Out with the old, in with the new!

Hard as it may to believe, 2016 is already more than half a month old and as such I thought now - with the marvelous hubbub of the holiday season over for most folks - was a good time to delve further into some points that I made in my recent Think Big, Dream Big post that kicked off January here.

Towards the end of that entry, I mentioned that I was planning to retire certain ongoing blog posts that had grown, to my mind - and based on post read and/or comment numbers, those of my audience as well - somewhat stagnant.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the blogging world - both inside and out of the vintage sphere - has changed a great deal in recent years. In general, far beyond the realm of my site alone, posts and topics that once garnered scads of attention, may barely catch a passing glance, whereas others (such as outfit posts, DIY tutorials, and food related entries) have only grown in popularity.

Though I do, and will always, blog for the sake of the immense pleasure and fulfillment that doing so brings me, it would be foolhardy of me to pour precious hours - each of which is worth its weight in gold amidst my ridiculously busy schedule - into posts that aren't garnering a lot of love any more and which, to be perfectly honest, in some cases I've grown a bit bored with (writing) myself, too.

As keen observers may have noticed already, towards the end of 2015, rather organically (aka, it wasn't a deliberately calculated move), I stopped capping off the end of each month with the usual Vintage Link Love entry that had been wrapping up most months for the previous couple of years. It was an enjoyable series and I know there are some die-hard fans of it here (thank you, each!), but it just wasn’t lighting my writing fires a great deal any more.

At present, I don't plan to wrap up the end of every month with a particular ongoing post series, instead, for now, it will be open to any and all topics. Perhaps one day another "end of the month" post will arise, but again, for now, nothing of that nature is in place.

I've also decided that I'm going to evolve the 25 Vintage Deals Under $100 post series into a similar entry that will continue to focus on a given theme each time around, but which won't be restricted solely by price point (or number of entries) and which may appear here at somewhat more random (aka, not strictly monthly) intervals. I know that a lot of you enjoy shopping, and learning of new sellers/online stores from, such posts, so the general concept is certainly not vanishing.



{Granted I won't be donning an acid green unitard to do so in, but I will be sweeping out some of the old post series from my blog and ushering in some new/revised ones, as well as a greater degree of "wherever the wind blows" entries on a wide array of topics here this year. Vintage Matico advertisement image source.}


After many of loyal service, so to speak, the time has come to retire my monthly Flickr Favourites post as well. I still adore, and will avidly source inspiration and blog post images alike from, Flickr, but this is another series that has experienced a sharp drop in reader interest and which I feel has run its natural course, too.

It's been quite a few months now since my last Vintage Fashionista Friday post (see here for an example of a VFF post from 2014). I haven't decided yet if this series will be be resuscitated for 2016 or not. I'm really on the fence about it. What are your feelings as to this particular ongoing post?

Less common reoccurring posts, such as Saturday Snapshots and Adventures in Vintage Advertising are staying put, appearing, as they long have, here every now and then, when the mood or inspiration for such strikes.

If we delve far back in the annals of Chronically Vintage history, there have been some other post series, too, but these have been the main ones for a few years now and those others are already long retired in my books (that isn't to say that one couldn't come back again some day, but I have no immediate plans for such).

These post series, though a fun and decent sized part of my site, were certainly not all of what I shared here and you won't be lacking for exciting entries as we continue along through 2016. In fact, it is my sincere hope and desire that by making these sorts of changes, I'll be able to bring you even more content that you not only enjoy, but eagerly look forward to.

On that front, you can plan for plenty of "what I wore" outfit posts, oodles of vintage fashion related entries, lots of vintage recipe posts, some musings from my daily life, travel related posts as the occasion trip occurs, lots more new editions to the popular "Meet a fellow vintage blogger" interview series, history related pieces, the occasional handy vintage related how-to, various YouTube videos that I create, holiday season happenings, and a smattering of this, that and the other thing that I get the desire to write about - in conjunction, of course, with the series discussed above that will be remaining/appearing here this year.

It's very important to me that this blog stays fresh, relevant and dynamic and I hope that these post series changes will go a long way on that front in 2016 and beyond. I truly welcome your impute here on these culled choices and new additions, and hope that these decisions will only help my blog to grow and flourish further, even in the face of an ever changing blogging world and a continually greater degree of social media posting dominance.

After all, who amongst us is is better suited to be "online old school" than us vintage bloggers?

Just doing a little fall cleaning

Of the electronic version that is.

While by no means obsessive to an unhealthy point, I'm something of a compulsive cleaner. I detest mess and disorder and as a result don't mind housework and actually look forward to certain chores and seasonal cleanings. This week however, no elbow grease was involved, as what I've been tidying up is the pages upon pages that I keep in (neatly categorized) Word documents on my computer to links (sources) of online images and topics that I may want to post about in the future.

From day one back in 2009 when I began this blog, I started putting together such inspiration lists, as well as lists of ideas for future posts (other than deleting those ideas I've already written about, that list rarely gets touched and is a vital element, I find, to successful blogging). As a result, some of the entries are now well over three years old. Not all that aged if we were talking about a real world item perhaps, but in the realm of the interwebs, a lot can happen in that time.

About once a year or so, I like to take a few days and weed out certain links that I suspect or already know are no longer applicable or which are now long gone (e.g., etsy listings that have sold).

Sometimes Flickr users shut down their accounts and thus images there that I'd once hoped to use disappear as well. Other times people change their Flickr settings and cease to allow their images to be used by others, and again that potential image source dries up. The less of these kinds of links one has to hand, the speedier (and more enjoyable) it is to quickly find the type of image you're after for a given post.

While Pinterest has certainly opened up the image playing field - and is a marvelous place to store images that you may use in future posts - I still like the quick ease of use that comes from having these kinds of lists, where a simple "search and find" in Word will pull up the links I'm after, based on the descriptions and/or keywords I partnered them with.




{There’s nothing like a little housekeeping – be it on your computer or in the kitchen to make things feel fresh and tidy again. Image via fidgetrainbowtree}



Much as I literally get antsy if I know something is messy in my house, so too do I like to try and keep my archive of links and vintage inspiration neat and tidy, no matter how lengthy it has become after years of blogging.

Thus, throughout this lovely mid-October week, when not celebrating family birthdays (three in a two day period!) and our wedding anniversary, I've been devoting some of my time to (proverbially) sweeping, dusting, and sorting through my achieves documents and, while it's sad in a way to see any link cease to be useful or available, I'm happy about knowing that I'll now be able to head into the wildly hectic fall and winter holiday season with considerably fewer unusable entries kicking around.

If you keep similar lists (and/or use an online bookmarking service, which I do too, but only a minute fraction as much as I use my Word documents), I highly suggest you do an annual cleanup up, too. You can work at it here and there, when time permits, or intentionally devote a weekend or few days to sorting the "keep" from the "toss”, as they used to say on the TV show Clean Sweep.

One of the perks to this kind of tidying up spree is that it reminds you of some of things you found previously and thought were noteworthy/cute/cool/useful, but which in the ensuing months (or years), you forgot about.

Don't be surprised, as I often find is the case, if you go on a post writing spree in the aftermath of this type of housekeeping, especially if you're still left with oodles of great, totally useable sources of inspiration and images.

Cleaning, I find, is good for the mind, body and spirit, no matter what you're tidying up. There's a sense of satisfaction that comes when you wrap up and admire what you've just done and the order you've brought to the world around you.

So why not join me this month (feel free to don your favourite vintage apron just for fun while doing so) and engage in a little bit of autumn inspiration file straightening up -  it sure makes spring cleaning your house seem like a massive breeze by comparison!

My annual Boxing Day blogroll cleanup tradition

✯ Day 360 of Vintage 365 ✯

Stuffed to the gills with immensely delicious food, giddy from the past day’s merriment, and relaxed by the fact that for many of us today means a day free from our jobs, it might seem a tad odd that I have a Boxing Day tradition that pertains to cleaning.

Lest you think I'm getting an especially early jump on my spring cleaning, allow me to explain. You see, once a year I like to go through the blog roll here on Chronically Vintage and tidy things up, removing any sites that no longer exist (shut down by their authors), which have switched to "by invite only" status, or that are no longer good matches for this site.

Having been awake for hours already, I've completed the blog tidying process for this year. It's always deeply interesting to see which blogs are still going strong and which, for whatever reason, have decided to shut down or have become abandoned (by which I mean their owners suddenly stopped blogging and did not create a post saying that they were planning to do such).

{Nothing as arduous as scrubbing the stove for me today, just doing a little light online housekeeping this fine, frosty Boxing Day. Vintage Kleenoff Jelly ad via alsis35 on Flickr.}

In the case of the later, I generally have a one year rule, by which I mean if a given blog has not seen any new activity for a year or longer, I'm more inclined to remove it from my blog roll. However, even there one encounters exceptions, because (given the historically geared nature of the topics many vintage loving bloggers cover) the content on such sites may still be of great interest to fellow vintage fans and I wouldn't want anyone to miss out on a great site simply because it's no longer going strong.

Though I do not count the precise number of links that I remove each year, I'd ballpark things and say that this time around my blog roll was shortened by about 20%. As I add new links to it throughout the year however, there's a very decent chance that come Boxing Day 2012, it will once again be much the same size as it was prior to this morning.

In fact, in briefly visiting every single blog on listing in my sidebar today, I discovered (through posts on various sites) three or four new (to me) vintage blogs, which of course I added to the roster.

One might wonder why I opted to assign Boxing Day to this yearly task and the I believe that the first time around it was something that just came about originally. Back then, in December 2009, Chronically Vintage had been online for the better part of a year and I figured it was time I pruned by blog roll (as described above) to make sure it was in peak shape for my wonderful blog visitors to enjoy.

As way of ensuring this job was carried out annual, it made sense from there on out to stick with the same day each year, and thus my annual Boxing Day tradition of tidying up my blogroll was born.

That, however, is just about the only "job" I'll be doing today. There's too many scrumptious Christmas leftovers to eat, vintage holiday songs to enjoy, and new presents to delight in to devote this marvelous day of relaxation to anything more arduous than that.

Wishing you all a terrifically fun Boxing Day, however you opt to spend it, sweet dears!