Less than $25!!!!!

It may come as a surprise (not) to our fellow readers that Jess and I love to thrift shop.  There is something exhilarating and satisfying when you can get an adorable outfit for cheap! So here's a couple outfits from our shop that are $25 or less....

Dress $16, handmade earrings $8

Blouse $10, Skirt $12

T-shirt $6, Skirt $10, Belt $4

T-shirt $6, Skirt $16

Dress $18, Belt $4

Come visit and happy shopping,

Caiti & Jess 

Shop Update

here are some new treasures that made their way into the shop this week!

1950s Black Taffeta Dress

Vintage Red and White Striped Blazer

Vintage Chartreuse Pinup Shorts

Vintage Pink Bathing Suit

Vintage Blue Bathing Suit

We've been photographing lots of things lately, and we're really liking how everything looks! What do you think?

xoxo,

Jess & Caiti

Carbro Photos

Lately, I've been really into bright colors.  Maybe it's a desire for spring to finally come around (it's getting closer...).  Whatever the reason, I've become really fascinated with vintage carbro processed photos...

The carbro process, which uses silver bromide paper and methods beyond my novice photographer comprehension, was started in the early 20th century, and became very popular starting in the '30s.  Magazines like McCalls were using full color photos, so they were in high demand. There was a growing concern about the longevity of prints that were made with previous photo processing methods, so people turned to carbro, both for the appeal of the vibrant colors and the long life of the prints. 

oh hey Norma Jean! That photo was taken by Richard C. Miller, a well known photographer 

who used the carbro method for most of his photos

doesn't she look just like a mermaid? It's so dreamy!

I'll take all of those shoes, please.

What do you think of these? Don't they make you long for bright colors and spring time? 

Seriously, it can't get warm soon enough!

Brightly yours,

Jess (and Caiti!)

warm spring outfits!

It was SO lovely out on Friday!  It was actually alllllmost a bit hot!  So so so so great!  We ended up stuck inside the shop for most of the day doing projects, but we managed to skip outside for a while to do some banner hanging, and, of course, some spray painting.  Seriously, it seems like we're always spray painting something.  

We both sprung (ha!) into springtime looks with no hesitation.  Dresses with no tights! Sandals! 

Cardigan - Target... from a billion years ago

Dress - handmade (of course!)

Shoes - Target... also from a billion years ago.  that was a great year for purchases, apparently.

Dress - from a vintage buy we did a while ago (if there's a dress that fits Jess, it doesn't stand a chance, let's be real)

Necklace - from the Portland Flea for All... there's a better picture of it, but it ended up being like 98% cleavage, so just rest assured that it's an adorable silver peacock.

Flip flops - also from the Target billion years ago sale

close up peek at Caiti's handmade dress.  Aren't the straps so awesome? 

Warmly (much like the weather),

Caiti & Jess

oh dear deer

Did you know that you can call a group of deer not only a herd, but also a bunch, a mob, a parcel, or a rangale?  Don't collective nouns make things so much more fun?

We've obviously got quite the parcel of deer in the shop this week!  We recently picked the home of two twin sisters who were VERY into deer, and apparently that started a theme for us.  

Isn't this creamer basically the sweetest thing you've ever seen? We think so!

All items coming to the Etsy shop in the next few days

Deerly,

Jess & Caiti

furniture redo: The Queen Bee Rocker

I think a lot of people find refinishing furniture to be an arduous, not at all fun process.  I, on the other hand, think it's a super fun adventure!  There's all sorts of opportunity for destruction like tearing off fabric and ripping out staples, and there's the huge satisfaction of seeing such a big project turn out how you want it to.  There's also the chance of things going miserably wrong and it not turning out ANYTHING like you pictured, but I try not to think about that. 

I spent a good part of yesterday working on redoing some chairs, and I'm particularly fond of how this one came out:

The original chair was in pretty good shape... The wood was all in great shape, and the caning on the back was perfect (if you're a junker/thrifter of any sort you'll appreciate how rare that is). 

The upholstery was okay... but it was dirty and drab colored.  At first we were planning on trying out some fabric/upholstery paint, but while shopping for that I fell in love with some printed burlap and decided to go a whole different route

I mean, come on... it's BEES! How can you resist that? I couldn't!  So after some sanding and painting and even more sanding followed by some reupholstering, we have a nice little chair which I've dubbed "The Queen Bee Rocker".

I feel like any time now Caiti should be telling me that's an incorrect name because these clearly aren't queen bees on the fabric... but that's okay.  I still like it anyway.  What do you think?

xoxo,

Jess

shop update!

So far one of the best things about having an actual shop is the simple pleasure of having everything in one place.  Caiti and I have been splitting things between our respective houses and the flea market we were selling at for so long that it's surprisingly exciting to have everything all together! It used to be everything was always scattered around and we never knew what was located where.  We'd sell something on Etsy and it would be a mad scramble to figure out where the heck it was!  Also, taking photos was a pain in the butt.  Caiti's house had the best natural light so she ended up taking photos of most of the clothing, and I'd bring home small things from time to time so she didn't have to take on the whole workload.  But we were constantly trading the camera back and forth and swapping SD cards to edit images.  Not really fun. But NOW... we have a specific spot for taking Etsy photos! Huzzah!  It really is crazy exciting, I think. 

So I spent a good amount of Tuesday & Wednesday gleefully snapping away for Etsy listings.  Here's what we've been working on!

1930s Black Crepe Blouse (with INCREDIBLE embroidery & beading!)

Vintage Ballet Slipper Pink Half Slip

Vintage Pastel Orange Lace Slip

Vintage Orange Sherbet Pleated Dress

and... these are a couple pieces that were photographed on Wednesday that I'm especially fond of.  They'll be up on Etsy sometime soon (if you see anything you like, let us know and we can reserve it!)

I love the neutral-ness of this dress... but it's so fancy and lacy!

This dress is actually a 1980s Laura Ashley sundress that was atrociously long, which made it pretty unattractive.  Caiti decided to shorten the hem a bit, and now we're both head over heels in love with it.  It's like the perfect spring dress!  Funny what a difference a little chop can make, huh? 

I'm very into this red & white striped blazer.  It's a light weight fabric and has a linen look to it so it would be perfect for spring.  I'm really into stripes right now (obviously). 

Hope you're ready for lots more Etsy listings, now that we've got the space :)

xoxo,

Jess

sunday at the shop outfit

We had a bit of free time on Sunday, so I (Jess) decided to take photos of my outfit.  I tried to convince Caiti to do the same but she was too ashamed of us wearing accidentally matching outfits.  She came in that morning, took one look at my outfit and shamefully took off her coat, revealing a black and white striped shirt.  That would be worth a laugh if it didn't happen ALL. THE. TIME.  People genuinely think that we are trying to coordinate/wear a uniform.  Nope, just the same brain, apparently. So she hid in the back room screen printing while I snapped some shots of my duds.

If I look exceptionally tired, it's because I am.  And I'm not sure how I even feel about this outfit, but I do know that it was exceptionally comfortable, which mattered a lot to me.  I've taken to leaving my house slippers at the shop, so the fact that I'm not wearing those is an accomplishment, trust me.

I call this my Beetlejuice blazer.  Also, I scored a defective version of a necklace I made that I love (even though moths scare the bejesus out of me)

This is our sassy rug... I've taken to calling her Irma.  We were going to buy a practical, somewhat neutral rug, but my craziness got the better of me at Ikea.  It's going to be dirty as all getup all the time, but it's so fabulous I don't even caaaaaare!

just hangin' out in my blazer in front of a rack of blazers.  So meta.  also, behind me you can see a peek of one of the ribcage sweatshirts Caiti made the other day.  I'm very much in love with them. 

and that picture also gives you a peek at her striped shirt.  Seriously, our matching is a real problem. 

Stripes and stripes forever,

Jess

shop tour: LUCILLE'S!!!!

On April 6th we opened our shop!  We put a huge amount of work into it (see our last entry to see what it used to look like), and our brains are still spinning from lack of sleep and from making more decisions than we ever thought humanly possible.  We're incredibly excited and stupidly tired, and still working on lots and lots of things... but thought we'd share some pictures so you could take a peek!

This is our sign that took WAY too long to hand paint, but came out amazing

We're still filling up the shop, but we're excited.  Isn't the floor the best color? 

That's Caiti's dude Steve loitering by the counter.

 

I'm sure we'll be sharing a billion more pictures as time goes on and we add more things...  it's exciting to think that our biggest upcoming task is shopping! Life isn't so bad, ya know? :)

xoxo,

Jess