I think it’s really fall here! At least this week . . . Tonight I went out to eat and had to wear a sweater and tights and was still a little bit cold. So far this season I’ve had two pumpkin spice lattes, and last night we had squash for dinner and then I made banana bread. Fall is definitely my favorite season, but isn’t it just about everyone’s?
Now that I can really wear warmer clothes I’ve been stalking the thrift and vintage shops, trying to check things off of my fall wishlist. I’ve been trying to avoid the newer shops because I’ve been on the broke side all month, but I’m finding that nearly everything I want to wear for fall and winter has a vintage counterpart. Like that felt hat above. I tried on this one at Madewell, but it didn’t look good enough on me to be worth 70 some dollars. But then two days later I found a very similar one at my favorite snooty antique mall, and it was only $12.50.
I found the Bass loafers at a thrift store a few weeks ago and was so excited since I’ve been looking for a good-looking pair of sensible shoes for an upcoming trip I’m going on. And I like how beat up they look too. Other thrift store finds? This black dress from the ’90s with the prettiest shape and sheer lace back–it’s from Contempo Casuals, a store I remember going to with my sister Ashley in the ’90s, so whenever I find their stuff in the thrift stores I get extra happy. I also found a little pair of tan corduroy shorts to wear with tights and the little aztec-ish print skirt that you might remember from my store a few weeks back. It was one of those things I saw myself wearing too much to part with, I guess.
Now I’m mainly on the lookout for sweaters. Which I seem to be every fall but maybe this year more than ever. Though if I can find a little thrift store version of Alexa Chung’s fisherman knit sweater I think I’ll end up wearing it so much that I won’t need another sweater.
I’ve been going to the library lots now ever since I officially became an Atlanta resident two months ago, and we have so many branches here that I don’t think I’ll have to buy another book for a long time. Right now I’m still reading that Eudora Welty biography along with her novel Delta Wedding, which I like a lot though not as much as a Carson McCullers book. And I finally tracked down a Clarence John Laughlin book and it’s making me want to do some more creepy photoshoots. Maybe with that black lace dress and a weird hillside cemetery Jamie told me about. . .
PS, thanks again for your nice words about the photoshoot. It really means a lot!
Wonderful sweaters can be found at thrift shops! I recently found some deep purple/maroon loafers similar to the ones you procured. Oh, and long live libraries!
oohh Rhiannon, your comment meant the world to me!
Fall really is the greatest season, its so promising and cozy and makes me wanna be so wholesome and nest!
I thought of you recently because I was reading a book of Bukowski poems and he wrote one about Carson McCullers. And even though I’m not loving Bukowski, the poem totally made me like him more!
Wow, I need to read this poem! Was it anti-Carson McCullers? It seems like hardly any other writers liked her but I don’t know . .. thanks a million, I’ll look it up!
no he writes about her dying on an ocean steamer (is that true? I can’t find that fact anywhere on the internet…everywhere says she died in New York)…and he talks about how lonely her stories are but I don’t get the impression he dislikes her!
Bukowski himself bases most of his writing on his adventures as a degenerate alcoholic miscreant, so I can’t imagine him disliking someone as bizarre as McCullers.
He loves social misfits!
you should totally read it! It’s actually called “Carson McCullers”
Lovely photos! I feel similarly about Contempo Casuals. I bought a dress from your shop a few weeks ago that was made by them, and it makes me feel so nostalgic.
Whoa, is it the little off-white print dress? I loved that one!
i love finding lower-priced trends at thrift stores..so much smarter! : )
Especially because you never know how long the trend will even last!
Rhiannon, I want my life to be as delicately shaded and casually lovely as yours (or at least as your style and your blog.) You light up my mad exam-and-essay cramming with a little, online world of beauty and spontaneity and the sort of wonderful intellectualism that makes one think without being tested on it, which always, in my opinion, yields infinitely superior thought. Brava! You inspire both my wardrobe and my reading list, and trust me, few finer compliments than that exist.
Ami, wow, thanks so much, but i’m afraid that the blog sort of white-washes things. My life isn’t all that lovely all the time . . . I do lots of ho-hum, everyday type things. And I’m not intellectual in the least. I watch lots of tv with Drew, sometimes even Jersey Shore, ha ha.
But it means a lot that reading my blog takes away a bit of your school stress!
I don’t know how to ask/say this without sounding weird/creepy (this will probably be a little rant), but did you have time to read and do all of these things while you were in college? I’m in the process of earning my bachelor’s in sociology, and I find myself reading blogs, like yours, wishing I could be moving on with my life already. I know you obviously work, but you seem to have time to enjoy life, like baking, thrifting, reading, etc. I feel guilty trying to read anything other than schoolwork. I also find it difficult to balance time wtih my significant other and school, etc., where you seem to have it all balanced with your boyfriend. I guess I can’t help but kind of admire your life, and I know that probably sounds SO weird since this is just a blog and I’m a random reader, but still. Your blog kind of gives me hope that someday I’ll finally have a pleasant life where I have more time to do what I want with less stress.
Anne, aww, for sure! I loved college but I love being out of school so much more–you definitely do have more time, though there are lots of things I miss about college too. I majored in literature so I had lots of mandatory reading (which I loved) but sometimes I slacked off and read old Hollywood biographies and things. Actually I slacked off and skipped class a lot in college and I wish I hadn’t. I’m a lot stupider for it.
But soon enough you’ll get your life back and once you’re done with work you can have time to be lazy and read and bake and stuff.
Lovely! I love the shoes and that hat!
-Sara
the shoes looks very nice. and I didn’t have a chance to comment your previous session, but it’s obvious- it’s amazing. I felt like in totally different times!
Loafers! Right on! I’ve been longing for a pair myself (I just recently watched a Nancy Drew movie & oh gosh, it made me want some).
You know, ever since you mentioned DVD’s at your college library, I’ve been a fixture at mine! It’s where I found 42nd Street and after that, Harold & Maude and a short DVD about Flannery O’Connell – just because you talk about her all the time! I wanted to know more about her Southern life and that 20 minute DVD told me everything I needed to know since it was pretty much just a quick narration of her life cycling through the same five photos. What an interesting lady she was, certainly not afraid to stir up the bible belt. And how unfortunate that her life ended so soon. It makes me appreciate that medicinal advances we’ve made in such a short amount of time.
I love your felt hat and beat-up loafters! I probably wear my felt hat too much, but I just love it to pieces, even if I do look a bit like Indianna Jones. Can’t wait to see some outfit photos of the black lace number too. I’m on a mad hunt for some aztec sweaters, capes, a cardigans as well! It’s probably just wishful thinking that I might be able to find any in this town, but I’m hoping that I do so I can use them on a shoot with Mitzi soon! We’re just now hitting sweater weather here too, and I couldn’t be more excited!
Starr, wow, that reminds me that I need to check out the dvd section at the Atlanta library. Though nothing can beat school libraries and all the random stuff they had . . . Flannery O’Connor bios? I’d be in heaven. I loved her too–that she was a strict Catholic but could write something as bizarre as Wise Blood. You should come to Georgia to see her house in Milledgeville!
And it’s funny because I’m looking for all those things at the thrift store too . . . . aztec cardigans especially! I love the capes but don’t think I can pull them off. But you’re right–it’d be so much fun to do a shoot with them. I’m hoping you find all that stuff because I want to see how you style it!
Loving all your finds–those loafers are especially great! I’ve been hunting for a similar style myself; I may have to stop by the thrift shops and scour them extra good.
lol.
♥ Casey
blog | elegantmusings.com
You should!!! These shoes are too big for me but I keep wearing them anyway.
Oh, old man sweaters! What would we do without them?
I’m feeling the same way! I’ve been getting a lot more thrift store finds and just hemming and sewing them to make them just right. It’s so much more exciting that way too !
It kind of is. It keeps me from getting shopper’s guilt.
Im so glad that you were able to find a similiar hat to the Madewell one. Its amazing! I cant wait to see the one that you picked up. Also – I love that little black lace number..amaaazing. I have a quick question for you! What is the font that you use for your blog post title? I am in love. x
Oooh, I’ll have to ask Drew about that one! I know he drew the header font but I’m not sure what the computer fonts are . . .
contempo casuals?! shut up! i never buy books either, the library keeps me very, very busy! especially since i go to ohio state and they have about a bajillion books
Isn’t it amazing to be able to find just about any book you’re looking for? I grew up in a small town with a small library so big city libraries overwhelm me (in a good way)