inspired by crewel embroidery

Recently, I’ve had a whole lot of embroidery on my mind. One of my pals just opened up an incredible, noteworthy Etsy shop — One Sick Stitch — for her impressive and witty embroidery hoops. It took no longer than a few days for almost all of her start-up inventory to sell, but I know more good things are to come. I promise to personally keep an eye open for updates and clue you all in when the time comes. In the meantime, you’ll want to contact her for custom work if you’re in the market. She’s the best of the best.

And in my little world of vintage housewares hunting, I’ve come across my fair share of little embroidered beauties, many of which I’ve stashed away in my own home because I just can’t seem to part with them. This week after finding an adorable vintage crewel daisy pillow kit, I’m looking at some of my own and some of my favorites stitches across the web.

Most of my collection is a sweet roundup of 1960s and 1970s flowers or floral themed scenes, which I love, but my absolute favorite vintage pieces are of some more unconventional scenes. Like the example above, I find it really exciting when I come across an older piece like this that isn’t all florals and sweet imagery. But the real gems for me are the pieces that are a complete departure from the natural world.

crewel row homes

This piece comes from my own collection and hangs over my dresser in the bedroom. And it is absolutely my favorite vintage crewel embroidery, hands down. As much as I yearn for some more greenery in my life and access to that wild wonderland that most 60s and 70s embroidery evokes, I’m still a city girl and have been for years. Isn’t this just too cool? I love the subdued colors and sweet city details. The row homes do remind me of Philadelphia in a lot of ways and I’m just imagining that it must’ve come from some cool crafty neighbor of mine so many years ago.

If I have any down time this week, I do plan to start my first crewel project (with a lot of help from the internet I imagine) and while my first piece will be a field of daisies, I’m hoping I can work my way up to something a little more unique. I’ll be sure to share my progress with you soon.

vintage summer essentials: dresses

When it comes to summer essentials, vintage sun dresses are my absolute favorite thing to shop for. I have a surprisingly small collection for myself (though I’m building up my collection for the shop) but if that means it’s time for me to start shopping, I’m not mad!

1. Vintage 1970s Striped Wrap Dress // 2. Vintage 1960s Yellow Checkered Mini Dress // 3. Vintage Floral Sun Dress

1960s Striped Cotton Dress

1950s Green Color block Cotton Dress

Vintage 1960s Bright Color Block Pleated Dress

As you can see, I have no shortage of vintage dress favorites — I could probably go on and on all day sharing them with you. As much as I love putting a solid outfit together and creating fun looks using separates, there’s just something I love about the ease of the summer dress. Often you can throw one on with your favorite sandals and look even more put together than you would with separates. And with dresses, I feel much more at ease piling on my favorite summer accessories, which of course I’ll be sharing more of with you soon.

kilim rug update

Remember this post a few months ago? We’d been looking for a nice rug for our studio/showroom and luckily found one not too long after we made the post! If you’re a Facebook follower of ours, you may have seen this already but I wanted to make an official update to all of our blog followers as well. I’ve taken and accidentally deleted photos of the whole studio several times (really? how?) so I still have that task ahead of me (again), but until I can share the whole room I think this piece of the puzzle is a real good one. We got a great deal on this beauty and the combination of orange and pink/faded red is a favorite of both ours! This is a dream and really pulls together the wide range of decor elements we have going on in the showroom.

I’m so happy with it and find it cheers up the room really well — so much so that every time I go over there to work, I’m instantly excited to spend time there. Every bit of motivation to work helps…

vintage summer essentials

Today in Philadelphia, the weather is super gloomy and grey and we’ve already spent half of our day avoiding the outdoors at all costs by catching ourselves up with the new season of Arrested Development and cooking only what we have in the fridge. So of course, my thoughts are somewhere across the country or world or anywhere sunny. And even though it’s not quite summer yet, I find myself anxiously awaiting all opportunities to dress that way. All you need is a good pair of sandals and a sun dress, and you’re good to go! Of course a nice pair of sunglasses and a sun hat really help too ;)

1. Vintage Brown Leather Etienne Aigner Sandals // 2. Vintage White Leather Kalli Sandals with Colorful Details // 3. Brown Leather Sandals with Cutouts and Metallic Straps // 4. 1970s Platform Wedge Sandals // 5. Vintage Brown Leather Strappy Slingback Sandals

I have about 5 too many pairs of vintage sandals, but I just can’t seem to stop. And these options here aren’t making it any easier. Check back later in the week for more of my vintage summer essentials — I’ll be sharing some of my favorite sun dresses and accessories.

birthday celebration

Yesterday was my birthday (and today is my Dad’s — Happy Birthday, Dad!) and I had such a great time that I just couldn’t help but share some of the photos with you all. We spent the day thrifting, picnicking in my favorite park of Fairmount Park, hiking the trails along the water and going out to dinner at my favorite vegan restaurant in the city! After indulging in all of my favorite things, it’s time to get back to work. But not before I take in some of the residual dreaminess of yesterday’s events. Look out for some of our thrift finds tomorrow.

expanding the shop

One of the greatest opportunities that getting a separate showroom space has afforded us is the ability to work with more furniture pieces and projects for the shop. We love working with wood (as you might gather from our Black Oak Handmade shop) and vintage, so getting to expand and work with vintage furniture is a dream. Today I’ll be in the showroom organizing and cleaning up a few pieces that we’ve picked up recently. Among those was the dresser above that we decided to keep for ourselves ;) But suffice it to say, we hit the Mid Century Modern furniture jackpot this past week and found some amazing deals on some incredible furniture that we can’t wait to share with you!

We’ve been going through some major changes lately and this blog has suffered some from those distractions. I’m sorry! My intentions are to soon get some steady posts back up and running now that we can photograph our projects and finds from a better location. Hold tight, friends.

sunday reading

There’s just something about Sundays that always make me want to sleep in late, lounge around the apartment with a fresh pot of coffee and read by my window. Yesterday at a local flea market, I was tempted by so many beautifully designed covers of old books and it reminded me to find more today. I’m loving this piece designed by Josef Čapek in 1922.

Happy Sunday, friends!