a moment to boast

please induldge me for a moment with this post so i can tell you about the most incredible find i had the other day.

have you ever had something that you wanted that was rare or hard to find? where whenever you go to certain stores or places you have to look for it even though you know it's probably not gonna happen? that was me with the rare out-of-print book below; The First Book of Jazz by Langston Hughes. This version (the first version published by Franklin Watts) is nearly impossible to find unless you happen to see it on the internet for $100 and up. There is a different, newer publishing co that sells this on amazon for around $50 but the cover is different and not as good! It became a sort of small obsession over the last few months where everytime i stopped at a thrift store i would have to scour over the books just in case i would get lucky (which is actually how i found all those great classic books i blogged about earlier).

anyway, a few mornings ago, on jeremiah's day off, we wanted to go to zia records and get the new black keys lp that had just come out. so we grabbed a few old records to trade in and remembering that one zia location also takes books we rounded up some that were dusting away on our shelves. while we waited for them to sort through our stuff, we did what we always do...jeremiah went to the records and i, with my small obsession, went to check out the music section of the books. i quickly scanned over the area about jazz and didnt see what i was hoping for but then looked again. low and behold there she was... small and modest with that orange binding tucked in between the larger books. i took the photo below with my phone to show why i didnt see it on the first glance. curious how much they were asking for it, i turned it over to see that the price tag said $4.99.

$4.99 that's it? are you kidding me?? i walked... no more like paced over to jeremiah, slapped the book down in front of him and said, 'look what i found!' a few minutes later they finally called his name for the trade credit which was enough to pay for the lp (score!) and when we got up to the counter jeremiah remembered that he had a discount left on his card...which made the grand total for the book $1.87. And it is here that i will note that before we had left that morning he had found $2.00 in the pocket of his jeans...BAM!

here are some photos of the incredible illustrations inside. he gives all the history of how and where it all started as well as his 100 favorite jazz, blues, folk etc. songs which i totally appreciate!

local wanderings.

been thrifting a bit lately. i've missed it. hit up one of my gems and found the following 3 skirts and the blouse for a total of $15. it felt good!

 

i paired the skirt with an older vintage find. the silk blouse has a
blueprint map on the
front and the arrows match the skirt perfectly.





you can never go wrong with mint.





red and pink? i think so.

 

 



my new favorite prize for our home!

she now lives in our bedroom and carries salinger's franny and zooey and merton's life and holiness on her back.









local wanderings.

i've had the opportunity to do a little thrifting and vintage shopping this past week and came home with some fun prizes that i am excited about. we live in a great area where there are a pretty decent amount of places and options to go so i have gotten a good little route down. here's what i found:



a couple of silk scarves since im obsessed with wearing them on my head lately. fun skirt with nice big pockets--always a good idea for a mama!

a birthday present from my dear friend brittany who was shopping with me. oh and thank you mary wherever you are!

a cute cropped little top.

so excited about this dress! it was such a steal ($6)! can't wait to wear it in the fall with some tights!

i guess you could say im going through an orange period. totally okay with it!

baby in vintage.

before clémence was born, at my baby shower, i was given a special gift from one of my mother's dear friends whom she has known since the day she came home from the hospital with me. this friend and her husband had had three son's and were looking into adopting a girl. so my mother, at the time, had given her some of the clothes i had outgrown. well turns out they never did adopt a girl, but she had saved them for the very day when i would have my own. i had no idea and totally cried when i opened the box to find baby clothes that were once mine. when clémence was born, the clothes looked so big that it seemed like she would never fit into them. but here we are and here she is wearing my little blouse!

so feminine here the way she is holding her blouse with her fingers out!

a gem.

my darling husband doesn't ask for much. a record or two here and there, a new pair of shoes when he has completely worn his out. i'm usually the frequent shopper (frequently more for Clémence as of late). so when he starts quietly checking craigslist and ebay for an amp, it's gotta be something he seriously wants and something i seriously want to give him. he has such an incredible heart. he once snuck behind my back and sold one of his guitars to take me to denver to see bjork and joanna newsom. you can say i've got a good man.


when i found out what he was looking at, we searched together and found one incredible piece of musical equipment: a vintage 69' fender deluxe reverb amp. the sound is beautiful. most of the bands around that time were playing some form of the fender reverb...think the beach boys and the beatles. its an amp that sort of transcends musical genres and can be played with blues, early rock & roll, country (the original hank williams kinda country not today's pop version), surf, rockabilly etc. pretty much everything we listen to.



when she arrived, he was one happy boy and spent the aftenoon in our basement getting to know her.

pic-n-save

i have a romantic relationship with mid-century furniture. And since our bank account does not, these pieces have to come one-at-a-time. although i have minimal patience (especially when it comes to decorating our home) it has actually been nice to occasionally stumble across a piece we really like and be able to purchase it. sort of like little surprises you don't know you are going to find and every once in a while we get these at a steal.


we recently found 2 vintage brown jordan chairs for our patio out front from craigslist at a really decent price. if you have never heard of the brand here is a little description from their website,


" Since 1945, Brown Jordan has designed luxury leisure furnishings and accessories that transcend time and liberate the senses. Established by Robert Brown and Hubert Jordan in Pasadena, California, Brown Jordan was the first company to create furniture for full-time outdoor use. The first of these innovative designs, constructed of tubular aluminum and vinyl lace, was fittingly called “Leisure” and marked the birthplace of outdoor furniture."


well the 'decent price' we found was recently one-upped when my mother-in-law was shopping at a furniture store and saw a complete patio set that she thought 'looked just like our chairs.' She sent me a picture of it on her phone and i asked her if they said brown jordan anywhere...sure enough they did and the set only cost $39. to find out just what a steal this is, try looking up these on ebay or etsy...and i think you'll share in my excitement. we had breakfast outside this morning and it was delightful!

local wanderings

mondays and tuesdays are our weekend together and as far as what to do with our time we're pretty easy to please...jeremiah+vinyl, me+clothes. we are first and foremost supporters of downtown, but once in a while tempe is a good place to go considering buffalo exchange, zia records, and cartel coffee lab (i.e. vanilla iced toddy) are all in one area. here were my two gems for the day...

i loved the lace and pinstripe combination...

and the cutout back of course...

its just about summer here in phoenix which means 100 degrees + and people will wear next to nothing to survive which is totally understandable, but being that it has only been 4 months since i had my daughter and i still have what i call 'mom-body' this is a slightly sensitive subject. so you can imagine my delight in finding this next piece. these are my kind of shorts. and for being vintage it is still in pretty good shape (not to mention a mere $10)