Vintage Link Love: June 2014

After several years of blogging experience, I can tell you with complete certainty that there are two times of the year in particular, more than any other, when the internet turns into a bit of a ghost town. One is Christmas (as discussed in this 2012 post), the other is the start of summer, with a general reduction in the amount of activity seen on the blogging front throughout the duration of the season.

My online availability most often boils down to the state of my health, not the weather, so I wouldn't say that I go MIA quite as much as some folks come June, but even I've been known to spend more time offline when the mercury is skyrocketing well past 30C, there's an absolute abundance of things to do outside, and my sandals seem to be all but beckoning me to slip them on and hit the warm pavement.

{Glam and glorious, summer is a time for getting outdoors, shaking off the last vestiges of winter's heavy mood, and painting the town red, as they say! Image source.}

It's extremely important, perhaps in ways that with the internet and its impacts on peoples' lives still being so relatively new (in the grander scheme of human history, I mean) we haven't even fully realized or acknowledged yet, to spend time offline, doing all the sorts of wonderful things our ancestors, as well as most of us ourselves in our younger days, did before the web came along, and rarely does that ring more true than when summer is here in all its sun drenched glory.

That said however, most of us still spend some time, perhaps even a lot of time, online during the roasty-toasty months, myself included, and while we're here, it's wonderful to have some engaging stories and blog posts to fill our time with. To cap off June, I've wrangled up twelve diverse, enjoyable, and informative links that I hope you'll enjoy whether you're reading them on a tablet at the beach, your laptop in the backyard, your desktop at work, your phone on the go, or anywhere else you happen to find yourself as we dig our heels into the hot sand at the beach and gear up for what promises to be another awesome summer!

♥ Quick Tutorial: Do you do the moon? (Half moon manicure): In recent years, amongst both vintage and contemporary fashionistas alike, the half moon manicure has seen a steady rise in popularity once again. Most instructions for creating this elegant look yourself call for the use of binder ring circle stickers, nail tape, or similar products, but not this easy-as-pie, flat out fabulous how-to that Bex shared recently. One read and, if you're like me (I find the adhesive in most stickers and nail tape gives my sensitive skin a rash), you'll never go back to doing your half moon manis any other way again.


♥ What If Famous Paintings Were Photoshopped to Look Like Fashion Models? (*Warning may not be safe for work*): In a post that does a superb visual job of illuminating just how much our general perceptions of beauty and body size have changed over the decades, this piece highlights several immensely famous paintings and alters the women in them to have figures that are more akin to those of today's super models. While I do adamantly believe that beauty comes in all shapes and sizes, I for one much prefer the original versions of these pieces and wish that our culture would keep a more open mind when it comes to the unbeatable loveliness of a womanly figure like those in the original versions of these timeless masterpieces.


♥ Cecil Beaton: costume balls and country house decadence from the 1920s to the 1970s: Unquestionably one of the most successful fashion photographs of the twentieth century, Cecil Beaton shot for the likes of Vogue and Vanity Fair and produced thousands upon thousands of incredible, beautiful, and strikingly appealing images during the span of his lengthy career, including several especially swanky and glamorous ones that are highlighted in this photo filled piece from British newspaper, The Telegraph.






♥ Don't believe everything you see: It's not everyday I read something online that I would, no joke, rise to my feet and wholeheartedly applaud, so when this stellar, spot on post from Daffny over at A Vintage Nerd elicited that very response in me, I knew that I'd be sharing in come the end of this month. Delving into a topic that doesn't get a fraction of the blogging press coverage that it should, this fantastic post is an important reminder of why we should curb our negative feelings, envy very much included, of other people that we see and interact with on the web.


♥ How the Cold War Shaped the Design of American Malls: Ever wonder how and why many American (and, I'd venture to guess, by extension, Canadian) malls of the last century came to look and be laid out the way they are? Well, whether you have or haven't, if you're a history buff, I'd venture to guess that you'll get an informative kick out of reading this cool post on the subject from Curbed (which I discovered via my dear friend Janey, aka the Atomic Redhead, who posted it on Facebook recently).


♥ Deadly Victorian Fashions: This article, from acclaimed Canadian news magazine Maclean’s, takes an engrossing and educational - gander at some of the frighteningly dangerous fashions that our Victorian foremothers subjected themselves to all in the name of looking chic and trendy.




♥ Vanity Unfair -- What's Up With Modern Sizing?: By way of the blog over at fantastic vintage clothing seller Better Dresses Vintage's site comes a thought provoking, well written, and highly engaging piece that focuses on the absurdity of vanity sizes and how it relates to the modern woman today. Anyone who has ever wondered why you're closet has three to five different 21st century sizes in it is sure to appreciate and find themselves nodding along the whole time in agreement with this terrific post.


♥ Career advice from Linkedin's founder Reid Hoffman: Though he wrote it with college and university graduates in mind, the extremely helpful and encouraging advice laid out in this PowerPoint style slide presentation from Linkedin's founder Reid Hoffman is amongst the best I've ever read on the topic. By the end of the 113 slides in this presentation, it was all I could do to hold back the tears, because I truly felt like so much of what this wise man said resonated deeply with me, a new business owner, as I navigate the ups and downs and many exciting new challenges of running my Etsy shop. Regardless of where you're at in your educational and/or professional life, this is a must read for one and all.


♥ 7 Iconic Hairstyles That Endure Time: From Twiggy's famous pixie to Jane Birkin's bangs, Harper's Bazaar rounds up and takes a quick peak at seven hairstyles that are both beautiful unto themselves and for their timelessly lovely staying (and styling!) power.




♥ Why You Should Make An Effort To Look Your Best Every Day: Recently Lottie Ryan, a fellow vintage lover and chronic illness fighter, launched an important new website called Who’s That Lady?, the aim of which is to encourage, support, and help women from the around the world continue to feel good about themselves and their appearance, even when battling serious health problems of all sorts. Though geared towards this demographic, Lottie's writing is detailed, fluid and upbeat, and is sure to find favour with those who are blessed to have good health as well.

I've lapped up and very much enjoyed each caring, thoughtful post Lottie has written so far and found that this one about the importance of trying to look your best every day jumped out at me in particular, as its core message is one that I've tried my best to put into practise as often as possible every day of my life, but even more so since becoming chronically ill twelve years ago. If you or a loved one is a chronic illness and/or disability warrior, I can't encourage you strongly enough to checkout and share Lottie's excellent new site.


♥ How to make ric-rac rose jewelry: I, like many people, adore a great craft that doesn't take oodles of supplies or advanced skills to make and which can help bolster our wardrobe once its complete. The immensely beautiful, timelessly stylish, and just plain fun ric-rac rose jewelry in this post from Australian blogger Bonita of Lavender and Twill delivers on all those fronts and will have you making a made dash for your sewing notion stash on the double!


♥ In Living Color: The Forgotten 19th-Century Photo Technology that Romanticized America: From the fine folks at Collector's Weekly, one of my favourite sites on the web, bar none, comes a detailed, educational, and highly appealing look at some of the earliest forms of colour photographs (such as Photochroms and Phostints), which will have you feeling almost as though you've stepped back in time and are really experiencing the world as it really was in colour back during the nineteenth century.

{All images throughout the list of links above come by way of the post that they are displayed directly beneath the write up of here. Please follow the links provided to learn more about these images.}

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Tomorrow is Canada Day, the birthday of my nation's confederation (all the way back in 1867), and a grand celebration from coast to shining coast. Four days later, my lovely neighbours south of the 49th celebrate their country's founding anniversary as well, and then just six days after that, my own birthday rolls around on July 10th. On top of these three important and fun filled events, this is a month that's teeming with excitement, activity, and enjoyment, both online and off, and one that would be my very favourite for the year, were it not for October, which holds that grand title.

There are scads of simple pleasures that are not to be overlooked during the seventh month of the year as well, from chasing down the ice cream truck to sitting outside on a sublimely warm night and counting the stars to the pulsating energy that fills this season, baked in golden light and the scent of sunscreen. I'm extremely happy that July is here and look forward to delighting in countless wonderful elements of this time of the year with you here in the weeks to come.

Here’s wishing you each an amazing, beautiful, and endlessly fun filled July, my dear friends!!!

*PS* 

IT'S SALE TIME!!! 

Have you heard? To celebrate Canada Day, the 4th of July and my own birthday (on July 10th) everything in my Etsy shop is currently on sale for 25% off! All prices have been marked down already to reflect this discount, so there's no need to worry about coupon codes. Happy vintage shopping!!

20 gorgeous Edwardian colour photographs

It occurred to me in the wee hours of the night not too long ago, as I was hard at work on a different post, while at the same time roasting a tray of chicken pieces for the next day’s lunch, that the years that most often springs to mind for me when I think of the winter are those of the Edwardian era.

Of course I can picture scenes and fashions other time periods during the frosty months, too, but there's just something about winter that calls to mind the first two decades of the twentieth century.

I think that reason for this stems from a few different of sources, chief amongst which is that when I was a little girl, one of my favourite Sunday evening activities was to curl up and spend an hour watching a beloved Canadian TV show called Road To Avonlea (based on the writings of famed Anne of Green Gables author, Lucy Maud Montgomery), that was set in the Edwardian period and which new episodes of appeared during the chillier months.

From 1990 to 1996, while this heartwarming family program aired, it was, bar none, my favourite show and one which I still delight in watching reruns of sometimes - particularly during the winter months, while I hunker down inside and take refuge from the wild Canadian weather beyond my front door.

On top of that, there's the fact that I spent a portion of my childhood growing up in a small house right here in Penticton that was built in 1909. While that fact in and of itself doesn't tie directly to wintertime, while living there I watched the second half of the Road to Avonlea seasons and often tried to find modern clothes that resembled those of the characters whose wardrobes I was smitten with. Think long high collared flannel night gowns, ankle grazing skirts, velvet party dresses, granny boots, and as many opaque, heavy stockings as I could rustle up at such a young age.

Further adding to the mix was the fact that (much like me) my paternal grandmother adored the Victorian and Edwardian eras and always included pieces designed to look as though they were made during those periods in her holiday decor. As we spent oodles of time at my grandparents' house each holiday season, I always got to enjoy being surrounded my by gran's especially lovely take on yesteryear fuelled Christmas decorating when I was growing up.

To this day, whenever the mercury starts plummeting and holiday tunes appear on the radio once more, my mind suddenly shifts a bit from it's usual 1940s and 50s mode to one of the genteel, elegant years of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, and as such I thought today - less than a three weeks away from Christmas would be the idea time to venture just a wee bit further back in the past than most posts here usually do and look at three tremendously lovely Edwardian colour photographs.

Though none of these images is distinctly wintery, as the Edwardians have been on my mind a lot once more, and I've been yearning to share these photos - which I think really speak volumes for themselves - since first encountering them a few months ago, I thought this first Friday in December seemed like a lovely time to do just that.







































(All twenty of these truly captivating Edwardian photographs were, as is my understanding, taken using an early method of colour photography called autochrome lumière. With the exception of this photo, which hails from the collection of Flickr user dovima is devine II, all of these images come by way of Lisby1 on Flickr. )

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So often when we think of the 1900s and 1910s, it's black and white images that spring to mind first and foremost and as a result it can be trickier to picture the world at the time illuminated with the came colours and vibrancy it has today. However, as invaluable captures like prove, the Edwardian universe was just as vivid as ours is today (and certainly countless eras before it have been, too).

Do you have a favourite amongst these Edwardian colour snapshots? I'm hard pressed to whittle my selection down to just one, and think that it's a tie between the very first and last photos above (which is why I placed them as I did). Each one tells a priceless story though and is certainly a perpetual favourite of mine as far as vintage photographs go.

Whether you're knee deep in snow already or are being treated to a mild December, no matter if you associate winter with the Edwardians, too, or not, I hope that you all enjoyed seeing these resplendent 1900s and 1910s colour photographs as much as I did, and that they'll inspire your early twentieth century related endeavours in 2013 and well beyond.