Cali-stagram

The last week was spent in Los Angeles, one of my favorite places. While it seems like we were there forever it also seems like it went by in a blink. We stayed with friends and then in a sort of ramshackle yet magical "treehouse" where we shared a bathroom with the most adorable little frog, yes, he hung out the entire time we were there, I sort of wanted to bring him home. I shopped the giant Rose Bowl Flea market buying some great things for the shop, laid on the beach and watched the surfers, hiked with a very dear old friend, ate some of the yummiest meals ever, snuggled with a sweet dog named Ida and made a new friend of the the seriously charming Rodellee of Adored Vintage. I'm already scheming as to when I can make my next trip out to the west coast...

If you aren't on Instagram, you best get on it!

Follow me & the shop at Dear Golden. 

Insta-lately

Insta-spring! What you'd see if you followed the Dear Golden Instagram feed. 

Have I mentioned how much I love Instagram  - like nobody's business!

Springstagram

Life through the lens of my phone, once again. 

To follow Dear Golden on Instagram is to see lots of sneak peeks, newly listed items the moment they are added to the shop, some drinks, some cats, my travels and every now and again, my face. 

Lately-stagram

Some bits of my world lately as seen through the lens of my camera & filtered through the technology of Instagram. 

Autumnsofarstagram

 

A peek at what's been going on in my world this autumn, a season that is far too brief, in my opinion. You can live someplace where it's always summer, you can live someplace where it's always winter, you can even live someplace where it's always spring (-like), but you can't ever live anyplace where it's always autumn; perhaps that's why it is a season so much beloved. 

All these are from my Instagram where I often post things before they make their appearance in the shop or even Facebook, SO, if you're inclined, follow DEAR GOLDEN on Instagram! 

Michiganstagram

Michigan is an amazing state - not to mention a huge one. Last week we drove 8 hours to Lake Superior in the upper peninsula for five days of not much more than hiking, road biking, eating, reading & sleeping (outside of hunting there REALLY isn't much more to do up in the upper peninsula). The trip was a wild success insofar as we excelled at all the aforementioned activities. While I expected all of that, I did not expect to drive home with 5 garbage bags full of pretty amazing vintage in the car - I swear I wasn't hunting vintage on my vacation this time, it literally found me! 

If you are on Instagram & wanna check out my photos I am, unsurprisingly DEARGOLDEN. :)

so long summerstagram

The inevitable is here; with this weekend's Labor Day holiday the summer officially comes to a close. Sure, there will still be warm & sunny days, but that je ne sais quoi of summer will have passed...sigh...I must lament for I am certain I haven't taken full advantage of the season. Tonight, as I was leaving the shop, I vowed that NEXT summer I would work less and enjoy summer more. Thankfully, I did get some trips in, even two to northern Michigan! Taking Instagram pictures makes one acutely aware of just how fast time passes, it's like a visual diary, at least for me. So here's the last of summer in my world, and I will say I am very much looking forward to autumn, if only it wasn't so closely followed by a seemingly endless winter...

art imitating my cat

 So this post is a little self-indulgent, I admit it. But if I can't self-indulge a little on my own blog, then where in the heck can I? And so, this post is just a little illustration of how, so obsessed I am with my little cat Ella, that I even choose house decor that IS her very colors. This isn't intentional, I notice(d) it after the fact. The pottery was collected from thrift stores and also a this ceramic artist  in Leland, Michigan whose work I instantly loved when I was recently up there on vacation. Below are some shots I took in his shop. 

a wedding by the river

This past weekend, one of my oldest and very best friends got married in a intimate ceremony in northern Michigan. The wedding took place at a riverside inn that she and her (now) husband own -  a pretty idlyllic setting to say the least. However, it was about 90+ degrees on the wedding day, of course the wedding & reception were outside, and I was out of my dress and into my swimsuit taking dunks in the river more than once throughout the night. 

1930s dress • ebay and has it's flaws but I love it just the same

1930s hat • antique mall

little DEButant

This is Deb. She's as cute as a bug's ear. I wish she were my little sister. Instead she's my hairdresser & friend. She works & lives mere steps from my house and peeps her head in often, which is good because I can literally work for hours on end in the shop without seeing or speaking to anyone. Recently Deb stopped in to find a dress for a wedding she was going to. When she arrived she wasn't much motivated to pick out & try on dresses, but after trying on the first dress the floodgates opened; it was, as we might say 'the gateway dress'. The gal then spent a good hour spelunking the shop's front (& back!) room for pretty dresses. Once she started modeling them I could not resist snapping some Instagram pics of her. She's freaking adorable in every dress and how cute are those dimples!? She ended up in the black dress & a pair of mary jane heels at the wedding - complete with a 1960s beehive she did herself (of course). What a little babe.

a little life

A little bit of life so far this summer, as viewed through my phone...

You're invited...

...in my house! I know I have posted photos of my house before, but things have since changed (don't they always?). Basically, all last week & weekend I got the house bug, big time. I was myopic in my all-out obsession with all things house related, so much so that I barely worked at my shop or dealt with clothing at all. It needed to happen though, that one-sightedness often takes focus only on Dear Golden and everything else seems to fall by the wayside. It felt really great to step away from the shop and futz with the house, it's very decompressing, there's something oddly soothing about moving one piece of pottery around the house 5 times before picking *the right* spot. I weeded out so many things I had been hanging on to (including pieces of furniture I wasn't all that keen on) and finally found the midcentury wall unit (for an insane steal of $250) I have been searching for for what seems like an age. Although there isn't a wall available in the house where I can erect all three sections of it, I know where ever I live next will have one! So I separated the pieces and used 2 of them on opposite sides of the dining room where they work perfectly, yay! The couch is also a new addition, an estate sale purchase and I just love how it only has one arm.