GIVEAWAY: Enter to win a $100.00 gift certificate from Violet Vixen

The holiday season might be wrapping up for most of us this week, but that doesn't mean that the festive spirit has to end entirely, too. I know how busy, and at times even stressful, the past few weeks have been for many of us and as such, I really wanted to offer all of you a fantastic giveaway to usher in 2015 with.

For this inaugural blog giveaway of 2016, I'm absolutely delighted to have teamed up for the first time ever with popular online American vintage reproduction, alternative, steampunk, and goth fashion purveyors, Violet Vixen.

Their frequently updated shop is chock-a-block full of the kind of fun, fashionable, timelessly lovely offerings (sourced from an array of different brands) that so many of us go weak in the knees for.

With everything from novelty prints to timeless florals, dresses to tops, corsets to handbags, and offerings for both men and women, Violet Vixen is a delightful site with a wide away of products that are sure to appeal to just about any vintage, pinup, rockabilly, retro, steampunk/Victorian Industrial, or alternative fashion fan.



{Just a small sampling of Violet Vixen's fabulous (current) products, any one of which might be an ideal choice to put your $100.00 gift certificate towards, if you happen to be the winner of this exciting giveaway. From top left to bottom right: Hawaiian Sidecar Dresss | Dragon Lace Pink Cupcake Corset | Betsy Pink Sparrow Gumball Purse | Cherry Blossom Plus Size Dress}



In addition to very generously offering one lucky Chronically Vintage reader the chance to a $100.00 gift certificate (voucher), the lovely folks at Violet Vixen also kindly sent me a cuter-than-cute Flamingo Fun Skirt to review, which I will be sharing here with all of you in an upcoming outfit post in early 2016.

(As mentioned here last week, we've continued to experience snowfalls here everyday as of late, which makes shootings quite dangerous for our photographic equipment, otherwise I'd be posting snaps of myself in this charmingly lovely skirt here today; again, watch of them a wee bit further on in the year.)


Giveaway Details:

This giveaway, which is open to readers worldwide, is for one $100.00 USD gift certificate/store voucher from Violet Vixen, which will be put towards merchandise on their website.

Violet Vixen has informed me that they will also provide shipping cost coverage up $35.00 for those outside of the USA.

Just to clarify that point, if you are the winner and you live outside of the USA, your gift certificate can be put towards up to $100.00 in merchandise and then if three are shipping costs beyond that $100.00 value, Violet Vixen will cover such shipping costs up to a total of $35.00 (this is due to the fact that their shipping prices run on the steeper side for those outside of the US).

The giveaway is taking place between today's date (Wednesday January 6th) and 11:59 PST on Wednesday January 13, 2016, with the winner being drawn and contacted via email (as well as possibly announced on social media) shortly thereafter.

If you've like to enter, please feel free to do with as many of the following Rafflecopter options as you desire.

The only one that is mandatory for entry is that you leave a comment on this post, the rest are entirely optional. The more that you enter, the greater your odds of winning.

Should you happen to have any questions about this giveaway, drop me an email and I'll be happy to answer them as best I can for you.



a Rafflecopter giveaway

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A huge thank you to Violet Vixen for this wonderful giveaway opportunity, and the very best of luck to all those who enter!!!

Four Things

Last July my lovely Australian friend Vanessa posted an interesting blogging tag on her her site, Nessbow, that I hadn't seen before (best I could recall) in which the person posting about it shares four different answers to a slew of various quick, fun questions.

Being a fan of blog tags and the like, this one struck a chord with me and I decided right then and there that I'd post my own replies to the Four Things questions as soon as I got the chance. Little did I know it would take the better part of six months for that to happen, but as the second half of the tends to be for me/us, this past one was immensely busy.

Today, on the first Monday of the new year, a time when many of our brains are still in holiday mood (even if we're heading back to work and/or school this morning), I thought it would be fun to ease into the blogging year by giving the Four Things blog tag a spin (with speedy, breezy answers). I'm not going to tap anyone specifically to play along, so if you'd like to do so yourself, by all means have at 'er!

Four places I've lived

* Calgary, Alberta

* Dublin, Ireland

* Toronto, Ontario

* The historical living ghost town of Barkerville (technically the tiny community of Wells, right outside of it), British Columbia

Four jobs I've had

* Candy store manager

* Printing company office manager

* Professional photographer

* Freelance writer (and ghost writer)

Four things I don't eat

As I've mentioned before here over the years, there is a huge volume of different foods that I can't safely eat because of some of my medical conditions, but I'm going to take that out of the equation and think back to foods that I wasn't a fan of in those glorious days when I could have eaten whatever I pleased (though should mention, I've always been an adventurous eater and there aren't many foods I strongly dislike).

* Most types of seafood (though I do really like some, such as grilled salmon or popcorn shrimp)

* Yellow grapefruit (or its juice)

* Blue cheese of any type (mixed into a "four cheese" sauce or such, I don't mind it though)

* Lime beans

Four of my favourite foods

Again, I'm going to answer these as though I didn't have any medical dietary restrictions.

* Pizza (especially a great Margarita, ham and pineapple, or bbq chicken pizza - yum!!!)

* English trifle

* Hamburger Pie

* Stroganoff

Four films I've watched more than once

* Hocus Pocus

* Back to the Future

* Roman Holiday

White Christmas

Four TV shows I watch

* Sherlock Holmes

* Masters of Sex

* Ripper Street (Bennet Drake for the win. Always.)

* Suits
Four celebrity crushes  
* Cary Grant

* Marcello Mastroianni

** Pierce Brosnan

* Liam Neeson


Four pet peeves

In general I like to think of myself as an easy going person who doesn't sweat the small things too much and who tries to find and see the good in as many situations as I can, so this was the only tricky question, in terms of the answers, that I encountered in this post.

* Stores that close needlessly early and/or aren't open on completely logical days.

* When you want to buy something online and its sold out in your size on every single website that stocks said piece (and all the more so when its a newly released item!).

* Public restrooms - and there are no shortage of them - that doesn't provide paper toilet seat covers (I get around this by usually just carrying a purse pack of my own)

* When you get a pit in an olive that is supposed to be pitted (it's so easy to break a tooth that way!)

Four things I wish I could do

* Travel through time (1940s shopping spree, anyone? :))

* Have the health and funds needed to take an around-the-world trip

* Live in a gorgeous Victorian house akin to this stunner (who knows, maybe some day!)

* Paint like one of the great masters

Four subjects I studied in school

* English

* History

* Psychology

* Home economics


Four things that are (located) near me right now

* Our adorable little grey tabby cat, Stella

* The latest outgoing orders from my Etsy shop (where my 30% storewide winter holiday season sale is enjoying its last and final day)

* A great historical fashion book that I'm going to be reviewing and giving away here later on this month (you'll have to turn into find out which one!)

* An extra blanket (it is January after all!)


Four things I'm looking forward to this year 

* Next Halloween (though that is true of every year! :))

* Hopefully getting the chance to do a little traveling

* Making more YouTube videos

* My Etsy shop's 2nd anniversary in early May


{To learn more about a specific image used in this post, please click on it to be taken to its respective source.}
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I really did aim for brevity here, so if there's anything that I mentioned that you'd like to know more about, please don't hesitate to ask.

Thank you very much, dear Vanessa, for posting these questions on your terrific blog and in turn inspiring me to pen today's post. I always delight in sharing more about myself through such avenues and feel like this is a great note for any blogger to kick a brand new year off on!

Think big, dream big for 2016

Today, at the stroke of 12 am, a new year was born. Was it a struggled labour, a tedious birth? Or did it bound into sight with the playful enthusiasm of a six week old puppy? Chances are, it was a bit of both. Now it sits before us in all its ripe and regal splendor - 365 days to make our own, to celebrate or cry over, dress up or downplay. Life is rarely black and white and newborn year even less so.

It is at once fragile and strong, laden with more lofty promises than a presidential candidate and prone to never quite pan out how we'd hoped or imagine. Sometimes that's great, others not so much, but ultimately, so long as we're here to greet the next one, it's all good.

In fact, life itself is good and great, grand and amazing and the rebirth of the year helps us to remember that, even in the middle of the bleakest season (on this side of the equator). I've talked here before about how I don't generally make new year's goals and that hasn't changed. I set goals anytime I want to and don't wait for a specific date to do so on. I find my success rate much higher this way and also love that it continually gives me the ability to grow and better myself throughout the year.

{Festive 1940s vintage New Year's illustration image source.}

I fully understand the desire to make goals now though and have no qualms with the general doing of such. It's important, no matter our age or where we're at in our lives right now, to take a while and access them periodically. To ask what, in our heart of hearts, we truly want and how we might go about achieving such. The same ring trues for our blogs as well and as such, heading into 2016, I'm going to be making a few changes here and there to mine.

I don't (presently at least) mean a layout revamping, instead I'm speaking in terms of retiring certain ongoing post series that are no longer, by and large, big hits with my readers (and which, in some cases, don't fuel my own writing fires too much these days either), continuing to blog more and more "in the moment", and to share an even greater degree of what transpires in my daily life with all of you (in part through my YouTube videos). And as always, please don't hesitate to let me know anytime if there's more of certain topics you'd like to see covered here.

I may cut back my post frequency a touch as well, especially as my Etsy shop continues to grow and flourish all the more, as well as due to the fact that I simply do not take enough time away from my work and I don't want to risk burning out, if I can avoid it! In general though, you can expect a similar posting pace to that of recent years (or so I hope!).

One of the worst things that can happen to a person, or a blog, is for it them/it to become stagnant or overly predictable and I never want that to be the case for Chronically Vintage. So as we leap with both feet into 2016 - a year that I have a really good feeling about, I should mention - I plan to bring you scores of exciting new posts, while always staying true to myself and my blogging roots as well.

Change is not only good, it's great! But one certainly doesn't have to throw out the New Year's Eve baby with the proverbial bath water in order to grow, reach their goals, and succeed on front both lofty and little alike.

Here's to the hopes and dreams, each beautiful day, and every marvelous moment we'll share in 2016, my treasured friends. Let's think big, think vintage, and think fabulous every step of the way!