52 Tuesday's: Favorite Thrifts #15 - Travel Edition (2)

My title are getting rather lengthy...
anywho

What: Woven Everything Bag
Where: I don't remember? Maybe the Ballard Goodwill? eeek!
Level of Love: Tons!

Still traveling this week, so this is another travel edition of my favorite thrifts. As I mentioned last week, I think when something travels with you it's elevated to the level of extra favorite. Which is certainly true of this bag. This bag. Seriously. I called it an everything bag, because it fits just about everything. Original, I know.

This was one of those things I almost didn't buy because I was waffling over whether I really liked it or not. Seems like these types of bags have been floating around in trendy world for a few years now, so I was kind of thinking it was either too late to jump on the bandwagon and I'd look silly carrying it, or I just didn't want to be on that bandwagon at all because it's a little outside my style. Plus, sometimes I think there's this thrifting rule you have to tell yourself where if you're going back and forth on something you should probably put it back. If it's not an omagawd grab and beeline for the checkout then you have no business buying it. It's a bit of a conundrum really: when to buy something thrifting and when to leave it when you're on the fence. I think you have to be even pickier  when thrifting than when you're at a new goods store. I have a few theories about this. First, your standards change by your surroundings. If I'm at J. Crew looking at their cashmere sweaters, I might not buy one because it's not the exact right shade of blue (Note: I've never purchased a cashmere sweater off the rack at J.Crew). If I'm at a thrift store and I see a cashmere J. Crew sweater of any color I'm gonna bring that sucker home. This has gotten me into trouble in the past when I've arrived home, unpacked my bags, and realized I've just purchased a sweater in the most hideous shade of luminescent yellow you could imagine (true story). So, perspective. Second, I think all the randomness of a thrift store can make you loose your sense of your own style a little bit. If you're at a homogeneously decorated and stocked store that fits your style aesthetic perfectly, you have no trouble picking within the family of things to pull out that one extra perfect thing. At the thrift store, sometimes it's all so NOT your style that when you see something remotely close you're like, "dude, that's sooo me". But then it turns out you put it with all the rest of your stuff and it's really not. It just was compared to all the totally random stuff at the thrift store.

See, I've had some thoughts about this.

Back to the bag. The one downside it had when I purchased it was that it was just all one big pouch, with no little pockets to stick your phone or wallet. So, to fix that for travel purposes (zipper your valuables when you travel folks), I bought a big zippered cotton pouch thing, and sewed one side of it to one side of the bag, creating a zippered compartment for my valuables. Oh! This bag has been traveling before. In fact, it has it's very own Tunisia story! We were walking through the coliseum at Al Jem when one of the leather straps suddenly snapped. I was bummed, but was making it work. Later that night, we arrived in Sfax and went to the souk (market). As we were walking through, our friend Rachel pointed out a vendor with a leather goods shop and a manual sewing machine and suggested that if we asked he would probably mend the strap. Well, we Rachel asked, and lickety split it was fixed! It held strong through the rest of our trip - which notably included hanging from a camel - and is still going strong today.

FO: A Shawl for Aunt Sandy

This is my aunt Sandy. Isn't she lovely? I mean, just look at that smile. This picture was taken in the kitchen of my grandparent's house in Enterprise, WI. I started knitting this shawl for her shortly after chatting about one during this past visit at same said grandparent's house.

The yarn is Classic Elite Silky Alpaca lace hand painted. It was purchased at the absolutely perfect Churchmouse Yarns on Bainbridge Island. Always worth the trip to such a wonderful yarn shop. I chose the yarn because Aunt Sandy (like my dad and many relatives on his side of the family) is irritated by wool. I, of course, love wool and am adverse to artificial fibers. Luckily, there are many types of "wool", so there's usually something out there that will strike a balance between being a high quality natural fiber and also something that's okay for sensitive skin. This particular yarn is 70% baby alpaca and 30% silk. Alpaca is one of my favorite fibers. It's soft, warm, and durable all at the same time. Combine it with a little bit of silk and it's very pleasing indeed. It was nice to knit with and the finished product had a beautiful drape. My only complaint with this yarn is that it was far from color fast. In fact, it was so not color fast that the dye was coming off on my hands as I knit. This was easily fixed by adding a capful or so of vinegar to the pre-blocking water soak, then rinsing until the water ran clear and it no longer smelled of vinegar.

Pattern is Ishbel by Ysolda Teague. Although I've admired Ysolda since first learning of her through my friend Rachel, then picking up one of her pattern kits at K1Yarns in Edinburgh (another all time favorite yarn shop...although this one is now a little more than a ferry ride away), this is the first of her patterns I've actually knit. It did not disappoint.

52 Tuesdays: Favorite Thrifts #14 - Travel Edition

What: Wedge Loafers
Where: Savers in Eau Claire, WI
Level of Love: 5 out of 10

First, I am currently travelling far from home for work, so this week's favorite thrift feature was selected from among my travel belongings. I think it makes a thing extra favorite when you take it travelling with you, right?

I purchased these wonderful wedge loafers pretty recently when we stopped at an old favorite thrift store in Eau Claire while driving from my hometown area in Northern Wisconsin to catch a flight from Minneapolis to Seattle. This is one of my all time favorite thrift stores from our college years. It just always seems to be stocked with some pretty awesome finds. I'm thinking back to numerous items of vintage clothing and my first ever thrifted piece of vintage Fiestaware (the gold creamer you can just catch a glimpse of in this previous post).

I really love these shoes. They're super comfortable, are in really good shape, and I think they go with everything. Plus, even though the wedge is pretty teeny and made out of rubber, I still kinda feel like I'm "wearing heels" when I put them on. If it were completely up to me, I'd give them a ten out of ten. However, this thing called marriage is a two way street, and this husband of mine isn't as big of a fan. Thus, they get only half of a ten. At the store, I recall him telling me I shouldn't buy them because they were too "granny". Whatever. I like granny and I think they're fabulous.

52 Tuesdays: Favorite Thrifts #13 (and a recipe)

What: Five of Hearts Waffle Maker

Where: Stacey's Funk Finds, SoDo Seattle

Level of Love: 10 out of 10

We picked this waffle maker up awhile ago at this treasure of a secondhand shop in SoDo. We actually haven't been back to Stacey's since then, which is unfortunate and must be remedied soon methinks. 

I took these photos when we pulled it out for a waffle brunch last Saturday. The Churchills really love waffles. If you happen to drop by our house on any given Saturday or Sunday morning, there's a good chance you'll find a stack of waffles waiting. This waffle maker makes the best crispy little waffles. And they happen to be adorable, too.  This is my go to waffle recipe, with a few substitutions. Here's how I make them: 

1 3/4 whole wheat flour (although I've used a combination of white/wheat or all white flour, too)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter melted
1 cup milk
1/2 cup plain greek yogurt (we like FAGE - pronounced fa-yeh - brand)
2 large eggs

1 tablespoon ground flaxseed + 3 tablespoons water (it's an egg substitute)

Whisk the dry ingredients in one bowl. Whisk wet ingredients in another bowl. Pour wet into dry and whisk it all together. Make waffles. 

Long Time No Blog: Two Things

Well hello there dear and faithful readers (insert illusions of grandeur here). I have missed you. I have been absent on this space (not intentionally but rather inevitably) for two reasons.

One: Winslow

Several months ago, my dear friend and neighbor Sarah and I started kicking around the idea of starting an Etsy shop together. Actually, I think it happened in my living room like this. Sarah, "Wouldn't it be fun to start an Etsy shop?"Me, "Yeah. We should do it." Sarah, "Wait, are you kidding?" Me, "No, I"m not kidding. Are you kidding?" Sarah, "Nope, totally serious." Thus we became business partners. Obviously there were a few things that happened between now and then, including us changing the focus of our shop from vintage to handmade because we realized how much we both love making things. Now, the Winslow shop is stocked full of handmade bowties, neck ties, and pocket squares designed and made by us. There are a few things that we think make our stuffs extra special. First, we use all reclaimed and / or vintage fabrics. That means that bowtie you see below above to be a shirt. Hand knit ties are also on their way for fall, which we're making from unravelled sweaters (all thrifted of course). Second, we do things by hand whenever possible because we both just think there's something special about handmade goods. That means our pocket squares all feature hand-rolled hems, and our neckties are also all stitched using a hand slip stitch (that's right, no sewing machine involved folks). The bowties have less hand stitching due to the logistics of their construction, but still have the same attention to detail as our other products.

Clearly, I could go on and on about Winslow for paragraphs. It's just so darn exciting to work with a wonderfully inspiring and driven friend on such a cool project. But, I'll spare you any more ramblings here and instead point you to our Winslow blog, Etsy shop, and Instagram feed for more.

Two: Tunisia

Yep. You read that right Tunisia. Kevin and I took an extended hiatus to visit our old friend Thomas in Tunisia, and to meet his lovely lady and our new friend Rachel. The trip was jam-packed full of wonderful experiences, quality time with our friends, and good memories. Also, lot of pictures. Here are a few highlights.

Exploring the Roman Colosseum at Al Jem.

Overnight trip into the Sahara Desert on Camels

Ancient cliffside houses in Chenini

Beautiful hand woven rugs

Traditional Tunisian decorated blue door while exploring Sidi Bou Zid

Beach time at Raf Raf

Truly, it was one of the best trips of our lives. Kevin has shared lots more pics here on fb if you're interested!

Churchill Family Yurt Tour 2013: Cape Disappointment

Our fourth yurt tour stop took the Churchill family down to the very southwestern end of Washington to Cape Disappointment State Park. Don't ask me why it's called Cape Disappointment. Despite reading all of the state park placards (with determination) I did not learn. Sure, I could look it up. But I wanted to read it on a flippen' placard, okay?

Well, that got off to a more sour note than intended.

Let me start again.

This was the BEST YURT TOUR STOP YET! Really. We discussed this in detail during several of our beach walks and we both agreed. There's a TON to do at this state park, and we didn't even do it all in our first visit (assumption here is we'll be going back). First though, before I jump into the weekend activities, I've got an announcement to make: we bought a new car! It's a dark gray 2004 Volkswagon Golf. Call us modest people, but it's pretty much our dream car. We hope to have him for a long time (in this non-rust-creating state we now live in). We bought him on a Friday and set off for yurt tour early, early Saturday morning. It was nice to take him on a nice long drive right away. Here he is parked outside our YURT!

Saturday was spent doing two different hikes to the two different lighthouses at the park. That's right. There's not only one but two lighthouses to visit here. This is because this is where the mighty Columbia River meets the Pacific, creating one of the most unpredictable and difficult to navigate sandbars in the world (according to the placards).

 

The other cool thing about this area (among other things) is that it's where Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery first made it to the Pacific Ocean. We skipped the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center this time (who brings $5 in cash on a hike in the woods?) but agreed it was something we could do at a later trip. The view of the ocean, the mountainous Oregon coast, and the Columbia River bar were spectacular. The lighthouses were super cool, too, and really made me want to live in a lighthouse. Can you do that? Do people still do that? Hmmm...must search for a degree program in lighthouseology. Oh! I almost forgot to talk about the old military battery on the top of the hill. It was build pre-WWI to guard the Columbia River entrance (again, nod to the placards). It was pretty cool to explore.

There was one major disappointing thing about Cape Disappointment (couldn't resist). Our fire. Major disappointment. The wood the camp store sold us was super wet. Seriously, it wasn't smoking...it was steaming. So after burning up all of our kindling, old man's beard (a type of lichen), and paper and still not being able to get the bigger logs to really catch, we turned on the old propane grill and cooked out bison burgers and asparagus there. It was so sad. Even our Oregonian neighbors took pity on us and came over to offer more kindling. They probably thought we were city slickers who didn't know how to build a fire. I mean, that's what I would have thought. It was sort of comical really. The guy came over with some really dry kindling, obviously got it to light up right away, starting piling on some of our wet wood, stood back, looked pretty proud of himself, said something smug like "that'll do 'er" (I don't really think he said that), wiped his hands and went back to his camp. Yeah, guy. 15 minutes later your dry kindling was ash and our wet wood continued to steam. We got enough heat to make s'mores and lined our fire pit with the rest of the wood so it could hopefully dry out from the (little bit of) heat and be good to go in the morning. Really, it was more of a smoke than a fire, and the wind was so unpredictable we kept getting harassed by random smoke plumes. We kept joking that we were turning into smoked salamis. Ha!

Then, we took a walk down to the beach, did some beach combing, climbed around the rocks a bit, then discovered a new fun beach activity:

It's a beach see-saw! Or shall I say SEA-saw. Pun intended (always). This one was already set up and we saw some other people doing it first so we knew it was acceptable beach behavior. I think these are the kinds of things people who live near beaches where it's always too cold to swim and too chilly to even take your sweater off 80% of the time come up with. But, since we're those kind of people now, we loved it.

Sunday, we were able to get our now drier wood going better than the night before and were able to make ourselves some fire-coffee, fried tomatoes, eggs, and beans for breakie. Yum. We used the cast iron we broke in at the last yurt tour stop and it's seriously my favorite camping thing.

Sunday we went out on the North Jetty on the north side of the Columbia and Kevin tried some fishing. He didn't really know what he was fishing for. Maybe more surf perch, but we weren't really sure what lives in the in-between of the Columbia and the Pacific. There were plenty of other fishermen (including a sea lion) so there must be something in there, but he didn't catch any of it. I did my usual of finding a nice spot to sit and read.

Previous stops of the Churchill Family Yurt Tour can be found here, here, and here.

52 Tuesdays: Favorite Thrifts #12

What: Vintage Doctor Bag Style Suitcase
Where: Monroe Flee Market
Level of Love: 9 out of 10

Although we've only been to the Monroe flee market a (small) handful of times it has been good to us. In fact, it's been featured in this space before on favorite thrift post number seven. This find happened on a different trip. Probably almost a year or more ago. If you've been to my house, you know I've got a major crush on vintage luggage. Especially of the chestnut leather variety. Seriously, does leather get any more beautiful than this?

This guy felt like a true treasure because I had to dig for him a bit. He was sitting pretty much out of view under a table with some other items sitting in front. But, I spotted my favorite shade of leather, dug him out, and promptly asked how much (this is not the sort of place with ready made price tags). Oh. I also did my two automatic checks for vintage luggage: the smell test and the zipper test. One. Does it smell like old? The kind of old you're pretty sure you're not going to be able to "air out"? Put 'er back. It's not worth it. Two. For me it has to be usable. Either as visible storage space in our storage-space-less apartment or as actual luggage. This guy went on a trip to Vancouver B.C. with us via Amtrak shortly after we brought him home. Not so practical for air travel, but it worked swell for the train. Now, he sits in the living room holding our DVDs.

Oh, extra special bonus: a monogram. I'm not sure why this makes it extra special to me, but I fall hard for a gold monogram. Doesn't even matter who's initials. I just like that this belonged to someone.