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!

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 :)

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!

my new favorite pair of shoes!!

The very first thing I ever look for when I go thrifting is shoes. I've always been this way. One of my first words was shoes. For my first birthday my mother gave me a cabbage patch doll and the first thing I said when I saw her was "shoes".

My whole life I've collected shoes and when I started selling my awesome finds online I realized that the things I am the most passionate about is shoes. Obviously I obsess over all types of vintage things but if we're completely honest, I'd just as soon have a store where I sell nothing but vintage shoes. I love selling on etsy because it gives me that excuse to run and grab something amazing when I see it. I don't even need to try it on anymore. I know I want it. I know I NEED it. Let's face it. Selling vintage clothing on etsy is code for "I've allowed myself to use no restraint when I go thrifting."

Granted my heart does always break a little once I get home and I in fact do NOT fit into a particularly amazing pair of shoes. But when someone else buys them, I feel better. MUCH better. Not only do I get to buy groceries and pay my bills but someone out there has fallen in love with the same pair of shoes I fell in love with weeks before and will get way more use out of them than I did with them sitting in a box in my etsy closet.

But today I might have found my favorite shoes yet! No I take that back. Because today was particularly lucky because I found my two favorite shoes yet. But I'm keeping one pair. It's not selfish when you only keep one pair out of the dozen you've thrifted in the last month :)








These are the ones I'm keeping. Amazing. No?



They are a size too big for me but really comfy nonetheless and look really cute with skinny jeans. Perhaps it is just the history nerd in me that thinks I need this pair of shoes that are too big for me. Perhaps I will just list them for one million billion dollars and that way if no one buys them I can keep them and if not, hey, I will have ONE MILLION BILLION DOLLARS!

And I recently cut my hair and took this picture at work to show my mom. Just in case you were wondering, this is what I look like sans victorian ghost make-up ;P



please forgive the camera phone quality.

and as usual, if you're interested in these shoes they are listed in my etsy store!