Icebergs.

Life is funny. I think it's the unexpected things that influence our life paths more than all the things we plan. Things like when I was placed in a French class (instead of my first choice of Spanish or second choice of Latin), or the chance timing of meeting someone and falling in love, or starting a new hobby. Sometimes change feels like a river whose path has shifted a little, and sometimes change is so dramatic that it creates a rupture, leaving behind only a Before and After.

I think about how my life's own Before and After as I stare into my closet and consider why I no longer wear certain outfits. Perhaps internal change is a lot like an iceberg whose only manifestation is the relatively small bit on the surface. We can grasp what's visible, but understanding its actual depth and nature is more difficult.

Lofty Endeavors, or My Debut in Four-Inch Heels.

I went to my first gala this weekend. It's been a lot of fun to think about dresses, shoes, jewelry, hair, nail color and other gala-related fashion details. I found my dress a month or so ago at a thrift store for $10. Don't panic on my behalf though: I know you are probably picturing the scary 1980s prom dresses that populate most thrift stores, but somehow I found two excellent formal dresses on the same day, plus some other non-formal finds.

Around here (in no particular order).

• On Saturday, I opened the fridge and found the cocoa powder in there. Oops.
• I have only been to the grocery store twice since June. I have been to the market at the Old Port twice or so for fresh veggies and to the corner convenience store a lot. Somehow this is working for me.
• I am working on a challenging and fun artistic freelance project.
• Did the title of this post make anyone else think of Counting Crows circa 1994?
• I only have about a month more with Booboo and that thought makes me so terribly sad I can't think about it too long.
• This summer I finally found coffee beans that make coffee I really enjoy. I used to like the beans from this one place near my apartment, but then the coffee started tasting like dirt. After I inquired about why their coffee now tasted like "la terre," as I put it in French, I found out that they had changed the blend's mix of beans. Unable to find anything better, we drank overpriced, dirt-flavoured coffee with a hint of "burnt" for months. Finally, I decided to experiment with beans from a different place in the neighborhood. My first try was an improvement but a little weak; the second try was perfect. I am now on my third bag of that coffee. No more dirt coffee for me.
• I finally ordered beautiful embossed stationery with both our names on it in mid-June. A lifetime supply probably. I went with stationery instead of an address stamp, because I figured our address was likely to change at some point. It was a little too risky. I had the beautiful cream correspondance cards shipped to my parents' home, and they arrived just before everything exploded. I never saw the stationery, which is probably for the best. I had been so unreasonably excited about that goregous stationary with our names embossed on it. I guess it will get recycled.
• Thankfully I had also ordered some for myself with my monogram. My dad mailed that to me, and I have been thoroughly enjoying using it.
• My car turned 20 years old in April. But I don't drive very much anymore. Maybe once a week, often less. But the car works well still, much to my surprise and happiness.
• I find I love having a life that is so local. I love walking to work and having most everything I need a short distance from where I live.
• I am not looking forward to winter coming. I keep telling myself if I can survive 'til spring life will look better. I just need to survive this death of our marriage and my life as I had expected it and make it to spring and wait on some sort of rebirth.
• Shoveling. Ugh. Do I need to say anything more?
• I have a bag of green tomatoes in the fridge. I bought them to do fried green tomatoes. I have been unable to motivate myself to do that though. My level of energy is more on the basic sandwich-level of Maslow's hierarchy of culinary needs.
• Last week I spent $11 and some change at the thrift store and got a pair of jeans, a skirt, and a top that all fit. This helps. Baggy jeans do not.
• I was undecided on the skirt but thought that for $3, it was worth a shot. Once I got it home, I realized it is kind of the perfect skirt. It is black with thin pinstripes, plus it's quick drying and ideal for travelling. A pretty great find.
• It's still raining. I don't mind.

Dirty laundry.

I have a lot of clothes I hand-wash, including clothes that say "Dry Clean Only"* and I hand-wash a lot of the random thrift store clothes I buy that seem a little delicate or vintage. Only the problem is....over  the years, I have acquired a lot of clothes that I would put in the "hand-wash" category. And as someone who doesn't want to be hand-washing stuff regularly every week to stay on top of it, I usually procrastinate until I get a large pile of things that need to be hand-washed. And then I wait. And wait some more. And when I finally really want to wear something in the pile enough, I wash that and as many other things as I can fit on my drying rack and hanging in the shower. But even after that, it doesn't begin to put a dent in the load. And I am tired again of the effort of hand-washing, so I end up waiting a while before hand-washing some more. It is has been a bit of a sisyphean struggle.

But today, while trying to figure out the right way to hand-wash some vintage dresses I bought recently, I ran across the brilliant idea of putting delicate clothes in a pillow case and tying it up to go in the washer on delicate cycle with Woolite. So, I grabbed two white pillow cases and tossed one probably-should-be-dry-cleaned-white-vintage-dress in each.** And the verdict is: they came out of the wash and look perfect. Whiter, clean, and no damage. Amazing. I already have in another load in the washer including a couple of dark previously-hand-wash-but-now-pillow-case items. Whew. This short cut has me looking forward to less hand-washing and more time wearing fun clothes that previously spent long lengths of time in hanging out in the dirty "hand-wash" pile.

*For some of the "Dry Clean Only" clothes that seem to be at risk of damage with hand-washing (wool sweaters, etc), I use Dryell. I once worked at a dry cleaners, and since those four days of employment there, I am a firm believer in Dryell. My job at the cleaners was steaming and ironing ladies dresses, and I must say that dry cleaning does not get B.O. out.
**They were two for $15....I can not bring myself to pay to dry clean them and have not yet been able to find Dryell in Canada.

Moved In. Mostly.*

Well, we got moved in last Sunday and the builder/renovation guy finished the bathroom on Monday.** Though we have been unpacking this week (along with doing other random stuff like getting our recycling bin and the car window stickers that allow us to park in our neighborhood), we are still surrounded by boxes and living in chaos. Yesterday afternoon we hit up some retail stores and two thrift stores to try to find curtains, curtain rods, a bathroom mirror, armoire, medicine cabinet, etc.*** We had some great success on finding items on our list (and a few surprises not on our list!) but we still need to look at some other thrift stores for the remaining missing things.

One of the most satisfying deals from yesterday was our new bathroom mirror. We first looked at Canadian Tire and only saw a couple standard medicine cabinet options that were considerably more than we wanted to spend. Then we checked out Winners, which is like a Marshalls, and they had a good, large mirror with a black frame. However, we want a white frame since our new bathroom is very white and we are enjoying the breezy, airy feeling that white on white creates. So we were going to buy it and paint the frame white, but it was $39, which still seemed quite expensive to us, though I guess it is probably a decent price for a 33 1/2'' x 33 1/2'' mirror. But since we were not crazy about it, we decided to wait and check a couple more thrift stores before re-considering buying that one, and amazingly....our very next stop was a thrift store that had one mirror. A 31'' x 31'' mirror with a white frame.**** It had a couple stickers on it as it seemed to be previously owned by a teenage girl, but they came off with zero sticky residue. (I think they were perhaps static cling stickers?) So... a large, good condition mirror for only $5.99. Yay!

We ended our day with a sense of victory at finding good deals on quality items and the excitement of re-purposing discarded things to give them a second life.***** This makes me quite happy.

*Well....not our couch, chair, and dishwasher which are in the basement of S's dad's home.
**Well, I don't call it finished, but the guy said he is finished. There are some paint places he missed and one of our formerly yellow walls had a door ripped out and new wall added, so now the former door area is covered with white plaster stuff and not yellow paint, so we have some painting to do, I guess...? S also repaired the door which the guy did not hang very well.
***Yep, no mirror or medicine cabinet above the sink was put in during the bathroom renovation. Isn't that pretty standard?? Maybe it was forgotten? And I had to ask specifically about the shower curtain rod, because there was no rod. The guy brought a rod in on Monday.
****And oddly enough, this size is actually better than the other size would have been anyways, due to the size of the sink. I plan on eventually repainting it white to get the crisp white-white color we want, but repainting white on top of white will be much easier than on top of black.
*****We only bought a couple things at the retail stores. Like the plug thing for the dryer and the pull chains for the fan. We found almost everything at the thrift stores....including two nice wood curtain rods.

Recent Vintage Finds.

A couple weeks ago, S and I went to meet a friend for lunch in Montréal and discovered the street with the restaurant was shut down for a pedestrian-only weekend street festival. All the shops were having sidewalk sales, so S and I wandered a bit after lunch. I saw an adorable vintage dress at a second hand shop, but I looked at its tag and saw $125. Since I rarely spend over $10* on clothing, and since it was a cute, white dress and I am not in the market for a wedding dress, I sadly walked away. But I kept thinking about the dress, so later S and I went back to it, and I thought it couldn't hurt, you know, just to try it on. For fun. Since I was Not Going To Actually Buy It, of course. 

So, I was looking at it and trying to come up with a reason why I actually needed a cute (expensive, for me) vintage wedding-y dress, and the sales person comes up to me and said, "Those are two for 15." I said, "WHAT?" And she repeated herself and I quickly grabbed the adorable dress, and another cute off-white one I had noticed while racking my brain for good justifications for buying the first dress, and made an immediate decision to buy both. She asked if I wanted to try them on and I, at first, said no, because I was so confident they would fit.** Then I decided I might as well try them on, since I was there and there was a dressing room, after all.

And, as I had suspected, they fit just right. I might need to slightly shorten the straps on the first dress, but yeah...they both fit well. These were the most fun vintage finds I have had in a long while, and now I am brain-storming ways I can work wearing these little white dresses*** into my life in a non-bridal way.**** Any ideas would be appreciated!

The dress that caught my eye initially:

The second dress:

*Who am I kidding? Most of my clothes are about $3 or less a piece. I love (and am good at) finding cute/normal, unique/weird, vintage, or high-end designer clothes for cheap at thrift stores.*****

**After shopping for years at thrift stores that don't have dressing rooms, I have gotten wildly accurate at choosing clothes that fit well without even trying them on.

***For YEARS, I avoided white dresses (and white clothing in general!) like the plague. But once I fell in love and actually started planning a wedding, I discovered an urge to buy white clothes and actually wear them. Like, I bought 3 white tops at one go at a second-hand shop. All this, despite my previous fear of wearing white tops because of the dire consequences of spills. Oddly, the timing coincided with lots of white clothing appearing in clothing stores, so I guess fashion trends and my sudden obsession conveniently coincided to aid and abet each other.

****I have an idea for pairing the top dress with tall black flat boots and a black little bolero, both of which I already own. I am a little more clueless about how to make the second dress work. I could see how I could maybe pull it off by wearing it barefoot on a beach, but since I don't live anywhere near a beach, that look is a little problematic. Anyone else have ideas?

*****I can have quite eclectic taste at times. But I am an artist....that makes it okay, right? :)

Five Favorite "Thrifted" Household Finds

Over the last eight or so years, I have become a fan of thrift stores and buying things second-hand. I used to hate garage sales as a kid and was especially mortified of them as a teenager, but I guess I have come around to the idea of used stuff. Although I must say that I am still not too fond of garage sales, and I am very particular about cleaning and disinfecting all things I buy used. But re-using and re-purposing is great for the environment, and I have found many fabulous, interesting, hip, funky, weird, and sometimes rare things in great condition. It is such a kick to find a treasure in a thrift store (or abandoned beside a dumpster, or on the curb on trash day) among all the...stuff-that-is-not-a-treasure. It's a bit of an art, really. And takes some persistence. But I have come to realize that there is something spectacular about the act of finding something that has been discarded, cleaning it up, and then enjoying it and giving it a whole new life. It is redemptive and liberating.

Perhaps I should do some future posts of favorite thrifted clothes? Or favorite funky-quirky-vintage clothes that I just had to buy because they were just so unbelievable? For example, a few weeks ago I got a vintage dress that looks like it formerly belonged to some Swiss Alps girl who should have been singing songs in the hills à la The Sound of Music. S did not like this dress and called it Amish (???) but I saw something in it that appealed to me. I have not worn it yet though and have no idea if I can pull it off in public. Maybe I will wear it at home for fun?

Anyhow, here are five of my favorite household finds:

1. Vintage Library Card Catalog Drawers

Cost? $10
Where? Bought at an antique dealer at a flea market in Québec
Estimated value? Anywhere between $30 to $91 on ebay
Comments? It's an interesting storage spot for pens, pencils, scissors, hole punches, twine, etc. In our next apartment, I might use it to store spices. (Our current place has a built in spice cabinet.)


Also pictured: The vintage cart in the picture was free and retrieved (with permission) from S's dad's basement and the antique light-up globe on top was inherited a long time ago from my great-grandmother (I think). The framed map is a June 1949 National Geographic map that was in a collection of old maps I inherited from my grandfather. This one has little British, French, Russian, and US flags over parts of Germany and Austria to mark the distribution of control over the land at that time. My dad framed and matted it for me as a Christmas gift a few years ago.

2. Vintage Tool Box, Made in Ontario

Cost? $7
Where? At a thrift store in Québec (S spotted this one!)
Estimated value? Between $12 to $49, according to etsy and ebay.
Comments? I love using it as a creative way to store jewelry and keep it open all the time to see everything at once. I put cute quilted place mats under it to protect the wood on my antique dresser from being scratched by the metal.


3. Red Wood Rocking Chair, Made in Yugoslavia

Cost? Free
Where? Found by the dumpster area at my old apartment in Chicago
Estimated value? About $60 to $85 online, for a similar used rocking chair from Yugoslavia
Comments? I had wanted a rocking chair for years and this one just made its way to me. The fit is great for me, I LOVE the color (which it was already), and BooBoo often hangs out in it too. Plus it is very sturdy and carved into the wood on the bottom of the seat is "Yugoslavia" and "X75". I am not sure what that means; maybe it was built in 1975? Anyone else know?


4. Le Creuset Sauce Pan with Pour Spout

Cost? $14.99 (Well, S bought this for me as a spontaneous gift, but that was the price he paid.)
Where? S triumphantly found it at a thrift store in Québec
Estimated value? About $115 for a new one, $50 on ebay for a used one in worse condition
Comments? S also found a big Le Creuset Dutch Oven at the same time. I think it is 5.5 quarts and was $25. He got it re-enameled for me as a Christmas gift, and it should be ready soon. I can't wait to use it! Le Creuset Dutch Ovens normally sell for $225 to $315 new. And I must say, they do work REALLY well, and I think having one is a great life-time investment. They are something that can be handed down to future generations. Like a cast iron skillet. I inherited my grandmother's cast iron skillet and love it and the memories it brings me.


5. Red Formica and Chrome Dining Table (with leaf) and 4 matching chairs (circa 1950?)

Cost? Free
Where? Found by the dumpster area at my old apartment in Chicago
Estimated value? $300 or so online
Comments? This is probably my favorite piece of furniture and all-time favorite find. I LOVE eating at this table and working at it. It puts me in a good mood just to be near this table.

Also pictured: The funky red and white mod place mats (there are 5 total) were thrifted for $.49 a piece in Québec a couple weeks ago, and the two matching pewter candle sticks were thrifted for $10 in Sweden last year. (The center candle stick was a gift and was bought new in Norway.)

So, there you have it. Maybe I should do a post sometime on the cool things S has found on the curb on our Montréal street's trash day? He has quite the eye!