Sweet Vintage Find!

I love finding vintage items. Something about not quite knowing what little treasure may be out there waiting for me combined with the fact that most are one of a kind, a little chippy and worn, but sweet, sweet, sweet. Before I had Grace, I loved waking up early on Saturdays (okay not the waking up part but the shopping part :) to go to estate and tag sales to search for that perfect item. When we were just out of college, in our early twenties and carefree (geez, I'm making myself sound old, must be a side effect of being in your 30's), my friend Michelle and I would meet up almost every Saturday for our weekly garage sale hunt. Our routine included granola bars and caffeinated drinks pre-hunt and bagels or breakfast sandwiches post-hunt. She was always the responsible one having marked the newspaper listings the night before and prioritizing our route. I was always the last minute one having to stop by the ATM to get cash. We always had a plan and we would even make sure we weren't too nicely dressed (yea right, like jogging suits are so...nice) so that we could bargain shop with the sellers. She was a better shopper than me - still is! While I was picky, she could truly envision an item's beauty and she scored some fantastic deals. Some of our favorites: vintage linens, cake plates, ornate wooden frames, quilts, old children's books and shiny brite christmas ornaments.

Fast forward some 10+ years and while I still love vintage finds, my early saturday shopping trips are rare and few these days. Mostly, I shop ebay, etsy and local antique malls. So you can imagine how happy I was when Michelle told me about a new vendor at a local antique mall I had visited years back, but forgotten all about.
This past Monday, Grace joined me for her first ever vintage hunting expedition.

And - drumroll please - I found THE cutest little vintage pillowcase dress at the vendor's booth Michelle told me about. It has a sweet little doily in the center to give it even more character (or perhaps to hide a stain :) AND it was only $19!!!!!!!

Nevermind that it is way too big for Grace or that it had some small stains I didn't know if I could get out (the main one came out with Shout Advanced Gel, which works wonders :). I absolutely fell in love with it!!! It has the cutest little raggedy ann hand embroidery at the bottom in sweet tones of lilac, brown, and golden yellow.

It is the same cute pattern that Angel of TaDa! Creations embroidered on Grace's pink/red/blue summery peasant top.

I guess as of late, I have a raggedy ann obsession. It all started when I was 3 and my mom dressed me as raggedy ann for halloween... All I can say is that I've had a smile on my face ever since I found the sweet dress. To top it off, when I called Michelle to tell her about my find and the one that got away (a little aqua blue plastic juicer that would look adorable in Grace's little play kitchen but I didn't buy), she had a wonderful surprise for me. Not only did she say I could have the vintage Raggedy Ann and the Cookie Snatcher Little Golden Book she had acquired a while back, but she also had a little aqua blue plastic juicer she had thought about giving me for Grace's kitchen when I first told her about the playroom!!!!!!!!!!


Talk about Christmas in July - ahem, April! Thanks, Michelle!!! It's so nice having friends who share and appreciate your quirky habits. I heart vintage finds!