Celebrate my Etsy's shop's 1st birthday with a 30% off storewide flash sale

My word, how time flies when you're selling vintage! Today I'm elated to celebrate the 1st birthday of my Etsy vintage shop with all of you, and what better way to mark such an milestone occasion than with a massive sale.

To mark Chronically Vintage on Etsy's first year of life, I'm holding a storewide 30% off flash sale that will run from today (May 6th) until Saturday May 9th.

This is going to be my only storewide sale of the season, so now is definitely the time to pick up that item (or two...or ten!) that you've been eyeing for a while, or to discover a new "can't live without it" treasure there.

Don't forget that I offer very low combined shipping rates on multiple items purchased at the same time and only charge true shipping. So if a shipping overage of $1.00 or more does happen to occur, I refund it to you right away after posting out your order.



Take Mable and Peggy's lead and rush over to shop Chronically Vintage's 30% off 1st anniversary sale today! And please don't be shy when it comes to sharing about this sale on social media. Just save the image above and pepper it across the web wherever you'd like!


This past year as an Etsy shop owner, on top of being a full-time vintage blogger, has been one of many exciting learning curves, honing my time management skills, awesome opportunities, newly forged friendships, support from many of my blog readers, and tons of experiences that I wouldn't have traded for the world.

While I wouldn't call myself a veteran Etsy seller yet, I'm not the newest kid on the block either any longer either and I love that fact. I know Etsy well now and have a very good sense of what it's like to earn a living there.

It takes, amongst other things, massive amounts of work, perseverance, dedication, great customer service skills, plenty of word of mouth coverage, an unwavering belief in yourself, and the ability to continually replenish your virtual shelves with awesome new finds that are apt to speak to a wide range of vintage adoring folks.

I truly want to thank each and every one of you who has helped to support my Etsy shop during its first year in so many different ways. It would not be where it is today for one red second were it not for all of you.

As we kick off its second fabulous year, I hope that you'll continue to shop my old school wares and be a part of making Chronically Vintage on Etsy an ever-greater success!

Corset Story review and giveaway

While February might be seen by many as the most romantic month of the year by many, and indeed there's no denying its connections to all things amour, since 2004, October has held the title of the most romantic month of the year for me. The reason for this, as you may be wondering, is that it just happens to house mine and Tony’s wedding anniversary.

Nearly eight years ago, in an incredibly small, intimate (less than ten people) ceremony held in my parent's living room, Tony and I were married after a whirlwind courtship of about seven months. Skip ahead nearly a decade and we're every bit - and more - in love and happy with our decision to be wed today. In the celebration of this joyful event, I'm happy to announce that I have a fantastic giveaway to offer all of you.

When one thinks of romantic garments, few come to mind quicker - or with more timelessness behind it - than the corset. Though their popularity has certainly waxed and waned over the centuries, for hundreds of years corsets have been one of the most commonplace elements of a woman's underpinings.

Though corsets began to fall out of widespread us as the Edwardian era drew to a close and the 1920s ushered in a whole new mode of fashion, and have never regained their widespread use to the same degree that they did in centuries past, they have certainly never fallen completely out of use or favour either (certainly corsets or girdles with lacing were virtually required wearing for ladies looking to get the much beloved post-WW2 wasp waist and ultra shapely hourglass figures).

Today however corsets are no longer just viewed (primarily) as a foundation garment or something worn by women in the showgirl and burlesque industries, indeed corsets can be, and are, worn as part of daywear, cosplay, fancy dress party outfits, bedroom attire, and of course, by some still, for their original intended waistline shirking purposes.

Loving historical fashions of all types as I do, I've been drawn to corsets since I was a little girl (who was mildly obsessed with the Victorians), yet can honestly say I never owned one until this fall.

Recently I was contacted by the lovely folks at corsetstory.com who were curious to know if I'd be interested in reviewing one of their fashion corsets. I jumped at the chance at about the speed of light and set about picking my corset (I went with the classily pretty Victorian Cream Corset) from amongst their thoroughly terrific array of offerings.

Once selected, the corset was mailed to me promptly and securely, and the sizing was just as stated (Fashion Corset has a handy sizing chart that makes picking the right size a breeze), which is always hugely appreciated.

Unlike a tradition steal or heavily boned corset, fashion corsets are not intended or designed to whittle inches off of your figure, instead they provide the general look of a classic corset, but offer the wearer a lot of flexibility in terms of how long they can comfortably wear the corset, what they can pair it with, and how tight they want to do the laces up in the back.

Having never worn a boned (aka, waist training) corset before, I cannot compare the two, but I can tell you that the corset I received is well made, a cinch to put on (I'm lucky enough to be able to touch anywhere on my own back, so with a little work I was able to lace it tightly on my own), and breath-takingly beautiful in person.

As few gals outside of the entertainment field wore corsets as outer wear during the mid-twentieth century, for my corset debut, I didn't try go for an inherently 40s or 50s look. If anything, it was cancan dancers of the late Victorian and early Edwardian eras that I most had in mind when I was putting together my look.

Again though, my outfit was not intended in the least to channel a specific time period, but instead to be feminine, beguiling (but not too revealing - modesty is always a must for me when in public or on camera), and thoroughly romantic. Tony assures me that my finished costume certainly hit the mark in that regard!

In addition to showing you the gorgeous corset I received from Corset Story, you also get to see some of our burgundy walled master bedroom for the first time, my partially unclothed shoulders, and a one very lopsided shot of my chest that was caused by the position I was leaning in while on our bed.

Photography by Antonio Cangiano

I adored the feeling of wearing this corset, it hugged me gently, felt very comfortable, and certainly conjured up thoughts of days - and fashions - long gone.

While it's not the kind of piece I'll be sporting every day, it's certainly not going to be relegated to the back of a drawer either. I could easily see putting this atop a classic button down blouse - or even a long peasant style top - and partnering it with a pencil skirt or two piece skirt suit for a captivating daywear look. Of course, it also lends itself sublimely to all manner of Halloween costumes - from a fairy princess to a wild west saloon girl - just as all of the items that Corset Story offers up do.

Whether you own a dozen corsets already or nary a one, but have always wanted to, there's something for just about everyone on amongst Corset Story's products, and today I'm thrilled to let you know that one lucky winner has the chance to pick the Fashion Corset of their choice from Corset Story.


How to enter:


1.) Go to Corset Story's Fashion Corset section and select the fashion corset (please note, only fashion corsets are eligible as the prize for this giveaway) that you like best, then let me know which one you picked and why you like it in the comment section of this post.


For up to four more additional entries:

2.) Like Corset Story on Facebook.

3.) Tweet about this giveaway on Twitter, including @corsetsUK and a link back to this post in your tweet (include a link to tweet in your comment).

4.) Pin any of the photos in this post, directly from this post itself, to any Pinterest board you'd like (include a link back to the pin in your comment).

5.) Be a Google Connect Friend follower of this blog (let me know what name/alias you're following Chronically vintage with in the comment section).


***Please be sure that you leave a separate comment for each entry method that you enter with, this way you increase your odds of winning because you have multiple entries.***


As per the request of the company, this giveaway is open to readers from around the world, excluding India and the continent of Africa. Participants from all other locations are permitted.

This contest will run from today until Thursday October 11, 2012 at 11:59 PST, with the winner being drawn by use of a random number generator the next day. The winner will be contacted by email and/or announced here on Chronically Vintage shortly thereafter.


I frequently receive offers for products to review and/or giveaway, but am quite selective in what I choose, as the item needs to have a certain vintage or vintage appropriate feeling to it in most circumstances.

I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that I felt Corset Story's offerings held just that. Though Corset Story’s products are modern garments, the ageless quality that corsets posses ensures my new fashion corset fits right at home in my day-to-day vintage wardrobe, where it will definitely be making a showing again on October 14th when Tony and I toast to eight resplendent years together.

Best of luck to everyone who enters this giveaway - I can't wait to hear about which fashion corset you'd love to win!

Lapping up the history of cat food

✯ Day 338 of Vintage 365 ✯

Very recently, in the midst of a highly stressful month, a special date nearly slipped by without my remembering. "Nearly" is the keyword here though, for I think that no matter how chaotic, frazzled or harried a month, I could never let November 23rd go past with recalling how that particular date just happens to be the one on which my husband and I adopted our splendidly sweet rescue cat, Stella, back in 2008.

Naturally on the petite size, Stella was still quite tiny when we brought her home (despite being about 11 weeks old at the time), and so we've really had a chance to watch her grow both in terms of size and maturity over the past three years. In that time she's filled our lives with an abundance of immeasurable joy, entertainment, and feline friendship, and we are beyond grateful for her presence in our lives every day.

Last month on the 23rd, as I sat watching Stella playing merrily with one of her toys (of which she has a hefty collection - given how much the mister and I love to spoil our darling kitty!), I began thinking about the history of domestic cats which in turn lead to reflections on the origins of commercially prepared cat food.

History buff that I am, I knew that I'd soon be writing a Chronically Vintage post on that very topic for all of my fellow cat lovers to enjoy.

For nearly as far back as humankind has kept dogs and cats as pets, these dear companions were either left to fend for themselves when meal time came around or provided with scraps/less desirable pieces of human food.

Evidentially this approach was enough to keep both species alive as a whole, yet as the Victorian era progressed, the view on pet food gradually began to change with the introduction of the first commercially prepared dog and cat food (both of which the brand Spratt was a driving force of in the late 1800s).

Though today many people might argue that some of the ingredients in the first moist pet foods were shockingly unpleasant to think about (e.g., horse meat), the availability of store bought cat and dog food meant that pet owners could now take the task of feeding their pets out of those very animals’ hands (paws) and into their own, thus helping to cut down on the malnutrition and poor health that sometimes arose when pets were left to hunt/scavenge for their food themselves.

By the mid-twentieth century canned cat food was  available in various seafood flavours, such as the tuna fish variety offered up by the brand Purr during the 1950s in the charming advertisement image below.

{Darling 1950s illustrated Purr cat food ad via hmdavid on Flickr – don’t you just love the cute slogan (“the Catillac of pet foods”) at the bottom?}

 

It was around this same time that dry cat food (aka, kibble) began to emerge on the market, following in the footsteps of dry dog kibble and biscuits, both of which had been around for a few decades (particularly biscuits), as brands that are now household names like Purina started manufacturing their well know pet food products.

Over the decades that followed more and more varieties (and one might argue, in the case of some brands at least, better quality) of cat food - both wet and dry - started hitting grocery and pet store shelves, including (but in no way limited to) beef, chicken, turkey, lamb, salmon, mixed seafood, and surf & turf versions.

Cats and their owners are spoiled for choice these days, which an especially good thing if you have a finicky eater like our precious Ms. Stella, who's partial to poultry flavours of pate and finely diced/minced varieties of canned cat food, as well as dry poultry centered kibble and treats. Initially, as a wee little kitten she was adverse to seafood (save for boneless, skinless canned salmon), but as she's grown up, I've been able to introduce a couple of wet seafood based cat foods into her routine without much in the way of an objection.

While I'm all for a great many elements of days gone past, I'm thankful for the progression (including a good understanding of proper feline nutrition) in pet food that the world has seen in the last century and highly suspect that Stella (who got a very generous sized portion of her favourite chicken pate cat food on her adoption anniversary) is too!

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?

Happy first Stellaversary!

What on earth, you may very rightfully ask, is “Stellaversary”? Well, it just so happens that the word Stellaversary is a completely homemade term I created as a way of marking the date when we first brought our darling cat, Stella home. As today, the 23rd of November, is the one year anniversary of when she came into our lives, I am hereby proclaiming this date to the first annual Stellaversary!

Though both my husband and I had the pleasure of growing up in homes with pets, as a couple, Stella is the first animal that we can jointly call our own. We’re both massive animal lovers and had known from day one that we wanted a pet (or two...), but for the first few years of our relationship our lives were in too much of a state of flux (several moves – including overseas, waiting for life altering decisions from Immigration Canada, etc) for us to have responsibly taken on a pet.

Last year, for the first time ever in our life together, things began to settle down, (positive) outcomes were finally reached, and we knew that at long last it was OK for us to consider bringing home a pet. We didn’t set out on this exact date one year ago with the intention of bringing home a cat, we’d actually gone out to buy a dining room table, of all things! Well, we succeeded in finding a beautiful one of those (on sale!), and afterwards continued bopping around to various places in that part of town.

As the evening wore on we found ourselves at a PetSmart which just happened to be one of the locations that includes an in-house animal rescue adoption centre. All of the cats at PetSmart are ones that have found their way their from animal shelters (such as the SPCA) and who are looking for loving “forever” families of their own. Both my husband and I are huge supporters of adopting shelter animals, so when we saw two adorable, 11 week old kittens staring up at us through the viewing glass of the cat corner (of the store), we instantly asked if we could look at and hold them.

Though we would have loved dearly to be able to have brought them both home with us, we knew that it would be much more economically responsible for just get one cat. The pair that batted their sweet golden eyes at us were brother and sister, of whom we decided to adopt the girl, Stella (at the time she was the calmer of the two, a trait that we thought would make her a good house cat – as we live in a high rise apartment and she wouldn’t, and isn’t, allowed outside...little did we know then that she had a secret rambunctious side that would put the Energizer bunny to shame!).

After speaking with the person in charge of the cats (who told us that the kittens were feral strays, but had no further information about their background other than their age), we loading up a shopping cart (at PetSmart) with everything (and then some) that a young kitten might ever want or need, paid for our kitty supplies, and with hearts bursting to the breaking point with love and excitement, brought our new kitten home.

For the first few days she was very, very shy (she camped out under the sofa for the most part), yet after a little while our new baby cat warmed up to us. We named her Stella (the Italian word for star, as her grey fur and sparkling yellow eyes both reminded me of stars in the night sky) and suddenly we came to realize how very much our lives had been missing without this wonderful animal in it.

Jump ahead a year and Stella is every bit as adorable today as she was back then. Full of spunk and energy, she’s a bright, inquisitive, massively energetic cat who loves to run around the apartment, exploring ever nook and cranny, play with her (plethora of) toys, sleep in her kitty condo (a gift from my parents to their “grandkitty”), and curl up with my us from time to time for a good snuggle.

Stella is not the most “lap cat” of felines, but for all her playfulness, she is exceedingly sweet and often seems to know when I’m feeling extra rough health wise. On such days she’ll curl up with me in bed or on the sofa as I watch TV, purring loudly and nestling her little grey face into against me. Whether she knows it or not, Stella is a therapy pet. Though it was us that saved her, in so many ways she has also rescued us.

She is also a joy, a blessing, and a truly wonderful animal. It’s nearly impossible to fathom how life would be today if we’d not brought Stella home. Though we may very have adopted a different cat at some point, they would not have been our darling Stella. Just as with children, no two pets ever exactly alike, and when it comes to wonderful kitties we could not have found a more darling pet than our sweet Stella.


{1. Even the best of us must rest sometime, 2. A vision of cuteness, 3. "Mommy, mommy", purred Stella, "I saw another one, it's up there, look!", 4. I'm not vicious! You just caught me mid-yawn :), 5. Contemplating everything that flutters, flaps or flies, 6. Pink is the love you discover, 7. Stella wishes everyone a sunny Sunday, 8. Stella ponders whether or not she should steal yet another strawberry from the "human's" curious display of temptation, 9. Sunshine makes me sleepy, 10. What is this strange, warm, wonderful light?, 11. Reach for your dreams, 12. Such a very serious look, for one so young, 13. I'm so precious. Twelve images, to represent each delightful month that we’ve had her, plus one more to symbolize my love for Stella, make up this mosaic that shows the many expressions and moods of our precious grey tabby. All photos were taken by me and are from my Flickr stream.}

My dear friends, please join me in celebrating one year of a life filled with the pitter-patter of four tiny paws, and in the merriment of my endless love for my cat, as we mark the first ever Stellaversary!