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

playing dress up

One of the best things about owning a vintage store is that you basically have a giant walk in closet to play in.  Complete with props and all sorts of fun furniture and things!  The other day we decided to take photos of some outfits because... well... because it's fun.  Also, because we usually take photos on a mannequin or a hanger, and sometimes it just doesn't translate how awesome the garment is.  Also it was fun.

just imagine that there was something super interesting on the ground that we were looking at... because apparently we posed in the exact same way in all three of these photos. whoops!

These shorts are insane.  And actually pretty amazing.

70s housewife realness.

Men's shirt + striped shorts = awesomeness!  We're both really into the idea of tying shirts up like that over shorts this summer.  It's very... 1990s... but somehow we still like it?

There were more photos, but we ended up cutting our heads off in most of them to make this graphic... which is probably good because we both got crazy hair in no time flat after trying on clothing.  Oh, and if you're down with a sale, everything in our Etsy shop is super cheap right now.  Anything that's in these photos that isn't up yet will be in the next few days.  

We've been too busy playing in our dream closet to list everything :)

xoxo,

Jess & Caiti