Party like it's 1949!

✯ Day 365 of Vintage 365 ✯

We've done it, sweet friends, through the highs and the lows, the smiles and the worries we've reached the last and final day of the Vintage 365 Project.

Amidst record breaking heat waves and an (albeit minor, in terms of how much we felt it up here in Ontario) earthquake, a broken foot, three surgeries, anniversaries, beloved holidays and a lot of personal turmoil in my life this past year, like a shinning beckon of old school hope, this project helped keep my spirits up and was nothing short of a joy to work on every day.

As I covered pretty much this same point in yesterday's post, I won't rehash it again, but I did just want to clarify one point (which people have actually been bringing up for several months now): while I will no longer be blogging here absolutely every day of the year, this blog is definitely still remaining active and will hopefully see the inclusion of two or more new posts each week.

Some will be chocked full of fascinating historical information, others (I hope!) photos of my vintage outfits, holiday celebrations (especially - and this will not come as a shock to any long time Chronically Vintage readers - Halloween), handy tips on a wide range of topics, gorgeous photographs and ads from days gone by, delightful web finds, scrumptious recipes, clothing sources, facts about historical figures, toe-tapping yesteryear tunes, and myriad other topics pertaining to the mid-twentieth century.

To say I look forward to what 2012 has in store both for my life and for Chronically Vintage, would be a rather hefty understatement! I'm planning on making this a year filled with as much vintage as I can possibly cram into every last nook and cranny, and cannot wait to share it will all of you!

For today though, let's all turn our attention to the holiday celebration at hand. In less than 24 hours we'll be whisking away 2011 (which I know many are apt to say "good riddance" to!), and welcoming the New Year with open arms and a highly optimistic outlook.

{Actress, dancer and comedian Olga San Juan looking shipshape and completely cheerful (just as I'm feeling right now, too!) as she rings in the New Year in this fantastic vintage image from the late 1940s. Photograph via carbonated on Flickr.}

 

The title of today's post is a spin on Prince's classic song, 1999, and in a nod to the fact that I want to make 2012 (as just mentioned) the most vintage filled year of my life. The past is constantly an invaluable part of my present, and I feel so blessed that I have an outlet like this blog to share my unyielding passion for all things vintage with each and every one of you.

I hope that whether you're kicking it old school tonight at a gala soirée, gathering in Times Square, spending a quiet night at home watching the ball drop (like me and the mister), or partying the night away, I sincerely hope you have a stellar New Year's Eve!!!

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, everyone for being a part of the Vintage 365 project this year. I couldn't have done it without you and am so excited to celebrate all that 2012 has in store together!

Reflecting on a year's worth of daily blog posts

✯ Day 364 of Vintage 365 ✯

Just as the classic verses of that beloved New Year's favourite Auld Lang Syne ponder if old acquaintances should be forgotten (generally speaking, no - friends new and old are endlessly important threads in the tapestry of our lives), so too do I feel that old blog posts deserve to be remembered from time-to-time.

And what more fitting an occasion to look back a handful of the entries that graced Chronically Vintage's pages over the course of 2011 than on the second to last day of the year.

As most readers know, this past year I embarked on a daily blogging project called Vintage 365 (which would feature a different vintage related topic and image for each day of year).

The notion to do so came to me pretty much a year ago to the day, and at first seemed both so far-fetched (knowing how tricky it can be for me to blog frequently at the best of times) and seriously awesome. I gave the idea one, maybe two days of thought, but could not shake it from my mind and fell in love with it more with each passing hour.

Thus, when January 1st rolled around, I announced and began this ambitious project, which - I'm ticked pink to say - was able to weather various storms in my life over the past year and hold on tight for a full 365 days (ok, technically tomorrow will be the 365th post, but as I've already written that entry, so I can safely say that it will go live tomorrow).

Over this past year we've delved into topics as diverse as the history of mail order catalogs, dog nail polish, popular vintage baby names, the lives of vintage items before they reach you, WW2 Canadian ration coupons, Paris in the 1920s, and a new name for our grandparents' generation – to list but a few of the many, many subjects that called the Vintage 365 series home.

It's hard to believe that in less than 48 hours this project, which had been a part of my life for an entire year solid, will start to become a memory.

Though, I won't lie to you, there were days when it was tricky (for whatever reason) to post or to rustle up the mojo to keep going, more often than not I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and often found myself faced with quite the opposite problem - more topics to post about than I had days in a given week!

{Much like the upbeat looking vintage gal pictured above, I usually sat down to write posts for this year's daily blogging project with eagerness and a smile on my face. I had a blast covering such a broad range of topics, challenging myself to keep going on those tougher days, and coming up with new, varied ideas for each day's entry. Image via allposter.co.uk.}

Many of you have been with me from the beginning of this project, others became avid readers along the road, and a for a few this post itself may be the first they've ever read Chronically Vintage. Wherever you joined up in this yearlong blogging adventure, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for your support, encouragement, comments, and inspiration.

It was you, my sweet readers, who fuelled me on and helped keep my spirits soaring high all through the year. It has been a joy and an honour to share in this daily vintage blogging project with you, and I truly look forward to all the wonderful new adventures 2012  holds in store for both this blog (which will be reverting to its pre-vintage 365 state of regular, but not continually daily posts) and all of our lives.

Introducing Vintage 365, a daily project for 2011

Have you ever had an idea pop into your head completely out of nowhere and suddenly it’s nearly all you can think about? I had one of those shinny ideas the night before last, as I was on the cusp of drifting off to sleep (isn’t that generally when great new notions suddenly spring up?).

What was this light bulb moment, you ask? How about, my mind pondered, doing a very short, very diverse post here on Chronically Vintage each and every day for the next 365 days?

It really truck me that sharing a vintage find everyday with my reader throughout 2011 would be incredibly fun and immensely worthwhile. Such an initiative would follow in a similar vein to various photography projects (on Flickr and elsewhere) and blogs with the goal of adding one image/post a day each day for an entire year.

So was born the idea of “Vintage 365”, a short daily post in which I share one – just one – vintage related item. The topics of said posts could be anything from a stunning vintage wedding dress I spied on etsy to a terrific vintage ad scanned from a magazine in my personal collection, a great piece of 1940s pin-up art to a a wonderful post I read on another vintage blog and want to share with all of you.

The premise is very straightforward: one post per day (generally published at the same time daily - though this point is a bit flexible, if there's a reason why the daily post should appear sooner or later in the day than its usual time slot), with one image, and a very short (think one or two paragraphs max, as a general rule) blurb pertaining to that image.

As many of my readers know, it’s not always possible for me to write lengthy posts each day, but in less time than it often takes me to research and construct one post, I can put together several days worth of Vintage 365 entries, which means that I’ll be able to share more of what is currently inspiring me in the vintage world with all of you.

Please note that I absolutely still plan on posting longer posts once or twice a week (much as the post rate here has been for the last few months), but now instead of just those posts, you’ll be able to get your Chronically Vintage fix every single day.

I weighed the pros and cons of launching such a project heavily. I didn’t want to rush into something that might not be sustainable , but I figured that life can only ever be lived one day at a time and that, the benefits of doing this project far outweighed any cons I could think.

I love vintage, I love sharing in our mutual passion for vintage, and I love using the content of this blog as a source of vintage inspiration for both myself, and I very much hope, all of you, too.

So without further ado, on the first brand new day of 2011, here is the inaugural Vintage 365 entry. I can hardly wait to share this project with you every day and am giddy with excitement as I think about all the vintage wonderfulness this project is going to be comprised of.

 

✯ Day 1 of Vintage 365 ✯

 

 

I think that a feeling of nearly euphoric excitement swirled with the hope of a better future has been a universal theme for as long as people have celebrated a date on which they dived one year into the next. In this fabulous vintage photo from 1939 (which comes via carbonated on Flickr), we see a throng of merry party goers excitedly catching dozens of balloons as they tumble from the ceiling, the crowd awash with joy and excitement as they ring in the New Year.

It's not every day you see action-packed, candid vintage shots like and I was instantly struck by how very similar the people in it, and all of us festive revellers last night, must have felt, for hope and the prospect of greater happiness are eternal themes that are born anew each January 1st.