Vintage Savings

Today Abbi sent me this link about vintage shopping and saving money. It is true that shopping for vintage can be cheaper than purchasing new clothes in stores. I have found that to be the case for me. However, I think that the author of the article glossed over a few things... so here are some things to consider when thinking about vintage shopping.

First and foremost, a vintage shopper has to have patience to dig, dig, and dig some more. Chances are the goodwill, salvation army, or local thrift store will not have a 'vintage' section. If you are not fond of digging through racks of clothes you might have a hard time saving money on vintage attire since vintage stores and boutiques have a much higher mark-up. My Mom does not dress in vintage, but she is great at finding awesome clothes at thrift stores for a great price. I think her secret is patience and persistence. She spends plenty of time in stores and goes to them often enough to catch the good deals when they come in; thanks Mom!

With this being said, a vintage shopper also has to have time to shop around a lot. If you have a hectic schedule chances are that you don't have an extra 2 hours to blow at goodwill hoping to find a vintage jewel. Sometimes spending extra money to save your sanity is worth it (Mom usually ended up buying us slightly expensive dresses for prom for this very reason)!

Shopping for vintage clothes can be a money saver.... but how much you save depends on how hard you try. Of course, that seems to be true of most money-saving techniques.

p.s. If you are interested in buying vintage or learning more about vintage fashion I do highly recommend the book the LearnVest article references: The Little Guide to Vintage Shopping. It is a great reference book! I would also recommend looking up vintage blogs online and shopping around etsy.com.

pps... something else has been helping me save money when it comes to shopping for clothes; I have decided to ONLY buy clothes that make me feel FABULOUS! I have bought less clothes, but I am in love with the clothes that I do buy!

Birds and Hypothetical Houses

Well, Christmas has come and gone once again. I had a great time in Illinois with the fams and friends. We got to see a lot of folks over the holidays and it was great! There were some friends I didn't get to see, but we did the best we could with the time we were given. The husband and I were even able to squeeze in a trip to the local museum, which was showing original prints of the paintings John Audubon created in the 1830's. For those not married to a bird watcher, John Audubon is a pretty big deal. Obviously, the husband was in heaven. I had fun too. The prints were in amazing condition and had great detail.

And I overheard boy having a conversation with his father:

Boy: Dad, that owl has BOOBS!!

Dad: [ignores son]

Boy: [Louder] Dad, that owl had BOOBS!

Dad: [unimpressed by sons observation] No, those are his feathers. His chest is just puffed out.

Boy: oh.

I can totally see the husband having a conversation with our hypothetical children like this.

I like to speak and think about hypothetical (and hopefully eventual) situations. Currently I am enjoying pretending to own a house. I fill the kitchen with fun, expensive gadgets, big chill appliances (in red), vintage canisters, and beautiful vintage table linens. I fill the whole house with decorations from the 1040's and 1950's of course. The bedroom contains matching bed and dressers, and I have my own dressing room and a fabulous wardrobe to fill the room (it is decked out with hats galore and vintage hair advertisements). My hypothetical house also has either a wrap around porch or an enclosed deck. And most importantly, connected to the house... is a garage. A nice, clean, 2 car garage. Oh how I long for a garage!

Someday, when i'm older and hopefully not so much in debt, we will have some of these things. In the meantime I will still enjoy the small, mismatched, comfy home I share with a beautiful cat and great husband.

On Clothes

I can't wait until the time change happens. Waking up and being functional in the a.m. is more difficult for me when it is still pitch black outside. This past week I have not quite been myself, fashionably speaking; I believe I wore pants and came into work with wet hair twice!! While it is no sin, it is just weird for me these days because of my vintage obsessions. Proper ladies never did those things! :)

I was thinking about this last night in bed and said to the husband something like "when we become grown ups can I have nice clothes so I never look frumpy?" He look at me and apprehensively questioned "is that possible?" I thought for a while and concluded that no, it is not possible, at least for me. While I love to feel feminine and pretty, I also love sleep and being lazy. I responded that I guess it is not about the clothes I have or don't have, but rather about my laziness and decisions to sleep 'just another 15 minutes.'

However, I stick to my guns that I need better clothes. I mean, if I had no bad clothes I couldn't look frumpy...could I? :)

In other news, I finally finished the invitation to my sisters baby shower! Now it is time to start on the many Christmas gifts I am sewing!