California: Thrifting in Berkeley

I had an absolutely amazing time in California, and even that is probably an understatement. I honestly never wanted to leave, and can't wait until I get to go back. While I'm probably idealizing a bit since I don't live there (yet), I just feel so happy and comfortable there. In a span of 9 days, we toured Oakland, Berkeley, San Jose, Monteray, Santa Cruz, and of course San Francisco, and I can safely say that I loved every second of it! Even just typing this is making me wish I was still laying on the beach in Santa Cruz, eating sandy chips (we'll get to that eventually). Since I didn't post while I was away, this whole week will probably be full of outfit posts from California. I will try to condense some posts though so as to not get all vacation post crazy (for example, we went to Santa Cruz twice so I'll probably do one big post about it instead of two). While I'm talking about posting, I want to give a huge THANK YOU SO MUCH to my wonderful guest bloggers. I loved each lady's take on what inspires them, and I hope you all did too.

So, without further ado, my first full day in California! We spent the day touring Berkeley where I did some awesome thrifting (I got a 60's dress) and went to a wonderful book store where I got a 50's copy of John Donne's poetry that judging by the writing on the first page, was a gift to someone in France. Telegraph Avenue (the strip we visited) is full of coffee shops, thrift stores, cookie bake shops, book stores, and music shops (aka awesome-ville) so needless to say I had a ton of fun exploring it. I even got to meet a few of my brother's friends, one of whom was quite the snappy dresser, and I regret not getting a photo of him to share here!

Dress: Thrift, Jacket: Thrift, Tights: We Love Colors, Shoes: Urban Outfitters



We went to this book store called Moe's Books, which has four stories. Obviously I was in heaven.





Then we stopped by the Amoeba Music in Berkeley where I picked up a Mama Cass greatest hits record. Hopefully it survived the flight home!


Then we did a bit of vintage shopping! My favorite place by far was Mars. The clothing was separated by decade, and when it came time to buy I found myself torn between two sixties style dresses (you'll see the one I chose below). The clothes were reasonably priced and wonderful, and I miss it so!







Then, we headed to this huge store called Urban Ore. It's basically a warehouse with anything you could ever want, or not want, like a flying pig



Or this cute light blue chest



Or a Raggedy Anne doll, which my mother was quite fond of



At the end of the day, we went to Alameda to visit the pinball museum, which has tons of old and new working pinball machines you can play. I love that place! So much so that I only took one picture, of one of my favorite pinball machines



Well, that's my first day in a nutshell! It's kind of simultaneously fun and a bummer to look back on the cool things I did while I was away. I hope it's only fun for you guys though :)


Until tomorrow,
Nicole