Last Change to BID on AUCTIONS!

This week has been intense for me. My car broke down, my phone died, our heater went out and they dropped us randomly from our internet service???

We have sorted most of it out but I am exhausted.

Too exhausted to update with much. I'm trying to convince my model to do a fitting so that I can finish the three dresses I have yet to hem and then I'm going to have to bribe her to do a fashion shoot tonight. I'd love to tidy up a bit so that I can take pictures of the photo shoot process. I think that would be fun. We'll see.

She is writing her thesis and the thrifting process and the initial fitting process always seems like a good idea to her, but by the time I need a model, she is suddenly overwhelmed with work. I understand but when I try and model my own clothes I always chop off my head or make some awful face. Not to mention I don't have a vintage frame. I have the world's largest rib-cage and I can never get any of the tiny things to zip up. No amount of weight loss will ever fix that :(

Anyway. Please check out our auctions. Only a few more hours left to bid!
The waiting is so hard! I suppose it will just get easier though :)

Click on the image above and it will take you directly to the shop!

Vintage decor

I got bored tonight and wanted to take some photos of my room. I only took a few photos so expect a real update soon with tons of photos of my apartment. We have so many vintage nick nacks that I think it would be fun to update weekly with photos from my favorite spots in my apartment.

Today's photo post is from two bookshelves and a wall in my room :)








Also, please don't forget to check out my new vintage dress store on EBAY! We've worked awfully hard on it and are quite pleased with the results. We'd love any feedback, favorites and especially bids :D

Just click on the picture below and it will take you directly to our store!!

new EBAY store!!

I wish I could say that I could resolve to post more often and then I would do it. But I keep forgetting and then being too tired to post whenever I remember.

It's been two weeks since my last post. Since my last post I was sick (again), throwing myself a pity party, cleaning my apartment, and preparing for my NEW EBAY STORE!!

My roommate created a new banner for us which you can see on this journal. She simply changed the title of each banner so we can have one for my blogger, one for our etsy, and one for our EBAY.

I think it looks amazing. What do you think?

Starting an EBAY store is harder than it looks. EBAY is harder to figure out (in my opinion) than etsy; but we have heard wonderful things about selling vintage on EBAY and I've been stalking some similar vintage sellers' EBAY stores and some of the things they sell sell for over $100! And I'm talking items nearly identical to what I have to sell. So we gave it a shot.

It took many hours of photoshop and many many hours of altering and hemming dresses and many more hours of photographing them.

My dad helped me design a "set" which consists of a Ralph Lauren sheet from TJ Maxx and two 1"by2"s and three of those spotlights with super special light bulbs. This set did not come complete with a better camera however and most of my pictures turned out blurry. I will try a tripod next time but no promises.

Many hours later and the agreement that if my roommate would play model, I would play photographer, editor and list all the items on EBAY, later and we have launched our new site!

Please go and check it out and give us some feedback. Any tips on how to improve or on how to better make use of EBAY is totally rad. Please add us to your favorite stores and feel free to bid on our listings as well!

We're still keeping our etsy. We'll make listings inactive while they are listed on EBAY and keep the shoes, men's vintage, accessories and vintage home decor on etsy for now. It's already proving a pain to promote both stores and I'm afraid that my promoting for etsy is slacking...but still excited about trying out EBAY!

If you click on the picture at the top of this post it will take you straight to our EBAY :)

Here are some pictures of my personal favorites that we have listed for auction this week!

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?