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

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

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 :)

scenes from the shop

sorry for the lack of blog posts this week!  We've been busy buying, and sewing and mending, and planning and plotting... you know, all the usual time consuming things. But this morning we wandered around the shop and took a few photos for Facebook so we thought we'd share them here as well.  These are the things we hang out with everyday... not too shabby, I suppose.

 

Isn't our homemade open flag fun?  We were going to just buy one, but we decided nothing else we have is really normal or standard, so why should our open flag be like that? Handmade it is! D.I.Y. til you D.I.E. ya know what I mean?

And now we've gotta go get ready to hang out at the Flea for All tonight.  They're doing a big ole event with food trucks and vendors and lots of fun stuff.  Hanging out on a Friday night with vintage and food?  Again... not too darn shabby.

xoxo,

Jess & Caiti

Button Necklace DIY

It seems like one of the things most crafters and vintage collectors all have is a surplus of is buttons.  You never know what sort of thing you'll come across that needs a neat button, so you save those suckers up!  And sometimes you end up with a ton of them and it gets a little outta hand.  And by "You" I mean "us".  We have a lot of buttons.  One day when I had a surplus of time on my hand I decided to come up with a way to use a few buttons for something a little different...

A button statement necklace!  

What you'll need for this project is: a piece of felt in a color of your choice, buttons, a needle & thread, and some ribbon.  I used an exacto knife for one portion of the process as well, but there are ways to MacGyver around that if you don't have one available. Side note: sleepy expression not required for this project, but I was clearly rocking it just as a bonus.  You're welcome.

Start off by sorting through your button stash.  I know you've got one!  If I'm wrong, and you don't, you can usually find tons of neat buttons at any craft store, or for super cheap at places like yard sales and markets.

Lay your buttons out on your felt in a configuration that looks good to you.  I like necklaces that look a bit abstract, so I chose a semi-weird configuration that was pleasing to my eyeballs.  Feel free to use whatever shape you'd like - stars, hearts, circles... whatever your heart & eyeballs desire.

Outline the shape of your buttons with a marker so you can cut it out.  It's also helpful at this point to take a picture of your buttons, just so you can remember how they're arranged.  Or maybe it would just be helpful to have a better memory than me, and in that case no camera is required.

After cutting your shape out, start sewing those buttons on!  

And ta-da!  You have a necklace!  Well, part of one at least.  You can attach jump rings through the felt and attach it to a chain to finish it, or you could just thread some ribbon through it like I did. 

If you choose to go the easy-peasy route like I did, here's where the Exacto knife comes in.  Cut two small slits close together on the bib, and make sure it's hidden behind a button so you won't see it in the front.  Thread the ribbon through one side and out the other, and knot it back onto itself so it's secure.  Repeat on the other side.  This method makes it so it just slips on over your head, so be sure to leave enough room for your noggin.  You can finagle the ribbon a bit before tying it off and cutting the excess to get it the length you'd like.

 

Ta-da!  You have a whole necklace now!  And you've put a dent in your button collection... so now you have an excuse to go out and buy more!  :)

one fine day

it was INCREDIBLY nice out yesterday! Like, 65 degrees nice.  The kind of nice that makes you want to lounge around outside instead of doing projects and cleaning.  All we managed to get done was one DIY that involved iron on transfers, and that was waaaaaay at the end of the day.  It was apparent we weren't doing much, and had the itch to be outside, so we decided to at least capitalize on the nice weather and take photos of our outfits. 

I feel that it should be noted that Caiti initially was wearing a cute pair of sandals, but broke them while trying to teach me how to do ballet. So.. she borrowed a pair of boots from the shop.  The casualties of ballet demonstrations!  It was totally worth it though.  Girl can still do a mean plié.  or whatever it was she was showing me at the time of the sandal destruction.

I feel like most bloggers do a breakdown of where they got their items from, and we usually try to... but... everything we're wearing was thrifted.  Ev-er-y-thing.  Except for the hair bow I'm wearing... Caiti made that.  I think it was made from thrifted fabric, so... sorry for the lack of list is basically what I'm trying to say.

although, now that I think of it, I don't know where either of us got our sunglasses? Nowhere noteworthy, I'm sure.  Worst. Bloggers. Ever.

 Wearing this shirt all day made me want a Guinness reaaaaaaaaaaal bad! I haven't had one in so long.  Or a Young's Double Chocolate Stout.  Do people normally drink heavy beers like that during the summer? Whatever, I do what I want.  And what I want is to drink a beer that's basically a meal.

What have you guys been doing to take advantage of the nice weather? Drinking some Guinness? 

Warmly (like the weather! get it? HA!),

Jess (and Caiti, in spirit)

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

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