Vintage House Quirks

Hi! Welcome to our house! This is the view from the front window where the cat likes to watch the world go by. When I was writing this post about our house, I had a lot more to write but blogger somehow crashed and I lost a lot of work. 

When I first realized I'd probably be moving in here (March, almost a year ago) I got interested in the history of the house. I read this blog a lot and was super impressed by how Daniel tried to keep his (extensive, insane) home renovations true to the historic character of his 1865 house, and the other properties he worked on (because one home reno isn't enough?) Plus I like watching a lot of HGTV when I'm on vacation.

Anyhow I wondered how to identify the age of the house and the general architectural style. I looked at some books and pamphlets about Chicago architectural styles - Georgian, Edwardian, Victorian, bungalow, American Four Square, Dutch Colonial, etc. This article pretty clearly describes the "frame two-flat" but said the era varies from 1900 - 1920 and could be in a variety of architectural styles. Ours looked similar-ish to the illustrated Victorian, with the bay windows and dormered little front porch off to one side. But the descriptions of other architectural styles seemed to sometimes fit too. The exterior of our house has been covered in vinyl siding like most old houses around here, making it a bit harder to really tell what it used to look like. Then I remembered that our moldings around the windows and doors looked a lot like the windows in Daniel's old Brooklyn apartment, and he had said they were original and 120 years old, and that was in 2011. So I googled around trying to describe them correctly until I found some images of molding that looked just like ours with the date of the house they were found in. That confirmed the general ballpark era, and I was able to search around more effectively. I decided on 1887 although never could find the original building permit.

Here's the first picture I took of the moldings, you can kindof see here where I think someone sawed off (?!) the top bit which is like a little crown. I remember reading somewhere that back in period the house was built the moldings likely would have been painted white with patterened wallpaper on the plaster walls. The walls are still plaster but full of cracks, so many cracks. I am afraid fixing them is going to end up really expensive.

If you look closely in this picture, you can see the little crown. Sorry about the poor contrast in the photo, white on white was hard to capture well. First of all, I don't know why some of the trim has no crown and others do. The kitchen only has basic, boring trim around its three doors and two windows but it does have the super tall grooved baseboards the rest of the house is #blessed with. Second of all, look even more closely at the picture above and notice how the trim on the right side of the closet (that's my closet, you can see my striped dress poking out of the darkness) just disappears into the wall. WTF. This really gave me pause, because I was so convinced that the trim and walls were original and I couldn't imagine why they would have just designed it like this. It just looks so much like an afterthought, like they wanted a closet and put it in and then they were like oh, crap, the trim doesn't fit here, let's just cut it off, no one will notice. 

By the way, see how narrow this closet is? There was a folding door in there (you can see the tracks for it) but when folded, it took up precious inches and wall space, so I took it off. We don't use this room as a bedroom so it's ok with me to have it open (you know if you have your closet door open at night that's how the monsters get you). I'll show you my closet some time, it is a work of art how I squeezed everything in this tiny narrow space.

Back to the topic at hand, which is the crazy things going on with the trim in this house. Ok, this is basically my view right now, lying in bed, except we now have an IKEA light fixture instead of this broken sad thing. The acoustic tile drop ceiling is horrifying and I hate it. I especially hate the parts that are coming loose. But I can't do anything about it, and that's not the point of the picture. The point is where the diagonal line of the bottom of the staircase that that leads up into the neighbor's place cuts off the window trim. Daniel, my hero from Manhattan Nest, dealt with a similar situation on the outside of his house, and concluded that the windows were added later, disrupting the trim line, and so I wanted to conclude that the plastering over of the stairwell bottom was a later addition, but after noticing the closet trim abnormality in the spare room, I am wondering if the original builders were just not as detail-orientated as they should could have been.  I mean, it was a working class dwelling, built probably pretty quickly in a subdivided urban lot with a lot of basically identical working-class dwellings. I was raised in the 1990s version of this, and let me tell you that the builders are not always perfect artisans. However, the tract home nature of the house makes me think, wouldn't they have worked out the kinks if they were working on a plan that they did over and over again? But then again, I think that the original owner was a carpenter. Maybe, just maybe, he decided to take the plans into his own hands, but messed up a few details. I really like this idea. I now have a whole personality in my head for him (basically the dad from Home Improvements).

Now that I showed you the terrible ceiling in my bedroom, I might as well show you the even darker underbelly of it, as a further example of the madness that went into the multiple renovations of this old house. The light fixture that was here when my husband moved in (before I met him) was an ugly frosted glass dome with flowers etched on it that was held flush to the horrible ceiling with the three hook looking things you can see in the picture. One day the bulb blew out and I discovered it was a weird-looking tiny halogen tube. We didn't replace it for, like, a month. I went to Ace Hardware (which is located next to an Ulta, Kinko's, Pizza Hut, my phone carrier, and a coffee shop and across the street from Binny's making it basically the most amazing shopping strip ever) and found the bulb but it was kinda pricey and I hate the light fixture anyway, so I convinced husband we could replace the whole fixture, no problem. I wanted to install in the bedroom the chandelier which I had gotten him to help me install in the kitchen, and in the kitchen I would put a globe light I'd been carrying around for years since I found it in a dumpster. This is making me sound crazy and kind of awful, I know.

However, that plan was not to be. We took down the ceiling tile to assess how possible it would be to install the chandelier and found the scene above. The yellow line of wire comes from the light box, which is sensibly mounted into the ceiling, travels about a foot or so horizontally, and then goes through the foam-board ceiling tile to attach to the light fixture. The whole weight of the fixture is just hanging on the quarter-inch or less of foam tile that hangs on the cross-bars, which as you saw are not all attached to the wall and basically falling down. I reassessed my plan and decided to get something extremely lightweight and something that would detract attention from the ceiling instead of attract it, which in retrospect was a way better plan and a chandelier would have been a terrible mistake.

So we went to IKEA. It was amazing as it always is. I drank a bunch of coffee and bounced off the walls but managed to choose this funny paper lamp. Husband said he thinks his parents had a similar one in a different shape in the 80s, and it does have a sort of retro-futuristic style that I don't hate. Its a very different style from the classic 1880s/90s style that I was going for, but it gets the job done, weighs basically nothing, and has a lasts-forever LED lightbulb. I actually like how the dots on it mirror the dots in the ceiling tile pattern. Since we aren't going to remove and replace the drop ceiling anytime soon if ever, it seems a decent compromise. Once I saw what lies beneath the drop ceiling, which is open ductwork and pipes and a horrific collection of dusty wiring, I see why there is a drop ceiling, and lost interest in trying to tear it down. And after a month of crashing into stuff in the dark trying to get to the bedside lamps, having an overhead light is amazing.

 Here's some more pictures of the living room windows to apologize for making you look at the atrocities behind the ceiling tile. You can get a shot of our bay window, which is a pretty cool thing to have, actually. We are about half-a-story above street level, so we don't get a lot of light, but this window really maximizes what we do get. It's kinda messy; we've made some changes recently since we got terrariums for a wedding present! The cat and his paraphernalia get pride of place. You can see in the top photo the white globe on the floor. Around the time I was in grad school I walked past a dumpster outside one of the 1960s era buildings that was getting some mild renovations and they had tossed out some glass dome light shades. I took three -- two like this white one and one really huge, beautiful gray smokey glass. One white one broke almost immediately, all over my former roommate's apartment building lobby. The gray one went with me to several more apartments, used as a vase, a source of Darth Vader voices, and eventually I dropped something on it and it cracked. However, I knew I could use this globe and it would be worth it, but I needed lamp parts. I tried a lot of places: Ace, Home Depot, and a lighting store. I was finally directed to Midwest Lamp Parts, which is in a giant warehouse in a random part of town. We went over one day only to learn they are only open 9-5 Monday-Friday unless they feel like closing up for a few days randomly. Finally, ages later, I was sick enough to stay home from work but well enough to get in the car and drive over there. I was a little shaky and felt weak and feverish but I am very committed to this project.

It was amazing, dusty, jam-packed with light fixtures and well, lamp parts. I was helped by a Russian-sounding Orthodox Jewish man who at first seemed grumpy and was annoyed with me for not knowing the names of the parts I was looking for, but turned out to be awesome and nice once he realized I was planning to do all this myself. He made me an honorary construction company when he wrote up my invoice on a carbon copy machine. Cash only, of course. At this point I was still planning to put the chandelier in the bedroom so I got a whole new chain, ceiling mounting hardware, etc.

Putting this light fixture in was... difficult. Husband was not happy with me, because I can't reach the ceiling even on the ladder so he had to do all the hard work... four times because we couldn't get it right. It took hours, with lots of going down to the basement and back up to flip the breaker switch. There were a LOT of parts to get in the right order, and at the right height, and get the wires to connect. He is now officially done with DIY and I'm on my own, but all the ceiling-height work is done so I think I'm fine. Anyhow, we had bought the little (plastic!) ceiling medallion when we put up the chandelier, but forgot to put it up. It is necessary because there's a big ugly hole in the ceiling tile (this place and the ceiling tile!) that isn't fully covered by the light ceiling mounting plate thing (edit: canopy. See above where I don't know lighting terminology). I know it looks really tilted in the photo but it's not nearly so bad in real life. I bought the brightest dimmable LED lightbulb I could find, because the original light fixture (pre-blingy-chandelier) had 3-4 bulbs and the kitchen needs as much light as it can get. I haven't installed the dimmer switch yet mostly because I think the heat went off when I switched the breaker and it's just too cold to risk that. But it'll look so great on a dimmer when we have a meal at the table, or if we have people over! And I can crank it up to 11 when I cook, as I require professional-kitchen level lighting or I get grumpy.

In this photo you can also see the boring nondescript trim in the kitchen. The tiny bathroom is on the left, the two windows are on the wall to the left of that, and next to them is the sink and some cabinets. The door to the basement stairs and back porch is in the back. The door to "my room," aka the spare room, is in the right hand corner, and next to it is a strange piece of furniture we use to store liquor and spare glassware (we have SO MUCH glassware), and then cabinets on that wall include the stove and fridge. I want to replace the strange liquor cabinet with a nicer one, that doesn't have ugly faux-rustic metal scrolls on it. Maybe I could use one of our two identical leaning bookshelves, as husband and I both owned one before I moved in.

Here's the living room couch, which is a gigantic dark brown suede-like sectional. I was looking through my phone for photos of the apartment and there is a massive collection of photos of us and/or the cat on this couch, so it is basically where we spend 95% of our time. It is a little bit ugly but extremely comfortable. I got a lot of light-colored pillows to try to make it look better. I also put up one more painting on the wall as I thought this looked like there's a gap. I bought the map of the world that looks like a strange geometric shape for $20 at Brown Elephant thrift store. It's a Buckminister Fuller projection showing ocean temperatures, and it's awesome. Previously he (husband, not Buckminister Fuller) had a non-working weird modern clock there, and while I see (kindof) where he was going with the asymmetry, it just wasn't working for me. I don't want to hear that we hang the art too high-- we are both tall and the ceilings are tall and just let us live, ok? The tall bookshelf on the left has been mine since the apartment after college. It's a Billy and it's much more stable than the wider standard-sized Billys. My wide Billy fell down spontaneously in a giant crash on New Years Eve, after listing to the right dangerously for months, so I'm on the hunt for a replacement. The nice solid wood bookshelf on the right has been his since he bought it at a proper furniture store in New York. I tried to get him to let me spray paint the oval-with-cut-out wood lamp base gold but he said no. I just think there's too much dark brown going on in here.

See, he does love me! This was taken before the kitchen light installation, so I guess it actually proves nothing, except that we are weird adorable and I had just gotten a new phone to play with. This is taken from short end of the sectional couch. You can see the door to the bedroom and the cool archway opening into the kitchen with the spare room door open in the background. That's an IKEA rug and IKEA coffee table, and one of our two leaning bookshelves (the other is in the basement, awaiting its next role). See the strange underwater rippled effect on the blue wall of the kitchen? That's from the blingy chandelier! When I convinced my boyfriend or fiance at the time to buy it because it was on sale, he had a voucher, and it was fabulous,  I didn't realize it would do that, effectively dimming the light and generally just being Too Much. When I saw the same chandelier in multiples in a River North bar, I knew I had made a mistake. 

The blue walls with dark blue trim in the kitchen were another one of my ideas that I regret. Boyfriend did all the painting, but I gave him the idea, and now I feel guilty. You should have seen the walls before, though. They were tan with brown faux-aged sponging. I think the trim was a nondescript but beigeier tan. They were hideous. Together with the light brown wood floors, light brown wood cabinets, faux-aged metal chandelier, faux-aged metal liquor cabinet, and dark wood furniture, it was a brown abomination. However, white on white is what we should have chosen for the walls and likely will repaint. The apartment is too small for creative trim colors, in my opinion. 

Anyway, it's coming together, slowly. I try to get rid of things, style bits and pieces as I go. For example, I want get rid of a lot of glassware, which is so hard for me, and get some boxes or even shelves to contain the random mess on top of the cabinets, but more on that later. You can even see that I've improved the capacity of the spare room door to hold my entire 54 scarf collection. The issue with this apartment is that there are no closets besides the two tiny bedroom closets, so stuff that needs to be reasonably accessible (only long-term storage in the basement) has to be crammed in somewhere basically in full sight. I plan to address this partly with my larger, better, more sturdy shelving unit in the spare room. To be continued.

Empty and Hot

 So one roommate moved out. Turns out me and roommate S have NO furniture. He's got even less than me. I literally woke up only once when A was moving out, and when I woke up later in the morning, only a garlic skin had blown under my door.

And the whole place was totally empty. Ok, I own that bookshelf and the pillows. And most of the crap in the closet.

My stuff too. The light blue velvet chair is from my grandma's house, there's a tall skinny bookshelf I picked up a couple apartments ago, and the little chest that my mom got for me when I started college. This is the room with the dining room table and the rug, all of which is gone now.

It got hot again today, so this is what I'm wearing. It's this hot pink tunic thing with some crazy gold embroidery around the neckline. My favorite part is these little dots on the shoulders. I think one of them is a patch for a rip and the other is just to make it symmetrical. I got it at a thrift store, I'm sure, probably Goodwill in SC. It's a total rectangle, so though I've worn it loose before, I like to belt it. I also curled my hair with foam rollers last night, which always comes out a little messy looking but I like the sort of retro effect.

Flea Market

I went to some insane flea market out in the suburbs with my roommate on Sunday morning. I got some random stuff- yarn, an alligator pin (now all my clothes are Lacoste!), some "Maine Woods" brand lace-up hipster/Laura Ingalls Wilder boots, an ice cream cone.

But MOST IMPORTANTLY I got this dress!

OH MY GOD!!

It's Diane Von Furstenberg, which I know enough about fashion to know "designer" if not the trendiest thing in the world or like Chanel, this baby retails for $325. And it's sold out on Bluefly (picture source) so ha! I got it for $15. I got it because it screams MIAMI BEACH!!!! And it's the skankiest thing I own. Especially because it's like stretch silk, and size 0 and I am skinny but no size 0. Who is anyway? So it doesn't really look like it does on this mannequin. I don't know if I should keep it (roommate says "wear it to graduation") or sell it on ebay. Cash rules.

Oh my god, I love this dress. This is the first designer thing I've owned. I guess I have a Guess coat but that doesn't count. DVF has been a judge on Project Runway, so you know she's legit!

Man Repelling, Losing Stuff

I went on two trips out of town in two weekends and now I have more work than I can handle and a court date on Friday! Caffeinate!

In other news, I'm into The Man Repeller. I thought I wouldn't like it because it's about a hip(ster?) New Yorker who has expensive clothes but WHO AM I KIDDING I LOVE THAT SHIT. If you see someone giggling uncontrollably in the oh-so-quiet library, that's me. Hiiiiii.

Anyway, the girl behind the man repeller is oh-so-funny and into clothes that men hate, like mismatched loud prints and culottes and rompers and harem pants and nary a defined waistline in sight. I have more traditional taste but I like the attitude.

A classic man-repelling outfit by me, earlier this spring. Shapeless tunic, check; baggy cardigan, check; topknot, check; excessive scarf, check. Sexyness? Nope.

On one of my weekend trips I lost my black cardigan. I used to wear it like 3 times a week and took it on every trip I went on during its life in my wardrobe, but now it's gonnnnne and I'm sad. The rental car company can't find it and my friends deny having it and it isn't in my room anywhere and I'm going crazy. I know it's "just stuff" but ugh, it was so perfect and did I mention it goes with everything? I think I'll go home and tear my room apart again. Maybe it's under my bed or something. Maybe it went to join my other fuzzy sock (RIP, snowflake socks) or that awesome plaid fedora I got at a thrift store in Wisconsin and used to have as a rain hat (umbrellas are just too much work) and now I have to use the hat that looks like "some dorky Annie Hall shit" (thanks, T, you're the sweetest) except my Bosnian coworkers think its adorrrrrable! This hat is a brown brimmed kinda floppy hat I got from grandma and I made a pink felt rose and safety pinned it on during a weird Anthropologie-feuled craze for embellishment I was having. I still leave it on because it gets comments like "spring-like" and "so feminine!" and (this is gonna sound bad) foreigners love that kind of thing. I think I mentioned before how Egyptians just went nuts for my brightest, patterny-est, crazy-pants-est skirts. So, to tie this all together (see how I did that?) man-repelling clothes are Bosnian or Egyptian- attracting clothes, and that's how I like it.

Here's a picture of the cardigan, the weekend just before it disappeared. Also note my awesome man-repelling face, hah.

I HATE LOSING THINGS.

I left ANOTHER thing on my last trip, a kinda silly but weather-appropriate short khaki trench-like weird-nylony jacket that is from Limited or something but I got at a yard sale. It was all professional and spring-like so I'm sad I left it but in return I got a sweet way-too-big San Diego lifeguard sweatshirt so I can repel the men some more. Nothing like swapping your girly narrow-waisted light coat for a giant hoodie.

The source of the hoodie, pictured above through New Orleans twilight and headlight glare.

Domestic Concerns

Today was pretty horrible and depressing, despite a middling to good day at work, I was ridiculously tired and irritable and impatient coming home. So I cured it the best I know how: a long bath (with school reading to feel virtuous), laundry (new Unique purchases! finally got the plain white button-down every style person seems to think should be a staple of every woman's closet), some cleaning and straightening up, cooked up some healthy food (chickpeas and chard, with onion, garlic, and garam masala) for dinner and for two small lunches in the future, mended a couple things, made some dye from the red chard stems (don't quite know what to do with it, since I added vinegar it might not really work as a food coloring), and orange juice.

I sound so boring! But really, puttering around the house is a great way to cheer myself up on a dreary day. And tomorrow is supposed to be much warmer so I'm taking hope.


 Took the picture a couple weeks ago on a pretty sunny evening.

What I actually wore for new years eve

So this is a two-days-later picture of what I ended up wearing for New Years Eve. We had a party at my apartment, not a big one, but I was still baking carrot cake and wearing what I'd worn that day when people started showing up, so I never changed. It was a bit too cold during the day to not wear tights, sadly, and just the right weather for a short-sleeved sweater, which is rare and must be taken advantage of. I did switch out socks and LLBean boots for the sparkly gold flats you can just barely see in the picture. Try to ignore my cluttered little room and poor quality picture, as these are taken with my computer and it's hard. I didn't take pictures then because I don't have a camera, but mosey requested one, and you know I can't say no. If you care, you can see behind me the lavender boxes that I painted and now use as a desk drawer/closet.

What did I wear? The sweaterdress and herringbone leggings come from Express but I got them at a yard sale, the sparkly flats come from Old Navy but I also got them at another yard sale. The top hat I swiped from a sleeping guy at a party I went to later on (party stories are much too incriminating to put on a blog...)! The dress was a funny shape-- pretty loose on top and tight on the bottom, but it's actually really comfy for a party. I still felt dressed up but everything stayed put and I stayed warm.
Haha, this is a ridiculous picture. I went to go get my driver's license this morning and should have made this face for the ID! Or this one (taken as my computer starts to fall off the stack of magazines on my windowsill):

Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

Listening: eh, you know, Beyonce, stuff like that. Whatever is loud enough that I can hear it on the train to & from work.
Watching: Lolita, the Kubrick version. Maury on the TV in the Nigerian restaurant where I had lunch. The leaves change color. The interior of offices.
Reading: sure as fuck not my homework, unfortunately. The first part of this post is hilarious, and I completely agree.
Wearing: forget trying to look cute, I'm back to my uniform: cords and button-down shirts, preferably plaid. Actually over the weekend it was hot and I went swimming, and wore my beloved ratty cutoff jean shorts and a uber-hippy loose tank top I stole from my cousin, and a red cardigan from a yard sale.

Rainy Saturday Night by amyinegypt

Wanting: balance

Chandeliers from Little Mountain Antiques

I love me some sparkly chandeliers and have been hunting for one for my new bedroom. I saw a few at Little Mountain Unlimited that I liked, but they were all a few hundred dollars, which is actually cheaper than craigslist in Chicago, for the most part, but I'd have to somehow get them back to Chicago with me. Too difficult. I really don't know how I feel about this one. It's awful girly and disgusting, but it's also unique with the fruit and flowers and stuff and I think in the right context it could look kinda cool. There were a lot. I have no strong feelings about this one, or the rest that I didn't photograph, but I'd take any of the lot. They also sold a lot of single crystals, either for replacements or (as I thought briefly) making your own crazy chandelier. Hmm maybe I should just hang a bunch of blinged-ed out necklaces from a frame?

Packing for the South!

Even though I own a lot of clothes, I travel really light. The picture above is what I brought on this two-week trip to South Carolina, plus shoes (below), the fancy dress hanging on the wall (below) and underwear. It fit in a small backpack and a small duffel bag, along with some books and toiletries and various other things that you have to tote around with you all the time.
This came out rather dark, but the heels are only for the wedding I was attending, and they go with the orange and yellow dress. The sandals, Eddie Bauer bronze pointy-toe flats, and small leather Guess purse are all from Unique thrift store on various trips, and I use them constantly.I put everything in the second drawer of this old dresser, which wasn't mine when I had this room as a kid, but is pretty nice. You can also see that my parents now use "my" room as a place to stack tons of books, although a lot of these were mine in high school. The vanity that matches the dresser is also covered in stacks of books, such that the mirrors are barely visible. I bought the dress on the wall for $5 at an antique mall with Jess and her family when they came to visit Chicago. It's vintage 1950s, with its own belt, and I had to take it in a little in the top, but once it's on it has that nice full-skirt silhouette. I realized that I tend to bring the same things on every trip. The black dress makes it a lot, even though my parents have a white dog so it always gets covered in hair. The white-and-red hippie blouse and the pastel-striped blouse have also made it on several summer trips. I remember wearing the turquoise scoopneck t-shirt when I bought the green skirt, at a thrift store in Maine, so I know it made the travel cut before too. The floral dress (worn here as a skirt) I bought at H&M one time when I stopped there with some visiting friends who had a pool in their hotel and I needed a swimsuit in order to swim with them. It was less than $5 and while I generally make a point of not shopping at H&M, it worked then as a swimsuit cover-up and now I wear it as a long skirt (folding down the empire-waist top), a short dress, and a short skirt with a top over it (here). It's kind of skimpy on top, so I've tried to find other ways to wear it when I'm not at the beach or in an insanely hot climate.

Well, I'm in one now! Today the high was 95 and the heat index in the 105-108 range. I wish I was kidding. Thank God, we have air-conditioning. I'm not quite sure how people down here lived before it. I've been tired all the time since I got here; I don't know if it's the unreasonable heat, the lack of a schedule or work, allergies, recovering from an almost-sleepless night and somewhat grueling move right before I left Chicago, or what, but I'm a total sloth.

Here is a crazy post I started to write at 3 am while I was unpacking my apartment and packing for this trip, about a week ago. I didn't post it because it was disjointed, so I've edited a bit:

I'm going home in a few hours to South Carolina to see my family and chill out. Unfortunately it is going to be insanely hot while I'm there. [how prescient of me!] I've got a wedding to attend and the beach to go to, but other than that, I'll probably be mostly hanging around my tiny boring hometown or pestering friends who live in the closest (and still smallish) city.

I try to show some class on the plane in case there's the slightest chance of getting upgraded. I've been bumped up to business class a couple times due to delays and other harrowing snafus, but let me just say that transatlantic business class on Air France is the Best Possible Thing that could ever happen to you. Anyway, I understand that it might have something to do with classy dressing, so I try to look good. This time, of course, I'm going to look insane and tired, since I've been packing and unpacking all day and then packing my bags again. It's also ideal to have something with pockets for stashing your boarding pass and ID and other gunk you might be acquiring while reading magazines standing up or buying overpriced iced coffees.

Fortunately for me, I've got a green a-line knee-length skirt that I wear to work, and some super comfy pointy-toed bronze flats (slip-off and -on footwear is crucial, bonus for avoiding bare feet on airport floors.) Add my new black Zara cardigan I got at a yard sale for $5 recently and I'm set. I'm not sure I can travel without my giant scarf, but I might have to cut the cord. Maybe I'll bring a tiny scarf. Just a little one? [my better judgment actually won out and I didn't bring any scarf at all, realizing I wouldn't use one in this kind of heat where you want as little as possible touching your skin.]

Ugh, gotta dig out earrings... now which box were they in? [I brought 2 pairs of earrings: my old Turkish coins my mom got before I was born, and some pink faceted drops I got at a yard sale after Claire's wedding a few weeks ago. I've also been borrowing from mom.]

Vintage Cameras

I am not going to lie to you: I did go back and buy something at Little Mountain Unlimited. I bought this old camera, a Sabre 620. This camera was made between 1956 and 1972 by Shaw-Harrison, which I've never heard of, and takes 620 mm film, which isn't made anymore. But, it is the same thing as 120 film, which can be found (but not in my rinky-dink town) and just rerolled onto a 620 reel. So, I've got a project ahead of me!
I found it on this shelf full of old Brownie cameras and other fun stuff. No flasks, though, or cocktail shakers, which was disappointing. I only found a smallish selection of pictures taken with the Sabre 120 online, and I liked them a bit more than those taken with the Brownie, which uses the same film size.These first four are by Sean (I think) who writes a blog dedicated to old camera photography, moominstuff. The last one, I believe, was taken with a Valiant, which is identical except for the name.
These two are by Violet_3 on Flickr. I love the double exposure, and the light leaks, while a bit much, are charming.
These two are by rjcarroll on Flickr.

So anyway, there's a preview of the sort of potentially awesome pictures I might start taking, once I figure out the whole film thing, and find a place to buy it and get it developed. Fortunately Chicago is pretty good for that kind of thing. I think I'll start with some black and white film!

Little Mountain Antique Store

Mom & I went to Little Mountain Unlimited (beware the website's bad country music), a giant antique store in a tiny town next to ours. It's pretty much the only thing in the town, but it's a winner. I took pictures of stuff I liked since I'm not feeling rich enough to buy anything.

Mom tired out way before me, so I bought her a coke, and she sat in a chair and waited for me. How the tables have turned! I spent large portions of my youth waiting on her to shop, so I tried to hustle as I know how boring it is.
I really liked this black velvet fedora but realized I've got a zillion hats I never wear at home. Also, why am I always making this weird floppy-wrist pose?I just really liked the color of this cobalt blue necklace. The photo came out a little lighter than it looked without the flash, but it's still pretty.
I love glass bottles, especially this collection of purple ones. But I wonder, would they look so good if they weren't all massed together?
This lamp had been converted from an old oil-burning lamp. A bit traditional for my usual taste but still really nice, and simple silver and green would look good anywhere.
There were a ton of lanterns but this one was actually a toy, made in Japan, and was battery-operated. I am considering going back and getting it, as the tag says it "Really Works!" and it's so cute. It's $15. Should I get it?
My favorite booth had a small collection of old lab glassware. I really want one, ever since I saw some of these posts that I wrote about earlier that use old beakers and flasks as vases. I really don't feel like carrying glass on the plane, though, and also I hold out hope that I'll be able to scavenge some old chemistry lab glassware one of these days.Unfortunately this picture is a bit blurry, but there's another skinny lab flask and some small heavy stoneware cups from the US Army Medical Corps. The whole store had a lot of this stoneware; I wonder why?
More old pretty bottles. There were a lot of old apothecary bottles that I really liked, some with manufacturers and contents and "Union Made" stamped on them. I have a glass bottle problem and really want them all.
Like this stoneware jug for mercury! There was also a cool jar from an old Ekhert's, the drugstore that used to be in our town until it was recently replaced by a RiteAid.
Some pretty amber pressed glassware. I loved all the little cup sets, and couldn't possibly photograph them all.
I liked this tortoise chain necklace. It's similar to a necklace I saw awhile back in JCrew.
Some really cool rugs. I thought of my friend Lila who needs some rugs for her new kitchen!
I discovered that I really like jadeite. It was the color that Jess and I discussed painting my new room, and it really did turn out very similar. More pictures of that later-- I took one during the painting process but the color is awful.I loved these door knob pulls, especially in jadeite, of course, but they were new ("made in Hong Kong") and not vintage, so I passed. I also don't really have any furniture crying out for new knobs.
I love this tin mug with it's unique swirled enamel! The blue and white looks so cute, and it reminds me of the similar mugs my family had for camping.
A bunch of cute aprons. There were some cute patterns and one was printed with a calendar, with illustrations in pink and black for each month. But half-aprons are totally impractical and make me think too much of Betty Draper, which makes me uncomfortable (please do click the link; it leads to an interesting discussion of vintage fashions from a time that was very different from today in terms of opportunities for women and minorities, and I've got more to say about it later.)
I loved this old school chair. Also, the whole place is full of pretty, old, huge Persian rugs, most of which appear to be for sale.
These enameled cabinets were a set of two. I couldn't decide if they were ugly or awesome. I think they are cool and interesting, but can't imagine them looking good in a house.
More adorable glassware and pyrex. I have plenty of mixing bowls but this makes me want another set.
I really liked the rainbow embroidery on this very old tablecloth.
I loved these colorful bowls too. The irregular spots of stoneware peeking through the glaze on the green one were interesting, and of course it's my favorite shade of green.
More pretty bowls and tiny glasses, and I like the rose pattern: it almost look like a spray-painted stencil. And wow, that's the end!