A barrow coat is defined in the 1892 book “A Complete Dictionary of Dry Goods”, by George S. Cole as: Barrow-coat. A square or oblong piece of flannel, wrapped around an infant’s body below the arms, the part extending beyond the feet being turned up and pinned.

this is a good time to say that I’ve got big plans now that I can devote almost all of my attention to vintage clothing. For starters, I’ve updated the website structure by consolidating clothing categories in the 1800’s decades to a single category called (you won’t believe it) “Victorian”. I’ve also started to remove some of the “best of the best” items that have sold from the regular pages and placed them on a museum page called GALLERY.

This vintage dress caught my eye because the turquoise and white cotton print looks so cooling. One look at the label, “Martha Sleeper Creates For You 100% Cotton San Juan, Puerto Rico” and I knew I had some research to do!

During a recent raid of my mom’s jewelry, I came across a huge black and white zebra fish pin. I really adore it, but at the time, I couldn’t think of a single thing to wear it with (of course, right now I can think of several things but I’m already dressed and … well, I’m lazy).

I’ve gotta say … I’ve loved this fantastic beaded flapper dress ever since first laying eyes on it. The unusual, bright teal underdress is striking enough, but add the black crepe and steely beads and this dress is just breathtaking! The dress practically has its own fan club. It gets “oohs” and “aahs” whenever it’s displayed in the shop or at a show.

Do you sometimes leave notes for family members that never get seen?

A couple summers ago when my youngest son was home from college, occasionally I needed to leave him a note. But how to make certain he would see it? Figuring that one of the first places a sleepy teenager would visit upon awakening in the early afternoon hours, I decided to try the bathroom counter. When that didn’t quite work, I turned to the toilet – lid closed, of course. Somehow, even that didn’t always work.

From the first moment I laid eyes on it, it was obvious that this dress was special. The label read “Mingolini Guggenheim Piazza del Spagna, 9-91- Roma”. Honestly, I had never heard of Mingolini & Guggenheim before I found this dress.

I noticed an interesting phenomenon a couple mornings ago as I was putting together the jewelry I wanted to wear that day. It moves.

Hardly a day goes by when I don’t wish I could “go shopping” in Grandma’s closet. Well, all over the house. Down in the basement was a trunk of “old clothes” that would transform me into The Princess. That’s a blog for another day, though. Today, I’m going “shopping” in Grandma’s jewelry box for her Whiting & Davis cameo jewelry.

Now that the holidays have been and gone and I’ve finally caught my breath, it’s time to make those Resolutions, right? How did I do with last year’s resolutions? Not too bad. After all these years, I’ve finally learned not to resolve stupid things. Like losing weight. Either I will or I won’t and a New Year’s Resolution isn’t going to accomplish anything except leave me sitting on December 31st depressed because yet another resolution went by the wayside.