The best place to find vintage for kids (if your mom didn't save all of your hand-me-downs like mine did) is the thrift store. Most standalone vintage stores don't feature kids' stuff, and when they do, it tends to be way more expensive than it would be otherwise. But at thrift stores, the old sailor suits, Polly Flinders dresses, and authentic saddle oxfords tend to show up mixed in with everything else, at everything-else prices.

I found this peasant blouse for Anne at Thrift Store USA recently, the heavy cotton fabric and bright hand-stitched embroidery jumping out from amidst a sea of Target and Walmart brand girls' stuff. And it had been marked down twice, making it a sweet $2.50. Score!


blouse: vintage (similar), jeans: Carter's, shoes: Minnetonka, sunglasses: 17th Street Surf Shop (similar)

Sometimes in the course of thrifting for Anne, I'll come across a piece of clothing that doesn't fit -- now -- but is too good a deal to leave behind. When that happens I always ask myself: is this worth storing for the two, three, or four seasons until my kid fits into it? We don't have a lot of storage in our house, so in most cases, the answer has to be no.

But sometimes, it might be a yes.

I found this brand new (still with tags!) Crewcuts bubble skirt when A. was still at least two sizes too small for it but picked it up anyway knowing that it would be worth it in the long run. Crewcuts stuff is practically impossible to destroy (when it isn't made out of some impractical fabric like SILK) and the colors and cuts are classic, meaning it won't go out of style while A. waits to grow into it. Also, Crewcuts stuff tends to be relatively expensive, so when you can pick it up for $3 versus $45, you better.

Other brands I tend to hang onto when I come across them: baby Gap, Hanna Andersson, tea collection, Boden.

Do you save things for later when buying stuff for your kids?

I got a few comments on Anne's birthday posts here and on Instagram regarding her super-awesome glitter birthday shirt and exactly two requests to share how I did it, and you know I aim to please my readers so... here goes. Anne was afraid that without a sort of outward sign, nobody would know that she was now four instead of three, so we decided to make a shirt using the trusty freezer paper stencil method. She also asked that it be glittery, which was a bit of a challenge because if you have a girl, you will know that glittery clothing -- especially DIY glittery clothing -- does not always keep its glitter after a few washes. But Anouk was adamant. So I headed out to the thrift store to pick up a blank tee and then sat down to research paints and then got to work.



You will need:

• Metallic fabric paint (we used Tulip Metallic in Gold) 
• Glitter acrylic paint  (Martha Stewart acrylic in Gold Glitter)
• Freezer paper
• X-acto knife
• iron
• foam brush

The how to:

Place a piece of cardboard or plastic inside the shirt to prevent the paint from going through the cloth. Prepare your stencil: draw your design onto the freezer paper so that the shiny side will be down against the fabric. Use the Xacto blade to cut out the stencil as carefully as possible. With a dry iron, iron the stencil to the fabric with the shiny side against the fabric. Pay special attention to the edges so that no paint seeps underneath.




With the foam brush, apply thin layers of metallic paint to the stencil until opaque (it took about four thin layers of paint, letting them dry in between). When that has dried, apply thin layers of glitter paint over top of the metallic paint (we did two layers). As soon as the final coat is almost dry, peel the stencil off -- I find if you wait until it's dry all the way, sometimes it gets a little stuck on.

(Aside: This is a great method to use to rescue clothing with stains on it -- I have a gray tee I love that has paint on it and I stenciled a giant glitter gold heart over top to make it look new again. Hooray!)

Anouk loves her birthday shirt and wants to wear it almost every day which means that I can safely report that after about 20 or so washes, the glitter is still holding up. Hooray again!