A month of ups and downs

Hello everyone. You may have noticed I haven't posted for almost a month. The beginning of the month I was working pretty much constantly (12 hours a day, 7 days a week). I know that my schedule will drastically slow down in the summer so I was doing as many extra tutoring sessions as possible. I was exhausted and had no time left at the end of the day for blogging.

When work finally slowed down, I was busy prepping for my 24th birthday. The day itself went ok, but sadly my cat passed away the day after. I've had her since I was 6 years old, so losing her was pretty rough even though I knew it was coming. She died very, very peacefully and I really did feel it was "her time", but the house is quite lonely without her.

I'm just starting to recover from everything. Long nature walks and jigsaw puzzles are definitely helping. I promise there will be a more cheerful post within the next few days. Blogging should be a happy thing, but I felt the need to explain my absence before launching back into outfit posts.

That's All.

1920's Hair Product Ads

I would love to know what on earth was in this stuff!

I'm not sure I'd actually want my hair to look like that!

I've been thinking of doing something to my hair. I am even considering dying it, which I haven't done in years. Unfortunately, I've developed an allergy to most traditional dyes so it would need to be a natural dye. I've read you can dye your hair with walnut husks or sage so I might try that. Anyone have experience dying with henna or other natural dyes? 

Warm Days

Hello everyone! Sorry if anyone was awaiting the answers to the puzzles from my last post, but I took a two week unplanned break from blogging. I managed to fall down some stairs while tutoring and pulled a muscle in my back. Thankfully, it healed quite quickly and despite still having some bruises, I am feeling a lot better.

The weather seems to have skipped spring and gone straight to summer. I'm not ready! I have very little in my summer wardrobe at the moment. Until I can make some more dresses, I have been wearing my mom's old skirts as "fake dresses". The skirts are long, so I hike them up and put a cardigan on top. I wore one with my 1950's style wrap-top today. Not as good as a real dress, but they will have to do for now.

Despite my injury, I've been spending a lot of time outside recently. The flowers have started to bloom and the backyard is covered with, my favourite flowers, forget-me-nots.

I've also been working on some stuff for my Etsy shop. I have some more clothing which will be posted soon, and something a little different which I hope to reveal before the end of the month. I was searching for inspiration for my shop, and came across an old family photo album I didn't know we had. I found some great old photos, especially of my grandmother. 

She has always had a great sense of style, and oh how I wish she had kept some of her dresses. There was one stunning 1940's party dress with a scalloped neckline in what looked like a white organza material. Although, think I may prefer "everyday" vintage style. The mix of simple yet put-together always strikes me as a more comfortable and realistic approach to style. Clothing should be for living in and real life sometimes involves a little mud. 

And finally here are the solutions to the puzzles:

Solutions to cryptograms:

“If you have made mistakes, there is always another chance for you. You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call 'failure' is not the falling down, but the staying down.” ~Mary Pickford

“There are two kinds of truth; The truth that lights the way and the truth that warms the heart. The first of these is science and the second is art.” ― Raymond Chandler

I may have sort of lost the solutions to the crossword (oops!), but to the best of my memory, these are the answers:

Down:

1) Bakelite 2) Vanity Table 4) Setting Lotion 5) Stockings 6) Flapper 7) Snood 9) Clara Bow 10) Bullet 11) Buster Keaton 13) Cold Cream 14) Vamp 15) Bow Lips 17) Miss Lemon

Across:

3) Circle Skirt 8) Bob 9) Crinoline 12) Fitzgerald 16) Paper Moon 18) The Charleston 

I hope everyone is having a lovely weekend!

That's All.

Vintage Themed Word Puzzles

Jessica over at Chronically Vintage, recently published a vintage-themed word search on her blog. Being a big fan of word problems myself, I thought this was a brilliant idea and had a lot of fun solving her word search. I thought I would try making a few puzzles of my own as well. My puzzles aren't fancy and interactive like Jessica's, but if you click on the image it should open a page with just the puzzle which you can then print out.

The first puzzle is a vintage-themed crossword. I'll admit there is definitely a 1920's bias in my choice of words. The clue for 2 down got cut off, but it should read "...and beauty products". The second and third puzzles are cryptograms. I've included some letters to help you get started. To give you a hint: the first is a quote from a silent film star and second is from a mystery writer. 

Enjoy!

I would love to know if anyone solves these puzzles. Answers will be posted next week!

Grey Skies

Happy Saturday everyone! I am so glad it's finally the weekend. Not quite sure why this week seemed so long, but I blame an abundance of sick students. It seemed everyone this week had a cold! I've been drinking plenty of elderberry tea and so far I'm holding my own.

Thursday was my usual "knit morning" with Britt. It was a grey old day outside, and I matched my outfit to the weather. I paired my favourite grey skirt with a 1920's style cami and a little black cardigan.

Outfit Details:

Skirt - Made by me

Cami - Made by me from a 1920's pattern

Sweater and tights - Winners

Hat - Zellers

Pearl Necklace - Made by me

Last weekend, I managed to get the the Kirby booksale. They just opened a little while ago and I went to stock up on books. It's a lovely little historic church which they are fundraising to move to a museum site. To raise money, they sell used books every Saturday during the warmer months. At $1 or less per book, you can get a lot of reading material for very little money. I picked up a bunch of old penguin books, and some vintage kids novels (such as Nancy Drew!). 

Don't you love their little hair bows?!

I hope everyone is having a great weekend. If the weather ever clears up, I plan on spending the weekend in the garden.

That's All.

A Course in Cosmetics (1922)

(Open image in a new tab to view larger)

Easter

Happy Easter to those who celebrate! I hope everyone had a lovely long weekend. I've spent the days wandering some new hiking trails, spending time with friends and family, and sketching in my new "nature journal". (More on that in an upcoming post). 

Of course, I dressed up for Easter Sunday. Normally I go all out, but this year I decided for a slightly more casual look (or as casual as one can be in gloves and a hat). Instead of lots of petticoats and fluff, I went for a simple 1930s/40s cotton dress. I love this dress but it is very delicate so I only wear it on special occasions. 

I also took the opportunity to wear some of my vintage accessories:

Vintage Gloves. I love the subtle blue embroidery.

Rescued vintage hat with a sprig from the floral
department at Michael's to give it a bit of colour.

My favourite brooch (circa 1920)

 The image I started this post with is an Easter postcard from my collection. I love collecting pre-1920s postcards, and only buy ones with writing on the back. I may post a few more later this month. Below is what the back of this post card looks like:

I wish everyone a good upcoming week! Mondays after long weekends are always hard aren't they?

That's All.

Old Bed Sheets

It's been rather a stressful week. My old cat isn't doing too well and we know she doesn't have a lot of time left. She is happy at the moment, but her old body is starting to fail. I'm just thankful for every day I have with her. Work has been disappointing this week too, as a lot of my sessions were cancelled. This was likely due to the long weekend, but it means my pay was cut in half. 

So what's a girl to do when she is feeling down and has no money? Make a skirt out of a bedsheet apparently. I had a worn-out bedsheet my parents gave me when they were cleaning out the linen cupboard. It looks vintage and is the perfect spring mix of cheery yellows and oranges. I decided to make a circle skirt out of the material. Sum total for this project? $1 for elastic. Yup, new skirt for $1 and 30 minutes of my time!

I don't have much to wear with it at the moment, but I paired it with a white cardigan and some red/plum accessories for my weekly knitting morning. I put a flower in my hair, since hair flowers always lift my mood. 

Little treats like this skirt, and coffee with a friend, really help during times like these. A cute outfit doesn't make the problems go away, but it does work to even things out a bit. 

I'm looking forward to the long weekend. Britt and I have a hike planned for tomorrow. We have a looooooongg hike planned in about 2 months, so this is a smaller "training" hike. I love spending time in nature and getting some exercise at the same time. Much better than going to a gym. 

I hope everyone has a lovely Easter weekend!

That's All.