mid week flea market adventure

There's something sort of wonderful about a mid week flea market.  In my mind, flea market adventures are generally reserved for Saturdays or Sundays, so something about going on a Wednesday makes it feel like an ultra adventure - like you're playing hooky from school to go on a field trip, or eating dessert before dinner.  It just seems out of place and completely delightful.  So obviously, I was super excited to check out the Monstweag Flea Market last Wednesday.  

I showed up around 10:00, which is egregiously late by flea market standards considering the vendors get there by 6:30 at the latest.  I couldn't help but think about all the deals I had probably missed, but I still had high hopes.  My high hopes were immediately rewarded - when I parked I noticed a chair directly in my line of sight, which I promptly got out of the jeep and bought.  

After that, I wandered around the rows of tables, first looking at the big pieces in the middle of the aisles, since I was mainly in the market for furniture, and then taking another lap to look at all the small trinkets on the tables.  A girl could start a pretty serious jewelry and accessory collection just by shopping here. 

One of my favorite areas, shown in the picture above, was one of the little shacks that's set back towards the back of the field.  There are a handful of them back there where the vendors can set up a mini shop.  I was looking for a woman who used to be up there who did mid century furniture, but she seemed to have been replaced by a woman who did all kitchen pieces.  Although I should have been bummed that there was no mid century furniture (which is what I was actually shopping for), I was too enthralled by the color coded shelves of kitchen beauties. So much Pyrex! and Fire King! and yes, there was some Jadeite, my new obsession.  The way she organized it by color made me feel like I was in some sort of glass candy shop!  I kept visualizing how my house would look with all these colors in it... and then I just stopped doing that because my house is a crappy apartment, so I just started visualizing an amazing house with all this stuff in it, and quite frankly, I wanted to buy it all.  But... alas, I didn't.  I did spend plenty of time swooning though.  

I ended up leaving with a few old photos, a couple things for me (whoops), a small gray electric fan, and a dreamy mid century vinyl chair.  You can see the vinyl chair and the fan in the picture above - that's the setup we did at the shop the next day.. and the fan already sold online! Now, if only I can find someone to buy the chair, then I'll have an excuse to go shopping again....

Anxiously waiting for Wednesday,

Jess

Weekly Wantsies

Welcome to another edition of Weekly Wantsies... where we torture ourselves by making lists of everything we want to own!  Window shopping is a cruel mistress, isn't she?

Caiti's picks:

1.) The sewing bug has been buzzing around me so bad. I want to make a million dresses with this fabric!

2.) It's no secret that I find shoes to be lovely and wonderful. I'd wear these with my moth dress for sure.

3.) Jess and I were just talking about how much I love gin. Gin and tonics are the best!

4.) I would put gin in these puppies! Also I like gin.

5.) Since I'm all about gin today, how about playing gin rummy with GAME OF THRONES playing cards!

Jess's Picks: 

1.  I found this dress on Asos the other day, and decided I'd wait to see if it went on sale... I went to pull it up today for this post and it's SOLD OUT.  My husband asked me if there were any dresses similar to it elsewhere and I played "Nothing Compares 2 U" and pouted because obviously there isn't.  Basically, what I'm saying is that I love it and if it doesn't come back I might be forever heartbroken.

2.  We have a big blank wall in the living room that needs a vintage pull down chart, and this one would be perfectamundo!

3.  I love typewriters. We sold one last week without realizing that it apparently wrote in bunch of amazing fonts, including cursive, so I soooooort of wish we'd kept it.  I love how industrial this one looks.

4.  GIVE ME ALL THE JADEITE.  We sold some Jadeite cups recently, and I miss them already (are you noticing a theme here? IT'S REGRET), and I desperately want my own jadeite collection now. 

What do you think of our picks?  Anything you're drooling over now?

xoxo,

Caiti & Jess

putting the pieces together

Sometimes it's a lot of fun to go shopping in our own store and put together cute little outfits.   We tend to shop/create in themes a lot without realizing it, so it's fun to piece it all together.  Here's an outfit I just made of some items we've got in the shop right now:

adorable, right?  I like that it's a super elegant, feminine print in really comfortable fabric... it's such a nice, flowy summer outfit.  Also, it's pretty obvious that we're a bit obsessed with florals at the moment, isn't it? 

You can find everything in our Etsy shop or at our brick & mortar in Westbrook, if you so happen to feel like recreating this at home.  (skirt here, shirt here, handmade necklace here)

hot hot heat

IT IS TOO HOT.  Lately we've been dealt the kind of weather that's really only good for lounging around in either A). an air conditioned space, or B). a pool, lake or some body of water.  However, we have an adorable little shop to run, so.. we've gotta haul ourselves out of the water and take care of business.  

These are the outfits we came up with to hang out in the heat..

OH, AND! We also both cut all our hair off.  Also due directly to the heat.  And Ginnifer Goodwin.  Damn her cute pixie face. 

 

Caiti borrowed liberally from the shop.  She's wearing one of our dresses, an anatomy necklace, and a belt that we have for sale.  Geez, girl, get your own closet.  Just kidding, this is our closet (we wash everything before we put it back. don't worry about our germs, okay?).

And Jess is rockin' all her own stuff.. a mixture of thrifted and target, as per usual.  Housedresses kind of rule, don't they?

Those Bee Earrings are Lucille's though!  They're actually a defective pair, so as per always with our screw ups, one of us gets to keep them!  We'll be putting regular, non defective ones up on Etsy soon though.  Also, check out our sign off in the background! and yes, if you can tell, that white blob below it is a piano.  Yes, we have a piano by the road.  If you're ever driving by in Westbrook you'll know it's us :D

stay cool,

Jess & Caiti

magazine gazing

We acquired a couple boxes of old magazines at a garage sale a few weeks ago, and have been slowly going through them since then... they are SO entertaining! I could spend hours flipping through each one... the photos and graphics are amazing.  The advertisements are ridiculous...  and all the stories inside are wondrous.  And also ridiculous. You'll find headlines like "Dan likes his vegetables dressed up", "how help-less are you?"and "Runaway Husbands".  Did I mention they're ridiculous? 

One of my favorite things is the INSANE eyes in half of the pictures.  What I'm gathering is that women in the late 40s were constantly terrified but forced to smile at all times.  Maybe that's why they were terrified?

"Is chastity outmoded?"

This might be my favorite image ever.  Way to stomp out the patriarchy, gurrrrrl!

I'd really love to own her tshirt, please.

Again, with the terrifying eyes... lady, seriously, you've been sniffing the washing soap for too long.

You'll never catch me reading a women's magazine nowadays, but if it's from 1947, I'm all in.

PS.  We'll have a whole boatload of these for sale at the shop in Westbrook if you're in the market for any...  

giveaway time!

*****

This giveaway is now closed!

We've drawn the winner for this giveaway!  We used the random number generator and came up with...

Lucky number 7! so...  Congratulations to Slađana Sušilović!

*****

We've been pumping out lots of handmade goods, and getting all sorts of new vintage for the shop lately.  We figured a fun way to celebrate the abundance of all this stuff is to have a little giveaway on the blog!  Share the love, ya know? 

 So we put together this little package of goodies....

It features a beautifully embroidered vintage hankie, a sweet photo from the Summer of '43, a pair of handmade mint green polka dot earrings, and a handmade necklace with a vintage botanical moth print.  (I felt like Rod Roddy while typing that.. I just pictured a Price is Right lady motioning to these items on a table)

There are a few ways to enter.  #1 and most important is to leave a comment on this entry! That counts as one entry.  You get an extra entry if you tweet about the giveaway (just be sure to tweet us @shoplucilles so we can see!), or if you mention the giveaway in a blog entry or facebook post (just link to it in your comment).

We'll tally up the entries and randomly select a winner on Friday, July 19th at 5:00pm (EST) ***EDIT*** we're keeping the contest open until Sunday at 5PM EST... just for some extra time to enter! ****  Then we'll mail this cute little package to the winner... who, by the way, can be anywhere in the world!  The more the merrier! 

Good luck!

xoxo,

Jess & Caiti

Weekly Wantsies

What Caiti's pining for:

1.) I love dresses, lately I've been all about the pastel floral sundress. So cute.

2.) My Dad's a biker so it may be rubbing off on me but I reallllly want a cropped leather jacket. 

3.) Also I need another skull in my collection and this ones lovely.

4.) Gold and seafoam and irrelevant to my life but these should be mine. Plus they're cheap!

5.) I've always liked the idea of monograms. I like these...

Things Jess is incredibly into:

1.  Lately I've been getting the urge to dress like Laura Petrie.  Which is sort of weird for me, since I'm consistently clad in dresses, but right now I want tanks and pedal pushers with flats, so.. This vintage tulip print tank top would be a perfect start to my Laura Petrie collection, no?

2.  I love insect jewelry, forever & always.  These bee earrings are (forgive the pun... yes... I'm going there...) the bee's knees.

3.  I LOVE messenger bags (I don't do well with normal purses), and I love vintage typography, so obviously this vintage typewriter messenger bag is a win/win.

4.  Perfect cropped jeans to go with my tank top.  PS.  I'm totally into Mod Cloth's new plus size collection. Pretty drool-worthy.

5.  Aaaaaaaaadorable red & black polka dot flats... to complete the ensemble!  Man, I would wear these with so many things.  

and, just in case you're wondering, Jess would definitely wear that whole collection together as one outfit.  for SURE.  And Caiti would wear everything in her collage as well... while carrying around the skull.  Because we're cool like that.

Wantingly yours,

Caiti & Jess

a bit of a truthful blurb by Jess

There's something kind of magical about having a store.  I always hoped, when I was pie-in-the-sky daydreaming about having one someday, that it would be this absolutely amazing place that I wanted to spend all my time in.  And luckily, I was right.  

I had a tough time this past week, and spent a couple days away from the shop at home because I was having crazy amounts of anxiety about a wild variety of things and just needed to chill the hell out.  Because... even though having a shop is a magical, beautiful thing, it's stressful in ways that I didn't even know were possible and never could have anticipated.  You know how when people start working out and they say that their muscles hurt in places they didn't even know they had muscles?  Both Caiti and I are emotionally exhausted in places that we didn't even know we had emotions.  I mean, EXHAUSTED.  We feel all sorts of things, all the time.  It's crazy.

But despite all my stress and anxiety, I really, really missed being at the store, and I was so so happy to be back.  Both of us spent yesterday at the shop doing various things... I was taking pictures for Etsy, and Caiti was outside painting furniture.  We both stayed late, not because we had to, but because we were caught up in projects that we were excited about and because we WANTED to finish them.  The furniture was coming out adorable, and the light in the shop was SO perfect for photos... I mean, why would you want to leave that? 

It was a great day.

So basically, what I'm saying is... things are tough, but amazing.  And I'm truly, really happy even when it seems like I'm sad... which is kind of the greatest thing I've ever felt.  Knowing that I'm pursuing my dream is such a huge accomplishment, that even when I feel like a big fat failure and like everything is going wrong, there's still at least a glimmer of happiness deep inside of me, because I'M DOING IT.  And I hope that you, whoever you are reading this, have something in your life that you love so much that you're in love with it no matter how much you hate it sometimes.. and I hope that it makes you all shimmery inside, even when you've got a big cloud of gloom over your head.  It's kind of a great feeling, isn't it? 

truthfully yours,

Jess

ain't no cure for the summertime blues

the shop seems to have a serious case of the blues goin' on lately... and I'm totally into it.

Vintage Silk Button Vest

Vintage Summertime Blues Plaid Tanktop 

Vintage High Waisted Denim Shorts

Vintage Baby Blue Polka Dot Dress - L/XL

Vintage Baby Blue Shirt Dress with Embroidery Detail

All these cool hues make me want to spend the day lounging around in a calm, blue body of water - lake, river, pool... doesn't matter to me!  Then again, I feel that way most days during the summer, don't you?

All those beauties are available in the shop, if you happen to be a bit more in the mood for online shopping than outdoor lounging.  Orrrr if you're in the mood for an adventure.. they're also available at our ACTUAL shop at 625 Bridgton Road in Westbrook.. if you're down for a road trip :)

Happy 4th of July!

We hope you all have a safe and happy 4th of July!  And we also hope that you have a bit more fun than it looks like this lady is having....

xoxo,

Jess & Caiti

far out: my surprising love of 1970s design

Having grown up in a house that was built in the 1970s, I was quite convinced that all design from that era was just downright awful.  Our house was a split level house, that featured a weird yellow siding on the outside, and brown shag carpet on the inside.  Oh, except for in a couple rooms the color varied to yellow (and maybe my parent's room was green? oh boy).  All the ceilings on the main floor were stucco/popcorn ceilings, but were done in such a way that the "popcorn" feature was kind of like tiny, white daggers dripping from the ceiling.  And in the center of the living room ceiling there was a groovy painted medallion that my mom never asked for but got anyway.  It was white, so it wasn't atrocious, but it really set off the stucco daggers of doom.  Overall, it was just not an example of something to swoon over design-wise.

So imagine my surprise when recently, I realized that I am actually quite in love with 70s style design! 

 I think it's happened gradually over the past few years, starting innocently enough with a chair here...

1970s Danish Modern chairs we reupholstered & sold a few months ago

and a table there....

1970s Heywood Wakefield cobbler's table we just sold recently.  I kind of miss it.

....but it's definitely been noticeable lately. Now, don't get me wrong... there's still PLENTY of offensive things that came from the 70s... 

I mean, hi:

Eep. So so bad.

But the good is so so good.  I love the modern designs that were just starting to become popular in the 60s and 70s, coupled with all the hippie dippy colors and patterns that were being used. I love all the super bold, strong lines that were used in construction of not just furniture, but whole houses.  Give me a weird A-Frame house or a big boxy house any day of the week!

via FastCoDesign

Also, can we talk about conversation pits?  SO. GOOD.

via Home-Designing.com

Basically, what it boils down to is that I just want to live in the Wary-Meyers' living room.  I've been obsessed with photos of this house for ages, and just recently realized they're from Maine.  MAINE! THAT'S WHERE I'M FROM!

I mean, look at that!  If I can't make my house look like that someday, our shop will inevitably end up looking like it.  

What do you think about 70s style?  Groovy in a good way? Or groovy in a "get your popcorn off my ceiling" kinda way?  

Hippily dippily,

Jess

Blogger Blurb: Amy from Wildfell Hall Vintage

Welcome to part deux of our blogger feature!  We've been picking the brains of bloggers we adore and asking them all sorts of silly questions. We started last month with Michelle from Vintage Junky (see that interview here).  Right now we've got some Q&As with the absolutely lovely Amy from Wildfell Hall Vintage.  

Were you always into vintage or was there a particular time when it started?

Loved vintage since I was about 14, I went to a girls school and got in with the "alternative-loud-mouth-crowd", we bought vintage fabric and made our own shorts and skirts, wore doc martens with the laces undone, shaved half our hair off (during lunchtime as you do) and wore biker jackets to the school prom (or "school ball" as we say in New Zealand), we would go into the city and layaway vintage dresses, god I wish I had kept them!

Do you have a favorite costume designer, or movie (with amazing costuming)?

Hard to narrow down a fave movie for costumes, I am obsessed with period dramas and never miss one.  Downton of course is a recent favorite but there are so many. One of my fave all time shows is House of Elliot, a BBC show about 2 sisters in the 20s who start their own fashion line. (editor's note: TOTALLY going to be watching House of Elliot now)

1950s Cinnamon Swirl Dress at Wildfell Hall

What is your favorite go to accessory?

Go to accessory....tan leather bags and shoes from the 70s. Pretty much never buy any other color!

What's your favorite DIY project that you've done yourself or aspire to? 

DIY? you must be joking. I never make anything....If I was a Victorian lady I would do collage though! those ladies really knew how to put pictures together...

1920s Silk Dress and Capelet at Wildfell Hall

In a zombie apocalypse what is your weapon of choice?

In a zombie apocalypse I'd jump into the first zombie's arms that I saw. why fight it? join it.

What is your most prized vintage possession and how did you acquire it?

prized possession....not sure really. Probably a 20s kimono with an Egyptian scene on it I recently bought. I collect Egyptian vintage pieces and this was a real stunner!

Are there any blogs you'd like to recommend?

I used to read plenty of blogs but to be honest being a new Mum leaves me zero time for such pleasures! I can't even update my own anymore!

eep, look at little Wolfie!  I'm not usually swoony for babies, but man, he is a cute one.

So today we've learned that Amy is an old school bad ass with fabulous taste, who wouldn't even trifle with a zombie.  If you love her as much as we do, feel free to check out her blog (where she just recently wrote a great piece about being exasperated about how our culture deals with size.. something we could ramble about a lot), Wildfell Hall Vintage on Etsy, AND The Slipperie, her vintage lingerie shop.  Phew!  What a busy, busy lady!

Until next time...

-Jess & Caiti