Antiquing, a huge pig, a garden party dress & Indie Untangled launch

First and foremost, I wanted to say a huge thank you for all of the wonderful birthday wishes I received last week here and across social media! ♥ ♥ I really did have a great birthday, and thank you all for helping with that. 🙂

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To cap off my birthday week, we headed up to Wisconsin on Saturday. One of the things we did was go to an antique mall. It’s not necessarily the most amazing one (which we knew as we’d been there before), but it was a nice thing to do on an unusually warm day, and we always enjoy driving off into the countryside and getting out of the city.

I said hello to a couple of friends there! Friends in the, uh, huge fiberglass animal department.

By the way, before any asks: since I’m already wearing it here I won’t bother doing a post about my dress, but I just finished this one up. The fabric is another from Hawthorne Threads, and aptly named Garden Party. Basically the same as my Easter Parade dress but with no inset waistband. Though I’ve finally decided I much prefer dresses with waistbands. Also: you may have guessed that I’m growing out my bob with bangs, because I just could never get behind it on my own head. Fortunately my hair turned a corner last week and I’m now able to style it again in a way I’m really happy with, as seen in these photos. I’m even enjoying the current length. Hip hip! Just need my bangs to grow out a little more for a proper roll.

Anyway, isn’t the gigantic pig a hoot? He had a slightly more diminutive friend, too.

outfit details

dress – made by me
satchel – Leather Satchel Co. (birthday gift from Mel! smaller sibling to my green one)
shoes – Sven Clogs
Bakelite earrings, bangles – misc.
watch – Fossil Cecile

We didn’t pick up much, but had a few good finds!

Mel found an old tin type photo, and I found a Bakelite bangle, several really neat sets of vintage buttons, and a pattern from 1940. It’s not actually dated, but ironically I had done the research on a previous Hollywood pattern to determine the age, and had used this one as a reference point. Betty Grable joined 20th Century Fox in 1940, and by November 1940 the pattern numbers were in the 500s already. So I bet 402 was a Spring 1940 pattern. It features a “tuck-in or outside shirt with two or four patch pockets” and “slacks with front pleats and cuff bottom”. Oh, and don’t forget that “casual collar”.

Here’s a closeup of the Bakelite bangle, isn’t the swirling gorgeous? This one was half the price of the few others I saw at the mall, so I was pretty pleased I spotted it tucked away in a case. I’ve been obsessed with translucent Bakelite lately.

All-in-all good finds, and a lovely day spent in Wisconsin. And now that you’ve figured out three of the four items mentioned in the title of today’s post, here’s the fourth!If you’re a knitter (or a spinner), have you heard of Indie Untangled yet? If you love hand-dyed yarn and fiber, then you definitely should check it out. It’s a brand new portal for discovering artisan yarns, fiber, notions and accessories. Creator Lisa says it herself best:

Indie Untangled will connect buyers and sellers of hand-dyed yarn and fiber, handspun yarn, knitting-related notions and accessories, so you can discover an artisan who creates incredible colors and finally score that skein or sweater quantity from the dyer you’ve always wanted to try.

So what’s that mean? You can sign up for one mailing list and get connected to lots of small yarn-and-fiber vendors. You’ll get one weekly email with all of the upcoming updates from those vendors. (Less is more!) You can also check out the Marketplace page, which describes the vendors and connects you to their shops. The list already looks great and the site has only just launched, so imagine how nice this will be in a few short months, as word spreads? It’ll just get better and better!

To celebrate, Indie Untangled is doing a launch giveaway! Two, in fact! That Clever Clementine (my own clever mom) created two special bags with the cute Indie Untangled yarn ball logo, and you can enter two separate giveaways to win one of the bags.

• This week, by joining the Indie Untangled newsletter by Friday, April 18th you’ll be entered to win a large Pandora Poke project bag. (And if you’re already on the mailing list, you’re already entered!)
• Next week, join the Indie Untangled group on Ravelry and follow the instructions Lisa will post on the 21st on how to enter the second giveaway, to win a Snapdragon notions pouch.

Read more about the giveaway on the Indie Untangled blog, and while you’re there, be sure to sign up for their mailing list to enter their first giveaway!