I have recently scored three of the cutest red vintage dresses imaginable, along with the world's most perfect boots.

Both of these items were found at the Nevada City Craft Fair (I did not obsessively document the event this time! Luckily, Nicole did a bit of that here). The dress came from Becky of Black Sheep, and the boots from Nicole of Flaming Hag Folkwear. I knew I wanted the dress the second I laid eyes on it, but the boots I literally convinced myself I hadn't just seen out of the corner of my eye because I didn't want to spend any more money. I successfully wiped them from my memory.

Then, at the end of the day, I walked over to Nicole's booth to say goodbye. And there they still were. And the price was RIGHT. And the fit was PERFECT. And the heels were STURDY and seemed wearable for a girl who can't deal with heels. Not to mention that the suede is divine, I love the slouch, and ohmygoodness those totally functional little pouches!

This dress also came from Nicole. I bought it just minutes into the start of the Fair. It was unpriced, because she wasn't sure if she could part with it. I said "I understand" and started to hang it back up when she said "No! No" and offered me a fair price. It's genuine Oaxacan, with that tiny embroidery they're famous for. And I love the long sleeves (why are summer vintage dresses so much easier to come by than winter ones?). Plus, IT'S RED and, let's be honest here, red is so my color.

Another winter dress! Now this li'l darlin' came from Nevada City's raddest little vintage boutique, a new shop downtown called The Parlour. The owner Shauna is a total sweetheart and keeps a fresh stream of new vintage (and new new) flowing through her little spot every day. And it is all so affordable. You gots to go.

You may have noticed that I went full frontal with my bangs. I'm digging it. As Suuzi said, I now look even more like my distant Northern European ancestors. And more like my 4 year old self, who I do miss terribly.

I had originally planned to coincide the posting of these dresses with the Long Overdue Official Presentation of my St. John's Wort body oil (going with the red theme and all), but I'm going to wait a bit more to get all that stuff up. I want to perfect my photo of the bottle of oil for Etsy, and am headed to the Yuba River at sunset today to do so. In the meanwhile, here is some of the red magic contained in that medicine (and a glimpse of how cute our little kitchen window is looking at the moment):

This August has been a scorcher here in NorCal so far. I have been spending as much time as possible in the cooling waters of the Yuba, but did enjoy one uncomfortably hot day at the County Fair. Oh, and I wore that first dress to the County Fair, because it is obviously the perfect County Fair dress and because finding the perfect County Fair dress is something I'm embarrassingly passionate about.

Here are some Instagrammed photos of the last few weeks of my life...

I can't post something on August 14th without marking the fact that today is Mycelia's birthday :-) She is 6 years old. This summer has been a big one for her- she lost her first tooth, learned to swim, taught herself to play the flute, learned how to do a cartwheel, learned (her first time playing) how to absolutely dominate at Monopoly, and as an extension of that has become fascinated by math, continued to explore reading and writing, and started preferring chapter books to picture books.

She admires (worships?) the teenage girls we know, and I fear that time is approaching too quickly!

Happy Birthday to my little lovekins. I can't help but flashback to our unassisted homebirth, and each time I do I get a little teary eyed. It was so big, so new, so life changing.

As a final note, I want to encourage anyone who hasn't yet to read Milla's recent blog post Dream Boat Annie?, in which she explores the illusion of the "Perfect bloggers... You know, the ones that have the time to cook their children nutritious, organic meals from scratch every day and document it all, even while they home-school, make adorable Waldorf-y toys, dress themselves and the kids in super cute hipster outfits and keep a professionally curated looking house and blog." Milla perfectly verbalizes thoughts and concerns and feelings of envy and inadequacy that I know I have felt before as a citizen of the blogosphere. I highly recommend reading her post and leaving a comment- the comments are just as interesting and thought-provoking!

I'm off to spend the afternoon doing birthday-like things. Here's to a glorious end of summer!

Red Hot California August