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 Look Alikes

I was just chatting with a friend yesterday about shopping and she had the same mentality as me.  Growing up without a lot of money to spend on clothes, I learned how to look at higher end stores to get ideas and then would try to find similar items at thrift stores and garage sales.  Now that I have made a business of this skill, I thought it would be fun to compare a couple items in the shop with their new counterparts. Two essential styles of coats to have in your wardrobe are the trench and the military style pea coat, let's see how Salvage Life's coats compare to the new options available.

 Michael Kors Trench $250, Salvage Life Basic Black Trench $52

 

Smythe Cadet Wool Blend Coat $995, Salvage Life Camel Pea Coat, $98

Obviously, I couldn't find exact matches, but I am amazed at how much can be spent on a coat.  Salvage Life is clearly offering a more affordable product and there was no new manufacturing, packaging or waste involved.  I'm looking forward to filling out my fall wardrobe with vintage pieces that look like their new counterparts, I just think it makes sense considering designers use vintage clothing to inspire their designs, why not buy the original?

There is still a few hours left to win the vintage swimsuit giveaway, be sure to leave your comment on this post.

Custom Anniversary Necklace

My husband and I will be celebrating our 7th anniversary in a few weeks and it feels like the years have just flown by.  I was excited recently when I got an email from a friend of a friend whose wife is a Salvage Life customer.  He said their 4th Anniversary was coming up and he was interested in ordering a custom necklace.  We worked together on the design and then I made a custom gift box and bag, I also included a little note I typed on my vintage typewriter. 

Chance to win two $50 gift certificates to our shop!

We're teaming up with Sally Jane Vintage for a giveaway.  This week Salvage Life will give away two $50 gift certificates.  Enter to win one on the SJV blog and the other one here on the Salvage Life blog.

To be entered to win the $50 gift certificate here, visit our shop and then post a comment answering one of the following questions:

1. If you could buy one item for yourself from our shop and money was no object, what would it be? 

2. If you could add any item or category to the shop that we aren't currently selling, what would it be?

Your name will be entered an additional time for each of the following things that you do:

1. Follow Salvage Life on Twitter

2. Fan Salvage Life on Facebook 

3. Sign up for our Email list

4. Follow the Salvage Life Blog (click the follow button in the left sidebar)

Good luck!  I'll announce the winner this time next week!

Save the date...

We always have a great time at Patchwork!  Come and see us at either the Santa Ana or Long Beach show, OR BOTH!  If you live in the area, I hope you can make it!

Sally Jane Vintage

Recently I have been making friends with some of the other wonderful online vintage sellers.  Someone was asking me the other day how I can be friends with the competition?  I explained to them that vintage is one of a kind, so we really aren't competing and we can appreciate the items that another seller has in their shop.  We connect on the plain fact that we think vintage is great and we all are trying to make a living selling what we love! This week Salvage Life has a little collaboration with Sally Jane Vintage, a great vintage blog that we sponsor.  We sent some of our favorite pieces from the shop to Jennifer of SJV and she sent us some lovely photos of her wearing them.  To see more beautiful photos, click over to Sally Jane Vintage.   If you are interested in purchasing any of the items shown you can find them here: yellow printed dress, blue printed dress, edwardian blouse, clay circle skirt.

 

photos by Tom B.

Simple Vinegar Tarnishing for Brass

This picture turned out a bit blurry, but you get the idea. I had these brass jewelry tags made for my necklaces and they came to me really shiny. I put a little vinegar in a small jar, attached a square of mesh over the top with a rubber band, put the tags on top of the mesh and closed the lid. I let the jar sit for 1/2 hour and they are perfectly tarnished. You can adjust the time accordingly for your own project, but just know that the tarnish will be uneven with this vinegar method. That's what I was going for, but if you want an even tarnish you will need to look into chemical usage.

Happy Birthday and Congratulations!

The "Happy Birthday" is for me because today is my special day and it was wonderful! I spent the day with my daughter and sister at Disneyland (you get in free on your birthday!) and then arrived home to see my husband waiting for me with dinner and flowers. I could not have imagined a better day! And for those of you tuning in for today's drawing, Congratulations to...goldenmeans! I wasn't supposed to work today, so I am going to go now, but tune in this week for new jewelry and accessories in the shop and a sneak peak of what will be at the Speakeasy show this weekend.

My new first impression

I just designed these new business card to match the upcoming website redesign. When they came in the mail, I was really nervous, but they look great! I am so pleased!

And the winner is...

number17cherrytreelane Congratulations! Thank you to all who have entered so far, your names will remain in the hat. There are still 3 chances to win, I'll keep blogging and you keep commenting. Expect lots of new merchandise this week including dresses, coats, gloves and jewelry.

I hope you all had a nice Labor Day. I spent my morning laboring very hard cleaning a kitchen full of dirty dishes and thousands of ants. I guess that's what happens when you put off your chores. I then spent the afternoon at the park with my husband and daughter. Watching her pick grass and squeal at the pigeons was just what I needed to rejuvenate me and prepare me for the upcoming week.

Coming Soon!

I know it seems crazy considering the 100 degree weather (here in California), but fall is just around the corner. Since it will be here before we know it, I am stocking the shop with coats and dresses made of fabrics and colors suited for cooler temps. Here are some new arrivals you can expect to see later on today.

This is another chance to win a gift certificate, so comment away. And don't forget to comment on the two previous posts as well!

Win a Salvage Life Gift Certificate

My Birthday is this month, the 14th to be exact. The gifts have already started pouring in...I got free lip gloss from Sephora, 15% off my purchase from Anthropologie, and free ice cream from Coldstone. In the spirit of giving, I will be giving away four $25 gift certificates to my shop. Here is how it will work: write a comment on the blog and your name will be entered to win. You can comment as much as you like, but your name will be entered only once per post, starting with the Website Sneak Peek just before this. The names will accumulate for the whole month and each week I will draw a name and declare the winner on the blog. Good Luck!

BTW, not me in the pic. I found some great vintage birthday pics here.

New Website Sneak Peek

Here is a little peek at the new website coming in October 2009! I am really thrilled with home it is turning out. I designed it with elements around my home. The background is a roll of vintage wallpaper that I use for various projects because there isn't enough to actually cover a whole wall. The frame around "Salvage Life" is the carved shape on a dresser drawer in my daughter's room and the links are the light switch plate in our bathroom. (all altered in Gimp of course)


copyright Salvage Life 2009

Fall '09 Photo Shoot - Sneak Peek

I was just going through some of the pictures from Sunday's photo shoot and I am really happy with the results. I was pretty nervous since this is my first time being my own fashion photographer, but the photos look just like I imagined in my head. I have to say, it's really nice not to have to try to communicate my ideas to another creative mind, sometimes artists just have different ways of seeing things, not wrong just different. Katie and I made a great two woman team; she was model, hair stylist and makeup artist while I was photographer and stylist. Here's one of my favorites of the photos so far...no editing has been done.

Back in Business!

Salvage Life is back after a nice long relaxing vacation. Me and the fam went to Washington DC, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. We all had a great time. Here is a collage of architectural elements from some of the buildings in DC. I always find these more interesting than the actual exhibits. More pictures to follow and a lot of exciting things coming, including a Fall '09 photo shoot, a new website, loads of new merchandise and a live sale! Thanks for waiting while I rejuvenated and prepared for a strong fall season at Salvage Life!

Salvage Life in Graceland Photo Shoot

I finally got the pictures from the Graceland photo shoot for a 944 magazine competition featuring some of our clothes, remember this post and this post. This little collection is my favorite of the ones I received. The beautiful piece worn by the model in the middle is a dress I just sold to a customer for her wedding! Thank you to photographer Tina Deleon and stylists Allison Rosenbloom and Rachel Caprice.

New Items Coming Soon...

No, I didn't mispell Poladroid

There is a Poladroid craze going on and I have finally jumped on the bandwagon. I have been wanting a Polaroid camera since I was a little kid and have been looking for one on my thrift store trips, but then there is the issue of film, what kind and where to get it? Plus I don't have a scanner, so I wouldn't be able to share them here anyways. (I am continually held back by my lack of technology!) Then along came Poladroid...it's just as fun and much cheaper! (It's free) On a side note, I have recently found that there is a free application out there to meet every one of my needs...Gimp has been my answer to the out-of-my-price-range Photoshop/Illustrator team and I love it! Ok, back to Poladroid...it's a quick download and then you just drop your pictures in and it spits out a photo that you can't make out, as the seconds go by the image emerges just like the live version...it's a blast!

Here are a few of the Spring Lookbook pics from last year that I still find very compelling...I dropped them into Poladroid and VOILA! Original photos by Nathan Huesmann.

A New Look...

My Etsy Shop has a new look, check it out here!

Grand Opening: MARKET PUBLIQUE

Watch out Ebay and Etsy, there is a new website in town. Market Publique is a Vintage Marketplace where you can search for vintage clothing and accessories exclusively. No more sifting through thousands of items to find that one vintage piece you love. It's just getting started, so the shop isn't full yet, but Salvage Life had five items on there already with starting bids of only $9.99.