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(yes, blogger. i thought i’d never go back, but what do i know?)

you wouldn’t expect to find beauty in an oil drip, but that’s what i love about the unexpected.

so, imagine my delight (and audible squee), when, a month or so ago, she bought a sweet dress from my shop for her baby bird, gemma. i love this dress – the color, the mother of pearl diamond buttons, the style… so adorable! it was one of my roadtrip estate sale finds, so i have a particularly strong fondness for it for some odd reason.

yesterday, james posted a peek into baby gemma’s nursery and it is to die for. i totally heart that space. and i totally heart that the sweet green dress is hanging above the crib. such a great way to display vintage dresses!

(photo by james kicinski)

please check out the bluebird vintage blog – i promise you’ll be awed and inspired!

what are your favorite vintage blogs?

my first official vintage knee-hugging elf! this, of course, deserves a post of its own.

obviously.

*thrift store rant – why, oh why, do thrift stores place their packaging tape across the best bits of vintage goods? i got a vintage christmas record with great songs and an awesome cover, but there is packing tape all across the front and i know that when i get the courage to take it off, there will be massive paper-tearing. boo!*

i’ve been listening to midlake lately. a lot, actually. i just think there’s something very magical about the trials of van occupanther around this time of the year. for me, it’s an essential album during the fall and winter months, one that makes me want to set off on an adventure or set up camp in the woods. it’s like comfort food for my ears. every single song is just really lovely and warm and enveloping.

i especially love the song ‘chasing after deer.’ it’s so pretty and terribly sad all at once. it made me want to take photos of my small (but growing) vintage ceramic deer collection.

i’ve been keeping an eye out for fawns for months and i’ve finally amassed a little family of woodland creatures. i’d love to find a pair of brass deer statues at a thrift store or an estate sale.

my aunt was in town over thanksgiving and we spent the better part of two days visiting every thrift store in the area. she spotted this pretty deer and bought it for me and i love it.

i’ve been checking in at my local thrift more than normal in hopes of scoring vintage christmas wares. i bought a bag of mismatched ornaments and bits and bobs for an elf head and much to my delight, i also found this little guy. he’s not ceramic, but he’s flocked, which is perhaps even better. perfect for my little collection.

the leaves are starting to change.

and the temperature is ever-so-slightly chilly.

everything around you bursting with color.

something to smile at every few feet.

i do love this time of year.

i got a dog this morning. and her name is lola. lola muggins, to be exact. lola because it’s sweet and muggins because my grandpa called me muggins and this dog has got a mug. a mugly pugly.

and i’m already infantilizing. nice.

i’m slightly nervous about this parenting gig. what if she thinks i’m a total bore? this is a distinct possibility, let me tell you. she’s already snoozing and it’s only 10 o’clock. we took a few walks, we’ve played with her cow (she loves), and she’s had her dinner. what else do you do? i’d be satisfied with that for one night, but, like i say, i might be a bore.

and because you’re probably humming it already… here.

click clack swoon. i found a semi-rare hermes 3000 manual typewriter at an estate sale this weekend. it’s a dreamy blue with glossy seafoam green keys. it was made in switzerland in 1958 and is thought to be the finest and most sophisticated  manual typewriter in the world. jack kerouac and larry mcmurtry kind of loved them. i think i do, too. i want to mod my mac just for the sound effects.

notice anything odd about the keys? look closely. there’s no key for “1″ or an exclamation point. at first, i thought i might have bought a dud, but an explanation exists!

sadly for me, i don’t have room for such a beauty, so it’s in the shop until a new cozy home can be found for it. it is ever so pretty.

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i wanted to make a quilt that required little or no thinking. or, if i had to think, the thinking would be focused on picking out pretty fabrics.

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i am in love with the colors and patterns in this quilt.

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there did turn out to be quite a lot of thinking involved in this project, though. it required a bit of concentration to get the patterns not to line up, if that makes sense.

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i finally finished the quilt a few months ago – hoorah! the actual piecing was done (gulp) last year (notice a [no pun intended] pattern here?). i finally got around to getting it professionally quilted by my mother’s friend this summer and all i had to do was hand sew the binding.

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this officially crosses off one more thing on my thirty in thirty list, too: #27 – finish sweet william lap quilt.

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oh, sweet william. i really love this quilt because it has my favorite grandfather’s name in the title and because it’s cold again now. this means i can use it to snuggle and watch some lovely britcoms (i’m kind of completely in love with gavin & stacey right now).

it *just might* be a bit chilly today. chilly makes me think of fall. fall makes me think of pumpkins (and candy corn, of course). pumpkins (and candy corn) make me want to bake, so i did just that.

a few weeks ago, i made smitten kitchen’s pumpkin spice cupcakes with maple cream cheese frosting for a dinner with friends (where we scarfed down our other favorite pumpkin meal: pumpkin sausage pasta). i think i actually squealed a tiny bit when i pulled the cupcakes out of the oven and they looked like proper cupcakes; this rarely happens in my attempts at baking.

these cuppies are super nom-worthy. the only thing that could have made them better? being able to find the candy corn’s first cousin, the pumpkin candy corn. i went to three stores and nothing. what’s up with that? it must be the universe mocking my pumpkin love.