Looking back at April 2013 (and a huge thank you!)

Good morning, my sweet dears, before launching into a recap of some of the things that have transpired on the blogging front over the past month, I want to take a moment thank you from the bottom of my heart for the outpouring of incredibly caring, thoughtful, touching comments I received on last post about the surgery that I had a couple of weeks ago.

I truly cannot begin to express how very much they each meant to me, as did those I received on sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, too. Your absolutely lovely well wishes helped to brighten my spirits and help make getting through a challenging time considerably easier to deal with. Again, thank you so much for making this gal feel so much better.

Though I've by no means recouped from my surgery completely (that will be a while still), I feel like I've reached a point in my recovery when I can ease my back into my usual routine of blogging again, and so without further ado...

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Given that this is the first post in two weeks, April 2013 certainly wasn't as chocked full of entries as the previous three months of this year have been, but we still got in a number of posts before my short blogging hiatus came into effect and the following stand out as some of my favourites.

Early in the month I explored the power and importance that the sense of smell has in our lives and on our memories, in a post that detailed Ten of my all-time favourite scents. Also in the first week of April, I cordially invited you to Follow me on Instagram (I'm @chronicallyvintage there), in a post that talked about the seriously awesome gift of an iPhone 5 that I received from Tony this past Christmas.

Only one vintage outfit post popped up this month (due to my surgery), but I think you'll agree with me when I say that it was quite noteworthy - as it highlighted what I wore on my first ever day (day) trip to the States. Earlier this year, Tony and I spent a few hours in the charming town of Omak, Washington, and the red, white and blue ensemble (pictured below) that I sported that day was in honour of the fact that, after 28.5 years of life, I finally got a chance to step foot on US soil (I can't wait until the next time!).




On the 10th, I looked back on Four wonderful years of blogging, in celebration of Chronically Vintage's fourth birthday, which took place on April 17th. It has been an incredible four years of sharing my love of all things vintage with you, and I cannot wait to enjoy the next four years - and beyond - as we continue to explore and chat about the endlessly interesting world of mid-century history and fashion.

The very next day I delved into Discussing hats and medical hair loss with Kathleen (from the wonderful blog That's A Pretty Hat), in my first post here that really touched on this intimate subject since my wig unveiling at the start of this year. I love that Kathleen - who is not experiencing hair loss herself - wanted to post about this topic, which affects a great many women at some point (be it temporary of long term) throughout the course of their lives, and have to say thank you again to her for honouring me by asking for some of my thoughts and insight on this topic.

Mid-way through the month, shortly before all went (temporarily) silent on the blogging front here, I rounded up ten images relating to the passion for the colour green that I'm experiencing this year in April's edition of Flickr Favourites. I really am smitten with all things verdant at the moment, and just as this wasn't the first post to mention this topic (I touched on it here, for example), I highly doubt it will be the last before 2013 wraps up either.

Elsewhere in the great, wide interwebs, I was thrilled to recently hear from Sammy of Sammy Davis Vintage that she included Chronically Vintage in her new e-book that's devoted to the The 100 Best Vintage Shops Online, where she super sweetly listed me on page 46 amongst her top sources of vintage style inspiration.




Sammy is a gal with a massive passion for the past (who enjoys writing about and sporting looks from a wide range of twentieth century decades) and a substantial body of knowledge on the subject, stemming in no small part from the fact that she's been selling vintage and writing about the subject of old school fashion for many years now. As such, it was no small honour when she emailed to let me know that she'd included me in her lovely, informative e-book (which you can pick up for just $4.95 here).

As you know, I absolutely, completely adore vintage hats, and my involvement with Kathleen's aforementioned post wasn’t only time I got to discuss this awesome subject over the course of April. Early in the month Katy from the stellar UK blog Vintage Wife interviewed me and a few other (wildly stylish) vintage ladies about our hat collections and some of the reasons why we adore yesteryear chapeaus so very much. If you haven't had a chance to read this delightful post, entitled Top of the Vintage Toppers yet, run, don't walk over to the Vintage Wife, and find out more about how I store, and why I adore, collecting and wearing vintage hats so much.

I won't beat around the bush, April hasn't been the easiest month of all time for me, but the worst is behind us now and instead of focusing on the unpleasantness of serious surgery and how rough I've been feeling ever since, I'm much more interested in looking ahead to May and all that the fifth month of the year holds in store here on the blogging front.

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As a general rule, May is a gorgeous month, sometimes offering up just about the loveliest weather you could ever possibly hope for and a return to spending as much time as possible outdoors, soaking it all up with the gusto of a hungry kitten going to town on a bowl of milk. It's too soon for me to say how much I'll be able to get out and enjoy the glorious sunshine, but at the very least I'll be keeping the blinds open and letting every precious ounce of it stream through the window and onto me as I set about writing May's posts.

In the coming weeks, we'll be reviving the Vintage Fashionista Friday series, reviewing the most recent dress that I've received from eShakti, taking a gander at the history of Cutex nail polish, enjoying a couple of terrific springtime recipes, and holding a giveaway for a newly released page-turner that's set in the 1920s, amongst numerous other posts that I have in the works.

Thank you again deeply, everyone, for your support and care over the past couple of weeks. It never ceases to touch me to my core that I am so blessed to be a part of such a sweet, understanding, wonderful online community. I have a ways to go before I've fully recovered from surgery still, but I'm really looking forward to blogging here again and in savouring each wonderful moment of May that lies ahead.

Have a beautiful last day of April, everyone, and a thoroughly stellar month ahead!

Happily welcoming November's return

✯ Day 305 of Vintage 365 ✯

 

There's always a certain unmistakable blending of seasons that takes place on the first day of November. Though we're squarely smack dab in the middle of autumn still, waking up on this initial day of the month one is struck instantly by the fact that Halloween, sadly, is over for another long year. For those who adore October 31st dearly like I do, this can take a little while to get over.

However, on the other (if your weather is anything like mine this week, "gloved") hand, there's that voice is your head (perhaps it sounds like Bing Crosby crooning one of his classic holiday songs)reminding you that the winter holiday is soon around the corner. And as it does, a hint of excitement begins to well up inside your soul.

My Halloween was fabulous - candy and decorations, spooky make-up and lots of great memories - and while I am a little blue that's over once more, I can already feel a stirring of anticipation and happiness flowing through my veins for Christmas and New Years, and every last wonderful tradition and event that coming two months hold in store.

Though up here in Canada we've already celebrated our Thanksgiving (back on October 10th), this special day is on the horizon still for my neighbours to the south. November also brings with it the solemn, but endearingly beautiful, observance that is Remembrance Day on the 11th.

Beyond holidays, November means (in this neck of the woods usually at least) the switch from the glistening, golden sunlight of earlier fall to the soft, subtly grey tinged pale light of early winter. It's pots of hearty soup simmering for hours on the stove to nourish chilled bodies, the mandatory wearing of heavy coats, and stores suddenly overflowing with Christmas decorations.

{Wonderfully adorable November 1956 cover of Woman's Day magazine featuring a trio of darling green-eyed, autumn hued kittens via cloth98 on Flickr.}

 

November is a sweet month in many ways (so hence the kitty cat filled image above). Though it can be a busy one, it spares us the last minute rush of December, allowing us instead to begin planning for the holiday season and savouring its first signs, without the frazzled days of office parties, last minute shopping, and gigantically large meals to cook.

For many November’s return means the first nights of frost and the first snowfalls of the year since early last spring. The hours of daily light are dwindling, but that marvelous sense (which my especially husband adores) of wanting to snuggle up inside and brace yourself against the biting cold outside is just beginning to hit its stride.

I'm really looking forward to celebrating the remaining two months of 2011 with all of you, as we wind down the final sixty-one instalments of this year's Vintage 365 project, sweet dears.

Whether you feel like today is eons to soon to start thinking about the winter holidays or are already swapping your Halloween decorations for Christmas ones, I wish you all a beautiful, serene, cozy November and countdown to Christmas!

Welcoming August with open arms

✯ Day 213 of Vintage 365 ✯

 

A new week, a new month. There is much to take comfort in from the start of something fresh, unmarred by days and weeks of events perhaps left best forgotten. Of course a new beginning doesn't have to erase or replace negative events, it can be a continuation of something fantastic or the last chapter in a saga of awesomeness. Yet, whatever today means to you, the fact remains that it's a new beginning, if only on the calendar.

August can be a challenging month. Easy to both love and hate (adore in the icy depth of January, loath in the moment), to praise and complain about in nearly equal measures. It's a strong month (which, perhaps, is part of the reason those born during much of it get to have a lion as their zodiac mascot) that makes no bones about its power and summertime prowess. Yet like a battle hardened warrior encountering a fair maiden, it can also show its gentle side when presented with the right circumstances.

This month makes me think back the sunny-kissed days of my youth, spent in a town that boasted not one, but two rather large lakes. Swimming until it would have seemed natural if I suddenly sprouted fins, eating sandwiches and bags of potato chips sprinkled with the distinct texture of taupe hued sand, falling asleep under a cloudless sky, the buzz of a thousand water frolickers resonating in my suntanned ears.

The eighth chapter of the year is resilient and beguiling. Few months can even come close to presenting the world with the beauty it houses. Think of a glistening sunrise, a sublimely warm, silken soft evening breeze. Fields of proud sunflowers, gardens teaming with hearty produce. Light that can be glaring one moment and tame as a lamb the next.

{Cute vintage garb, a fun book, time spent outdoors, those are the simple, beloved pleasures of this sultry month, as seen in this marvelous August 1956 cover of Redbook magaine. Image via CapricornOneVintage on Flickr.}

August is rarely the time for massive new projects, but is very well suited to adventures of all magnitudes. From travel to parties, planning for the new school year to putting up preserves, August works well when we balance dog-eared knowledge with a dusting of the unknown.

I'm grateful that this month is here, able to take July and throw it into the storage closet of the past with its arrival. Was July unmentionable? No, thankfully, but it had some points that I won't be chatting about anytime soon and a heat wave that would make a desert dwelling lizard melt.

No one knows what August holds in store, but my husband's upcoming birthday on the 6th gives me something extra special to look forward to. I hope for a month of tranquility and possibility, of answers and time to daydream. Of corn-on-the-cob eaten while practically too hot to hold, and nearly tooth-numbingly cold beverages sipped under the wise sun of summer's last truly full month.

As we launch into August and this glistening new week, I wish you each a month ahead that is precisely as you hope it will be. If you want to see the open road, may you be able to do so. If all you long for is evenings spent curled up in a hammock, your favourite reads by your side, so be it.

August is a splendid, exciting, incomparable month, and I hope deeply that is treats you all to a fabulous thirty-one days of summery bliss!

Creative vintage paper dolls that girls of all ages will love

✯ Day 209 of Vintage 365 ✯

 

Perhaps it was because of the copious amount of girls toys that existed when I was born in the 1980s (Barbies, Strawberry Shortcake, Rainbow Brite, Lady Lovelylocks, Gem, and Cabbage patch dolls, to name but a few!), but I don't remember having very many paper dolls to play with (excluding one fun little book of Quints paper dolls that I was given around the time my little sister was born) as I was growing up.

I don't feel that I was toy deprived or that I missed out on anything major by not having a toy chest full of paper dolls, but I have I thought a few times that it might have been cool to have had more of these lovely classic paper toys to play with.

Maybe that's why when I spot a vintage set of paper dolls online, my eyes light up. And goodness did they shine like Christmas lights when I spied this fantastically pretty page (in Charm and Poise's great Flickr stream) with its real photograph cut-out woman and collection of five beautiful aprons that first appeared in the July 1953 edition of Everywoman's Magazine.

 

Designed so that the home seamstress of the day could trim out the figure and each of the aprons to help her decide which style she liked best and might want to make for herself, this innovative idea is so fun, I can't believe it didn't catch on more.

These splendidly pretty vintage paper dolls are both practical and enjoyable. I imagine that after many women of the day used them for their own sewing purposes, they handed them down to their daughters to play with. I adore the idea of paper dolls geared towards women and would love to see a magazine today copy this clever idea.

Of the aprons featured here, I think the pink full length number with white rickrack and the cute butterfly print one are my very favourite, but each one is thoroughly lovely and would be a joy to sew and wear with vintage outfits today (note: I don't think the poster of this image shared the sewing patterns, but you may be able to find a copy of the July 1953 copy of Everywoman's Magazine on eBay, etsy or at a second hand shop).

I hope you enjoyed seeing this delightful vintage paper doll page as much as I did, and that it reminded you of happy memories of days spent playing -whether as a child or a grown-up - with this timeless toy.

Vintage 365: Vintage Love Magazine cover sparkles with beauty and appeal

✯ Day 42 of Vintage 365 ✯

 

Take a look at this immensely pretty cover, illustrated with the utmost of artistic skill and teaming with enchanting vintage beauty, and tell me that magazines weren't about a billion times more visually appealing sixty years ago? :)

Though "Love Magazine" isn't a title that I'm very familiar with (I think it may have previously been called Love Novels), it seems to have been one of the plethora of glossies (of the day) that were devoted to fictional love stories (which it makes it all the more awesome this week, given that we're just three days away from Valentine's).

I Google the four writers names that appear on the cover, but my searches didn't turn up any pages that revealed more about who these women were (it would have been great to find out if any of those were nom de plumes!). If you happen to know more about Love Magazine or any of the writers mentioned on this cover, please feel free to share your knowledge in the comment section.

No bother in the least though, I always adore looking at vintage magazine covers (this particular one hails from the stellar Flickr stream of x-ray delta one, which is a treasure trove of awesome vintage images), even if what I gather from that cover page alone is possibly all I'll ever know about it. The artwork, fonts, and colours alone are priceless portals back in time to the years of the 40s and 50s, when gorgeously illustrated titles like Love Magazine could be found at any corner news agent stand, five and dime, or corner store.