shop tour: Little Ghost Vintage

On our last shop tour, we took a peek into Monarch Mercantile. Now, we get to check out a lovely shop called Little Ghost Vintage owned by a super awesome lady who has become a dear friend of ours.  I admit that I may have spent more time gossiping with Dawn, the shop's owner, than taking photos (seriously, ask my husband - we were probably there for WELL over an hour hahaha), so I probably could have been more thorough, but you'll just have to stop in and see it for yourself. My photos can't even properly capture how fun this place is anyways... it's worth taking a trip there to see it in person and dig around for treasures, trust me :)

Dawn had always wanted her own thrift store, and this past spring she made that dream a reality, opening up Little Ghost in the Time & Temp building in Portland. You can find entrances for the store on Preble Street, or through the Time & Temp Building's lobby via Congress Street, so it's super accessible and a great place to pop in if you're walking around downtown. 

(this is the only picture I even got with the shop's name in it... such a bad blogger. but a good gossiper!)

Little Ghost makes a point to have lots of fun items at reasonable prices.  It stands out from a lot of other shops in Portland because... well, you can actually leave here with your wallet intact.  There's a huge variety of clothing, both vintage and more modern secondhand, as well as lots of housewares, accessories, and fun knicknacks (and whozits and whatsits galore).

Dawn goes to auctions regularly (an addiction that I blame entirely on myself and Caiti), as well as having a team of pickers that buys for her... so there are always plenty of treasures to be found!

i loved this apron! if only my name was Addie...

that's a Lucille's nightgown right there to the right, in case you were wondering! ;)

I keep thinking about this piece - at first I thought it was a family photo, then Dawn pointed out to me that it's a collage of THE SAME WOMAN throughout her lifetime! I LOVE IT SO MUCH. i should probably just buy it. i love that she rocked the pigtails during two phases of life!

  

so, seriously, dudes. If you're in Portland, go check out Little Ghost. Even if you're not in Portland, you should drive there because it's totally worth it.  And... if you happen to be around for First Friday in August, she's throwing a little shindig! Like Little Ghost on Facebook for up to the minute updates (and because the cover photo is my new favorite thing ever). 

Keep an eye out for our next Shop Tour... and let us know if you have a shop you'd like to be featured, or if you know of somewhere that is blog worthy. We're always down for a road trip!

-Jess & Caiti

old photos

I've always had quite the collection of old photos. Whenever I'm at an antique store (or anywhere else, for that matter), and I see a bin of discarded family photos, I feel a twinge of misplaced nostalgia.  The moments in those photos were precious enough that someone felt the need to capture them on film, but sadly, over time their importance has faded.  They've ended up with relatives who have no idea what the memory was, or who the people even are. So I always end up scooping up those photos like abandoned teddy bears (yes, thrift store stuffed animals bum me out too, but that's another blog entry) and bring them home to appreciate them.  

I realized recently that I have a bunch of photos that have been relinquished to a drawer and forgotten about after a mad cleaning session in my office... which is EXACTLY what I was trying to rescue them from in the first place. I decided to free these babies into the world, aka sell them at the Flea For All, to see if someone else might enjoy them, and prolong their life a bit more. I'm still not letting go entirely, though. I scanned them so I could share them with you guys (whoever it is who actually reads this blog)... and I think we may be using some as labels for some of our products so they live on even longer! Enjoy :)

Which one is your favorite? I'm not sure I could pick! although I do really love the lady charming the bear...

xo,

Jess

introducing...

new categories of things for the shop!

Lucille's is sort of a one-stop shop for everything you need at the Flea For All, and we're trying to expand our Etsy so that it reflects that as well.  We're going to have not only vintage clothing, but handmade items (cards, zip pouches, etc), custom clothing by Caiti (handsewn retro inspired pieces in CUSTOM SIZES), and lots of other things.  But we're also expanding our vintage selection! We don't just carry dresses and girly things.  We've also got...

Menswear:

Kid's Clothing:

(i've had to explain to WAY too many people that a knucklehead is a Harley... it's not some super creepy insult to the kid's mom)

 And lots of random (but awesome) hardgoods!

And lots of other stuff that we haven't even begun to photograph yet! phew! 

so keep an eye out for Lucille's... we're going all out, baby!

PS. All this items will be in the shop within the next few days.

a glimpse into Mildred Johnson's studio

We recently made a trip back to our old stomping grounds at the Brunswick Flea Market.  We went to say hello, and do some shopping, but we ended up going on an unexpected adventure (which is just how we like our days to go).

The Brunswick Flea Market is located inside the Andross Mill, a sprawling brick behemoth, leftover from the days when mills dotted the rivers up and down Maine.  Inside its massive footprint, it houses not only the flea market, but also a huge antique mall, a restaurant, and dozen of artists studios on the second floor. We ended up taking a jaunt up to the second floor, where we had never even been, to visit the artist studio of a woman named Mildred Johnson.  Our friend Jack, one of the vendors at the flea market, has always spoken highly of her, and mentioned that she was probably in today, so we went up to take a look.  

It was... wonderful.  Mildred is an amazing artist.  She works mainly in reclaimed items, making beautiful assemblages out of things you would never think of.  Her studio (or, studios really, she has three large rooms on the second floor) is full of strange pieces of metal, crates, egg cartons, pages from books, and items I'm sure I recognized from the flea market below.  She looks at these items not as junk, but pieces of a larger, beautiful puzzle that just hasn't been put together yet.

All of that is made even more amazing by the fact that she's 82 years old. 82! and still full of imagination and  churning out amazing pieces. 

you can read more a bit more about Mildred here, and see some of her collage work here.  And if you're ever in Brunswick, I would highly recommend wandering up to the second floor to see if she's around.  It'll make your day, I promise.

imitating art: Moonrise Kingdom

The time it took for Moonrise Kingdom to come to a local theater felt like years. DECADES, even.  Both Caiti and I (the I in question being Jess, obviously) are big Wes Anderson fans.  We sometimes listen to songs (specifically this one) from the Life Aquatic soundtrack to pump us up. So we couldn't wait to see his newest film.  It was, without a doubt, worth the wait that we had to endure.

It's set in 1965 on the coast of New England during the summer, and honestly, the whole movie just screams summertime in the most magical way.  It captures the loneliness and weirdness of being a kid, and how that never really goes away when  you're an adult.  It made me want to go hiking and camping and laze around and listen to records on a rainy, hot summer day.  I set out to see if I could recreate just a tiny snippet of the beauty from this film using treasures from Etsy.

you can't have a Wes Anderson movie without maps. lots of maps.

via LittleDogVintage

and you can't run away from home without a suitcase...

via QuiteFrankie

...or your cat

via cadauxdecatherine

and it's important to have reading material...

via TagSaleFinds

and guides so you know what you're talking about

via MouseTrapVintage

and it's the MOST important to have someone who feels like this:

via bobby2scoops

and... binoculars. because where would you be without your special power?

via TomTomVintage

Are you ready for summer adventures now? I am! Or, at the very least, I'm ready to go to the movie theaters again...

Yours,

Jess

shop tour: Monarch Mercantile

As someone who is totally obsessed with peeking into other people's shops, not only to... well, shop... but to just be inspired by how awesome they are... I am always psyched when I come across shop tours on various websites like Decor8. I can spend HOURS looking at those blogs just daydreaming about having my own shop someday, or at the very least, being able to spend some time in the dreamy world of the shops that are featured.  So we thought we'd use our humble little Lucille's blog to do the same.  We'll be featuring some of our favorite stores that inspire us.  And we hope we can fuel your daydreams a little bit :)

A couple weeks ago, we took a jaunt to Monarch Mercantile in Bridgton, Maine.  It's run by a very adorable lady named Jess, who also sets up shop as a vendor at the Portland Flea for All from time to time.  

it is... AMAZING. 

it's a treasure trove of kitschy vintage & antique pieces along with loads of handmade and upcycled stuff as well.  it has such a fun vibe, and the store truly lives up to the "merchants of whimsy" standard proclaimed on the sign.

i loved these bracelets!

I really, really, REALLY want one of these elephant pillow/stuffed animal situations. I'm going through an elephant phase, and I'm also into nearly-mismatched patterns so it's only THE PERFECT THING FOR ME

Thanks for letting us loiter and take pictures like total creepers, Jess! We had fun!

If there's anywhere in the Maine/NH area that we NEED to check out, let us know... we're always down for an adventure!

Until next time,

Jess & Caiti