the girl with the lace on her headband

Andy and I went down the UICA last night to see the film of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I felt a little more urgent need to see it since I had just finished reading The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest, and was sad knowing there will be no further Blomkvist/Salander tales. (Unless Stieg Larsson's estate approves some kind of terrible Scarlett-esque sequel.) I liked the movie very much, and am also glad the Swedes got to it before it was made into something starring Brad Pitt and Keira Knightley. (Oh, crap. That looks like it could be a possibility.)

I was also very happy last night because my wonderful new headband from branchbound arrived in the mail, and it is so cute. (Please forgive this close-up taken in the car en route to the movie.) I love the colors, and the headband is very comfy. Such a fun and easy way to brighten up an outfit! I know Sarah Louise is making more of these in various shapes and colors. She also makes lovely lace necklaces, earrings and combs--go check them out!

After the movie, Andy and I strolled next door to the Ladies Literary Club, which is a beautiful historic building that sometimes has concerts. In fact, we saw Andrew Bird play there a few years back and it was such a fantastic venue to see him in! The auditorium is very old school and intimate.

I took this hilarious photo of Andy in the parking lot. Love the mural and the old Caddy!

xo

K

vintage prom

Although I'm way past my prom days, I still thought it would be fun to do a post about vintage prom dresses. And I was hoping to start things off with a photo of me in my prom dress (circa 1987). Unfortunately, I could not find the photo. I didn't wear a vintage dress to prom, although I had started thrifting and wearing vintage at this point. My dress was, however, vintage-inspired. It was a pretty amazing black satin floor-length sheath, with a fishtail hem, and I wore it with long gloves and rhinestone jewelry. Very Hollywood movie star! The effect, however, was pretty much ruined by my giant hair.

Since I don't have a photo of me and my dress (and my cute prom date!), here's a photo from the same time period of me and the hair (and our cute college counselor! Who is obviously quite rightly puzzled by the hair).

The rhinestone earrings? I wore those to prom!

Anyway, if I were 18 and attending prom today, I would want to go wearing one of the many amazing and well-priced vintage dresses you can find on Etsy! And naturally, these vintage party and cocktail dresses work just as well for more grown-up affairs. I put together an Etsy Treasury of 16 of my favorites. Click the photo to see a larger view of the treasury (links to each seller's dress below the photos), or click this link to go directly to the Treasury itself, which includes clickable links to all the dresses.

Row 1, l-r: 13bees; AdelaideHomesewn; HuzzahVintage; DearGoldenVintage

Row 2, l-r: swaneegrace; thegreedyseagull; persephonevintage; HinterlandVintage

Row 3, l-r: shopREiNViNTAGE; MariesVintage; denisebrain; landof1000dresses

Row 4, l-r: brownbagvintage; salvagelife; VivaLaVintageShoppe; studio1950

And here's a little selection of prom/cocktail party-worthy dresses from the shop.

Clockwise, starting at upper left corner: 1950s Black Taffeta MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION Party Dress; 1950s Blush Pink Chantilly Lace Dress; 1950s MIDNIGHT Sparkle Peg Palmer Party Dress; 1950s Satin BLUE HEAVEN Satin Cocktail Dress by Miss Brooks

Clockwise, starting at upper left corner: 1950s LILAC SMOKE Lace Party Dress; 1940s Black Taffeta R&K Originals Dress with Rhinestone Buttons; 1980s Metallic EMERALD Party Dress; 1960s Abstract ORCHARD Print Tiered Skirt Cocktail Dress

And hey, if you have a chance, check out this week's prom themed Etsy Voter, and if you're so inclined, put a vote in for my 1950s Lilac Smoke Lace Party Dress, which was nominated--my first time ever in an Etsy Voter!

xo

K

newbies

When you visit the front page of the Etsy website, you are looking at a collection of photos someone on Etsy (either a member of the Etsy staff, or an Etsy buyer or seller) made. This collection of photos is called a Treasury, and if one of your items is in a Treasury that gets on the front page, you get some great, free exposure. I make a lot of treasuries, but only a few have made it to the front page.

Etsy has another very cool feature called Pounce that allows you to view (and pounce on!) listings from new shops that have not had any sales yet. I'm ashamed to admit I hadn't made much use of this feature when I saw this blog post from my talented bag-making teammate Jenny. She featured some cute Valentine's Day items she found using Pounce.

Inspired by Jenny, I decided to give Pounce a trial run by making an all Pounce Treasury. The results are above, and they're pretty dang great, if I do say so myself! I found some wonderful vintage sellers (including a new shop focusing on vintage menswear with great photos and the fabulous name Shabberdashery), gorgeous ceramics and artwork, and a shop called AbandonedHouses that specializes in beautiful photos of--you guessed it--abandoned houses. And the number one item on my wishlist right now is the two-headed lamb pillow from Somebody'sDarling.

So please do click here to visit my treasury and take a look at these fresh new shops. And maybe give someone his or her first sale!

xo
K

it's damn fine! new etsy favorite, the great northern

I admit to going through phases where I do obsessive searches through Etsy listings for particular things. Anyone who's seen my embarrassing Wish List posts already knows of my (quite on-Etsy-trend) thing for woodgrain items and squirrels. And candy. I just took a short break from some serious stalking of Etsy's many soapmakers and turned my attention to...cross stitch!

And there I found The Great Northern, a shop that magically combines my latest obsession with an old one: Twin Peaks. Twin Peaks aired when I was in college, and I well remember the nights I gathered with my friends and our 40 ouncers to watch. I recently re-watched the series and loved it even more the second time around.









The Great Northern sells not only cute cross stitch samplers, but also a Log Lady pin and earrings, Bookhouse Boys earrings, and cute fingerless mittens. Look at these There's a Fish in the Percolator Mittens!




I can tell you that the cross stitch samplers are just as fabulous in person, but I can't say much more as the one I got is a gift "for Andy" (quotation marks because Andy never watched Twin Peaks, so it's really kind of a gift For Me, or as I like to think of it, For Us).

I don't see that The Great Northern does custom items, but I wonder if I asked nicely if they would make me a "That gum you like is going to come back in style" cross stitch.

xo
K

i don't wanna grow up

Seems like folks turn into things
That they'd never want
The only thing to live for
Is today...
How the hell did I get here so soon
I don't wanna grow up.

--Tom Waits/K. Brennan


Hm, how old is too old for stuffed toys? As someone who still has the (disintegrating) panda bear given to me at my birth by my grandparents, an oversize Paddington Bear (that accompanied me to college), plus assorted hand-sewn and crocheted little animals made for me by my mother when I was a child, I may be the wrong person to answer that question.

And now I have fallen for the adorable stuffed toys in sleepyking's Etsy shop. Like Norway Spruce, The Little Fox, above.

How can you not love a shop whose tagline is "cute things to make you happy when you are sad"? Look at Vincent, the Creepy Cute Albino Bunny. I love his pink-red eyes!

Bon-Bon the Blushing Squirrel! These sweet little animals--especially those with the slightly forlorn expressions--all seem to be crying out for me to take them home.

But instead of becoming the Crazy Cat Lady of the stuffed toy world, I just bought Savannah's very last Rupert the Little Raccoon wall art...since it was the first sleepyking piece I fell for, and the last one in her shop!

He's cute, isn't he?

xo
k