happy thankfulness

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and after cooking a vegetarian meal with Andy for us and my parents (already made the pumpkin cheesecake!), I'll probably be snuggled up on the couch with the three critters you see above.

And because I'm thankful for all of you fabulous folk who have purchased from the Small Earth Vintage Etsy shop over the past year, I'm having a Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale now through midnight on Monday, 11/29! Use code NOIR2010 at checkout for 20% off anything in the shop.

Happy Thanksgiving and happy shopping!

xo

K

radio is a sound salvation

This Thanksgiving, I am thankful for something that--and this amazes me--didn't exist in my life until about 15 years ago. That thing is the internet.

Of course, I'm thankful that the internet allows me to make a living doing something I really love. But at the moment, I'm particularly thankful that it has rejuvenated my love of music. A month or so ago, a fellow Twitterer mentioned that BBC Radio 6 had a radio program hosted by Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker--Jarvis Cocker's Sunday Service. (It's awesome. You should tune in, whether you're a Pulp/Jarvis fan or not.) I have been listening to the various BBC Radio 6 deejays every day since. They play great music. An amazing mix of indie, punk, and classics such as you will never ever hear on the suckfest that is American radio. (With the exception of the few excellent independent and college radio stations out there. But WFMU--I stopped trying to listen. Your media player never worked on my computer.) So I'm now a daily listener of Gideon Coe, Steve LaMacq, and Marc Riley, all of whom are making my ears very happy.

And it's this musical satisfaction that has infiltrated my latest shop preview. After song titles popped into my head for two or three of the items here, I figured I'd challenge myself to naming everything in it after a song. They're not all good songs, or songs I even like, and I doubt everyone will know all the songs I'm referencing.

But it was still fun. Enjoy!

Green Eyes velvet wiggle dress set with scallop edge top.

1950s Ice, Ice, Baby blue cashmere sweater, by St. Andrews.

Sound Off! 1960s ecru mod military dress.

Leopard and the Lamb wool coat, by Penguin.

The Lady is a Tramp. 1940s black taffeta party dress, by R&K Original.

Slit Skirts. Fringe-edged wool check skirt, by Korday.

Mod salmon pink English Rose scooter dress.

Crawl Babies fair isle cardigan.

Ready Steady Go! Red wool plaid dress, Prestige by David Presson.

Dear Prudence paisley print blouse, by Dearborn.

Dirty Old Town. 1960s Celtic print dress with ruffled collars and cuffs.

Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground. Rococo autumn sweater, by Sportempo.

My Blue Heaven satin party dress, by Miss Brooks.

A Good Year for the Roses. 1950s romantic blue and purple silk skirt.

1960s Green, Green Grass of Home dress, by Lampl.

A Natural Woman. 1970s Jeanne-Marc bohemian floral blouse.

You Trip Me Up. 1960s black velvet Bobbie Brooks jumper with embroidered pockets and neckline.

Undone--The Sweater Song. Bohemian striped bateau neck sweater with cuffs.

The Real Me. Blue and white mod dress with grosgrain bow at neck.

Straight to You. Black tiered taffeta skirt.

1940s Take the A Train dress with white passementerie trim.

1970s Lady Stardust rust suede and shearling coat.

1960s This Here Giraffe print dress.

Scarlet Billows (i.e. Mack the Knife) sharkskin blouse, by Lady Sutton.

Bad Liver and a Broken Heart. Wool coat with mink collar.

Stop Your Sobbing. 1981 Pretenders US tour t-shirt.

1960s Another Brick in the Wall dress.

I'm Turning Japanese. 1970s Vera Neumann dragonflies and cherry blossoms blouse.

Daisy, Daisy, Give Me Your Answer, Do. 1960s floral cardigan, by Kerrybrooke.

Navy wool plaid North Country Girl skirt suit, by McMullen.

xo

K

ah, marcello!

Just to give you all a heads up, we'll be traveling for Thanksgiving next week, and while I'll have the Etsy store open for shopping, there will be no shipping from 11/22-11/26 (normal shipping will resume on 11/29).

In the meantime, here is a peek at a few more men's pieces coming to the shop. I love selling vintage menswear. We find quite a bit of it, and my model is very easy to work with. Seriously, if there's anything in particular you'd like to see for men in the shop, please let me know!

Striped gray cardigan.

Red plaid Pendleton coat.

Amazing mod 1960s silver sharkskin suit by Cesare Larini.

Skinny mod yellow and gray tie (the pattern reminds me of hard boiled eggs!).

I probably should have had Andy wear shades for that last photo. Even without them, though, he reminds me of this fine fellow. Man, I really wish the suit was A's size!

xo

K

before, during, after

Andy and I went out to dinner last night to take advantage of Grand Rapids' first-ever Restaurant Week. We ended up going to Bistro Bella Vita, an old favorite, because we were too slow to make reservations at super-fancy 1913 Room.

I wore a newly-acquired vintage fur collar. I was going to sell it in the shop, but decided to keep it. I attached a pretty moss green satin ribbon to it to fancify it up a little.

Something I didn't realize about fur collars: they are really, REALLY warm. The last time I wore fur (vintage, naturally) was in Montreal in March, several years back. Last night was an unseasonably warm evening, and I was quite toasty, bare arms and all. I'm showing the cape I wore here, as proof that I do wear it, since it was an item I'd previously shown on the blog in a shop preview and then--very rudely and selfishly--kept. Bad Karen!

Anyway, despite our delicious meal at Bistro, it was a depressing Restaurant Week, as with it came news that two of my local favorites, Bloom and Corez, are closing. This is very sad news, as both places served amazing, innovative food using local ingredients (and amazing cocktails at both places I should add), and restaurants that do that are very scarce indeed in Grand Rapids.

On another note, here's a little Before (well, During, really) and After peek at what we did to our bedroom!

xo

K

holiday wishlist--the scottish edition

It's that most wonderful time of year again! And I'm still obsessed with all things Scottish. So, in (temporary) lieu of a trip to Scotland, I'll take any or all of the following for Christmas, thank you. (Start shopping now if you want them to arrive in time for the holidays--all items with the exception of the last one come from Etsy sellers based in Scotland.)

Since I do my packing and shipping in our freezing cold basement all winter, I'm pretty sure I need a pair of these gloves, from seller clovaknits. They might be the only thing standing between me and a horrible Numb Hands Tape Gun Incident.

I love everything in 13threads' shop, but particularly this tailored yet romantic herringbone tweed jacket.

Tuwhittuwhoo has the best shop name on Etsy. And the shop is full of cute things, like this adorable appliqued tablecloth.

The quirky and very funny work in paulofnavarone's shop makes me smile. Even though his name reminds me of the Guns of Navarone toy that I never got for Christmas (see last year's wishlist post).

This Harris tweed houndstooth satchel from breagha is just the bee's knees!

I would have to keep it on a high shelf away from Lucy (of course, that's how she's used to seeing most squirrels), but I do love these wild-eyed herringbone baby squirrels from dragonhouseofyuen.

Aaaaand here it is, from thedoghouse, pretty much the perfect thing for a childless couple obsessed with their dog (erm, not that I know anyone remotely fitting that description): the doggy advent calendar! Brilliant.

Have I mentioned lately we're removing all the disgusting carpet in our house? Thus, I am obsessed with rugs of all sorts, but particularly with cute crocheted ones, like this from emmalamb.

And, finally, this is more of a need than a wish--I have got to get some Pastels cds.

xo

K

midland

Andy, Lucy and I took a little road trip to Midland, Michigan and environs on Saturday. It was a chilly day, so I took the opportunity to wear my newly-aquired vintage Saks Fifth Avenue cream wool swing coat. I was excited to find this because--even though I have dozens of coats as it is--I don't have one, or much of anything really, in this color. The rest of my outfit is non-vintage old standbys: dress and cardi from Target, boots from J. Crew.

We didn't arrive in time to tour the historic mid-century modern Alden B. Dow home (Dow Chemical is in Midland), but I hope to get to see it on another visit. However, I did take photos of the Midland County Courthouse, which was designed by the very colorfully-named Bloodgood Tuttle.

Lucy loves being on the move. Look at those ears fly!

xo

K