oh! you pretty things

This cold weather has finally gotten to me. Not that I have any right to complain.. it's actually really pretty out today. But our chilly house has helped me catch a cold, and this cold has made me long for warmer weather.

So when I came to work at Closet Case today, I was thankful for the heat (not to mention, I sit with the sun on my back and it feels wonderful right now). All of this warm weather longing got me in the mood to take photos of the lightest, softest knits and silks in the shop - airy Victorian dresses and robin's egg bows.. as well as this favorite piece of mine, an exquisitely knitted 1930s capelet in ivory with blue trim.

All scarves and clothing at Closet Case Vintage, on 12th South in Nashville.

Anyone see Harry Potter 7 yet? Our showing last night ended around 3am and I lost my voice by the end. It was glorious.

soft light

I can't sleep, so I'm eating animal crackers and posting twelve hours early.

These are some photos I took around the house today.. what do you think? I was messing around with the shutter speed and trying to figure out how to change the lighting and softness without doing any photo editing. I've been playing around with the ghosting effect.. well, some form of it.. and using it to give the photos a filmy, hazy look. I like how they almost look faded from age.

Hope you are all well rested, wherever you are. It's nice to know that some of you are awake right now too, even if that means you're an ocean or two away.

a spring wedding and my swiss dot dress

Photos by Neil!

Pink Dotted Swiss Dress - Handmade

Straw Hat - Thrifted

Brown Suede Wedges - Urban Outfitters

Brown Skinny Belt - Forever21

Last Sunday, our friends Aaron and Lindsey had a wonderful outdoor wedding celebration near Thompson Station, a beautiful little town outside of Nashville. The food, company, and setting were all great, and the celebration itself - they married next to a creek to banjo music and friends gathered around on the hillside - fit the couple's personalities completely.

And I wore the swiss dot dress I made for the occasion!

Thanks for all of your dress ideas.. I think I'm going to do some more work that you suggested to the dress later on. I plan on adding lining and a scalloped hem at the bottom. I didn't have time to add a peter pan collar like I wanted, so I just added some white lace trim to the neckline and I like how it turned out. The overall look of the dress made me feel like I was going to a 1950's era state fair.. and I can't complain about that.

Here are some photos from the ceremony! Aren't Aaron and Lindsey beautiful? They are a couple of the happiest, most positive people I've met, and I think it shows. And Lindsey found her lovely dress and necklace on Etsy!

an easter holiday, pastel celebration

Vintage Polly Flinders Smocked Pastel Dress - via Etsy

Cream Floral Tights - H&M

Cutout Lace Up Heels - Made by Elves, Urban Outfitters

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend!

We had a very laid back, low key celebration at the Leifheit household. My aunt and uncle came over and we went to a late church service, where we had a chance to watch Alison Krauss sing some hymns (my parents go to the same church as she does, apparently!). We came back to sit on the porch and talk for a few hours before an early supper of ham, Neil's brioche, my dad's potatoes au gratin with white cheddar, and asparagus.. and blueberry cheesecake for dessert. And in the evening, more sitting around, more wine, more talking. More Cadbury egg eating. We had intentions of watching The Fantastic Mr. Fox (Neil and I made an Ash tube sock mask for Bloom last week), but it just never happened. It was perfect.

I love holidays where nothing is planned and everyone is relaxed. I really missed my sisters, though. Fortunately, I'll be with them next year for Easter.. maybe we can dye eggs together and write obscene things on them with the invisible crayon! It's our favorite sisterly Easter tradition, and it's one we'll probably never grow out of.

That's all for tonight. Time for some buttonhole sewing, package packing, and Mass Effect playing.

etsy shop updates.. back to mondays! springtime lace, pink roses, and soft pastels

1950's L'AIGLON Spring Roses Day Dress

Vintage LACE Cotton Crop Top

Vintage Orange FLORAL Ruffle Blouse

1970's Spring PLAID in PASTELS Dress

Vintage RIC RAC Mint Green Dress

Etsy shop update! All for the springtime.

I've decided to go back to my old ways of updating the shop on Mondays.. it's much simpler this way, there's no chance of procrastinating or forgetting to list an item, and it allows me to dedicate one post to every week's update. Not that I won't go back to listing daily.. eventually, I will.

So.. here's this week!

Now, here is the seafoam green I was talking about last week.. the Ric Rac dress, above, as well as a 70's shirt dress in seafoam green. And don't forget about these double breasted, high waisted navy trousers. No green to them, but still super cool.

I'll also be adding new items to the SALE section and maybe doing some additional markdowns, as well.. so keep an eye on it over the next couple of days.

Happy beginning of the week!

my favorite fall/winter 2010 collection.. new zealand's ruby boutique

Thank you, Dujour Magazine, for introducing me to this lovely designer. Ruby Boutique is a New Zealand based store that posted their Fall/Winter 2010 lookbook a while ago, and it is filled with all my favorite things - pastels, Victorian-inspired shoulders and ruffles, and lace. And polka dots and sweet little eyelet mini dresses. The tweed-esque Dove Shorts and the sweet blue Juliet Dress have got to be my two favorite pieces.

Vanessa just wrote a lovely post about a collection filled with delicate liberty prints and peter pan collars.. she also said that it's rare that she come across a collection completely comprised of pieces she likes. I feel the same way about this collection.. there is very little that I don't like about Ruby's F/W 2010. It must be the softness of it all.

Of course, this comes at a time when I'm slowly becoming obsessed with masculine trousers and Steve Urkel suspenders.

Check out the entire collection here.. you'll be glad you did.

pale pinks and blues and creamy whites.. or, why spring can't come fast enough.

I'm not the first to say that with the holidays over, I'm looking forward to spring already. Maybe it's this first winter snow that hit Nashville yesterday, maybe it's because there are no big events until the weather turns warm again. Or maybe it's because the fashion world has bred us to always be looking towards the future with collections being delivered months and months in advance. Maybe it's because Urban Outfitters has just released their early spring catalog and I spent way too much time looking it over yesterday. Or maybe I'm just sick of this ridiculous cold.

At any rate, I made this blue floral comb today to aid in bringing about warmer weather. I'll let you know if it works. I've also been looking for a short white dress and pastel playsuits lately, and I CAN'T WAIT to steal Neil's chambray button up from him so I can pair it with the Forever21 high waisted navy shorts.

Here are some spring-y, sailboat images from the Current/Elliott Spring 2010 collection to keep you warm. My favorite is the blue playsuit by far.

And Refinery29 just posted a link to the lovely H&M Garden Collection.. all of the pieces are romantic and soft, not to mention extremely affordable. Don't you love the red cardigan with rosettes all over?

Alright. Now that's out of my system, I'm prepared to go back to winter - and to a new nautical inspired outfit with pleated slacks that I've been plotting. And to my imminent search for a classy Valentine's Day dress (any suggestions?). More on that later!