For The Love Of Coffee

Good morning friends.

I've been a bit sheepish as of late, but I'm good, hope I didn't worry anyone ;)

As the result of the car accident, I have nothing too serious but some soft tissue damage and soreness. So a little bit of therapy and I should be as good as new, eventually!



Today one of my favorite products is released and launched today.


It's called VIA.


An instant coffee supplied by none other than Starbucks.
I know the mere idea of instant coffee, sends chills down my spine. But it's wonderful, I promise. I've been actually purchasing it for sometime now but has only been available online, in Seattle, London or Chicago.

I'm an avid iced coffee drinker and this is perfect for me!
Of course I must have milk and sugar and the taste is amazingly yummy. It certainly doesn't replace fresh brewed coffee in a machine or french press, but if your lazy in the kitchen like myself than.... there ya go!
So if your out to try something new. Hop on over to your SBux and pick some up.



Now I'm off to enjoy mine that I just prepared with a pumpkin cream cheese muffin-top. I only eat the tops of muffins :) and I know I'm not alone here!

ps. A little Starbucks 101- "Via" It means by way of!

Happy Tuesday!

Little Nellie

I found this old cabinet photo while at one of my favorite thrift stores.
This particular store has a section of the store they call the "Boutique", where they store any goods they think to be of some value, I guess.
Everything stored behind glass cabinets and cases. But they're not always dead on about that because I sometimes find some really cool vintage goods that are pretty special.... things they've overlooked{hee.hee} ;)

I picked up this photo last night. In the "Boutique."

She's amazing!
Look at that face... those curls... those EYES!
Her name is Nellie.
So beautiful!
I wonder, as I daze at her.
Who was she?
Did she have children? If so, did they or her grandchildren ever know how beautiful she was?
I wish I knew. If they had never seen this photo and it was possible to know,
I'd love to share it, show them what a special little girl she was.

After I left the store, I was rear-ended by some idiot not looking that I was stopped in front of them yielding for cars! So..... I'm OK, just really sore. I'm having some aches and pains here and there and am going to visit the Doctor today.
{ugh}

Charming Quote

Wishing You A Lovely Weekend!




"No Spring nor Summer beauty hath such grace
As seen in one Autumnal face."
~John Donne

My Big Book & Cat?

Oh Yeah!

I've been wanting a good book about the History of Circus for a long time. I've searched Amazon for sometime and finally found one. Not until I ordered it and received it in the mail did I go back to read the reviews and the SIZE!!
Mind you I have no ordinary size cat, Gideon is bigger than your ordinary house cat. "Ragdolls" are BIG pussy-cats. He's HUGE! Much bigger than my mothers West Highland Terrier, taller than my Cairn Terrier.
He measures probably over 3 feet if he stretches when he does. I measured him in this photo and is 23 inches relaxed :)

So back to my book....
it's BEHEMOTH! GINORMOUS! If you could only see for yourself!
I swear it must weigh over 20 pounds, I seriously wouldn't be surprised. How I ever got away with paying 4.95 in shipping is beyond me.

Of course Gideon wanted nothing to do with moving "off" of the book. So I let him be, to share some of this incredible-ness with you.
It's lovely!!

Perfect of all Circus books.
But not one to crawl in bed with. Not unless you'd like to be squashed.
{lol}

Beautiful!

Such wonderful history!

Amazing Illustrations!

~I'm in heaven~

Isn't it great?

Haunting Photo and Snippets

I do find a-lot of vintage photographs. I love them! Each one I find...some a little bone-chilling but to say the least, they're charming.
but the creepier, the better to me.

I know a-lot of old photographs are sorta creepy, most probably.
I found this one during my last thrift-shop-extravaganza.
I think it's a picture of a picture, but I haven't taken it out of it's frame. The frame is not old, but I like it.

Some pictures of some of my most recent findings.
I find vintage souvenirs to be very sweet.
I love this old San Fransisco one.

A little Japanese porcelain pony.

Unusual glass cloche with a quirky top.

These old bark cloth-y floral napkins are lovely!

Unusual metal football wall-hangings, very cute!

Just little snippets of things I have picked up here and there. All for the shoppe!

Hope your week is off to a wonderful start!
Thanks for visiting today :D

Dear Rain,

It was so good to wake up to you this morning.
I've missed you, it seems like I haven't seen you in months.
I'm very happy you visited today, please some back soon.

love,
michelle

2:00 AM...

... a-little-bit-of Insomnia + Showtime + this Movie:

"This movie seriously is one of the saddest films I have ever seen, but I felt it was very maturely handled.
The actors are great and the story is very touching, to watch these two boys from two completely different worlds who come together just to have fun, be boys, not because of the difference of their background."

"Set during World War II, a story seen through the innocent eyes of Bruno, the eight-year-old son of the commandant at a concentration camp, whose forbidden friendship with a Jewish boy on the other side of the camp fence.
The boys have a great friendship talking every day, enjoying the company. But when the father gives Bruno a Nazi propaganda loving tutor, Bruno becomes confused, is his father an evil man or is his friend the evil one? Love his country and do his duty or don't judge and just stay true to his friend? Bruno must decide all this with some scary consequences ahead of him."

"The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a fantastic film, though if you see it, I do recommend bringing the tissues. I couldn't believe the chemistry they had with these two young actors, they worked so well together as these innocent boys who both have no idea what's going on.
Bruno doesn't know why his friend is behind fences, and his friend doesn't know why he's there either. The ending is extremely powerful and the story keeps you interested. I do recommend seeing The Boy in the Striped Pajamas."

I'm a BIG time movie watcher, and rarely post about films I watch{why is that?}. But this one I really wanted to mention and share with you.

Happy Friday!

A Button Skirt

My favorite this week!

I found it at an Anthropologie in tiny Carmel, Ca.

Button Denim Skirt~Anthropologie
Cardigan~JCrew
Cami~Target
Necklace~Vintage
Shoes~Merrell
Clutch~littlebyRDvintage

Such a sweet necklace I found while thrifting a couple weeks ago. Pretty ornate frame surrounds a glass pearl brooch. It's signed Whiting Davis. Which I'd never heard of before until I seen other pieces listed on Etsy. I think it's from the 1940's...my guess. I've grown a strange attachment to it already.

And..

these mary-janes are new. Quite sweet & amazingly comfy! Made by Merrell. I think there's memory foam in the soles? Dreamy.

{I love pictures of feet/shoes! Is that weird?}

Step In Time

Happy Wednesday Morning to Ya!

As I'm sitting here drinking my morning coffee and enjoying this beautiful cool morning outside, I'm also flipping through Anthropologie's fall catalog.

So very, very pretty!


I love Autumn!


I love Coats!


I love this BED!

For the last couple of years I have begun an Anthropologie Catalog Collection.
A constant source of inspiration in each and every issue.




I love Boots!

I always step back in time, and am in "Aw", flipping each page one by one.

Say Hello Claire!

Well... if she had a head{lol}

This is Claire, my antique dress-form.
She's been in our family for many years now.
I found her at a salvage yard we used to have here in town. I remember when I first seen her, I didn't care how much she was I grabbed her so fast!
She ended up costing me 99.00, which I thought was not too bad. I'm glad I got her though, I haven't came across too many and if I have they are quite pricey! I remember her first week at our home, she used to be in our bedroom, which was hard to get used to..... we'd wake up in the middle of the night, to be startled by this human-like-shadow-in-the-night. I have to admit, it was creepy at times. But we soon got used to her.
She now stands in our foyer.


She is lots of fun, I love dressing her up. Like a giant doll. Here is she dressed as our Victorian house-maid. She's holding a ginormous feather duster from the Palace Hotel in San Fransisco, I purchased from an antique store that went out of business. This week she's dressed like a 1940's house-wife.




Oh and I have a surprise for a lucky reader..... the winner for my very first gift-away is:

Reader # 2.

VintageModernGirl.


Picked via Random Number Generator.
Congratulations!

Hope your long weekend was a good one StoryBook'rs!

Giveaway Day!

Or rather "Gift-away" day!
That sounds so much better in my book.

A gift-away for no specific occasion. It's not because of a special number post or a certain number of sales in my shoppe, though 242 sales could be pretty special, so yeah I'll stick with that reason because I'm ecstatic with the love and support of my etsy shoppe!
Thank you!

I have thought about giveaways from time to time and love the idea!
Probably one of my most favorite feelings is giving a gift. That's why...if you've ever purchased anything from my etsy shoppe you can tell. I like for my buyers to feel like when they open their package they purchased from me, it feels like a present and not just something they bought. That's important to me.
So it only makes sense that I have "Gift-aways", here on my blog.

From time to time I will begin this, whether it is a vintage treasure from my shop, or a book, a gift card, or just pretty much anything I'm in the mood to purchase just for you!
I'll try to keep them interesting and fun!

So this gift-away is for something much needed by some and maybe not so much for others. Either way I've put together and pretty neat package:


Starbucks-hooray!


You will receive two half pound bags of Anniversary-Blend coffee beans. Two hand-blown, double walled, {adorably-cute} tiny coffee cups and a $20.00 Starbucks Card for your key-chain!

So if you'd like, please leave me a random comment, let me know your favorite food, color, favorite pet or heck, just let me know what your favorite number is, or just say "hi"!
:)

I'll pick the lucky reader Monday, September 7th @ 7:oopm PST.
Via-Random Number Generator!

Fall Cleaning

Yeah...lots of talk in Blogland about Fall!

I'm feeling it myself, slightly.

Crisp smell in the air. But mostly the lighting, the sun rays. Do you know what I mean? Just the way the light comes in through my windows.... the shadows, the not-so-bright light anymore. I'm loving it as well, like so many other lovely people/lovely blogs.

I'm exhausted, as I type out loud tonight. My excite-ness that September is here and Autumn is near has got me in the mood to clean. So this is a pretty-much-boring post on my cleaning day.

It feels good though! Floors have been swept and mopped. Dust-bunnies have hopped away! Laundry for days is GONE! My treasures waiting to be listed have been organized! Kitchen had a scrub down!

This lovely gal is pretty happy too. She's so happy when I'm busy running around the house, she's probably laughing at me scurrying around crazily, one hundred miles an hour.


She was acting quite silly though, I think all she wanted was her picture taken!

She's kept me company, in this quiet cottage. Sharing words like, "Pretty, pretty girl!", "Whatcha doing?". "Hi Baby!". She talks ALOT!

Possum's such a sweetie!
love you, pretty girl {mwah}