The new French General collection from Jolee’s Boutique is downright dreamy.

Buttons, ribbons, embellishments…and all packaged in the cutest way.

I always have a twinge when I see things like this, though, because the true fun of finds like these are to find them at a thrift store, or estate sale. They’re adorable, and I wanted to buy everything, but it somehow feels like cheating, you know?

So sorry I’ve let almost a month go by with no postings. Wish I had something exciting to show you that I had found recently on my weekend jaunts but the season hasn’t really kicked into gear here in Chicago. How about some links?

Aaaaaahhhhhhh! I KNEW there was a reason to buy every single doily I ever see!

Superb tutorial on making wooden cake stands. These are adorable.

Ikea Hack: turn crappy wooden drawers into vintage library drawers! Brilliant, I say! (That, by the way, is an awesome blog for before-and-afters — check out this coffee table, this sconce, and this card catalog).

I have so many ideas for shower curtains…vintage chenille bedspreads, vintage floral sheets — and patchwork designs out of vintage fabric. Though this shower curtain doesn’t use vintage fabrics, it definitely embodies the spirit of vintage.  I really meant to put mom to work on stitching up a bunch of shower curtains when I had the booth — I thought it would be cute to have a wall of them in the booth by using a curtain rod hung on the wall. Oh well, next booth.

Does it make me uncool to admit that my favorite part of Design Sponge is the Before and Afters? Everything else on that site is just a leetle too hipster for me. (I think I’ve said this before, but wouldn’t a great drinking game be to follow the comments on one of the before and afters on anything made out of wood and take a shot every time someone says “OH MY GOD HOW COULD YOU HAVE PAINTED THAT WOOD? WOOD IS ALWAYS BEAUTIFUL AND SHOULD NEVER BE ALTERED.” )Imagine my delight to find an entire blog of only before and afters.

Although, truthfully, was $102,000 in 1966 considered a huge bargain? That’s how much a guy paid for this old bank building, where he still lives with his wife and daughter (that’s right, three people live in this building) — estimates of its value today are between $35 and $70 million.  Check out the dreamy photos from New York Magazine. So very cool. (Link via Hither and Thither.)

Boy, did this bring back some memories.

The Fisher Price Radio, found in a baggie in the Village Thrift on Clark during their half-price sale yesterday. I couldn’t tell if it worked or not but for 95 cents, who is not going to take a chance on it? And it works! Plays Happy Birthday as prettily as you would like to hear.

Look at the pretty graphics on the back. It’s stamped 1970, so it’s over 40 years old. I had to sound like a 90-year-old curmudgeon, but they just don’t make toys like they used to, do they?

I’m torn between letting the babies play with it or keeping it for display purposes — I have a bad feeling my kids can break something in five minutes that was otherwise perfect for 40 years.

I adore this idea from a Martha Stewart Living Magazine a few months back:

It’s one of those menu strip thingys you see in diners. Love it! I have a real love/hate relationship with that magazine these days. I’ve got nearly 8 months worth stacked up that I haven’t read yet — they’re just so boring and conservative and so uninteresting in the days of all of this free content on the Internet. I’m surprised they’ve been able to survive as long as they have — in my opinion, Blueprint, MSM’s other magazine that went out of business five or so years ago, was such a superior magazine to MSL because it was innovative and fresh.

But every now and then, there’s something like this idea that keeps me hooked. Kudos, Martha.

The Corner Store BK: Vintage decor and architectural salvage. Too expensive for my budget, but very fun to look at.

In with the Old: lots of brightly colored home goodies, mostly from the 1950s.

Vintage Scraps: pretty little paper things, buttons, etc., nicely styled and lovely to look at.

I am a huge fan of the dictionary art that you can find all over Etsy. Wish I knew who the original creator was, I would only link to them, but I don’t, so here are a few of my favorites: Vintagraphy, Vintage Dictionary Art, Print House Company,   and Popca-Popca Studios, my absolute favorite for its whimsy and nuttiness.

Vintage 50s Eyewear: for the next time you need a new eyeglass prescription.

Vintage Redoux: fun vintage oddities.

Vintage Lancaster: bright vintage home accessories. I admire the styling and photography.

Beautiful use of vintage red stamps. You could really do a gorgeous project with these.

Ooooooh, scroll down to the mirror with words on it. Done with stickers! The possibilities are endless, what with all the decals that are out there. This could totally justify my constant obsessive purchase of vintage mirrors!

Such a great idea for vintage pattern display. Y’all, she has embroidered on those pictures! How clever!

Dear Someone Who Sews: please make me this quilt. I will provide the vintage hankies. When you are finished, you will give the quilt to me and I will treasure it for always. Love, Lara.

I was buying up a bunch of vintage paper dolls a while back on eBay, always planning on using them in a project. This is kind of what I had in mind. I could easily have them blown up at Kinkos.

Great all-purpose round up of projects that can be done with common thrift store finds.  

Really interesting mix of items, including a lot of stuff you could use in projects.

High Street Market: Very Mad Men-esque vintage home accessories.

 We Sell Used Gods: Exquisite antique prints and bookplates.

Salvage Nation:  Totally cool vintage signage, letters, and other odds and ends.

The Thanatos Archive: where that creepy Nicolas Cage photo came from. Also, lots of other intriguing antique photography.

Peg and Awl: beautiful items constructed from re-claimed wood. Also, amazing book necklaces that I would never wear but adore looking at.

5 and 10 Vintage: huge selection of vintage accessories from a wide swath of eras. Great prices, too.

It’s cold again here in Chicago, which is to be expected in March, but still, disheartening after our blast of summer-like weather last week. I went out today, listlessly driving too far, too late to two rummage sales in the Northwestern suburbs and found next to nothing at either one. I did get this beautiful mirror for half 0ff ($12.50) at the second rummage sale:

I love the decorative corners and the beveled edges — details that make it very feminine. In order to justify buying yet another mirror I am using the excuse that it is earmarked for Emmeline’s future toddler room, which is, truthfully, so far in the future it’s ridiculous. It will be a while before we want to separate their bedrooms and even longer before we’re living in a house or apartment with four bedrooms. Still, it makes for a good excuse when bargains like this come along, right?

So when I found this at Unique Thrift I could hardly pass it up.

I mean, come on, $5? Sure, the cushion needs to be replaced, but my brilliant seamstress mother can take care of that. If we’re decorating the mythological toddler room of Emmeline, might as well go all the way, right?

Spring Break is this coming week and I have a long list of chores I want to get done — and I even have half a chance of getting those chores done since my mom is coming to stay with us for a week. Yay! In addition to cleaning this place from top to bottom, I’m hoping to get the Etsy store a little more well-stocked. It has been badly neglected for about six months now.

Hope you are having a productive weekend!

We have had apocalyptically lovely weather here lately. Like, go ahead, folks, enjoy one last picnic, because the world must be coming to an end very shortly. Sunny skies and temperatures in the 80s in March? In CHICAGO? UNHEARD OF. In all seriousness, it delights me and freaks me out in equal measure, and everyone I’ve talked to feels the same. It’s hard to enjoy weather like this when you’re worried it’s indicative of some serious global climate ruination. Today is overcast and cooler, not as frighteningly cheerful but still not what we would usually expect for March. Justin had to work all day so instead of me being out, futilely trying to find a decent estate sale, I’m inside with the kiddies, wrestling all manner of dangerous objects out of their greedy little hands.

There has been lots of time to disappear down the rabbit hole that is Pinterest, however. Today I’ve been looking at spray paint projects.

(It just struck me that it’s ironic that I’m talking about spray paint after musing on the terror of global climate change. I am an Ugly American, aren’t I? PART OF THE PROBLEM.)

The things people do with spray paint just amaze me: from the fancy, like these awesome bedside lamps,  to the whimsical, like this backyard playhouse,  to my favorite:  these simple but striking peacocks.  I always finish trips to Pinterest yearning to spray paint something.

For some time now I’ve been meaning to work on these:

I painted the one on the left a glossy red, for no better reason than I happened to have the paint on hand, but have been wanting to paint the other two something that would complement my vintage jewelry — I would love to have a way to display it rather than keep it hidden in a jewelry box. I’m trying really hard not to add any craft supplies to the house as I have so much crap already, so I made myself choose from the spray paint that I had on hand already. The first try was a weird neon green – disastrous. I have no idea why I have such an alien-esque color  in the house and can’t for the life of me remember using it previously. The only other thing I had was a glossy white. I decided that a blank palette like that might show off the jewelry even more and went ahead and tried it.

Instantly better than the tacky 60s faux-Grecian look in the before shot! And lovely with my nifty 1950s beaded necklaces.

Hope everyone has a wonderful week. And if you happen to see any homeless polar bears, offer them sanctuary in your garage.