March 31, 2014

Vintage Link Love: March 2014


There's always a certain sense of contradiction to ending a month of the first day of a new week, isn't there? It feels like you're pulled in two very different directions, with one foot in the past, the other in tomorrow. Today though, I feel like I'm on a pretty even keel and am looking very forward to the coming month for a multitude of reasons, not the least of which is my sweet mother's birthday in two days, followed three weeks later by Easter. I also have some really, really exciting (top secret for the time being) vintage related plans in the work for later this spring, too, which have had me in a permanent smile for quite some time now (as I work diligently away at bringing them to fruition).

One of the things that really kicked March off on a positive note for me this year was winning a giveaway hosted by the immensely talented Emily from the blog Emily's Vintage Visions, who very generously offered her readers that chance to land a darling handmade apron that she created. It arrived mid-month and is so, so cute (and well constructed!). Though I wear one almost daily, I don't actually have a large collection of aprons, so Emily's wonderful gift is a big, and very much appreciated, boon to me there.

March was jumping with activity, online and off, and it wasn't hard in the slightest to find exciting, enjoyable, and/or inspiring entries to share with you here in this month's edition of Vintage Link Love. Quite the opposite actually, I have so many more from March (or that I found in March) bookmarked still that I could fill the next two such posts with them alone! I won't though, as I like to include some from the month that just wrapped up, of course, but I'm sure many of them will continue to appear here over time.

Sit back, settle in, grab your favourite early springtime nibble, if so desired, and come along as we take a peak at some great vintage related links as March embarks on its final day.



photo VintagelinkloveblogpostheaderforChronicallyVintage_zps551f30c8.png


Viva Las Vegas Pre-Game Tricks and Tips: With Viva Las Vegas, the largest annual gathering of vintage, rockabilly, and kustom kulture folks in the US (and one of the largest in the world) set to kick off again this year in mid-April, many bloggers who will be attending are hard at work both getting ready for the big event and sharing some of their thoughts on how to prep, pack and dress for it, including this helpful post chalked full of handy tips from Veronica Vintage, which is a great read for new and veteran attendees alike.


Tin cans filled with $10 million in (vintage) gold coins found buried in California: By way of my darling husband (who first shared it with me) comes a story that sounds too unbelievably good to be true, but is in fact genuine. If it doesn't make you want to buy a metal detector and start hunting around for old, buried tin cans of your own (because, let's face, most will not be jutting out above ground a little like the one in this story), I don't know what will!


♥ 10 recipes that defined the 1960s: Though I born in the mid-1980s, what struck me about this fun post, which I discovered via The Glamorous Housewife's wonderful blog, is just how many of the ten my family was still making and serving two to four decades later. In fact, I still whip up some of these classic eats myself to this day and think that many will continue to be popular for a long, long time to come (how can you not adore things like grape jelly meatballs and fondue?).






How to organize a pettiskirt collection: Whether you call them crinolines or pettiskirts, there's no difference in the amount of space these beautiful, but often very voluminous undergarments take up and the fact that storing them, especially if you have more than a couple, can quickly take up a rather hefty amount of room. Thanks to the immensely stylish Frances from the blog Polka Polish, all those who find themselves in this situation can now rejoice because she has hit upon a brilliant, super affordable way to wrangle your collection into a very small space that still allows you to see all of your petticoats at once glance. I love (underline that a hundred times) this clever idea!


7 Things Vintage Stars Can Teach Us About Body Confidence: This charming series of vintage photos, each partnered with a quote from one of yesteryear Hollywood's greatest stars, helps to succinctly remind us of how we might want to approach and deal with certain things that we almost all struggle with at one point or another when it comes to our own appearance and self-confidence levels.


The Manly Origins of Cheerleading: When most people (especially 21st century men) here the word "cheerleader", the first thing that pops to mind is a cute girl in a short skirt, dancing, cheering and waving a pair of pompoms around, and while that has certainly often the case in recent decades, as this engaging post examines, cheerleading actually has a longstanding history as a male centered activity (up until the 1930s in many places).




Man Buys 10,000 Undeveloped Negatives At a Local Auction and Discovers One of The Most Important Street Photographers of the Mid 20th Century: Gold, it would seem, is not the only treasure that lucky folks have been unearthing lately. In a story that sounds like a dream find to me, as I'm sure it will to many vintage photography fans, a man purchases a huge number of yesteryear photography negatives (for just $380) and soon finds that he's hit upon some of the great, most appealing never before seen street photography of the 20th century all captured by a tremendously talented woman named Vivian Maier.


The Toronto Vintage Society launches a blog: If you've been following Chronically Vintage for any length of time, you'll likely know that I'm A.) a Canadian living in Canada and B.) wildly passionate about anything and everything to do with vintage in this country. Unfortunately, especially in most smaller towns and cities, that's not a ton to be hand though thankfully in various corners across this great nation like-minded vintage loving folks do gather and hold events centered squarely around their passion for the past. Previously operating primarily out of Facebook and Twitter online, one such stellar group, The Toronto Vintage Society, recently launched a blog to help spread the good word about their events and vintage in Toronto in general, that is well worth following regardless of if you actually live in Ontario or anywhere in Canada yourself, as vintage truly does transcend borders.


1920s: English women in colour: This thoroughly engaging and highly beautiful collection of early vintage colour photographs (which reminds me very much of my 2012 post 20 gorgeous Edwardian colour photographs) has been making the rounds big time on Facebook lately, but in case you haven't seen it there or elsewhere, I simply had to share it with you here today. It's always such a special joy to see very early colour photos like this, which truly help the past seem all the more alive and easy to relate to.





How to make a 1940s headscarf/bandana: A little earlier this year Emileigh of the highly enjoyable, informative blog Flashback Summer ran a great series on 1940s working women's style, of which this handy, super easy to follow tutorial was a part. If you're a fan of this classic style of headscarf, you'll want to bookmark Em's post immediately.


50 vintage inspired & retro clothing stores: Searching for the mother load list of online shops that stock vintage inspired and retro fashions all corralled into one handy-dandy spot? Look no further than this post from Vintage Dancer which houses 50 sources that are sure to appeal to vintage fans far and wide - and cause many a wishlist to swell to new, epic proportions! :)


Marlene Dietrich | The World's Most Glamorous Grandmother Sale: Earlier this month some of legend actresses Marlene Dietrich's personal affects (including a love letter from Ernest Hemmingway) were auctioned off, with a sneak peak of the selection appearing in this post from Shimpton Couture. Dietrich is amongst the classic Hollywood stars that I most admire, not only for her acting but for how she lived her life, and I must say, if money was no objection, I would have loved to have raised my paddle when the auction began on some of the pieces in this elegant array of vintage and antique items (such as the resplendent piano compact pictured below).





{All images throughout the list of links above come by way of the post that they are displayed directly beneath the write up of here. Please follow the links provided to learn more about these images.}



♥ ♥ ♥



Electricity charged thunder storms, flocks of new blooms in every garden, early season produce, the shedding of at least a layer of two of clothing in our daily attire, Easter egg hunts, there are so very many reasons to eagerly look forward to April and all that it holds in store for us. I can hardly wait and feel like I'm in such a positive, productive place in my life right now on certain fronts that it's hard to contain my joy and eagerness for what April and the coming months beyond it will hopefully deliver.



{Image source}


I sense April is going to be a beautiful month in a lot of ways and am really hoping that the weather will follow suite. March's, though differently than February's, was often lousy and rarely permitted me to do photo shoots, which is always a drag, because I do enjoy getting in as many as my health will permit when the weather is in a more cooperative mood. I've got some marvelous springtime fashions to share with all of you, so with a bit of luck - and plenty of sunny skies - I can start doing so in earnest in the month ahead.

For now though, especially because I am trying very hard to savour and live in the moment as I grow older, I'm content to slip on a sundress and light weight cardi, set my sites on April, but devote my attention to today. Then buckle down to keep working on my secret plans, which with a bit of luck, I should be able to unveil sometime in May. Very exciting! :)

From the bottom of my heart, I wish you each a sweet, jubilant, completely lovely April and hope that the month delivers scores of reasons for you to smile as well.

38 comments:

  1. I am looking forward to your April posts and the secret plants you have!
    http://balearaitzart.blogspot.com.au/

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  2. Time and again, you keep proving that you offer the best blog around. Really. These stories are exceptional. I knew the one about Vivian Maier and am glad to see it spread. Great work!

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  3. thank you for this collection of links!
    your link list is like to have a subscription for a glamorous magazine!
    xxxx & hugs!

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    1. What a splendidly nice comment, dear Beate, thank you very much. I love that these posts feel like a glam magazine to you - they have that same kind of feel to me as well and have very quickly become one of the highlights of the month for me.

      Tons of hugs & happy April wishes,
      ♥ Jessica

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  4. What a lovely round up! I especially loved the vintage stars/body image one! Well done graphics for that too!

    xoxo
    -Janey

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  5. I had not seen the link to the 10 Recipes that defined the 1960s, what fun! Vintage food is one of my absolute favorite subjects. While some of it has stood the test of time, the ones I like are the oddities, the ones that have you scratching your head wondering "what were they thinking?".

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    1. So true! Usually anytime seafood + gelatine is involved, for example, my culinary guard starts going up. ;)

      ♥ Jessica

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  6. Thank you for sharing the undeveloped negatives story. I'm in the process of scanning my fathers "ART" slides into my computer. I hope someday to print and sell them. He was so good at setting up his shots!

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    1. It's my pleasure, dear Jantiki. I'm really happy to know that that specific story struck a personal chord with you. I'd love to see some of your father's images one day - be sure to let me know if/when you launch a shop featuring them.

      ♥ Jessica

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  7. Once again Jessica another fabulous collection of links. The petticoat link was super helpful! Thank you also for the Toronto Vintage Society Blog Shout out, we really appreciate the wonderful words you said :) Enjoy your mothers birthday too :)

    Liz

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    1. Thank you very much, dear Liz! The pleasure is all mine! I believe in fostering the vintage community here in Canada as much as possible and was elated when I heard that the TVS had launched a blog. I really, really hope to make it back east for a visit again one day so that I can hang out with all of you amazing vintage Torontonians.

      Have an awesome start of April!
      ♥ Jessica

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  8. Great post! Ill be checking some of those out.

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  9. These all look fascinating, the street photography is particularly wonderful. I cant wait to peruse each link at my leisure

    retro rover

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  10. A wonderful post. I hadn't seen the 20s images in color so it was so nice to click on this and see these lovely images. Amazing! Thank you sweet Jessica for the lovely post. I now must go check out Marlena's auction highlights. :))

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    1. You're very welcome, dearest Joanna, the pleasure is all mine. I have come to adore and wholeheartedly look forward to writing these end-of-the-month link love posts in a way that I usually didn't when I was just transpiring what had happened here on the CV front (last year). That isn't to say I disliked the older style of posts, I didn't, it's just that now I get to share so many cool vintage related things with all my awesome readers in one handy spot and that really appeals to me.

      Wishing you a splendid start of April!
      ♥ Jessica

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  11. Happy April to you! May it be full of sunshine and beautiful vintage! Lots of very interesting information that I will catch up on when i get a free moment - if I ever do! XXX

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  12. Thank you for these lovely links, it's like getting a little basket of Easter treats! My favourite were the body confidence quotes/photographs. Those women looked amazing and all so different too. AH knew a thing or two and I loved the big check skirt she was wearing. The other link that resonated was the Englishwoman pictures. Several were taken less than an hour from where I live! I recognise those country faces even though fashions have changed so enormously (and not always for the better. Imagine those photos with black leggings and fleeces!). I hope you have a terrific April with some beautifully warm sunshine so you can crack open the summer wardrobe!

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    1. Yikes, now that's a thought that will send a shiver up one's back! ;) I jest...a bit, but it would be strange to imagine someone sporting the hair and makeup styles of the 1920s in today's extremely causal attire.

      Aww, you're very welcome, my precious friend. I'm really happy to know that this post proved so enjoyable for you. Hard to believe that Easter is just three weeks away now - time to start cracking on menu planning and decorating (I only have a few Easter decorations though, so it doesn't take long - I really want to add more to my collection, as I think Easter/spring is one of the loveliest times of the year).

      Tons of gentle hugs & happy start of April wishes!
      ♥ Jessica

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  13. I love the dog in the cheerleading photo, it's gorgeous!

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  14. Happy April! Things are slowly warming up here in New England. Thank you for these lovely links! The one for organizing vintage petticoats will come in handy as I just receive some similar pretties from a friend. For something so light and fluffy they sure can take up a lot of storage space! :)
    I also want to thank you for your kind comments and shout out for my blog. I'm so pleased you like the apron! I know you will give it a loving home. I had so much fun making it I think I will be making more in the future!
    -Emily

    Emily's Vintage Visions

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  15. These are fantastic! I can't wait to take some time out to read them all!

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  16. Jessica, obrigada pela recomendação dos maravilhosos links, vou visitar com certeza. Sinto que foram selecionados com muito carinho e qualidade para suas leitoras. Toneladas de abraços para querida Jessica, posso te chamar de Jess?

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    1. Hello dear Cris, yes, certainly, it's very sweet that you want to call me Jess - I actually wish more folks would do it online, as it's what most of my friends and family (and even some of my doctors) call me in person a lot of time.

      Thank you for your lovely comments today, honey. I really hope that April is already off to a marvelous start for you!

      Big hugs,
      ♥ Jessica

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  17. Thank you sooo much for the link love! We are totally sold on the vintage society chapters ideas...just need to get us off the ground first...then the world!

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    1. You are wholeheartedly welcome! I'm trilled to know that my idea of chapters across Canada found favour with you. If/when it happens, I really want to be involved with the nearest one to me here in B.C.!

      Tons of hugs & happy April wishes from the West Coast,
      ♥ Jessica

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  18. Those 1920s photos are a treat! It's always exciting to see things like that pop up; I can't get enough of them, and they never get old to me (so to speak).

    Please, no mention of thunderstorms...our poor Ben is reduced to a clingy, quivering mess by them. Poor fella! Though watching the cats try to console him is adorable, I'm not sure that is worth his suffering.

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    1. I feel precisely the same way with vintage photos, dear Jen. They speak to me on every possible level and are truly one of my favourite things to look at think about in the whole wide world.

      Oh dear, okay, only warm, beautiful springtime days in that case! (Interestingly, our cat, Stella, is much more frightened than our dog, who rarely is troubled by them at all, which is quite rare for her species indeed).

      Big hugs & the happiest of April wishes,
      ♥ Jessica

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  19. What a lovely post and some very interesting articles :) I must say that your writing is really excellent and that I someday wish to be as good at articulating my feelings in my blog posts. I can't wait to check out these links. especially the petticoats and the shops! The secret plans sound very exciting

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  20. A lovely round-up of informative and beautiful posts. Thank you so much for including my petticoat post, I'm incredibly flattered that you found it worthy of inclusion!

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    1. You are wholeheartedly welcome, dear Frances! It really and truly is a brilliant idea. I've never seen one that worked better or appealed to me more when it comes to storing petticoats. I think you've freed up acres of collective closet space in the homes of vintage fashion lovers the world over with this excellent storage solution.

      ♥ Jessica

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  21. I wish you the most pleasant April, Jessica ! Very nice photos and interesting post...I am curious to know more about your secrets plans!

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    1. Thank you very much, lovely Dan! I'm bursting at the seams to share some of them (the biggest and most exciting) next month with everyone here. Usually I'm the sort that stays 100% tight lipped about big/important plans until they've come to fruition, but in this case, I'm so happy and excited that I can't help but let folks know that something amazing is in the works! :)

      Big hugs & many thanks for both of your great blog comments,
      ♥ Jessica

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  22. Some really interesting links! I hope the weather improves in April so that you can get out and take photographs whenever you wish to. Looking forward to hearing your exciting plans.

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  23. Again you spoil us with lots of interesting links, this has quickly become one of my favourite posts. And what a cliffhanger ... I will be looking forward to your secret. Wishing you both a lovely weekend. :)

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    1. Thank you very much, dear Sanne. You know, it's fast become one of my very favourites to write. It, along with the new 25 vintage deals under $100 posts, are two of my favourite ongoing series here ever. In no small part because they get to shine the spotlight on so many diverse, interesting and often beautiful items and stories from around the world.

      Thank you! I really hope that you have a splendid, fun filled weekend, too!

      Big hugs,
      ♥ Jessica

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  24. Thank you for sharing this, you are such a doll!

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  25. Another terrific post from your vintage link love series. I absolutely love 40s bandannas and I'm actually knitting a 40s turban at the moment. If I get better at it, I'll have to send one your way.

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    1. Thank you very much, sweet Sean. Oooh, that's awesome!!! Turbans are a piece that I haven't featured in my wardrobe frequently (head scarves yes, tons, but true 30s/40s turbans, not nearly as much - no real reason, just lack of them), but which I certainly adore. If you share your finished project on your blog, I'll be super excited to see it

      ♥ Jessica

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