It seems everyone in my family is getting married lately, which means I get to throw lots of parties!  Over the weekend I hosted a Bridal Shower for my cousin Amanda.  Her wedding colors are black, white and green, so I thought I would make that the theme of the shower.  Since I already have black and white wallpaper, I was two thirds of the way there without buying anything.  I found myself inspired by the shades of green in some of my favorite vegetables: brussel sprouts, broccoli, artichokes and basil, so I made arrangements out of them.  Last night I roasted the brussel sprouts, and I plan to cook up the rest of the vegetables throughout the week.  I think I was able to waste a lot less with these edible arrangements. 

Drinks were easy, I just bought everything with green labels: Sparkling cider, Limeade and Lambrusco.  Sliced some limes, added a vintage ice bucket, black and white vintage tray and a pitcher of water. 

All my aunts brought a dish and I provided the fixings for sandwiches.  To make it interesting I put the spreads in recycled glass jars with handwritten labels to make it seem like they were homemade...haha.  I did make the pesto mayo, but that is pretty easy. 

Pesto from Trader Joe's + Mayo = Pesto Mayo

 

 I used my trusty bulletin board for a little creative activity.  Using the program Poladroid, I transformed some photos of the happy couple to look like polaroids.  I had a little sign that told guests to help Amanda finish her photo album by writing captions on the pictures. 

I had to get creative with favors once again.  Considering that it is the holiday season, I put together a gift wrap station.  Each guest got a bag to fill with pre-cut rolls of vintage wallpaper, old photos and tags made from vintage book pages.  In the front I had spools of vintage ribbon and string and allowed guests to cut them to their desired lengths. 

It was a great day!  I hope everyone enjoyed themselves!

What I am Thankful for...

Yesterday I stopped by a vintage store on a very busy street.  While attempting to park quickly, I swiped the side of a parked car.  I was sooo bummed.  After asking around inside the store, I found the owner.  He came outside and looked at the car, after mulling over it for a minute he said "you know what, don't worry about it, Happy Holidays" and gave me a hug.  And I was able to wipe of the mark on my car with the sleeve of my sweater.  That brings me to the first thing that I am thankful for: good things that happen when you don't expect them and kind people in the world.

Other things I'm thankful for:

1. My handsome husband and beautiful daughter, without whom my life would be incomplete.

2. My friends and extended family who keep me sane and let me ramble on about things.

3. Salvage Life-my experiment, my dream, my creative outlet, my baby.

4. The people I've met through Salvage Life, through this blog, on Twitter. The internet allows you to connect with the neatest that I would never have had the opportunity to meet if I had lived during the time the clothes I sell were made. 

I could probably go on and on because I am so blessed.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I made a little Thanksgiving Day collage below from some of my favorite items in the SHOP.

Be sure to tune in for the Taylor Swift Special on NBC tonight at 8/7c, she'll be wearing some Salvage Life jewelry!

5 Minute Flower Arrangements

I have a lot of grandiose ideas for gift giving, cooking and decorating, but the only things that ever get accomplished in a timely manner around here are ideas that can be executed in a matter of minutes.   

Last week I had a friend who lost her Grandmother and another friend who finalized the adoption of her son.  I picked up a large bouquet of wildflowers and split it in two.  It was actually kind of strange to think about how we give flowers for mourning and celebration.  Taking the flowers from the same bouquet got me thinking of how our lives bring both joy and sorrow, sometimes simultaneously, and it is ok to rejoice in the midst of mourning.   

This is one of my favorite ways to throw together a quick bouquet.  I always keep simple glass jars around.  You know, the ones that sauces, jams, olives and dressings come in?  I have a box in my laundry room full of them.  You can find spools of twine at estate sales or hardware stores or you can use a scrap of fabric from around the house, a piece of ribbon or just whatever you have.  The arrangement on the left (below) I tied with a scrap piece of leather from a purse I made.  When you use wildflowers, you don't have to do much to arrange them, they are supposed to look messy. Easy enough?

SPECIAL NOTE: BE SURE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR EMAIL LIST (in the sidebar to the right or click here),WE WILL BE SENDING OUT A COUPON CODE FOR OUR THANKSGIVING SALE!

Reincarnated Remnants ~ Dresses to Wallets

I love recycling and I especially love it when it's a team effort!  For years I have been saving bags of fabric remnants from dresses I have hemmed to more flattering lengths and recently after cleaning out my garage, I passed them onto a crafty friend.  Last weekend after having dinner, Jeff and I were browsing around Blue Windows on 2nd St. in Long Beach and all of a sudden I spotted some really familiar fabric.  Heather Davidson, the friend I passed the fabric onto, had made all of these beautiful wallets from the pieces I had given her.  After digging through my sold items I was able to find the two dresses that contributed to these beautiful wallets.

Buying Vintage Gifts: Purses

Buying vintage for your loved one for the holidays can be a great way to show you how unique and special they are to you.  Since buying clothing for another person can be difficult, you might opt for a necklace or other vintage fashion accessory.  I've just added this batch of purses to the Salvage Life Shop and there are more to come.

Salvage Style:: SEQUINS for the Holidays

Sequins are one of those things, when worn right, can be so timeless.  You instantly feel dressed up when you are wearing them.    I recently added a lot of festive, sequined adorned items to the SHOP for the holidays.  I have saved some clippings of sequins worn well from Who What Wear.  There's no better time to wear this look!

Salvage Life on the TODAY Show!!!

Salvage Life was featured in a Secondhand Shopping segment with Bobbie Thomas on the TODAY Show last Friday morning.  We were so thrilled to see our necklaces on screen and hear Bobbie talk about Salvage Life! You can watch the clip featuring Salvage Life below. To read the article and watch the entire segment, go here. 

Congratulations to...Catrina, she won a $25 gift certificate!  She answered the question in the last post correctly, all four necklaces were there, they were layered on the second mannequin.

Salvage Life will be on the "TODAY Show" - Win a $25 Gift

I just received confirmation that Salvage Life will be on the TODAY Show with Bobbie Thomas tomorrow (Nov. 5, 2010) morning during the 9am hour.  In case you don't already have enough motivation to tune in, we will be running the following contest:

We sent Bobbie Thomas the 12 items shown below, but they won't all be on the show.  Be the first to identify which items actually appear on the TODAY Show and win a $25 gift certificate to our shop!  Just leave a comment saying which numbers you saw and the first one to get it right WINS! (Please do not guess before the show airs, all entries received before 9am est will not be considered) Good Luck!

Are red and green really complimentary?

When I was in college, I remember taking a color theory class in which we learned that colors opposite on the color wheel work well together.  This always puzzled me, because I HATED red and green at Christmas time, it was just so potent.  In fact, I always decorate with an alternate color theme for Christmas, black and white, red and silver, etc.  But today when I added this dress after the sweater to the shop and their photos were right next to each other, I started thinking that they could look good together in the right proportions. And though I wouldn't recommend wearing these as an outfit, I think the photo of the room below them is lovely example.

last photo found here.

Salvaged Halloween Get-Up

Things have been so crazy around here!  As I'm sure you have noticed, we have this lovely new website and blog,  THANK YOU Rachel, of Ironwood Design Studio, for doing a fantastic job and meeting my every little request to my exact specifications.   We are also transitioning to a white background for photos, still working out the kinks on that,  Our clothing and jewelry was featured last week in People Magazine and Taylor Swift has been seen around town in our necklaces.  We've got something bigger coming at the end of the week, hopefully I can tell you soon!

In the midst of all of this, Halloween happened, and somehow I was able to pull off a last minute costume for Ruby and I.  That's the beauty of having a vintage shop and way too many things collected over the years.  Ruby wore my vintage sailor dress from when I was her age and I wore a nautical 40's inspired dress from the 80's, which will soon be available in the shop.  I found some red shoe clips that I added to some pin-up style shoes I had.  Ruby's hat was thrifted and mine was given to me by a sailor many years ago. :) Here are some of my inspirations and photos of us. 

Inspiration photos from here and here.