Good As New: Cowboy Up

Hey ya'll!

LBD and I are in Texas this week visiting my family and soaking up some glorious, warm sunshine.

Bare toes and tan shoulders.

Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson on repeat.

Thought it would only be appropriate to feature a lil' hill country vintage wear....

PhatDog

digvintageclothing

xoUda

Four Eyes

I have four eye envy.

Let me explain....

Back when I was 7 years old, I would often pretend I couldn't see very well. Whenever I'd have to  read with my mom, I would squint my eyes and press the book close to my face so my nose almost brushed the pages. This act became routine all because I so very, very badly wanted to wear a pair of eye glasses. A desire that had nothing to do with a colossal crush on the blond haired, glasses-wearing boy who sat next to me in Mrs. Head's third grade class. Must have been a coincidence, right? Eventually, my mom took me to the optometrists of which after a brief examination, the only prescription I left with was a prescription to go to my room.

A few weeks went by, and my crush on blond haired boy rapidly dissolved, as crushes tend to do at that age. But at 27 years old, I still harbor a crush on eye wear. For some fun this afternoon,  I did a some browsing online and found a handful of old school frames to my liking.

Even if they are merely for make believe...

Good As New: Suitcases

I never know what to do with some of the stuff I have laying around the house. Magazines a couple issues old, photocopied recipes, TO DO lists (the never ending TO DO lists!).  I don't use some of these items enough to be left out, so when I found a variety of retro suitcases used as storage I thought it was extremely cleaver . They're inexpensive when bought at a local thrift store, but can also be found for sale on Etsy and Ebay. I'm thinking of doing this with LBD's toys eventually, but here are a few other ideas that caught my eye:

An craft organizer or sewing kit...

Good As New: Tea Dresses

Naughty Shorts dresses are one of my many inspirations behind wanting to learn how to sew. Rebecca, the fabulous designer of Naughty Shorts, upcycles vintage fabrics, bedsheets, etc. to make one-of-a-kind, custom order tea dresses.

Look at all them perrdy colors!

Good As New: Serving Trays

The lease on our house is up in April, so we will be moving. Again. Which means no projects for me for awhile. But even though I don't have any future home improvement tasks, I'm always on the hunt for ideas when we eventually settle down in a home. I'm hoping this will be sooner rather than later, because my binders and web bookmarks are overcrowded as is, which is why they have a new residence on this blog.

Upcycled concepts especially catch my eye, so when I saw these vintage trays used as magnet boards or wall decor I thought they would make a great first addition to my new inspiration filing cabinet.

Old Soul

I am a lover of old things.

Old houses, old movies, old clothing, old furniture, old fabric, old books, etc. When Will and I moved into our charming Park Slope apartment together we didn't have a whole lot of furniture.  So, on a warm Saturday morning  I set out with a friend to the Brooklyn Flea Market to see if there were any good finds for cheap. What did I buy instead of purchasing something useful like an end table or a lamp? A 1913 Victor Victrola in good, working condition. Way, way better than a lamp in my opinion.



I'm a believer in buying old versus buying new. And buying old to create anew. "Upcycle" is word I've incorporated into my vocabulary recently. It is defined as the process in which something old or something that would ordinarily be thrown in the trash is converted into something of  better quality and value. Essentially, giving it a second  life.