A sky blue sheath.

This dress is such a darling. It's that perfect, springy shade of blue. This otherwise simple sheath dress makes the neckline the focal point, with its beaded collar detail and diamond-shaped keyhole cut-out. This is also a minor detail, but this dress is sewn at...how do I put this delicately? The bust has pointed seams that are made to accommodate the bullet bras that were ever-so-popular in the 1940s-1960s.

An easy, breezy day dress.

This dress, by Shelton Stroller, is just amazing. The print is adorable, and the fit is so flattering. It has a front-zip closure and fits more like a modern size 4 than its printed tag size of 10. This dress dates to the 1940s or early 1950s, but is still in perfect condition. Come see it on Saturday at the Art for Charity Pop-Up Shop!

Playing dress-up.

I am 27 years old, and I have a dress-up box. Maybe a future blog post will be dedicated to its contents. If you're curious, this is one of its items. I also occasionally like to put on my senior prom dress, just for kicks.  If you're someone who appreciates the joy of playing dress-up, then you might enjoy this gown I listed on seek vintage SOLD:

The tint of these photos isn't 100% accurate. The blue is actually lighter--almost a seafoam green. The skirt swishes when you walk, and the side zipper and hooks squeeeeeeeze your waist into its tiniest size. My dress up box is weeping that this isn't one of its contents, but I'm hoping this dress goes to a high school girl with a romantic heart--someone who has vintage sensibilities and wants to dance the night of her winter formal or prom away on the shoulder of a handsome gent with a side part and a dimpled smile.

Ex libris.

 While we were in the mountains, Steven and I did some serious thrifting. We found the most amazing book collection that looked like it had been pulled from some old library (notice the handwritten numbered labels on the spines). We were immediately drawn to the titles and the fonts and the colors.

 Each book has its own unique details. I am more than a little bit obsessed.

It turns out that we stumbled upon the old library of the Hotel Wyoming in Orlando, Florida. Because I am a tremendous nerd, I did some online research (i.e., "Googling").

Hotel Wyoming started as the private home of some dude (j/k, his name was Nathaniel Poyntz) in 1870. It was turned into a 15-room hotel in 1900. The hotel was expanded five total times, going from 15 rooms to over 100. The height of its popularity as a leading tourist hotel was in the 1920s, until it was torn down in 1959. (Image from Wikipedia.)

 This it it, post-expansions, in 1948, 11 years before it was torn down. (Image from vintagepostcards.org.)

All that really remains of this hotel are old postcards and apparently a collection of books from its library that sit in a Habitat ReStore in the mountains of North Carolina.

These books transport me. People read these books on vacation in Florida, before the tourist traps, and Disney World, and Universal Studios, and strip malls. I imagine some rebellious teenaged girl reading the copy of Grey Wethers, written Vita Sackville-West (Virginia Woolfe's lover, gasp!), tucked in the library away from her family.

I wish we'd bought the entire collection. For a dollar each, we've brought home all sorts of things for me to daydream about for ages.

"Howl"

I love all things Beat. So of course, I'm going nuts over this film about Allen Ginsberg and his anthem for the Beat Generation, "Howl":



And of course I can't mention the beats without a little nod to Jack:

"The only truth is music." ~Jack Kerouac

And of course I can't think of "Howl" without thinking of Florence + The Machine: