Estate Sale Bonanza!!

Went to a fabulous estate sale this morning of a great lady who had a bridal wear/gown business for most of her life. It did take a while to negotiate the streets to get to her house as a highway crew decided that the road in front of her house had to be paved this morning. But I was determined to get there and had to walk a 1/2 block.

Walking in the front door of her early 1900's house brought back memories from my days of trying on prom dresses in her front studio room. I still have the two dresses from my high school proms and I won't divulge how long ago that was, but suffice it to say, they are vintage now!

The upstairs rooms had racks and racks of gowns both bridal & dance, cocktail dresses, etc. All were vintage, most from the 1960's & 70's. One room had a table full of old hats, some authentic, some for costumes. I did pick up a beautiful creamy wool newsboy hat that looks like the Great Gatsby and a black bowler just like Laurel & Hardy. The Gatsby hat is too small for my husbands large head but the bowler looks pretty cute!

After loading up on a box of old patterns, from 1920s-70s, some old velvet, a genie's costume with hat, veil & all, and a samuri looking jacket, I headed downstairs to look around. I was almost ready to check out when someone mentioned the Jackie Kennedy Closet. Where was that, did I miss it?

Yep, it was in the front room and I had whizzed on by. I had to go check it out and promptly pulled out numerous dresses to add to my pile. I really didn't see that many that reminded me of Jackie, but I did find a pale pink 3 piece dress that looked so much like her. It doesn't fit me at this point, but someday...Also found in that closet a sofa slipcover made from vintage barkcloth.

Picked up several velvet dresses, bridesmaids gowns and more still with the tags attached. Most of these will probably get listed in my Etsy vintage shop when I figure out how I will display them. I don't think my dress form is small enough for these garments.

Outside was another rack of older clothes - found a black underskirt that looks like the late 1800's and a suffragette type 2-piece in brown with the long skirt and long jacket, really cool.

While checking out I was chatting with the girl in charge of the sale, and come to find out she had dated my older brother in the 90's, small world.

So home I trooped with my treasures. Can't say my husband was thrilled. "Where are you going to put those?"
Like I haven't heard that before.

But it is so fun to find a sale like that! I'm addicted.

Conquering Resin

Conquering Resin

I finally tried my hand at pouring resin to add a durable coating to my altered dominoes.

This altered domino necklace, Romeo & Juliet is one of my first attempts and it is now listed in my Etsy shop - http://www.gmPurseanalities.etsy.com.

It really wasn't difficult working with the resin at all. You just have to make sure you have everything ready before you start mixing the two components. There is only so much working time with the mixed resin.

I set up the dominoes to coat on some glazed tiles that fit inside a large cookie tin. The dominoes were elevated about 1" on the tiles with tiny bits of wood.

Once I started pouring the resin I used an old paintbrush to dab resin on the edges where it hadn't flowed. This wasn't hard, just a bit time consuming.

When the gas bubbles appeared on the surface I just gently exhaled on them and they magically vanished.

The hard part is waiting the 72 hours for the resin to cure. I did peak a number of times inside the tins to see how things were progessing.

I am pleased with the results, the surface is certainly more durable than any other product I have tried. All others seemed to scuff or scratch way to easily. Resin is the way to go.

Now I have loads more to coat!