phone call.

Retro phones are the best aren't they? Rotary, wall mounted. Any shape, any colour.

This is one thing I don't have yet. Maybe someday. 

I'd love a bright pastel telephone tucked away in a cozy corner. Just for fun.

One can dream...

In the meantime I'll just look at all the wonderful retro phone eye candy on Etsy!

one//two//three//four//five//six//seven//eight//nine

P.S. The other day we booked our honeymoon flight to London and Paris! It's a year away but I'm already floating in excitement. Any suggestions on places to go and things to see? I'm starting my list already! Maybe there's some European vintage waiting for me somewhere...

Thanks for following along and have an awesome rest of the day!

Marissa xo

dolled up.

I have come to the realization that I am drawn specifically to black and white clothing, usually with bib collars or a "tuxedo" style. I really prefer more masculine inspired looks paired with feminine accessories and makeup. As most ladies, collars alone get me almost every time. Almost. 

In the last year I have adopted a couple of my favourite closet staple pieces.

Three are dresses, two are tops. Three are vintage, two are not. Say hello to a couple top notch stunners I am proud to call mine!

These are two of my acquired finds and both are from Etsy. On the left is my 60s velvet tuxedo jumper that I've had since last April. I bought it for myself as an early birthday present from DutchessVintage, to wear on my birthday and take on our Chicago trip. It's probably my favourite vintage outfit I own. On the right is my newest vintage clothing purchase (other than for the shop of course!), a beautiful LucyInDesguise dress that has sort of a 60s folk style mixed in. I haven't even had a chance to wear it yet, other than a quick try-on, but it's in my closet waiting to make its debut.

And in case you're wondering, the dress in the photo above is an asos petite collar swing dress. The most effortless thing in my closet that instantly makes me look like I tried to put myself together. In reality, it feels like being draped in the softest, comfiest blanket.

Does anyone else get pulled in by these styles? Or do you have another wardrobe weakness?

Marissa

shop sales.

It's like project city over at my house lately. We're still chipping away at the finishing touches in our basement. I never dreamed putting things away and getting organized would take this long, but I'm thankful for the progress being made.

Even our bedroom is undergoing a few changes. A couple weeks ago we hosted a garage sale at my house and my grandma contributed a couple mystery boxes that I was unaware of until the garage sale was actually going on! It was a super close call, because my most treasured set of items of hers were in one of the boxes!! A Four Seasons wall hanging set from Coppercraft Guild. I know it seems pretty silly that they would be so important and memorable to me, but I always remember wanting them from a very, very young age. Needless to say they are now mine and awaiting their turn to be hung up in our bedroom like they were in hers all those years.

Today I received a FREE extra long 60s Walnut dresser with a mirror for our bedroom. My dad originally bought a full set for his cabin, but couldn't fit this particular one in any of the rooms. So I guess I lucked out! This thing is the absolute coolest and I'm glad because I agreed to take it based only on knowing the wood type and seeing the headboard from the set. I was pretty confident I knew what the shape would be and I was spot on. She needs a light scrub and some oil to restore the shiny finish in places, so onto the list that goes. Pictures to come obviously!

Because I've been so focussed on home things and haven't posted anything new lately (in the shop and on the blog) I decided to have some simultaneous sales going on in both shops. Maybe you've seen them already, but if you haven't...

This lady is $10 plus shipping now!!

For CharmingShopVintage:

Items that I've had in the shop for a while are marked down to $10 or $15.

Such a great deal for people looking for cheap gifts or things they want but would usually pay so much more for!! There is some pretty incredible stuff up for grabs! Check it out!

For CharmingShopLove:

I am trying to get my older art prints moving on to new homes, so I can start selling some new ones!

All prints are buy one get one free! (Or better known as BOGO.)

I am going to be starting a new collection of vintage inspired holiday confetti as well as smaller original artworks based on the prints I already sell. There will be some pyrex inspired ones so stay tuned for that.

As always I combine shipping for multiple items or for purchase from both shops. Don't hesitate to ask, because I'm always close by to help!;)



We'll be having our little wedding next summer and we've decided on an incredible (but expensive) honeymoon spot. So come on and contribute to our wedding fund! haha Oh dear...


Alright, I'm off to the basement to get started on the new shop area!
Hope you're having a great week!


Marissa xo

Some September Loot.

I have been busy preparing for a full winter of vintage selling. These are some of my finds from September. To keep and to sell. There's always a fine line...I'm not always so good at deciding...

Let's get my keep pile out of the way first. Right at the tail end of September I found these shoes. Like so many Value Village frequenters, I get overly excited around Halloween. Months before, they start holding back their coolest, most retro outfits to put out as Halloween costumes. I try to snatch up as many cute ones as I can! 

These intensely sparkly shoes were in the Halloween section this year and I'm pretty certain they're keepers. They fit my tiny fit, but they're a little snug. I'd say they're a narrow 5 and a half.  I might try stretching them out with bags of water. Has anyone actually tried this before? I haven't. I don't want to wreck these beauties! In person it looks like it has glitter or sequins all over, but it's actually just metallic thread. I love them and really hope our relationship works out!

I try not to get too attached to things, but I don't think I can let these go. The pattern is called Flair. Such a sweet name for the best plate set ever! There are eight dinner plates, eight bread plates and one small bowl. Normally I would like a larger set, but seeing as how I don't think I'll be finding anything quite like these again, they'll be mine for now. 

About six weeks ago, my house got broken into and I was pretty upset about it. Luckily the thief didn't get very much. The only thing they took was my purse, and I didn't have too many things in there at the time. I always carry small vintage purses that don't hold a lot, but the one that was stolen was my moms when she was my age. If anything, there was a little sentimental value and the inconvenience of having to cancel all my credit cards and renew my information. Luckily my purse was recovered in the end, along with some personal things the thief obviously didn't think much of. (Everything was found in a garbage can down the street. Gross.) 

Anyway the point of this story is that I was feeling down about having someone violate my home and break into my personal space. So I treated myself to an Etsy purchase that I had been eyeing for a while. A set of these amazing Hazel Atlas glasses from the Etsy shop Midge and Manny's. The seller is very sweet and I received them in perfect condition, wrapped with great care. Sometimes you just need to splurge on something, and this was it for me. (Please ignore my horrible front door partition wall that clearly needs to be painted soon!)

 This set was a nice find last month. I'm a big fan of gravel or textured wall art. I have two melted plastic still life sets already - one in orange and another in blue. These kitschy guys can go off to a new home where they can be fully appreciated for how cool they really are. I'm pretty excited about the incredible bold colour and visual movement of the images. 

Hellooo cute wall clock!! I'm a huge sucker for retro fonts, and the numbers on this Timex clock are pretty retro indeed! I'm willing to part with this beauty and for the right price. It does have a significantly large crack on the front. So sad. Expect a discount! 

*** 

To my Winnipeg people, we're hosting a three household garage sale at my home this weekend. Please email me at charming_shop@hotmail.com if you'd like details. (I'm sorry, I don't want to display my address here!) Direct any and all questions to me and I'll get back to you right away! 

We've been planning this garage sale for a whole year, storing these things in boxes and bins. I have no idea what's what. We wanted to do it earlier in the summer, but we ran out of time. Now we just want to get it done before it gets too cold out. Now there's construction on our street too, so unfortunately space is going to be very limited. A back lane party it is! We would wait until next year, except the amount of stuff is too out of control to store over winter. 

I was also originally planning on doing a pop-up of my vintage shop, CharmingShopVintage, at the sale, but because of the amount of stuff, I decided not to for this time. There's always next year. So come on out. We've been organizing and pricing for two days and I just want to get rid of everything! 

Make offers and take some things off my hands!

We hope to see you there!

Marissa xo

September.

Oh hey there. It's the first Wednesday in September! Yeah, when did that happen? I was pretty sure I still had time to get to the beach this year, but I think my time is nearly up! We're already getting into Fall mode and I'm working too much now to get away. I mean I'll get out there eventually, but it may be to just sit inside the cabin, curled up with a good book in front of the fire. 

Today is a good day. It's my Dad's Birthday and we'll be going out to celebrate tonight. He's honestly the best dad a girl could ask for. He's always there to help us no matter what. I can't even tell you how many times he's rescued my sister and I out of our binds. But I suppose that's what dads do! 

My dad took this picture of us sleeping outside at his house last week, so I guess the answer is I owe him a great birthday at least for being a poor guest! 

As I have mentioned before, I have really taken my thrifting mode to the next level this summer. I have begun collecting more wisely, now knowing what I need and what my shop message is. It's been nearly a year with my vintage shop now and I'm feeling more comfortable with my decisions as an online shop owner. I think my customers have really done that for me with their very generous and positive comments. 

(If you're reading this and you've purchased something from CharmingShopVintage and/or have written a comment, I thank you. You choose what shops you deal with, and you decided whether or not to take time out of your day to write a comment or review. You don't know how often you make my day and make me feel like I'm on the right track. I'm inspired by you to keep on going!) 

In the end all I really wanted to say is I'm fully stocked for the winter seasons ahead. I can't wait to start listing everything I have. In fact, these are some of the items that will be listed very soon!

Status update on my basement? The carpet goes in Friday. I'm sad that we'll be covering up the original flooring, but in the end it was too damaged to salvage. Sometimes that's just the way. I know you're probably sooo bored about hearing about this already. So I'm sorry! I'm just way too excited to get some space back. Living amongst boxes is making me loopy.

I wish I had more to share right now. Things have been slow and not terribly exciting. 

I'm really looking forward to making the Fall season count, because Summer certainly got away from me this year. I hope everyone is doing well. Have a great day!

Marissa xo

Painting days.

We have started painting our basement and it looks phenomenal. I've had some swatches ready to go for a while now, because it's never too early to start paint plans. I think that having that little piece of colour is what inspired me to hang in there for the last two months. The state of things has been messy and unkempt, but we are so close to the finish line. Getting the first coat up was just what we needed to start seeing the finish line.

The style of the basement was always going to be mid century, but with a bit of a modern feel for my fiancé. He likes an older antique style mixed with brand new pieces, so it was important to incorporate more classic colours. For paint we chose "Barely Brown" and "Midnight in N.Y." by Behr. The former is a little creamy grey, that should appear pretty close to white. I'm truly looking forward to lightening up that space. Anything will really. It was a light, dusty salmon colour before. Midnight in N.Y. is our accent colour. It's a stunning and dramatic chalkboard-esque colour. Maybe a bit darker. We had a difficult time with this, because I had my heart set on a deep teal colour, until I remembered I have a royal blue couch. Those two colours were never going to sit well together. So back to the drawing board.

I'm not going to lie, there were a lot of compromises with this basement. We both have such different styles. It's going to serve so many different purposes - music room/recording studio/library/party room/relaxing area. You name it. Getting the style just right was so important. In the end I'm trying to envision the future and get a good space going for when we have a family, and then ultimately for when we're ready to move on and sell the house to some lucky new owners. 

Anyway, I think we have a good thing going. We have a nice new carpet purchased and ready to go, and this week I'll be spray painting our mantle. We also have some shelving to install for the library wall. It's a step by step process, but it's nearly there. And once it's done, the shop can get so much more attention. I'm so ready to get going. I'm nearly stocked up for a whole winters worth of listing.

I just wanted to share our colour palette choices today, and to let you know things won't be so scatterbrained so very soon. So feast your eyes on this!:

This turned out super Hallowe'en-y, but I assure you it's not! Computers always adjust colours in such weird ways. The wall is less pink toned and the darker accent has a dark blueish tint.

I know this won't be everyone's cup of tea, but I wanted to do something a little elegant. We're pretty whimsical upstairs, so why not step in and get a little more traditional where we can. Besides, the laundry room is going to be a bright shade of orange called "Cheese Puff". That's crazy enough!

Can't wait to show more before and afters!




Marissa xo

Basement Inspiration

Most of my online silence this summer has been due to some major changes in our home. We have a very sweet but tiny mid century house built in 1950, that we bought hoping to restore it back to its full potential. Being that it's summer and all, we decided it was high time to get started on a major problem - our basement.

In our area, a lot of houses don't have basements. Or if they do, they're just concrete holes in the ground below the house. We were lucky to get a finished basement, that needed some extreme TLC.

It's permanently dirty from years of wear and neglect, cold and way too dark. Besides when we first moved in we had to have some plumbing done and a bunch of wall was ripped open and exposed. Even some ceiling tiles had fallen down. And the old linoleum tile flooring was missing so many tiles too. I'm sure it was fabulous back in the 50s, but not so much anymore.

Like all reno projects, the job is slow and tedious. There's always some unforeseen issue to resolve. But in the end all the waiting around for the finishing point will be worth it. In excited to have insulation in the walls for the first time ever, and some good wiring so that I'm not afraid to use the outlets. I feel like in always waiting for things to burst into flames! Old houses are both fun and dangerous. You've got to be ready for anything.

Right now we are almost ready to paint, but we sure went through some rough stages. When you tear out all the walls down to the concrete and start from scratch, there's a lot to be done. I can only begin to dream up our new layout and how our furniture (now in storage) will look down there. I'm truly excited to get my 60s blue velvet couch back! It's one of my very favourite possessions. I feel like I'll end up designing the room around it.

In theme with all my basement plans I wanted to share some photos that will serve as inspiration for me while I decide how to paint, (I'm leaning towards a soft grey, clean white and deep midnight blue for accents.) how to set my faux fireplace mantle into the wall and what else we need to make the space great. All that good stuff! Enjoy!

 One of our top focal points on our wish list for this basement was a large bookshelf. This one is perfect and I'm liking the warmth in this photo anyway. So into the inspiration folder it goes!

 This room is very clearly a living room, but the colour scheme is very similar to what we're looking for. The cozy setup is perfect for having friends over for a visit or reading on the couch. 

As you can see we're definitely going for a mix of modern and mid century. It needs to match the rest of the house, while still being a room that my Fiancé will enjoy playing guitar and putting his enormous collection of books in. I thought he would love to have a slanted magazine rack attached to the bookshelves to display some of his more collectible books. This room seems lovely.

Again, these are living rooms, but apparently everyone thinks a basement needs to look like a dark cave. I'm looking forward to bring lightness and cute bursts of colour into the space like these perfectly styled places: One and two.

My blue velvet couch looks in a little better shape than this sweet girl, but fitting mine into my basement and designing a colour scheme around it is top on my priority list.

This mantle was decorated by a very creative fellow Winnipegger, Erin from Ohsolovely. I can only hope to decorate my new mantle as nice as this one! There is no doubt this needs to be included in my inspiration photos. 

 It's nice to know blue velvet couches can look pretty against a variety of colours. I'm so ready to start decorating!

I can't wait for all the messy work to be done, so I can start moving stuff around. For now I can only dream up potential layouts and paint colours. 

Marissa xo

Personal and Shop Finds for August

I can't believe we're more than halfway through August already. When did that even happen?! To break the blues of summer ending faster than we all want, I thought I would recap my top discoveries for this month. so let's do two of mine, and two for the shop!

I came upon this lovely small set of dishes at Value Village a week ago and I'm thrilled about it. I don't really stick to a type or maker when it comes to kitchen items. The only rule is it needs to be turquoise. I'm always on the hunt, but I know everyone else is too. Turquoise has become a very popular colour and tracking it down has become a matter of luck. I'm still in complete shock that this pattern belongs to me!

This letter organizer was a very sweet find at an Estate sale this Saturday. It was the very first thing I spotted and I nabbed it right away. It had a large sticker overtop of the entire "memos"section and a modern pencil holder stuck to the side with adhesive. I got both things off without any trouble. There is some light damage, and obviously needs a good scrub, (I only hung it up for this photo.) but this is exactly the thing we need to get organized and it's aqua! I have always wanted one of these, and had previously considered buying one off Etsy. Now I've got one and the temptation is gone. I can only imagine what they had sold the day before on Friday, because I sure felt like I had taken all the best things, or I should say what I thought were the best. What treasures did I miss? 

This cat salt and pepper shaker is creepy and cute all at once. Found at another Estate Sale, it was part of a shaker collection of the woman's mother that was high in the hundreds. I always love dipping into old salt and pepper shaker collections. You can always tell a lot about the person depending on how crazy their collection is. This one was wonderfully kitschy, and I walked away with three separate pairs for the shop. You'll see the other two sweeties very soon! All three need a good cleaning to be rid of their dust before they're ready for listing. 

Whether we like it or not, Christmas is approaching. For businesses big and small it's always important to get a leg up and be prepared for early holiday shoppers. Whether it be decorations or gifts. I'm pretty bad at getting my gifts organized early, but my decoration planning and buying happens at the first sign of Fall. I get way too excited to put out my family's things now that they've been passed down to me. I suppose it's a childhood nostalgia thing for me. Anyway, the point of this is that I discovered a giant box retro candles that will surely get us all in the mood for winter festivities. I've already glanced through them all to give them a once-over, but I'm pretty excited to take them all out to see what I've got! There a few newer ones at the top, but underneath them are the really cool guys. I know I saw a pretty adorable deer and a perfectly chubby snowman! Around Christmas I also like throwing a cute vintage ornament into my packaged orders for my customers. Maybe this year I'll have a few spare candles! We'll see!

Obviously there's still a little time left for summer garage sales and back-to-school thrifting. Can I find anything cool in the last 14 days of August? I hope so! 

Marissa xo

Summer Happenings

This summer has been crazy. Totally not excuse for falling away from posting, but we have been undergoing many changes. Small ones and big ones. I don't know why, but I always feel like our lives specifically are in a constant whirlwind of change. Do you ever feel like that too? I always get the impression our lives shuffle around faster than other peoples, but in retrospect, I'm sure that's not true. It just feels that way.

Our basement, all cleaned up before the walls came down. 

We have been tackling many things this season. We wanted to get an early start on organizing for our annual garage sale, while clearing our basement out for renovations anyway. Might as well kill two bird with one stone, right? In the midst of this, my mom suddenly decided to sell her home and that came sooner than any of us thought! I'm so happy she did though, because her new place is gorgeous, and I would happily move in there! 

We adopted a very cute Yorkshire Terrier, Shih Tzu cross named Leah. She was in desperate need of a home and we couldn't say no. She's just over a year old and has a lot attitude and energy. She's calmed down a lot since we've had her here, and she's taken a real liking to our cat Royal. She's fitting into our little family perfectly. And what's best is she seems at ease with my vintage hunting. She doesn't touch a thing. My favourite kind of pup!

This year, my dad bought a cabin too, so we have been trying to spend as much time as possible at the lake. I grew up going to the lake all summer, so being able to revisit that side of my life is a dream. Besides that, we're even thinking of the cabin for our wedding next summer! I think it'll become a very special place.

Thrifting and garage-saling has become a little hard to do lately. I try to hunt down the best of the best, but you have to sort through a million things before you find something worthwhile! It seems like I'm always working on the best days for pursuing. Luckily, on the days I have been able to get out there, I have unearthed some pretty insane things. I've definitely found some things I never thought I would touch or hold with my own hands, like two turquoise fibreglass shaded lamps with perfect atomic-style bases, a set of 3 teak wood lamps (Just got back from that hunt and my heart is still racing! I get too excited, honestly!) a fabulous Georges Briard Bar Cart and much much more. I always tend to go for the larger more furniture based items and that's bad!! I was jokingly telling my family that I would have to open up a brick and mortar or mobile shop to start making more space for my findings. Seems like a good future goal to me though! 

I used to post recipes on here, but I haven't in the longest time. One of my favourite past times is cooking. I can bake pretty good as well, but I never get too crafty or serious about it. In the last little while I've given up on being adventurous foodwise, so the recipes have stopped. I have a very sensitive stomach and I'm still fighting to get that under control. It leaves my cooking pretty uninspired and I am often confused about my dietary restrictions. After too many medically prescribed nutritional plans, I have found my own way to something that seems to be working! After 10 years of being a vegetarian, I have returned to eating meat. 

I know it's not a huge deal, but it sure was a big change for me. As someone who chose that and was on and off vegetarian for most of my life, I didn't know how to approach all these new things to incorporate into my food. I chose to be vegetarian base on many things, but in the end I realized eating meat along with cutting out certain foods like carb-based things was the right choice. I would choose to be healthy and thriving over just being "right" in my own opinion. Sometimes you don't have the luxury to choose things and for me, that's one of them. I can live with that. All I can say is, once I get my health back on track, maybe I can start a new set of recipes. I love to cook and create, so why not. I'm kind of looking forward to some normalcy there.

This is an incredible soup I've made twice from the blog Love&Lemons and I don't think I will ever stop making it. You can do so many variations of it and I like to leave mine a little chunky. It's kind of the best thing ever. 

Okay that's all for now! I went to the Farmers market and a tonne of garage sales today. I'm going to take a break and reflect on all my goodies. 

See ya later!

Marissa xo

I Love... Barkcloth Fabric!

Vintage barkcloth has always been fascinating to me. It's one of those tough, sturdy, heavy weight fabrics you can do a lot with. You can use it to make curtains, pillows, bags or even reupholster furniture pieces. The best part about this material though, is the fabulous array of vintage atomic-style designs you may come across.

Winnipeg is finally in summer mode after a crazy long winter, which means the garage sales are in full swing. You can bet I've been out already looking for some great deals and awesome vintage pieces to complete my home, and stock up the shop. 

Don't worry, this all relates back to barkcloth!! I'm telling you this because this last weekend I came across the garage sale of this older gentlemen who was raising money for a nearby hospital. I looked around for a bit and saw a table with a heap of vintage barkcloth fabric on it. He came over and told me they were long curtains his wife had made before they had even met. I thought they were so awesome, so I asked him what he wanted for the set, and he said he'd give them to me for one dollar! He also wanted to throw in some vintage aprons for free, but I assured him I would at least give a donation for the hospital he was raising money for. 

On I went, with my freshly dry-cleaned, fully-lined barkcloth curtains with their superb atomic print and in pristine condition no less! (...and also a couple aprons!) I was kind of in shock at what I had just found. It's hard to unearth cool things like that in Winnipeg. Let's be honest here. 

So in honour of my new find, I wanted to show off some other cool barkcloth fabric that I would be more than happy to own. Some patterns are very iconic; others not so much. Each one is fantastic in it's own way, and I'd be pleased to meet some of it in person some day!

one//two//three//four//five//six//seven//eight

These barkcloth fabrics always have a lot of texture, colour and life. Especially the ones with added metallic bits throughout! I'm always partial to the really typical retro '50s ones with boomerang and antennae looking shapes. Surprise, surprise. 

What's your favourite?

Marissa xo

Life Lately.

It's tough to get back into things after a vacation. We got back at the end of April, and that sort of of lead into this month being mainly a resting period for some much needed errand-running, future planning and even some thrifting here and there. 

One of the very first days back my mom and I went for a good Value Village hunt as we often do. I came back with this chair for three dollars! Eventually I want to change the fabric on its seat cushion, but for now it looks pretty darn cute in this corner of my living room.

I have stumbled upon a few retro patterned clothing in the last month. More than I ever have. I can't wait to get these two in the shop among a couple others. I am planning something special for my vintage shop in the next little while. I usually just have my clothing on hangers in my shop listing photos, but in the next little while I'll be reshooting everything with live models to best show off the clothes. I think I'll use my go-to gal, my sister Erin. I might even do a few myself. We'll see!

All I know is background decorations for the photos need to be made!!

Recently we had our 2nd house anniversary. The house itself was built in 1950, but we've only known it for two years. This house is a vintage dream, but it has it's problems as all old, fixer-upper homes do. We are slowly finishing it up room by room. I always feel self-conscious about it in the summer, because it's easy to spot the outside problems, like our crumbling front step or our leaning fence. I just have to remind myself we'll get there in time. This house deserves a lot of love and we're totally willing to put in the time to get it back where it should be. 

I tend to spend a lot of time at home, because that's where most of my hobbies and interests take place. It's tough for me to break away from that, because it seems like theres always something to do at the house. I always have to remind myself to stop being such a hermit, because it can and will go completely unnoticed by me. In the last year I've spent lots of time rekindling friendships with old friends, and going out more. It's been so nice having an added support system, especially of people who know me really, really well. And of course, going out more means getting dressed up more and I'm totally into that.

It's been raining a lot lately. I love staying indoors, hearing the raindrops at our old windows. Night times here have been consisting of movie watching and the occasional bowl of popcorn.

I am not the only thrifter in our household. My fiancé (Oh, that's still weird for me!) has his favourite things to look for too. We recently went thrifting together, which is a rarity. He found this truly amazing 1970s receiver for our record player. We've waited since our apartment days for a good one. Now it's all hooked up in the living room and sounds crisp and clear. I've been playing Henry Mancini's soundtrack for Breakfast at Tiffany's a lot and I can't get enough! I'm in a Sixties sort of mood right now.

This month is winding down, but the busiest summer is ahead. My mom is selling her house. My dad bought a cabin. I'll be busy helping them both. On my own end, there's house renovations to plan for, shop updates to do and somewhere in there we'll start wedding plans. 

I hope May has been a good month for you!

Marissa xo

Chicago Part Two

Today I'm putting up the second set of photos from our Chicago trip. I seriously can't believe it's been a month since we were there. I already feel like I'm ready to go somewhere else again!

The art gallery was truly amazing. There were so many incredible paintings I've always wanted to see in real life. The collection of miniature rooms were the first thing we looked at and I took pictures of each one. I couldn't believe the intricate details put into each tiny room. Those three photos in the top right corner are of the some of the miniatures. You wouldn't even know they weren't real rooms with real furniture and decor! 

I am a huge, huge fan of surrealism. Seeing the Salvador Dali paintings, especially this one painted on a big wooden divider, was unbelievable. I wanted to see the paintings by Renee Magritte, because he's my favourite artist and a big influence in my own art. Unfortunately they were all in storage, because they were having a large Magritte exhibit in the coming months. I can't believe I missed it! Oh well. 

I loved every bit of the art gallery, from the paintings, to the sculptures and statues, to the furniture exhibits. It was all fantastic! 

We went to the Willis Tower on the same day as the art gallery, later in the evening. There's an observation deck on the 103rd floor. I was a little worried about the glass floor, because I'm very afraid of heights. It's one of the tallest buildings in the world, so the thought of that kind of view terrified me! It was packed and not as fun as we thought it would be, but after a long wait in line we got our chance to look out over the edge. Then there was a extra long line to get back down. It would definitely be worth going on a quieter day, because the view is so nice, but it was way too busy when we were there. Too busy for me anyway. Afterwards we went to Giordano's for deep dish pizza, but they were overbooked. We just ordered it to-go and hopped in a cab to take it back to the hotel for a quiet, late night pizza dinner. 

While we were back at the hotel, Wai proposed to me! He had been carrying the ring around for the whole week and was waiting for a good moment. His idea was to propose at the Willis Tower, but because it wasn't the best experience, he didn't do it! It was nice that he did it in the hotel though. It was just the two of us. We're more of a private, low-key couple, so being alone for it was just our style anyway. He proposed to me in Chicago. That's romantic enough for me! I'm so excited to start this new chapter of our life together and of course, start planning for our wedding!

Our first actual day as an engaged couple was spent at C2E2, the Chicago Comic Con. I've never been to one before. We were there for eight hours and it was quite whirlwind of an experience. Their convention centre is such a huge space and it was filled with so many booths and thousands of people dressed in the most elaborate costumes. 

Wai got his Comic Con day, so the next day was for me! We went to the Randolph Street Market, to check out some local vintage and makers' wares. It was fantastic, but it was early in the season, so not as big as they usually are when it warms up in the spring and summer. We were there for a long time, hunting through all the booths for some really great items and deals. I got a fabulous 60s minidress, 60s box-y top, three pairs of earrings and a few gifts for family members. Even Wai found some things for himself; a vintage music poster from Europe included. We both love vintage things and we both have our own styles. There were even some some ridiculously amazing furniture pieces there that I wish I could've taken home with me. We would never find those kinds of things here in Winnipeg. 

The next morning we went to the airport to make our way home, but it was not in the cards for us in the end. The short story is, our flight was delayed many times, then cancelled, and then we waited for a transfer flight to Montreal in order to get home faster the next day. In Montreal our luggage was lost and on a separate plane flying in later that night. By 2 am the next morning we were in our little airport hotel just outside Montreal, exhausted and ready to go home. We got some sleep and woke up early to head to the airport once again. We waited and waited and finally got on our plane back to Winnipeg. Air travel can be so frustrating, but in the end we got home okay and that's all that matters.

Our trip to Chicago was so much fun. I think we will be going back again in the future. The city is so colourful, creative and energetic. It was just the type of vacation we needed. I hope you liked the photos! Obviously I couldn't fit them all in. I just had to pick the best ones. I'm glad I took so many, so I can look at them and remember how amazing it is there! 

Well have a great Monday everyone!

I'll see you again soon!

Marissa xo

Chicago Part One

I really wanted to put together a grouping of some of our most memorable Chicago experiences and favourite photos from the trip (all taken with my iPhone! Whoa.) I have so many I wanted to share, so squeezing them in here was tough. I decided to send them out into the internet world in two parts. You're looking at part one, my dears.

The first night we got to Chicago, after dropping all our stuff off at the hotel, we took a nice walk down to the Navy Pier at sunset. It was the perfect way to start off our vacation. It was Easter Sunday and everything seemed to relaxed and wonderful. I couldn't believe how turquoise-blue the water was there, and especially how warm it was!

The second day I was so sick, but it didn't stop me at all. We were determined to be seriously 

tourist-y and get to all our planned stops. Millennium Park was on the way to the Aquarium and Museum so we had a little rest at this incredible fountain along Magnificent Mile. An hour later we had made it to the Shedd Aquarium. We spent close to 4 hours there, but I could've easily stayed longer. There were so many interesting sea creatures to see! We don't have an aquarium here in Winnipeg, so soaking up as much as I could was a must. The Field Museum was even better than I expected. Right next door to the Aquarium, we spent another 4 hours going through all of the quiet museum collections and exhibits. I was especially taken with the African exhibit. I've never seen one before! 

Some more Field Museum photos. We were so in love with the use of these very old wooden museum displays. You can really feel history in this place, and not just with the subjects themselves. That's probably what I like most about Chicago.

I would have to say the Driehaus Museum was my favourite stop of the whole trip, and we were even debating on whether to go or not! I would recommend it to anyone considering Chicago as their next destination. The Driehaus Museum is a wealthy socialite home turned museum, which had been restored, honouring it's original look and property. You can find the most amazing and extensive Tiffany Glass collection you've ever seen here. For someone who has never seen a piece of Tiffany Glass up close in person, I was completely blown away. The history was so well recorded and too breathtaking to fully describe. I really felt at one with this place. 

Here's the last grouping until Part Two! The one place we skipped over in Millenium Park was the Bean! We decided to go back in our best tourist fashion and get some photos of it. We couldn't go to Chicago and not go see it! I was really surprised at how grand it is in person. It was snowing here in Winnipeg at the time, but we were basking in the nicest weather with flowers blooming on the trees. 360 Chicago was a great thing to go see. 94 floors up, you get a great view of the city, and we even spotted our hotel and some of the places we had already been on the trip. It's kind of crazy this is only  the first few days into the trip. We really packed in the fun.

Well I hope you liked Part One. I'll be holding off on Part Two for a couple days, to give myself and everyone reading a breather. I know looking at vacation photos can be boring sometimes, but I hope these aren't too bad! 

Have a great rest of your day lovely people!

Marissa xo