15 June 2009 , originally uploaded by academichic.

Sources:

• Gray tank – Hanes 
• Plaid button down – J.Crew 
• Charcoal walking shorts – Gap, remixed 
• Black sandals – Target, remixed a lot 
• Yellow bag – Garage sale find 

Endnotes:

I’m reunited with Nerp! How I’ve missed my little bike! Nerp resides at my fiance’s house and since I don’t have a bike rack on my car, I have no way of transporting him* back and forth with me. But we’re together again at last! To celebrate, T. and I rode our bikes to our movie date last night. We rode to a friend’s house, where he and his girlfriend joined us on their bikes, and we all rode and chatted and savored the evening air on our way to the dollar theatre. Dottie was my inspiration for this, since she and her husband go on regular bike dates and it was as fun as she promised it would be! 

Today, I’m riding Nerp around town and I’m also carrying my new/old yellow bag. This is my find from our garage sale adventure on Saturday.  It’s the only thing I got and I spent a whopping One Dollar on it. I loved the yellow color, the vintage cut and spacious size of it, but it was in the most deplorable condition. The “before” shots don’t fully reveal how dirty and dingy it looked and I was about to pass it up when T. convinced me that we could clean it and give it a second chance at life.

T. suggested I mix Mr. Clean with water to dilute it and use a brush to scrub the plastic (faux-leather) exterior clean. The Mr. Clean solution worked magic, just see the difference for yourself:

Before and After:

       

What really got me was this clasp that looks just like the enclosures on my  first school bag in the first grade. The only label on this bag is the embossed “Sears” right below the clasp. So here my question to you: Is this what one might call vintage? How do you know when something is vintage and not just old? What makes an item deserving of the “vintage” label and by what standards do you call it that? Please enlighten me! 

 

Vintage or not, I love this cheery yellow bag and it’s large enough to hold my laptop and just the right size to fit in my bike basket. S.