Too Cloche For Comfort

A bad pun to start a good write-up? I sure hope so!

I’ve been needing to update my winter woolies for some time now and have taken action. I’ve decided that an elegant and understated cloche would be a good match with my winter coat. I switch back and forth between a wool peacoat and a parka so a casual cloche wouldn’t seem out of place with either. Anyway, I’ve taken to etsy with gusto and have come up with the following amazing hat choices- almost all of which are now on my Christmas list.

This gorgeous cream and forest green cloche can be found here. I particularly love the rope like texture of the band.

I love the casual elegance of this hat. I also happen to love the grey/red combo. This one is a heavy contender!

I’ve tried hats like it on before and they seem to work well with my face shape. The little wave in the fabric combined with the ribbon and button trim makes this a really sweet little number.

This stunning 1930’s style cloche is to die for, but it is far too formal for me. When I saw it I instantly though of Solanah over at Vixen Vintage. She could, would, and should pull this off and look great doing it.

All in all I think I’ve decided that I can’t decide and will leave the choosing up to my father. He is a very capable man in the clothing department.

My Mid Century Modern Home Part 1

I’ve been more than an absentee blogger as of late. Since our big move to another city I’ve been over whelmed with the task of setting up a new home for Andrew, the cats and myself. Having all this extra room (at the no extra cost) means we need more furniture. Andrew and I have been scoring some amazing vintage finds here in steel town some of which are below.

The radio was my Grandfather’s, I managed to talk my father into letting me have it. I’m not sure how I did it, but the radio is georgious and make me happy every time I walk by it.

The Orange Chair was my first thrift shop find in Hamilton. It was $70 plus $20 delivery and it is worth every penny. It has a strange magnetic pull, people usually fight over who gets to sit in the orange chair.

The owl scale is an etsy find that was written about on Vintage Goodness. I had to have it and got it for my birthday.

I’ve also had really good luck with textiles here and this table cloth is no exception. It’s the second 100% linen vintage table coth I’ve gotten for under $3.00.

I saw this little stool just hanging out in the furniture section of Value Village and instantly thought of my 3-year-old nephew who is just a little to short for almost everything at our apartment. It’s cute, retro and just the right height so he can reach the sink to wash his hands.

I’ve bought a lot more mid century modern furniture since the move so I’ll have to write a few installments to cover everything. There is also the case of Andrew’s super top secret Christmas present that can only be discussed post Christmas.

Sunny Summer Days

We’ve been having slightly cooler weather this week so to remind myself of the insanely hot, muggy, and smog filled days to come I dug up some picture on the life archives, enjoy.

Mid 1950’s Summer Fun

As I will be moving shortly, much (if not all) of my sewing stuff has already been packed away. While doing said packing I came across a book Andrew got me this year for my birthday- Fashionable Clothing from the Sears Catalogs: Mid 1950’s and it is really just vintage clothing porn. The book was printed in 2002 but the average cost the author puts on the items is around $40.00 usd and I think we all know that mint vintage 1950’s dresses go for A LOT more these days. None the less I decided to take a few pictures from the book to share with you all.

novelty fish/whale prints seem to have been quite popular

Sea of Stars indeed!

Much like today, women of the 1950’s wanted style at reasonable prices. The book is full of ‘low budget beauties’ like these stylish swim suits.

Trunks with matching shirts

I haven’t really seen a lot of blogs that put anything about vintage men’s swimming trunks so I thought I’d get on that. This is an ad for matching swimming trunks and shirts. Clearly for the classist of the lads!

Fashionable Clothing from the Sears Catalogs: Mid 1950’s is a great coffee table book and definately worth the $22.76 at amazon.com, buy it!

A Little Laugh

Hello All,

                 I’ve been crazy busy trying to organize our upcoming move- I’ve really hit a wall though. I’m at the point where I can not pack any more (or we’ll be ripping through boxes for weeks looking for random objects) but there is still so much to pack. I really don’t want to leave the whole packing job to the last three days before the move any way I digress.

The lamenting about the upcoming move is important because it leads me to the point of this post. I’ve been scouring thrift stores, Craig’s list and Kijiji, looking for mid century modern furniture for the new place. In said search I came across this little tidbit. It’s rare that I find funny things like this so I will milk it for all it’s worth!

Mid-Century Madness

Andrew and I did some searching this past week and came up with two good furniture finds for the new place. The first being a 1970’s teak credenza much like the one pictured below at the low low cost of $25. Ours is slightly different, it is squared off(no lip on the top) and has rounded rectangular handles.

The second find is a sweet mid 1960’s apostered chair of which I cannot find a suitable representation on line. It’s a classic short back long seat with teak legs and arms and was only $14. I would take picture but all the new pieces are at the inlaws until move day.

The third item is a trunk I purchased for $7.99 a few weeks ago with my cousin. It’s made of a material I can only descibe as no quite wood not quite paper and seems to be well built. I am torn between cleaning it up a bit and keeping it looking rough or painting the whole thing. I’m not to sure the weird paper/wood material would do so well with paint. If anyone has had experience with this mystery material please give input on the best course of action. Anyway, I took some pictures of questionable quality of which I chose one, as seen below.

 

I’m Back!

I’ve been quite busy as of late sewing up a storm. Having said that though, I must admit that I am great at starting new projects but abysmal at finishing them. As my blog name suggests I get really carried away and I have to stop myself otherwise I end up with 10 90% finished projects just festering in my sewing pile. I will finish hemming the three dresses and one jacket I’ve made in the past three weeks so that I have content to post both here and at sew retro.

In the mean time I have been cursing a lot of blogs and online vintage/vintage inspired stores. I came across Vivien of Holloway based out of London England and was instantly head of heels for all of their dresses and separates. And, because fate is ever so kind I was able to purchase a beautiful A-line haulter dress. It is fully lined and boned and I couldn’t possibly ever make a dress of similar quality for the killer price of $75.00 Canadian including shipping!

Love at First Sight

I was at my local Mary Maxim looking through various magazines when I came across this!

The pattern says it’s easy enough for beginners. Which is good because I’ve never crocheted before. I’m not sure if this would be the best first project ever. But I can’t help but think that I should go buy the magazine tomorrow and stash it for future making. Anyway, I thought I’d share this lovely find with you all.

Donna Hay

 

I am a huge magazine addict, I’ll read anything from Wired, to the National Inquirer. I guess it’s more of a addiction to knowledge and little factoids then to the magazines themselves. Anyway, while reading the most recent issue* of Donna Hay Magazine I found yet another really cool thing to collect- as if vintage WWII postage meter stamps weren’t cool enough. Donna wrote of collecting wrapped sugar cubes. I (being Canadian) didn’t even know that sugar cubes came individualy wrapped. As always the photographs were beautiful and made me long for a collection of my very own. I thought that this deserved a mention and a link to sugarpacketchad’s flickr page which shows a lot of neat patterns. 

 

* Because Australia is on the other side of the world, the seasons are reversed. To help out us North Western Hemisphere folks, magazine companies hold back the issues 12 months so that the ingredients listed are in season. It is strange reading about fresh raspberries for Christmas dessert, especially in July.

A Felty New Home

 My laptop has a felty new home to call his very own. Yes my laptop is a he and yes it is a rather girly home for him. Anyway, I made it in about half an hour with the free felt. I cut four rectangles of felt, sewed it up and bobs your uncle.

 

a felty new home