Flickr Favourites: December 27, 2015

{Gala Midnite Show New Year's Eve ~ Tom Simpson}



{A Very Happy New Year Scottie ~ The Vintage Traveler}



{Pine cones and branch on toy sledge ~ Tatyana Titova}



{Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz ~ Lucy_Fan}



{Sweet Bouquet ~ Bunches and Bits}



{Tree Hat ~ James Vaughn}



{USSR New Year ~ Katya}


{1955 ... scandal in choir! ~ James Vaughn}



{Cadê meu presente de natal? ~ http://bit.ly/1NEdc7O}


{1946 Mona Freeman ~ Amy Jeanne}

{All images above are from Flickr. To learn more about a specific image, please click on its title to be taken to its respective Flickr page.} 

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The year is truly winding down, but the festive celebrations are still going strong and as such I didn't want to delve into anything to hard and heavy - or labour intensive on either of our sides - here today.

There is always a certain sort of beautiful bitter sweetness to the end of the year. Whether one adored or abhorred the twelve months that just passed, there's no denying that saying goodbye to a given year is always at least a little bit tough.

These months, so bracingly recent in our minds were our friends, while they lasted, and they got us through to this very moment. Some were likely better than others, and probably had their own respective highs and lows, but when all was said and done, there was a greatness to the sum of their parts, no matter what.

For me 2015 was a year dominated by a great deal of introspective thought. A lot of thinking not only about how I would like my life to be right now, but also in the coming years and beyond, and by often feeling like I was being productive, but in some parts of my life, in a way that was akin to spinning my wheels, without moving forward as much as I would have ideally liked.

Not in all areas of course, and on the Etsy shop (where everything is currently 30% off until January 4th) front in particular, I'm thrilled with the growth that took place there, from inventory numbers to sales figures to the diversity of antique and vintage products I've been able to offer my customers.

It was a year of some unexpected points - both good (Tony's exciting work trip to the States for the summer) and bad (my maternal grandma's cancer diagnosis and subsequent surgery + treatment, for example), personal growth, and making certain firm decisions about how I want my blog, business, and life to hopefully continue to unfold. 

2015 wasn't the best year ever, but it certainly wasn't the worst ever either and, really, any time you can walk away from a given set of twelve months and say that, it's worth smiling extra big as the ball drops at midnight on January 1st.

That is exactly what I'll be doing come the big night next week. Blessing counted, my precious husband and pets by my side, and a really positive outlook on the coming year planted squarely in my mind as I do so.

Happiest New Year's wishes, everyone!

Flickr Favourites: November 20, 2015 (plus an awesome giveaway over at CiCi Marie's!)

{The Bill ~ James Vaughn}






{1950 Family Circle Magazine Cover ~ Classic Film}


{Red-Bellied Woodpecker 28 ~ Diane Giurco}



{All Bright 'N Shiny ~ Paul Malon}



{Cutex Nail Polish, May 1946 ~ The Bee's Knees Daily}



{Röd lada/red barn/shades of grey ~ Tomas Baliukonis}



{The New Movie Magazine, June 1931 ~ The Bee's Knees Daily}

{Red ~ Kon!}

{1944 ... "A Wave, a Wac and a Marine" ~ James Vaughn}



{The Starlight Roof, Waldorf Astoria Hotel ~ Paul Malon}

{All images above are from Flickr. To learn more about a specific image, please click on its title to be taken to its respective Flickr page.}

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My passion for, and frequent wearing, of red/black/white and/or grey is anything but a state secret. I've mentioned it here before, including in this vintage outfit post from last August and as we head into winter again - fall time weather being as good as a distant memory here in Canada at this point time - my mind is turning to it once again, as I wear this combo during the winter more than at any other point in the year.

While red is certainly one of my signature colours, and a beloved favourite, too, this particular colour combination excels, in my opinion, because of the sum of its parts. It is classic and bold, but rarely jarring. Elements of it match winter's tones, while the fiery red provides a dose of warmth and vibrancy that is so often devoid from this season - save for in our festive December decor.

The grey and/or white in the equation are as calm as the first delicate snowflakes that accompany the falling mercury and the black speaks to the fact that winter is the end of one year. Yet in its very darkness, the slumbering world of Mother Nature will be reborn as the season draws to an end and we usher in spring's return. That point though, especially considering that we're still technically in autumn, is a long way's off though.

First there are snowmen to make, holiday treats to whip up by the dozens, many a layer to bundle under, and the bleakness - and light - of this time of the year alike to celebrate and welcome into our lives For there is an undeniable beauty and elegance to winter that resides in the stillness, the haunting chill, and annual traditions aplenty that call winter home - not unlike that of the timeless marriage of red, black, white and grey itself.

Even if winter is far from your favourite season, I encourage you to embrace the hidden loveliness in it and to keep yourself warm, if only in spirit, but wearing sizzling colours, like red, orange or yellow, yourself this season as well. It will go a long way in helping to keep your spirits up until that distant day when spring really does roll back into town again!

*PS* Speaking of things to help fuel your spirits this season, have you heard about the fabulous Etsy shop giveaway that I'm holding on my dear friend CiCi's beautiful blog, CiCi Marie? You'll definitely want to check out her sweeter-than-sweet review + giveaway post and enter for your chance to win a $75.00 store credit to my Etsy shop right away!

Halloween 2015 Edition of Flickr Favourites

{Lighting the Jack O' Lantern ~ Paul Malon}






{Burlington Hosiery, September 1959 ~ The Bee's Knees Daily}  


{Moon & Ominous Clouds ~ Lost My Headache}



{Halloween decorations ~ Kath in the Cupboard}



{Vintage Halloween Postcard ~ Susan Criser}



{Closed factory chemistry lab detail ~ Pedro Domingos}



{2010 Halloween Honeys ~ Missy}

{Vintage Halloween Parties ~ Old Halloween}

 

{Halloween kitten ~ Marie's Shots}



{Vintage Halloween Postcard ~ Rip The Skull}

{All images above are from Flickr. To learn more about a specific image, please click on its title to be taken to its respective Flickr page.}

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Oohhh, how I've eagerly come to look forward to penning the Halloween edition of Flickr Favourites each year! There are so many marvelously festive images to be had on that huge communal photo (and illustration) sharing site and this year's crop of All Hallows Eve ones is amongst my favourites highlighted in this post to date.

Halloween is always incredibly special to me - and many others the world over, too - but when it falls on Saturday, as it does this year, I can't help but adore it even more, because I'm reminded of the unbridled fun of my youth, when a Saturday Halloween meant that you could spend every moment of the day from dawn to midnight focused on the big day night itself - and without having to think about school the next day to boot!

It's been a long, long time since I was last a student, but I still get every bit as giddy about Halloween. The classroom parties of yore are a distant memory, but not the celebrations I (we) host every October 31st at our house for loved ones.

Costumes, scrumptious foods complete with more sugar than you shake an autumn leaf covered stick at all, handing out candy to trick-or-treaters, watching festive movies (camping, not scary, for me, please and thank you!) very much including my all-time favourite Halloween flick, Disney's Hocus Pocus, and listing to festive music all in a house decorated in no shortage of seasonal accoutrements, are all still the same sorts of things as back when I was little and I know that these treasured elements of Halloween will never change for me.

They are to that day as presents, turkey, and Christmas carols are to December 25th, which - wow - come to think of it, is precisely two months away. Fabulous as that season is unto itself, I'm in no hurry to get there yet. At least not until November 1st, when the Halloween decorations come down the Christmas season plans and decorating start in earnest shortly thereafter.

Nope, right here, right now, it's all about the cobwebs and scarecrows, candy apples and merriment of this fabulously festive autumn celebration. These playfully eerie elements will always, no matter if I live to be a hundred years old, bring out the kid in me and make me delight, in much as the same way as I did when I was knee high to pumpkin, over the spooky fun that All Hallows Eve!

What are you looking forward to this Halloween, my sweet dears?

Flickr Favourites: September 7, 2015

{Hair pins win war ~ X-Ray Delta One}


{Lady in Green postcard ~ Totally Mystified}  


{Acorn ~ Marko_K}



{Bon Fête postcard ~ Totally Mystified}



{Web ~ Kenny Louie}



{1960 Denby Pottery ad ~ Totally Mystified}



{1957 hair colors ~ Totally Mystified}


{Male Wood Duck ~ Karen Chappell}



{1956 illustration by Joan Beale ~ Totally Mystified}



{Vogue magazine 1948 ~ Dovima2010}

{All images above are from Flickr. To learn more about a specific image, please click on its title to be taken to its respective Flickr page.}

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Has the first nip of autumn graced your town yet or are you still in the last energetic throws of summer? We land in the latter camp, but it won't be long now until the two seasons collide, their palettes mingling, their temperates fluctuating, their respective garden offerings changing hands in a silent waltz that has gone on for countless centuries.

The brief, gorgeous, enticing period that hangs between summer and autumn is rarely more than a two or three weeks long, but what a special, exciting time of the year it is! Warm, but not blazingly so, crisp, but not icy. It smells of lingering sunscreen and the first plumes of chimney smoke alike. School returns to session, swimsuits and wool coats pass each other like ship's in the night, one coming into rotation, as the other is loving packed away until late next summer (or a much needed winter vacation). There are peaches and pumpkins, summertime pinks and rusty fall golds, bare legs one day, knit tight clad gams the next.

There is a vitality that feels nearly palpable to the finale days of summer, as sunflowers sway in the breeze, backpack clad youngsters scampering down the sidewalk in the crisp morning light, and one's natural instinct to rouse the oven from hibernation returns as suddenly as the ability to comfortably wear open toed shoes disappears.

Today's edition of Flickr Favourites captures some of the hues and imagery itself of this fleeting window, this changing of the season guards, this new year of sorts, nearly four months before the ball officially drops.

While I do wish summer would stick around for another decade or so, I'll admit to feeling a touch giddy already about autumn's return and each merry, magical, marvelous day that it promises. Today however, with the thermostat still closer to July than January, I'll stay squarely parked in summer's camp a little longer. It's warm and sunny, tranquil and invigorating at the same time here, plus, it lets me wear my beloved vintage sundresses a little longer.

Soon though, as quickly as a spider spins a web during the night, fall will be here and I will, I assure you, be singing its praises from the amber leaf strew rooftop - seasonal blog posts aplenty squarely in tow.

Flickr Favourites: August 8, 2015

{Playtime togs ~ kristine}




{Vegetable sandwich~ Sara Domjan}



{Model in striped wool jersey dress (c. 1946) ~ Arnold Kabini}




{1959 Dole Pineapple ad ~ Totally Mystified}



{I'm feeling a little blue today ~ Steve Wilson}



{Good Housekeeping Mar 1951 ~ File Photo Digital Archive}



{1957 Saxone ad ~ Totally Mystified}



{1958 Admiral Stero ad ~ Totally Mystified}



{Baby Hérisson ~ Swann Chedemail}



{Blue and gold (1946) ~ Roz Leibowitz}

{All images above are from Flickr. To learn more about a specific image, please click on its title to be taken to its respective Flickr page.} 

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August is a bold time of the year - brazen, some might even say. As a general rule, it's summer's last great stance, and indeed, is the final full month of the season. It's hot, fun, and full of rich, captivating, beautiful colours, amongst which gold, blue, dusty brown, and black always spring to mind for me.

They make me think of everything from dips in the lake when it's a sultry 35C at 11pm to evenings spent watching stars pirouette across the heavens to the colours of the sand and sagebrush strew hills that flank our town.

I love August and its intoxicating heat. I use it to nap, to talk walks, to wear my favourite sundresses, and to simply sit quietly and do nothing sometimes, in the great tradition of summers and porches everywhere.

August might feel like it flies by in the blink of an eye, but its rarely rushed and it loves to take the wheel, dictating, happily I might add, how you spend a good chunk of it. Thankfully, most of us so want to soak up every last ounce of sunshine while it’s still here, so that’s rarely a negative thing.

Stores are already starting to make room on their shelves for Halloween decorations and while I adore fall and its wonderful holidays with an unending passion, I am nowhere near getting my rake, plastic pumpkins, or Thanksgiving recipes out of storage yet.

Nope, no siree, no way. Right here, right now, I just want to watch the sun set over Okanagan Lake every night in a captivating, alluring, soulful palette that rather resembles the one featured here in this month's edition of Flickr Favourites. Coincidence? Just between you and I, not in the slightest! :)