sandpetal: June 2013

Lately I've been thinking about how cool it would be to get a sneak peak into the closets of all us lovely womyn out there. I know so many of us have some incredible pieces that we all just adore... I recently scored the Frida book about the opening of her closet doors after almost 60 years of it being closed off to the public eye. As a girl who has been collecting dresses her whole life, it's kind of a crazy fact to know that I personally don't even have a closet! And haven't for about the past 5 years! How have I managed you might ask? Well, I have been stuffing my beauties into a small cedar armoire and have been pretending it's that walk in closet we all dream of. My poor dresses have had to share a hanger with not just 1 but up to 6 dresses. It's like having a family sleep in a twin bed. It just doesn't work! And so the other day I finally realized it couldn't go on any longer.

My boyfriend and I are in the process of building our own little homestead and it's been slow going these past few months on actual interior construction due to other restraints etc. Since this new found realization that my closet I've been dreaming of, may be on the back burner for longer than my cedar armoire can handle, I decided it was time to make shift a quick macgyver kinda set up. Voila! A bamboo stake and some sturdy wire and my life has changed! I started laughing to myself at how simple it was and made SUCH a difference and yet took me sooooo long to make it happen.

I spent an entire afternoon unraveling each one off the hangers and giving each dress a new home of it's own. OH MY HANGER!!! Now not only is each dress on its' own hanger, but I can actually SEE all the beauties lined up next to each other. It was like I got a whole new collection of dresses by doing this. So many were hiding!!!

I got so excited about this little project, and being the Virgo that I am, I decided to do some color organization. I stepped back to enjoy the rainbow spread. Oh how lovely it is to look at. And magically how each one has come into my life. It's like they found me or something. I sometimes even feel that in past lives those really were the dresses I wore. I know it might sound strange, but really, I do think its true.

Take for instance this crazy magical story! So last summer I scored this really unique and awesome top from a flea market. It was definitely from the 1940's... it was a $3 find! I love when that happens. But wait, there's more! Then earlier this year I attended the yearly Vintage Fashion Expo held in SF with my best friend. I've been looking forward to it all year. As I was checking out each vendor, my little eye spotted something I almost couldn't believe! It was the skirt that went to the shirt I owned. NO vintage way!!! I quickly went over to it and the sizes even matched, yay it fit me! I of course bought it and proceeded to tell the vendor the story of the other piece and how it was totally meant to be. We both thought it was pretty magical and then we discovered she lived in Sac, which is where I got the shirt. Just by our deducing, it seems as though we probably scored each part from the same place. Of course I had to pay her finding fee, but it was worth it to bring home the matching part. The cool part is that I had no idea there was more to the shirt. And my best friend was with me when I found the shirt and with me when I found it's match. crazy magic.

Anyways I thought that was definitely a meant to be moment.

So all this rambling about closets and dresses brings me to my next fun little side project. Sharing my treasures with you! I'm gonna do my best to keep up with my blog a little more this summer with a weekly post of my dress collection.

So here's the first 11 in no particular order.
Enjoy!