Introducing a fun new post series: Links, Life, Love

 Soooooo, you guys remember back in early January when I decided to retire some of my long standing reoccurring blog post series? (As discussed in this post.) Though I've not yet regretted that decision for a moment and have greatly been enjoying exploring other writing channels in place of where they once occurred, the more time that goes on, the greater the sense of longing for some sort of regularly occurring link sharing post becomes.

I didn’t want to revive my "Vintage Link Love" series however, as I stand behind the reasons why it was handed a gold watch and sincerely thanked for its diligent years of loyal service. Instead I want to launch a new post right here, right now, that will combine elements of that past series with others topics that I often want to discuss with all of you, too, but don't always have the ability to set aside a whole post for right in the moment.

By the same token though, I don't want these posts to be a million miles long, nor will they necessarily be occurring here on a month-by-month basis. In fact, I want them to be as "on the fly” as possible.

They're going to combine a small smattering of (mostly vintage related) links from around the web that have caught my eye lately, include a (likely) brief look at some of what has been transpiring in my personal life lately, and also share some of things - online or off - that I've been loving and/or feeling deeply inspired by in recent weeks.

Generally speaking all of these are points that most of my readers really enjoy hearing about, so without further ado, may I present you to the first ever edition of Links, Life, Love.


Links:

I swear it was you, my dears, and your plethora of awesome posts in the first few weeks of 2016 that ultimately birthed this series. Try as I may, I couldn't stop bookmarking articles that spoke to me and that I, in turn, wanted to speak to each of you, my lovely readers, about. There's just too much awesomeness being created each day, week and month of the year online not to shine the spotlight on at least a wee fraction of it here.


-Detroit in the 1940s: Then as now, Detroit has not been without its highs and lows, struggles and beauties, as this striking photo filled piece from The Atlantic about the Motor City and its inhabitants during the mid-twentieth century heyday.


-The Ultimate List of Maternity Friendly Retro Clothing: Recently the immensely lovely Bethany from Miss Betty Doll gave birth to her second child, a gorgeous new daughter and little sister to her first sweet girl, and as she rocked vintage/repro/retro styles through her pregnancy, she decided to put together an excellent and very thorough list of some of the best sources for just such fashions when one is expecting. It's a must bookmark no matter if you ever plan to have wee ones of your own or not.


-Women of the Big Band era that everyone should know: My good friend - and fellow Canadian gal - Liz from Vintage Inn excels at penning informative, exciting, and just plain awesome history filled posts and one of her latest, which takes a gander at some of the female stars of the big band era, is no exception.


-Things Pale Girls are Sick of Hearing: Given that I've actually been called "a vampire" before in public by complete strangers, even when I wasn't wearing goth fashions or makeup, simply because of my light complexion, this great Forever Amber post hit home for me big time!


-How to alter clip-on earrings into post earrings: Let's face it, objectively, few people find clip-on earrings to be as comfortable as pierced styles, provided you have holes in your lobes, so if you've ever wished you could comfortably sport a pair of clip-ons without their pinchy pain, this wonderful DIY tutorial from Christina, that shows you how to convert clip-ons to post style earrings, is definitely for you!


-Vintage stocking guide: In need of a vintage stocking 101 class or just want to brush up on the details of sporting old school hosiery. Emeleigh to the rescue with this terrific entry on the subject.


-6 ways to temporarily trim a plain hat: Ever wanted to jazz up a ho-hum hat without permanently altering it? Enter these six stellar tips from endlessly talented milliner, my dear friend, and fellow vintage blogger Tanith Rowan to the rescue!


-And speaking of vintage hats (something that one should do often! :)), how fabulous is this detailed look at How to refresh vintage hats/veils from none other than the thoroughly lovely Emily from Emily's Vintage Visions. You'll never look at a bedraggled hat the same way again!


-And last, but definitely not least, a really sweet Facebook friend, and fellow old school adoring lady, of mine, Elizabeth, recently took the plunge and launched her own mid-century fashion blog called Gloriously Vintage. If you haven't caught wind of it already, I highly encourage you to go check Elizabeth's site out and shower her with love and comments as she begins her own exciting vintage blogging journey.

{Those hats though!!!}

Life:

First and foremost, thank you very, very much to all those who shared their thoughts with me in the comment section of last week's post about some of the substantial changes that Etsy has been making lately.

I won't lie, I was pretty shook up by the major overhaul of that site (chiefly in terms of how seller's shops now look) and am still battling some stress and anxiety from it, but being a glass half full kind of gal, I'm trying to just buck up and make the best of things, believing wholeheartedly that when the reno dust has finally settled (even if that takes a few months) things will largely get back to normal there and my shop and I will have weathered this suddenly storm intact.

Secondly, it's spring! I know, stop the presses! But seriously, it is and that has me beyond jazzed. Though I was going through a rather rough patch on the health front throughout all of March and very early April (I was only well enough to leave the house twice in six weeks and then only for a little while each time; this sort of thing is super common for me, so it didn’t phase me too much, but I was starting to get cabin fever a bit as the sunshine rolled back into town and I really hope that April will be kinder to me in so much as my health is concerned).

Things are well here in our wee abode. March 19th marked the three year anniversary of the day that we brought home our darling dog, Annie, and the following day marked the 12th anniversary of when my husband, Tony, and I first met back in 2004. How time massively flies!




Speaking of my Italian cutie pie, he's headed to Austin, Texas at the end of this month for a brief work trip. It's not possible for me to tag along with him (it just doesn’t make sense for us to spend several hundred dollars on a ticket for me when he’ll be there for such a short time), but I'll definitely be saying hello to the Lone Star state in spirit and can't wait to here his first impressions of this very famous corner of the U.S.A..

With spring's arrival, even in the face of not doing too well health wise in recent weeks, I've been in a very creative, energetic mindset lately and have been a seriously productive panda in many areas of my life and work. Trust me when I say that, thanks to such, there are so many fun new posts coming down the pipeline this spring and summer - and I can hardly wait to share all of them with you!



Love:

Before I go any further, I would be truly remiss if I didn't thoroughly thank my beautiful friend Vanessa, from the blog, Nessbow, for inspiring this portion of my latest blog post series care of her own terrific ongoing series called Things I Love Thursday (in which she details some of the various things that she's been wild about lately).

These posts of hers have long struck a chord with me and I always knew that it wasn't a matter of if, but when, I finally took her lead and implemented something similar here on my own site.

So far spring I've been seriously crushing on the following things:


-Purple - as in the colour: Suddenly, I can't get enough of it in any form. Clothes, flowers, desserts, craft supplies, home decor, you name it, violet is my new game!

-The fact that, for the first time ever, my Instagram account hit more than 5,000 followers. This has been a milestone number that I've been working diligently to reach for quite some time now and I can't thank every who follows me enough for making it happen.

-Baby/new potatoes: A timeless favourite, I've scarcely been going more than three or four days without serving these scrumptious little nuggets up garden grown goodness - often with fresh mint, dill, or chives, a ribbon of butter and a glorious springtime sunset cascading over our dinner table to help make things even more sublime.

-The smell of fresh cut grass wafting through the breeze again (it is, after all, one of my top ten favourite scents of all time).

-Fellow vintage blogger Sabrina’s super cool newly launched Etsy shop, Inky Notions, which abounds with her splendid hand drawn illustrations, many of which are thoroughly vintage focused (watch for a collab post between Sabrina and I a little later this year – it’s going to be a blast!).

-The latest season of House of Cards. Action packed, riveting, and so full of that characteristically conniving, brilliant, megalomaniacal Frank and Claire Underwood goodness that we all adore.

-My new oversized blank page notebook that I've been cramming full of hand written notes and simple sketches for blog, Etsy and crafting related ideas that have been flowing like a waterfall from my mind in recent weeks.

-The Daily Otter. No matter what life throws my way, this site never fails to perk my mood back up in 0.005 seconds flat.


{To learn more about a specific image used in today's post, please click on it to be taken to its respective source.}

♥ ♥ ♥

So there you have it, sweet darling, links are back, you get to find out more about what's taking place in my life outside of the vintage realm, and I cap off the whole kit and caboodle by sharing a wee array of things that I'm crazy in love with right here and now. Delightfully fun, oui?

Again, I'm not setting a schedule for these posts. They'll appear here every so often, once I've built up at least a few entries for each of the three sections they entail and, you know, the fact that I have a place to share these things with you all again is my final "love entry" for this inaugural edition.

Have a marvelous Monday and gorgeous week ahead, everyone!

The new computer is finally here, plus the winner of the V&Oak giveaway

Yay!!! At long last, more than three weeks after it was ordered, my new Lenovo laptop has arrived (to be fair, it was a customized laptop, which is part of the reason it took a while). I blogged about the fact that my old one was moments away from typing its last word here on November 8th, and though it managed to (in long stops and temporary starts) officially hang in there until the 22nd, that day proved to be its very last and I've been computer-less ever since. Not any more though, thankfully!!!



{I'm as happy as a - you guessed it - pig in mud about the fact that my new computer arrived today! Image source.}


Having already had a number of November's entries written and scheduled to go live throughout the month before that happened, things were able to stay afloat on the new post front for the most part, though (for the first time in 2013) I wasn't able to do my usual month-in-review post at the end of November (as I always write it, naturally, at the very end of the month). If you'd like to see all of the seventeen different posts that appeared here last month, pop on by the achieves anytime.

As you might imagine, I've got quite a backlog (of emails, Facebook messages, etc) to catch up on, and will be doing so this week and beyond. If you've left a blog comment here recently that included a question for me which I haven't yet answered (in a reply comment), please feel free to post it again in the comments here or to email me, and I'll get back to you asap.

Much like moving houses, setting up a new computer takes a fair bit of work, there are always some bumps in the road, at least a few curveballs, and a different structure to get used to, but I can already tell after just a couple of hours on this powerhouse of a machine, that it and I are going to get along swimmingly.

Last week saw a great giveaway here from UK vintage fashion and lifestyle magazine V&Oak for a one year subscription to the publication. That giveaway wrapped up yesterday, with coincidentally perfect timing in terms of my new laptop's arrival so as to be able to draw and announce the winner today.

I've done just that using a random number generator, and am pleased as punch to announce the that the winning comment (number 27) belongs to fellow vintage loving Canadian gal, Daphne of the charmingly lovely blog Vixage. Oodles of congrats, Daphne!!!

Speaking of giveaways, the fabulously witty, vintage loving Katie Mullaly is holding her first ever blog giveaway and it's a gem, if ever there was. Twelve pretty jewelry prizes, in celebration of the twelve days of Christmas, are up for grabs, so if you've like to try your hand at winning one (and who wouldn't?) swing on by Katie's eponymously named blog and do starting today.

Though this certainly isn't a month-in-review post about November, I did want to quickly mention a couple of things from earlier in the fall. At the end of October, I had the great pleasure of being interview by UK site The Blogger's Lounge, which as the name implies, is devoted to topics pertaining to blogging, with interviews and advice from some of the most popular and interesting bloggers in their respective fields from around the world. My interview consisted of six terrific questions, all of which pertained to Chronically Vintage and blogging in general. I'm head-over-heels passionate about blogging and helping others succeed on this endlessly exciting front, so it was a sincere treat to focus on that subject in this interview.

More recently, on – interestingly enough – the very last day of my old laptop’s life (with this post) – Chronically Vintage reached an awesome milestone: 1,000 blog posts! It has been a truly incredible joy to write and share each and every one of them with you over the past 4.5 years, and I am wholeheartedly look forward to the next thousand and beyond.





Now that I have a (fully functioning!) laptop again, give or take a little time for catching up on the aforementioned backlog and getting acquainted with my new computer, things should be back to normal here (by which I mean, I'll be online, visiting your marvelous sites again, keeping abreast of my feeds, on social media more, etc) - at least as much as one reasonably can during the fast paced holiday season! :)

I want to sincerely thank all of you for your patience and understanding (and wonderful blog comments) while I was computer-less recently. I have sincerely missed all of you and am both elated and relieved to have a new laptop and to be able to connect with you again.

Here's to a joyful start of the holiday season and the hope that December concludes 2013 on an upbeat, fantastic note for all of us!

We're experiencing temporary technological difficulties

 Good morning, my dears, I hope that your Friday morning is off to a fantastic start. This post, which I'm writing mere minutes before it goes live, can largely be summed up its title. You will note that I intentionally said "technological difficulties", instead of the more commonly used "technical difficulties". The reason for that is because it is indeed technology that's been causing me some trouble as of late.

You see my laptop, my beloved, trusty workhorse of a laptop, which I've had some 4.5 years now, has finally come to the end of its life. It has a number of issues that are all compounding its demise, but the most problematic is one with its power cord socket (where the cord plugs in), an issue that is notorious amongst Sony Vaios, of which it is one. Over the years (the last two years, to be exact), we've bought many new cords for it, but even that no longer does the trick, and coupled with some other issues (such a the fact that its operating speed has become slower than molasses being poured at the North Pole), it's hard to get it to turn on any more, let alone hold any kind of battery charge.

For nearly all of the past two days, I couldn't get it to do either, but have finally been able to once again today, and so I'm feverishly writing this post while I still can!

Last night, after a few days of carefully weighing numerous potential new replacement options in our price range, Tony and I decided that a Lenovo laptop would be a great fit for my needs, and so we ordered one online.

According to the website, it may take up to 15 business (not calendar) days to ship, plus the actual shipping time itself, so when all is said and done, that could be as long as a month from now. That's a worst case scenario though, and I'm hoping that it will in fact be more like ten to fifteen days (but only time will tell).

It's entirely possibly that before the new Lenovo arrives, this one will go to the great computer room in the sky however, and if it does, my online presence may drop down to just what I'm able to do from my phone.

I have numerous posts written and slated to go live already for much of the rest of the month, and have opted to leave those up for now, and as always, will try to reply to comments, visit your wonderful blogs, spend time on social media sites and the like, as best I can with a current laptop that may really and truly sing its last tune at any given moment.



{We've come a long way from the days of most computers filling whole rooms as they did back in the 1950s when this photograph was taken at Vassar. I can't help but relate though to the woman's somewhat defeated/exasperated expression here, as it's not too far off from the ones I've been flashing while contenting with a laptop on its very last legs this week. Image source.}

 
Soon enough though, my new computer will here and after a brief "getting to you" period with it, all should be as right as rain once more. Huzzah! :)

Still, as I've already been online less lately because of this situation, and may likely be in the coming days, I just wanted to give you all a head's up and let you know why such may continue to be the case until my new computer arrives (dealing with a nearly dead laptop has also postponed my ability to get my Halloween costume post up this week, as I'd initially planned, but rest assured that, even if it's towards the end of the month, it will appear here asap!).

Aside from that, most things have been well so far during the first week of November. We made it to antiques & collectibles show on November 1st (that I mentioned here) and had a total blast - with, naturally, a bit of shopping to be had. The first snowfall graced our ground on Monday (though it didn't stick around long), and here, as with most everywhere, the stores are all gearing up big time for Christmas already, just as my own thoughts are thinking ever more to the approaching holiday season.

My new laptop is my present (and then some) this year, and what a tremendously awesome gift it will be! Just think of all the blog posts, for starters, that will be written on it in the months and years to come!

Have a beautiful, fun filled Friday and weekend, everyone!

Hard hats required beyond this point

...Or just really cute vintage hats, whichever you prefer.

As you'll likely have noticed, this site is currently undergoing some revamping. In the wake of Chronically Vintage's 3rd birthday yesterday (thank you very much for your wonderful celebratory comments!), and having given the idea of doing so serious consideration for quite some time now, I decided to that it was high time I updated the look and feel of this site.

I sincerely loved the old template (which had been in place since day one), but felt that this site had progressed beyond it. As such over the course of today and the next few days, they’ll be some hefty construction work taking place.

 

{1940s riveter at work on a WW2 bomber plane. Image via The Library of Congress on Flickr.}

 

I don't plan on taking the site offline at any point, but you may notice slight (or substantial!) changes between visits, and in a few days the whole blog will have a streamlined new look that I hope will do an even better job of highlighting the words and images that fill this site.

Thank you for bearing with the facelift, sweet dears, I can't wait to embark on this new stage of Chronically Vintage's life with all of you! 

A super quick note about the Vintage 365 series

Hi my wonderful dears, how are you each as we wrap up this second day of March 2011? On this end we've been treated to another round of wild banshee-like howling winds, but the sunshine did briefly - and radiantly appear - which pleased my snuggly little cat, Stella, ever so much! :)

{Just a little note - much like the one the elegant gal in this 1922 black and white illustration - is reading, to let you that I'll be making a teeny-tiny change to the Vintage 365 series. Vintage image via Captain Geoffrey Spaulding on Flickr.}

 

This immensely quick post is simply to let all of you know that as of tomorrow, I'll be dropping the words "Vintage 365" from the post title of all future editions of Vintage 365 (the colourful "Day x of Vintage 365" counter will still appear at the top of each post though, so you'll always be able to quickly know how far along in the series we are).

I'm doing this because the thought struck me earlier today that perhaps having the words "Vintage 365" at the start of so many posts (ideally 365 of them ) might get a tad repetitive (if not downright annoying) to some people. By eliminating those two words at the start of each new article, you'll be better able to immediately read the title and get a sense of what that day's entry is about.

While we're on the subject of Vintage 365, I want to take a moment to sincerely thank everyone for your awesome support of, and comments on, the posts in this series so far. I adore hearing from, and sharing in this marvelous daily journey through the past with, each of you!