Holy Thrift Score, Batman!

So, maybe it felt more exciting than it looks but I went thrifting yesterday. ALL. BY. MYSELF. It was my one and a half hour reward for catching up on the major priorities on my to do list for the last three weeks. There are plenty of things left to catch up on but I needed a breather.

I managed to find this lot, minus the little cowboy boots, plus another pair of shoes and a vintage cardigan, at Red Racks which is run by the Disabled American Veterans. How fitting that I should score so big on Veteran's Day, eh?

Speaking of checking off the to-do list, if you've been waiting on one of my Thought Bubble Chalkboards they've been restocked at Red Velvet Art. They've been in high demand ever since the lovely Ashley Ann shared how much fun her family had with them here, here, and here. Like... they sold out within six hours of her posting about them the first time (Umm...THANKS, ASHLEY!!) and Emma has been getting daily e-mails asking about them. It's the best kind of problem to have and I'm working hard to make sure we can meet the demand through the holidays!

As always, if you've purchased one of my chalkboards from RVA and taken photos with it I'd love to share them on Smile And Wave. I'm saving up for another round of customer show and tell in the following weeks so send your photo(s) to racheldenbow(@)gmail(dot)com to be included.

I owe you a dollhouse post and a felt board tutorial. It's on the list. Promise.

xoxo,
Rachel

Vintage Here, Vintage There

I have become pretty comfortable in the last few years with my eye for vintage furniture and kitchenware and have taught myself how to mix certain silhouettes, play with patterns, and pair the old and new for a fresh look. I'm not quite as self-assured in the vintage styling department when it comes to fashion. However, I've been inspired by a host of vintage-loving friends to explore a more exciting (and sometimes more affordable) wardrobe infused with vintage pieces.

The darling, RubyEllen, and I have been hatching up a plan for a few months now to share how we wear vintage throughout the changing seasons and to encourage others, moms or not, to do the same. It's also a way to keep us interested in dressing up when some days the cold weather might tempt us to stay in flannel nightgowns. Just kidding. No flannel nightgowns in my closet.

We decided to do a little Q&A to get familiar with each other's vintage back story.

Q: When did you start wearing vintage and why?
A: My best friend, Katy, and I used to hit up the Salvation Army for grandpa cardigans and fun shoes in high school. We lived in Central California at the time and had a casual, surfer, boho style. My vintage fixation shifted towards home goods and random industrial pieces about midway through college and our current furnishings are mostly vintage. I'm most excited to start figuring out vintage shoes!

Q: What do you look for in a piece when you're shopping?
A: I have been gravitating towards blue and red dresses and feel most comfortable in classic prints but I'm trying to diversify!

Q: Favorite vintage find to date?
A: I found a pair of vintage FRYE boots in college for $4 that I wore until I got pregnant with Sebastian and my feet got wider. They stopped fitting so I sold them to a consignment store in the U-District in Seattle and now wish I'd kept them just in case. I'm happy to know that someone else is enjoying them.

Q: The one piece that got away (or would've broken the bank!)
A: Oh, there are so many beautiful 50's cocktail dresses on Etsy that I would add to my cart in a second if they were about $80 cheaper.

Q: How do you style your daughter(s)?
A: I have a lot of vintage dresses for Ruby but not a lot of pants and shoes so I tend to mix the dresses with leggings or skinny jeans to even out the silhouette and have recently stocked up on adorable tights for the colder days.

Q: Favorite sources for online vintage?
A: Obviously, I love the vintage dresses at Red Velvet because they have such a strong collection. I also have purchased items from or plan on purchasing from 3 Ring Circus, Lishy loo, Cherry Bloom Vintage, Ms.Tips Vintage, Oh Sydney, and Fine And Dandy Vintage, and Freckle Wonder!

I'm Wearing
Vintage dress gifted from RubyEllen
Vintage belt, thrifted
Shoes, Target

My Ruby is Wearing
Vintage sailor dress found locally
Jeggings from Target
Mocs from Old Navy

Head on over to RubyEllen's beautiful blog to see more on what she and her sweet girls wore on a recent trip to the pumpkin patch. They are darling! We're going to be posting 'Vintage Here, Vintage There' once a week and can't wait to share some of our favorite vintage mamas and online sources with you. Stay tuned!

xoxo,
Rachel

My Favorite Vintage Chalkboard

It doesn't have any holes for hanging nor is it thick enough to nail hooks into so it's been leaning against a wall for awhile. I'm hoping to hang it up somehow when Ruby has her own space because it's a beauty. I found it over a year ago at an old warehouse looking estate sale. I think they gave it to me for $3 or something fantastic.

Today is for getting over a cold, finishing up some work in the new RVA shop, catching up on laundry, and making more chili for dinner! Easy AND delicious. What does your Wednesday look like?

xoxo,
Rachel

I Heart Etsy!

I've been wanting to buy Ruby a simple, wooden doll house since before she was born but felt like I should wait until at least her first birthday. I was doing some research (avoiding the laundry) on Etsy and came across these adorable vintage Fisher Price sets from Toys of the Past. I have vague memories of playing with these original Little People at our church nursery or maybe a friend's house and love the color scheme of the furniture!

I had them sitting outside after opening them and Sebastian came out and took an interest in them right away. He was telling the baby that she was in trouble for making a mess. Supposedly the baby had knocked over ALL of the furniture. It seems I need to be a little more patient with my mess maker.

This is the nursery set.

And these are the kitchen and sewing sets. The sewing desk is what sold me in the first place. It was such a major part of women's lives when these toys were first introduced and I'm glad Ruby will get to enjoy making up stories about what to sew in her doll house. I'll probably add pieces over the next two years, although, I've never run into these in all my years of thrifting.

She's also getting this adorable, handmade owl hat from Bzzyfingers. You can customize your colors so I chose the purple base with a light blue border and I will show you as soon as I can wrestle it on Ruby's head long enough to get a photo. That girl is quick! I'm hoping she'll start getting used to it so that her bald little head won't get frost bite this winter!

I saw that pink screen-printed stocking from Gingiber Snap on Twitter and went straight to her shop to make it my own. Ruby never got a proper stocking last year so this will be hers.

I was hoping Stacie would be offering a boy version and she soon added a green one so I snatched that one up for Sebastian. The colors match our holiday decor and the playful, vintage theme is just the right style for my kids. I'm so thankful to have that part of our holiday checked off the list because last year's good intentions to make family stockings out of recycled wool suits was a bust.

What have been some of your favorite Etsy purchases (or on the wish list)?

xoxo,
Rachel

I Used To Wear OshKosh

I found these OshKosh pants a few months ago and they finally fit this growing little girl.

I love the railroad conductor look but my favorite part are these heart-shaped pockets!

I paired them with Ruby's brown Mary Jane's from Old Navy last year and I'm afraid it's the last time those feet will fit into them.

With so many vintage dresses in the closet it was getting hard to want to put them on her when all she wanted to do was crawl through the dirt in the front yard so these pants are going to get their fair share of play time.

I'm not sure how much OshKosh was in my little girl wardrobe but I distinctly remember having a pair of OshKosh overalls. It was the typical mid-eighties wardrobe staple, right? ;)

xoxo,
Rachel

This is my 1,000th Post Post

I am not organized enough to ever anticipate a major blog milestone and have a party, or something more...organized. However, I do have some lovely vintage to share from the last few trips around town so they are going to fill in as the exciting cast of the 1,000th post. Without further delay...

Melmac-like dishes with the most fantastic floral design. I snagged all six.

A set of four dinner plates, saucers, and bowls in this lovely vintage pattern.

I also picked up a couple of pant suit hangers for art prints, two vintage sheets, and a soft linen table cloth in a floral print.

This little sweater was cut off at the sleeves but will look adorable over a long-sleeved onesie and paired with skinny jeans and mocs!

This sweet little corduroy coat is a 3T but I couldn't leave it at the store for such a great price. I'm thinking an exchange of some colorful buttons will give it that extra pop to make it even more unique.

The vintage shown above and myself would like to thank you for celebrating our 1,000th post together. We couldn't have done it without you. ;)

xoxo,
Rachel

No seriously, I am so thankful for my loyal readers and the support you've shown Smile And Wave just by checking in often. I appreciate you all, commenters and lurkers alike! This space wouldn't be the same if it weren't shared. You guys are fabulous!

Thursday's Thrifting Therapy

Ruby and I picked Sebastian up from pre-school on Thursday and had a few hours to ourselves with Brett at work so we headed to Urban Flea Market, previously known as Charley's, to see what kind of headboards they had in stock. Both beds at our house are STILL without headboards because I'm picky when it comes to things that enter my house. Anyway, it was more of an excuse to go in and browse than anything and I'm glad we did!

I picked up this metal Tom Thumb childrens' typewriter to bring the typewriter collection to a total of ten. Now I need to update my kids' tetanis shots! I also found this vintage Bob Dylan album and brought it home to surprise Brett. He needed cheering up.

We woke up Thursday morning to find that his Vespa had been stolen. It was surreal. You may or may not have been here when I surprised him with it for his birthday earlier this year and can imagine how much it meant to him after years of dreaming about owning one.

We're meeting with our claims adjuster next week to talk about details and are trying not to get too discouraged about it. We've been keeping an eye on craigslist, shared it with local Vespa dealers, as well as the online Vespa community that Brett keeps up with just in case anyone happens upon it or news of someone looking for a part or something. I'm not getting my hopes up that the police will find it but there's always that chance. It's the only one like it in town and possibly the state as they no longer make this model.

Anyway, we're keeping ourselves distracted with some fall-ish activities this weekend. I am dying to try out this pumpkin-filled cupcake recipe and Brett has promised us a trip to Anton's Coffee in the morning. That list isn't going to last long! What are your weekend plans?

xoxo,
Rachel

Ruby Has More Vintage Dresses Than I Do

Thanks to some really sweet online friends, Ruby now has a few more beauties in her wardrobe! This one kind of stole my heart. It's missing a front tie on the left side but I have a feeling I can manage that. It'll be ready for Ruby to wear in a few months!

This one is probably as charming as they get. The placket on the front with those four little buttons is adorable, the peter pan collar is super sweet, and the sailboat sail doubles as a pocket!

Thank you, Kristin and Grace, for your thoughtfulness and great eye! I am totally smitten with these dresses!

This sunshine yellow dress is from the darling Rubyellen, of Cakies. She and I did a little vintage swap last week and were both excited to find extra surprises in our packages! Her little Soul is a month younger than Ruby so we were online pregnant friends and got to commiserate and enjoy all of those parts of pregnancy that aren't always blog appropriate. ;) She is such a lovely gal and one of my favorite sources of inspiration for making life with little ones extra special.

This little number is from Scarlet's Vintage. Micalah has another adorable red one that I would snatch up in a minute if Ruby didn't already have about ten red dresses! And I kind of love these cowgirl boots.

I've got plans to get photos of Ruby in each of these as she grows into them and some plans are in the works with a vintage loving mama to share how we've styled vintage frocks for ourselves and our girls! Mostly it's good motivation for us but I can't wait to add this to the schedule.

xoxo,
Rachel

Introducing...The Typewriters

I've been collecting them for about two years. I've come across about six more beauties but sold them when I had PonyParty, my vintage Etsy shop. I still have a hard time saying no.

And it's time to order some more film for the Instax 210.

I think I've got about eleven solid collections, most of them vintage. Typewriters, globes, little girl dresses, chairs, etched glassware, rulers, quilts, clipboards, suitcases, thermoses, and vintage fabrics. I've had to put the kibosh on a few before we turn into an episode of American Pickers, or it's slightly less glamorous predecessor Hoarders! Yikes.

What do you collect?

xoxo,
Rachel

On The Way Home I Stopped To Look

Ruby and I went shopping this morning after an appointment and discovered where all of the etched glassware in town is being sold! If you haven't been to Relics, Missouri's largest antique mall (or it will be when it's actually full of vendors), it's worth a look. There's a lot of big vintage walnut furniture for antique prices but there are plenty of other booths full of vintage eye candy from the 40's, 50's, and 60's. I also picked up a beautiful feed sack bedspread (the floral background), a brass beaded necklace, and wooden spools of thread in beautiful colors.

I'm in the process of decluttering our house so thrifting might seem to be working against that process but I just unloaded a bunch of good vintage at RVA and some regular boring stuff at Red Racks so I'm sticking to my 'one in, one out' guideline pretty well! I'm on a mission to only have things in our home that I'm smitten with when it's an option (portable dishwashers can't be helped, ya'll) and most of those things happen to be vintage. Which makes living in Springfield even better because the selection in town and the Midwest in general is pretty fantastic.

xoxo,
Rachel