In this last week I have thrifted copies of two of my favorite and most worn mass-produced modern dresses. Except in different colors, so; bonus! I have seen these dresses on thrift store racks a number of times since thrifting (and falling in love with and constantly wearing) the originals in my wardrobe, but never in my size. Which, btw, is a Small- so if you ever come across one of these in that size, please go right on ahead and snatch it up for my ever-grateful and favor-returning self; I could wear these forever.

This one is Mossimo brand from Target. It combines so many of my most sought after elements in a frequently worn dress- maxi length, empire waist, sleeveless, and smocking in back so no bra needed. Just perfect for hot summer days, and never gets uncomfortable on long errand runs or extended afternoons at the park.My original copy of this dress (which, as you can see little glimpses of in this post, I wear almost constantly- and always wear for long car trips) is just plain blue, so I am stoked on this pattern! And I know there are more pretty patterns on this same dress in thrift stores all over the country…

Come to think of it, the perfect little summer shrug that I’m wearing is also a thrifted Target piece. No use being a vintage snob when such cute and cheap garments are available at every corner thrift store.

God I love smocking. And adjustable straps!

Now this is an Old Navy dress that I’ve had in ivory for a few years now. Another perfect throw-on-and-go summer dress. And again, this one is an upgrade because I don’t have to worry about running around all day in a stain-attracting white material. I’ve seen it in a beautiful rust orange color before, but not in my size. Again- no bra needed and adjustable straps! Score score score. (I know that no bra is not an option for some of you larger breasted ladies, but for us not as mammarily blessed, it’s a serious plus).

Only drawback- it’s linen and wrinkles in a quick second. C’est la vie. I shall distract your eye with the best vintage summer shrug thing OF ALL TIME.

So, I’ll say it again, if you happen to run into one of these on your clothing rambles in a size Small please do snatch it up for me and I’ll make it worth your while!

Also, as you may have noticed, I did something different with my hair for the first time in 7 years! Side swipey bangs- pretty sweet, eh?

I recently acquired a small collection of some of history’s most beautiful and well-made satin slips and cotton camisoles. Each piece is exquisitely detailed- a lace lover’s waking dream. And each is totally unique, every-day functional, and utterly flattering to any woman lucky enough to wear it.

These spectacular garments were produced in East Germany in the 50s and 60s, when that country referred to itself as the Deutsche Demokratische Republik (the DDR), or the German Democratic Republic. This was the post WWII era, when part of Europe was behind the “Iron Curtain” that demarcated those countries from those who did not live under the hegemony of the Soviet Union. These beauties were hidden away from the world for decades until the Berlin wall fell in 1990, and their remarkable craftsmanship and near-pristine condition suggest a time and place far removed from our modern day aesthetic and textile manufacturing practices.

There are six nylon satin slips and eleven cotton camisoles of varying lengths in the collection. I have owned a hip-length and a waist-length camisole for a few months now and I absolutely adore them. For four reasons:

1. I love feeling as though my body is enveloped in an authentic piece of history. Of course, this is true of all vintage, but there’s something extra special about the story- the time & place- that produced these slips.

2. They are ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS. I mean really- they don’t make ‘em like this anymore. The night I brought them home with me I sat on the couch and draped all of them over myself in a joyful revery of satin, floral, and lace. I was just beaming with the knowledge that these existed, and that I was lucky enough to get to see and touch them in person. The lace work itself is enough to send any vintage/textile/clothing/art lover over the edge of reason and into an abyss of sweet ecstasy.

3. Not only are they beautiful, they are completely functional. The camisoles especially can be worn under everyday clothing for extra warmth and support. The bodices are well structured and my friends and I have found that we can usually forgo a bra when we wear one. The longer camis and the slips also work beautifully under dresses. And, of course, the satin slips are the perfectl example of what we here at VF like to call “house candy”- cute lounge clothes you wear at home to make yourself (and possibly your partner/housemates) feel happy (and possibly amorous) every time they see you.

4. This collection features pieces in most size categories- from a small A cup to a large D cup, with most of them being medium B or C cups. Most of the camisoles have quite a bit of stretch to them and will flatter any body they are lucky enough to hug. Check measurements carefully in any listing you might be interested in.

All items are now listed in the shop! A legion of thanks to my beloved JenJen and the amazing photographer and graphic designer Scott Nice for helping me navigate my way through my first indoor photo shoot in order to really showcase these fabulous pieces ❤

-Aeschylus

These are my grandparents, Wayne Carlton Hill and Dathel Inez Wright (who’s always gone by Inez, or Inie) in 1947 in front of Shafter High School (in California’s central valley), where they met a few years before they were married. In 1952 Wayne’s mother, Maggie Lorene, had a house built directly across the street. Wayne & Inie moved in when she died in 1986 and have lived there, with a view of the school out their kitchen window, ever since. They’ve been married over 60 years now.

I’ve never shied away from thinking about aging and death, even as a child. But I’ve never felt these truths of life so viscerally, never seen them so clearly, as I did on our recent trip to visit my family. All my kinfolk know of my interest in genealogy by now, so I am lucky enough to be besought with old stories, newspaper cutouts, and photographs when we visit. And my grandparents have always had an entire hallway wall full of old photos, including this one. I love seeing them in their youth, fresh and happy and with their whole lives ahead of them.

When you’re young, your whole life seems like eternity. When you’re old, it seems to have gone past in the blink of an eye.

Grandpa Wayne and Grandma Inie are in their 80s now. He is dying in a rest home, after a heart attack and a hospital infection rendered him bed-ridden a few months ago. He is emaciated, wasting away. He can hardly speak; it comes out in choked whispers. We weren’t even allowed to hug him, for fear of catching his virus. It seemed he had aged decades since we saw him last, a year ago. I will probably never see him again.

Mycelia, my sister Lacey, Grandma Inie, my father Gary, and Grandpa Wayne

Grandma has no physical pain, but she is slipping farther and farther into Alzheimer’s every time we visit. She remembers the important things, the family ties. While we were in the rest home she turned to me and Lacey and said simply “That’s my husband”. She asks about how the people who have been close to her are doing. She never forgot Mycie’s name or who she was, even calling her Mycelia sometimes too. Though she does get confused about whose child she is, since Mycie sticks to my sister like glue whenever they’re together. And she does call my dad Wayne a lot. But to be fair, he really has come to resemble his father.

My dad moved down to Shafter last year to take care of his aging parents. Not too long after that his brother Terry moved in with them also. It was the four of them under one roof again, but under such different circumstances than 60 years ago when Wayne & Inie were in their early 20s farming and raising two small sons. Now it is the offspring taking care of those who gave them life. Grandpa Wayne will never come home again, and it is only the three of them for now.

My dad and Uncle Terry have aged measurably too, burdened with the pressure of tending to a house filled with objects and memories, a house that has only ever belonged to our family. Trying to sort through their parents finances and making end of life decisions has left a cloud of despair hanging over their heads. The Hill men have always been prone to over-worry and depression.

But not Grandma. Her memory, her independent life, and her family are slipping away from her. And yet. She is grateful and happy for what she has and what was given to her in her lifetime. She comes from (or come from, as she’d say) simple Arkansas folk, though she moved to California as a baby. I like to think that there was something about her people that infused her spirit with a realistic optimism about the wonders and the simultaneous hardships of life.

At the beginning she says “We might go see Wayne today”. I love the first part of this spontaneous, sneaky video I shot of her because you can see the Alzheimer’s in action, and the strange way the memory loss mixes with things long remembered. I love the second part because she often compliments me on what I’m wearing. Clothing seems to be one of the few things her mind still notices in the moment, and I can sure imagine myself being the same way at that age. And I *love* the last part beyond words and thoughts and straight into feeling and love. The “why not” makes me tear up every time.

I knew both of her parents, Lewis and Gladys May Wright, when they were her age and I was Mycie’s age, and I am keenly aware that Mycie is seeing her now as I saw them then. As sweet and loving but very, very old. Older that she’ll ever get. Older than I’ll ever get. Older than my parents will ever get. Except that they’re already almost there. And next it’s me. And then it’s Mycie.

And on and on in an eternal cycle of love and gratitude and birth and death and laughter and memories and always, always  new life ❤

We had a lovely trip visiting kinfolk last week. I scored some amazing family heirlooms AND a pile of gorgeous vintage dresses. One of them became my new favorite springtime dress and seemed just the thing to debut on Easter at my great aunt and uncle’s house on a sprawling ranch just outside of Clovis, CA. I love this Penguin label, I’ve had their pieces in my shop before. And I love the soft and stretchy fabric and I love the perfect fit and I LOVE the bright & happy color scheme! It perfectly reflects how joyful and hopeful and vital I feel this season ❤

Upgrades: Aww yeah, it’s day one of Project Blog Upgrade! We’ll be tinkering with the site a bit over the next couple weeks, doing some major tech updates and a full aesthetic makeover. Please bear with us and the ever-changing site as we figure it all out.

Updates: We’ll start with Suuzi, who is just moving into her 3rd trimester. She is feeling great and looking fabulous! We lunched at Ike’s last week, stopping in at a nearby baby/maternity buy/sell/trade shop where she picked up that little blue dress, and also taking some rest time to feel the sweet softness of Nevada City’s latest yarn bomb awesomeness.

Moving onto Toni A.K.A. the (now infamous) gunnesaxlady. The day after my post was published her Etsy shop was shut down, though she is still (frustratingly, considering the fact that I emailed them proof that she’s using images stolen from other people) up and running on Ruby Lane. I want to thank all of you who took the time to read, comment on, and share that post. It went viral on facebook and got 10x the number of hits my posts usually get, and I feel very satisfied that many people in the vintage community know about her scam now and will be keeping their eyes peeled for her next sneaky move. I have received many more messages since that blog was posted from buyers and sellers describing more outrageous behavior from Toni and team (seems there are definitely at least two people running that operation), including one $200+ purchase Toni made for which she made three separate payments from three separate PayPal accounts over a long period of time, constantly “forgetting” how much she owed and trying to undercut the seller (“I owe you $15, right?” “No, you owe me $50″). I still haven’t received my payment from her.

Uploads: My Instagram obsession continues. I was stoked yesterday to see a whole bunch of new friends joined because the app had been made Android friendly. If you’re on, my username is violetfolklore. If you’re not, you can check out my photo feed here while you scheme up ways to get yourself a compatible smartphone.

On the upswing: SPRINGTIME HAS ARRIVED! I’ve pulled my pretty warm weather dresses out of storage! I am leaving town for a trip to visit family tomorrow! I am stoked on my new blog design and the many little extras I have up my sleeve that are going to make this site that much better! I recently scored some darling vintage wall hangings that are already listed in the shop (see below)! I just acquired a hefty lot of amazing vintage European 50s and 60s lace slips and camisoles that are going to blow your goddamned mind (see below) (I mean seriously, they do not make clothing like this anymore)! Mycie gets to spend Easter with dozens of cousins who we rarely get to see! SPRINGTIME HAS ARRIVED!

Great day for Up!

Really and truly and totally unbelievably, this post promises to live up to its title…

It all started back in December when I was searching Etsy for my dream Gunne Sax dress- a red & white gingham sun dress. And I FOUND it! It was a new seller, gunnesaxlady, with odd photos of Gunnies lying on the floor, but the shop owner Toni was willing to lower the price in trade for one of my Gunne-esque dresses. We exchanged addresses and sent our dresses off.

Then three weeks ago when I started listing my Prairie Dress A Day dresses she quickly bought up the first dress using another Etsy account, gunnesaxgal. I didn’t realize at the time that this was a separate account, with the names being so similar, or else I may have been more wary of the next development- the fact that she hadn’t paid for it and had marked “pay with other” at checkout. I messaged her immediately and she said her PayPal account was having an issue and she was going to use her “sister’s” account. I gave her my PayPal email address and got the payment, so everything seemed good I sent the dress to her. The USPS tracking number shows that she received the dress on March 8th.

Alas! What a sad and tragic fate has befallen one of the prettiest dresses I’ve ever had in my shop!

I transferred the money to my bank account, and then a few days later I saw that it had been reversed OUT OF my bank account and was put “under review” by PayPal. I immediately wrote Toni and she said she’d look into it. After a week under review PayPal decided to refund the money back to the buyer. I called them and they said her account was flagged by her bank as “suspicious” and that’s why the payment was reversed. The woman at PayPal also said that this was highly unusual, and that another weird thing about the whole situation was that for some reason this one transaction out of over a thousand on my account didn’t include sellers’ insurance, and she had no idea why.

I had continued to send Toni friendly messages (on both of her accounts) and emails, trying to figure out what was going on. Finally I realized that this was an intentional scam. I started reaching out to other sellers and buyers and Gunne Sax fans and slowly but surely the puzzle pieces started to fall into place. I happened to be at the right place at the right time, and to have the social connections and mystery-solving set of mind, to be the person to finally call this seller out for her unethical and bizarre business practices. Which are as follows…

1. Weird & Distasteful Photos

Let’s start with her smallest crimes and work up to the biggest. Or let’s start with her nippleiest crimes and move up to the outright stealing. These are actual photos taken from actual listings she has posted in her actual shop right now:

Okay so this has nothing to do with the fraud, but I would be remiss to write a post about this lady without highlighting her tasteless photos. Some, as you can see, are horribly executed mammary-centric self portraits with the annoying date on the bottom right, while others hang on what appears to be some sort of weird sex fetish mannequin. The really funny thing about this is that Gunnies are notoriously small-busted dresses, and she has to undo the corset on all of these in order to make them fit. Whenever she can, she makes her default photo as pornographic as possible. Perhaps she’s trying to distract us from her evil scheme by throwing some big ol’ titties in our face. Nice try.

2. Stealing Images

Moving onto the theft, of which she dabbles in at least two kinds. The first is stealing other peoples’ images to use in her shop.

This photo was taken from Old Age Vintage. You can tell by the sizing that it was taken from someone else (without bothering to click on it to make it bigger first). Her whole shop is a hodge-podge of different sized photos with different backgrounds and different models.

I took this screen shot last night after accidentally coming upon this page while searching for “velvet Gunne Sax”. She is using the exact same image (actually all five of them) as a listing from another shop that has the same item for sale. She stole it from Allison at Rags and Feathers Vintage. Here is the dress in Allison’s shop, and here it is in Toni’s.

This image was taken from Elizabeth at Golden Owl Vintage.

This photo was taken from American Archive. I have checked with all of the sellers whose images are shown here, and none of them were contacted by Toni for permission to use their photos.

I am unsure of the origins of the following images, and ask you to please let me know if you recognize which shops any of them are from. Some of these (like the two shots above) were taken from her shop on Ruby Lane called Hippie Haven, which a friend directed me to earlier today. It seems that Toni has multiple venues through which she sells (it appears she was recently banished from eBay, though I don’t as of yet have undeniable proof of this) and this fact, coupled with her multiple Etsy and PayPal accounts, belies her strategy to spread her fraudulent activities over multiple sites in the hopes that no one will figure her out. (As sellers we all know that presenting a consistent branding strategy to the world over multiple venues is a smart business move; the fact that she tries to mask her shops under different names and logos speaks volumes).

Her profile on Ruby Lane states “We carefully research and photograph every item”. Not the only outright lie from her you’ll be reading about in this post.

3. Horrible Customer Service

You can start to get a sense for how she works her scam by looking at her feedback and her Sold folder on Etsy. Many of her transactions are legit; if they were all fraudulent she’d be a much easier target for removal. From what I can piece together she buys Gunnies from other sellers (always asking for a discount and sometimes doing what she did with me- paying with a shifty PayPal account and knowing the money will be reversed back to her and then refusing to make the payment again), then lists the item in her shop, often using images stolen from either that seller or someone else (some of the shops I got in touch with had sold the dress used in her listings to her, some hadn’t and she just had the exact same dress and used the best image she could find). When she makes a sale she sometimes ships the dress out to the buyer right away, sometimes waits a month and a half to get around to it, and sometimes ships the wrong item all together.

Now, from looking at her Sold section, I am willing to bet that she also profits from not shipping out sold dresses at all and then re-listing them to sell again and make double the profit. None of her feedback suggests this outright, but the fact that she has the exact same listing listed twice (presumably being re-listed after it sold the first time) for two separate dresses is very suspicious (the white dress pictured above from Old Age has sold twice, and the blue dress from an unknown source has sold once and it’s now listed again). Two of the four pieces of negative feedback have no commentary, so who knows what happened there. Perhaps her probable banishment from eBay last fall was due to the fact that someone else already figured this all out (she started selling on Etsy in November and on Ruby Lane just last month).

4. Stealing Merchandise/Fraud/Outright Lying

I finally did get a message back from Toni, just last night. Here is a screen shot of our conversation (sorry they’re warped so strangely):

Oh Toni. Apparently she thought she could get away with this embarrassing lie because it was sent from her gunnesaxlady account (her shop account), while the purchase was made from her gunnesaxgal/toni guy account. Here is what she sent me after she made the purchase from me three weeks ago without paying and I asked her what was up:

I had sent my question about payment to her gunnesaxlady shop account, and she chose to write me back from her personal, secret account. Now I know why. She thought she was covering up any traces of her shop persona and her buying/scamming persona being related. (It’s interesting too to note that she even changed her name from “toni guy” to just “toni” during the course of our conversation.) However, I have proof that gunnesaxgal and gunnesaxlady are indeed the same person with the same name and the same address:

So here is the official order (note that I still have not checked the “paid with other” box, because I still have not received her payment), and here is an email Toni sent me from her gunnesaxlady shop account back in December when we decided to trade dresses:

As you can see I got all fancy and learned how to erase parts of these images in order to hide her mailing address as well as my email address for privacy’s sake. I’ve chosen to leave her email visible though so that you can know not to do business with her if she ever tries to pay you in PayPal using it. Her “sister’s” email address is shoppinbug@hotmail.com, so avoid doing business with that account as well. I have reported both of these accounts and the whole story to PayPal and they take matters like this quite seriously, so most likely no one will ever encounter these particular emails again.

The Moral of the Story

Is don’t try and screw over your brothers and sisters of the world, and if you do, don’t be an idiot about it. Toni probably figured that no one would ever put forth the time and effort to patch her scheme together. I so badly want to yell out here in my strongest self-righteous-prairie-dress-wearing-moral-policewoman-mama voice “Well lady, you MESSED WITH THE WRONG WOMAN!” (Yes I am having my moontime right now and yes I did just eat an entire bar of Coffee Crunch Dark Chocolate while writing this post).

I share this with you all in order to A) perhaps gather more feedback and hear more stories about Toni and her Multiple Online Personality Theft, Lies, and Fraud Disorder and B) to warn others about her and her sketchy business practices. I encourage you to share this post. The more folks find out what is going on here, the better chance we have of stopping this whole mess and preventing it from happening in the future when she signs up with yet another website to try and hawk her stolen wares (and then never ship them out to the people who buy them).

I have already reported her to Etsy, Ruby Lane, and PayPal. If any of the stolen images are yours, please contact whichever site is featuring them to let them know. And if you have any stories of your own that support what I am saying here, please send them along to the relevant websites as well. This woman needs to be shut down as soon as possible.

As a fellow seller said to me, “How could she do this to you!? How could she do this to the Gunnies!?”

But of course! I’ve only thought about doing this for the last 3 1/2 years.

Mycelia and I had a lot of fun taking these photos yesterday. She’s pretty expressive in front of the camera. Last week we were cleaning out her drawers (after being gifted a big bag of AMAZING clothes from my friend Nikiya) and she asked me “Mama, what’s vintage?” I could tell she’d been wondering for a while, considering that I’ve been doing this for as long as she can remember. We talked about it and decided to add a children’s vintage section to my shop. She’s old enough now to decide what she wants to keep and what she can let go of (which she’s really good at!), AND she’s old enough to be my model (I called it being my “helper”) without complaining too much.

(I love it that her favorite pose isn’t a modeling pose at all but a yoga pose)

All items are now listed in the shop! And we’ll certainly continue to offer kid’s vintage in the future ♥

Two Sundays nights ago I had even-more-fun-than-expected night out on the town. And I was seriously expecting it to be fun.

It all started in Cabin A in Big Sur back in January when Adam and I shared a cabin with Andy Cabic of Vetiver and his awesome girlfriend (a cellist, Etsian, and San Francisco shop owner) Alissa. We talked about the scene in Nevada City, Andy wondered if it was worth trying to play a show here in March as part of their tour, we said UM YES and this is who you call, he called, requested that Adam’s band Golden Shoulders share the bill, and it all happened!

I called the photo album I made of this night Friend Heaven at the Haven, because it was UNREAL how many of my friends, from many different areas and times in my life, were there. It felt like my birthday or something. This here’s a bunch of local ladies, but they came from all over…

Before the show, having drinks across the street at The National, I was absolutely thrilled to run into not one, but TWO, old Sacramento friends. I worked with these handsome and wonderful gents at the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op the year before I had Mycie. And there are hardly any other of my ex-coworkers who I’d rather randomly run into. I mean, I was just beside myself with happiness. That’s Nate on the left and Justin (from Santa Cruz) on the right. And they did not come to the show together either and have lived in separate towns for years, so it was a sweet surprise for all of us!

Nate had driven up from Sacramento with one of the first friends I made blogging 3 1/2 years ago- Amber from Painfully Hip. At some point she suggested to her twin sister Eve and her husband Danny that they befriend me on Facebook due to some similar interests, so I had known the two on the right at a distance for a while. And so it was a THIRD fantastic surprise moment that night when they also walked into The Nash and we all instantly recognized one another and got to finally meet in person! And the actual show hadn’t even started yet. AND I still haven’t revealed the most exciting guests of the evening…

My momma and her husband Dave and my beloved Uncle Charlie! Mom & Dave drove up from Gardnerville, NV and Charlie came from Sacramento. They are all big fans of Adam’s music and were very happy to finally have the chance to see him perform. Sadly, this is the only picture I got of my mom, and none of the dudes. But I had such a good time with them. My mom is the coolest; ever since I was a child my friends have always adored her. She’s one of the girls, no matter the age distance, and I had a blast having her hang out with my nearest and dearest girlfriends.

Golden Shoulders takes the stage! The teens swoon…

During the break between sets Jen and I (and my mom!) took a whole lotta pictures of a whole lotta silliness…

Brett Shady (performing with Adam) (and btw, since I’ve posted about him a number of times, YES that’s his real name).

And his sweet, sweet lady. Can you even believe how darling Samantha is? This dress? That face? That little baby bump? And you shoulda seen her on the dance floor after the show.

Finally it was time for Vetiver to begin. Samantha, an exhausted Adam, and Ski watched from the sidelines…

While I wormed my way to the front row (I’m pretty good at that).

The Sacramento crew had a pretty sweet moment during the encore, hugging and singing in a big happy group of family and friends.

As a final note to this incredible evening, I would just like to say that this picture represents the best essential oil combo ever- amber & vetiver. I’ve been wearing it for years, and we certainly joked about it that weekend in Big Sur. I use this amber and this vetiver. People lose their minds. Give it a try

Oh! And check out these gorgeous songs from our featured bands:

Vintage Off Shoulder Lavender Lace Dress

You guys, I have a confession to make. I’m cutting the Prairie Dress a Day extravaganza short by two days, due entirely to character weakness. It was supposed to go 14 days instead of 12.

And why? You ask.

Selfishness, utter selfishness.

You see, two of the dresses I had photographed as part of this Spring Celebration were from my own collection, and I realized that I just can’t let them go. I was getting all excited about clearing old things out, thinking things like “Well, I already have one mid-length prairie dress, so I don’t need another” and “I have another maxi floral dress with a smocked bodice, so…”

It looks amazing with my, as we call it at photo shoots, Brown Boho Belt #1

But really, as that age old Universal Truth Aphorism says- a girl can never have too many dresses. I think of Heather‘s closet- overflowing with gorgeous vintage patterns in a jubilee of years of happy collecting. I was jealous. I wanted that much beauty right in my own bedroom; that many options when it came time to dress for the County Fair or a special show or just a walk to the coffee shop. And while my collection is probably only 1/6th of what hers is, I’m getting there. And I like it.

I have this drive to NOT hoard, to keep a fresh flow of household goods always… flowing. I’m a good thrifter, and I’ve gotten better over the years at not buying things I just won’t use or simply aren’t right for my home (no matter how cute they are). But still, as all avid thrifters know, you eventually realize that there are a few bags of things ready to re-donate. But this tidy tendency of mine has caused me to, in my super efficient cleansing mode, get rid of things that I have later regretted. And I just can’t let that happen with these two.

PLUS, I have a daughter to pass these things onto some day! I look at photos of my mom in the late 60s and early 70s and I am furious that she didn’t save those clothes for me! Okay, not exactly furious. But wistful and wishful that she had. I promised myself I’d save my favorite dresses for my daughter someday, and I can’t break that promise just because I desperately need money at the moment!

I purchased both of them on Etsy, so they weren’t cheaply acquired and easily sloughed off. I mean, they’re the type of dresses that I would buy again if I saw them on Etsy. They’re exactly what I like to wear. And I wear them! I should have taken that point into consideration at the beginning of this. Rule #1 of cleaning out your closet- if you wear it, keep it. I must admit to myself right here that my drive to clean out has a sinister side to it- the desire to acquire something new. If I sell these now, I’ll buy something similar on Etsy someday. Fact. Might as well conserve that energy and be happy with what I’ve got.

As you can see, this isn’t the first time I’ve considered letting go of this sweet pink dress seriously enough to photograph it, only to decide to keep it after all:

And I had such a good experience buying this dress, as I wrote about in my post A Prairie Winter (or, When the Tea Party Meets Etsy).

I absolutely love a dress with enough bust support that I don’t have to wear a bra. My days are so much better and more comfortable without one. That alone is reason enough to never let this dress go.

I anxiously went through my wardrobe this morning seeing if there were two more prairie-esque dresses I could quickly photograph so that I didn’t have to admit my mistake to anyone. But alas. So this is the end of the Spring 2012 Prairie Dress Collection. I had so much fun collecting, photographing, and sharing these vintage beauties. I may try to make it a bi-annual thing, each spring and fall.

Thanks for all the good feedback, sweet love, and purchases! Onward toward the dawn of summer!

(And please, do share your thoughts, methods, and past experiences having to do with curating your own wardrobe…)

A much less involved post today; my right arm and shoulder are super tense from days of computer work and weeks of no yoga. I plan to remedy the situation by returning to class tonight! I don’t understand how people can work on their computer 40 hours a week or more. After an hour my eyes hurt and my shoulders tighten up. What are your experiences with and remedies for that?

Vintage Rosebud Lace Dress