In the shop now!

Hello, I just realized I've been forgetting to tell you that I'm adding new notebooks to the shop this week! I've got a load of animal books just waiting patiently to be listed, so lookout for those in the days coming. Yay!

Ok, so already I am having quite a day. I am trying to decompress a bit by posting this before I get back to work. I went to goodwill the other day with the intent of buying clothes, which is something I haven't done in a while. For a long time goodwill has been for records and books pretty much exclusively, but I was pleasantly surprised by the shopping success I had, and I wanted to share my finds with you. First, shoes:

It was love at first sight for me with those sweet leather shoes in the top photo, but unfortunately they are not super great for walking in. I wore them to the gym, which is about 10 blocks from my house, and they really tore my poor little heels up. Maybe they'll stretch out? Does leather do that? I hope so because I think the shoes are so cute and they are like new. It would be such a shame if I couldn't wear them. The shoes in the second picture are super squishy soft comfy granny shoes that I think are rad but that Steve made a bad face about. He doesn't care for them. And then the Maui slides, which I just couldn't resist, they are too much fun.

Okay, now sweaters:

Sorry for the color in all these photos, they were all taken in the evening with all our energy saving lightbulbs on and I'm not sure how to make them look less yellow. Anyhow, this is made from a super scratchy wool and reminds me of a fisherman's sweater. It is in really nice shape except for one tiny hole, but I am actually a fan of a tiny hole or two.

I used to have quite a few cardigans similar to this one, in several different colors, but I eventually parted ways with them all, and now feel some regret about that. So I was glad to find this sweet white one, and was further glad because I have really been pining for a crew neck cardigan (all of the cardigans I currently own are v-necks.)

I'm really excited about this sweater. I know the picture is a little crazy, but it is the perfect shade of red for me. And...
Fancy, right? This sweater is in such great condition that I think it had probably never been worn. I'm thinking, based on the look of the label, that it is 70s or 80s vintage? But I really am no expert, I'd love to hear anybody else's opinion.

Ok, my last find is this blazer:

Which I am not positive about. The colors are not so electric as they appear in this photo, they are more pastel-ly and the jacket has a kind of 1910s Salad Days feel to it. But it is still pretty colorful and bold and I am not sure if I could pull it off. Also, I'm not sure what shirt I would wear under it. So, it is a little iffy. But I am pretty fond of it.

And that's it! Pretty successful for my first time goodwill shopping in a while, right?

I think I may have mentioned that I am all about podcasts now that I have an ipod touch. I was previously vehemently anti-podcast, because I had the clip on shuffle, which has no screen, so not so good for podcasts. But now I am totally in to them, and among my favorites are the podcasts from the folks at the website How Stuff Works. In fact I was listening to one this very morning (stuff your mom never told you), and they were talking about how a lack of sleep can make you (gasp!) fat! Oh hells no! I'd heard this before, but kind of put it in the old brain file and didn't think about it much. But on the podcast they mentioned using a sleep mask, and a little lightbulb came on. Maybe I should try this out. So I was browsing etsy and found the BibBon shop.

The shop is full of really sweet eye masks like this. The hard part is going to be deciding which one to get! I also came across the lovelyart shop which has great Breakfast at Tiffany's inspired sleep masks that are unfortunately just out of my price range.

Click on photos for links!

I really enjoy blogging, but I am often remiss in doing so because I like to include at least one photo with each post, preferably one of my own, and this causes trouble for me because I have been very bad lately about taking photos and even worse about uploading them to flickr. I just had a nice long weekend vacation in the LA and Orange County area and I took not one photo. But I really wanted to blog today, so I decided to scrounge up some interesting-ness from flickr that I haven't shared here before. I was tagged by the ever-lovely Erin to share 6 unimportant things that make me happy, so here goes:

1.

This photo brings me unlimited joy. I love the zebra shirt on the girl in front, I love the huge smiles on my sisters' faces (in the second row) and I love that I look like a crazy creepy monk with a dashing mustache (in the third row). And, of course, I love Space Mountain. I think Space Mountain photos are probably the best of all the Disneyland ride photos.

2.

Oven fries. I've been thinking about them all day. I can't wait to go home and bake some up. Yum.

3.

Wild bunnies in Leisure World (where my grandmother lives in Orange County).

4.

Leisure World. It is pretty amazing. It almost makes me want to get old so I can live there. Only 30 more years!

5.

The day or two after I tidy up the house and maybe decorate a little, when the house looks almost normal and cute, before I trash it again.

6.

When I can access all the websites I want to on my computer at work. Today, no Jezebel, no McSweeney's, no PhotoshopDisasters, no Facebook.

So, I am tagging whoever reads this blog, which is ... I'm not sure who. But if you do, thanks!

Also, I really hope to have new notebooks in the shop very soon, I have a bunch made that are just sitting in a nice stack on my desk, waiting for conditions to be right for photography. It will happen someday, I just know it.

mel

Next weekend (the weekend of Friday the 13th!) Steve and I are going down to Southern California for a little vacation, and I have fixated on this idea of me walking around LA in a cute summer dress. I don't know how I got this stuck in my mind, sometimes these things just happen I guess. I've been browsing etsy's vintage clothing because the dress in my little daydream has a square-ish neck, like this dress from yosemite vintage:

I think this dress is totally adorable and almost perfect, but I am also one hundred percent sure that it would make Steve want to throw up. My daydream doesn't involve Steve looking at me with disappointment the way he has in the past when I wore, say, my indian necklace tshirt. I have to say though, I think secretly Steve wants me to dress in the manner that he professes to disapprove of; why else would he buy me Star Trek tshirts? Anyway, much as it pains me, I think the butterfly dress is off the table. I was thinking the red dress above, from my sweetie pie pie might be a reasonable compromise, but I'm realizing now I'm a little scared of buying a dress without trying it on. Do any readers have any experience with online clothes shopping or any advice for me?

mel