Yes, fashion & the dollar store can be in same sentence!

My face is blown out in this shot but I did that on purpose, ha ha: I wanted you to focus on the scarf.

Designer? Vintage? Mega bucks?

Nah.

Found at the best dollar store ever in the basement of Empress Walk shopping centre (located just outside the North York Centre subway stop).

It was a couple bucks.

Generally I don't go looking for style in the dollar store, but lesson number one when you're a deal diva is to have an open mind.

It's summer weight but I used it to jazz up a pair of riding pants and a chunky sweater by west-coast designer Talula Babaton (the latter thrifted for a song at Goodwill).

Other apparel items I buy at the dollar store?

White sports socks. Can't beat the price.

And sometimes, blush, you can find really decent undies and thongs for a buck. Hey, why pay more at the department store?

Do you have any dollar store fashion secrets?

P.S. Thanks to Antonella for snapping the pic!

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Ring-a-ding-deal

This is my latest thrift mega find: a red rotary phone!!

I grew up with a black one and loved it. When I saw this one for $6.99 at my local thrift shop, Stretch Thrift, I snagged it.

The guy at the cash was none too pleased it was priced so low, because, according to him, the red ones are quite rare.

This one was made in Canada by Northern Electric, which means it must have been made before 1971 as Northern Electric became Bell Northern Research in that year.

I have another phone I can check my voicemail on, but I gotta say I love the old-fashioned ring on this baby and that old-world feeling of - gasp - actually dialing the phone.

Go ahead: ring my bell.

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Heads from the Royal Ontario Museum?

I'd like you to meet Wilhelm Kong von Wurttemberg.

I found the German royal, and about 50 other plaster discs like him, at a garage sale in April.

The owner sold me the lot for $10 - pricey by grunge queen standards but I'd like to think I paid for the story, too.

A gent in his 60s or older, the man who sold them to me told me his father found these mainly chipped discs at the CPR railway yards where he worked in the 1960s - they were destined for the trash.

Apparently they're rejects from a Royal Ontario Museum exhibition here in Toronto in the 1960s. That makes a certain amount of sense as some of the discs are identified with tags, like Wilhelm is, and there's writing on the back of a lot of them indicating the years they lived or ruled (Wilhelm was apparently the Wilhelm the 1st and he lived 1781-1864).

What I loved even more was the fact that this gent and his siblings, so the story goes, grew up playing with these head pieces. Apparently they pretended they were money!

I haven't verified his story but I love it all the same. Nor have I really taken a good look at all the scenes and heads on this dics, but there are Greek philosophers, other emperors and Greek and Roman Gods.

And I have NO idea how to display these flat coin-like discs, which range in circumference from the size of a large apple (that's Wilhelm, and he's the largest), to the size of a penny.

Any ideas???

I think it would be cool to put in a call to the ROM and see if it have any history on the exhibition.

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Who says shoes won't do? Decorating with heels

Well, why not?

Once I left behind a pair of gorgeous retro lace lace up shoes handmade in Paris - they were a size 6 and since my clompers are huge I figured I had no use for them ....

But when I saw these yellow pumps in excellent condition, handmade in Spain, I took the plunge and bought 'em for $5.99 at Stretch Thrift.

I can either give them to a pal - the colour is so hot right now - or keep them for a display.



This isn't the most brilliant display but I like the contrast between the blue and the yellow - complementary hues on the colour wheel - and the simplicity of the tableau is in keeping with the sleek lines of the Danish modern teak hutch that I'm using as a bookcase.

But sigh, I wish I could cram my feet in them. They're in fab condition and the gold script reading "Arnold Churgin handmade in Spain" isn't smudged or worn at all.

Arnold Churgin, a quick Google search reveals, is a Calgary, Canada--based ladies footwear company that started in 1964. Love that they're Canadian but the Spain connection has a certain amount of Euro cache. http://www.arnoldchurgin.com/

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Print Mint, Smart Art Part 4

This print looks Group of Seven-ish, and you wouldn't believe what I paid for it: $4.99 at my local thrift shop! It's big too - almost 30 by 30 inches. The back says Simpsons Custom Framing - another retro Canadian relic!

I move this around a lot but always leave it on its own, over a bureau or low table, for dramatic effect.




DECOR TIP: I like hanging my paintings low - just a few inches above whatever surface they hover over. Sometimes I hang one extra low - but then the tableau has to be right. More to come ... .

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