Until we meet again

Sweet dears, this post is to inform you that things are going to become quieter on the Chronically Vintage home front for the next little while. The reason behind this is because I’ll be going in for surgery on Wednesday (25th), for reasons pertaining to the (unexpected) hospital stay I encountered last May.



{Unlike the chipper young lad on the cover of this delightful 1950s children’s book (which can be found in etsy seller Ficklefrog’s shop), this week’s surgery won’t be my first hospital visit, but what he and I do share in common is that both of our mothers were/are going to be there to help make things more bearable. My wonderful mom is flying out from B.C. to help look after me while I recoup, which I know is going to make this experience infinitely easier to get through.}


I truly do not know at this stage how long my recovery period is going to be (my body is often ridiculously slow to heal, even for the most commonplace of things like minor cuts and bruises, and in the past I’ve recouped rather unhurriedly from other surgical procedures I’ve had), but I’ve been told (by my doctors) to expect at least three to six weeks.

It’s likely that I won’t be blogging again for at least a couple of weeks, and should the unexpected arise (i.e., I end up having to go back into the hospital after I’ve been discharged post-surgery), my darling husband will most likely write an update post informing everyone of what’s going on. In my absence (from blogging), he will also be approving all comments and fielding any incoming CV related emails.

I’m going to miss you all very much, and want you to know how much I truly appreciate your support and understanding regarding this situation.

Be well, precious friends, and know that you’re in my thoughts, as I send out oodles of wishes for a positively glorious, entirely enchanting last month of summer to each of you!

“Thank you” doesn’t even begin to cover my gratitude

My dearest friends, a month has passed since I last sat down to write a new entry for this blog. During that time – as many of you may know from the two posts my husband, Tony, kindly put up in my absence – I’ve been contenting with some serious health issues. One of which landed me, rather suddenly and unexpectedly, in the hospital during for a spell.

The outpouring of support, care and concern that we (Tony and I) received from has been nothing short of staggering. I’m at a loss for words when it comes to just how to express my profound thanks to each and every one of you who left comments on Tony’s posts and/or emailed us privately about my situation.

Each day when he came to visit me at the hospital, Tony would print off and bring all of your messages and comments, and when I returned home (but wasn’t yet well enough to use my computer), he would read them out to me from his laptop. I don’t think a single day passed that I wasn’t moved to the point of tears by the staggeringly beautiful care and friendship that shone through your words.

From the very bottom of my heart, thank you so much, everybody, for your support, companionship and concern during this rocky time. Your meaningful words lifted my spirits greatly and truly meant the world to me.

While this "elevated" medical situation is far from over still, I wanted to begin posting again – albeit on a considerably less frequent basis than usual (perhaps one or two posts a week, but we'll just see how things go as the coming weeks unfold). I miss you all – and blogging! – so much. Chronically Vintage is an integral part of my life, and going so long (especially when the hiatus was unplanned) without writing new posts has felt nothing short of alien.

Yesterday marked the summer solstice, the beginning of the warmest (if in you live in Northern Hemisphere, that is) season of the year, and one of my favourite annual events. I don’t know exactly what summer months have in store for me health-wise on a day-to-day basis, but as of the Monday before last (14th), I do at least know when I’ll be having (gallbladder removal) surgery: August 25th.


{I’m on strict doctor’s orders to take things super easy this summer, but on days when I can, I plan on blogging from my bed or the sofa. Now, if only I could look as gorgeous as this lovely vintage gal while doing so! :D Vintage image from Saltycotton’s Flickr stream.}


In the days leading up until the end of August, amidst and ongoing assortment of medical visits, and when my (pesky! ;D) health permits, I hope to be able to blog, to connect with you all, and to keep the spirit of Chronically Vintage going strong.

Sweetest dears, thank you again for your tremendously thoughtful comments and emails, knowing that you understand the situation and are there me has been an invaluable comfort.

With the utmost of appreciation and love, I wish you each a sublimely beautiful, highly memorable, and entirely enjoyable summer ahead!

Today’s Vintage Treasure: Lovely Sailor Jerry Tattoo Candle

{Delightfully fun cherry red tattoo designs swirl around a good sized white candle (which comes packaged in a lovely matching box) in a see-through glass holder. Bedecked with some of famed tattoo artist Sailor Jerry’s iconic images, this fabulous candle is a work of art in and of itself, and is one of those terrific pieces that would work splendidly in a myriad of different decors (I would definitely keep the glass holder once the unscented white candle itself was finished). If this “inked” Sailor Jerry candle is calling your name, you can find it Poison Dagger for $15.00 US.}

♥ ♥ ♥


Cheerful evening greetings, my wonderful dears, how are you each doing? You’ve all been in my thoughts a lot lately, for your see I haven’t been feeling well due to harsh flare-ups with some of my conditions, which have resulted in less time spent on the computer (and thus less time with you).

There are soooo many posts that I want to write and have had ideas for CV popping up in my mind faster than a garden of new spring flowers lately, yet right now I’m just grateful to be able to bring you some of the regular Chronically Vintage posts (Vintage Friday Fashionista, Saturday Snapshots, etc). I’m keeping notes on these new ideas and will strive to bring many (or all!) of them to you down the road, when I can.

I appreciate the many beautiful comments you’ve left on posts recently and apologize if I’ve not been able to return all of your visits. Excitedly however, on a more upbeat note, I’ve had two people/companies contact me this week in regards to collaborating on giveaways (still hammering out the details), so hopefully I’ll soon be able to bring you a new contest or two.

Know that I adore you all and am sending wishes your way for a beautiful tomorrow!

A very quick post to touch base

Good evening, sweet dears, how are you each on this last day in March? I hope that you’ve all been having marvellous weeks since we last spoke. My deepest and most heartfelt thanks go out to everyone who left comments (and emailed me privately) in regards to the health issue I mentioned in last Saturday’s post.

I had a very thorough doctor’s visit complete with various tests on Monday and also went for an ultrasound that day (which was preformed by the least gentle, most emotionally cold person I’ve ever encountered in the medical field, but I’m honestly trying to block the experience out of my mind, so I won’t be a negative Nancy (so to speak) and go into detail about it – let’s just say Genghis Khan would have been appalled by how viciously unkind and physically rough – for absolutely no reason – this woman was). I’ll be heading back up to the Dr.’s office next week to find out the results of all the tests and further discuss the situation.

In the meantime though I’m *trying* not to worry and am attempting to focus my thoughts on considerable more pleasant topics such as Easter, the inherent beauty of spring (which really has to arrive here any day now!), and my mother’s birthday on Friday. Even though we’re located on different sides of the country, I always get so excited when her special day rolls around – after all, of she wasn’t born, I wouldn’t be here typing this post right now!

Monday’s medical visits zapped my strength rather severely and I’m still recouping, so I’m going to continue resting tomorrow, but (baring anything unforeseen) hope to bring you a new edition of Vintage Friday Fashionista the following day.

Really and truly, thank you again, for your caring, understanding support and lovely comments. I can’t begin to tell you how much they helped lift my spirits over these past few days!


{A darling vintage card filled with springtime daisies to wish you the brightest and most lovely of April firsts tomorrow. Image via homanedheart’s Flickr stream.}


I hope that the month ahead is an amazing, sun-kissed, deeply joyful one for you all!

Taking a weekend medical leave of absence

Good morning my sweet dears, how are you each on this last weekend of March? I hope that you’re all doing beautifully and being treated to much warmer temps than Toronto has been experiencing this past week (it’s minus -7°C right now, can you believe that?)

This post is a fairly quick one to let you all know that I won’t be putting up a new edition of Saturday snapshots – or anything else for the next couple of days. As you may have noticed, I’ve been MIA since Wednesday, the reason being that late that night I experienced a new medical situation which really knocked me off my feet (figuratively speaking). I’m not going to go into exact specifics right now because I don’t have a conclusive diagnosis of the problem quite yet, but the symptoms are pointing towards to an issue with my gallbladder.

I apologize for missing yesterday’s regularly scheduled Vintage Fashionista Friday post, and for having to skip new posts this weekend. Tentatively at this stage, I hope to be back to blogging on Tuesday (30th) or Wednesday (31st) – if only to post an update of what’s going on.

Before I sign off completely for today though, I want to leave you all with something lovely and seasonally fun to enjoy, so I’ve grouped some of my most recent Flickr favourites together into a mosaic, which I’ve titled Prelude to a vintage Easter.


{1. Happy Easter, 2. easter chocs, 3. pastel easter cookies, 4. Nostalgia Organics, 5. easter easter, 6. Fleer's Dubble Bubble Gum ad, 1960s, 7. 1953_10, 8. Easter09, 9. Spring is in the air, 10. Renee & Denise, Easter, 1956, 11. Happy Easter, 12. Target Tuesday: Shabby Pink Easter Bonnet, 13. Easter Chick (With An Identity Crisis).}


I hope to be back really soon, everyone, and in am sending out wishes to you each for a gloriously wonderful weekend!

Trying very hard to find the right balance (but I could really use your help)

{Vintage photo via cessnal152towser’s Flickr stream.}

Last night I could not sleep. I tossed and turned (thankfully my husband is a fairly sound sleeper and didn’t hear my stirrings), repeatedly got out of bed only to lay back down moments later. Such an occurrence is by no means entirely uncommon for me, but there are times when something is weighing heavily enough one one’s mind to the point of robbing them of slumber, that it is best to seek advice from those near and dear you. I sincerely value each of your opinions and friendships, and want to talk bluntly to you all about something that has been eating away at me for quite some time now, in the hopes that you could help me out with it.

A recent conversation with a very dear friend (and fellow blogger/photographer) of mine in which I spoke candidly about certain elements relating to my health helped to give me the courage I needed to turn to my readers for their impute on this matter. (Once the flood gates have opened, as they say...)

I’ll spare you the details (trust me, you want to be spared), but in short I am not in a good state of health. I have not been since I was 18 years old (I’m 25.5 now), as that was the age at which I developed almost all of the chronic illnesses that I now have (more recently however, one cropped up about three years ago). I’m not, truly thankfully, dying or facing a massive medical crisis at this moment, so please do not think that I was leading this post in that direction.

One of the by-products of some of my conditions (I have about a dozen different major, chronic illnesses and a small number of lesser, but still chronic, problems) is that they greatly impede on the amount of time I’m able to spend on the computer each day.

On what I’d dub a “fantastic day”, I’m able to devote about 1.5 hours to being at my computer (many days this number is smaller, very occasionally it’s slightly higher). Due largely to one of my conditions in particular, I’m forced to break my computer usage time up into approximately two to ten minute intervals throughout the day. While I wish I could spend hours on my laptop daily, doing so is not possible at this point in my life and I have come to terms with this. I’m grateful for the time that I do have on the computer and try to use it as wisely as I can.

However, it is virtually impossible for me to stay on top of everything I need (let alone “want”) to get done online, because my computer time is so greatly limited. Between emails, writing blog posts, administering and maintaining a website (that I founded in 2004) for people who share one of my conditions, devoting time to my photography, doing research, and a trove of other online activities (which, believe me, I’ve already greatly scaled back over the last few years), I continually feel as though I’m falling further and further behind on almost everything I need to do online and on my desktop (e.g. writing blog posts).

Over the past couple of days I took an earnest stab at trying to catch up on the wonderful comments that have been left for me during the last two weeks here on Chronically Vintage, however I wasn’t able to visit all of your blogs. This bothers me so, so much (I honestly get stomach pains just thinking that I’ve not been able to come visit all those who took the time out of their day to visit my site and share their awesome thoughts with me), yet sometimes in life one has to admit defeat. In this case, I’ve been whopped by the sheer volume of comments I’ve received lately.

As I say that, please know that from the bottom of my soul, I am massively appreciative of each of those comments. I cannot stress enough how much I treasure your visits and the wonderful words you leave beneath my humble posts.

And so in lies the predicament. As many of you know, staying up-to-date with your comments (by which I mean visiting and commenting on the sites of those who stop by your blog) can just about become a full time job – or at the very least, take upwards of several hours a day. I have to be perfectly honest, it is beyond my physical ability at this point in time to spend multiple hours a day on the computer (on any activity, be it writing posts, visiting blogs or otherwise), and so I’m left racked with guilt now because I haven’t been able to catch up with all of your comments.

Up until this point, about 98% of the time I have managed to catch-up sooner or later on your comments, but this time I simply cannot. I’m truly sorry. I fully understand (and am not upset in the least) if some of my readers opt to no longer comment if I’m not able to comment on their sites. Please know that I will always give it my “fighting best” when it comes to staying abreast with your comments, but that sometimes doing so isn’t possible for me.

I need your advice. I will always permit comments on my posts, and I love hearing from you all, but I do not know how to approach the fact that sometimes I’m simply not able to keep up with your comments. What do you suggest I do?

As my readers, will some of you be hurt if, from time to time, I’m not able to comment as frequently on your posts as you may on mine? How to I determine what a good balance of time spent on replying to comments is? Perhaps is there something I can do to make up for not being able visit you on certain days?

Am I, as I know my very level headed husband would likely say, worrying about this perceived issue too much? Please, I implore you, tell me how you would handle this situation if you were in my shoes? (Yes, I do see the irony in asking for comments.)

With every fiber of my being, thank you for reading this post and for your impute, sweet friends.

Six more sleeps until Christmas!

Growing up, perhaps as many other kids did, I measured the countdown until an important date not so much in terms of days, but by the number of night’s worth of sleep left until said exhilarating day arrived. Of course these numbers are usually one in the same, but as a child measuring “sleeps” somehow seemed to bring the highly anticipated date closer even faster than marking off dates on a calendar did. The funny thing was come December 24th I was usually so bubbly with excitement, sleep was the furthest possible thing from my mind!


{Visions of sugarplums are already dancing in my head, just as when I was a youngster, I can’t help but well up with excitement as Christmas Day draws nearer! Image via Estelle and Ivy’s Flickr stream.}


These days I usually have no problem grabbing a few winks on the Christmas Eve (or nodding off in a state of exhaustive stupor – same difference, right?), but I still find a nostalgic happiness in marking my countdown in terms of the numbers of “sleeps” left to go. And so on this bitingly cold Saturday morning, with Christmas less than a week away, the natural habit of counting “sleeps” resurfaces.

On a somewhat different note, I realize that I wasn’t able to update Chronically Vintage as often over the past few days as I generally do. Some of my medical conditions are flaring up at the moment and I’m afraid that I’m not well enough to spend nearly as much time on the computer as I’d like to. I’m looking at things optimistically though and hoping that I’ll be to get to all the last minute Christmas tasks that should be done this week (I’d practically have to be unconscious to skip baking holiday cookies and preparing Christmas supper!). Likewise I will try to add further editions of Chronically Vintage’s holiday gift guide and other festive posts in the coming days, too.

Thank you dearly to all those who have recently visited and left comments, I appreciate your words, friendship and support so very much! Similarly, I truly want to extend a heartfelt thank you to each and everybody who has ever visited Chronically Vintage, for this post marks my 200th on this blog, and this site would not be the same without you all!

It’s hard to believe a blog that began last spring, born of my lifelong love of all things vintage, has now amassed two hundred posts. Chronically Vintage simply would not be the same place with out each of my immensely dear visitors and fellow vintage adoring friends, and I thank you each for helping to make this site the wonderful place that it is! Here’s to the next 200 vintage filled entries and well beyond!

As these last few days (and sleeps!) until Christmas whiz by, what events and traditions, celebrations and going-ons are keeping you on your toes, fuelling your excitement for the beautiful wondrousness that is the 25th itself?