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We Interrupt Your Regular Broadcast…

February 4, 2013 by Wink

About the Dot Blouse: It’s still in progress. I write posts “live” as it were, and I don’t have a week’s worth lined up and ready to go. In true sew-along style, we would be sewing the blouse together. That is, until I got the flu and then started working 7 days a week. It will still happen, but there’s a delay while I try to fit in cooking, cleaning, and breathing.

On to more banal, personal stuff. I haven’t gone there in a while.

Selfie with a brand-new (and stinky) perm.

I got a perm. It’s not the pin-curl-set look I was secretly hoping the stylist could whip up, but at least my wash-and-wear hair doesn’t pouf and frizz as much now. This photo was taken the day of, so it’s not actually as curly as shown here. And while we may have come a long way, Baby, the process still stinks. Literally. It took 4 or 5 shampoos to finally clear the chemical stench from my hair. Yech.

Working. Ya. I’m still officially unofficial over at Prestige Estate Services, although I’ve been “freelancing” for them regularly since October. I should technically be an actual employee by now, but I like the freedom of scheduling days off to focus on design clients. It’s just that I haven’t been scheduling days off, so I wind up spending every “off” day working on design. While I love design and estate sales, I’m running myself ragged. I know this and whine about it, but I still do nothing to alleviate the stress, such as taking an extra day off from Prestige or saying “no” to a client. I have as of this moment very conveniently had 4 days off in a row from both jobs (a client is late getting me her files), and while my time has been filled with much-needed housecleaning, grocery shopping, dental work, and Tiddleywink Vintage administration, it still feels quite relaxing.

My office is set up in a corner of the basement tiki bar/lounge/shop photo studio/storage area, and the office percentage has become smaller and smaller until it’s gotten flat-out claustrophobic. The Boyfriend and I didn’t whip it fully back into shape this weekend, but we made a very good dent in the chaos. Having unearthed the backstock that has never made it into the shop, I am simultaneously overwhelmed and inspired. However, I’m trying to move some of this inventory into a booth at a local “antiques” mall. Space isn’t cheap, but it may be worth it if people can personally inspect the items before committing to a purchase!

The newest addition to my vintage handbag collection: a Lucite purse by Rialto. SCORE!

On a separate-but-related subject, I’ve been buying my dentist a boat. While the work I need is deeply discounted through Direct Dental Plans of America, it’s still a lot of work. After today’s session in the dentist’s chair, I decided to stop in at the thrift store next door to look around. I didn’t even bother to take a shopping cart or basket in with me. Any interesting cookbooks? No. How about lamps? No. Sewing patterns? Nothing. Bathroom department, which I usually skip entirely but it’s right next to Sewing: that’s a nice vintage tissue box cover, but let me think about HOLY CRAP IS THAT A—YES IT IS—IT’S A LUCITE PURSE. IN THE BATHROOM DEPARTMENT. I glance furtively around. Does anyone else see this? Was someone trying to hide it over here? I look at the price tag. Nope, this wasn’t hidden. Whoever priced and shelved this must think it’s a cotton ball container or something. Quick check for cracks or chips (none) and to see if the latch works (yes) and I’m off like a shot to the cashier. The hinge is so shiny I think it may be a repro and then under the light at home I see “Original Rialto NY” and I can’t tell you how much I got it for because it was such a steal that I’m a bit embarrassed. And feel not entirely unlike I’d actually stolen it. Now that Viva is fewer than 8 weeks away, I really need to get cracking with the packing. And this purse, of course, will be a part of that.

Since this purse goes into my Pry It From My Cold, Dead Hands collection, it frees up a couple of other vintage white purses for me to relinquish to the shop. So there’s that. Maybe I’ll get some fresh product photography done after tomorrow’s dentist appointment (yes, another one) and meeting with the antiques mall manager! Woo!

Category day job, design, doctors and dentists, life-threatening clutter, shoes, shopping, vintage & retro Style, Viva Las Vegas | Tags: | 1 Comment
(Many) Shoes and (Pumpkin) Pie

November 12, 2012 by Wink

Hi, my name is Wink and I used to blog with frequency. I’ve been with the busy, however, what with this whole the-boyfriend-is-moving-in dealio, as well as filling my free time with helping a local estate liquidation company organize and price a hoarder house for an upcoming sale. Since we last met…

That there above-mentioned boyfriend* moved in. He didn’t bring a lot of Things into the household, but what he did bring was Not Small. We had his parents over for dinner last night, which forced the issue of (finally) organizing the living and dining rooms. They look pretty dang good right now, at the expense of the guest room and basement. Which currently look an awful lot like the hoarder house I’ve been working in.

The hoarder house. Whatever you’re picturing, it’s wrong. This house is in an upper-middle-class neighborhood, and was inhabited by an upper-middle-class couple. For decades, these were “normal,” rational people. And then, about 10 or so years ago, the woman cracked. In a ceaseless attempt to fill that crack, she bought stuff. Lots of stuff. Lots and lots and lots of stuff. In fact, during the last couple of years, she bought so much stuff and with such frequency that she didn’t always have the time to remove the price tags or even take items out of their shopping bags before heading out to buy more stuff. A professional organizer was hired to help deal with all the stuff, which only wound up making more room for more stuff. Which she filled. And then she died. Leaving behind a husband who had grown accustomed to living in a smaller and smaller space, and a hell of a lot of stuff. So the husband moved out and said “to hell with all of this stuff.”

I’ve been to estate sales described as hoarder homes, and I’m always disappointed (?) that they don’t look like the dark, magazine-and-newspaper addled homes that I’ve seen flash by on the news. (I hear there are a few different reality shows that focus on hoarders, but I’ve never seen one so I can’t compare.) I now know how much work goes into clearing those homes out so people can actually walk around in the space. Which seems obvious, but I never did put 2 and 2 together. For two or three weeks now, we’ve been going through this house room by room, clearing out the receipts and tissue paper and shopping bags (we filled a roll-off Dumpster) and trying our best to organize and price the remaining clothing and shoes and furniture and DVDs and artwork and cosmetics and collectible figurines and avoiding altogether the packed-to-the-rafters basement, which will have to be an entirely separate sale.

So anyway, if you live in the greater Denver area, you should really swing by this sale. We’re running the first half (pre-basement) for four days, and while the selection will be greatest on Wednesday (day 1), I can guarantee that there will still be plenty left on Saturday (day 4). Everything is in like-new (or brand-spanking-still-with-tags-new) condition. In an interesting twist, when we finally worked our way into the husband’s home office, we found that it was loaded with antique books and historical artifacts from his family. So this sale has the brand new AND the very old!

Above-mentioned pie: I’d stopped in at Dollar Tree for something or other, and was greeted at the door by a display of canned pumpkin. Canned pumpkin! For a dollar! How could I pass that up? Pumpkin pie is super easy to make, especially when using a store-bought Graham cracker crust (which I knew I had in the pantry), so I whipped one up. A week later, I made an eggnog cake for no reason other than I had some eggnog in the house. I’m crafty that way.

A few posts back, I’d mentioned that I was going to have to start meal planning now that there are two mouths to feed. I’ve been doing it, and it’s surprisingly easy so far. I understand how it might get tedious over time, but so far, so good. This week we’ll be eating a lot of recipes that call for fresh tarragon because I needed it for one recipe and you can only buy one size package which is enough for, like, four different recipes. I used it last night to make the béarnaise sauce required for Sautéed Steak, Henri IV, my very first attempt at a Julia Child recipe. It was delicious and pretty easy, if a bit fussy to plate. Tonight we’ll dine on Fluffy Cracked Wheat With Mustard And Tarragon, and tomorrow I’ll roast up some tarragon chicken.

Part of the meal planning adventure includes serving up something every Wednesday from one of my many vintage cookbooks, and we’re two for two so far. On Halloween I cooked up an Irish Stew (or, since it was Halloween after all, Slaughtered Lamb stew) in ye olde pressure cooker. Actually, I used ye olde (1954) Mirro pressure cooker cookbook, but my spiffy late-model (2011) Cuisinart pressure cooker did the work. I’ve never eaten, let alone made, a lamb stew before, and I have to admit that I am floored by how absofreakinglutely delicious it is! And because pressure cookers are magical things, I went from raw veggies in need of dicing to hot stew ladled into a bowl in just about an hour.

The following Wednesday, I turned to my copy of 641 Tested Recipes from the Sealtest Kitchens for something a little less meat-centric and more retrotastic. I had hardly flipped through the pages when I came across Peppy Cottage Cheese Peppers (“A man’s main dish”) and knew that I had the week’s winner. Green peppers, stuffed with a mixture of rice (I used brown), cottage cheese, sautéed onion, tomato sauce, a bit of Worcestershire sauce, and topped with diced bacon. Not vegetarian, but at least it wasn’t based on meat. And while the squishy pink filling in the peppers looked dubious going into the oven, this turned out to be another will-make-again recipe.

My selection for this week is something called Applesauce Meatballs (Sunset Cook Book of Favorite Recipes, 1949), and I’ll have to report back with the results at a later date. I plan to serve them up with a side of spaghetti squash seasoned with, you guessed it, fresh tarragon. If there’s still any tarragon left at that point, I’ll put it in a small bottle of vinegar to steep for future use.

And on that note: until next time, my dearest readers!

*For the first time in 12 years, someone else did my laundry yesterday. IT IS DELIGHTFUL.

Category collections, day job, food, Halloween, holidays, kitchen, life-threatening clutter, reviews, romance, relationships, shoes, vintage & retro Style | Tags: | 1 Comment
All of These Things Are Not Like The Others

July 12, 2012 by Wink

One of these things is not like the others, one of these things just doesn’t belong.
Can you tell which thing is not like the others, by the time I finish my song?

I didn’t have a specific post planned for today, or if I did, I’ve forgotten what it was. But there I was, doing a quick search for dress clips on Etsy this morning, and it seems a lesson is in order:

Dress clips are not shoe clips are not clip-on earrings. They are not interchangeable. I have personally attempted to use clip-on earrings as shoe clips, and they hurt because they’re too dimensional. I wouldn’t dare use dress clips on my ears, because that’s akin to clipping an iron maiden onto your earlobes. Neither shoe clips nor earrings have the strength required to gather and restrain fabric like dress clips.

Below: some visuals of properly described items currently listed on Etsy, so that you can see what you’re looking for. (Clicking on any photo will take you directly to the matching Etsy listing, if you’d like to see prices and more info.)

Dress Clips
Grandma, what big teeth you have!

1940s Vintage “Cream Corn” Bakelite Carved Dress Clips from ForGrammaAlice

Shoe Clips
See how the clip lies flat and smooth, and isn’t hinged? A hinge would dig right into the top of your foot. All. Day. Long.

Vintage Art Deco Shoe Clips from BakeliteBakery

Clip-On Earrings
Note the tensioned hinge and the somewhat curved (cushioned, as much as metal will) piece that presses against the earlobe. No teeth here!

Vintage Earrings Clip On Teardrop Shaped Bone Colored Filigree from MagpieSue

This is not to say that there are never variations on the hardware for these items, but before you buy (or sell), think about the purpose these items are being advertised for, and whether or not the hardware is up to the task.

DISCLOSURE: As you know if you’re a regular reader, I am a vendor with two vintage-themed shops on Etsy. MagpieSue (earrings) and I are both members of the Vintage Lovers and Vintage Market teams on Etsy; I otherwise have no affiliation with these particular vendors.

Category citizens, fashion, jewelry, shoes, vintage & retro Style | Tags: | 4 Comments
Lack of a Cohesive Plot

October 16, 2009 by Wink

Forgive me, Readers, it’s been a week-ishy since my last post. The Department of Labor sent the letter with their Official Determination, which makes it Official: My contract work wasn’t as a contractor, but as an employer. Oooooooookay. However, the Determination of Benefits letter was based on very obviously (to me) incorrect earnings for when I was working, so I have to file a correction and blah blah blah.

ANYWAY. I started an on-site contract with a new company this week, and so far, I absolutely love it. It’s immediately apparent that all of the folks in the department really care about each other, and everyone seems to truly enjoy their work. There is no grumbling or rolling eyes, and it feels great to be in such an environment! And, ohmigosh, the paperwork I need for each project is ALL FILLED OUT. Nobody takes a shortcut and assumes that the info isn’t necessary or that someone down the line will pick up the slack. Heavenly and efficient! The breakroom refrigerator is kept stocked with cream/half-and-half/soy creamer for the employees to use! REAL STUFF! Not CoffeeMate crap! Sometimes, it really is the little things that show an employer cares. And did I mention that they’re all nice to the New Girl? There’s talk of bringing me back for a few days in January, when a different person will be out on vacation. I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed for that! Yay!

I had three imperfect transactions on etsy all in the same day, which was odd, but two of them are already cleared up and I know the third will iron out soon. The first was no big deal: A person ordered an item, but the payment didn’t come through. I nudged the buyer to check his account, and yeah, there was a hiccup in the system. All taken care of now. The second was from a new-to-etsy customer who didn’t understand the shipping fees and wanted a refund of the “excess,” but once I explained how the charges are calculated, we came to mutually agreeable terms. The third was a person who was in a rush and very clearly laid out when and how I needed to ship her purchase, without first asking if it was possible to do it that way (it wasn’t). I’ll be checking the tracking number to see if her dress arrives in time, but there’s nothing I can do if it doesn’t. My fingers are crossed for that, too!

The fabric is all cut out for the more complicated part of my primary Halloween costume. There was a bit of a “d’oh!” moment when I cut one piece from the wrong fabric, but it turns out that I need that piece after all, so that’s a happy accident. However, I completely miscalculated yardage for the skirt, and had to buy all new fabric for that. Dang! At least I hadn’t yet cut the original fabric, so I can use that for some future project. Not sure what, exactly, but I’ll think of something. Probably a handbag. Or three. I found a pair of shoes on eBay for a DOLLAR (plus shipping) and I hope they fit and work with the costume. More finger-crossing!

Okay, kids. My coffee is done brewing, so time for me to pack my lunch, swing by Einstein’s for my Free Friday bagel, and hit the office. Enjoy the weekend!

Category Halloween, sewing, shoes, the office | Tags: | 2 Comments
mostly about Halloween

September 24, 2009 by Wink

**Twitter** – For those who like to broadcast their lives but can’t be bothered writing a blog or using Facebook.
— @MrDrewseph

Yeah, um, oops. I am told by the author that the above tweet isn’t directed at me, but it sure does fit. And I say this: My life just isn’t iiiiinteresting right now.

Bill Randall, date unknown

I have my annual Halloween Sewing Madness, of course, but my own costume is waiting for a pattern sale to begin. I know, I don’t usually use a pattern at Halloween, but I’m generally Frankensteining an existing piece. This time it’s all from scratch, and the bodice I have in mind involves a technique new to me. It’s best to let the professionals give me some assistance. The costume I’ve been assigned to create for a friend may or may not be secret, but I’m not going to be the one to inadvertently drop spoilers. I can say this much: It’s a knit fabric, and my machine’s built-in overstitch feature is giving me a hell of a time. Adjusting the tension anywhere between 0 and 9 just gives me different levels of Bad. The zig-zag stitch is behaving similarly. Loads of saggy thread piled up on either side of the fabric, and the manual is of no help at all. Grrr.

I can tell you this much about my costume: The party theme this year is The Future (illustrated above by Bill Randall), and my budget is approximately $0, which is a far, far cry from past years. Thus far, I have done rather well constructing the costume (in my head, at least) with scraps left over from an uncompleted handbag project, a remnant purchased for $1.50 from the thrift store, and a yard of upholstery vinyl that I picked up at Big Lots for $5. Also, a few dollars spent on trimmy bits at Dollar Tree. Vintage shoes (mules) were procured, and they might wind up being the most expensive part of the costume… or they may get replaced by shoes that won’t fling off if I wear tights. And am drinking. Two things that I wish to do.

The party is being held on Halloween night, which means that I won’t be home for the evening kiddies. Which, in turn, means that I won’t bother decorating. It’s a Saturday this year, so I imagine the wee ones may start trickling by in the afternoon, and I’ll have candy on hand just in case, but the wee ones are usually put off by my décor anyway, so this will save everyone the stress.

And now, back to packing up items to be shipped off to the Devil Doll concert benefiting Dick Dime. More info can be found at HeartSizedCrush.

Category Halloween, sewing, shoes, shopping, vintage & retro Style | Tags: | 1 Comment