is lying to you anyway. Hmmm.

My gut also tells me that cream corduroy pants are simply amazing and the best new addition to my wardrobe. My head says they may be a tad impractical, but my gut's voice is louder so screw it! I am wearing these as much as possible!


Pants, cardigan: on clearance at Banana Republic and bought with a gift card (whoo hooo!!)
Scarf, shirt, shoes: thrifted
Purse: gift from one of the coolest girls in the world.

Oh, and my title was a suggestion from my husband. It's from There Will Be Blood. We have seen that movie lots of times. He definitely made decisions with his gut. Unfortunately, to horrific result. Though entertaining. Hmmm.

Feel it

Last Friday Gabbi (My new friend that is learning the vintage selling ropes while helping me be more productive with my etsy selling) arrived wearing this short sleeved peach striped cardigan. I lost my MIND since it is exactly what I have been looking for this spring, NOT TO MENTION that it is vintage St. John AND the exact color palette I have been craving. I know what you are thinking, that I took advantage of the sweet girl and nabbed it from her. WELL, I didn't. In fact I am simply borrowing it for two weeks in exchange for her borrowing a few things from me (it had to be A FEW things, not one thing, since I WOULD have felt like I was taking advantage of her if the trade didn't feel as good to her as it did for me. Oh And SHE offered) Needless to say, this girl has a natural eye for great vintage. She found it at the Goodwill, just chilling among the gnarly, pilled up old sweaters. Ahhh. I love the thrift stores.

I am having a lovely Valentines Day. Nothing spectacular or over the top, in fact just a normal nice regular day, but really feeling love. It is so nice. I hope you are all feeling love too today.

As I Promised, I am listing the early spring things I featured last Friday right now. I should be done by like 2:00 ish if you just want to check back later. No pressure. Have a very lovely day! Drink a delicious cup of tea (to love yourself) and text or call the people that make your heart skip a beat when you think of them, even if you will be seeing them later. It's always nice to hear I Love you.


stripe sweater: vintage St. John Knits, borrowed from Gabbi
Long sleeved Crocheted cardigan: vintage thrifted
Necklace: vintage thrifted
Pants: AE
Shoes: J. Crew  ( I actually wish these shoes had a cell phone so I could send them a love text. They make my heart skip beats whenever I see them. See, Love comes in all shapes and forms.)

Early Spring

I have been receiving all of these early spring catalogs and it's making me feel impatient to just start selling these springy floral things. I know many many many of you are buried in snow, buuuuuut I thought I would just give these a try in the shop as sort of an "Early Spring" collection (plus its still summer down under).  And really, as stand alone items they can all be winterized. Well, maybe not ALL of this stuff, but some of it.

I will be listing these items for sale, and tweeting each listing, on Monday, February 14th starting at 11:00 am pacific time. There are still some really great wintery things in the shop right now that I am offering a 40% discount on through this Sunday at noon. Just click HERE and enter promo code: TAKEITOFF at checkout to receive your discount. Thanks so Much!

(click images to view larger)

just like a woman

When I was a little girl, I thought that my best friend's grandma smelled SOOOOO good. Not even in a grandma sort of way. Not like baking and mothballs or whatever we associate grandmas with (I associate mine with tea smells) but in a really great feminine, WOMANLY smell. In fact, one day I asked her what her perfume was, since she wore it daily without fail as her signature scent, and she told me it was called WOMAN. I have no idea now who it was by or where I could get some but it wouldn't have mattered since she let me spray a little on my wrist while I was visiting with her granddaughter one time. Unfortunately, it smelled different on my skin. Not awful, but definitely NOT like my friend's grandma. I have not thought about her and that smell for a very very long time. But I did yesterday and I will tell you why. You know how I ordered these things (the necklace and kimono from two posts back) from Erstwhilevintage?  Well when I opened the box and lifted the meticulously wrapped items (she even included really great vintage photographs in her packaging!!), I started to smell it again.  I immediately put the necklace on and as I lifted the kimono out I hugged it to my nose. It is WOMAN. Specifically in the childhood-best-friend's-grandma sort of way. It is subtly but EXACTLY the way she smelled. Like, I want to call her and ask her if this was hers before. Some people may get weirded out if they wear second hand or vintage clothes that bear the scent of its previous owner, but I sort of like it sometimes (not in the musky, BO sort of way, but in the perfume sort of way). I WILL NEVER WASH THIS EVER.  I will smell it as often as possible because I know eventually the smell will fade, as does everything, and I won't encounter it again for a very long time I am sure. Maybe Never. Ahhhh, I just hugged myself and sniffed my arm. I feel like my smell is already making it weaker.

{EDIT: It is so sweet of you guys to mention my hair. I guess I haven't really talked about it, but I am continuing to slowly go lighter and lighter. I am really digging a light, cool blonde these days and even though I feel like it needs to be toned (its been 3 weeks since my last color so it looks a bit yellowish to me) I really love how its turning out. These pictures were taken on day four of not being washed. Last Sunday I washed it, blew it out and used a straightening iron on it for a change, so it looks like I have smooth hair, a contrast to my usual crazy waves. I did give myself a trim about 2 weeks ago so its feeling really healthy right now too. Here is a link to my hair cutting technique. So thank you for noticing and for the nice comments. :)

Kimono, necklace: Erstwhilevintage
Purse: thrifted vintage
tank: AA
Pants: gift from mother-in-law(!!! I know right! They are actually yoga pants)
Shoes: old navy from waaaay back

jump drive move

Because my computer was and is giving me so much trouble, my sweet husband bought me an external hard drive and a little jump drive to sort of clear some space from my folders and be able to move pictures from my computer to his computer for the time being. I have no idea why I didn't have a jump drive before. I always just emailed things to myself if I needed something on another computer, then retrieved it from my email. Seems as though I am finally stepping into a more mobile world.

It has been ridiculously warm and sunny here in Northern Nevada. Like in the 50s and 60s! Crazy beautiful weather! I love it! AND . . . I took about 200 pictures yesterday of new things that will be coming to the shop, on . . .  Monday . . .  I believe. I will do a preview soon.

On a friend note, my lunch with my new friend the other day went great and we have a movie date set up! AND THEN, last night I was at my son's swim lessons and I saw this other mom that was there with her daughter and WE got to talking for like 2 hours while our kids played and found that we have a lot in common! I think I might have made ANOTHER friend! That is like 3 in one month! This stuff doesn't just happen to me. I know some people just make new friends all the time, but I have a very hard time connecting with people in real life. I mean, thats why I was so attracted to the internet in the first place. It allowed me to meet other people like me that didn't live in my small little town. I have to admit that for a LOOOONG while, I did shut LOADS of people out since I was unwilling to open myself up to friendship, but it seems like some crazy friend door has been opened and I am really happy and excited inside to take the risk and actually make friends.  And I think they like me too? I feel like they do. We will see how it goes! It is definitely shaping up to be a very different year for me so far. But its good!

Sweater, hat, purse: vintage (it's funny, I took pictures with the hat on but it was too shadowed since my usual picture taking time is during swim lessons for the next week and a half, and I am taking my pics in the morning instead right now, so it looks like I am just holding it as a prop, but I did wear it. Just to let you know.)
shoes: lucky brand
pants: AA

Take it off

Hi! As I said yesterday, I am getting ready to add some new things to the shop, but first I would like to offer you a 40% discount on the things that are still in there! Just pick out the things you like by going here, enter promo code: TAKEITOFF at check out, and receive a whopping 40% off your entire order. For reals. This offer will expire on Sunday, February 13th at noon west coast time. Anything that is left in the shop at that time will be stashed away for next season I think, so. . . ya. Cool. . . and I am only offering this to you guys, because you are cool and stuff.

Still working on the computer internet glitch. Its very annoying. . . but I am working on it. OK!  Happy shopping!

. . . since we rock an rolled.

Well Helllloooo.  Guess what?! I have been so happy! Ya, that is the thing I was asking you to guess. My computer has been unable to connect to the internet so I have just been doing my thing, you know, breathing and what not (I am using my man's computer right now, so that explains the no pictures thing.) I have had some other cool stuff going on too. In January I had FOUR style clients (one who even had me shop for her and who I had a follow up appointment with to make outfits from the stuff I found her!)  I also made a new friend in real life (she dropped into one of my yoga classes and we are having lunch today!!  In one hour!) AND have been getting to know and teaching a girl who will be listing things on Etsy for me! (So like two new friends!) Lots of real life socializing going on over here. Which is very odd for me since I am a bit of a shut in. 

I have also done just a tiny wee bit of shopping. I found this shop Erstwhilevintage on etsy the other day that got me pretty excited (where I bought the top two things) and I also late night texted Amanda after making the command decision that whatever is on the chair in the picture below (which is a shot of the inside of her brick and mortar vintage shop) just had to be mine. Turns out that that bundle of goodness is actually a stack of four pillow cases made form vintage rugs. Ya!  Freaking tell me about it! AND They are being shipped to me as I type this! SCORE!!  

So great right! I don't know, I am sort of freaking out about them. I have some fun weekends in February I am looking forward to as well. A concert weekend in San Francisco, and a sort of ladies retreat later in the month. So, ya.  Things are really really great. I hope you are looking forward to a nice February as well! I plan to get my computer up and working soon, and I may even be listing some things for sale this Friday with Gabbi (my new girl!) so be looking for a preview maybe Thursday! And OUTFIT PHOTOs EVEN! I hope. See you soon!