Answering the Antique, Vintage, and Retro Nevers Q & A

So often with fun online tags or other types of Q&A posts that catch on and spread like wildfire, they've been passed from blog to blog for so long that one would be extremely hard pressed to find their original source. Not so with the Antique, Vintage, and Retro Nevers Q & A that my very dear friend (and immensely talented sewer) Inky from On Shoes and Ships and Sealing Wax created a little earlier this year.

She was inspired to create this series of questions (and answers) based on things in the vintage (et al) world that she would likely never do. I thought this was such a fun, original spin on a set of questions that are designed to help your readers get to know you better. As such, I knew instantly that I wanted to try my hand at answering her original set of eight questons as well and am delighted to have a chance to do so today.

So without, further ado, may I present my answers to Inky's great Antique, Vintage, and Retro Nevers questions.









1. What is one antique/vintage/retro item you’d never want to receive as a gift or would never think of purchasing?

Anything directly tied to the Nazi regime of WW2. I believe that it's very important to preserve such items from a historical and cultural standpoint and do not take issue with those that collect them (assuming they're not neo-nazis or the like themselves), but it's something that I would absolutely not feel comfortable owning myself.





2. What are three movies made in pre-70's Hollywood you've never seen and want to see?

Ooohhh, there are so many! To the best of my memory, I don't believe that I've yet seen 1941's The Devil and Mrs. Jones, 1946's Gilda, or 1954's The Barefoot Contessa. Catching any or all of those three would be a blast!





3. What are three movies made in pre-70’s Hollywood you've seen and will never watch again?

This is genuinely hard, as there aren't many old movies that I didn't enjoy - if only for the fashions and hairstyles involved. Honestly, I'm not sure. Sorry!!! I guess I'm every director's dream critic! :D





4. What is one antique/vintage/retro item you own, but never imagined you would?

My complete and total dream 1940s style tilt hat, created for me by wildly talented Australian milliner, Tanith Rowan.





5. What is one thing you do relating to vintage you never pictured yourself doing?

Very good question, there are definitely a few things that fall into this camp, but believe it or not given the abundance of out outfit posts here in recent years, when I began blogging, I was still way too shy and self-conscious to put my picture online (very often at least).

It took about three years of solid blogging and feeling at home in the vintage community, as well as growing and maturing as a person, before I reached a place where I was able to stand in front of the lens and more over share the end results of doing so with all of you (assuming, at least, that Tony is the person behind the camera! Though I'd totally let a kitty take my photo, too! :D). I'm so thankful that I reached this point because I know that it's helped to enrich my blog and my life itself a great deal.





6. If you could never dress outside a specific decade of the past again, what decade would you choose?

I'm going to play fast and loose with the definition of a decade being a ten year period and say, as I have many a time before, that without a doubt, I would select the years spanning the launch of Dior's immensely famous New Look silhouette in 1947 to ten years later 1957. This period in time is such an incredibly rich, vibrant, elegant one for fashion and it has spoken to my sartorial soul since I was a small child.





7. What is one thing you could never bring yourself to do to an antique/vintage/retro item?

Knowingly do anything to damage a perfectly good (intact) vintage item. I usually won't even have my vintage garments altered in the slightest way because I just can't bring myself to "hurt" anything that has survived in its present shape for this long. I don't chide those that do, of course, and know that this is a hot button issue for many in the vintage world, but again, it's just not something that I'm personally down with when it comes to my own vintage items.




8. Is there an antique/vintage/retro item you own that you would never give up?

Any of the small number of true vintage items, such as the gorgeous c. early 1940s crepe dress that I chatted about not too long ago here, that belonged to my own family members. These pieces have been with us for generations now and I hope that I can pass them along to the next one, too. (Note: That photo is not of my own relatives, I just really liked it because it showed multiple generations of the same family all in one image).

{To learn more about a specific image, please click on it to be taken to its respective source.}

♥ ♥ ♥

Thank you very much for creating this delightful, creative set of questions, Inky. I hope that others will take both our leads and blog about their own answers, too. If you do, by all means feel free to share the link to your post here with me and over on Inky's blog with her as well.

Tell, my dears, what are some "vintage nevers" in your books? What questions might you ad to this list? And, conversely, what are some of your "vintage alwayses"?

The older I get...

In little more than a week's time, I'll turn 29 years old. That number doesn't carry the same weight as thirty, but it's poignant in its own right because it's will be the last year I (or any of us for that matter) have in my twenties.

To say that this decade (or at least the eight years and eleven months I've experienced of it so far) has been an incredibly formative, meaningful, tumultuous, exciting, fascinating, and generally busy time in my life would be an understatement.

That, however, is what one's twenties are for, at least in this present day and age. We learn, we grow, we fail, we succeed, we win, we loose, and if we're lucky, we come out wiser, more grounded, and better ready to face the next decade than we were when we stumbled precariously from our teen years in adulthood.

As the grains in the hourglass of life continue to trickle through, I sometimes find myself reflecting on things that have changed, expanded or come to be as I've gotten older. I'm sure that as more years get added to my age throughout time, so too will others be added to this list, and quite frankly that point makes me happy.

I love sincerely love the fact that one's outlook on things changes and/or develops as we age. There were perks to being, say, 16 for sure, but (aside from the good health I had back then), I wouldn't go back and trade being 16 with being nearly 29 for a million dollars. Short of the fact that every year behind you means one less in front, there's exceedingly little I dislike about aging and a great deal that I love.

On this, the first Friday of spring, I thought it would be fun to share a some things with you that have happened to me, or which I approach differently, as I continue to age. The older I get...

The braver I become.

The less I care what other people think about me.

The more I shake things off.

The less I little the little things unnerve and rattle me.

The more fun I have with my fashion choices.

The fewer regrets I find myself counting at the end of the year.

The greater my ability to forgive others becomes.

The more I find myself opening up and desiring to let others "in".

The happier and more content with life I find myself.

The easier it is to accept myself exactly as I am (but by the same token, the easier it also is to steadfastly work at changing those things I want to improve).

The less tears I shed over people who are not worth them in the first place.

The less I let my limitations define me.

The more I cannot wait to meet the person I'll be in five, ten, twenty, forty, etc years!

{Whether babe, gran, or somewhere in between, never stop trying to better yourself, help others, and make the best of what you've been blessed to have. Image source.}

This is by no means a complete list, but I'd say they're the the points that I've most found myself reflecting on during the first few months of 2013. Getting older isn't always a walk in a park, but neither is (was) youth. I enjoy the comfort that comes from having an ever increasing amount of life experiences and a wealth of memories to draw on as I face each new day.

Most of us change and grow with age, our perspectives shifting and broadening as hard lessons are learned and new joys are experienced. This is the way things are supposed to be. It would be challenging and nothing short of a shame if age didn't afford us a certain wisdom and the ability to be better equipped at dealing with whatever the the universe throws our way each day. I'll happily trade a few budding wrinkles and (come July 2014) wave goodbye to another decade of life for such invaluable gifts any day of the year.

Saturday Snapshots: Christmas 2012 edition

{Oh what I - and a great many of you - wouldn't give to have this fabulous prop for use in our own family portrait Christmas cards.}




{The stockings were hung by the silverware chest with care, in the hopes that St. Nicolas soon would be there.}




{It's matching holiday outfits all around for this trio of sisters, with little brother coordinating quite nicely, too, in his festive red plaid shirt.}




{A family eagerly awaits their festive feast in this super easy to relate to image from December 1949.}




{The weather outside might be a touch frightful, but that isn't stopping this group of 1950s youngsters from belting out Christmas carols with all their might.}




{Three generations, spanning junior through grandpa, pitch in to help trim the tree in this classic slice-of-life shot from 1954.}




{The holidays can sure take a lot out of you at times, no matter how cute and - normally - rambunctious a cowboy you are.}




{In this heartwarming photo titled "Mom and Kat", a mother dressed in pale blue gazes down lovingly at her her baby, creating an image that cannot help but make one think of the classic nativity scene.}

{Group shots are a standard must when the family gathers for the holidays, and this black and white portrait 1959 embodies the spirit of so many like it that have been taken over the years: a range of ages, expressions, and excitement levels captured forever on film.}

{With wide-eyed wonderment a darling little girl looks up at the towering Christmas tree, a doll - perhaps a new present - cradled in her arms, as all the innocence and wonder of youth radiates from her sweet face.}


{All images above are from Flickr. To learn more about a specific image, please click on it to be taken to its respective Flickr page.}


 


Good years do not necessarily come often or easy. Like bumper harvests, blue moons and spirit bears, they sometimes elude for a very long time. This year however, when all (minus the nine remaining days) was said and done, was a very good one. It ushered in much needed change, brought increased happiness, moved thousands of miles, set up a new home, spend countless hours with beloved relatives, made new friends, thrifted and yard saled, baked, photographed and poised, blogged, created, dreamed, cried tears of joy, laughed, and celebrated.

For there was - and still is - much to be grateful for, and never has this year, or the approaching holiday season, looked more beautiful than it does right now, the twinkling gleam of holiday lights waltzing in the background, the smell of gingerbread cookies and hot cocoa wafting through the air.

Christmas has indeed waved its magic wand over this place, this grand and glorious world of ours, but this year, for Tony and I, it didn't have to work as hard or wave as vigorously as it often has. The universe had already sprinkled its own generous dose of wonder over us and set our hearts ablaze with smiles and gratitude.

As 2012 winds down and Christmas looms just three sleeps away, I am acutely aware that years like this are a rarity. The tough ones always return. Yet swept up in the merriment of the season, tummy full of festive eats, Bing crooning us with carols from the record player, I can't help but look at life through Christmas rose coloured glasses and view the world as a very lovely place these days.

It is my sincerest hope that, no matter the year you've had up until this point, the holidays and these last tinsel covered days of December will leave you each feeling as though all is merry and bright, and more than a little bit beautiful, too.