20 frightfully awesome Halloween blogs

With less than three weeks to go until All Hallows Eve appears, I thought it would be fun to share with you a list of some of my favourite Halloween blogs. Growing up in a small town I was often the fanatical person in my class/school/Girl Guide troop/neighbourhood/etc about this autumnal holiday, a point that made me happy but also a bit self-conscious. Thus it was a huge thrill to discover years later via the internet that there are others like myself out there that think, breath, eat and sleep Halloween all year long, not just on October 31st!

Of course one doesn’t have to be obsessed with Halloween to adore it. This eerily fun holiday means many things to many different people. For some it’s a chance to dress up and take on a different persona – if only for one night, for others it’s about the treasure trove of happy childhood memories Halloween brings to mind. I have adored Halloween for as long as I can recall. Each year my decorations come out their boxes like (friendly) vampires emerging from coffins, to line my shelves and tabletops, bookcases and counters. I certainly don’t have the world’s largest collection of decorations (not by a long shot), but I do love the witches, bats, pumpkins, monsters, scarecrows and all other manner of Halloween themed items that I’ve amassed so far.

While I’d be content to keep my Halloween decorations out year round, this isn’t always feasible when you live with someone else (and when you have a precious little cat who thinks all festive decor items – regardless of the holiday – are delightful playthings that get sprinkled around the house just for her amusement), so in order to keep the Halloween spirit flowing long after the last Jack-O-Lantern candle has burned down, I turn to a slew of fantastic blogs run by fellow fans of this spirited holiday all year long.

Though not all of these blogs cover vintage related topics, it’s not uncommon to find posts with antique, vintage or retro themed Halloween images or topics. As well many of them highlight Halloween handicrafts, decorations, party and costume ideas, and recipes that could easily weave their way into a vintage themed Halloween celebration.

Join me, won’t you? As I countdown twenty of my favourite Halloween blogs by listing their names and sharing a spooky, beautiful, old school or just plain marvelous image from each respective site that caught my eye (of newt) and spoke to my adoration of this beguiling holiday.





1.) A Nostalgic Halloween




2.) AranaMuerta




3.) Cat In The Moon




4.) Creepy Cupcakes




5.) Frog on the Pumpkin




6.) Hallow E’en Witches’ Flying Machine


{*Please note, the blog header image on this site contains frontal nudity and may not be safe for work – or younger viewers. The rest of the site is “work and family safe” from what I’ve seen in the time I’ve been following it.*}


7.) Halloween Folk Art by the Holiday Queen




8.) Haunt Style




9.) Johanna Parker Design




10.) Musings from Behind the Easel




11.) Orange and Black




12.) Pumpkin Hallow




13.) Pumpkinrot




14.) The Courtesan Macabre


{*This site is technically devoted to Gothic themed fashion, but I feel that such a topic makes it a great addition to this list.*}


15.) The Gallows




16.) The Halloween Tree




17.) Through the Patch




18.) Trixie’s Treats




19.) Vintage Halloween Collector




20.) Weird Hallow




A jaunt (or flyby on your broomstick) through these wonderful sites can’t help but get any Halloween enthusiast even more in the festive mood – I know each of them is certainly helping to fuel my excitement this year!

Do you have a favourite Halloween blog or website that isn’t mentioned above? I’m “dying” to know about it if you do! :D

Pretty Link Roundup {August 8, 2009}

Happy Saturday greetings, my sweet dears! How are you each on this sizzling August weekend? Things are pretty much peachy-keen on this end. The fuse box woes I’d mentioned last weekend have been fixed, the weather hasn’t been too cruel this week, and I’m still bubbling with celebratory feelings from my husband’s birthday on Thursday.

While sweet hubby’s foot isn’t quite up to a night out, he treated himself to some take-away sushi on his birthday and last night I set the weekend off on the right foot with homemade thin crust pizza (zucchini, orange bell pepper, and sweet onion for me, prosciutto for the Mr.), which got me thinking about the fact that pizza, one of the absolute most widely available foods these days, was an absolute novelty (outside of Italy, that is!) to most people before the 1940s.

Reflecting about the fact that pizza soared to popularity so quickly has got me itching to ask both of my grandmothers how old they were when they first remember trying pizza, and when, in their respective opinions, it become a commonplace culinary staple.


{Click on the image to see a larger version and get the 1959 recipes for “baby pizza” and “American style pizza pie”. Vintage cookbook page from Eudaemonius’ Flickr stream.}


Just as pizza is a true modern day classic, so too are great blogs, and this week’s gathering of links is teaming with fantastic stories from some of the coolest vintage sites around. With posts spanning topics from lovely black and white photos of people relaxing at the beach to a handy tutorial for refilling a vintage powder compact, there’s plenty of yummy old school goodness for everyone to enjoy!


♥ ♥ ♥


* Vintage Life Magazine: The lovely MaryDeluxe brings breaking news for vintage fans everywhere in this recent Deluxeville post. Turns out that a new magazine devoted to the vintage lifestyle in on the cusp of releasing its first edition (scheduled for October ’09). “Vintage Life” as the publication is known, is a UK based glossy spanning the decades of the 1920s through to the 80s, that will be published six times a year. Subscriptions can already be placed and are available to people worldwide. Here’s wishing this fledgling magazine tons of success!


* Hosiery History – 1940s Fashion: A thoroughly pretty array of vintage ads (some colour, some black and white) for ladies hosiery fill this post from Glamour Daze.


* 40s hair accessories: This week Casey highlights an interesting topic that appeals to me a lot: what beyond flowers, were used as hair accessories during the 1940s. Full of beautiful images and inspiration, this post is a must read for anyone who loves to adorn their locks.


* Pretty Dress and Thoughts on Vintage and Retro Fashion: Blogger Angel shares a pretty dress she’s recently acquired and writes about some of her thoughts on what drives her love of wearing vintage styles (many of which I’m sure the majority of us echo as our own reasons).


* How to refill a vintage powder compact: If you yearn for the days when I lady was often heard to say “I just need to powder my nose”, than you may be a fan of old school powder compacts. Fortunately for vintage fans these charming containers can still be found from a myriad of sources (online sites, estate sales, vintage shops, etc). If you’d like to refill one that you’ve unearthed with fresh powder, follow the five easy steps in this post to ensure your powder compact functions as well today as the first day it was ever used. (*1:30AM, August 9th. Please note, by sheer coincidence I just happened to discover that a very similar post to this one that appeared in November of last year on Vixen Vintage, and thus I feel that Solanah deserves to be mentioned here as well.*)


* Tom Sawyer Champs: A series of absolutely adorable, well taken photos of some of The Snail and The Cyclops’ blogger’s favourite vintage toy finds. From an abacus to a precious brown teddy bear, there is certainly something to make everyone nostalgic for their own childhood playthings in this post.


* Let’s go to the beach: With temperatures breaking record highs in some parts of the world this past week (such as Washington State), it’s clear that autumn is still just a distant dream for most, which is all the more reason to head to the beach for some respite from the heat. If that’s not possible for you however (goodness knows I won’t be able to dig my toes into the sand this year), you can still imagine visiting the beach with the help of these wonderful vintage photos from Life magazine.


* 50s Italian Summer: This week The Cupcake Diary channels the crisp, clean looks of late 1950s Italian tourists and locals alike through images from movie The Talented Mr. Ripley.


* Golden Hollywood Glam | Jeremiah Goodman: Some of the absolute most gorgeous watercolour paintings of 1940s home interiors I’ve ever seen are posted in this beauty-filled entry from the terrific blog, Nest Party. I wish I could have prints of these glamorous rooms to put on my walls for endless daydreaming inspiration.


Vanity Fair’s “Ain’t we got style”: Karen highlights pages straight from the August issue of Vanity Fair in which modern day stars replicate looks from classic movies such as It Happened One Night and My Man Godfrey. These spreads have been expertly styled and shot, and really do a marvelous job of paying homage some of Hollywood’s most timeless films – and actors.


Unparalleled elegance flows through this week’s Youtube feature, a true gem of a compilation video with clips from various 1950s fashion shows, magazine photo shoots, and Hollywood movies. Not only are the women and the gorgeous looks they spot breath-taking, but the video’s poster has done a superb job of pairing background music with these images to create a soulful film-like atmosphere that further adds to the undeniable allure of 1950s ladies wear feaatured within.


{1950s and Women’s Fashions}




I always love putting together the weekly link list. It’s a way to share with you some of my favourite recent blog posts and also for me to draw inspiration a second time around the things that are catching the eyes of my fellow vintage lovers this week. I hope that the links above captivate you, too! Please feel free to share any articles or images that have filling your heart with bliss or your mind with inspiration lately with me, too.

Wishing you each a joyful, serene, beautiful weekend!

A scrap of honesty

The worth of honesty is invaluable in my books; exceptionally few things in this world even come close to the truth. I strive to live my life with as much honesty as possible and truly appreciate others who attempt to do the same. As such I was especially touched when two of my sweet blogging friends, A Red Lipstick and Mel, both tagged me recently with the Honest Scrap award. Thank you both deeply, kind dears, I am very touched that you passed this wonderful award on to me.


{Image via The Bubble.}

In general I’m terribly shy about posting personal information about myself out in the open, yet I was recently pushed out of my comfort zone in this regard when I received a different award (The Kreativ Blogger), and needed to list seven things about myself in order to fulfill the specifications of this lovely award. While I doubt I’ll be writing a tell-all book about my life anytime soon, something about putting together that post truly did help me to be more open about discussing myself.

Thanks to this prior award, I feel like I’m much better prepared to adhere to the rules of receiving the Honest Scrap award, which suggest that the recipient list ten things about themselves that their readers may not know. This does not necessarily mean that you have to pull out your best Post Secret impression, the ten facts can be anything that you fancy, however personal or not they may be. And on that note, I present my ten honest facts about myself to you...


♥ ♥ ♥


1.) Writing and taking photos bring me unparalleled joy and, often, a great deal of inner strength and serenity.

2.) On no less than three different occasions in my life, every worldly possession I owned could fit into one or two moderately sized suitcases and a purse. This coupled with many moves throughout my life, has helped to make me not too materialistic of a person. That said, there are certain items (like my beloved childhood teddy bear) that have always come along from the next leg of the journey and which I hope to never have to part with.

3.) I was often the shortest or second shortest child in my class throughout elementary school, By about the age of 13 I’d hit and 5’2” and stopped getting any taller from there on out. While it would be nice at times to have longer legs and more of a statuesque presence, I actually deeply love my height and the fact that I get to be called petite.

4.) I absolutely adore reading out load! In school when most students bemoaned this act, I would literally sit on the edge of my seat in anticipation of getting a chance to read aloud, and as such was often granted whole chapters (instead of single pages) to read. I think I read more than half of a Midsummer Night’s Dream to my grade nine English class, which was an utter delight as I adore Early Modern English.

5.) If money were no option I would have not only a huge wardrobe of 1940s and 50s reproduction pieces custom sewn for me, but also a trove of Georgian and Victorian dresses, which I would happily don around my house, out in public – anywhere! Wearing a beautiful dress from any era gives me a sort of bliss that makes me smile right down to my soul.

6.) I have an absolute soft spot in my heart for the toys from my 80s and early 90s childhood. I would love to amass a collection of such playthings again one day.

7.) In general, I have no problem at all with speaking in front of a crowd; in fact I generally prefer it to talking to a small group (ties into issues regarding confrontation that have plagued me my whole life).

8.) I have never had a manicure, pedicure, facial or other such treatment from a salon or a spa. I’m certainly not opposed to these things; I’ve just felt that I could never justify the money they cost when I can do my entire beauty routine from top to bottom myself for a fraction of the price.

9.) Halloween is hands down my absolute holiday of all-time. I put out my decorations on September 1st and cannot let a single October pass without watching It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and the Disney movie Hocus Pocus.

10.) I've taken the Myers-Briggs test at least three times in my life and always score as an INFJ, of which only 1-3% of the population are believed to be. In many respects I fit the INFJ profile rather uncannily.


♥ ♥ ♥


I always have the hardest time short-listing a small number of my marvelous, dear blogging friends to pass awards onto, so to help make the job of doing so a little easier this time, I’m going to pass along the Honest Scrap award to five names drawn entirely at random from the list of sites on my blog roll. By absolutely all means through, should you be reading this and wish to carry on this award, please feel free to bestow it upon yourself with my blessing.

My five randomly selected recipients of the
Honest Scrap award are:

Blonde and Red

Fashion Preserve

In company with sparkles

Lemondrop Vintage

Loose Leaf Tigers


For those who wish to pass along the Honest Scrap award, the rules, according to the two kind ladies who gave it to me, are as follows.



*Copy the logo (above) and place it in your blog.
*Link it back to the person who gave it to you.
*Pass it on to five fellow bloggers and list 10 things about yourself.


My sincere thanks again to Mel and A Red Lipstick for gracing my blog with the Honest Scrap award, and for further helping me to become more comfortable about discussing deeper elements of who I am publicly. Three cheers for honesty, and three cheers for both of you fantastic vintage bloggers!

Seven Interesting Things (about me) Kreativ Blogger Award

Over the past few weeks I’ve had the honour of getting to know one of the sweetest souls you could ever hope to encounter, a creative and kind blogger by the name of GypsyFox. Since our first online encounter, Gypsy and I have shared many wonderful conversations and discovered that we have numerous things in common. She has also graced my blog with an incredibly stunning graphic (visible on the lower right hand side bar of this site) and created a stunning birthday graphic for me last week as well.

As if those kind acts weren’t enough, on Wednesday she bestowed a delightful award upon my blog called the “Kreativ Blogger” award. The premise of this accolade is that bloggers who receive it must list seven little known facts about themselves and then pass along the award to some of their fellow “Kreativ Bloggers”.

Before I push my perpetual shyness aside to muster up a few snippets of info you may not already know about me, I must extend my very heartfelt thanks to Gyspy not only for this awesome award, but for being such a dear friend!

♥ Seven little facts about moi ♥


{Illustration from a 1944 children's book, via Paula Writh's lovely Flickr stream.}


1.) I am really, really eclectic! I have such a never-ending stream of diverse interests and I am quite convinced that even if I had all the energy, money and time in the world, I would only begin to scratch the surface of spending time enjoying everything that I find fascinating and/or that brings me bliss.

2.) I met my husband, the light of my life, joy of my world, online in the spring of 2004 and we’ve been together for over five years now. I like to say that it was “love at first email”.

3.) There are number of different things that I collect (which naturally ties into point #1) – from Japanese miniatures to Girl Guide related items, yet I despise clutter with a passion and am the polar opposite of a pack rat.

4.) Paraphrasing my sweet husband, to call me a girly-girl would be a gross understatement. For as long as my memories stretch back, I have been consumed by all things feminine, beautiful and elegant. Whether my outfit on a given day reflects my love of vintage fashion or not, if I’ve stepping even so much as one pinkie toe out the door, I will be dressed femininely. To doing anything less would be akin to being sacrilegious (to my own personal aesthetic) in my mind.

5.) I am a dyed-in-the-wool homebody with the slightest underlying spark of wanderlust. It seems like a strange contradiction and yet it works perfectly well, as it often means I’m up for moving across the country (or world) and setting up home someplace new and exciting.

6.) My favourite parts of my own body are my small hands, green eyes, and slender wrists. (Don’t generally mind my ever-so-slightly pear-ish hour glass figure either, it makes 50s styles a dream to wear but on the other hand does rule out ever looking like a convincing Flapper girl ;D)

7.) I absolutely adore animals of all types, but have always found myself inexplicably drawn to the slightly “offbeat” ones in particular (for example manatees, platypuses, ferrets, hedgehogs, and anything that’s an albino, are all favourites).



There are so, so many astounding blogs I follow that I never feel as though I can just select a mere handful to extend a blog award to. Should your name not appear on this list, please know that you are a Kreativ Blogger through and through, and that by absolute all means you are more than welcome to give yourself this award, from me, as well!



{If you’d like to share this award, please save the image below to your own computer or online image hosting site and distribute to whomever you desire.}


According to Gypsy’s post, the following rules are suggested for the Kreativ Blogger award:

• Thank the person who nominated you for the award
• Copy the logo and place it on your blog
• Link to the person who nominated you for this award
• List seven things about yourself that people might find interesting
• Nominate and post links to the seven Kreativ Bloggers you nominate
• Leave a comment on each of the blogs (or otherwise notify the recipients), letting them know they have been nominated


Should you the fancy doing so, following seven people are welcome to pass along the Kreativ Blogger award. I thank each of you deeply for the inspiration and beauty your blogs continually bring into my life, you are definitely all very Kreativ Bloggers!


1.) Andi B. Goode

2.) ~*Just Add Glitter and Stir*~

3.) Casey’s Elegant Musings

4.) Tattered Saints

5.) Fashion After Forty

6.) Cpaphil Vintage Postcards

7.) The Vintage Kitten





{Adorable vintage thank you card from Look Homeward, Harlot’s Flickr stream.}

Warmest of thanks again to you, Gypsy dear, you are such a wonderful, talented and inspirational person! Despite being reclusive to dish about myself (in general), I had a blast putting together this post and am really touched that you see me as a kreativ blogger!

Happily receiving and giving the Great Read Award

Blog awards are great fun, they bring bloggers closer and often introduce readers to sites that they may not be aware of, yet would wholeheartedly adore. In May I had the absolute pleasure of receiving the One Lovely Blog award, and this week two dear and wonderful souls have honoured me with a new awards, the “Great Read”.

As I understand it, there are no concrete rules for the distribution of this award. You can pass it on to however many blogs you like, so long as they’re ones that you personally categorize as being Great Reads. If you’d like to share this award, please save the image below to your own computer or online image hosting site and distribute to whomever you desire.



Lemondrop Vintage and Dustjacket Attic have both bestowed this generous gift my way, and as such I’m thrilled to be able to pass it along to a slew of blogs that never cease to inspire, enthrall and amaze me. I encourage you to click on the names of any blogs that are new to you, they are certainly worth getting to know :)

(Please note that if you didn’t make it onto the list, it most certainly does not mean that I don’t adore you, I do! It’s just that in the spirit of the number of recipients Dustjacket Attic selected, I’ve had to whittle my list down to 15. By all means, if you’re reading this, please feel free to give yourself this award from me – I’m positively certain you’re a great read, too!)




1. Letters from the Home-front

2. Curve-Hugger

3. Retro Ways

4. Miss Red Lips

5. Vixen Vintage

6. Time Machine to the Twenties

7. Welcome to DeluxVille

8. Casey’s Elegant Musings

9. A red lipstick

10. Matilda’s Delights

11. The Mysterious Life of the Metropolitan Housewife

12. The Johnson Diaries (with an extra award
just for the super adorable pup, Lola!)

13. The Dino Lounge

14. Just Add Glitter and Stir

15. Cpaphil Vintage Postcards



{Preciously adorable vintage thank you card sourced from Miss Retro Modern’s Flickr stream.}


I must sincerely thank Dustjacket Attic and Lemondrop Vintage again for extending this terrific award by way! I really feel as though you’ve kicked started my July with an early birthday present (my birthday is coming up in a few days). Merci beaucoup, sweet friends!

Loose Teeth Vintage Inspired Sundress with Petticoat GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

From MissRedLips to Fleur from Diary of a Vintage Girl, the vintage fashion blogsphere is abuzz over the fact that there’s an incredibly pretty sundress created by etsy artist LooseTeeth to be won. And never has a contest been simpler or more enjoyable to enter, all you have to do is whip up an entry on your blog or site that links back to the original Grossgrain post about this fantastically lovely giveaway. Seriously, it’s easy as pie!

I swooned the moment I saw the awesome dress that’s up for grabs. It’s charming as can be, decked out in a soft, perfectly summery hued plaid, complete with a gorgeous cotton eyelet underskirt that ups the darling factor of this frock by about a million percent.



This is the sort of stylishly timeless summer piece that I wish my closest was spilling over with. One look at it and I instantly want to run and pack a picnic, tie a silk scarf over my curls, hop in a convertible and head off to some perfectly secluded spot for two and share a basket full of salads, fruit, and French bread. At the same time I could just as easily envision myself whipping up cookies around the house or running errands, a pair of vintage wedge heels on my feet, as I bop about town in the sizzling July heat.



Be sure to swing by Grosgrain (from which both images in this post hail from) to check out the post that vintage lovers and fashion fantatics across the web are excited about Loose Teeth Vintage Inspired Sundress with Petticoat GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!, for your chance to be the winner of this fantastic summer sundress.

Best of luck, everyone!

Queens of Vintage launches social network

The utterly fantastic vintage, fashion, and interior design website Queens of Vintage, whose updates I joyfully receive everyday in my inbox, delivered some awesome news today: they’ve kicked off a vintage social networking site.



For those of us who live, breath and wear vintage as much as humanly possible, the notion of mingling with like-minded souls couldn’t be more appealing. I’ve just joined up (under the user name “Jessica”, I think this is the first time in history I’ve ever been able to register for a site so early on that I was able to simply use my first name as my user name, giving me a whole other reason to madly love this new network), and am in the process of scoping things out.

It looks like the QoV folks have designed this network really well; features include a forum (with budding user groups), a photo section, blogs and member pages. The site is easy to navigate and I’m happy to report that forum already seems to be a buzz with lovely gals chatting about all manner of things vintage.

I’m off to go join in the discussion, but wanted to let others in on this cooler-than-a-thrift-store-sale news right away in the hopes of doing my own little part to help QoV’s new network blossom! :)