Let's Party Like It's 1968.

This past week very exciting news hit! My two very wonderful friends were coming home! Peter had been away touring all over the country with his band The Atom Age. (http://www.myspace.com/theatomage) While Melanie had been on a trip. It had been weeks since I had seen either of them and was ecstatic to learn we were going to have a welcome back party for the both of them.

You know what that means, I need to find something to wear ASAP. A little while a go I went this wonderful little vintage store in Oakland called Mercy Vintage. (Mercy Vintage) The woman who was working couldn’t have been more helpful and they had a pretty damn great selection if I do say so myself. I highly recommend this store if you’re in the Oakland area.

Surprisingly everything was very well priced as well. I didn’t feel like I had to pay an arm and a leg to get one great thing. Instead I got a few magnificent items and they were all at a great price.

I hadn’t had a chance to wear one of the dresses I had gotten there yet so I figured this was a perfect opportunity to do so.

I am really not supposed to be spending money right now at all so shopping is so hard for me. I

just need to remind myself over and over again to say no. So when I took my friend Mary (http://journeyintoelderhood.blogspot.com/) shopping with me the day of the party I had a very hard time just putting things down and walking away. I had a lovely time with Mary though, and took her to this fabulous little vintage store called Empire Vintage (Empire Vintage)that just opened about three months ago in Palo Alto right off of University. This store has such excellent stuff I find myself drooling a lot of the time. The dress selection is to die for while the jewelry section is out of this world. My friend Mary had just gotten this little black Laundry dress and needed some sort of jewelry to go with it.

We were scanning and I fell head over heals in love with this fabulous poodle necklace from the 60’s. Oh how I loved it, and it would be a great accent to my dress I was wearing to the party. The owner’s mom said it was from her own collection and she would be happy to give me a discount. She was really trying to help a poor college student like myself out. Too bad I had no money and had to walk away from it with my head hung and tail in between my legs. Mary was buying some great pins and stuff which she looked great in while I was having a good time just melting over their clothes and talking to the owner of the store Tiffany, who is just the sweetest woman you could imagine and is right there and eager to help the entire time. She for sure knows what she is talking about. We went on our way. While driving Mary home from the fun day of shopping she slipped a bag into my pocket. I open it and there was the necklace. I could have died I was so happy.

So at the end of the night my outfit came together quite nicely with the black and white 60’s dress and my black and white 50’s saddle shoes to match. Then I had the over the top 60’s gold poodle necklace for a marvelous accent.

<-- photo by: Lauren Stoller

The party was a smash hit. It was terrific to see my two great friends Melanie and Peter who everyone at work missed dearly.

It was such a nifty, groovy night.

From the help of my two new favorite vintage store, I felt like a real gone cat.

-Katy