Hello Lovelies

Nadia here, reporting back from the Big Apple after spending a wonderful week with her fellow Caravane gypsy, Beatrice in her hometown of Cleveland, Ohio.

Yes, yes, we know. It seems like we slacked a bit this week as far as updating and new listings, etc, but we promise we did get a lot of vintaging and such done for you guys! We just happened to be having so much fun doing it we didn't get a chance to let you know until now.

One of the best things about being in the same state with Beatrice is that we get a little more freedom with how we take our pictures for our listings. It's amazing how much easier it is to take really professional-looking pictures when you have a real life second person there, as opposed to MacGyver'ing a tripod by stacking a bunch of shoeboxes and cookbooks on top of a table, sticking a camera on top, setting it to automatic, running to your pose and hoping for the best!

Beatrice and I took advantage of our week together and started playing with a new style for our listings. We're going to make a real effort to make all our pictures uniform in our shop - admittedly a difficult task since we live so far apart. However, both of us happen to have a similar sage-green wall in our respective abodes, so things are looking good on that front.

Of course, our new outlook on our pictures doesn't mean there isn't room for a little fun. We moved the photo shoot outside and might
have gotten a little carried away.

Of course, we didn't spend the whole week at work. La Caravane's Bohème's gypsy vintagers did take some time to sit back and enjoy the beautiful summer breezes and have a little fun. It's hard to be creative when you don't give your brain a chance to breathe, isn't it? Just a few highlights from our wild week in Twinsburg Ohio...

A Beatrice-and-Nadia Classic: bowling! 

Turns out Ohio has a pretty nice beach.

Top off the week with a classy night of slice-and-bake cookies and cabernet!

Stay tuned for new listings this week and next.

Happy vintaging!

-Nadia

The Other Side of the World

I’ve been to lots of wonderful, beautiful places in the world. Some places feel like an integral part of me, like Gdansk, Poland, and others are places I’d visit but never live in, like Las Vegas. Some places are the setting of a fantasy life- Paris comes to mind. Others are simply places where I’ll bide my time until the next city, my home in Northeast Ohio is one.

Then, there was China.

A couple weeks ago, my boyfriend got an e-mail from a connection in Taiwan, extending an invitation to the both of us to visit Shanghai. The next thing we knew, we were in an airplane hurtling ourselves to the other side of the world. I had no idea what to expect or what I would see. I only had the references from movies and books to draw upon. I didn’t even know what a major building was in Shanghai. (The Pearl TV Tower.)

And what I least expected to do was to fall in love with it.

Amid the scary traffic, the horrendous pollution, and the never-ending droves of people, there hid a gem of beauty and surprise. The French Concession offered up boutiques filled with clothes and shoes of incredible style. The Old City had gorgeous old buildings with curvy roofs and dumplings sold out of open-walled restaurants. The Bund revealed the heart, and beauty, of the financial district complete with towering skyscrapers of which their sizes need to be seen to be believed. The best part was the Antique Market. Rows and rows of booths filled to the brim with figurines, statues, jewelry, tokens, coins, perfume bottles, birdcages, wall hangings, artwork, and boxes. I learned the true art of negotiation and realized at the same time, the depth of friendliness and openness the inhabitants of Shanghai possess.

My idea of China has been transformed completely. My newfound love of Shanghai sprung out of nowhere, and it will never release me. Which is why I’m so happy to say, I found a new place to leave a piece of my heart. On my next trip, I plan to bring home multitudes of perfume bottles and exotic jewelry to find a home through our shop!

Happy vintaging,

Beatrice

Nadia Does Chicago Vintaging

Hello Vintagers

Nadia here reporting from the still Hot and Muggy City, Chee-cago. Why, you may be wondering, have I posted not one, but two blogs in a row? How very unlike me, no?

Well, as you know, my semester has ended (and I am waiting anxiously for the last of my grades...), and thus I have much more time on my hands to dedicate to my love of vintage fashion. However, more importantly, or at least more excitingly, the reins of La Caravane Bohème's PR wagon have fallen to me because our lovely Beatrice is currently en route to China. Yes, China. The real one. She'll be there for just a few days (sadly for her, happily for me. We miss her already stateside!) and hopefully she will bring back some fabulous vintage items for us to get our hands on. Or at the very least she'll have hundreds of pretty pictures for us.

In the meanwhile, I've been cruising the wild streets of Chicago's northwest suburbs hitting vintage hotspots and garage and estate sales, and today was a pretty successful day.

Check me out. Cruisin'. Cruisin' just can't happen without my aviators.

By the way, doesn't the weather just look lovely out there...?

What I'm really doing here is trying to make it obvious to any passing police officer that I am NOT TEXTING with my iPhone, as I've come to learn that you can get pulled over for just about anything here. Do I sound bitter? I'm not. Although, I suppose snapping a picture of myself and using the excuse "Sorry, officer, it's for my blog!" isn't really a lesser offense.

My phone did come in handy again today though when I used a combination of my GPS app and some scrawled signs to find my way to an amazing estate sale where I found these deadstock sailor-style jeans. In terms of vintage, a deadstock item is one that has never been worn, and often even still has the tags attached, as these faaabulous jeans do!

They're a little teeny (26" waist!) so as soon as Beatrice gets back from her Far East adventures we'll get these babies modeled and listed for you guys.

Among other finds, I also found this adorable hounds tooth hat, which will be up on Etsy tomorrow morning.

A busy day, vintagers, but I still had time to make lasagna. I just had to take a second to brag about that. My first time!

Keep Vintaging!

-Nadia

Beatrice Wants to Give You Something!

Dear gals and guys with gals,

As you all probably figured out now, Beatrice dabbles in making jewelry from vintage and salvaged jewelry parts and found objects. She also has a weird tendency to just give things away so here she is again, giving away yet another lovely necklace!

This one is a great, great, great giveaway; except... it ends soon! I’m posting this as early as I possibly can so people get a chance to enter and win my fantastic, beautiful gold rhinestone studded necklace! Head on over to the darling little blog named The Little Red House and simply comment to enter.

Facebooking, blogging, twittering is recommended in order to get a second entry. Who really doesn’t love free goodies?

Hurry though, it’s over on Thursday, June 6th, at midnight! What are you waiting for? Go win a necklace!

Happy Vintaging!

Beatrice

This blog post came from Beatrice's jewelry website. To learn more, just go to www.BirdcageBohemia.com. Fly Free!