New Art Show and a New Window

I have a new art show every month here at Blackbird Attic. The opening is always the second Saturday of each month, from 6-9pm. On this night, Beacon becomes it's liveliest self, with lots of events (and free wine!) all down Main street. If you've never been to Beacon, this is the day to visit. Beacon Arts and Beacon Citizen are good sources to find out what's going on, but you pretty much just need to start at one end and walk your way down to the other. The middle gets a little iffy, but definitely make your way to the east end and you will be paid off with the majority of galleries, antiques, an awesome art covered building and a waterfall!

I could talk forever about how awesome Beacon is and is becoming,
but let's talk about my shop again ; ).

 

So tomorrow, the opening of Julianna Swaney's 'Secret Messages' art show is happening. You can RSVP and get more details here, but basically around 6:30pm I line a table with goodies like wine and cupcakes and along with that, you get to enjoy a little art viewing and a little shopping! I hope to see you; but either way here is a teaser of her work!

Also, how awesome is my intern Ngoc? She is both talented in the tedious side of a consignment shop and the fun-crafty-artistic side. I finally decided on a window theme and she is the perfect person for the job..  Here's a little preview of what's to come:

Blackbird Attic Outfits

Sheree of It's Not That Deep came in yesterday and styled some more outfits for us.

This dress/tunic is actually an old vintage men's general work shirt that was upcycled into a new design. Looks a lot like this safari style top at Zara and would transfer well into a fall wardrobe. Dress: Once Upon a Time, S, $14 / Hat: Lids, $8 / Silver Cuff Bracelet: $8.

I love the light flowy feel of this top and the textured vintage skirt is pretty amazing as well. Top: Soprano, M, $10 / Skirt: Vintage, XS/S, $17.99 / Purse: Vintage, $8.

Here's another upcycled dress, this time from Urban Outfitters. Definitely looks like an 80's pattern. A great light option for the summer. To add another level of comfort, pair it with a cute cardigan like this one from Splendid. Dress: Urban Renewal, S, $16.50 / Cardigan: Splendid, S, $16.50.

Shirt: GAP, XS, $12 / Leather Skirt: Express, S, $13 / Sunglasses: $5 / Vintage Pearl Necklace: $8.

Jacket: American Eagle, S/M, $14 / Dress: Xhilaration, L, $13 / Vintage Cameo Necklace: $16

Shirt: American Eagle, XS, $12 / Skirt: S/M, $12 / Vintage Macrame Purse: $10.

Week Recap

A little late on this recap, it's actually of the week before last week, but here it is:

I bought my boyfriend a blow up kayak for Christmas. It seems kind of strange, but I figured it would take up less space and it had great reviews on amazon. We actually have a kayak launch in Beacon now, right by the train station. I just learned you can store your kayak there (for a fee of course), but it's another good option if we end up annoyed with the extra effort of pumping and unpumping a kayak full of air.

We made the mistake of putting the seats in "backwards" so that the skeg (which helps keep you going the way you want to go) was in the front. We had an embarrassing ride almost getting caught in fishing lines, but after we figured that one out, we were all good to go. We stopped on a little rocky beach and took in the mountain views (I'll never get over the views in this area).

I went to a little bbq on Memorial day. I started a cleanse right before this weekend, where you don't drink alcohol and are very limited in food choices, so it was tough being faced with all those delicious looking beers and chips (things are so much more delicious looking when you can't have them), but I did it! I'm on week 3 now. I'll write more about that later.





Along with the cleanse, I also started to work out a little. I really really needed to. My friend Lena and I are doing Jillian Michael's workouts, which are a quick, but painful, 20 minutes. My cat Sushi likes to join us sometimes, although she only seems to be into yoga. Afterwards, we juice (which is the breakfast part of my cleanse, it's not an all juice cleanse and actually it's only supposed to be for the 1st week, but I've carried on the habit). And after that we went for a nice little dip since summer decided to come early.

I also took the opportunity to blow up my new kiddie pool. This thing is pretty awesome for a cool down. Doesn't compare to my neighbors huge in-ground pool that I will own one day... but this will suffice for now!

Lastly, I went to my first drive in movie! Or at least first that I can remember going to (I have a faint memory of going when I was a little one). The ground was wet and it was cold so we couldn't sit outside for too long, but I am excited about attending more of these in the future. My boyfriend is especially pleased at the idea of a personal "quiet theater".

Makin' it work.. again!

Mikhaila did it again. This one is adorable! I'm getting inspired to reconstruct more pieces in the shop. She also made a quick little tutorial.

Material needed: vintage dress, measuring tape, scissors, seam ripper (I didn't end up using this), pins, and a sewing machine.

Step 1: Cut dress to desired length, leaving a few extra inches for the hem.
Step 2: Measure the hem and pin along the way.
Step 3: Cut off sleeves leaving about an inch of fabric to create a hem. Fold the extra fabric under and pin. Because of the fabric of this particular dress, it was much easier to do it this way than using the seam ripper to take off the sleeves.
Step 4: Sew!

There are a bunch of video tutorials on youtube if you need more of a visual step by step. And also this reminds me, a really awesome lady came in yesterday. She seems to be pretty famous in the retro sewing world and she teaches classes in Beacon now! Check her out here.

Makin' it work..

So I get in a lot of vintage items that are too long or over-sized, and because of that, are passed by. It's a fairly quick and easy task to hem though, (or take it to a tailor!), and it makes all the difference as seen above. That's my friend Mikhaila of FarmieMarket, a new online Farmer's Market in the works. She's been helping out at the shop by posting some eBay listings for me, and now by taking on a few alteration projects. I asked her to do a little tutorial next time around and will post that!