Modern Vintage Shop & Social

A friend at work sent me a link for this event last week hosted by Quarter Life: The Beltway's Best Vintage and Thrift. When I saw that the event involved food, other vintage lovers, and shopping, I immediately took the day off of work so I could go. 

Never mind that it was in an area that I'd never heard of. Never mind that I've rarely ventured in DC outside of the monuments and museums. Also, never mind that I had never navigated the Metro by myself nor was I about to drive right into the city during rush hour. Ah, but minor details!

The rain almost turned me into a bum that day, but I wasn't about to waste a vacation day sitting in sweatpants perusing Pintrest. So I put on one of my favorite vintage dresses, slipped into my red rain boots, and decided I was going, gosh darnit!

My genius plan was to drive to Alexandria and park there to ride the Metro to Capitol Heights. After trying three separate stops until I finally found one with parking, I clomped in and got my adventure off to a great start by accidently putting twenty dollars on a fare card. Again, minor detail. I would use it for all the future trips I would make into the city. The trip itself was surprisingly smooth, and I arrived at Nana with plenty of time to spare. 

In fact, I was that awkward first person to the party.

But the gals at the shop were so sweet and welcoming, and Miss Lisa and I discovered a Pennsylvania connection almost right away. Not to mention the place was adorable, and they had cookies...and beer...and hummus...and cucumber sandwich things. 

Rockin' the rain boots. Photo by Lisa.

People starting trickling in and soon the place was abuzz with new and old friends and vintage lovers squealing over all the fabulous clothes and jewelry. The best thing about being at an event with fellow bloggers was that you could pull your camera out and start snapping photos and there were no weird looks.

Overall, it was a great time and I made some new friends (hey Thrift and Style, Tulle and Combat Boots, and Naja Diamond!) And I walked away with a lovely new purse--photos coming soon.

I left with a little extra bounce in my rain boot step, arrived at the Metro to go home, and realized that I lost the fare card. Which still had 17 bucks on it. I hiked back to the shop with no luck, and back to the station to buy a new one. 

So, you're welcome whoever found a free gift on the ground.

I would say it was worth it.

My Only Vice

A good friend of mine once gave me a pad of post it notes with a saying that she thought described me well:

"If I could combine coffee, chocolate, and wine...I'd only have one vice!"

That's pretty much true. I have a lot of vices though, including red dresses, bad TV shows, hair products, scarves, and peanut butter. 

Especially chocolate and peanut butter.

I've found that only good things happen when these ingredients combine.

I found this recipe for Peanut Butter Cup Brownies on Pintrest (where else?) so obviously I knew that today was going to be a good day. Especially when, instead of box mix, I used homemade-from-scratch mason jar mix from my dear sister.

The recipe calls for using mini muffin tins, but we only have large ones. Go big or go home, I always say.

The recipe also says to wait until they cool to eat. 

I'm not much into waiting.

That's a Wrap

Every year, I vow that I'm going to get my Christmas shopping done with plenty of time to spare. 

But in true procrastinator fashion, there's naturally no urgency when there is plenty of time to spare. Which is why, in the past several weekends, I have set out with the mission of purchasing all of my gifts, only to return with a handful of things I bought for myself. For instance, Black Friday? Bought a Christmas tree and decor for our little abode. Last weekend? Got a dress for my company's holiday party. A super cute one from TJ Maxx. 

So before I know it, it's the week before Christmas, and on Saturday I ventured out along with all of the other last-minute shoppers to scramble for some gifts to join Ian's under the Christmas tree. Did you know that the weekend before Christmas is actually the busiest shopping day of the year, not Black Friday? I'm not making that up. And shopping on that day in Northern Virginia was enough to make me never want to go shopping again. The crowds, the lines, the parking lots...call me a scrooge, but after standing in a  forty five minute line that wrapped the entire way around World Market, I was not a happy camper. And I still don't have all my gifts!

But on Sunday, I went all Pintrest on the ones I had, being crafty and wrapping them with handmade goodies. 

Like fabric flowers (tutorial here!)...

...and paper pinwheels...

Is there really better way than to unwind from your retail therapy than sewing fabric scraps and folding paper while catching up on Glee?

I think not.

Pintrest Comes to Life

Raise your hand if you love Pintrest. 

Now raise your hand if you have boards and boards of fantastic ideas on things to make,  how to decorate your home, things to eat, and ideas for a wedding that you already had/are planning/will plan one day.

Now, raise your hand if you've actually ever done any of these things.

via someecards.com

So yesterday, after several hours sprawled out on the bed perusing Pintrest and catching up on my shows including New Girl, Glee, and Modern Family, I was actually feeling crafty. Not crafty, like "I should totally make that one day", but "I'm totally going to make this NOW" crafty. 

We totally needed more Christmas decor up in here, so I set to work on a whimsical-Christmas-y addition to our spiky chandelier that hangs so low to the ground, we have several scars on our head from when we moved in.

This is totally the kind of craft where you'll want to retreat to your craft room, pop in some old-time Christmas tunes, and eat cookies. Or camp out at your kitchen table with a husband playing Call of Duty in the background, which is almost as relaxing.

As I set up, I asked Ian if "when we have a dream home, can I have my own craft room?" To which he replied, "only if I can have a work bench." Just call us the crafter and the carpenter.

But anyway, besides the point.

To make this easy little craft that you probably used to make in Sunday School, you will need several pieces of colorful paper (12 x 12 scrapbook paper worked great), metal rivets, fishing line and a tin of Penn State Bakery cookies (thanks Mom and Dad!).

Cut the paper into  five approximately 1 in. strips, and cut them into the following lengths: 

1 at 8 3/4 inches

2 at 10 inches

and

2 at 12 inches.

Make sense?

Sandwich the five strips together in this pattern- long, medium, short, medium, long- and gather them all at one end. Secure with a binder clip. You might think that the clip is unnecessary, but it is. I promise.

Use your handy dandy rivet puncher to punch a hole through all five strips, and fasten with the rivet.

Now, gather all strips at the other end so that the ends line up, and the paper magically folds into the pretty teardrop shape. Secure with the binder clip while you punch a rivet into the other end.

Make a bunch of these things and wonder where you are going to hang them all.

Tie some fishing line through each one, and hang wherever you think they'll be pretty. Throw in some foam snowflakes for good measure.

Finish off your productive day with a stir fry picnic on the couch while you watch Julie and Julia. If that isn't a recipe for success, I don't know what is. 

Reasons why I am Not Martha Stewart

I know, I know. It's really hard to believe. What with all those gourmet meals prepared in fancy cooking wares and the home-y little touches all over our Lower Level Apartment, I know you all probably think my middle name is Martha. Not to mention she/Macy's furnished half of our kitchen.

Oh you know, just some Hurricane Shepard's Pie!

Here's the truth, friends. I would love to channel Martha and make my home look like the photos on the website. An eclectic colonial dining room? Yes please.

marthastewart.com

But as newlyweds on a budget, most of our home decor has come from the following:

1. Craigslist 

2. Leftover Wedding Decor

3. Our Parents

4. Bren's Craft Projects

Aha! Craft projects? What could be more Martha?

Well, for starters, many of the projects I start go way unfinished. I always start with the best intentions, but soon I get bored, distracted, or so gung-ho about the next project that I leave what I was doing in the dust. For example, several weeks ago I decided I was going to start a greeting card business on Etsy. While I'm just poking around Virginia for jobs, might as well make some extra cash, right?

During a Saturday afternoon with Cheaper by the Dozen on TV, I quickly started to build up my starting inventory. And then stopped at four. They took a lot longer than I thought they would. 

That's the thing--I don't have patience. I usually don't read directions. Instead of investing the time in quality materials, I tend to do whatever is easiest and quickest. It's a wonder I stayed focused to make 200 wedding invitations (although, I had significant help with that one...). 

So today, I was just perusing on Pintrest and making note of all the fabulous craft projects I will (probably never) make, and I kept stumbling across this idea for earring storage:

kevinandamanda.com

This craft project just spoke to me. I had a wooden frame lying on the shelf that I had been trying to find a use for. I also had tons of string, which is like, the same as wire. Perfect.

In my true fashion, I didn't bother to click the link to find out how Amanda made that little beauty. I assumed scotch tape and string would suffice as the way to hang my earring collection.

Turns out it didn't. 

I thought to myself, oh well, and then I gave up for about an hour.

But as the pathetic tape-y frame just sat on the kitchen table, I felt kind of bad. Like all junk, the poor guy deserved a chance to be made into something fabulous. So I caved and read the directions on the website. Apparently in order to build a sound and sturdy earring holding frame, one needs some heavy duty wire and a staple gun. Eep. But then I remembered I had loads of wire in my craft basket from my jewelry making phase. And a couple thumbtacks. Same thing.

No one would see that side anyway.

And now, for the real test. Would it hold up my pounds and pounds of dangly earrings?

Answer: it sure would! And it would look pretty swell doing it:

Craft project: complete and successful! 

Who's the queen of crafts now?

(Hint: me.)

My Pintresting Kitchen

I, like many of my fellow bloggers, have fallen into the Pintrest obsession community. It's true. The only thing I'm kicking myself for is that I didn't hop on the bandwagon while I was wedding planning, as it is a GREAT tool for that! However, I'm getting lots of inspiration for different areas of my life...Style, Hair, Dream Home, even Things to Hang on my Wall.

So naturally a good portion of my Dream Home board consists of kitchens, usually with some variety of red and teal appliances and fixtures, and most definitely with a checkerboard floor.

Like this:

From here

And this:

 From here

But for now, our little kitchen has made me happy. Remember when we registered how I made sure to scan every single red and teal kitchen item? A red coffee maker, KitchenAid mixer, coffee mugs, and canisters. Teal towels, cutting board, baking dishes, and mixing bowls. My mom even scored us retro teal chairs at a flea market (that supposedly came from a tiki lounge in Miami) to go with our retro kitchen table from Aunt Joan's basement. As far as newlywed nests go, ours is pretty tops.

Thank you, Julia. From Etsy.