Under the sea vintage fashion fun

{Whether your hair is as long as a mermaid’s or considerably shorter, there isn't a head around that wouldn't look sensational with this elegantly gorgeous handmade seashell and starfish comb nestled against it. $35.00 from Be Something New.}




{If ever there was an aptly named scent to wear to the beach or anyplace during the summer, this lovely bottle of Mermaid Kiss handmade perfume is it. $9.25 for a 15ml bottle from Butter Toki.}




{If you're not in the mood for a full on ocean inspired look, or if you want to jazz your mermaid-worthy outfit up even further, why not pick up these beautiful vintage lucite clip-on earrings featuring oodles of cute little seashells and metallic confetti? $18.00 from SoCal Jewelry Box.}




{Aren't these handmade capiz shell, starfish, and Swarovski crystal earrings absolutely breathtaking? I could see them working wonders with everything from vintage tropical print playsuits to a flowing, breezy white dress for a relaxed beach wedding. Swoon!!! $25.00 from Lovelorn Siren.}




{Vintage frocks really don't come any more shimmery, alluring, or gorgeous than this stunning 1960s metallic blue tinsel wiggle dress. Love. Epically. Fits up to a 36" bust/28" waist. $125.00 from (fellow B.C. Etsian) True Value Vintage.}




{Whether they're the real deal plucked from the sea or the sort created on land in factory, there's no denying the truly timeless appeal of pearl jewelry. This strikingly beautiful 1940s hand knotted faux pearl necklace features a 23.5 inch strand of solid, good quality glass pearls in a beguilingly lovely shade of rose gold meets brown gold meets champagne that would look especially incredible against summertime tanned skin. $28.00 from Chronically Vintage on Etsy.}




{Every time I go to the Vancouver Aquarium (as we did on our recent travels to that fine city), I spend a good long while gazing at the resident mighty fire hued Giant Pacific Octopus. There is, to my mind, something both scary and appealing awesome about these powerful eight-armed aquatic creatures and its easy to see why they've long held court over much of the ocean floor. Far from frightening, this wonderful block of handmade vegan soap featuring one of these hefty octopi is just the ticket to get your skin looking, if you'll forgive a relevant maritime pun, shipshape in no time! $9.00 for a 4 ounce bar of soap from The Charming Frog.}




{Raffia and summertime go together like tropical drinks and the beach. Lightweight, breathable, and comfy, it's a classic natural material that makes for the ideal warm weather shoe and these great 1960s woven raffia flats are no exception. Fits a ladies size 6.5 foot. $25.00 from Luckiest Duck 1.}




{Today's final item entry isn't for your wardrobe, but instead for your walls! I discovered these fabulous hand painted underwater themed vintage reproduction chalkware sets a few months ago and have been thoroughly smitten ever since. They look the kitschy mid-century part to a tee, are very reasonably priced, and just as cute as cute can possibly be! $40.00 for a three-piece set of chalkware mermaids from HilltopCast.}

♥ ♥ ♥

Before I delve further into today's post, I want to take a moment to thank absolutely everyone who has showered me with happy 30th birthday wishes this week. Yesterday was fun filled, beautiful, inspiring and bursting with all those special elements that one hopes for when the anniversary of their birth rolls around. My celebrate was truly made all the more sweet and memorable thanks to your splendidly lovely wishes. Thank you, one and all!

I'm not the only thing getting older these days. I recently read that 2014 is the 25th anniversary of Disney's endlessly classic take on The Little Mermaid and it stopped me right in my tracks. No way! I thought to myself, feeling like I could remember watching it, on VHS, naturally, for the first time as though it were yesterday. And yet, it only took a couple more seconds of hopping down memory lane to realize that, by Jove, yes, it really had been that long, because I can clearly recall having a Little Mermaid theme for either my sixth or seventh birthday.

As a child, growing up in a very dysfunctional, oppressive, challenging home setting, I instantly felt like I could relate to Ariel and her desire to break away from her tyrannical father's rule and discover a world of her own where she could finally experience the freedom she deeply, powerfully longed for. Though I wasn't born with a tail and I never forgot what the word "burn" was, I found so many parallels between her life and my own plight that Ariel became something of a personal mascot and certainly a major source of inspiration for me all through my early childhood years.



{A copy of the exact same Disney Little Mermaid poster that hung on my bedroom wall for a few years of my youth, reminding and quietly helping to encourage me each time I looked at it to explore my own proverbial "shore above" and to take my freedom into my own hands. Image source.}


Much like Disney's most famous mermaid, I too eventually found both my freedom and my wonderful prince charming. I developed my own legs of a different sort and taught myself how to stand on them, even in the face of the harshest adversities. While I'm certainly no longer a child anymore, I still love Ariel and her delightful cast of underwater friends all the same and can sing, to this day, all of the songs in that movie by heart.

Inspired by my passion for and personal relationship with this film, in the midst of one of (if not "the", depending on whereabouts you live) hottest months of the year, I knew that I wanted this month's edition of Vintage Fashionista Friday to have a charmingly fantastic mermaid theme to it.

July, the sea, cool waters and the joy that imagining a world in which mermaids really did exist makes for a seriously appealing combination and one that will continue appeal to me whether I'm five, thirty, fifty or a hundred years old! :)

*PS* 

Hurry, my dears, and take advantage of the awesome 25% off sale that is still underway on everything in my Etsy shop. The sale ends tomorrow and is the only one I have planned for the summer, so now is the time to save big! 

We're going to see the sea!

{Soft pink and vibrant turquoise has to be one of the most appealing colour combinations of all time! A single glance and it's a cinch to see why these shades were so popular during the 1950s. It's from that decade that this beautiful velvet and satin hat with its almost origami like folds of fabric hails, and it is as stunning today as when it was minted nearly sixty years ago. $14.00 from Glitter Death Boutique.}




{Cast using a real dried starfish as the mold, these sweet, immensely pretty gold plated brass starfish earrings sing with the spirit of the sea, yet are not so overtly nautical inspired as to not be a (warm ocean) breeze to wear with all manner of of outfits. $40.00 from Maria Studio.}




{Though I have yet to try their offerings myself, for quite some time now I've been hearing rave reviews about the brand Lip Crime's colour rich lipsticks from many a vintage and non-vintage fashionista alike. My interest is thoroughly piqued and if I was going to add some to my cart today, a bold, but still very wearable, summertime gorgeous pink like this shade, called Geradium would be one of my first choices. $18.00 from Lime Crime.}




{Oh how I love (underline that a hundred times at least!) this curve hugging, classically beautiful, cheerfully hued 1950s linen blend wiggle dress. Not only is cute - and stylish - as a button, but it will help keep you cool on even the most parching of summer days. Fits up to a 35" bust/28" waist. $115.00 from Blue Velvet Vintage.}




{This enchantingly lovely 1950s barkcloth purse stole my breath clean away the moment I laid eyes on it. Both beautiful and generously sized, it features an elegant Asian Garden design complete with strategically placed mother-of-pearl embellishments and a classic cream coloured opaque handle. This is an instantly captivating vintage handbag if ever there was! $36.00 from Vintage Wise.}




{The colours and design of this timelessly gorgeous 1950s/1960s Emmons gold toned and aqua moonglow brooch instantly make me think of marine vegetation swaying in the ocean current and would smashing on a summer suit, blouse or dress. This chicly pretty vintage pin is $25.00 and comes by way of Chronically Vintage on Etsy.}




{I have such a thing for single note and simple blend perfumes, colognes and scented oils like this wonderfully lovely sounding blend of carnation, lily and white grapefruit, dubbed Sea Breeze, all of which sound so enchantingly perfect for summer. $10.00 for an 8ml roller ball container from Symbolic Imports.}




{There is just something about the start of the truly warm segment of the year that makes me gaga about the colour gold! I paint it on my toes and tips alike, turn to it for jewelry, and even like nesting gold toned brooches in my hair sometimes. This year I'm wishing something fierce for a gold hued pair of strappy sandals and these metallic leather stunners - Persia from from Miss L Fire - would fit that bill rather fabulously. $175.00 from Miss L Fire.}

♥ ♥ ♥

As you may have guessed by the title and theme of this month's Vintage Fashionista Friday post (as mentioned in last month's edition, from now I'm going to be using more interesting titles instead of just calling them VFF and their respective post date), a wee spot of travel may soon be in the cards.

In early June Tony will be presenting at a work related tech event in Vancouver (BC - not Vancouver, Washington, though I'd love to see that city one day!) and if my health will permit, I'm going to be tagging along with him.

Though not epically far away from us, at about a 4.5 hour drive, Vancouver is still a hefty trip for me and is one I've not yet taken even so much as once since we moved back to BC in early 2012. In fact, I haven't been there since January 2007, and last I was in that beguiling beautiful and endlessly bustling city, it was the dead of an icy winter and I had a horrible head and chest cold, so it wasn't exactly a dream holiday.

As Tony will be working for a lot of it, this isn't going to be a vacation (for him at least), but it will be a getaway nevertheless and while he's hard at work shining like the tech star that he is, I'll be alternating between trying to recharge my batteries and doing some serious sourcing, if all goes well, for the shop.

Having not been to Vancouver in so long, I'm not overly familiar with the vintage and thrift shopping scene there any more, but I do keep a running list of stores in the area and look forward to getting to know as many of them as time and circumstance will permit. This will be my first ever buying trip for the shop that takes me beyond the borders of the Okanagan, so I'm bursting with excitement at the prospect.

I'm also flat out giddy to see Vancouver again. I was born and stone's throw from Rain City, as Van is sometimes called (due as the name implies, to the large amount of precipitation it receives annually), and lived in the Lower Mainland (the southernmost portion of British Columbia of which Vancouver is a key player) until shortly before my 9th birthday, so its a part of the world I'm well acquainted with and which I've always held a particularly special spot in my heart for.

Vancouver is famous - and in some cases, infamous - for a lot of things, from Stanley Park and its towering totem poles to scrumptious eats at Granville Island Market, a bevy of marine life at the Vancouver Aquarium to the sublimely stunning Pacific Ocean, where some of those marine critters at the aquarium (or at least their ancestors) originally hailed from.

I've missed the sea. Not a little, but a rather massive amount. Yes, the Okanagan is teaming with gorgeous lakes and beaches, all of which are fabulous and not something that I take for granted in the slightest, but ultimately, fresh water bodies of water that they are, these lakes big and small like, are not the ocean.

They don't have that telltale, tickle the inside of your nostrils scent of salt. One does not look out at them and see huge red and black and brown cargo ships transporting untold numbers of goods into this country from foreign ports. They don't have tiny terracotta hued crabs scuttling across their sands, five thousand seagulls always ready to converge on a single dropped French fry, or the kind of sunsets - breathtaking as the Symphony of Fire - that only the atmospheric conditions of the damp Pacific coast can produce.

A longing for the sea has clung to my soul like steadfast barnacles since the moment my family moved north to the Okanagan all the way back in 1993 and I will, without giving it a second thought, pounce - like one of those aforementioned gulls - at the chance to visit again any time I can. I'm crossing every finger and toe that I'll be well enough on the health front to accompany Tony next month and if I do, I'll be packing much along the lines of the late spring ensemble featured in this month's edition of Vintage Fashionista Friday.

One other change that you may have noticed here is that I've also decided to drop the practice of using a woman's name to lead off the post series with. As the titles themselves are now more dynamic, I didn't feel that the two went hand-in-hand very well any more. Aside from those changes, this post is, and will remain the same in terms of the type of content featured and that fact that a new one should appear here every month or so.

Keep your fingers crossed with me, my dears - I'll be sure to let you know as we get closer to June if I will indeed be headed to vivacious, marvelous Vancouver this season. Oh, how I hope so!!!