Have you seen our new catalog?

Our new catalog is really beautiful! It features lots of looks from our Fall/Winter collection - San Diego.  All of the photography was done by a really outstanding photographer - Megan of A Beautiful Moment Photography.    Megan was pregnant at the time of our photo shoots and she was such a trooper to keep up with all of our models at our various locations around San Diego! And every picture she took was amazing!  Deciding on exactly which shots would appear in the catalog was a tremendously hard task.
I just cannot say enough to recommend her. If you have photography needs, give Megan a call!  Check out her facebook page too!

Some of my favorite pictures from our photo shoots:

You can see the digital version of our catalog here:

And if you would like to receive a real paper copy in the mail, just email us!

Organized Chaos

It is hard to believe that I can function with a desk this messy, isn't it?

I like to call it organized chaos. I know where things are. pretty much.

:)

When I am sitting at my desk, trying to resist the urge to start cleaning it up a bit, I look over at my happy board.

These are the things that make me smile.

Book a fall/winter 2012 trunk show & Get your pick of dates!

We still have over a month of our Spring/Summer 2012 Trunk Show season, and are shipping the most fabulous items from our Central Park collection every day! So, it seems hard to believe that we are already scheduling our fall/winter trunk shows, but we are!
So, take a look at your calendar and be among the first to schedule your SFV trunk show for fall! We released the schedule just a day ago, and we are already down to only 9 remaining dates. So, don't delay!

Friday 7/6 - Monday 7/9
Wednesday 7/18 - Sunday 7/22
Tuesday 7/31 - Thursday 8/2
Saturday 8/11 - Monday 8/13
Tuesday 8/14 - Thursday 8/16
Wednesday 8/22 - Sunday 8/26
Saturday 8/25 - Tuesday 8/28
Tuesday 10/2 - Sunday 10/7
Wednesday 10/3 - Sunday 10/7

Email me today!

 

Meet Timmery!

Today, I'd like to introduce you to another of the ladies here at Sweet Funky Vintage. Timmery joined us here within the past year and we feel so fortunate to have her with us. She is really fast and efficient and we don't know what we would do without her. But, the best thing about Timmery is that she always has a smile on her face and her laugh is absolutely infectious!

1. Can you tell us a little about yourself?
I moved from Missouri to California 8 years ago. I drove my belongings out here and arrived on January 2nd to a sky full of sun and gorgeous 60+ degree temps. Since 2 days prior I had had to shovel a path from my front door to my car, and then chisel the car out of ice to start my adventure, I just knew I'd made the right choice in coming to sunny San Diego!
I'm an architect, but recently completed my Master's in Pastoral Care & Counseling--and yes, at first glance the two fields don't seem related at all, yet it suits me just fine!

2. What do you do when you aren't working at Sweet Funky Vintage?
My previous job was working with Post-College aged people at my church--and I still continue to mentor some of the young women there. I still do counseling and love watching young women transform through the process
I also have a creative streak and love "puttering". This year I taught myself how to make journals and I'm loving it! Recently I've had a friend start teaching me how to knit (I'm not very good yet, but after she took me to a specialty yarn store and I soaked in all the gorgeous yarns, I've decided I need to improve--rapidly!).

3. If you were stranded on a desert island and were allowed one luxury item, what would it be and why?
One?! My first thought would be a good, creamy, heavenly scented lotion. But that almost seems more necessity to my thinking! If I were stranded I would take some sort of e-reader since books tend to be my weakness...

4. Do you have any phobias?
Lizards and snakes, hands down! They give me chills just thinking about them! I found a lizard in the garage last week and screamed like a little girl (and now I'm afraid to enter the garage at night--what if it's still lurking? Eek!).

5. Who inspires you and why?
I have a small handful of very dear women, including my mother, who are so precious to my heart. They are mostly all old enough to be my mother, and they all in one form or another mentor me. I so value that they have gained much wisdom and experience, and that they have been so willing to share those with me. When life is icky, they encourage me after they've joined me in tears. And when life is glorious, they are praising God alongside me. Watching these women go through the challenges, joys, and hurts in their own life teaches me so much.

6. If you could have one superpower, what would it be and why?
I'm pretty content just being me, buuuuut, perhaps it would be nice to snap my fingers and have "chores" completed? Tax time? Done! Tires need rotating? Done! Bathroom starting to get icky? Clean!

7. Can you tell us one thing about yourself that would surprise people who know you?
I can think in color (which helped immensely in school!). What this means is that I "see" everything in color from numbers, to letters, to words, ideas, music, and so on. When I was learning my alphabet as a wee one, I would be able to see the color in my mind and know which letter it was. In math, I know that white plus blue equals purple (1+3=4), and blue plus purple equals orange (3+4=7)! It's a pretty cool sensory phenomenon called synesthesia. I know of some people who can "see" colors unfolding in their mind like a painting, but I don't have it to that degree. Its something I always took for granted and was shocked when I learned none of my classmates in school knew what I was talking about!


fun facts include……:
-(I'm an only child, and wanted siblings so bad I made up imaginary ones! Luke, Barrett, Ethan, and Emily were my 4, much older, imaginary siblings.)~

-(I love reading a good book. I grew up without a tv as a child, so reading was my favorite entertainment. I suspect that's why I love it so much today!)

-Although I love reading, all through my architectural studies I would primarily only look at pictures in books! Maybe because it's such a visual field, and maybe because all the architecture books I "read" included hot photos of amazing architecture!

-A good massage, or a fabulous fragrance makes me weak in the knee.

Timmery

Deal of the Day!

Are we friends on facebook? If not, we should be! We have started something new here at Sweet Funky Vintage - a deal of the day. Every week day on facebook, we will post a new "deal of the day". The deal will be available in limited quantities and for that day only. And the best part, it will include shipping in the price! To purchase the item, you simply comment on the item with your desired size and email address and we will send you an invoice to pay by email. Simple as that!
The catch? You have to be a fan of our facebook page so you will see these great deals! That's it!
Click to like us on facebook!

 

Meet Jen!

Meet Jen - Jen and Allison work together to keep things running behind the scenes, they do alot of our receiving and shipping and are pretty much "girl Friday"s around here!


1. Can you tell us a little about yourself?
I am 37 years old and grew up in West Hartford, Connecticut. I am married to my high school sweetheart and we have 3 daughters aged 8, 6 and 4. I am a stay-at-home mom, but in my previous life I taught kindergarten in Connecticut and a second grade in both Texas and California. We have lived in Escondido, CA for the past ten years.

2. What do you do when you aren?t working at Sweet Funky Vintage?
When I am not working at SFV, I am either substitute teaching at my daughter's school, volunteering to teach art lessons to both of my daughter's classes, planning ideas for two Girl Scout troops, running errands or cleaning my house!

3. If you were stranded on a desert island and were allowed one luxury item, what would it be and why?
Deoderant!!!! I can't stand when I am stinky!!!!

4. Do you have any phobias?
Spiders and creepy insects

5. Who inspires you and why?
People who are good parents…people who are genuinely kind, caring and non-judgemental. People like this help me get through the tough times of parenting and remind me that there is no manual full of solutions or easy button to press!

6. If you could have one superpower, what would it be and why?
Blink and everything would be as I wish it to be….. Blink and my house is clean, blink and dinner is ready, blink and I am young, skinny and beautiful!

7. Can you tell us one thing about yourself that would surprise people who know you?
I was a competitive figure skater since I was 6 years old. I spent almost every day after school at the skating rink and I trained about 25-30 hours a week during my summer vacations. When I was 10, I lived away from home to train in Lake Placid, NY during my summer vacation. I also spent a summer away from home training in Cape Cod, MA when I was 12. I used to miss A LOT of school to train up in Boston and go to competitions all over New England. While I was a good student and a hard working skater, I also had a devilish side…. In high school I loved to sneak the keys and take my parent's car out, sneak out at night to meet friends and even skip school to spend the day with my boyfriend (at least we ended up married!)…. Don't tell my daughters about this!

fun facts include??

-(what you spend most of your time doing)
I spend most of my time planning, organizing and worrying that I have forgotten something!
-Ferocious reader, when it includes ________.
Inspiring advice, fantastic organizing suggestions or celebrity gossip;)

-________ makes her weak in the knees.
Anticipation of the next Twilight movie

Meet Allison!

Recently, we were fortunate enough to add Allison to our Sweet Funky Vintage crew! She keeps things running smoothly and does a lot of order receiving and shipping of our customer orders.

1. Can you tell us a little about yourself? I have been married for 8 years to an amazing man who still gives me butterflies. I am the lucky mom to Reagan, who is 5, and Sam who is 2. I was a teacher for 8 years, but recently took a leave of absence to be home with my kids. Being home is a lot harder than working, but I love every second of it!


2. What do you do when you aren’t working at Sweet Funky Vintage? I'm walking the Breast Cancer 3 Day (my 6th time!) so training for that takes up a lot of time! I love to spend time with my husband, as we don't get that much time together due to his crazy work schedule. I volunteer in Reagan's class as well as teach a class of 2 and 3 year olds at church. My son, Sam, get weekly therapy, so that takes up a lot of my time as well!


3. If you were stranded on a desert island and were allowed one luxury item, what would it be and why? My iPad...I could keep connected, read, play....as long as I could get 3G out there!!!

4. Do you have any phobias? I'm deathly afraid of spiders and snakes.....please, don't even show me a picture...


5. Who inspires you and why? My dad inspires me....he was a single father of 3 for many years, worked his hardest to make us comfortable, encouraged and pushed me when I needed it, and is still my biggest fan. He's honestly the best!!!

6. If you could have one superpower, what would it be and why? Hmmmmm.....so many......perhaps I'd time travel....in the past and to the future!

7. Can you tell us one thing about yourself that would surprise people who know you? Really, do people want to know the answer to this? ;o) Actually...I didn't plan on going to college, I wanted to get out of high school, go to beauty school, and move on with my life. A friend in high school, and my dad, encouraged me to do otherwise. I am the first and only woman in my entire family with a college degree, and the third person from my entire family who has a college degree. So glad I listened to those smart people!

fun facts include……
-(fact about your family)~
I met my husband when we were 16....we dated for about three seconds, but he told his mom that he'd marry me some day....ten years later, we were married!
Neither one of my kids had names until we were pulling into the hospital parking lot...Sam, my 2 year old son, got his name when he was born. They were both early, so we just weren't ready! My 5 year old daughter, Reagan....yes, she's named after the president. Sam got his name from his dad (who's name is Shannon), but his nickname is Sam. Due to the fact that when he was little, he used to run around yelling "Sam I am!!"

-(what you spend most of your time doing)
Ummm...is that "free time?" When I do have that, I love to read, and peruse The Pioneer Woman's website!

-Ferocious reader, when it includes books about Asian culture (such as Snow Flower and the Secret Fan) and books with Kings and Queens...love Philippa Gregory!)


Red wine and chocolate makes her weak in the knees....if I said my man, that would be way too cheesy!!!

Meet Sydney!

Today I would like to introduce you to Sydney, our Sweet Funky Vintage Trunk Show Coordinator. She handles the scheduling of our trunk shows and contacting potential hostesses and reps and answers all of their questions. She has been with us for about a year and a half and is a HUGE assett to Sweet Funky Vintage. She is always ready with a kind word, a smile, and possibly even some sweet tea. I love having another Southern girl around!

1. Can you tell us a little about yourself?
My name is Sydney Walker and I am originally from Pensacola, Florida. I went to college at the University of South Carolina and graduated with a bachelors degree in Early Childhood Education. I am married to a Marine and have two beautiful girls named Grace (7) and Caroline (5). Other than my husband, the only boy in our life is our Labrador Retriever named Maverick (10). We live a crazy life with the Marine Corps, but we wouldn't have it any other way. My girls social calendars far out weigh my own and most of my time is spent encouraging, loving, and raising these two wonderful little girls to be amazing christian women!


2. What do you do when you aren’t working at Sweet Funky Vintage?
I love to run, it's good for the soul and I enjoy working out. I am a Sunday school teacher in my local church and I volunteer in my girl's classrooms.


3. If you were stranded on a desert island and were allowed one luxury item, what would it be and why?
I love Coca-Cola, not Pepsi, but Coke. To me it is a little piece of heaven and most of my friends know that I would rather miss a meal to have it than to drink a diet one!


4. Do you have any phobias?
I totally do not like lizards especially the racing ones with long tails and stripes down their backs. They are too quick for my comfort and I know snakes are close by when they are around. Eww!


5. Who inspires you and why?
My mama is the person that inspires me most. She is a good christian, southern, woman that is not afraid to show people her roots. She was always amazing at balancing her work load while caring for my brother and I. She takes care of those in need and is a kind friend. She has always been encouraging and my number one fan. And for anyone that has ever eaten my mama's food, knows her cooking is hands down the best!!!

6. If you could have one superpower, what would it be and why?
Honestly, having a super power is overrated. I think I would prefer to be and have just what God gave me and let him take care of the rest!


7. Can you tell us one thing about yourself that would surprise people who know you?
Some surprising facts about me is I have been trained in American Sign Language, I received a softball scholarship out of high school, just to later turn it in for a bigger diamond, given to me by husband ;-) and one day I am going to write a children's book. I love children's literature and I love to write.

Fun Facts:

-Ferocious reader, when it includes ________. I would not consider myself a huge reader, but what I do read is the Bible and children's literature.

-________ makes her weak in the knees.
The thing that makes me most weak in the knees is my husband's smile. He has two large dimples that would knock any girls socks off! Love him!

Los Angeles, California

I know, I know, our blog has been a little quieter lately. Sorry about that. I will try to do better!
We just got back from a whirlwind adventure in Los Angeles at the LA Textile show at the California Market Center. It is our third trip to LA for the textile show. We also did a quick zip through the garment district for some great new knits and some trims that you are going to die for! We cannot wait to show them to you!

(just one corner of one of our favorite fabric haunts - it is a HUGE building filled with fabric)
We finished up the last few purchases for our Spring 2012 line and will be giving you a sneak peek of that very soon. We also purchased some of our Fall 2012 collection and are super excited about the gorgeous fall colors!
We arrived in Los Angeles on Sunday, and found ourselves smack dab in the middle of a big bicycle event, and our hotel was right in the middle of the blocked off and re-routed streets. So, what is a girl to do? Why, go shopping, of course!

(Also around the corner from our hotel, there was a film crew filming something. I wonder what it was!)
So, we went to Beverly Hills and hung out at The Grove shopping center. And, who did we spot walking around? Harry Connick, Jr and his daughter, Kate! Sadly I didn't snatch up my iPhone and snap a picture. I was too busy drooling! Jess and I hit the American Girl store and Pottery Barn Kids, Nordstrom, and had a fabulous lunch at The Farm.


I had to take a picture of this. We saw it as we were leaving an underground parking garage. I am famous for using completely accurate and technical terms like "doohickey" and "domaflickey" and "dodah" and "thingamajig". So, I laughed when I saw the ticket taker thingee calling itself a "gobbler"!

We finally made it to our hotel, and naturally, saw another one of those signs we seem to see everywhere in California - telling you that everything in the entire state is known to cause Cancer. Seriously, people?

Typical girls. Do we really need this much stuff for a 2 day trip?

LA Textile is a show at the California Market Center for things related to the Garment industry. It is a lot of fabric and trim manufacturers, but there are color forecasters and all sorts of other companies that serve the Garment industry. We do most of our fabric and trim buying there.



I always laugh at this sign out in front of the Market center. Because, really, what more do you need?

One of our favorite parts of our trips to LA Textile is eating at the little cafe across the street. The food is terrific. However, this time, the service was really slow. We ordered and then about 30 minutes later, we still hadn't received any food. I was so hungry, I was just about to start chewing on my arm! Then, a server stopped by and asked what we had ordered. Turns out, our server never turned in our order! Ugh! But, they very quickly got our food to us, and as usual, it was worth waiting for!

I love this decoration in the restaurant - a lucite divider filled with wire whisks.
We started with fried macaroni and cheese balls (have you tried these from Trader Joe's? They rock!) and chickpea fritters and the very best sweet potato fries ever! We ended with pizettes - small, freshly baked pizzas. Terrific!

chickpea fritter - no longer plural fritters because we ate them before I could snap a picture!

Macaroni and Cheese Balls

Sweet Potato Fries with a Remoulade dipping sauce.

We ended up leaving the city after a very long day right in the middle of rush-hour traffic and there was a full moon! Kind of neat looking!

Green Lunches Revisited! Snack Baggie Tutorial/Giveaway

So, last week Missy had posted about Green lunches~ helping to keep our world a better place! I thought I'd do a tutorial on these fun reuseable snack bags to follow up on that. They're super easy and will be loved by your little ones!



Start with a piece of fabric 6" wide by 16" long~ this will make a sandwich size bag. For the smaller snack baggies, cut that measurement in half~ to a 6" x 8" piece.



Cut a piece of lining material the same measurement as your main fabric. I use a ripstop nylon, but I have a friend who uses recycled cereal bags! Serge across the two short ends with wrong sides together.



Apply velcro across the two short ends~ Put the hook side of the velcro (the scratchy side) on the right side of the fabric. Put the soft side of the velcro on the lining side of the baggie. That way, when your little one puts their hand in the bag, they're rubbing up against the soft velcro instead of the scratchy one! Also, make sure you go around a couple of times to really secure the velcro!



Now fold the baggie up so the velcro strips will line up when the flap is folded over~ You don't want a gap at the top for snacks to sneak out! Once you have the closure lined up, serge down the sides. Tack down the serger ends and you're done!



Now, if you're not especially looking forward to making your own baggies, here are some for purchase on etsy!



Here's a great zoo one.



This is a super fun forest one~




And a Cat in the Hat!

I hope you are inspired to add these little bags to your re-useable lunch setup! To help you get started, we are giving away the three argyle bags shown in the first photo. Remember, we don't offer these for sale anywhere! So, enter and see if you win! To enter, post here what you are going to do (or are already doing) to have more earth-friendly school lunches. Giveaway will end midnight, Sunday 8/28/11. Share this giveaway on twitter and facebook for two additional entries. Please post separate comments for each entry. We will draw and post the winner here on our blog, Monday, 8/29/11.