with me and American Apparel. I feel an inherent disgust with anything shiny and/or spandex, and am NOT a huge fan of the eighties in general. And yet, their website and storefront displays entice me... whats with that? Is it just that they have such good design, marketing, and photography (!) that I love them for what they are doing deep down inside, or do I really want to wear some of these things??





The thigh high socks, at least, are a resounding yes.

flowers = leftovers from an event at work

I have had a very bad jewelry-organization habit for as long as I can remember. I have several jewelry boxes, full of stuff dating back to high school (or earlier!), and I sometimes even bypass my boxes for the counter and nightstand. NO MORE.

I found this vintage jewelry box at the St. Vincent de Paul thrift store that I found the other day (not found obviously, but found out about for the first time - I didnt know we had one!), and I knew that I would have to rectify the situation asap.


So I compacted and cleared out the three or so boxes I've had forever, and put only things I wear plus one or two sentimental items (isnt that what a jewelry box is for if even just a little bit?) in the new GOLD box.



I feel so much better now. And you know what that means girls?! Time for you to come over and peruse. I have lots of things that need to go (including maybe even some scarves that have been lying around with no one to wear them...)!

3.23.09 two, originally uploaded by allison the valiant.

rainy. any excuse to wear this blazer over everything!

blazer: thrifted, Savers
sweater: gift from Alex's parents
jeans: H&M
shoes: vintage, Savers
chain headband: hand me down from Bryan's mom, via Emma
necklace: Urban

I found it, molly! and it was wonderful. even the furniture was great (which is uncommon in thrift stores around here, i feel)!

I really wanted to take these babies home with me, but we cannot house any more chairs at our place. too many chairs. wah.



I am just IN LOVE with this one. I am even thinking about going back for it as I type! More about St. Vincent de Paul's soon...

I have a thing for silly rings. 1) big white one: H&M 2) mood ring?: CTC Gift Shop 3) yellow stone ring: Shop in the Cancun Mexico Airport and 4) big square one: nabbed from the CTC lost & found! And 5) I just got this one in Chicago at the Museum of Contemporary Art store. It is by an artist named Carolyn Forsman and is basically a snow globe on a stick (ps: I'm not even going to link to her website, it is unfortunately THAT AWFUL)!

Sorry about the lack of posts in the last few days, guys. Romeo & Juliet closed this weekend at the theatre. It makes me sad... It was one of the best shows I had seen in a long time. During the run I drew this Shakespeare slash Vincent Van Gogh mashup. Someone also did a Frida Kahlo, I wish I had taken a picture of that one!

More soon.

3.14.09 one, originally uploaded by allison the valiant.

I wanted to wear this to work, but didnt think the shoes were very appropriate. I ended up putting on some more conservative shoes for the day, BUT I WANTED TO WEAR THE SHINY ONES!

dress: vintage, from Buffalo Exchange
cardigan: ON
tights: Target
shoes: N.Y.L.A. from DSW
giant sparkly ring: The Childrens Theatre lost and found! yay!

While in Chicago last weekend, I of course wanted to check out the vintage scene there. I looked up several stores ahead of time, planning to only make it to one (we had a lot we wanted to do!) but we ended stumbling across several. Poor Alex... Here they are:

First was Store B, which was RIDICULOUS. They had the best quality, the best selection and overall the MOST vintage clothing I have ever seen in one place. I was overwhelmed by the store but even more, I was overwhelmed by the prices. Yes, they were also RIDICULOUS. But that of course did not stop me from finding one, meagerly reasonable piece that I had to have. Don't ask. I will show you later...




The second was a place called Wacky Cats. I know, stupidest thing I've ever heard. And also, the weirdest vintage place I've ever seen. They did have a large selection of dresses, hats and coats (all beautiful), but a lot of them were victorian, or black, or both. And they also had some strange contemporary things, like men's hawaiian shirts and Led Zeppelin tshirts. And the older lady working in the back looked like an aging hippy with tattoos and a peasant skirt. I just felt like nothing made sense. Prices were also high-ish.




The last place I went (besides the Buffalo Exchange, where I happened to be quite successful actually) was an Antique Store in Lincoln Park. They had a couple of stalls with overpriced vintage clothing, one with an AMAZING light green chiffon cocktail dress which I should have photographed, but I was most in awe of all of the troves of furniture they had. Herman Miller, Eames, Heywood Wakefield, midcentury plexi wine racks, AND THEY WERE REASONABLLY PRICED. I was flabbergasted. Why don't we have a store like this in Mpls?!?! I will find it.




I'll show you the spoils another time. Later!

I have been wanting them, even though the winter is almost over.






Photo Credits: Scout Holiday, Natalie on Weardrobe, I Heart Fake magazine, Bosie on Flickr's wardrobe_remix, and my new favorite lady from Park&Cube

ps: back from Chicago, more on that later.

3.7.09 side, originally uploaded by allison the valiant.

3.4.09, originally uploaded by allison the valiant.

I'm getting better at doing things, everyone! Tonight, I added a button (been there), sewed a hem (done that), AND I PUT IN A ZIPPER! And I did all of this using my trusty hand-me-down Singer sewing machine (it's embarrassing that this is the first time I've used it) The first two apply to this little green denim skirt that I picked up at Rewind Vintage's 25% off sale (see also the grey coat). It was MASSIVE beforehand, and definitely something I would never wear, but look at it now! It is such a small baby!


The zipper part comes in with this cute little 50's dress, given to me by Emma several years ago. She and I both kept fixing busted seams and ripping zippers, frantically trying to do something to keep the fabric on top from coming apart (you can see some of the tears and patches in the photo) and it was finally time to do something drastic to rescue this adorable number. I could not bear to just not wear it at all... So I made it into a skirt! All I had to do was cut off the top, fold over the fabric to make a waistband and sew in a new, shorter, zipper. Et Voila!



Now, I have one last thing (ha) that I planned to alter, but am now re-thinking... I got this 70's dress at Tatters the other day for $10, and as soon as I saw that cute neckline and floral pattern, I thought what a cute spring mini-dress you would make (because I am OBVIOUSLY dying for the spring to come)! So I was going to take it home and hem it way up, like with the green denim skirt, but as I was taking the before pictures of it, I thought maybe it looks too beautiful as it is to chop off? Right now, it's very Beth from the Vintage Society (Edit: whos blog is down right now for some scary reason, sorry). What do you guys think? I could definitely use some advice on this one. Here are some pictures:

Alex and I have been getting quite a few things done around the house lately (before he fell sick this week - feel better Alex!). Project number one on my to do list was to clean up the huge clothes-monster that had been accumulating near my bed for the past few months. And at first, I didnt know how to rectify this situation other than by forcing myself to fold things and put them away every day instead of throwing them on the ground (and we all knew that wasnt quite going to work out)...

AND THEN I read an article by this woman who's belief is that organization isnt always having "a place for everything and everything in its place," but that you must figure out a way of organizing your things that you will actually stick to. This made sense to me. Because I throw my clothes in the same spot on the floor every damn day, I should get some sort of hamper or table that I can throw my clothes in/on to hide them from people's eyes and at the same time, not even try to change my bad habit. GENIOUS!

This is what Emma and I came up with (she helped me pick something at Hunt and Gather, and then helped load it awkwardly into the trunk of my Geo - thanks again Emma!). Soon I will purchase some bins or baskets for the shelf underneath to stash my running piles of a) sweaters/cardigan and b) favorite jeans.


This way, I also have counter-space for a jewelry box (that I can finally use!) and some scarfs. I wear those a lot too...

Project number two was to finally get some sort of matching nightstands, also for the bedroom. Since moving in (Alex has been using moving boxes) we just havent been able to find anything we like! Theyre either too big, too tall, too expensive, or not the right color. I of course, wanted white.

So we finally thought of a solution - shelves! We would install small wall shelves instead! ANOTHER GENIOUS IDEA! Alex Ikea hacked these by getting two loose bookcase shelves (for $2!) and brackets from the as-is section, mounting them to the wall, and adding these cute, also from Ikea, wall-mounted lamps (ps: they make for great mood lighting) with cable organizers that we will eventually paint to match the wall color... yay!



Project number three on my list of things to do for the house was to get a bunch of little white frames and frame pictures and ephemera that I have been saving up for years, and hang them in little photo-collages in the dining room. Instant charm!




Now I just worry that every time the upstairs neighbors exercise, the frames will be jiggled off-level... and that might just drive me NUTS (I'll keep you updated). More homey things to come!

I stumbled across this fashion blog the other day called Park&Cube. I think I somehow found it through Sally Jane Vintage's blog reel, and you know how it goes when you find one you really like, I sat and read it all the way through! This girl is my hero. She is not only soft and feminine, with a lot of edge on top, but also a serious DIY-er. She's done all of these amazing projects that only inspire me to do more myself! Here are only a couple of images I took off of her site for my inspiration folder recently (yes, I have one).




And to top it all off, she is living in London right now! London is on the top of my list of places to visit next. Anyone living out there in London willing to let me sleep on your couch/floor?