Indiana bargains

One would not necessarily think of Indiana as a shopping mecca. However, whenever I visit Noblesville/Indianapolis, I leave with WAY more stuff than I came with. Sometimes it's clothes; sometimes it's housewares; more often than not, it comes from the antique mall.

This year's trip was no exception. When I wasn't busy running 13.1 miles - and injuring myself - I managed to pick up some adorable clothes and accessories. 

The yellow polka dot top and the vintage pearl drop earrings in this pic are both courtesy of Retro 101, a vendor in the Logan Village Mall in Noblesville.  The blouse was $5.00 and the earrings were $4.00. (The pencil skirt was actually a $12.95 buy from Forever 21 a couple seasons ago.)

This great red and cream striped cotton top (it has adorable ruched sleeves) came courtesy of Francesca's Collections in Clay Terrace. The silver "ball and chain" earrings were also a vintage score from Retro 101.

The killer score didn't end there - I also got a beautiful vintage clutch and some great costume jewelry. I spent way less than I would have spent in antique or vintage stores out here. Indiana may not be the hippest place in the world, but for what it's worth, I always come back a little more hip.

Premium vintage

I've written about my love of vintage dresses, vintage salt and pepper shakers, and even mentioned my new-ish obsession with vintage aprons. A recent search through my closet brought back an older interest: vintage pocketbooks.

When I still lived in Michigan, I discovered a great block of antique stores that were then all located in Depot Town. This was when I was just starting to collect salt and pepper shakers. Every once in awhile, I would go in to Salt City, Silver Spoon, or occasionally Apple Annie's and look for new additions for my collections. Eventually I noticed that all three stores had a vast array of other items besides salt and pepper shakers, including some vintage clothing. With vintage clothing came vintage accessories - hats, jewelry, and pocketbooks. Thus a new collection was born.

 First vintage pocketbook - 

my crappy photos don't show the beautiful, shiny bronze-y color

I call them pocketbooks rather than purses because a "purse" to me is a different kind of bag entirely - one of the larger, slouchy shoulder bags I tend to carry on a regular basis (although I tend to just call those "bags," quite honestly). These structured little handbags (none have shoulder straps) look like they came straight out of the Mad Men costuming department.

My second - and favorite - pocketbook

 

I only purchased three of these gems before moving to Connecticut, and somehow they were relegated to the back of my closet. However, when I was looking for the perfect accessory for my Shabby Apple dresses last weekend, I unearthed this:

 So sixties! So patriotic! So perfect!

It was the perfect whimsical touch to my vintage-inspired weekend looks (I didn't take any pictures, but I'll post some if anyone gives me any). I may have to start scouring the CT-area stores for more pocketbooks to add to my collection (Noe will LOVE that).

Skirting an issue

I don't know if I am suffering from too much Julia Child or what, but lately I've become obsessed with aprons - skirt aprons, to be exact. I even decided to find vintage skirt aprons to give my girl friends for Christmas. This proved to be slightly more difficult that I thought, as the antique store in New London didn't have any. But all was not lost - the Noblesville Antique Mall in Indiana and Salt City Antiques in Ypsilanti had plenty to choose from.

After picking out black and white checks for Amanda, blue checks for Katie, lavender checks (with fun black embroidery) for Sophie, and obnoxious yellow and red flowers for (who else?) Jess, I still had these two left for myself (I would have taken pictures of me actually wearing them, but Noe wasn't home to to do that):

This pink and white check has a great sweetheart hem

This one was going to be a gift but I couldn't bear to give it away

I have been wearing these more or less every night that I've cooked. I adore them. If anyone has any good tips on where to find more vintage skirt aprons, please share!

Dinner and a show

In addition to being my favorite season in general, I think fall is also my favorite time to eat. Everything just tastes better. Plus, that chill in the air puts me in the mood to drink spicy red wines and eat heavier, richer foods like stuffed pastas or to cook with fragrant fall-like herbs such as sage (does anything smell more like fall than sage?) - not to mention all the glorious things you can make with pumpkin.

We've definitely been doing some good eating this fall, from the New London Main Street Fall Food Stroll to dining at G'vanni's in Boston with Sophie. However, I think I ate my favorite dish of the fall (so far) last Saturday night at the MGM Grand at Foxwoods.

Amanda and I were headed out to the Duffy concert. For those of you unfamiliar with Duffy, she is another retro-sounding UK-born and bred singer in the vein of Amy Winehouse (only Duffy isn't crazy). I don't like her quite as much as I like Amy, but definitely enough to go see her in the MGM Grand's new theater with the comfortable seats and excellent acoustics.

Of course, Amanda and I celebrated the occasion by wearing 60's-inspired clothing purchased at various thrift stores. In addition, we decided that as long as were were hauling ourselves all the way out to Foxwoods, we deserved a nice meal. Craftsteak was unfortunately out due to budget constraints (someday I will make my pilgrimage to worship at that altar of Tom Collichio) but Michael Schlow's Alta Strada was definitely in the running.

Michael Schlow is a Boston-area chef specializing in Italian cuisine. The restaurant itself looked sort of like everything in the MGM Grand - modern, dimly lit, lots of dark wood and brushed steel but still somehow managing to look "warm." We were very pleased when the host showed us to an excellent corner booth instead of one of the tiny two-top tables in the middle of the floor (I'd like to think it was the outfits).

For some inexplicable reason I wanted white wine. Sadly, I am not incredibly good at navigating an Italian wine list - Amanda, Katie, and I have been drinking a lot of South American, Spanish, and French wines lately. I was unfamiliar with pretty much everything on the list. I settled for a glass of Foradori “Myrto” Sauvignon Blanc. It was decent - lots of flavors going on, softer citrus than I initially expected, and kind of a mineral-y taste in there - but would not rank amongst my favorites.


Due to time constraints, we skipped appetizers and went straight for the the entrees. Both Amanda and I were in the mood for pasta. After perusing the menu, I selected the Ravioli Gnudi with Tomato, Italian Bacon and Sage Brown Butter. (I know, I just ate ravioli with a sage and burnt butter sauce in Boston. But this was TOTALLY different - trust me.)

The waitress explained to me that the ravioli gnudi meant "naked ravioli" - as in, not really ravioli at all. She explained that the dish was actually the ravioli filling, formed into balls. This sounded intriguing, and everything in it sounded tasty, so I considered myself warned and ordered it anyway.

The dish arrived and looked as described - six or seven balls of ravioli filling - cheese and spinach? - cooked just enough to be warmed through and to hold their shape, resting delicately in a light brown butter sauce with only a whiff of sage wafting away from the plate. Cherry tomatoes and delicious smelling Italian bacon completed the dish.

If you think this sounds glorious, well, you should have tasted it. It was amazing. First of all, I love almost anything that comes in a brown butter sauce and this was no exception. The little bits of bacon added just enough complexity to an otherwise simple dressing. The tomatoes had a delicious roasted flavor, and the ravioli themselves were so satisfying that I did not at all miss the pasta pouch one would normally expect a ravioli to come in.

Amanda's dish was also prepared in an interesting manner. The menu described it as cavatelli with broccoli, chilies, and several other ingredients, which it was. However, instead if being sliced up and tossed with the pasta, they broccoli, chilies, etc were ground up into a sort of pesto and tossed with the pasta. It had a delightfully chunky texture and fantastic flavors. The chilies provided a little interesting heat at the end of every mouthful without making the dish overly hot.

We both ate every bite and were way too full to even look at dessert. It's a good thing Duffy's sound is kind of mellow and lounge singer-esque, because I am not sure the two of us could have stood up to dance even had we wanted to (although the middle-aged drunk women in the crowd had NO trouble dancing, they may have had a little harder time with the "standing up" part).

Duffy sounded great and looked great - we were only twelve rows back, so we had a pretty good view of her and the band. If you'd like to check her out, here is the URL to the video for Duffy's most recognizable song, "Mercy" (unfortunately, the embedding feature for these videos has been disabled): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KE2orthS3TQ

All in all, we had a delicious meal and a great time. I can't wait to dress up and head out to our next dinner-and-a-show casino adventure, which will be Michael Buble in December!

Here's Lookin' at You, Kid.

I love dressing up, and I love parties, so naturally I was way into John Felty's Casablanca-themed birthday party last night. Katie cooked us an amazing dinner of lamb, chicken, squash, potatoes, and green beans; John opened some very good bottles of wine; and several of us sported movie-inspired costumes.

John was Rick Blaine incarnate in his white Oscar de la Renta dinner jacket (which he got on Ebay for a great deal) and black bow tie. Amanda and I chose to go the Ilsa Lund suit and hat route. I scored an excellent 40's vintage suit that afternoon at Peacock Feathers but was unable to find an appropriate hat, so I substituted with a beret. Amanda's hat looked like Ingrid Bergman could have worn it on the set.

We had a great time eating Katie's delectable cooking, playing Guitar Hero, and of course, watching Bogie and Bergman steam up the screen. Here are some pictures - in the spirit of the movie, I turned them black and white:

John and Amanda

Queuing up to fill our plates

John's house is more of a wine joint than a gin joint.

I tried out D-Train's Indiana Jones hat as a substitute for the beret.

The best-dressed people I know:
Me, Katie, John, Amanda, and Kevin (not in a period costume)

We walked around town in these outfits before the party.

Happy Birthday to Me!

I had a great cookout with friends - and even some family - and I got to wear a pretty vintage dress. I would say it was a pretty good day. Thank you to everyone who came over and sent birthday wishes!

My cake with canned (Betty Crocker) frosting -
the only kind I like.

27 candles is kind of a lot.

Perhaps the jewel of my fledgling vintage dress collection.

Retro-active

I think that most girls go through a phase of being into vintage clothing. Jessica Travis and I went through this phase in 11th grade. Looking back on this time period, however, I realize that we were not necessarily into vintage clothing as we were into ugly clothing. Essentially we would spend every other Saturday morning or so scouring the racks of Value World (formerly Value Village) to make sure we didn't miss out on any obnoxiously patterned polyester shirts that may have come in since our last visit.

We were more into having clothes that no one else had (and trust me, even if some of these clothes were mass-produced at the time, no one we knew was going to wear them) than we were into actual vintage. Plus, finding good vintage clothes at your average thrift store or local salvation army is a lot of work with little pay off. There was an actual vintage store in Depot Town - Apple Annie's - but due to the fact that some of their stuff cost upwards of TWENTY DOLLARS (!) Jess and I more or less wrote it off as too expensive.

Flash forward ten years. I've been dressing like a normal person for awhile now, but I've always admired people who can pull off funky outfits. I've definitely made a few "fun" thrift store purchases over the years, but nothing too exciting. But lately it has been a different story.

I have become addicted to vintage and reproduction vintage clothing.

It started with Doyle and his stupid Gatsby party (OK, it was not at all stupid; in fact, I would call it the best party of the summer). Unable to find real flapper dresses in wearable condition, Amanda and I turned to the internet. Amanda happened to stumble upon Unique Vintage, a site specializing in reproduction vintage clothing with a niche in 20's themed outfits. (Amanda has also chronicled this addiction in her own blog, These Are a Few of My Favorite Things.)

The Gatsby dresses were a huge hit. We started perusing the site more frequently and found the reproduction 50's party dresses. We used a coupon to buy a couple, but even at 20% off, these dresses didn't come cheap. (However, the Esther Williams swimsuits, at just under $70, are perfectly reasonable in my mind considering how well they are made and how much department store swimsuits cost these days.)

As it turns out, 50's and 60's clothing was a lot easier to find than flapper dresses (duh). New London's own Peacock Feathers provided us with some fantastic dresses to wear to sing-along Grease at the Garde, as well as several dresses that fall more into the "every day" category. Theyw ere also more affordable than the reproduction party dresses. We also had good luck at Aequinox on Martha's Vineyard, although the price range was a little higher than we would have liked.

The best resource of all has been Etsy (www.etsy.com). Etsy is a site designed for crafty people to sell their handmade goods, be it jewelry, knitted items, clothing, prints, etc. They also have an extensive vintage section, where individual sellers set up virtual "shops" to peddle their own finds and set their own prices.

The result? Several wonderful dresses, blouses, and even a coat - and unfortunately, an addiction that is pretty hard to beat. We check the site for new stuff daily.

The upside? We have plenty of unique and flattering clothing to wear to places like the Thames River Wine Tasting, Dev's on Bank, and all our regular haunts. We get to class it up. Of course, we have plenty of people asking things like "Why are those girls all dressed up to come to Hot Rod's?"

Because we're awesome, that's why.