The Spoils: Etsy Seller Sandy a la Mode

I don't know what else to say except that I am officially obsessed with hair pins. I didn't even know that I loved them until Sandy from Sandy a la Mode debuted her Etsy store. Maybe I only love hers. Who knows!

Thankfully, I follow her twitter and jumped on these pretty little things with a quickness. God, I love them. I almost don't even want to share her Etsy store link with you because I want to hoard all the goodies for myself, but I won't, because that would be insanely rude.

Sandy a la Mode on Etsy!

OH, AND HI. After shipping, I paid $9 total. NINE DOLLARS. I feel like a criminal. A criminal with pretty pins in her hair.

The Goods

A full post about my awesome day with Diana is over here on my other blog, but I thought I'd save the spoils from that trip for this blog.

We went to the SPARCC Treasure Chest, which was one of those shops with a lot of NWT, boutique brands. Almost everything was in great shape, so it was less "is this item wearable?" and more "do I like this item?". Great shop and great experience. I found:

Brown BCBG dress in a super-soft cotton knit:

If anybody's keeping count, that'd be my 4th brown BCBG dress. Not on purpose, but not NOT on purpose, either.

I'm holding out the side of the skirt to show that it's actually relatively full; it's fun and swingy and casual on. I can tell already it'll be a great summer staple!

Pleated lattice skirt:

NWT (a brand I don't recognize). This was one of my official Finds of the Day. Isn't it adorable?

Check out the details of that floral embellishment:

Unbearably cute.

Finally, this little shirt:

Not the most exciting thing ever, but it'll be great for weekends, and the fit is just right. I love the covered button detailing, too:


From there we moved on to the Mustard Seed Thrift Shop, which really was the epitome of Old Lady Florida-ness - it was insanely awesome. Diana and I found lots of things to laugh at, and lots of things to try on and buy. Behold:

The *perfect* winter-to-spring corduroy skirt:

It's Talbot's, not a brand that I've *ever* considered before, but there's no arguing with cute! (tell that to Jeff).

Check out the beaded accents on the flowers:



Vintage square scarf:


I love this thing. Perfect for spring :-)


I also got a great little pea green belt, but neglected to photograph it (and didn't realize until after it got dark out).

We also stopped briefly into an antique shop right down the road, where I found something to fill a wardrobe hole - pins/brooches:

I think I can make that look really mod, or really fancy and feminine. And for $5, I'm not out a lot of money if I discover that brooches just aren't my thing.

I had a fantastic time with Diana, and LOVED getting to meet a blogfriend in person!


Please click over to KateOhKatie to read about the rest of our adventure(including a newfound crafty passion :-)).

Daily Outfit - Kate - 2/23/10

I'm about a billion times happier with today's pictures than with yesterdays, though it's not like I like the outfit all that much more or anything.

This was pretty basic, but I really just wanted to wear the shawl - I call this my 'Stardust Shawl' because the color reminds me of Una's dress in Stardust, and it's one of my favorites :-)

This is how I wear it when I've got my coat on:

Bandana style, with my pin clipped in front so it doesn't get squished. Then when I get to work/home/whatever, I switch it like this:

which I think is a little bit more visually interesting.

The little flower pin is one of my favorite accessories; I bought it from a friend I made at a craft fair last fall. The clip is wrapped in grosgrain ribbon so it could be used as a hair clip, but I always use mine on handknit shawls and scarves :-)



Shawl: Handknit by me. Yarn by Fearless Fibers, pattern is "Shetland Triangle" by Evelyn A. Clark
Turtleneck: Target
Skirt: thrifted
Tights: Hellmart
Boots: Born, fall/winter 2008
Earrings: MUMSIE!
Shawl pin: My Beautiful Bows (contact info available by request)