Vintage snow day!

{Come the freezing cold days of winter, which we're all very well acquainted with by now (in the Western Hemisphere), one of my favourite ways to keep my ears nice and warm (or at least not entirely frostbitten!) is by employee the classic use of a headscarf like this 1960s red, white and green charmer. Neutral hues are fine, but an extra jolt of colour always helps to brighten my mood and serve a reminder that even the longest winter has to end sometime! Vintage scarf measures 20 inches/50.8 cm on all sides. $14.00 from Chronically Vintage on Etsy.}




{Headscarves not your thing or not particularly well suited to a specific outfit you have in mind? How about this delightfully cool pair of deadstock band-less mid-century vintage earmuffs instead? $12.00 from Stag Vintage Goods.}




{I have three pair of snowflake earrings and wear them practically to death during the winter! They're sweet, fun, festive and great way to dress with the season. This absolutely charming vintage screw back pair included pale blue rhinestones and would be especially awesome for your next ski trip (while you're relaxing in the lodge at least! :)). $18.00 from Blue Sparrow Vintage.}




{You might as well put lip chap on the food pyramid for me come winter. I have dry lips (and skin) all year round, but in the winter it's a 24/7 battle for me to keep my lips from cracking and bleeding, so I always have a tube (or five!) of high quality lip balm at the ready. I haven't tried the offerings from this particular brand, but given their all-natural formula, they sound like one that I'd have good luck with - plus the name of this particular product, Snowflakes Vanilla Mint Lip Balm, really appeals to me. $4.00 for a 0.15 ounce tube from Lippincott Soap Co.}




{It doesn't get much more classic than this on the winter scarf front! Red and black combine to create a timeless tartan pattern on this wool blend 1950s scarf that will never, ever go out of style or fail to help keep you warm. 58" scarf, $20.00 from Transmigration.}




{How on earth I managed to list this delightfully classic red and black 1960s sweater and not tuck it away in my wardrobe the moment I found it, is beyond me! :) I have indeed recently listed it though and now you can bring it home with you, if you’d like. Fits up to a 36" bust/28" waist (unstretched). $30.00 from Chronically Vintage on Etsy.}




{Fancy yourself quite the skiing expert? Love lounging in the lodge with a steaming cup of cocoa? Just want to sport a darling winter sport themed pin? Whatever the case, this uber cute, very reasonably priced vintage ski bunny brooch is for you! $10.95 from Granny Bean's Boutique.}




{It's scarcely a secret that I'm wild for dresses and skirts, but sometimes, especially when the mercury plummets, pants are the first thing I reach for in the morning. I own three pairs of Heyday's fantastic swing trousers and they all see wear during this icicle bedecked time of the year. I really like that Heyday offers a variety of colours and fabrics, so that you can coordinate them with your favourite winter coats, sweaters and jackets. A great pair to start with (or add to) your own collection is Black Swing Trousers (available, at the time of writing, in UK ladies sizes 10 to 20) that will serve you awesomely as the bottom half of countless cold and warm weather ensembles alike. £55.00 from Heyday.}




{Classic, sturdy, and easy to style in an array of directions (vintage, punk, goth, contemporary, etc), these Finejo brand women's black lace up faux leather boots are sure to help make getting through the long months of winter more bearable. Plus, they're a massive bargain to - fittingly - boot! :) Available in modern ladies sizes 6 to 11. $21.99 from Amazon.}

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At the start of this week Penticton was hit by a snowstorm that resulted in the single largest snowfall this town has seen in decades. Coupled with the abundance of flakes that had already fallen on the weekend, come Tuesday morning, there was well over a foot of the white stuff everywhere the eye could see.

A snow warning was in effect and very rarely for Canada, a snow day was even issued schools in the area. Looking back to my own years as a student, I can only remember two times when that ever happened. Snow is a fact of life in this country and needs to be pretty serious and substantial before schools shut their doors.

It wasn't just classrooms that were empty though, the streets, slicked with immensely dangerous black ice, were near ghost towns and sadly many who did venture out found themselves either getting stuck or slowly colliding on their sides into one another as if they were playing a citywide game of bumper cars.

Tony and I didn't risk going out on Monday and I had to move one of my routine doctor's appointments up a few days because of it. For all the trouble such weather can cause (and goodness knows, things can always be worse on the blizzard front - as far as I heard, the power didn't even go down here in town because of it), there is also a certain resplendent beauty to it that will always speak to my winter serenity loving soul.

While I have been yearning for a solid snow cover to take some vintage outfit photos in, it's rather tricky (and certainly not very safe) do so in the midst of a snow storm, so this week the camera stayed in its padded bag and instead I decided to deck out this month's stylish Vintage Friday Fashionista in the kind of garb one needs when faced with such a snowy environment.

While my own hunt for a matching two-piece (or one-piece zip up) vintage ski or snow suit still continues, living in the northerly nation that I do, I do have numerous cold weather and fun winter themed items (such as the snowflake shaped earrings I mentioned above) that I wear frequently from October/November through to March or April, just depending on when Old Man Winter decides to vacate the premise. Many of which are similar those featured here today.

Though things have slowed down on the snowfall front as the week progressed, we're still up to our eyebrows in ski hill perfect powder and it's safe to say that we'll be reaching for the winter boats, extra heavy scarves, and wool garments long after Monday's official snow day (this being Canada after all!!!).

I hope that you're all staying warm and safe, and enjoying a fantastic start of January, my dear friends!

Found: the perfect pair of brown Victorian inspired boots

✯ Day 321 of Vintage 365 ✯

Though I can't (off the top of my head) say this with complete certainly, I don't know if I've ever featured a pair of (non-rain or snow related) boots before on this site.

As a massive lover of boots, it's been a bit hard to share some of my favourite sartorial finds over the years without including an example from this significant branch of the footwear tree.

The reason behind this has been, primarily, simply that I like to adhere to the precise fashions of the 30s-50s, and this was not an era (outside of weather and equestrian related ones) that saw ladies wearing many boots at all.

Up until the days of the Edwardian period, and then again from the swinging sixties onwards, boots had (and have) been a major wardrobe player. During the mid-twentieth century however, their popularity waned in favour of smaller (in terms of the amount of material used and how far they went up the wearer's calf) shoes, such as pumps, flats, wedge heels, sandals, and Mary Janes.

Though I have no doubt that a handful women continued to wear boots during the 30s, 4os and 50s (outside of professional reasons why they may have had to, that is), doing so was absolutely by no means the norm.

I adore vintage footwear of just about every kind as much as the next gal, however as someone with slightly uneven sized feet that are "thick" from top to bottom who usually wears a size 8.5 (give or take half a size depending on the brand), it can be pretty darn tricky to find genuine vintage shoes or even vintage reproduction shoes that come even remotely close to fitting me properly (or comfortably!).

As such, while I do have some such shoes (gathered from years of dedicated searching and trying on hundreds upon hundreds of different pairs), in order to help stretch out my meagre sized footwear collection, I've often turned to classically styled boots.

There's no shooties, studded punk style, thigh-high, or platform numbers living on the floor of my closet. On the contrary, at the moment one would find a tall pair of classic black riding inspired boots and another (also black) pair of simply styled ankle length slip-on boots. Both are in heavy rotation, even though they don't look strictly vintage in a mid-twentieth way (not of course, that everything a vintage loving girl wears has to!).

In the past I've owned various pairs of Victorian/Edwardian inspired lace up boots however and am perpetually on the prowl for another such pair.

Thus while (given my oddly proportioned feet) I've learned it simply not worth the heartache and disappointment (when they don't fit, that is) to order shoes online, I know that many of you do just that often. So when I recently chanced up the richly beautiful pair of dark caramel brown Victorian inspired boots below, I knew that I simply had to share them here with you.

My heart skipped a beat or two when I laid eyes on these timelessly elegant boots (which are available in ladies sizes and half sizes from 5.5 to 10, for $49.99 US, from ModCloth.com) with their neat rows of eyelets, perfectly buttery brown hue, and immensely wearable heel. In fact, despite what I just said above, I'm giving serious consideration to ordering a pair.

I'll sleep on it a day or two more though before deciding. In the meantime - and certainly long after if I don't end up taking the plunge - I can't help but think of the many amazing looks (from long wool winter dresses to being slipped beneath the hems of a pair of classic wide-legged, high-waisted trousers) that these terrifically pretty old-fashioned styled boots would go with.

So while (much as I have to fight the urge to do so) I may not post boots often here, I hope you'll agree with me that this stellar brown lace-up pair is timelessly classic enough to warrant its inclusion in a Chronically Vintage post.