Feedsack Friday!

So last week I missed out on Feedsack Friday due to it being Spring Break,  I chose to run away from town for my 2 days off work as quickly as possible. This weekend I hope to blog some photos from that trip but until then...

To make up for it I bring you TWO feedsacks this Friday both in honor of spring!

I was investigating different camera settings with the afternoon lighting. I'm still a novice at photography but this is an improvement from the last time I tried to shoot with this camera.

I also want to say hello and thanks to all of my new followers! I really loved all of the comments on my post last weekend and I just wanted to let my new readers know to expect posts from me on the weekends rather than weekdays due to my work schedule!

Thanks and until next time!

Sunny Sundays

Behold! My first outfit post! These were taken about a month ago one Sunday in Bryan. It's taken me ages to post them here. Now that spring has arrived and 80 degree weather is the norm here in this part of Texas I have definitely been enjoying my warmer weather wardrobe. This outfit is composed of some of my favorite staples, my aqua handbag from Hold Fast Handbags (this rarely leaves my side these days), my peacock print feedsack blouse, as well as my light blue 1930's culottes that I love dearly and would wear on a daily basis if my job did not require long pants...

Blouse - Nudeedudee
Culottes - From a Wearing History Pattern, and produced by the ever fabulous Nudeedudee (as I have NO sewing skills)
Handbag - Hold Fast Handbags

Brazos Valley Antiquing Adventures: Navasota

Hello again!

It has been too long since I have posted, graduate school got the best of me this past week, but now I have returned to finish telling the story of our adventures last weekend.

After not having the greatest luck in Brenham, we decided to drive to Navasota (approximately 30 minutes east of Brenham) to see if we could have better luck there.

Downtown Navasota

The 1950's movie theater is still the only movie theater in town.

Fortunately for us, the first shop we stopped in was a treasure trove of vintage and antique items stacked about 8 feet tall in every direction we could look in.

As you can see there was a wide selection of items for us to look through and it is definitely a place we will visit again on future adventures.  I did not purchase anything on this trip, but I did take photos of a few of my favorite pieces...

There was a matching set of 1950's poodle book ends.

I loved these poodles, they were in great condition other than being completely covered in dirt. This shop had some other really great mid-century ceramic pieces as well.

Working condition Sunbeam Mixer with original Jadite glass attachments.

 It killed me to not bring home this mixer. I love mixers, which probably has something to do with my job as an experimental baking graduate student, but what I love even more than just a basic vintage mixer? A vintage green mixer. Sadly he was $350 and while he still had all of his original parts and the motor appeared to be in working condition, I would have had the wiring replaced (just to be safe) which would have added even more to the cost. Honestly if I was going to invest that much money into a new mixer it would be a Viking as it is more practical for the type of abuse work that I would need it for.

Vintage sewing caddy or depending on your use, it would make a great jewelry box.

Last but not least, a really cute vintage sewing caddy that I almost took home with me. It was a lovely color, quite functional, but had seen lots of love in it's former days and needed some touch ups and the price was just a bit more than what I would want to pay and I do not have the space for it at the moment.

Navasota was lots of fun. It is a great place to go if you are looking for bargains or to be able to haggle down prices on furniture, pressed glass, and home accessories. I highly recommend stopping by if you are ever out in this area. Now I am off to catch up on a few more posts before this next week begins! I hope everyone has had a fantastic weekend!

Brazos Valley Antiquing Adventures: Brenham

This weekend, my antiquing partner in crime, Ivan and I decided to go on an antiquing/thrifting adventure in a few nearby cities. Ivan was on the lookout for unusual curved glass frames and antique cameras, while I was hunting for vintage plastic jewelry, fabric, and mint green colored kitchen equipment. Our first stop was Brenham, home of delicious ice cream, fantastic Texas Art Deco architecture, and was at one time a great place to find just about everything random in terms of vintage and antiques. Due to graduate school obligations we had not been in some time (about a year and a half) and we were in for quite a surprise...

Old Courthouse in the Town Square

First off, our favorite store (which can be seen in to the left of the courthouse undergoing renovations), was no longer open. It appeared the building was going under complete remodeling and they repainted it to a set of unusual colors... In the past this had been where we had some of our best finds but we tried not to get too disappointed and walked around the corner to another shop that had been traditionally filled to the 15 foot ceiling with vintage randomness...

Rex the Dinosaur Greeted Us

While the place was still packed to the brim, there was noticeably less stock than there used to be. It could be we just came on a bad day as well, but my favorite item here were these lamps.

I would have loved an excuse to buy these, but for now they shall remain at the store.

 After going through 5 or six shops without having much luck we finally gave up and headed to a different town to see if we could find a larger selection of actual vintage items (and not just reproductions). Some things that I noticed, which were a common theme throughout our visit:

• Lots of furniture with a Victorian or primitive feel, limited amounts of Nouveau style furniture or classic mid-Century designs.
• Apparently everyone is liquidating their Breyer horse collections. Saw lots of these for sale.
• Higher prices (about 1/2 increase or double the price from the last time we visited). A great example of this is below.

Asking Price $950. Did your jaw just hit the ground? Because mine sure did, several years ago you could easily find these here in the same condition for less than $400

• Remarkably fewer shops with actual vintage or antiques inside even though it was listed on the door. It felt much more commercialized than previously with fakes lying around every corner.

Asking price for the obvious reproduction bread tin upon inspection? $70

 We did manage to find a few more interesting pieces that we did not purchase, photographed below. I'll probably do another post or two that goes into more details on a few of the shops we visited with better selections.

Framed board from a Hopalong Cassidy board game

Nifty little lamp.

I'll kick myself later: ~3 yards worth of vintage cowboy fabric in duvet cover form. I thought really hard, but I promised my husband not to bring home any more large quantities of fabric that were not in an easy to use form.

That's all for now! Will post more on the next town we stopped at later this week!

Feedsack Friday!

It is rodeo time of year here in Texas so in honor of this I thought it would be fitting for my first Feedsack Friday post to be cowboy themed!

From my personal feedsack collection photographed with my saddle.

Tomorrow I am off antiquing in Brenham and Navasota with my good friend Ivan, expect a fun outfit and adventure post in the next few days.

A Brief Introduction...

So after ages of following vintage blogs, commenting here and there, I've finally decided to start my own. I plan for this space to be a place where I can ramble on about vintage or reproduction vintage fashion, tell stories of family heirlooms to record some of the family history (before I accidentally forget it), document my feedsack collection, show pretty photos of my garden, and record any other randomness that I see fit. Every once in a while I might post a gluten-free factoid or two but I would prefer for this blog to be more of a "non-work related adventures" blog.

Well thanks for reading, this should be the start of a fun adventure, and please forgive me while I am learning how to use all of these fun Blogger tools...

Outfit: By the fantastic Nudeedudee on Etsy

Photograph: By Ivan Farr