Playing house

Outfit Details:

Plaid vintage dress: eBay (Luxie Vintage)

Boater hat: River Island (similar here)

Spectators: BAIT Footwear (similar here)

Wishbone necklace: Forever 21 (similar here)

Short petticoat: Forever 21 (similar here)

Wooden happy house purse: eBay

Belt: ASOS (similar here)

eBay has recently become the source of some great vintage additions to my wardrobe.  This dress might be my favorite eBay find!  I have a penchant for plaid dresses, and the color scheme is so lovely.  Most importantly, the fit is absolutely perfect!  It feels almost as if it were made just for me, because there's so gaping in the bust, but tucks in nicely at the waist -- and the length is ideal!  I toyed with wearing a full petticoat underneath, which looked nice, but I opted instead to use a short tulle skirt that's been in my closet for years!  I had initially bought it for the sole purpose of a college themed party (of which we had many), but I never ended up using it.  Coincidentally, it's the same dark kelly green color that appears in this plaid dress, and it gave *just* the right amount of small volume.  This is why I always have such a hard time getting rid of clothes -- you never know when you'll need a piece!

Although most of my eBay searches are for 1950's vintage dresses, every once and a while, I'll search for novelty purses.  I already have a pretty sizable collection of fun (and impractical) bags, but when I came across this house purse at a very reasonable price, I knew it had to be added to my stash!  It was clearly hand-carved, and it has all sorts of sweet little details: a door, a window box, a little daffodil in the chimney, and a silly, happy face!  I love when I can see friendly "faces" in houses (especially older homes) when you look at the position of their windows and doors, and this purse reminded me of that.  When I'm finally at the point in my life where I can buy a real house of my own, you can bet that it'll have to be one with a lot of charm -- and a happy face.  :)  

Although there were a couple of things that happened over the last month or so that had me feeling a little discouraged (I wasn't cast in a show for which I auditioned, and I interviewed for a position at work that was filled by someone else), I'm feeling so much more positive these days!  I've been doing well on Weight Watchers so far, and even more than that, I feel better about myself because of the healthy choices I'm making.  In addition to that, I found out that my mom and I are going to be singing with my dad's band during the Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival!  The Jazz Fest is kind of a big deal here; Rochester is definitely a city that loves its festivals, and the Jazz Fest is certainly one of the best attended and most highly anticipated.  My dad plays drums in a 10-piece funk band, and my mom and I sang on their newest CD and at the Jazz Fest with them two years ago.  They're playing a free show on a huge stage during the last night of the fest, and since there were thousands of people in attendance the last time they played, they're anticipating a pretty huge crowd.  So that's pretty exciting!  Wanting to sing in a band is in my blood, I guess (thanks, Mom!), so it'll be great to do that again.

Have a lovely Saturday!

xox Sammi

Garden of simple

Outfit Details:

Put Things Bright Dress: eBay (originally from ModCloth)

Flats: yeswalker

I saw this dress on eBay months ago, and lost a bidding war (at the last second!) on it.  I tried to forget about it, even though I couldn't get over the beautiful off-the-shoulder sleeves and unique floral print.  Recently, I saw another one pop up on eBay to be purchased without an auction, in a size I could definitely fit into... so how could I resist?  I didn't even realize that there's a layer of tulle netting sewn right into the skirt, which makes it even prettier!  I was afraid it wasn't going to zip up, but I can juuuuust squeeze into it, and the silhouette is so lovely, so I can't complain!  I have a great dress from Urban Outfitters that's now too big on me (I should either sell it or see if I can get it altered, since it's such a beautiful piece and deserves to be enjoyed) that has this same kind of off-the-shoulder detailing with a fit & flare silhouette, and I think it's such a gorgeous combination.

The next two photos are the result of me playing around with settings on my camera.  Almost all of my photos are at least a little bit blurry, and because I've been learning things by trial and error, I really don't know the solution to a lot of my photography issues.  So I just started trying things, and though they aren't at all the result I would want for my regular photos, I still thought they were worth posting. 

Seriously though, if anyone has photography suggestions, I'm all ears.

This would be my go-to "petticoat alert" face.

And what I meant to say is xxoo, which means I'm thinking of ya

Which means I've been thinking of you

All along

Hope you have a beautiful Saturday!

xox xxoo Sammi

PS: you have 'til midnight on Sunday (really, 12:01 EST on Monday morning) to enter my Dupenny tote bag giveaway!  Two lucky readers will win a retro, cheeky tote!  More details here.

The Circle Game

Outfit Details:

Topshop Carousel Playsuit: eBay

Black pinafore: eBay

Perfectly Casual Socks in Black: ModCloth

Carousel ring: Miss Selfridge

Tortoise shell readers: Target

Flats: Nine West (old)

I've been feeling very nostalgic as of late.  Maybe it's the time of year (summertime makes me think of my childhood, and the end of summer always reminds me of going back to school), or maybe it's because I've been home for a significant length of time now.  But I can't help thinking that even though growing up can be great at times, maybe it's overrated.  I keep wishing things were simpler.  But then I realize that maybe everything is simpler in retrospect.

The weather has been playing tricks on me lately.  I feel like we've had only a few solid weeks of real summer weather.  June was kind of a rainy wash, and the past few days here have felt like fall.  I almost wore tights instead of knee socks with this outfit!  And this top is actually a romper, but it was way too cool outside to not layer something on top of it.  I'm sincerely hoping for a hot August.

And the seasons, they go round and round

And the painted ponies go up and down

We're captive on a carousel of time

We can't return, we can only look behind from where we came

And go round and round and round in the circle game

Have a great Monday!
xox Sammi