Lady Mary Slip Dress

This dress wanted her own blog post. I think Lady Mary should wear it! 

Early 1900s under dress with white lace, cotton construction, snap and button back, and eyelet florals. It's pretty perfect.

I found it in Cambridge, NY at an estate sale hosted by a 80-something year old woman. She was very sweet, and happily parting with much of her mother's estate, as well as downsizing her own belongings. She said this had belonged to her grandmother and was passed down to her mom, and eventually to her. She had never worn it, but kept it pristine all these years. She told me it was from 1910-1919.

I remember walking in her house and she was playing the Mountain Goats, which was kind of amazing. Turns out, she listens to 91.5 WRPI.

Vintage Pin Board

Ok, I thought this up, and it turned out pretty cute, so I thought I'd share! Hope you enjoy:

My husband is a writer, and still actually puts pen to pad (as well as fingers to keyboard). He writes on this huge writing pad, tears the sheets out, and hangs them on the walls to move them around and visualize it better. I'm totally down with his method, but the result looks a bit like the walls from A Beautiful Mind, and since my in-laws are visiting (and his office doubles as our guest room) I needed an idea that would keep his pages unfolded and easy to access, without scaring the guests. A cork board, right? Except James has a great desk and his office is pretty freaking stellar, so a cork board doesn't quite fit aesthetically. A couple of days ago, I'm thrifting with James and find this enormous cutting mat (vintage, industrial looking) . . . what can we do with this thing . . . ack! idea: Pinboard; his office! We have some old and awesome tacks (1940s brass window tacks) and stoppers for midcentury furniture that will make amazing "thumb tacks."

Here's our end result (full office shots to follow soon, currently it has a Aerobed and other guest stuff in it that's unappealing).

So, he has his pages stacked about 5 sheets deep, a little picture of me, and he's going to put up some prints we have yet to frame, as well as couple post cards from friends. I was just experimenting on the side with the copper apple necklace, but actually think I may shoot some of my jewelry that way because it has the inches right across the side and would give a great ruler shot without actually having a silly ruler next to my jewelry!

These are the brass tacks I was talking about! Much more attractive than thumb tacks and industrial enough to work in a midcentury-inspired office.

Anyway, that's it! Super easy and I didn't even have to back it in cork because this type of board is made for sewing, so there are pinholes everywhere and it is quite sturdy!

I found duplicates of the tacks for sale on Etsy, both are under $25:

Orange 

Purple