Maybe the best dress ever?

Oh DANG you guys! I had to immediately post about this dress I got at an estate sale today. The woman who owned this house saved all the amazing clothes she bought for her daughter in the 1950's. Everything was in perfect condition (I heard talk of a cedar closet) and there was so much wonderful stuff! Basically a perfect vintage wardrobe from infant to age 10. I found this dress in a closet and Just couldn't walk away, even though I don't have an 8 year old girl to give it too. But come on! Look at these skiing squirrels!These little guys go all the way around the skirt.
Big squirrel on the top.
And this sweet little guy on the back. It has a little sash that buttons around the waist too.
Oh how I wish it was my size! I also got maybe the sweetest mittens to ever exist. I wish I could have bought the whole closet of clothes. It was amazing! There were TONS of toys in great shape too. And a monkey cage! Hahah, I'll show you the rest of what I got later. I just couldn't wait to share the dress!

Vintage finds from Louisville!

Here is the great vintage I came home with from our trip to Louisville. I can't wait to go back!

I saw the Dalmatians at the Woodstock Shop over a year ago. The yawning one is one of the two I need to finish my set and I can't believe it was still there! We got that red fridgie for a dollar! Ah! I found an Illinois state cup at an estate sale a little while ago, and now I kind of want to find one from each state! I don't know if I will, I definitely don't need 50 more cups.

I thought the poodles were salt and pepper shakers when I bought them, they have holes in the bottom, but they don't have holes in the top. Weird! The pregnant granny salt shaker is something I've been looking for! The text on her belly says "You and your one more for old times sake." Hahaha, look at how mad she is! I love it. I already had the sleeping puppy, but I didn't want to leave him behind. 

I am obsessed with this thing! Hot dog plate!!!! I haven't stopped talking about it since we found it. It's hard to see but his ears say "relish" and "mustard".  I hope I can find more, What a fun collection they would be! I also need to go to Dutch Village! 

I got this sweet little embroidered runner to put on my sewing machine table.
I love pennants. I try not to buy too many, but I loved this dragon.

Another poodle bottle cover! This one has a hilarious pom pom nose. One more and it's officially a collection!

Here are two more pages from the scrapbook in the background. Some more Pekinese, and some sheep on the front lawn. This is actually the first page in the book. I told Travis, "Oh man, I wish these pictures were separate, I bet the whole book won't be good."

Stories about murder and abduction. All unrelated to each other.

I'm really excited about this metal Tums sign! Usually I buy tons of tiny knick knack stuff, and I've been challenging myself to find bigger pieces that I can use. I want to hang this guy somewhere (maybe the living room or dining room) and hang vintage photos/ephemera on it. LIke a rotating display. I love the colors. You can kind of see in the first picture how big it is. 

I couldn't resist this card holder. I actually picked it up and then put it back twice before deciding to get it. The clincher was the bonnet.

And the cute double decks inside.

Also! At the last flea market I saw this set of glasses and loved it! But couldn't justify the 150 dollar price tag. Then we found these at the Woodstock shop for just 10 bucks! i was so thrilled! 

I did a little research and found out these glasses were given away by the Arizona based gas station chain Blakely in the 1950's and 1960's. This site has a lot of info on them. This tall frosted set is the most common, and there is a matching pitcher. I want it! Travis wants to try and resell the set, but I think I'm going to hold on to them for at least a while. I love the graphics and colors.
I forgot to take pictures of a really beautiful edition of The Black Stallion I bought. I've inadvertently started a Black Stallion/Black Beauty collection I'll have to show you soon. I just can't resist them!So in conclusion, Louisville has some great vintage shopping with great prices. I paid 2 dollars or less for almost everything in this post! Yessssssss. Hopefully I'll have as good luck tomorrow at a local estate sale. It looks like tons of kids stuff from the 60s...and an alleged monkey cage! 

The last morning of our trip

On the 3rd and final morning of our anniversary trip we slept in! I don't know why I always run myself ragged on trips! Travis even requested a late checkout so we didn't have to rush. It was great. Since we had come back to Louisville we were able to squeeze in a visit to one of my favorite restaurants, Lynn's Paradise Cafe. It is just so cute!
Speaking of cute...
Travis got the BLT fries with veggie sausage instead of bacon. I always feel like I can't get the same thing as him (does anyone else do that when they go out to eat?) so I tried the crunch cakes. It was pancakes topped with their homemade granola. It was pretty good, nothing amazing. I shouldn't have gotten hash-browns too,  I could barely eat half of the pancakes!

We were able to squeeze in one more vintage shop. The prices are so good in Louisville! Is there just not as much demand for vintage? I don't know, but  I always find the best stuff. 

This awesome giant chalkware owl was only 20 bucks! I really liked him, but I don't have anywhere to put it. He would look cute next to a fireplace I think.

They had a lot of good "mens" vintage stuff, you don't see that a lot. At least I don't.
I kept seeing baby king stuff, it made me laugh, and wish I knew someone having a baby (king).
Second time I saw these lamps in a weekend! Weird.

After the Woodstock Shop we had to stop by the Dairy Kastle. It is literally a block from Travis' brothers' apartment, and I love it! We hadn't gone the first night we were in town because it was closed when we got back from dinner. But I wasn't going to miss it!

Butterscotch derby! And a red face! It was SO HOT. I think it was over 90! I'm just not made for that!

By the time I was at the end I had ice cream all over me. Worth it. They don't have a bathroom so I had to wash my hands with the tiniest free water cup. Haha.

First time in Cincinnati

We had planned on just spending one day in Louisville, so when we woke up we hurried to the closest grocery store to stock up on Ale8. It is a ginger ale that is made in Kentucky and we can't get at home. I LOVE it! We were actually going to go on a tour of the factory but that didn't work out.

Travis also go a bag of Funions, SICK! I hate everything about them, the package is the ugliest colors, and they smell so bad! Haha, just had to let you guys know.

Hmmm, that should hold us for a little while...
We also had to stop by one of my favorite stores of all time! Why Louisville! 

Ughhhh, I love it so much. They have tons of cute stuff made by local designers and artists. I got this shirt, and Travis got this one. They have tons of great prints (someday I'll buy this one) and Big Lebowski stuff (they have a Lebowskifest every year). I wish every town had a shop like this with such great souvenirs. 

Then we were on our way to Cincinnati! We had never been there, and it was less than two hours away from Lousiville so we had high hopes. We saw this cute water tower on the way. 

Once we got to town, everything kind of fell apart. The restaurants I had researched turned out to be in the worst part of town and we didn't' feel that great about stopping. We drove around forever and finally found a place called Melt that was vegetarian friendly. It was great! I got a three cheese grilled sandwich that was pretty amazing! It had cheddar, gouda, and blue cheese. It came with some vegan chili that was great. The people at the restaurant tried giving us suggestions for stuff to do in town, but nothing really worked out for us the rest of the day.

We stopped at a random antique mall that had tons of crazy taxidermy. Look at that lion!
I loved this idea! All the profit from her furs went to animal rescue. Pretty great.
I'll take that job!

Anyone need a polar bear? I didn't even notice the turkeys until I was getting closer to the bear and one of those claws touched my back! It freaked me out!

Look at that sweet face.

There was a big case of vintage Halloween that was fun to look at, though there was nothing in my price range, but how I wish i could have afforded this cat flower frog! It was marked down to 190. How cute!

We stopped by a thrift store that had lots of great reviews. But I think this picture kind of sums the whole place up. It was just not good.

I did like this lamb planter, but everything was priced with markers!!! i hate that! and in the 30 minutes we were there, they announced 3 times that if something was missing the price you couldn't buy it, it would be taken to the back. It was just not a good experience. Blech.

By this time I was really bummed because nothing I had planned had worked out. I was being a total party pooper and kept saying we should just go home. Travis suggested just going back to Louisville because there was so much more to do that. So we did. On the way out of town we tried one more place I had looked up, and thankfully it worked out. Aglamesis Bro's is an ice cream shop that is over 100 years old! 

It was so perfect inside. We almost sat at the counter, but I was still in a funk.

Look at the cute dishes! Travis got a banana split of course, and I got a raspberry hot fudge sundae. It was so good! I'm glad we stopped here, because it but me in a much better mood.

When we got back to Louisville we used our GPS to find a theater. This is the first one it took us too. As in, an old sigh with no theater near it, and their probably hadn't been for 10 years! what the heck garmin, get it together!

We finally found a huge fancy theater where we had to pick our seats on a map, and you could get frozen margaritas and pizza. It was so different from our theaters, Travis and I were wandering around like aliens. We saw Men In Black 3, I have been waiting for it to come out! Mostly because Jemaine Clement was in it (and he is my number 1 celebrity boyfriend) but also because I like the first movie. It was silly and light, Jemaine was really gross and scary! My only complaint would be that Frank the pug didn't appear, even though they teased you with an amazing side show sign about a talking pug. The movie got out around 10 so we drove around looking for a hotel that wasn't fully booked. 
So in conclusion, Cincinnati was pretty much a bust. I doubt we'll be back. I wish we had just stayed in Louisville all three days! But, I'll be back to show you all the fun stuff we got up to on the last day of our mini trip!