Feel like a girl again.

I bought myself a new pair of heels today!!

Probably none of you know that for the last two and a half years I have suffered from rheumatoid arthritis in both my hands and feet and lately in my ankles and knees and wrists. It came on suddenly, uninvited and it never left. I had to sell all my heels and cute shoes because walking was so horrifying to me and I became the tennis shoe queen. Or actually I wore the same pair every day because it is very hard for a person with wide feet and no arch to find a good pair of tennis shoes these days when the soles of your feet feel like they are comprised of shards of glass :(

About six months ago, I decided enough was enough. I was tired of being sloppy and tomboyish. I am a really girly girl. I love dresses and bows and pretty things. I love skirts and tights and heels. I know my ex got tired of seeing me in the same old outfit. I gained a ton of weight because I instantly stopped being active and I could no longer fit into pretty clothes or feel confident in my new fatter body. Also comfortable shoes are usually ugly, frumpy and look terrible with a skirt.

Today I was out to lunch with my mom and we passed by a Clark's shoe store. I asked her if she would go in with me, just to see and I tried on every heel in that store. They are SO comfortable! They have sturdy heels that do not bore holes into your heel. They have beautiful insoles that feel like heaven. And they have this retro feel to them. AND THEY WERE ON SALE!

I know they are just shoes, but I cannot explain my happiness. I feel pretty. I feel girly. I feel like I will get noticed and compliments. I can wear party clothes again. I can go out on New Years dressed appropriately. I can have church shoes and date shoes. And they look like the perfect mix between those booties I cannot wear and those high heeled oxfords I cannot wear.

My hands and feet hurt so much on a daily basis but I've learned to push through it by wearing sensible shoes and not pushing myself too hard. I'm tired of people thinking I'm sloppy and not girly and that I am boring and tire easily. It's totally corny but these shoes give me hope. That I can have fun, be stylish, wear the clothes I sell in my shop, and be lovely and feminine. It's corny, but I'm extremely happy :)

Behold. My newest obsession! Clark's Wimberley Pump!!!





Please don't tell me to clean my mirror. I am at my mom's house and it is my teenage brother's mirror. It doesn't even look dirty until the flash hits it.

And here is what I wore to go shopping today. The entire outfit is thrifted except for the cardigan which is forever 21. Imagine how much cuter the outfit would look with these reddish brown heels!

wants ransom.

How fun to come back from a short break to FIVE new comments from new readers :) I am really enjoying public blogging!

I have about five more days of my Winter Break before I go back to reality. Despite having some minor arthritis flare ups over this break, I have really enjoyed myself. My family is precious and fun to be around and we have been inseparable the entire time.

My car went kaput the day before I was supposed to come home, so my family drove up to get me. The timing couldn't have been more perfect because on the 20th the Museum I work at was having their Christmas "party" and my family got to see my museum and watch my tours. They stood through four or five of them before they got tired and went home! It was really fun and my dad snapped photos the entire time which was really distracting but worth it to have "action" photos!







My brother wrapped that present and quizzed us on which present under the tree was the most beautiful. It was the wrong answer if you chose any present other than this one :)

Due to my overdraft fees, I am ridiculously poor and had to supplement my thrifted presents with homemade presents this year. I decided to make scarves but I do not knit. So I weaved them and knotted the woven squares together. They turned out looking really old world/homespun which is exactly what I was going for. My family seemed really pleased as well. I made the grey one for my dad and the white one for my brother William but they traded. Oh well.




Once we had unwrapped everything we played with the tripod and self timer to make a "thank you" card/email for our family members still in Austin. This one was my idea and would have been cuter had I had my eyes open.


And finally. Prudence has been staying with my roommate, Jenifer over the break. She sent me this picture via camera phone the other day with the caption "i has ur cat. wants ransom". It looks like my wish of becoming one of those creepy cat owners has come true for it appears that Pru cat is wearing a red SWEATER! Man I really miss that little cat :(

UPDATE!

Aagh. It's been nearly a week since I updated. I always have high hopes for what I will accomplish with each week but I guess I have a bad case of ennui. Or maybe it is the fact that Austin has become increasingly more cold and we cannot afford to turn on the heat. This results in me only leaving my apartment to go to the post office and to work once or twice a week.

I overdrafted my account yet again this week which totally stinks. It means that anything I make in sales goes towards paying that off. Maybe quitting my job right before the holidays wasn't my smartest idea but it wasn't my dumbest. I guess.

Prudence got fixed a week and a half ago and I over reacted. It was one of the saddest thing I've ever seen though. She looked really skinny and deflated when I picked her up. She smelled DISGUSTING...like urine and iodine. Her tummy was shaved and all her cute cowlick was shaved off. She had big stainless steel stitches sticking out that she kept pulling at and she was in a daze and sleeping all the time. She did not say a word for a week. Did not eat anything but wet cat food (a rare treat reserved only for such occasions that I feel bad). And she made these pathetic sounds whenever she would try to jump on the bed or get into her litter box. I did not sleep the entire 24 hours that I waited to go pick her up. I picked her up the minute the vet opened. I went to Target while I waited because I didn't want to go home after my 9 am class let out and bought her a new pink litter box so she didn't have to crawl into her cabinet litter box, wet cat food, and looked long and hard for a sweater she could wear. I am constantly on the hunt for a sweater for my cat. Is that creepy? Have I become THAT person yet? She is really tiny so I can't get her something for a dog. But she is always cold and shivering and seems to like to wear the sock clothes that I make for her.

Anyway. My entire week was filled with sympathy for my sad and pathetic kitten. She loved me so much during that week too. She hated my roommate and seemed to blame all of her sorrows on Jenifer. She cuddled me. Tapped me with her nose and paws. She let me pet her endlessly which is something she usually does not let me do. She stopped biting and clawing and started sleeping under the covers again, which is something I adore. I love her endlessly but she is really an awful cat. She is always misbehaving and flinging herself at things and shredding some paper or making as much noise as she possibly can. To watch her sleep for a week straight, to not see her play with anything at all, and to worry and have to monitor her at all times for fear that she would rip open her wound (we had some really big scares as she bled a few times and oozed), was really hard for me. She is my first pet and I empathize with her as if she were my child.

The past three days Prudence has slowly started becoming her old self again. She has started talking but only a tiny bit. She eats constantly again. She plays loudly in the early morning and claws at the door to be let out, which I do not allow. She must learn to not whine or beg to be let out of my room every morning. She can play with her toys or whatever, but I'm not going to pay to repair the door because she couldn't wait TWO more hours for me to wake up. She's a kitten. But I'm stubborn too.

ANYWAY anyway anyway. I never got around to showing you what I got for myself over Thanksgiving break. I bought this really amazing pattern from the 1940s that I bought from the cutest old lady who thought I was the cutest young lady. She was fascinated with the fact that I sew (not very well), have an unhealthy collection of vintage pictures covering every wall in my apartment (I will have to post pictures later), and that I sell vintage clothes and stuff online. She wanted me to buy all the patterns and see if I could sell them. She was charging me too much for it to be worth it but it was tempting.

The best part of this pattern is that it has never been cut and is my EXACT size/measurements. I'm still trying to lose more weight but I don't think I can lose too many more inches so that this dress would not fit me, but if so, I will just sell it. It looks hard though. They don't word the instructions the same as the modern patterns and like I said, I'm not much of a seamstress and I don't really understand darts and marking your fabric and such. I cut a lot of corners when I sew and usually do something wrong and have to rip out seams. I bought a really cool dress at a thrift store that is silky and has elephants on it that I'm going to cut apart and use to make this dress. I want to try to one with the ruffles but I'll probably do the other style first.







Oh. and Prudence obviously feels better today and tried to help me take pictures. Thanks Prudence!

and the winner is...

DIGITAL MISFIT!!

first name i drew out of my little sparkly basket and she gave me some really sweet and great advice :)

email me at prudence.sells@gmail.com with your name and address and i will send you your lovely bobby pins as promised!

thanks everyone who participated. you gave me some really nice advice. i've been trying to persuade my hair to fall to the side again but it is going to take at least three more weeks of growing out. i'm still really considering chopping it off shoulder length and i promise i will donate it, as suggested if i do.

i'll be doing another blog give away over the christmas break when i go home to visit my family. i bought a ton of felt and i want to start sewing again so it will probably be something handmade. check back in about two weeks if you're interested in participating again. it was tons of fun!

i'm also thinking about doing some pifs. does anyone do those anymore? or should i just keep up with the blog giveaways?

also...anyone else experiencing an increase in sales? i've sold six items in three days!! woo hoo! is it just me or were all my efforts totally worth it? i hope i hope i hope :)

also, anyone have any advice on how to discourage your kitty from pulling out her stitches? i will be calling the vet tomorrow because it seems she is really opening it back up or at least irritating it. i've been watching her like a hawk but i have to sleep sometime. you know?

lookbook.nu

ok. so i'm trying to take "an outfit a day". even if i just wear my pajamas all day long i'm going to try and change into something to take my "outfit" for the day picture.

i tried taking four outfit photos last night...to get ahead and my tripod that i just got fell or something and all i got were pictures of my feet. it was really annoying so i gave up.

tonight i was lazy but still determined. the lighting was bad and my hair was yucky but i wanted to take my photo so here it is.

tomorrow i will announce the winner of my blog giveaway. thanks to all of you who participated. i'm going to work on growing them out i guess. but then again...

i've been really digging these shoulder length hairstyles lately. but i know i'd be sad to cut off three years of NO haircuts. i already cut off three inches a month ago. we'll see.

and as per usual, the ankle boots and cardigan are for sale in my vintage store.

sour green apple

These are some of my favorite things right now. And they are all such a beautiful shade of green :)

Etsy: Your place to buy & sell all things handmade halfmagic.etsy.com

50% off?

I've been doing some research on how to better market/sell things/run a vintage shop.

I have vowed to be more regular with my blog posts. I was doing pretty well for a while but I haven't really been very regular with my school work so I feel guilty devoting time to things I enjoy when I'm not doing the things that provide for my future.

I have also started copying and pasting my blogs to my livejournal. I was just using my livejournal to promote in communities but figured posting these blogs there couldn't hurt. Two people have already found me and commented on my posts within hours of doing so. They won't buy anything, but it does make me feel good when other people read what I write and feel compelled to leave me something sweet or helpful in response. Sometimes I love the internet. Even though it is a constant source of distraction for me.

I changed my etsy avatar to the really cute picture of the kitty bud vase I'm selling. Someone told me that people that use a product they sell as an avatar attract more business than those who use a picture of themselves. I don't know. We'll see. I really liked the most recent one. The one I'm using for this journal currently. But it's sentimental I guess. So it's not the end of the world.

I am awaiting invites for chictopia and lookbook from fellow etsy sellers. I figure every item I model for my store, I will post on those sites. I will have to work on more creative photography, but it should be a good marketing tool and should also help give me feedback on what people actually think of the things I think are worthy of selling. I also assume that I will try harder to "pretty up" for my photos and try harder to accessorize the items I'm selling which should help with sales. I hope.

Finally, I was encouraged to lower my prices. It wasn't a personal jab. It was listed in a list of things that successful vintage sellers do. My prices still sell items but they take time to sell. Listing things by what they could sell for is slow while listing things for what they will sell for should be faster. In fact, I've already had a sale today which makes three sales this week. I'm happy with that. For now :)

With that being said, I've canceled the sale I was having for 25% off everything in my shop, in return for taking fifty percent off of 90% of the items in my shop. I'll most likely raise some prices when sales pick up, but for now I'm just happy with a $5-$10 profit on any item. I'd like to clear out my shop within the next two weeks so that I can add the rest of the things I have stored in my apartment. I'd like to pay some tuition monies too.

Here are some of my favorite things in my shop right now. You can click on the pictures and it will take you to the listing!!






ALSO!! Please don't forget to participate in my first blog give away in the post directly below this one!! I've had 10 comments and I'd like to get at least 10 more!! You have nothing to lose and I have all the hair advise to gain :)

hair advice and a blog giveaway

I've been thinking a lot lately about doing a blog giveaway and have decided to make it self centered and selfish and such.

As I mentioned in my last post, I was sick for multiple weeks and was unaware that my bangs had grown out to such an unattractive length. These bangs were a mix of an experiment and an accident. My mom is always on me about cutting my bangs. She wants me to do the "Audrey Hepburn" look but my hair has become quite wavy lately and just won't do it. Or didn't do it so I decided to make them straight across Blair Waldorf bangs which looked especially bad on my round face and I ended up with crooked, unphotogenic pin-up style bangs. I swore I would let them grow out (which they have) and get them professionally cut. But now i am TORN.

I also realize that I didn't take many pictures of my bangs when they were fixed. So I only have one or two bad photos of them in their glory.

Here is where the blog giveaway comes in. Leave me a comment telling me how I should or what I should do with my bangs. Cut them really short and fifties? Grow them out and sweep them to the side? OR should I chop my ridiculously long hair off like the last photo? I'm getting kind of old for such long locks? perhaps? (It's to my waist currently)

In return, I will write your names on bits of paper and draw a name and give you a pair of vintage button bobby pins. In the theme of pulling hair and bangs back, I thought they were an appropriate giveaway. Plus my camera is dead and my new camera refuses to let me upload new photos so I'm left with the understanding that my photos stink. I can't take better photos of these particular bobby pins and they photograph terribly. They are really really pretty in real life and some of my favorites. I think they are a good prize. And shouldn't cost too much for me to ship ;)

So comment away. There is no right or wrong answer. And there aren't really any good pictures so it's mainly just for fun and I probably won't take your advice anyway. haha. Just comment with an opinion and I'll enter you in my drawing. What fun!

here are my bangs in order from newest (all grown out and wavy) to oldest.








and here is what they would look like more grown out and side-swept.







and here is what it looked like MANY years ago when i first started growing out my hair. i would need to cut about seven inches to get to this length.



Also. If you're interested, check out my other vintage button bobby pins and rings that I have for sale in my vintage store :)

what's new pussy cat

Oh my. It has been a very long time since I last wrote.

I have been very sick and was VERY unproductive for two weeks. It was awful except for the part where I lost a ton of weight and finally quit my awful job for good. I kept my bangs pinned back the entire duration of my sickness and pulled them down two weeks later to find they had grown out to a really awkward look. Now I have to decide whether I'm growing them out or cutting them again. Decisions decisions.

I finally started to feel a bit better two days before I went to Arkansas for Thanksgiving with my family. Why Arkansas you ask? Who knows. My dad planned the trip and it was just as uneventful as it sounds but I got to do some really fun thrifting with my family.



My little brother William who is the highlight of my life was so sweet. I told him I was looking for owls, cats, birds, and vegetables. He got really into it and kept showing me every little thing. I was so overwhelmed as it was this cluttered antique mall/flea market. But I'm so excited about my finds. I wish I was better at promoting myself as I think some of the things I have in my shop would sell instantly if only I could get the right number of views. But I'm so lazy.



William also helped me later that night to list the items. We set up a light box with a drawer and a pillow and used my dad's camera. He kept making me laugh at the insane things he wanted me to include in my listings. He was so sarcastic and corny. Kept trying to get me to write "for your ... needs" on every listing. "For all your hanging needs"..."for all your kitty cat needs"..."for all your reading glass needs". It was so funny and not very helpful.



I didn't sell a single thing on Black Friday! That means I didn't sell a thing last week. How depressing. I was getting so excited when I sold a record of TEN things last week. I was hoping the next week would be the same. Maybe it is my prices. I list things competitively but also on the high end. I want my money's worth and I only list things that are in fabulous condition. Mah stuffz good. But maybe no one has money anymore?

So I decided to have a sale starting Monday going through Thursday of this week. Everything in my store is going to be 25% off and it's going to be pretty rad. I needs some rent and tuition monies. I've done all my Christmas shopping. I just need to pay my rent. And feed my belly.

Here are my Arkansas thrifted finds :) You can click on the photos and it takes you to the listing. I am very clever ;P









all of these things plus some really great vintage clothing I listed before the break can be found at my vintage store :) If you mention "Cyber Monday", I'll give you 25% off of anything in my store! YAY!