There's always a certain sense of contradiction to ending a month of the first day of a new week, isn't there? It feels like you're pulled in two very different directions, with one foot in the past, the other in tomorrow. Today though, I feel like I'm on a pretty even keel and am looking very forward to the coming month for a multitude of reasons, not the least of which is my sweet mother's birthday in two days, followed three weeks later by Easter. I also have some really, really exciting (top secret for the time being) vintage related plans in the work for later this spring, too, which have had me in a permanent smile for quite some time now (as I work diligently away at bringing them to fruition).
One of the things that really kicked March off on a positive note for me this year was winning a giveaway hosted by the immensely talented Emily from the blog Emily's Vintage Visions, who very generously offered her readers that chance to land a darling handmade apron that she created. It arrived mid-month and is so, so cute (and well constructed!). Though I wear one almost daily, I don't actually have a large collection of aprons, so Emily's wonderful gift is a big, and very much appreciated, boon to me there.
March was jumping with activity, online and off, and it wasn't hard in the slightest to find exciting, enjoyable, and/or inspiring entries to share with you here in this month's edition of Vintage Link Love. Quite the opposite actually, I have so many more from March (or that I found in March) bookmarked still that I could fill the next two such posts with them alone! I won't though, as I like to include some from the month that just wrapped up, of course, but I'm sure many of them will continue to appear here over time.
Sit back, settle in, grab your favourite early springtime nibble, if so desired, and come along as we take a peak at some great vintage related links as March embarks on its final day.
♥ Viva Las Vegas Pre-Game Tricks and Tips: With Viva Las Vegas, the largest annual gathering of vintage, rockabilly, and kustom kulture folks in the US (and one of the largest in the world) set to kick off again this year in mid-April, many bloggers who will be attending are hard at work both getting ready for the big event and sharing some of their thoughts on how to prep, pack and dress for it, including this helpful post chalked full of handy tips from Veronica Vintage, which is a great read for new and veteran attendees alike.
♥ Tin cans filled with $10 million in (vintage) gold coins found buried in California: By way of my darling husband (who first shared it with me) comes a story that sounds too unbelievably good to be true, but is in fact genuine. If it doesn't make you want to buy a metal detector and start hunting around for old, buried tin cans of your own (because, let's face, most will not be jutting out above ground a little like the one in this story), I don't know what will!
♥ 10 recipes that defined the 1960s: Though I born in the mid-1980s, what struck me about this fun post, which I discovered via The Glamorous Housewife's wonderful blog, is just how many of the ten my family was still making and serving two to four decades later. In fact, I still whip up some of these classic eats myself to this day and think that many will continue to be popular for a long, long time to come (how can you not adore things like grape jelly meatballs and fondue?).
♥ How to organize a pettiskirt collection: Whether you call them crinolines or pettiskirts, there's no difference in the amount of space these beautiful, but often very voluminous undergarments take up and the fact that storing them, especially if you have more than a couple, can quickly take up a rather hefty amount of room. Thanks to the immensely stylish Frances from the blog Polka Polish, all those who find themselves in this situation can now rejoice because she has hit upon a brilliant, super affordable way to wrangle your collection into a very small space that still allows you to see all of your petticoats at once glance. I love (underline that a hundred times) this clever idea!
♥ 7 Things Vintage Stars Can Teach Us About Body Confidence: This charming series of vintage photos, each partnered with a quote from one of yesteryear Hollywood's greatest stars, helps to succinctly remind us of how we might want to approach and deal with certain things that we almost all struggle with at one point or another when it comes to our own appearance and self-confidence levels.
♥ The Manly Origins of Cheerleading: When most people (especially 21st century men) here the word "cheerleader", the first thing that pops to mind is a cute girl in a short skirt, dancing, cheering and waving a pair of pompoms around, and while that has certainly often the case in recent decades, as this engaging post examines, cheerleading actually has a longstanding history as a male centered activity (up until the 1930s in many places).
♥ Man Buys 10,000 Undeveloped Negatives At a Local Auction and Discovers One of The Most Important Street Photographers of the Mid 20th Century: Gold, it would seem, is not the only treasure that lucky folks have been unearthing lately. In a story that sounds like a dream find to me, as I'm sure it will to many vintage photography fans, a man purchases a huge number of yesteryear photography negatives (for just $380) and soon finds that he's hit upon some of the great, most appealing never before seen street photography of the 20th century all captured by a tremendously talented woman named Vivian Maier.
♥ The Toronto Vintage Society launches a blog: If you've been following Chronically Vintage for any length of time, you'll likely know that I'm A.) a Canadian living in Canada and B.) wildly passionate about anything and everything to do with vintage in this country. Unfortunately, especially in most smaller towns and cities, that's not a ton to be hand though thankfully in various corners across this great nation like-minded vintage loving folks do gather and hold events centered squarely around their passion for the past. Previously operating primarily out of Facebook and Twitter online, one such stellar group, The Toronto Vintage Society, recently launched a blog to help spread the good word about their events and vintage in Toronto in general, that is well worth following regardless of if you actually live in Ontario or anywhere in Canada yourself, as vintage truly does transcend borders.
♥ 1920s: English women in colour: This thoroughly engaging and highly beautiful collection of early vintage colour photographs (which reminds me very much of my 2012 post 20 gorgeous Edwardian colour photographs) has been making the rounds big time on Facebook lately, but in case you haven't seen it there or elsewhere, I simply had to share it with you here today. It's always such a special joy to see very early colour photos like this, which truly help the past seem all the more alive and easy to relate to.
♥ How to make a 1940s headscarf/bandana: A little earlier this year Emileigh of the highly enjoyable, informative blog Flashback Summer ran a great series on 1940s working women's style, of which this handy, super easy to follow tutorial was a part. If you're a fan of this classic style of headscarf, you'll want to bookmark Em's post immediately.
♥ 50 vintage inspired & retro clothing stores: Searching for the mother load list of online shops that stock vintage inspired and retro fashions all corralled into one handy-dandy spot? Look no further than this post from Vintage Dancer which houses 50 sources that are sure to appeal to vintage fans far and wide - and cause many a wishlist to swell to new, epic proportions! :)
♥Marlene Dietrich | The World's Most Glamorous Grandmother Sale: Earlier this month some of legend actresses Marlene Dietrich's personal affects (including a love letter from Ernest Hemmingway) were auctioned off, with a sneak peak of the selection appearing in this post from Shimpton Couture. Dietrich is amongst the classic Hollywood stars that I most admire, not only for her acting but for how she lived her life, and I must say, if money was no objection, I would have loved to have raised my paddle when the auction began on some of the pieces in this elegant array of vintage and antique items (such as the resplendent piano compact pictured below).
{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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Electricity charged thunder storms, flocks of new blooms in every garden, early season produce, the shedding of at least a layer of two of clothing in our daily attire, Easter egg hunts, there are so very many reasons to eagerly look forward to April and all that it holds in store for us. I can hardly wait and feel like I'm in such a positive, productive place in my life right now on certain fronts that it's hard to contain my joy and eagerness for what April and the coming months beyond it will hopefully deliver.
I sense April is going to be a beautiful month in a lot of ways and am really hoping that the weather will follow suite. March's, though differently than February's, was often lousy and rarely permitted me to do photo shoots, which is always a drag, because I do enjoy getting in as many as my health will permit when the weather is in a more cooperative mood. I've got some marvelous springtime fashions to share with all of you, so with a bit of luck - and plenty of sunny skies - I can start doing so in earnest in the month ahead.
For now though, especially because I am trying very hard to savour and live in the moment as I grow older, I'm content to slip on a sundress and light weight cardi, set my sites on April, but devote my attention to today. Then buckle down to keep working on my secret plans, which with a bit of luck, I should be able to unveil sometime in May. Very exciting! :)
From the bottom of my heart, I wish you each a sweet, jubilant, completely lovely April and hope that the month delivers scores of reasons for you to smile as well.
