Vintage and Thrift Finds

Hey Everyone!
One thing my mom and I have in common is a love of thrifting. I think we're not alone! : ) And one of the best places I know to partake in that pass-time is Maine, where we just happen to go every summer for family vacation!

I already told you all about the amazing score I got on my enamel kitchen table, but there's lots more! Let's start with my random negligee obsession. I don't know where it came from, but I decided I NEEDED some sexy vintage nighties! Happily, both Goodwill and The Schoolhouse Antique Mall in Brewer were able to provide!

First I found this cute 60's babydoll at Goodwill:

Super cute and not too terribly see-through, which means it can actually be sleepwear!

These next two, both from Schoolhouse Antiques, not so much... but hello sexy!

How can you not fall for an aqua blue, off-the-shoulder, ruffled floor length piece? For $6! You have to take it, right? Well, I did. Can't photograph it for the life of me, but you get the idea here, right?

And finally, on the second floor of the Schoolhouse (the place is a bit terrifying when you get up to the second and third floors and you can see how much that building is falling apart, but it's worth it!) I found this total Scarlett (or maybe Dallas!) number:

How about that? The nightie and the matching over-piece still together after how long?! Nine bucks, baby!

That one's worth a second picture- look at those sleeves! Such a fantasy piece, it's great!

Ok, now onto the slightly less scandalous category of decor items.
Well, I guess this first one still counts as apparel, but I'm using it as a tablecloth, so I'm leaving it here!

This is a Ralph Lauren silk scarf that someone got some ink marks on (that aren't very visible), Goodwill $1.50. Perhaps I should have pressed it before I photographed it... oh well!

At two different Goodwills (I think one was actually in Framingham, MA), I found a couple of cute mirrored trays:

This oval one graces the back of my toilet tank, holding (for now!) a potted African violet and some hand lotion.

And this larger rectangular one is wrangling perfumes on the bookshelf in my bedroom! Less than $3 each, and I loved seeing an almost identical rectangular one at an antique store later that same day selling for $28! Gotta love Goodwill!

Over at the Salvation Army in Brewer we found a couple nice things:

First, these adorable milk glass vases. They had about a million, most fairly boring shapes and only two or three different ones, but I dug around until I found these cuties!

And the story of this marble-top table makes me laugh.

Mom and I had arrived a moment or two before the store opened, and we weren't the only ones to be waiting in the vestibule, pressing our noses against the window for a sneak-peek. I spotted this table not to far in and pointed it out to Mom, who declared it a perfect fit for the empty bed-side spot in the guest room she uses at my place. So as the employee unlocked the door, Mom distracted the other two shoppers for a moment while I dashed in and grabbed that table! Know how much it was? $8! The marble top is actually cracked,

But it's right on the grain of the marbling, so you can't see unless you look re-e-e-ally hard!

And finally, artwork:

Both of these pieces came from Big Chicken Barn Antiques, which is where I also found my kitchen table. I love the colors in this little one (about 9x11), and I was looking for water scenes, so for $10 it came home!

And another nice water scene, more quintessentially Maine, for $15.

All right, I think that's about all of this season's score! Unfortunately I missed both the July and September sessions at Brimfield (I was hoping to score an umbrella stand!), but there's always next year!

How about you all, any favorite thrifting/antiquing spots? I'd love to hear!

The Great Mascara Hunt: A Few Reviews

I don't know about you guys, but I seem to be constantly looking for "the perfect" mascara. My lashes used to be naturally quite long, like I had trouble wearing sunglasses long, so it used to not matter too much what I put on them. Just about anything with the word "volumizing" on the label did the job! However, the length of my lashes is just one of the many things that seems to becoming more challenging as I move into my 4th decade. I imagine I can't be the only one struggling with this problem, so I've decided to document my hunt and share it with you all!
So, first off I'll start with a longtime favorite: L'Oreal Voluminous mascara, the original.



   It does wonderful things for my lashes! (My sister's too, she's a longtime fan as well.)



But it does flake, and my hair brushing against them results in raccoon eyes. Which isn't so attractive!

So from there I went for a very conservative everyday mascara: CoverGirl Lash Blast.



Which is great stuff! Doesn't flake at all unless you rub it, which is entirely acceptable.



But, well, it's not exactly Va-va-voom, is it?

Then one day at Sephora I got a little sample of Lorac Multiplex 3-D lash mascara.



Hello Va-va-voom! I'll tell you I practically RAN out to buy myself a full sized tube of that! Or no, I didn't actually. I cheaped out and tried another brand first, which I cover next.



But then, well, I wore it for a few all-day sessions and discovered that it doesn't just flake, it de-filaments. Which is to say that while it won't give you raccoon eyes, it will leave little black chunks floating around your eyeballs which then give you totally bloodshot eyes... oops! That's headed back to the store! (yay for Sephora's return policy!)

So,ok, I got the Lorac sample and loved it, but was too darn cheap to spend the $22 to buy it. (Which I just now noticed is $18 on Amazon! But there's shipping...) SO... I went out and bought L'Oreal Voluminous Million Lashes, which I don't remember why but I thought was very similar.



Which it actually is! I mean, ba-BAM lashes! (pay no attention to the bra-straps, I have no idea what I was dressing for just then...)



But it has the same down-fall, which is that the crazy length comes from tiny filaments that adhere to your lashes and then to each other, and just as promptly un-adhere and end up in your eyes. Oh well. $10 down the tube! (After which I went out and got the more expensive one thinking it might be better, but you already know how that ended!)

Which brings me to the mascara that I'm currently defaulting to: L'Oreal Double Extend Beauty Tubes mascara. Which is a pretty creepy name, frankly.



But also a pretty good mascara! Great length and very black, though I would like a bit more thickening as this can get a little spidery looking some days.



And no flakes! Which I suppose is thanks to that creepy tubule technology. Which I thought was total jargon, until I went to wash it off and it can off all in one piece- the whole darn lash! I don't mean MY lashes came off, just that all of the mascara really stuck together and came off like a tiny little toupee. Or, as I first though, EW A BUG!!! It is a little gross. But for no flakes and reasonably high impact? I'll put up with a little creepy.
For now, anyway! The hunt will continue!
My sister is currently using Maybelline Collosal Volume Mascara and likes it, but I haven't tried that one... yet!
Anyone out there have a favorite they recommend?

Meet Olive!

Hey Everyone!
I'd like to introduce you to the newest addition to our family, little Olive!



Actually, her proper name is Olive Tapenade (because all the animals in the house have names that begin with 'T',) but that's a bit of a mouth-full, so we call her Olive for short!
She was rescued in upstate NY by a very nice woman who found her starving in a field and brought her to her house a nursed her back to health and then passed her on to us. Talk about a good heart and generous spirit!



It took about 36 hours for Olive to decide that we were ok people and that she didn't have to live under the bed. After letting her get a quick look at Toby and Tembo, I think she's going to be the bossy little queen of the house once we let her join the crew full time! For now, however, she's busy eating as much food as fast as she possibly can (which I'm doing my best to regulate!), and hopefully build up a little muscle on that tiny frame!